Courses at Harvard on Mesopotamia and Landscape Archaeology
Ancient Near East 115r: Ancient Mesopotamia: Archaeology and Texts
Ancient Mesopotamia was the world’s first literate urban civilization. This class will examine the origins and evolution of cities, temples, and government from two complimentary perspectives: the archaeological record and cuneiform inscriptions in translation. Activities will include visits to museum collections (Peabody, Semitic Museum, Boston MFA), hands-on experience with creating cuneiform tablets, and virtual tours of southern Iraq using satellite imagery. Instructors Piotr Steinkeller and Jason Ur / Spring 2012 / website
Anthropology 1010: Introduction to Archaeology
A comprehensive introduction to the practice of archaeology and major themes from our human past: How do archaeologists know where to dig? How do we analyze and understand what we find? What do we know about the origins of the human species, agriculture, cities, and civilization? The course integrates methods and theory, and utilizes Peabody Museum collections, to show how we reconstruct ancient diet, trade, and political systems. We also explore the role of archaeology in colonialism, modern politics, and film. Instructors Jason Ur and Matthew Liebmann / Fall 2009 / website
Basic archaeological research increasingly includes approaches to spatial patterning in human societies, including the structure of settlements, the regional distribution of populations, and their relationships to their landscapes. This seminar will consider how variation in settlement and settlement systems can be related to factors such as environment, economy, and social and political organization. Case studies will be drawn from a range of New and Old World societies of varying scales of sociopolitical complexity.
Instructor Jason Ur / website
Archaeology has focused traditionally on excavations of settlement sites. However, no settlement existed as an island; ancient peoples moved within a larger environment which constrained their actions while it was simultaneously transformed by them. This course investigates the relationship between ancient societies and their landscapes. We review the ways in which ancient "off-site" activities are preserved in the landscape and how archaeologists identify and document them. We discuss the exploitation of the landscape for agriculture, pastoralism, and industry (particularly in the context of the earliest complex societies). We examine the relative roles of anthropogenic and climatic influences on the development of human societies. Finally, we consider how ancient communities perceived their landscapes and imbued them with meaning. The focus of the textbook is the Near East, as is the expertise of the instructor; however, examples will also be drawn from other parts of the world, especially areas of early social complexity such as the Maya lowlands, coastal Peru, and the Andes.
Instructor Jason Ur / website
Anthropology 1155: Before Baghdad: Cities of Ancient Mesopotamia
The world’s first cities emerged in Mesopotamia and were the defining characteristic of ancient civilizations in what is today Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. They were inhabited by large populations, powerful kings, and the gods themselves. The course will consider the origins, ecology, spatial arrangement, socioeconomic organization, religious institutions, and collapse of cities from Gilgamesh to Saddam. Through archaeology and ancient texts, students will become familiar with cities such as Uruk, Babylon, Nineveh, and Baghdad. Instructor Jason Ur / Spring 2009
This course aims to provide a basic understanding of how remote sensing data (satellite imagery and aerial photographs) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can be used to visualize and analyze archaeological data. Students will learn basic techniques for acquiring, manipulating and creating geospatial data in several forms, from pixel-based satellite imagery and digital terrain models to point, line and polygon representation of archaeological data. Each week, these techniques will be applied to sample archaeological data, and also to data from a region of interest to and chosen by the student. In addition to lab-based work, students will learn basic field techniques of archaeological survey, including how to navigate and record using a Global Positioning System (GPS) handheld receiver, how to integrate field GPS data into a GIS database, and how to produce maps for fieldwork and publication.
Instructor Jason Ur / Spring 2009 / website
Anthropology 2065: Complex Societies of Northern Mesopotamia
This seminar reviews complex societies in northern Mesopotamia (northern Iraq, northeastern Syria, and southeastern Turkey) from the Late Chalcolithic to the Iron Age (ca. 4200-600 BC). The focus will be on recent archaeological research on issues of broad interest to anthropological archaeology. Instructor Jason Ur / website
