Geoff Emberling | University of Michigan (original) (raw)

Books by Geoff Emberling

Oxford Handbook of Ancient Nubia, 2021

The cultures of Nubia built the earliest cities, states, and empires of inner Africa, but they re... more The cultures of Nubia built the earliest cities, states, and empires of inner Africa, but they remain relatively poorly known outside their modern descendants and the com-munity of archaeologists, historians, and art historians researching them. e earliest archaeological work in Nubia was motivated by its role as neighbor, trade partner, and enemy of ancient Egypt. Increasingly, however, ancient Nile-based Nubian cultures are recognized in their own right as the earliest complex societies in inner Africa. As agro-pastoral cultures, Nubian settlement, economy, political organization, and religious ideologies were organized differently from those of the urban, bureaucratic, and overwhelmingly agricultural states of Egypt and the ancient Middle East. Nubian societies are thus of great interest in comparative study, and are also recognized for their broader impact on histories of the eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East, as well as of neighboring areas.
Although the archaeology and history of Nubia remains incompletely known, the pace of research on Nubia has increased significantly in the last fifteen years. It is partly because of new dam construction and resulting salvage excavation, partly because other areas of the Middle East and North Africa have become less accessible to research, and partly because of generous funding from the Qatar-Sudan Archaeological Project for about forty archaeological projects in Sudan from 2014 to 2020. The most recent survey of ancient and medieval Nubia—David Edwards’s The Nubian Past (2004)—remains a thought-provoking and insightful overview, but does not take account of more recent research. This volume therefore gathers new research and analytical perspectives on these cultures in the hope that it will make them more accessible to scholars and the broader public.

Edited by Emberling and Williams

Routledge, 2018

Museums and the Ancient Middle East is the first book to focus on contemporary exhibit practice i... more Museums and the Ancient Middle East is the first book to focus on contemporary exhibit practice in museums that present the ancient Middle East. Bringing together the latest thinking from a diverse and international group of leading curators , the book presents the views of those working in one particular community of practice: the art, archaeology, and history of the ancient Middle East. Drawing upon a remarkable group of case studies from many of the world's leading museums, including the British Museum, the Louvre, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Ashmolean Museum, and the Vorderasiatisches Museum in Berlin, this volume describes the tangible actions curators have taken to present a previously unseen side of the Middle East region and its history. Highlighting overlaps and distinctions between the practices of national, art, and university museums around the globe, the contributors to the volume are also able to offer unique insights into the types of challenges and opportunities facing the twenty-first century curator. Museums and the Ancient Middle East should be of interest to academics and students engaged in the study of museums and heritage, archaeology, the ancient Near East, Middle Eastern studies, and ancient history. The unique insights provided by curators active in the field ensure that the book should also be of great interest to museum practitioners around the globe.

Museums and the Ancient Middle East: Curatorial Practice and Audiences

This volume gathers essays by curators who have developed exhibits of ancient Middle Eastern anti... more This volume gathers essays by curators who have developed exhibits of ancient Middle Eastern antiquities and focuses on what curators do in museums with archaeological collections today.

The chapters present case studies from many of the major museums with collections of art and material culture from the ancient Middle East. The museums represented include national museums (Louvre, British Museum, Vorderasiatisches Museum in Berlin, Dutch National Museum of Antiquities, Jordan Museum), art museums (Metropolitan Museum and Detroit Institute of Arts), and university museums (Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Penn Museum, American University in Beirut, and the Classics collection of the University of Melbourne).

This catalogue for an exhibit at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York Uni... more This catalogue for an exhibit at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University provides an overview of earlier Nubian cultures from 3000 to 500 BC, including the so-called A-Group, C-Group, Kerma, and Napatan periods.

The discussion draws on the collection of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, which was the major lender for the exhibit.

Pioneers to the Past: American Archaeologists in the Middle East, 1919-1920 (2010)

The essays in this exhibit catalogue trace the founding mission of the Oriental Institute of the ... more The essays in this exhibit catalogue trace the founding mission of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, in which James Henry Breasted and four colleagues travelled across the Middle East to purchase antiquities, make local contacts, and identify sites for potential field projects.

Breasted's letters to colleagues and family, as well as the numerous photographs from the trip, make this volume a rich source for understanding the intellectual history and political context of a formative moment in study of the ancient Middle East.

--Geoff Emberling, "Introduction"
--Geoff Emberling, "Archaeology in the Middle East before 1920:
Political Contexts, Historical Results"
--James Gelvin, "The Middle East Breasted Encountered,
1919-1920"
--Geoff Emberling and Emily Teeter, "The First Expedition of the
Oriental Institute, 1919-1920"
--Morag Kersel, "The Changing Legal Landscape for Middle
Eastern Archaeology in the Colonial Era,
1800-1930"
--Orit Bashkin, "The Arab Revival, Archaeology, and Ancient
Middle Eastern History"
--Emily Teeter, "Epilogue: An Appraisal of the First Expedition"

Catastrophe! The Looting and Destruction of Iraq’s Past (2008)

The essays in this exhibit catalogue trace the destruction to the museums and archaeological site... more The essays in this exhibit catalogue trace the destruction to the museums and archaeological sites in Iraq before and after the 2003 invasion and raise issues surrounding the protection of cultural heritage.

--McGuire Gibson, "The Looting of the Iraq Museum in Context"
--Donny George, " The Looting of the Iraq Museum Complex"
--John Russell, "Efforts to Protect Archaeological Sites and
Monuments in Iraq, 2003-2004"
--Katharyn Hanson, "Why Does Archaeological Context Matter"
--Clemens Reichel, "Cataloguing the Losses: The Oriental
Institute's Iraq Museum Database Project"
--Elizabeth Stone, "Archaeological Site Looting: The Destruction
of Cultural Heritage in Southern Iraq"
--Patty Gerstenblith, "Legal Aspects of Controlling the
International Market in Looted Antiquities"

Papers by Geoff Emberling

The Routledge Companion to Publicly Engaged Humanities Scholarship, ed. D. Fisher-Livne and M. May-Curry, 2024

Kelsey Museum Newsletter, 2023

American Journal of Archaeology, 2023

2 Near the modern town of Karima. It sits at the foot of Jebel Barkal, though the site of Napata ... more 2 Near the modern town of Karima. It sits at the foot of Jebel Barkal, though the site of Napata is also often referred to in modern times as Jebel Barkal.

Stone Canvas: Towards a Better Integration of 'Rock Art' and 'Graffiti' Studies in Egypt and Sudan, 2023

Kush Under the Dynasty of Napata

The Oxford History of the Ancient Near East, 2023

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthropology, 2022

As a discipline with colonial origins, archaeology is increasingly addressing ways in which it ha... more As a discipline with colonial origins, archaeology is increasingly addressing ways in which it has supported historical and current inequalities. One essential aspect of this work is engaging in conversations and collaborations with local communities, particularly to understand varying conceptions of heritage. Another is through attention to the benefits that derive from archaeological research-does fieldwork primarily support (foreign) archaeologists and their careers, or do local communities and professional colleagues also benefit? These issues have been developing particularly rapidly in Sudan, where development and international funding have supported a number of fieldwork projects in various forms of community engagement.

Offerings to Maat: Essays in Honour of Emily Teeter, ed. C.M. Rocheleau and T. Hardwick, pp. 63-76. CIPEG Journal: Ancient Egyptian & Sudanese Collections and Museums 5 (2021), 2021

Applied Geochemistry, 2021

This study reports new trace element and Pb and Sr isotope compositions of tooth enamel from arch... more This study reports new trace element and Pb and Sr isotope compositions of tooth enamel from archaeological remains at a Medieval (Christian) cemetery located adjacent to the Kushite royal cemetery of El-Kurru, Sudan. The archaeological site of El-Kurru is located along the Nile River on the southern edge of the Nubian Plateau; the bedrock geology consists of Neoproterozoic crystalline basement and is overlain by fluvial sandstones and mudstones of Cretaceous age. El-Kurru is situated between two well-developed drainage basins, and in the past has been subjected to periodic (wadi-related) flooding as a result of intense local precipitation events. Enamel samples were taken from 18 individuals of varying ages and both sexes. Trace element abundances for a significant number of samples record elevated concentrations relative to modern ("in-vivo") enamel, including Pb and U; however, the abundances for both elements do not correlate significantly with the contents of the remaining trace elements (Ba, Fe, Mg, Mn, Nd, Sr) investigated here. The calculated enrichment factors for all trace elements studied here relative to average crustal values are not consistent with exposure to Pb ores for human purposes, which is corroborated by the Pb isotope results. The Sr isotope compositions define 2 main groups that yield 87 Sr/ 86 Sr ratios that are either higher or lower than 0.7072 with similar Sr abundances (range between ~100 and ~400 ppm). The Pb isotope compositions are extremely variable and correlate well with their corresponding U/Pb ratios; the former overlap Pb isotope ratios for proximal Neoproterozoic rocks belonging to the Saharan Metacraton and Arabian Nubian Shield tectonic provinces. The combined trace element abundances and Sr and Pb isotope compositions for the enamel samples located within the Christian cemetery at El-Kurru are best interpreted to record interaction with groundwater that occurred post-mortem during flooding events. As reported in previous anthropological studies of a similar nature, the Pb isotope results reported here are particularly sensitive to monitoring post mortem diagenetic alteration given their extremely low abundances in non-altered tooth enamel. In contrast, the 87 Sr/ 86 Sr ratios have been minimally perturbed by post mortem alteration, and therefore most likely represent individuals with distinct Sr isotopic signatures inherited from different geographic regions.

The Sudan National Museum and National Heritage in Sudan

National Museums in Africa: Identity, History and Politics, 2022

Trade in Ancient Nubia: Routes, Goods, and Structures

The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Nubia, ed. G. Emberling and B.B. Williams, pp. 995-1014, 2021

Archaeological Practice in the 21st Century: Reflecting on Archaeologist-Community Relationships in Sudan's Nile Valley

The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Nubia, ed. G. Emberling and B.B. Williams, pp. 1127-47, 2021

American Journal of Archaeology, 2020

Oxford Handbook of Ancient Nubia, 2021

The cultures of Nubia built the earliest cities, states, and empires of inner Africa, but they re... more The cultures of Nubia built the earliest cities, states, and empires of inner Africa, but they remain relatively poorly known outside their modern descendants and the com-munity of archaeologists, historians, and art historians researching them. e earliest archaeological work in Nubia was motivated by its role as neighbor, trade partner, and enemy of ancient Egypt. Increasingly, however, ancient Nile-based Nubian cultures are recognized in their own right as the earliest complex societies in inner Africa. As agro-pastoral cultures, Nubian settlement, economy, political organization, and religious ideologies were organized differently from those of the urban, bureaucratic, and overwhelmingly agricultural states of Egypt and the ancient Middle East. Nubian societies are thus of great interest in comparative study, and are also recognized for their broader impact on histories of the eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East, as well as of neighboring areas.
Although the archaeology and history of Nubia remains incompletely known, the pace of research on Nubia has increased significantly in the last fifteen years. It is partly because of new dam construction and resulting salvage excavation, partly because other areas of the Middle East and North Africa have become less accessible to research, and partly because of generous funding from the Qatar-Sudan Archaeological Project for about forty archaeological projects in Sudan from 2014 to 2020. The most recent survey of ancient and medieval Nubia—David Edwards’s The Nubian Past (2004)—remains a thought-provoking and insightful overview, but does not take account of more recent research. This volume therefore gathers new research and analytical perspectives on these cultures in the hope that it will make them more accessible to scholars and the broader public.

Edited by Emberling and Williams

Routledge, 2018

Museums and the Ancient Middle East is the first book to focus on contemporary exhibit practice i... more Museums and the Ancient Middle East is the first book to focus on contemporary exhibit practice in museums that present the ancient Middle East. Bringing together the latest thinking from a diverse and international group of leading curators , the book presents the views of those working in one particular community of practice: the art, archaeology, and history of the ancient Middle East. Drawing upon a remarkable group of case studies from many of the world's leading museums, including the British Museum, the Louvre, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Ashmolean Museum, and the Vorderasiatisches Museum in Berlin, this volume describes the tangible actions curators have taken to present a previously unseen side of the Middle East region and its history. Highlighting overlaps and distinctions between the practices of national, art, and university museums around the globe, the contributors to the volume are also able to offer unique insights into the types of challenges and opportunities facing the twenty-first century curator. Museums and the Ancient Middle East should be of interest to academics and students engaged in the study of museums and heritage, archaeology, the ancient Near East, Middle Eastern studies, and ancient history. The unique insights provided by curators active in the field ensure that the book should also be of great interest to museum practitioners around the globe.

Museums and the Ancient Middle East: Curatorial Practice and Audiences

This volume gathers essays by curators who have developed exhibits of ancient Middle Eastern anti... more This volume gathers essays by curators who have developed exhibits of ancient Middle Eastern antiquities and focuses on what curators do in museums with archaeological collections today.

The chapters present case studies from many of the major museums with collections of art and material culture from the ancient Middle East. The museums represented include national museums (Louvre, British Museum, Vorderasiatisches Museum in Berlin, Dutch National Museum of Antiquities, Jordan Museum), art museums (Metropolitan Museum and Detroit Institute of Arts), and university museums (Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Penn Museum, American University in Beirut, and the Classics collection of the University of Melbourne).

This catalogue for an exhibit at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York Uni... more This catalogue for an exhibit at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University provides an overview of earlier Nubian cultures from 3000 to 500 BC, including the so-called A-Group, C-Group, Kerma, and Napatan periods.

The discussion draws on the collection of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, which was the major lender for the exhibit.

Pioneers to the Past: American Archaeologists in the Middle East, 1919-1920 (2010)

The essays in this exhibit catalogue trace the founding mission of the Oriental Institute of the ... more The essays in this exhibit catalogue trace the founding mission of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, in which James Henry Breasted and four colleagues travelled across the Middle East to purchase antiquities, make local contacts, and identify sites for potential field projects.

Breasted's letters to colleagues and family, as well as the numerous photographs from the trip, make this volume a rich source for understanding the intellectual history and political context of a formative moment in study of the ancient Middle East.

--Geoff Emberling, "Introduction"
--Geoff Emberling, "Archaeology in the Middle East before 1920:
Political Contexts, Historical Results"
--James Gelvin, "The Middle East Breasted Encountered,
1919-1920"
--Geoff Emberling and Emily Teeter, "The First Expedition of the
Oriental Institute, 1919-1920"
--Morag Kersel, "The Changing Legal Landscape for Middle
Eastern Archaeology in the Colonial Era,
1800-1930"
--Orit Bashkin, "The Arab Revival, Archaeology, and Ancient
Middle Eastern History"
--Emily Teeter, "Epilogue: An Appraisal of the First Expedition"

Catastrophe! The Looting and Destruction of Iraq’s Past (2008)

The essays in this exhibit catalogue trace the destruction to the museums and archaeological site... more The essays in this exhibit catalogue trace the destruction to the museums and archaeological sites in Iraq before and after the 2003 invasion and raise issues surrounding the protection of cultural heritage.

--McGuire Gibson, "The Looting of the Iraq Museum in Context"
--Donny George, " The Looting of the Iraq Museum Complex"
--John Russell, "Efforts to Protect Archaeological Sites and
Monuments in Iraq, 2003-2004"
--Katharyn Hanson, "Why Does Archaeological Context Matter"
--Clemens Reichel, "Cataloguing the Losses: The Oriental
Institute's Iraq Museum Database Project"
--Elizabeth Stone, "Archaeological Site Looting: The Destruction
of Cultural Heritage in Southern Iraq"
--Patty Gerstenblith, "Legal Aspects of Controlling the
International Market in Looted Antiquities"

The Routledge Companion to Publicly Engaged Humanities Scholarship, ed. D. Fisher-Livne and M. May-Curry, 2024

Kelsey Museum Newsletter, 2023

American Journal of Archaeology, 2023

2 Near the modern town of Karima. It sits at the foot of Jebel Barkal, though the site of Napata ... more 2 Near the modern town of Karima. It sits at the foot of Jebel Barkal, though the site of Napata is also often referred to in modern times as Jebel Barkal.

Stone Canvas: Towards a Better Integration of 'Rock Art' and 'Graffiti' Studies in Egypt and Sudan, 2023

Kush Under the Dynasty of Napata

The Oxford History of the Ancient Near East, 2023

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthropology, 2022

As a discipline with colonial origins, archaeology is increasingly addressing ways in which it ha... more As a discipline with colonial origins, archaeology is increasingly addressing ways in which it has supported historical and current inequalities. One essential aspect of this work is engaging in conversations and collaborations with local communities, particularly to understand varying conceptions of heritage. Another is through attention to the benefits that derive from archaeological research-does fieldwork primarily support (foreign) archaeologists and their careers, or do local communities and professional colleagues also benefit? These issues have been developing particularly rapidly in Sudan, where development and international funding have supported a number of fieldwork projects in various forms of community engagement.

Offerings to Maat: Essays in Honour of Emily Teeter, ed. C.M. Rocheleau and T. Hardwick, pp. 63-76. CIPEG Journal: Ancient Egyptian & Sudanese Collections and Museums 5 (2021), 2021

Applied Geochemistry, 2021

This study reports new trace element and Pb and Sr isotope compositions of tooth enamel from arch... more This study reports new trace element and Pb and Sr isotope compositions of tooth enamel from archaeological remains at a Medieval (Christian) cemetery located adjacent to the Kushite royal cemetery of El-Kurru, Sudan. The archaeological site of El-Kurru is located along the Nile River on the southern edge of the Nubian Plateau; the bedrock geology consists of Neoproterozoic crystalline basement and is overlain by fluvial sandstones and mudstones of Cretaceous age. El-Kurru is situated between two well-developed drainage basins, and in the past has been subjected to periodic (wadi-related) flooding as a result of intense local precipitation events. Enamel samples were taken from 18 individuals of varying ages and both sexes. Trace element abundances for a significant number of samples record elevated concentrations relative to modern ("in-vivo") enamel, including Pb and U; however, the abundances for both elements do not correlate significantly with the contents of the remaining trace elements (Ba, Fe, Mg, Mn, Nd, Sr) investigated here. The calculated enrichment factors for all trace elements studied here relative to average crustal values are not consistent with exposure to Pb ores for human purposes, which is corroborated by the Pb isotope results. The Sr isotope compositions define 2 main groups that yield 87 Sr/ 86 Sr ratios that are either higher or lower than 0.7072 with similar Sr abundances (range between ~100 and ~400 ppm). The Pb isotope compositions are extremely variable and correlate well with their corresponding U/Pb ratios; the former overlap Pb isotope ratios for proximal Neoproterozoic rocks belonging to the Saharan Metacraton and Arabian Nubian Shield tectonic provinces. The combined trace element abundances and Sr and Pb isotope compositions for the enamel samples located within the Christian cemetery at El-Kurru are best interpreted to record interaction with groundwater that occurred post-mortem during flooding events. As reported in previous anthropological studies of a similar nature, the Pb isotope results reported here are particularly sensitive to monitoring post mortem diagenetic alteration given their extremely low abundances in non-altered tooth enamel. In contrast, the 87 Sr/ 86 Sr ratios have been minimally perturbed by post mortem alteration, and therefore most likely represent individuals with distinct Sr isotopic signatures inherited from different geographic regions.

The Sudan National Museum and National Heritage in Sudan

National Museums in Africa: Identity, History and Politics, 2022

Trade in Ancient Nubia: Routes, Goods, and Structures

The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Nubia, ed. G. Emberling and B.B. Williams, pp. 995-1014, 2021

Archaeological Practice in the 21st Century: Reflecting on Archaeologist-Community Relationships in Sudan's Nile Valley

The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Nubia, ed. G. Emberling and B.B. Williams, pp. 1127-47, 2021

American Journal of Archaeology, 2020

A Companion to Ancient Near Eastern Art, ed. Ann C. Gunter, 2019

Negotiations in Museum Practice: A Reinstalled Gallery of Ancient Middle Eastern Art at the Detroit Institute of Arts

Museums and the Ancient Middle East: Curatorial Practice and Audiences, 2019

Curating the Ancient Middle East

Museums and the Ancient Middle East: Curatorial Practice and Audiences, 2019

The Fourth Cataract and Beyond: Proceedings of the 12th International Conference for Nubian Studies, 2014

A detailed report on excavations at Hosh el-Geruf, al Widay, and on the island of Umm Gebir in th... more A detailed report on excavations at Hosh el-Geruf, al Widay, and on the island of Umm Gebir in the Fourth Cataract of the Nile made during seasons 2007 and 2008. A major gold-processing site at Hosh el-Geruf is described, as well as the relatively large Old Kush cemetery at al-Widay also, which was completely excavated.

The use of ancient samples from the Nile River Valley for anthropological genetic studies has pro... more The use of ancient samples from the Nile River Valley for anthropological genetic studies has proven difficult due to adverse conditions for preservation of biomolecules like DNA. Recent advances in recovery methodologies of ancient biomolecules, however, have allowed for the exploration of populations in this region previously not included, namely Upper Nubians (modern Sudan). For this study, we attempted to recover ancient DNA (aDNA) from a sample of Medieval Nubians, excavated from the Christian settlement site of el-Kurru. Skeletons of twenty-eight individuals were exhumed from the adjacent cemetery using sterile techniques during recovery and post-field processing. aDNA was extracted and amplified using previously optimized protocols in a clean room setting. Initial results show human DNA is recoverable, despite poor preservation of the skeletal tissue and teeth due to thermal degradation in this climate and repeated inundations over many centuries a t el-Kurru. These results demonstrate the potential to explore further the genetic history of Nubia by including populations from the region of Upper Nubia, thus expanding the use of aDNA throughout the ancient Nile Valley. With its rich and expansive history, the ability to examine the genetic makeup of the Nile Valley in a fuller capacity will undoubtedly provide valuable information allowing for an even deeper and more comprehensive understanding of this region for future research.

Narrating Nubia: The Social Lives of Heritage

Website for a Humanities Collaboratory project based at the University of Michigan (2021-2023)

International Kurru Archaeological Project

International Kurru Archaeological Project Website, 2018

Website of the International Kurru Archaeological Project funded by the Qatar Sudan Archaeologica... more Website of the International Kurru Archaeological Project funded by the Qatar Sudan Archaeological Project, under the auspices of the National Council for Antiquities and Museums, Sudan.