J. F. Osborne. 2017. Review of Harmanşah, Ö. Cities and the Shaping of Memory in the Ancient Near East. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013; and Harmanşah, Ö. Place, Memory, and Healing: An Archaeology of Anatolian Rock Monuments. New York, NY: Routledge, 2015. CAAreviews, Taylor & Francis (original) (raw)

This review examines two monographs by Ömür Harmanşah that focus on the ancient Near East's urban environments and landscape monuments, emphasizing the necessity of understanding the interplay between past artifacts and contemporary political issues. Through a critical analysis of the publications, the review highlights Harmanşah's theoretical approach that advocates for a socially constructed view of the built environment, aiming to bridge empirical methods with local knowledge and to address the implications of neoliberalism within archaeological discourse.