Uruk Period Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Thorkild Jacobsen (1963; 1976) entwarf ausgehend von den Begriffen von Rudolf Otto (1917) ein Modell der mesopotamischen Religion, das sich durch seine Konsistenz auszeichnet und weite Bereiche von Göttervorstellungen, Mythologie und Ritual abdeckt. Dieser Beitrag will sowohl die Attraktivität wie die Grenzen des substanzialistischen religionsphänomenologischen Ansatzes herausarbeiten, der durch eine monotheistisch geprägte Perspektive gekennzeichnet ist. Des weiteren zeigt sich, wie weit verbreitet dieser Ansatz in der Altorientalistik war und ist, während funktionalistische Ansätze (etwa von E. Durkheim, C. Geertz) kaum rezipiert wurden. In Hinblick auf die religionshistorischen Befunde ist hervorzuheben, dass bei heutigem Wissensstand die Repräsentation von Herrschaft in der Götterwelt schon in der Uruk-Zeit nachweisbar ist, während der von Jacobsen als urtümlich aufgefasste Dumuzi-Amaʼušumgalana aufgrund seiner Namensform einer späteren Schicht des frühen dritten Jahrtausends angehört. Die Quellen der Uruk-Zeit, insbesondere die schriftliche Repräsentation von Städtenamen durch ihre jeweiligen Götter, deuten die Existenz eines mesopotamischen Pantheons schon im Chalkolithikum an. Man muss deshalb davon ausgehen, dass mit der Differenzierung von Göttern nach ihren Funktionsbereichen schon in der Uruk-Zeit auch eine lokale Gliederung einherging.

- by
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- Sumerian Religion, History of Religion, Mesopotamia History, Mesopotamian Religions
- by Gil Stein
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- Near Eastern Archaeology, Urbanization, Syria (Archaeology), Early state societies

In this study, the archaic counting systems of Mesopotamia as understood through the Neolithic tokens, numerical impressions, and proto-cuneiform notations were compared to the traditional number-words and counting methods of Polynesia as understood through contemporary and historical descriptions of vocabulary and behaviors. The comparison and associated analyses capitalized on the ability to understand well-known characteristics of Uruk-period numbers like object-specific counting, polyvalence, and context-dependence through historical observations of Polynesian counting methods and numerical language, evidence unavailable for ancient numbers. Similarities between the two number systems were then used to argue that archaic Mesopotamian numbers, like those of Polynesia, were highly elaborated and would have served as cognitively efficient tools for mental calculation. Their differences also show the importance of material technologies like tokens, impressions, and notations to developing mathematics. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 785793.

- by Karenleigh A Overmann
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- Polynesia, Mesopotamia, Uruk Period, Number Systems
- by Beatriz Teixeira
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- Mesopotamian Archaeology, Mesopotamia History, Gilgamesh Epic, Uruk Period

Using information gathered from a century of excavation, combined with modern noninvasive techniques, a new picture emerges of how a settlement of a few reed huts evolved into the powerful city-state that helped set in motion the urban... more

- by Jennifer R Pournelle
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- Mesopotamian Archaeology, Iraq, Uruk Period

The Ancient Near East (A.N.E.) is the first hub where agricultural techniques were adopted into early hunter-gathering lifestyles, binding the people to the land through sedentism, glimpsed, through the first farming villages. This led A.N.E., from ~4000 BCE, to become the first home of cities. How did agriculture lead to the “domestication of the human species” (Cauvin,1978,77)? The answer perhaps lies in changing ideology and separation from the natural world which facilitated farming and more importantly sedentism. Furthermore, changing geography, climate, religious and social theories helps understand the formation of early cities such as Uruk, Tell Brak and Eridu. And ultimately what defines a city.

- by Max Haibt
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- Marxism, Settlement Patterns, Labour history, Structural Marxism
- by Svend Hansen
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- Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Iconography, Mesopotamian Archaeology

The Warka Vase is an iconic artifact of Mesopotamia. In the absence of rigorous botanical study, the plants depicted on the lowest register are usually thought to be flax and grain. This analysis of the image identified as grain argues that its botanical characteristics, iconographical context and similarity to an archaic sign found in proto-writing demonstrates that it should be identified as a date palm sapling. It confirms the identification of flax. The correct identification of the plants furthers our understanding of possible symbolic continuities spanning the centuries that saw the codification of text as a representation of natural language.

- by Naomi F Miller and +1
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- Near Eastern Archaeology, Mesopotamian Archaeology, Mesopotamian Religions, Ancient Near East

ABSTRACT: This documentary (no. 3) contains mainly a series of hypothetical and chronological reenactments, following a few (fictional) family lineages across centuries and millennia, from early hunter-gatherers ca. 12,000 BP (10,000 BCE) to early sedentary hunter-gatherer folks ca. 9,000 BP (7,000 BCE), tribal societies and chiefdoms (a bit later in the sequence), and early cities ca. 5,500+ BP (3,500 BCE in the documentary: Uruk phase in Mesopotamia). The question sheet aids in furnishing a summary of the documentary's coverage and sequence of specific topics. The reenactments are interwoven with narrative and accompanied by selected interviews with and commentaries by a number of specialists (e.g., Bar-Yosef; George Willcox; Jean Guilaine; Yves Coppens; Ian Hodder; Jean Denis Vigne; Philippe Andrieux; Jean Marie Durand), aiding in following a sequence of archaeological data, theories, and broader extrapolations (and sometimes less convincing scenarios) regarding the rise of agriculture and animal husbandry, the emergence of urban societies, and various other key innovations (e.g., metal working; writing). The documentary is a fairly decent visualization, albeit a major condensation and simplification (with a few technical errors in the narration/film: e.g., chronological misplacement of a chariot scene [presumably drawing upon the much later Ur III wagon depictions, or maybe even 4th millennium BCE+ European carts and wagons]), of the complex mechanisms and processes of change from the Neolithic through rise of early urban societies in the Ancient Near East (Despite some reservations, I'm using it in an introductory, college level survey of the Ancient Near East).

- by Gregory Mumford
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- Ancient History, Archaeology, Near Eastern Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology
- by guillermo algaze
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- Uruk Period, Urbanism, Mesopotamian archaeology

ABSTRACT: This lecture begins with an overview of Ubaid Culture, especially during the Late Ubaid period, including temples (e.g., Eridu), housing, and material culture. It continues with an initial brief overview of Uruk Culture and early urbanization in the Near East, summarizes some of the trends during the Uruk period, and then shifts to the Mid-Late Uruk period of expansion, including Susa (Southwest Iran), Gawra Culture (especially at Tepe Gawra), northern Mesopotamia (looking briefly at Tell Brak), and the Upper Euphrates. Starting with Habuba Kabira, Uruk culture's expansion and/or influence is examined further along the Upper Euphrates, visiting Hacinebi B, Hassek Hoyuk, Arslantepe, and Norsuntepe, while brief mention is made of the minimal Uruk culture contact and influence in the early Kura Araxes culture (eastern Anatolia; especially at Sos Hoyuk). This assessment of Uruk cultural contact and/or influence looks at Chalcolithic (Ghassulian) to Early Bronze Age I period Palestine, and late Predynastic through early Dynasty 1 Egypt. The overview switches briefly to viewing Egyptian contact with and influence in Palestine, Syria and possibly Mesopotamia during the Uruk period. REVISED: Adding 6 slides, new text, revised text and new formatting (completed Spring 2020, uploaded in Fall 2020). UPDATED: 2022 Spring offering.

- by Gregory Mumford
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- Archaeology, Near Eastern Archaeology, Anthropology, Near Eastern Studies

ABSTRACT. This paper examines the astro-orientation, geometry and metrology of a random sample (n=5) of Mesopotamian ziggurat/temples (3000-550 BC) with archaeological site plans, GIS/satellite imaging, and astronomical software. The major finding is that ziggurats appear orientated to sun rise/set at the solstices and equinox, moon rise/set at the midwinter/midsummer major/minor standstills, and/or Venus rise/set at zenith/nadir passage. Evidence is also presented that the length/width ratios of rectangular ziggurat platforms and temple floorplans were based on 3:4:5 (n=2), 20:21:29 Pythagorean Triples (n=2) and 1:1:√2 square (n=1). The best fit for integer linear units of measurement are the Mesopotamian cubit (n=2) for length/width and (unexpectedly) Egyptian Old Kingdom setat (n=3) for area.

- by Vance Tiede
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- Assyriology, History of Astronomy, Archaeological GIS, Archaeoastronomy
- by Maurizio Tani
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- Philology, Religion, History, European History

This study discusses the effects of cultural contact between lower and upper Mesopotamia during the so-called ‘Uruk expansion’ in the 4th millennium B.C. 1- The paper argues that the world’s first cities were developed in Southern Mesopotamia of the 4th millennium. The reason is that these settlements participated in large networks of trade and cultural exchanges. 2- Uruk seems to have been at the heart of an interactive network of cities competing for import of raw materials necessary to produce “status goods” used by political elites as means of consolidating political power. 3- It is possible to classify the earliest cities as microstates. 4- The long-distance trade was one of the stimuli of early state formation. 5- The early city-states, which were characterized by their lack of economic self-sufficiency, had a natural inclination to seek for colonial expansion. 6- The Uruk expansion was an actual colonial phenomenon, involving the emergence of Mesopotamian trading enclaves among preexisting local polities.

- by İzzet Çıvgın
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- History, Ancient History, Cultural History, Economic History

Sumerian (of Tibeto-Burman origin) influenced Caucasus, Balkans, and Egypt, and was influenced by Hittite-Luwians and Indo-Iranians

Scoperte archeologiche della città di Uruk. Descrizione di alcuni reperti archeologici e strutture della città accompagnati dalle illustrazioni. Spiegazione dell'evoluzione della culla della civiltà.

- by Paula Jasińska
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- Archeologia, Uruk Period

The Chalcolithic Period in southwest Asia covers over 3,000 years, from the beginning of the sixth to the end of the fourth millennium cal b.c.e . In comparison with the well-researched Neolithic and the Urban Revolutions between which it is sandwiched, the Chalcolithic has received considerably less attention. Because it is geographically part of the Fertile Crescent, the archaeological styles, cultural elements, and developments in southeast Anatolia were closely connected to those in northern Mesopotamia. Trade and economic relations continuing over the millennia and analogous social and political trajectories have contributed to a high degree of regional interdependence. Moreover, the lack of well-defi ned local southeast Anatolian ceramic sequences (excluding perhaps the Amuq region), has resulted in a threefold division of the cultural chronology based on the better defined northern Mesopotamian Halaf, Ubaid, and Uruk or Late Chalcolithic Phases.

The growth of cities in antiquity is paradoxical: before modern health and sanitation standards, early urban dwellers suffered high mortality as a result of epidemics and chronic diseases arising, respectively, from propinquity and poor sanitation. At the same time, lower-status individuals within those cities would have endured depressed birth rates because, typically, many toiled in partially or fully dependent occupations not conducive to early marriage or stable families. The interplay between these compounding forces implies that early cities would not have been viable over the long term and could not have grown without a continual flow of immigrants. The early cities of Mesopotamia were no exception. In an earlier publication, I argued that the growth of the first centers that emerged in the alluvial lowlands
of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers during the fourth millennium BC was predicated on migratory inflows that
took place, in part, in the context of self-amplifying cycles whereby the replacement of imported commodities with locally made, mass-produced substitutes catalyzed increases in specialization, employment, market size, and trade (Smithian Growth). In this article, I expand on these ideas, explore their applicability to later periods of Mesopotamian history, and consider further iterations of substitution-fueled growth cycles in those periods.

- by guillermo algaze
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- Mesopotamian Archaeology, Population Dynamics, Ancient Near East, Uruk Expansion

Debates about the explanation of the existence of Uruk material culture in northern Mesopotamia and Iran have been one of the most interesting archaeological topics of the last fifty years. However, the suggestions explaining the existence of Uruk material culture in neighbouring regions are based on data mostly obtained from excavations in the Euphrates area due to the abundance of such projects. Archaeological projects conducted in the Upper Tigris Region for the past decades reveal exciting data regarding the interaction with Uruk culture. Due to its geopolitical location, the Upper Tigris Region is an intersection area for the Mesopotamian, Syrian, and East Anatolian cultures. While archaeological projects between Diyarbakır and Batman subregions are mostly focused on the areas with high agricultural potential around Upper Tigris, the studies conducted on the line of the Batman-Siirt subregion concentrate on water systems connected to the Tigris such as the Botan and the Garzan close to mountainous areas. These geopolitical features enabled the formation of subregions developing in different dimensions and dynamics within the region during the Late Uruk Period. This paper focuses on the Uruk phenomenon in archaeological settlements of the Upper Tigris Region, another lifeblood of Mesopotamia.

- by İnan Aydoğan and +2
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- Anatolian Studies, Mesopotamian Archaeology, Uruk Period, Late Chalcolithic
- by Susan Pollock
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- Fast Food, Mesopotamia, Uruk Period, Early Dynastic Mesopotamia

Fieldwork at Uruk consists of a survey of the environs of Uruk aiming at
documenting all archaeological remains in a distance of 3 km around the town. The geophysical survey of the city, started in 2001, continued in its southwestern part.
Two new excavation areas were opened: at the city wall aiming at collecting additional hints for its construction and dating (Early Dynastic I period) and, at a large building situated outside the city wall at the southern edge of the town (Seleucid Period). In addition, the documentation of graves has been continued and conservation projects for some of the buildings excavated since long have been started.

- by Svend Hansen and +1
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- Archaeology, Near Eastern Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Caucasus

The last few decades of research have documented two major periods of expansion by the earliest complex societies of Mesopotamia—the Ubaid ranked polities of the sixth and fifth millennia and the Uruk states of the fourth millennium BC. In both periods, Mesopotamian material culture styles were broadly distributed in neighboring regions of Syria, southeast Anatolia, and Iran. In each case, architectural, ceramic, and artifactual commonalities of the Ubaid and Uruk horizon styles help define an oikumene or interaction sphere. Although some researchers argue that both periods can be explained as eras of Mesopotamian colonial expansion, we argue here that each oikumene had a fundamentally different expansionary dynamic and mode(s) of socioeconomic organization. A contextual analysis comparing different regions shows that the Ubaid expansion took place largely through the peaceful spread of an ideology, leading to the formation of numerous new indigenous identities that appropriated and transformed superficial elements of Ubaid material culture into locally distinct expressions. Volumes of interregional trade were low, and population movements were minimal. By contrast, the Uruk expansion was an actual colonial phenomenon, involving the founding of Mesopotamian trading enclaves among preexisting local polities and emulation by local groups in the so called peripheral areas. Relations between Uruk colonists and local polities varied from coercive to cooperative, depending on the distance from Mesopotamia and the degree of preexisting indigenous social complexity. Once the basic differences between the Ubaid and Uruk oikumenai are recognized, we can develop more accurate models of variation in the political economies of early Mesopotamian complex societies.

- by Rana Özbal
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- Uruk Expansion, Near Eastern Prehistory, Uruk Period, Ubaid expansion

Bevel-rim bowls (BRBs) – the coarse, thick-walled, ceramic artefact that became the type-fossil of the Late Uruk – first appear in southern Mesopotamia in the early fourth millennium (Table 1), and by the mid-fourth millennium cluster in their thousands throughout Mesopotamia and the surrounding regions, declining to extinction in most areas by 3000 BC.
Their function and cultural implications have frequently been debated, but interpretation has often been clouded by tenuous analogical links and circular arguments. In order to gain a better understanding of the function and significance of BRBs, and so of their possible role in the Uruk system of central control, distribution and bureaucracy in the late Uruk period, in 2007/8 I manufactured a total of 28 replica BRBs (Fig. 1) and employed them in various experiments to test some of the functional theories advanced over the years by commentators, including the making of bread, yoghurt, cheese and salt. My practical experiments provided useful new insights into the likely manufacturing process and mode of use of the BRB, but more importantly they reinforced a novel and – if correct – critical theory about the end-use and cultural importance of the BRB’s contents.

- by Jill Goulder
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- Mesopotamia, Bread, Uruk Period, Bevel rim bowls
- by Luca Peyronel and +2
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- Levantine Archaeology, Anatolian Archaeology, Mesopotamian Archaeology, Ancient Near East

MÖ 4.binyılın başlangıcında Uruk adı verilen erken bir Mezopotamya Kültürü ortaya çıkar ve kısa sürede Kuzey Mezopotamya'ya yayılıp yerleşimler kurmaya başlar. Bu yayılım dünyanın bilinen en erken kolonizasyon hareketidir.
Uruk Kültürü insanlık tarihine çok önemli yenilikler kazandırmıştır. İlk kez Mezopotamya’da ortaya çıkan “erken devlet mekanizması” ve “kentler”, bu gelişmelerin hem nedeni hem sonucu olarak görülen “yazının icadı”, bölgeler arası etkileşimin önemli kollarından biri olan “kolonizasyon” bunların başında gelir.
Uruk Kültürü ile ilgili araştırmalar ilk zamanlar sadece yapılan arkeolojik kazılarda bu kültürün maddi kalıntılarının tespit edilmesi şeklindedir. Ancak bu ortaya çıkan Uruk materyal kültürünün sayısı arttıkça kuramsal çalışmalar çok daha yoğunlaşır.
Bu kültür hakkında ilk sistematik çalışmayı yapmış olan Guillermo Algaze, sosyolog Immanuel Wallerstein’ın Modern Dünya Sistemi çalışmasında ilan ettiği ve bugünkü modern dünya sisteminin başlangıcı olarak nitelendirdiği kuramı Uruk Kültürüne uyarlamış ve bu kuramın getirisi olarak Uruk’un Mezopotamya’nın merkezinde güçlü bir devlet olarak ortaya çıktığını ve ihtiyacı olan hammadde için çevre bölgeler ve Kuzey Mezopotamya’yı sömürgeleştirmeye çalıştığını iddia etmiştir. Ancak buna karşı çıkan araştırmacılar yapmış oldukları kazılar ve diğer çalışmalarla hem bu kuramın doğru olup olmadığını tartışmış hem de yeni kuramlar ortaya atmışlardır.
Bu kitapta da tüm bu kuramsal çalışmaları tek bir çatı altında okuyacak ve tarihin en eski kolonicilerinin barışçıl mı yoksa savaşçıl mı olduklarını tartışan değerlendirmeler bulacaksınız.

- by Luca Peyronel and +1
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- Levantine Archaeology, Anatolian Archaeology, Mesopotamian Archaeology, Ancient Near East

Yukarı Dicle Vadisi, 1900 km uzunluğu ile tüm Mezopotamya boyunca akan Dicle
Nehri’nin Türkiye’nin Güneydoğu Anadolu Bölgesi içerisinde oluşturduğu
vadilerden biridir. Ülkemizde bir kalkınma projesi olarak Ilısu Barajı’nın inşasının
gündeme gelmesi ile arkeolojik açıdan son 30 yıldır araştırılmaya başlanan
vadideki arkeolojik merkezlerin Kalkolitik Döneme ait materyal kültürlerinin bir
bölümünü de ölü gömme gelenekleri oluşturmaktadır. Bu geleneğin en
karakteristik özelliği vadinin yerel Kalkolitik kültürüne ait olmasının bir getirisi
olarak yapıların temelleri ve tabanları altına gömülen urne türü kapların içerisine
defnedilen bebek iskeletleridir. Bu ve diğer Kalkolitik materyal kültür geleneği
araştırmacılar için vadideki Kalkolitik dönem karakteristiği, kronoloji ve terminoloji
problemleri konusunda önemli bilgiler vermektedir.

- by Emrullah KALKAN
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- Mesopotamian Archaeology, Chalcolithic Archaeology, Uruk Period, Burial Customs

The present study discusses the effects of cross-cultural contact between lower and upper Mesopotamia, during so-called “Uruk expansion” (widespread distribution of southern Uruk-style material culture at sites at the North) in the 4th millennium BCE. 1- This paper claims that Uruk expansion was an actual colonial phenomenon, involving the emergence of Mesopotamian trading enclaves among preexisting local polities. 2- There was a symmetrical exchange between southern city-states and northern non urban societies. This long-distance trade, however, was particularly beneficial for more complex societies of the southern alluvial lowlands, because of the positive effect of trade on the emergence of more centralized states. 3- There was not a kind of world-system in which the core dominates an underdevelopped periphery politically and exploits it economically, rather a peaceful colonization/acculturation was.

- by İzzet Çıvgın
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- History, Ancient History, Cultural History, Economic History

This paper presents a recurrent architectural pattern, unnoticed up to now, observed in the late fourth millennium BC strata at the Iranian sites of Susa, Tal-i Malyan and Godin Tepe. On the base of this evidence, the article proposes some considerations for understanding aspects of the period characterized by the so-called ‘Proto-Elamite phenomenon’.

Uruk-Warka, UNESCO-world heritage site together with Ur and Eridu, can be claimed to be the world’s oldest megacity. Here the invention of handwriting and the scene of action of the oldest epic of humankind, the famous “Epic of Gilgamesh”, took place. The inner city covers an area of c. 555ha and was populated by c.40,000 people already in BC 3000. The diameter of the enclosed city is 4-5km; the city wall has a length of c.9km and is up to 8-25m wide. Uruk was inhabited for nearly 5000 years till the 3rd century AD. Its occupation ended when the Euphrates River changed its way towards west and since this time the site remained untouched as a huge heap of adobe mudbricks with a Ziggurat on top. Magnetometer measurements revealed a sophisticated water canal system, which provided access to the different city quarters, but also protected the inhabitants from the danger of annual flooding.

- by Jorg W E Fassbinder and +2
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- Mesopotamian Archaeology, Archaeological Method & Theory, Archaeometry, Archaeological Geophysics

Transcaucasia (including its Turkish part) is generally accepted as the core area of the initial formation of the Kura-Araxes culture. As the Late Uruk period is contemporary with the advanced stage of the Kura-Araxes culture, it is impossible to date the archaeological material comparable with the Uruk culture found at the so-called Late Chalcolithic Transcaucasian sites of the ‘pre-Kura-Araxes’ time by the Late (or even Middle) Uruk period. The pre-Kura-Araxes period of Transcaucasia mainly relates to the ‘Northern Uruk’ material and has nothing to do with the well-known phenomenon of the ‘Late Uruk colonization’ to the north in the second half of the 4th millennium BC. An overview of the relevant chronological data allows us to put the initial date of the Kura-Araxes culture of Transcaucasia sometime in the early part of the 4th millennium BC; it thus seems that the very starting point of this culture was a contemporary of the latest part of the Early Uruk period, or of a period immediately after this.

Basing themselves in large part on the pioneering work of Robert McCormick Adams, Ancient Near Eastern scholars interested in the origins of urbanism in Mesopotamia have long noticed significant differences in the first urban societies that appeared in Upper and Lower Mesopotamia during the fourth and third millennia BC. Two such differences are crucial: (1) after initial divergences, on average, individual cities in the alluvial lowlands of Mesopotamia were larger than those that emerged in the rain-fed plains of upper Mesopotamia; (2) systems of cities proved to be more enduring and resilient in the south than in the north, where long cycles of urban collapse and reconstitution appear to have been the norm. These long-term developmental differences are due, in part, to geographic differences. On account of their location at the juncture of the Tigris-Euphrates Fluvial system and marshes and estuaries at the head of the Persian Gulf, southern Mesopotamian cities functioned as “inland ports” that could draw more resources from a greater number of complementary ecotones than their land-locked competitors elsewhere, and that did so more cheaply because of inherent – and quantifiable -- advantages of water transport over land carriage. Conceptualizing alluvial Mesopotamian cities as resource concentration “ports,” in turn, raises important questions about the ways in which trade, transport, and industry may have helped structure many of the social and economic institutions that became typical for early southern Mesopotamian civilization -- institutions that, once arisen, were widely emulated across the ancient Near East.

- by Eva Hulínková Ťuchová
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- Archaeology, Mesopotamian Archaeology, Mesopotamia History, Sumerian

SUMMARY: Lecture 4 examines the Chalcolithic period in Anatolia, including trends, with more focus on Southeast Anatolia. This lecture is designed mainly as an educational resource for college students (i.e., normally posted only on my institution's course website), the public (e.g., people auditing my course), and interested colleagues from other disciplines (to whom I provide copies privately). I am posting it here, both as a broader access, educational tool, and especially to promote the study of this region and its past societies. For further knowledge about this region and period, I refer interested parties to the textbooks and other sources from which the materials were extracted (see syllabus), and/or the bibliographies in these works and my online resource guides (see other files in my academia folders). The lecture summarizes the pertinent materials in the course textbook(s), adding in other data, and furnishing numerous images to clarify information encountered within the textbook(s). Some generic imagery (usually indicated as such) is posted to aid in transmitting various concepts visually, and/or when a specific image remains not located (temporarily). I update and revise such lectures each time, with such elective courses normally being taught once every two years. I try to cover the most current, mainstream views, and usually place summary notes at the end of each lecture alongside some of the key sources used for compiling the ppt. Over time, each lecture is improved, errors rectified, and additional data placed within the lecture. These ppt. lectures take many hours to compile, but they have proved useful to many of my more serious students and I hope they can be of benefit to others as well. My apologies for any errors I may have made, and my liberal usage of educational imagery from professional sources and vetted internet sources. REVISED: Jan. 2024: More images, new slides and text, and selected sources,

- by Gregory Mumford
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- Ancient History, Archaeology, Near Eastern Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology