EPAS lecture in Toronto (CSMS Annual Grayson Lecture)

January 6, 2016

On Wednesday,13 January 2016, Jason Ur, Professor of Archaeology, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, will give the A.K. Grayson Lecture on Assyrian History and Culture for the Canadian Society for Mesopotamian Studies:

CITIES AND LANDSCAPES OF ASSYRIA: NEW RESEARCH IN THE IMPERIAL CORE

In August 2012 a new Harvard University archaeological research project began in the Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq.  This area was the core of the Neo-Assyrian empire (ca. 900-600 BC), which at its greatest stretched from Egypt to Iran.  The Erbil Plain Archaeological Survey (EPAS) is identifying and mapping sites from the Neolithic to the 20th century AD around the modern city of Erbil (ancient Arbail, capital of an inner Assyrian province).  The project is focused particularly on the impacts of the Neo-Assyrian empire-massive walled cities, enormous irrigation systems, and a countryside filled with deportees from distant conquered lands.  This presentation describes the results, including its use of declassified spy satellite photographs to find ancient towns and cities.

This free public lecture is at 8:00 pm in Earth Sciences Auditorium B142, 5 Bancroft Avenue, University of Toronto, St. George Campus.  Further information may be obtained at:  csms@chass.utoronto.ca