%0 Book Section %D In Preparation %T Central Planning and Urban Emergence in Early Bronze Age Cities of Northern Mesopotamia %A Ur, Jason A. %X The dominant interpretive frameworks for the origins of Early Bronze Age (ca. 2600-2000 BC) urbanism in northern Mesopotamia all revolve around goal-oriented actions of powerful elites: planned creation of cities, their palaces, temples and walls; and the creation and manipulation of intensified staple-based political economies based on centralized storage and redistribution.  In other words, EBA cities were largely planned by central decision-makers.  In proposing an alternative model, this study employs two approaches that Tony Wilkinson mastered in the course of his career.  Empirically, it draws on the full archaeological landscape, including settlement patterns but also off-site features surrounding and between them.  It interprets these data through a dynamic modeling lens based on Wilkinson’s “Modeling Ancient Settlement Systems” (MASS) project, which attempted to see social evolution as an emergent result of actions of individuals and households, rather than only decisions of kings and other elites.  It concludes that urban form in the EBA was a product of social forces outside the concerns (or control) of elite households, and that unambiguous royal interventions in urban structure were reactions to these processes, rather than causative of them. %G eng %0 Book %D In Preparation %T The Evolution of Mesopotamian Cities %A Ur, Jason A. %G eng %0 Journal Article %J American Journal of Archaeology %D 2022 %T Hellenistic Landscapes and Seleucid Control in Mesopotamia: the View from the Erbil Plain in Northern Iraq %A Palermo, Rocco %A de Jong, Lidewijde %A Ur, Jason A. %X In this article we discuss the archaeological landscapes of the Erbil plain during the Hellenistic period (late fourth century BCE–mid second century BCE) based on the data collected during the Erbil Plain Archaeological Survey (EPAS) between 2012 and 2019. We use a landscape archaeology approach to trace patterns of habitation, migration, land exploitation, and water management from the Iron Age to the early first millennium CE. Over the course of the first millennium BCE, the Erbil plain was transformed from an urbanized core region to a rural area of the vast Seleucid world through a moment of depopulation in the post-Assyrian period. These transformation processes continued after the end of the Hellenistic period, but with a different pattern. Urbanization resumed, peaking during the Parthian (Arsacid) era, when the region was part of the kingdom of Adiabene. Ultimately, our analysis shows how the planned landscape of Assyria was transformed in the centuries that followed the collapse of the empire and how the proximity of political power was the critical variable in the settlement patterns of this part of northern Mesopotamia under the empires of the first millennium BCE. %B American Journal of Archaeology %V 126 %P 425-442 %G eng %U https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/719754 %N 3 %9 Journal Article %0 Book Section %B Irrigation in Early States: New Directions %D 2022 %T Remote Sensing of Ancient Canal and Irrigation Systems %A Ur, Jason A. %E Rost, Stephanie %X

One of the attractions of historical archaeology is the possibility to combine textual data with the archaeological record. In the world of Near Eastern archaeology, however, often the evidence of texts is taken to be the more reliable source, and elaborate historical reconstructions are occasionally made with little or no archaeological input. Such an imbalanced scenario is particularly dangerous with regard to ancient water systems, but the most successful attempts for Mesopotamia have been multidisciplinary collaborations, often incorporating ethnographic or ethnohistoric data.

Despite the perceived limitations of archaeological data, the most successful irrigation studies have involved them, for several reasons. The written sources on irrigation derive mostly from royal inscriptions. These texts reflect the priorities of the royal households that commissioned them, priorities that emphasize the legitimization of existing power structures. They describe not an objective reality (if such a thing is ever possible), but rather an idealized situation that supports the political agendas of the text-producing elite. Rarely do the political interests of the text producers correspond to the academic interests of modern scholars. For instance, royal inscriptions will emphasize the agency of the king in creating water systems (often acting with the blessing of the gods), but will fail to mention the preexisting systems that the king expanded, or the local systems of water sharing that brought water to individual fields.

Very often, the empirical elements of water systems were not considered significant enough to be mentioned. Yet for archaeologists, the physical dimensions of those systems are important for conclusions about economy and society. Elements of system scale (e.g., width and depth of canals, length of system, volume of water, irrigated area) are rarely described. Yet these elements are critical for assessing the extent of political authority, whether through control of land, or through the ability to mobilize the labor necessary for system construction. The absolute scale of an irrigation system could help archaeologists determine whether it was a critical element of the subsistence economy or a vanity project. When done on a regional scale, archaeological evidence can overturn major theories of social evolution; for example, the once-influential hydraulic hypothesis of Karl Wittfogel (1957) is largely out of favor, since Robert McCormick Adams demonstrated that urban settlement patterns preceded major irrigation systems by a millennium.

%B Irrigation in Early States: New Directions %S Oriental Institute Seminars 13 %I University of Chicago Oriental Institute %C Chicago %P 65-81 %G eng %U https://oi.uchicago.edu/research/publications/ois/ois-13-irrigation-early-states-new-directions %! Remote Sensing of Ancient Canal and Irrigation Systems %0 Book Section %B Sasanian Archaeology: Settlements, Environment and Material Culture %D 2022 %T The Sasanian Colonisation of the Mughan Steppe, Ardebil Province, North-West Iran. %A Ur, Jason %A Alizadeh, Karim %E Simpson, St. John %B Sasanian Archaeology: Settlements, Environment and Material Culture %I Archaeopress %C Oxford %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Antiquity %D 2022 %T Succeeding CORONA: Declassified HEXAGON Intelligence Imagery for Archaeological and Historical Research %A Hammer, Emily %A FitzPatrick, Mackinley %A Ur, Jason %X

Click here for an Open Access version of this article.

Over the past 25 years, CORONA satellite imagery has become an integral part of archaeological research, especially for arid, sparsely vegetated regions such as the Middle East. Since 2020, a new archive of satellite imagery gathered by the US spy satellite programme that succeeded CORONA—HEXAGON—has become widely available for download via the United States Geological Survey. This photographic archive has enormous potential for archaeological research. Here, the authors seek to lower the barriers to accessing and using this imagery by detailing the background, technical specifications and history of the HEXAGON archive. Four case studies illustrate the benefits and limitations of HEXAGON imagery for archaeological and historical research in the Middle East and beyond.

 

%B Antiquity %V 96 %P 679-695 %G eng %U https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/succeeding-corona-declassified-hexagon-intelligence-imagery-for-archaeological-and-historical-research/A4FD28FA08B98A32D91AEDAB6D878B8E %N 387 %0 Journal Article %J Iraq %D 2021 %T The Erbil Plain Archaeological Survey: Preliminary Results, 2012-2020 %A Ur, Jason %A Babakr, Nader %A Palermo, Rocco %A Creamer, Petra %A Soroush, Mehrnoush %A Ramand, Shilan %A Nováček, Karel %X

The Erbil Plain Archaeological Survey (EPAS) investigates settlement and land use from the Neolithic to the present in the Erbil Governorate of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, which includes a large portion of the core of the Assyrian Empire. In seven field seasons, it has documented a broad settlement landscape in a region of great social and political importance, especially in the Bronze and Iron Ages, including 728 archaeological sites. Its field methodology combines traditional surface collection with the use of historical aerial and satellite photographs, mobile GIS, and UAV (drone) photogrammetry. Preliminary results show some unexpected patterns: a high density of culturally Uruk settlements in the fourth millennium B.C., variable urban morphologies in the Early Bronze Age; and large but low-density settlements at the end of the Sasanian period or the early Islamic period. The project is explicitly testing several hypotheses about centralized Neo-Assyrian landscape planning in the imperial core. These hypotheses appear to be confirmed, although the situation was more complex than in surrounding provinces, probably due to the longer history of continuous settlement.

Click here to download the PDF of this article.

%B Iraq %V 83 %G eng %U https://doi.org/10.1017/irq.2021.2 %0 Book Section %B From Sherds to Landscapes: Studies on the Ancient Near East in Honor of McGuire Gibson %D 2021 %T Kish and the Spatial Organization of Cities in Third-Millennium BC Southern Iraq %A Ur, Jason %E Altaweel, Mark %E Hritz, Carrie %X Despite its social, geopolitical, and historiographical significance, the city of Kish has been largely left out of archaeological discussions of early Mesopotamian urbanism. This study will combine the results of McGuire Gibson’s 1966–67 surface collection with various geospatial datasets that did not exist or were unavailable to him at the time of his fieldwork (declassified intelligence satellite photographs, digital terrain data, and recent commercial satellite imagery) to reassess Kish’s urban development and compare it to contemporary cities elsewhere in Mesopotamia. %B From Sherds to Landscapes: Studies on the Ancient Near East in Honor of McGuire Gibson %I Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago %C Chicago %P 227-239 %G eng %U https://oi.uchicago.edu/research/publications/saoc/saoc-71-sherds-landscapes-studies-ancient-ear-east-honor-mcguire-gibson %0 Journal Article %J In Situ %D 2020 %T Drones Over Kurdistan %A Ur, Jason %B In Situ %V Spring 2020 %G eng %U https://archaeology.harvard.edu/news/seventh-issue-sca-newsletter-published-situ-spring-2020 %0 Book Section %B Landscapes of Pre-Industrial Cities %D 2020 %T Space and Structure in Early Mesopotamian Cities %A Ur, Jason A. %E Farhat, Georges %X

The study of preindustrial cities is in a phase of great dynamism. For a long time, early cities were viewed narrowly through the lenses of Classical and ancient Near Eastern urbanism. In archaeology, this situation emerged largely as a result of the great influence of V. Gordon Childe. His books and articles established a broad model of what an early city was supposed to look like; his seminal article on “The Urban Revolution” is the most heavily cited article in the history of the Town Planning Review. His vision of cities emphasized the “revolutionary” appearance of relatively (for their time) large and dense settlements that housed a ruling class (and its monuments) that extracted the production of the rural hinterland. These new urban places were further characterized by writing systems, art and science, long-distance trade, and the abandonment of kinship as a source of social cohesion.At this point, the critiques of Childe have largely been accepted. First and foremost, his characterization in “The Urban Revolution” is one of an early centralized polity— that is, a political form rather than a settlement form. More importantly, recent scholarship has convincingly demonstrated the remarkable diversity of early urban form, and it has argued, also convincingly, for a definition of “urbanism” that can accommodate such diversity. Indeed, for many current scholars, Childe’s “classic” formulation of the early city only really applies to the ancient Near East and the Mesopotamian examples that inspired him.In fact, Childe’s model does not even apply to Mesopotamian urbanism, at least not in its early stages. The diversity of urban form now recognized globally can also be found in the earliest cities of the Tigris and Euphrates region. “The Urban Revolution” model is not, however, useless, as it describes mature Mesopotamian cities of the third millennium Bce, and many subsequent urban places, quite well. But these cities came about with at least a millennium of previous urban development already behind them. They represent the end of a developmental process, not the start.

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This study will illustrate three early Mesopotamian urban structures. They appeared sequentially, but not necessarily in an evolutionary sequence, from the late fifth to the middle of the third millennium Bce. The first, which appears to be unique in Mesopotamian history, seems to be a Near Eastern manifestation of a “megasite,” very large and low-density anomalies in the archaeological record, which in many parts of the world appeared prior to the appearance of less ambiguous urban forms. The second is a candidate for a Mesopotamian “low-density” city, a structure increasingly recognized globally but not yet in the Near East. Finally, at the time of the great Mesopotamian city-states, this study will argue that even the most geometric of settlement forms can be explained through the concept of emergence, as opposed to top-down planning.

In all of these cases, large settlements in early Mesopotamia were largely self-organized. Childe’s model may have emphasized new forms of centralized government in early cities, but a critical look at the archaeological data set of sites and landscapes suggests that bottom-up processes were dominant. It would be incorrect to call them “unplanned,” since all urban phenomena are planned at some scale; rather the issue is the locus of decision-making about planning. Traditional scholarship on Mesopotamian cities assigns most agency to kings and other elites, who often claim such influence in propagandistic royal inscriptions. In the case studies presented here, emphasis has been placed on households and neighborhoods, and the ways in which decision-making at those lower levels might result in the emergent forms of the earliest Mesopotamian cities.

%B Landscapes of Pre-Industrial Cities %I Dumbarton Oaks %C Washington DC %P 37-59 %G eng %0 Book Section %B Arbela Antiqua %D 2020 %T Vers une histoire du peuplement de la plaine d'Erbil %A Ur, Jason A. %A Giraud, Jessica %E Alpi, Frédéric %E Bradosty, Zidan %E Giraud, Jessica %E MacGinnis, John %E Mattila, Raija %B Arbela Antiqua %S Bibliothéque Archéologique et Historique T. 218 %I Institut Français du Proche-Orient %C Beirut %P 59-75 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Journal of Remote Sensing %D 2020 %T Deep Learning in Archaeological Remote Sensing: Automated Qanat Detection in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq %A Soroush, Mehrnoush %A Mehrtash, A. %A Khazraee, E. %A Ur, J. %X
In this paper, we report the results of our work on automated detection of qanat shafts on the Cold War-era CORONA Satellite Imagery. The increasing quantity of air and space-borne imagery available to archaeologists and the advances in computational science have created an emerging interest in automated archaeological detection. Traditional pattern recognition methods proved to have limited applicability for archaeological prospection, for a variety of reasons, including a high rate of false positives. Since 2012, however, a breakthrough has been made in the field of image recognition through deep learning. We have tested the application of deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) for automated remote sensing detection of archaeological features. Our case study is the qanat systems of the Erbil Plain in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The signature of the underground qanat systems on the remote sensing data are the semi-circular openings of their vertical shafts. We choose to focus on qanat shafts because they are promising targets for pattern recognition and because the richness and the extent of the qanat landscapes cannot be properly captured across vast territories without automated techniques. Our project is the first effort to use automated techniques on historic satellite imagery that takes advantage of neither the spectral imagery resolution nor very high (sub-meter) spatial resolution.
%B Journal of Remote Sensing %V 12 %P 500 %G eng %U https://www.mdpi.com/632600 %N 3 %0 Journal Article %J Remote Sensing %D 2020 %T Deep Learning in Archaeological Remote Sensing: Automated Qanat Detection in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq %A Soroush, Mehrnoush %A Mehrtash, Alireza %A Khazraee, Emad %A Ur, Jason A. %X In this paper, we report the results of our work on automated detection of qanat shafts on the Cold War-era CORONA Satellite Imagery. The increasing quantity of air and space-borne imagery available to archaeologists and the advances in computational science have created an emerging interest in automated archaeological detection. Traditional pattern recognition methods proved to have limited applicability for archaeological prospection, for a variety of reasons, including a high rate of false positives. Since 2012, however, a breakthrough has been made in the field of image recognition through deep learning. We have tested the application of deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) for automated remote sensing detection of archaeological features. Our case study is the qanat systems of the Erbil Plain in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The signature of the underground qanat systems on the remote sensing data are the semi-circular openings of their vertical shafts. We choose to focus on qanat shafts because they are promising targets for pattern recognition and because the richness and the extent of the qanat landscapes cannot be properly captured across vast territories without automated techniques. Our project is the first effort to use automated techniques on historic satellite imagery that takes advantage of neither the spectral imagery resolution nor very high (sub-meter) spatial resolution. %B Remote Sensing %V 12 %G eng %U https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/12/3/500 %N 3 %R 10.3390/rs12030500 %0 Book Section %B GIS for Science: Applying Mapping and Spatial Analytics %D 2019 %T Mapping Ancient Landscapes %A Ur, Jason %A Blossom, Jeffrey %A Harder, Christian %E Wright, Dawn %X

Racing against the clock as development encroaches on important Kurdish heritage sites, a team of landscape archaeologists deploys drones and comparative image analysis to capture previously undetected ancient settlements.

The chapter is accompanied by various online resources, including interactive maps, which can be viewed at the GISforScience website.

%B GIS for Science: Applying Mapping and Spatial Analytics %I Esri Press %C Redlands CA %P 142-165 %G eng %U https://esripress.esri.com/display/index.cfm?fuseaction=display&websiteID=376&moduleID=0 %0 Journal Article %J Advances in Archaeological Practice %D 2019 %T Near Eastern Landscapes and Declassified U2 Aerial Imagery %A Hammer, Emily L. %A Ur, Jason A. %X Recently declassified photographs taken by U2 spy planes in the 1950s and 1960s provide an important new source of historical aerial imagery useful for Eurasian archaeology. Like other sources of historical imagery, U2 photos provide a window into the past, before modern agriculture and development destroyed many archaeological sites. U2 imagery is older and in many cases higher resolution than CORONA spy satellite imagery, the other major source of historical imagery for Eurasia, and thus can expand the range of archaeological sites and features that can be studied from an aerial perspective. However, there are significant barriers to finding and retrieving U2 imagery of particular locales, and archaeologists have thus not yet widely used it. In this article, we aim to reduce these barriers by describing the U2 photo dataset and how to access it. We also provide the first spatial index of U2 photos for the Middle East. A brief discussion of archaeological case studies drawn from U2 imagery illustrates its merits and limitations. These case studies include investigations of prehistoric mass-kill hunting traps in eastern Jordan, irrigation systems of the first millennium BC Neo-Assyrian empire in northern Iraq, and twentieth-century marsh communities in southern Iraq. %B Advances in Archaeological Practice %G eng %U https://doi.org/10.1017/aap.2018.38 %0 Book Section %B Études Mésopotamiennes – Mesopotamian Studies No. 1 %D 2018 %T Qasr Shemamok-Kilizu (Kurdistan d’Irak), les campagnes de 2011 (9 avril-15 mai et 16 octobre-5 novembre) %A Rouault, Olivier %A Masetti-Rouault, Maria Grazia %A Calini, Ilaria %A MacGinnis, John %A Ur, Jason %A Vitale, Quentin %E Déroche, Vincent %E Masetti-Rouault, Maria Grazia %E Nicolle, Christophe %X Notre première mission au Kurdistan d'Irak, en avril-mai 2010, sur le site de Kilik Mishik dans la banlieue sud d’Erbil, – la première opération étrangère à obtenir un permis de fouille officiel du Ministère kurde responsable des fouilles – nous avait donné l’occasion de prendre un contact direct avec la réalité archéologique de la culture antique de la région d’Erbil. Elle nous avait aussi permis de nous familiariser avec les méthodes de travail et le fonctionnement des institutions locales et en particulier de l’Université et du Service des Antiquités. Pendant cette période nous avions également pu effectuer quelques rapides prospections et visiter plusieurs sites dans la région, nous forgeant ainsi une idée plus claire des possibilités et des opportunités offertes par l’ouverture de ce territoire à la recherche scientifique et archéologique... %B Études Mésopotamiennes – Mesopotamian Studies No. 1 %I Archaeopress %C Oxford %P 212-253 %G eng %0 Book Section %B Water for Assyria %D 2018 %T Water for Arbail and Nimrud %A Ur, Jason A. %E Kühne, Hartmut %X

The imperial and provincial capitals of the Neo-Assyrian empire held populations far beyond the limits of the Bronze Age cities that preceded them.  This accomplishment came in part from intensifying agricultural production on the lands adjacent to the cities.  The irrigation systems of Nimrud and Nineveh have over a century of exploration, but there are still many details to be revealed, especially through remote sensing and field exploration.  This paper analyses the irrigation systems between Nimrud and Arbail (modern Erbil) using two sources.  The first are remote sensing datasets from a variety of declassified American intelligence missions: aerial photographs from the U2 spy plane, and satellite photographs from the CORONA (1960-1972) and HEXAGON (1971-1984) programs, many of which have not been used for non-intelligence research before.  The second source are field observations of the Erbil Plain Archaeological Survey (EPAS) in the regions of Gwer, Shemamok, Erbil, Kawr Gosk, and Qala Mortka, between the Upper Zab and the Chai Bastora.  These observations have revealed a complex palimpsest of both massive irrigation systems and small scale karez/qanat systems that can be difficult to untangle.  It is certain, however, that the river terraces and plains surrounding Nimrud and Arbail were abundantly irrigated.  It is possible that some of these canal features were also being used for downstream shipment of bulky agricultural products, which would further extend the sustaining areas of these great cities.

%B Water for Assyria %I Harrassowitz %C Wiesbaden %P 57-75 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Near Eastern Archaeology %D 2017 %T The Archaeological Renaissance in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq %A Ur, Jason %X After an absence of over two decades, foreign archaeology has returned in earnest to one of the “cradles of civilization” in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Two wars, international sanctions, and internal unrest had together brought archaeological research nearly to a standstill; only a few under-funded Iraqi teams and a handful of intrepid Europeans attempted fieldwork following the first Gulf War of 1991. Following a decline in political violence that began in 2008, archaeologists have returned to the Republic of Iraq. The resumption of fieldwork in the southern “heartland of cities” has been significant but slow, and hampered by internal politics. In the autonomous Kurdistan Region, however, foreign research has expanded rapidly and continuously, in partnership with local archaeologists and institutes. This essay reviews these new developments, discusses how the new discoveries are challenging long-held ideas and filling blank spaces on the archaeological map, and suggests some new directions for the future of Mesopotamian studies. %B Near Eastern Archaeology %V 80 %P 176-187 %G eng %U https://doi.org/10.5615/neareastarch.80.3.0176 %N 3 %0 Book Section %B Ancient West Asian Civilization: Geoenvironment and Society in the Pre-Islamic Middle East %D 2017 %T The Birth of Cities in Ancient West Asia %A Ur, Jason A. %E Tsuneki, Akira %E Yamada, Shigeo %E Hisada, Kenichiro %B Ancient West Asian Civilization: Geoenvironment and Society in the Pre-Islamic Middle East %I Springer %C Singapore %P 133-147 %G eng %0 Book Section %B Nineveh, the Great City: Symbol of Beauty and Power %D 2017 %T The Topography of Nineveh %A Ur, Jason A. %E Petit, Lucas P. %E Morandi Bonacossi, Daniele %B Nineveh, the Great City: Symbol of Beauty and Power %I Sidestone %C Leiden %P 58-62 %G eng %U https://www.sidestone.com/books/nineveh-the-great-city %0 Book Section %B Blackwell Companion to Assyria %D 2017 %T Physical and Cultural Landscapes of Assyria %A Ur, Jason A. %E Frahm, Eckart %X

 

The history of the land of Assyria is, to a considerable extent, the story of a continuous attempt by individuals, communities, states, and empires to define their places in their landscapes.  In basic economic terms, people had to feed their families, which meant adapting to the possibilities and limitations of climate and environment for agriculture and animal husbandry, and sometimes extending them.  Even for the elite elements of society, the environment was a critical variable in how palace walls were decorated, how gardens and parks were created, and how tribute was collected.  Climate and environment played important roles in determining the scheduling of royal campaigns and in which directions they went.  The limitations and fluctuations of climate were a major concern in Assyrian temples as well, as priests and kings attempted to intercede with the gods for the favorable growing conditions that sustained cities, enabled trade, and revealed to the people the good relationship between the king and the gods.

The physical landscape of Assyria was far from immutable.  Fluctuations in temperature, rainfall, and seasonality took place on yearly, decadal, and even millennial scales.  Its human communities were also responsible for modifications that turned the physical environment into the cultural landscape.  The nature of these cultural changes have much to tell us about past societies.  At one end of the continuum, landscapes were modified by the aggregate actions of their inhabitants, whether they were farmers, shepherds, craftspeople, or traders.  Individuals might have only limited effects on their surroundings within their lifetimes, but their collective actions can leave a tremendous, often unintended, footprint.  The best example of such cumulative action is the tell, the classic form of archaeological site in the Near East, the largest of which grew to 40 m or higher.  Tells formed over centuries or millennia as individual households built, repaired, tore down, and rebuilt stone and mudbrick structures on the same spot (Rosen 1986).  The intention of the builders was simply to provide a physical space for their households, not to create a looming aggregate of decayed mud brick on the landscape; the cumulative result of many generations engaging in this simple domestic behavior, however, had just such an effect.

On the other end of the continuum, landscapes could be modified according to royal will; kings and their planners imposed their particular political, economic, demographic, and cosmological visions upon the surrounding land. The resulting landscape elements were often monumental due to the royal household’s ability to mobilize vast amounts of labor toward its ends. These structures are more difficult to remove, and therefore disproportionately likely to survive to the present than lesser changes.

This chapter reviews the physical environment and cultural landscapes, both emergent and imposed, in the regions of modern northern Iraq, southeastern Turkey and eastern Syria that encompass the central part of the ancient “Land of Assyria” (Fig. 1).  Although this geographic designation was only meaningful in the late 2nd and early 1st millennia BCE, in the time of the Middle Assyrian and Neo-Assyrian empires, it provides a convenient geographical framework within which to consider earlier landscapes, especially the Early Bronze Age (EBA) urban phase of the late 3rd millennium BCE.  Geographically, this region encompasses the middle stretch of the Tigris River between the Eski Mosul and the Fatha gorge, its tributary valleys and plains to the east, the Cizre plain in the north, and the Upper Khabur and Sinjar plains, as well as the Khabur river valley, to the west.  These latter areas, while outside of the Tigris Valley “heartland,” were considered by the 1st millennium BCE Assyrian kings to be historically part of the “Land of Ashur,” and were administered as such (Postgate 1992, 1995, Radner 2006, Kühne 2012).

A particularly useful framework for approaching Assyrian landscapes through time is the “signature landscape” concept developed by Tony Wilkinson (2003:11-14).  Signature landscapes describe certain combinations of landscape elements that recur across space and time.  These landscapes tend to be products of either especially powerful state actors, or of particularly durable and widely shared activities that resulted in the deep etching of a suite of features into the landscape.  In both cases, the features survive and sometimes even structure subsequent settlement and land use.  Signature landscapes are generally associated with, but not dictated by, combinations of physical environment and social factors (most commonly economy, political structure, and cosmology).  Here one might consider the lowland irrigation landscapes of southern Mesopotamia, the oasis-based water catchment systems of the deserts, and the terracing and runoff agricultural systems of highland Yemen.  The land of Assyria hosted two distinctive signature landscapes in the Early Bronze Age and Iron Ages under nearly identical environmental conditions, described below.  It is thus an excellent case study in the variable connections between cultural landscapes and sociopolitical organization.

The study of cultural landscapes is made challenging by the divergent histories of scholarship in the eastern (Iraqi) and western (Syrian and Turkish) halves of the Assyrian core.  The Assyrian heartland along the Tigris River is one of the birthplaces of the modern discipline of archaeology, due to the efforts of Layard, Botta, and others in the great capital cities of the empire (Larsen 1996).  These early excavations produced huge volumes of architectural, art historical, and epigraphic data that are still mined today for new insights.  In terms of landscape and settlement studies, however, the hinterlands of the great capitals have been almost terra incognita until very recently.  Early landscape observations were anecdotal and opportunistic, but remain unsurpassed forty or more years after they were made (see especially Bachmann 1927, Jacobsen and Lloyd 1935, Oates 1968, Reade 1978).  The “golden age” of survey archaeology in southern Iraq in the 1950s and 1960s (e.g., Adams 1981, reviewed in Ur 2012) had almost no impact on research in Assyria, which was characterized by a “closing of perspectives” (Liverani 1988:80).  The western half of the Assyrian core, on the other hand, has witnessed an explosion of surveys and landscape studies since the 1970s (reviewed in Wilkinson and Barbanes 2000, Morandi Bonacossi 2000 and below).  At the time of writing, this imbalance in archaeological survey is beginning to be corrected via new projects in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, in particular in the hinterlands of Nineveh, Erbil, and Kilizu (see, e.g., Ur et al. 2013, Ur and Osborne in press, Morandi Bonacossi 2012-2013) Morandi Bonacossi and Iamoni in preparation).

Despite these biases within the overall dataset, it is possible to describe general trends in the evolution of cultural landscapes, although some aspects will require ground confirmation in the future when new projects in Iraq and its Kurdistan Region begin to be published.  After describing aspects of the physical environment, this chapter considers one of the most dramatic landscape shifts in the history of the ancient Near East: the transition from the emergent urban landscapes of the late Early Bronze Age (ca. 2600-2000 BC) to the imposed landscape of imperial Assyria in the early 1st millennium BCE.

 

%B Blackwell Companion to Assyria %I Blackwell %C Oxford %P 13-35 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Norwegian Archaeology ReviewNorwegian Archaeology Review %D 2016 %T The Challenges of Early Urbanism: A View from Mesopotamia (Commentary to Gaydarska, The City is Dead! Long Live the City!) %A Ur, Jason A. %B Norwegian Archaeology ReviewNorwegian Archaeology Review %V 49 %P 70-72 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Current Anthropology %D 2016 %T Commentary to Jennings and Earle, "Urbanization, State Formation, and Cooperation: A Reappraisal" %A Ur, Jason %B Current Anthropology %V 57 %P 487-488 %G eng %U https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/687510 %0 Journal Article %J In Situ %D 2016 %T Middle Eastern Archaeology from the Air and Space %A Ur, Jason A. %B In Situ %V Fall 2016 %P 1-4 %G eng %U http://archaeology.harvard.edu/files/sca/files/in_situ_fall_2016_final_v2.pdf %0 Book Section %B The Provincial Archaeology of the Assyrian Empire %D 2016 %T The Tell Baqrta Project in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq %A Kopanias, Konstantinos %A Beuger, Claudia %A MacGinnis, John %A Ur, Jason %E MacGinnis, John %E Wicke, Dirk %E Greenfield, Tina %B The Provincial Archaeology of the Assyrian Empire %I McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research %C Cambridge %P 117-128 %G eng %0 Book Section %B The Provincial Archaeology of the Assyrian Empire %D 2016 %T The Rural Landscape of the Assyrian Heartland: Recent Results from Arbail and Kilizu Provinces %A Ur, Jason A. %A Osborne, James F. %E MacGinnis, John %E Wicke, Dirk %E Greenfield, Tina %X The world’s first empires were grand experiments in centralized political power and the territorial expansion of social control. The elite manifestations of empires are often prominent and have been studied intensively by historians and archaeologists, and they can lead to the impression that the state was all-pervasive in the lives of its citizens, from the rulers themselves down to the humblest farmer. Given the elite origins and biases of the historical and archaeological datasets, however, we might ask more precisely what were the impacts of empire on the quotidian lives of its people. Were issues of political control of concern only to competing elites, with little or no significance to the majority of the population, or were daily practices closely controlled? This paper addresses these issues by presenting preliminary data of the Erbil Plain Archaeological Survey (EPAS) to better understand the settlement landscape in the heartland of the Neo-Assyrian empire (c. 934–605 bc) in northern Iraq. %B The Provincial Archaeology of the Assyrian Empire %I McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research %C Cambridge %P 163-174 %G eng %0 Generic %D 2015 %T Archaeological Projects in the Kurdistan Region in Iraq %A Kopanias, Konstantinos %A MacGinnis, John %A Ur, Jason %I Directorate of Antiquities of the Kurdistan Regional Government %C Erbil %G eng %U https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/14022526 %0 Journal Article %J Mesopotamia %D 2015 %T The Hydraulic Landscape of Nimrud %A Ur, Jason %A Reade, Julian E. %B Mesopotamia %V 50 %P 25-51 %G eng %U http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:29335964 %0 Journal Article %J Water History %D 2015 %T Tony Wilkinson and the Water History of the Near East %A Ur, Jason A. %A Ertsen, Maurits %B Water History %V 7 %P 377-379 %G eng %U https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/30367411 %0 Journal Article %J American Journal of Archaeology %D 2015 %T Ritual and Identity in Rural Mesopotamia: Hirbemerdon Tepe and the Upper Tigris River Valley in the Middle Bronze Age %A Laneri, Nicola %A Schwartz, Mark %A Ur, Jason A. %A D'Agostino, Anacleto %A Berthon, Rémi %A Hald, Mette Marie %A Marsh, Anke %X

Excavations at the relatively small but strategically placed site of Hirbemerdon Tepe, located along the west bank of the upper Tigris River in modern southeastern Turkey, have yielded significant results. During the Middle Bronze Age (2000–1600 B.C.E.), the site was situated in an ecologically stratified landscape that included river terraces suitable for agriculture as well as forested uplands ideal for pastoral and hunting activities. A significant result of these excavations, which were conducted by the Hirbemerdon Tepe Archaeological Project, was the discovery of a well-preserved architectural complex with associated ritual artifacts on the northern side of the high mound. This report describes and situates this Middle Bronze Age site within its geographic, cultural, and ecological context. It examines the emergence of this small regional center and investigates the role of ritual activities in the development of socially integrated communities in the frontier zone of northern Mesopotamia during the beginning of the second millennium B.C.E.

%B American Journal of Archaeology %V 119 %P 533-564 %G eng %U https://www.ajaonline.org/field-report/2210 %N 4 %0 Book Section %B Climate and Ancient Societies %D 2015 %T Urban Adaptations to Climate Change in Northern Mesopotamia %A Ur, Jason A. %E Kerner, Susanne %E Dann, Rachael %E Bangsgaard Jensen, Pernille %B Climate and Ancient Societies %I Museum Tusculanum Press %C Copenhagen %P 69-95 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing (JSTARS)IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing (JSTARS) %D 2014 %T Multitemporal Fusion for the Detection of Static Spatial Patterns in Multispectral Satellite Images, with Application to Archaeological Survey %A Menze, Bjoern H. %A Ur, Jason A. %X We evaluate and further develop a multitemporal fusion strategy that we use to detect the location of ancient settlement sites in the Near East and to map their distribution, a spatial pattern that remains static over time. For each ASTER images that has been acquired in our survey area in northeastern Syria, we use a pattern classification strategy to map locations with a multispectral signal similar to the one from (few) known archaeological sites nearby. We obtain maps indicating the presence of anthrosol-soils that formed in the location of ancient settlements and that have a distinct spectral pattern under certain environmental conditions-and find that pooling the probability maps from all available time points reduces the variance of the spatial anthrosol pattern significantly. Removing biased classification maps-i.e., those that rank last when comparing the probability maps with the (limited) ground truth we have- reduces the overall prediction error even further, and we estimate optimal weights for each image using a nonnegative least squares regression strategy. The ranking and pooling strategy approach we propose in this study shows a significant improvement over the plain averaging of anthrosol probability maps that we used in an earlier attempt to map archaeological sites in a 20 000-km 2 area in northern Mesopotamia, and we expect it to work well in other surveying tasks that aim in mapping static surface patterns with limited ground truth in long series of multispectral images. %B IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing (JSTARS)IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing (JSTARS) %V 7 %P 3513-3524 %G eng %U https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/12362592 %0 Journal Article %J Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie %D 2014 %T Umma. B. Archäologische %A Ur, Jason A. %B Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie %V 14 %P 327-330 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J International Journal of Urban and Regional Research %D 2014 %T

Jane Jacobs'‘Cities First’ Model and Archaeological Reality

%A Smith, Michael E. %A Ur, Jason A. %A Feinman, Gary %X

In The Economy of Cities, Jane Jacobs conjectured that the world’s first cities preceded the origins of agriculture, a proposition that was most recently revived by Peter Taylor in the pages of this journal. The repeated resurrection of Jacobs’ idea was out of line with extant archaeological findings when first advanced decades ago, and it is firmly contradicted by a much fuller corpus of data today. After a review of how and why Jacobs formulated her “cities first” model, we review current archaeological knowledge from the Near East, China, and Mesoamerica to document the temporal precedence of agriculture before urbanism in each of these regions. Contrary to the opinions of Jacobs and Taylor, archaeological data in fact are sufficiently robust to reconstruct patterns of diet, settlement, and social organization in the past, and to assign dates to the relevant sites. Our response illustrates how generations of archaeological discoveries have yielded solid empirical foundations for the evaluation of wider social scientific debates.

%B International Journal of Urban and Regional Research %V 38 %P 1525-1535 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Subartu %D 2014 %T

أنماط الاستيطان في سومر واكد

%A Ur, Jason A. %A Al Hamdani, Abdelamir %B Subartu %V 8 %P 159-188 (in Arabic) %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Cambridge Archaeological Journal %D 2014 %T Households and the Emergence of Cities in Ancient Mesopotamia %A Ur, Jason A. %X

The world’s first cities emerged on the plains of Mesopotamia (modern Iraq and Syria) in the fourth millennium BC.  Attempts to understand this settlement process have assumed revolutionary social change, the disappearance of kinship as a structuring principle, and the appearance of a rational bureaucracy.  Most assume cities and state-level social organization were deliberate functional adaptations to meet the goals of elite members of society, or society as a whole.  This study proposes an alternative model.  By reviewing indigenous terminology from later historical periods, it proposes that urbanism evolved in the context of a metaphorical extension of the household that represented a creative transformation of a familiar structure.  The first cities were unintended consequences of this transformation, which may seem “revolutionary” to archaeologists but did not to their inhabitants.  This alternative model calls into question the applicability of terms like “urbanism” and “the state” for early Mesopotamian society.

%B Cambridge Archaeological Journal %V 24 %P 249-268 %G eng %U http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=9295781&fulltextType=RA&fileId=S095977431400047X %0 Book Section %B Preludes to Urbanism: Studies in the Late Chalcolithic of Mesopotamia in Honour of Joan Oates %D 2014 %T Urban Form at Tell Brak Across Three Millennia %A Ur, Jason A. %E Augusta McMahon %E Crawford, Harriet %X

A common but implicitly held idea in Mesopotamian archaeology is that once urbanism appeared, Mesopotamia was thereafter an urban civilization. Despite various ups and downs through the millennia, which saw individual settlements wax and wane, the city as a settlement form was the defining characteristic of its cultural tradition. It is understood that not all Mesopotamian cities were alike, but there exists an idea that there was a durable essence to its particular type of urbanism. This study will consider one urban place, Tell Brak in northeastern Syria, over a span of almost 3000 years. In particular, it will consider variation in urban form at Brak in its initial incarnation in the fourth millennium bc, its later third-millennium BC reincarnation as Nagar, and finally its mid second millennium BC form. Rather than being one city that experienced phases of expansion and contraction, the mound at Tell Brak holds the remains of three qualitatively different cities. The differences in urban form were not insignificant variations around an essential theme but were rather manifestations of evolving social and political structures and institutions. This study will describe the various spatial configurations at Brak, their sociopolitical implications, and their places in broader patterns of urbanism in Mesopotamia.

%B Preludes to Urbanism: Studies in the Late Chalcolithic of Mesopotamia in Honour of Joan Oates %I McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research and the British School of Archaeology in Iraq %C Cambridge %P 49-62 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Iraq %D 2013 %T Ancient Cities and Landscapes in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq: The Erbil Plain Archaeological Survey 2012 Season %A Ur, Jason A. %A de Jong, Lidewijde %A Giraud, Jessica %A Osborne, James F. %A MacGinnis, John %B Iraq %V 75 %P 89-117 %G eng %U http://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/11510264 %0 Book Section %B Mapping Archaeological Landscapes from Space: In Observance of the 40th Anniversary of the World Heritage Convention %D 2013 %T CORONA Satellite Imagery and Ancient Near Eastern Landscapes %A Ur, Jason A. %E Comer, Douglas C. %E Harrower, Michael J. %B Mapping Archaeological Landscapes from Space: In Observance of the 40th Anniversary of the World Heritage Convention %I Springer %C New York %P 19-29 %G eng %0 Book Section %B Models of Mesopotamian Landscapes: How Small-Scale Processes Contributed to the Growth of Early Civilizations %D 2013 %T The 'External Economy': Networks and Trade %A Branting, Scott %A Wilkinson, T.J. %A Christiansen, John %A Widell, Magnus %A Hritz, Carrie %A Ur, Jason %A Studevent-Hickman, Benjamin %A Altaweel, Mark %E Wilkinson, T.J. %E Gibson, McGuire %E Widell, Magnus %B Models of Mesopotamian Landscapes: How Small-Scale Processes Contributed to the Growth of Early Civilizations %S BAR International Series 2552 %I Archaeopress %C Oxford %P 140-151 %G eng %0 Book Section %B Models of Mesopotamian Landscapes: How Small-Scale Processes Contributed to the Growth of Early Civilizations %D 2013 %T Land Use of the Model Communities %A Widell, Magnus %A Hritz, Carrie %A Ur, Jason A. %A Wilkinson, T.J. %E Wilkinson, T.J. %E Gibson, McGuire %E Widell, Magnus %B Models of Mesopotamian Landscapes: How Small-Scale Processes Contributed to the Growth of Early Civilizations %S BAR International Series 2552 %I Archaeopress %C Oxford %P 56-80 %G eng %0 Book Section %B Mapping Archaeological Landscapes from Space: In Observance of the 40th Anniversary of the World Heritage Convention %D 2013 %T Mapping Anthrosols in Multi-Spectral Images using a Multi-Temporal Classification Strategy: An Approach to Settlement Survey at a Large Scale in the Upper Khabur Basin, Syria %A Menze, Bjoern H. %A Ur, Jason A. %E Comer, Douglas C. %E Harrower, Michael J. %B Mapping Archaeological Landscapes from Space: In Observance of the 40th Anniversary of the World Heritage Convention %I Springer %C New York %P 209-218 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Subartu %D 2013 %T The Morphology of Neo-Assyrian Cities %A Ur, Jason A. %X

The capitals of the Neo-Assyrian empire appear to be firm examples of cities created as acts of political will, via top-down centralized planning, and with little or no input from their more humble inhabitants.  This presentation will argue for a more flexible model that recognizes variability in top-down and bottom-up processes among the Assyrian capitals.  Two sources enable a critical assessment.  Recent research on provincial capitals has adopted a holistic approach that includes geophysical prospection and the targeting of non-elite residential areas.  Satellite-based remote sensing has also opened windows into urban structure.   Assyrian cities were highly variable in their morphologies, and these differences can be used to investigate their divergent origins and developmental trajectories.  This presentation will review the form and structure of imperial and provincial capitals, with particular emphasis on satellite remote sensing of Nimrud and new topographic data for Qasr Shemamok (the provincial capital Kilizu), now being excavated by the Mission Archéologique Française à Erbil under the direction of Oliver Rouault and Maria Grazia Masetti-Rouault.

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%B Subartu %V 6-7 %P 11-22 %G eng %U http://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/10873241 %0 Book Section %B The Sumerian World %D 2013 %T Patterns of Settlement in Sumer and Akkad %A Ur, Jason A. %E Crawford, Harriet %B The Sumerian World %I Routledge %C Oxford and New York %P 131-155 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Biblioteca Orientalis %D 2013 %T

Review of A. Hausleiter et al. (eds.), Material Culture and Mental Spheres. Rezeption archäologischer Denkrichtungen in der Vorderasiatischen Altertumskunde. Internationales Symposium für Hans J. Nissen, Berlin, 22.-24. Juni 2000

%A Ur, Jason A. %B Biblioteca Orientalis %V 70 %P 512-514 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Journal of Iranian Archaeology %D 2013 %T The Sasanian Colonization of the Mughan Steppe, Ardebil Province, Northwestern Iran %A Ur, Jason A. %A Alizadeh, Karim %B Journal of Iranian Archaeology %V 4 %P 98-110 %G eng %0 Book Section %B Models of Mesopotamian Landscapes: How Small-Scale Processes Contributed to the Growth of Early Civilizations %D 2013 %T Settlement Archaeology of Mesopotamia %A Wilkinson, T.J. %A Ur, Jason A. %A Hritz, Carrie %E Wilkinson, T.J. %E Gibson, McGuire %E Widell, Magnus %B Models of Mesopotamian Landscapes: How Small-Scale Processes Contributed to the Growth of Early Civilizations %S BAR International Series 2552 %I Archaeopress %C Oxford %P 34-55 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Near Eastern Archaeology %D 2013 %T Spying on the Past: Declassified Intelligence Satellite Photographs and Near Eastern Landscapes %A Ur, Jason A. %B Near Eastern Archaeology %V 76 %P 28-36 %G eng %U http://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/10873240 %0 Book Section %B Proceedings of the 7th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, 12-16 April 2010, the British Museum and UCL, London, Volume 1 %D 2012 %T Landscapes of Movement in the Ancient Near East %A Ur, Jason A. %E Matthews, Roger, %E Curtis, John %X n/a %B Proceedings of the 7th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, 12-16 April 2010, the British Museum and UCL, London, Volume 1 %I Harrassowitz %C Wiesbaden %P 521-538 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences %D 2012 %T Mapping Patterns of Long-Term Settlement in Northern Mesopotamia at a Large Scale %A Menze, Bjoern H. %A Ur, Jason A. %X

The landscapes of the Near East show both the first settlements and the longest trajectories of settlement systems. Mounding is a characteristic property of these settlement sites, resulting from mil­lennia of continuing settlement activity at distinguished places. So far, however, this defining feature of ancient settlements has not received much attention, or even been subject of systematic evalu­ation. We propose a remote sensing approach for comprehensively mapping the pattern of human settlement at large scale and establish the largest archaeological record for a landscape in Mesopotamia, mapping about 14,000 settlement sites – spanning eight millennia – at 15 m resolution in a 23,000 km2 area in north-eastern Syria. To map both low-and high-mounded places – the latter of which are often referred to as “tells” – we develop a strategy for detect­ing anthrosols in time series of multi-spectral satellite images and measure the volume of settlement sites in a digital elevation model. Using this volume as a proxy to continued occupation, we find a dependency of the long-term attractiveness of a site on local wa­ter availability, but also a strong relation to the relevance within a basin-wide exchange network that we can infer from our record and 3rd millennium BC inter-site routes visible on the ground until recent times. We believe it is possible to establish a nearly compre­hensive map of human settlements in the fluvial plains of northern Mesopotamia and beyond, and site volume may be a key quantity to uncover long-term trends in human settlement activity from such a record.

%B Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences %G eng %U http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1115472109 %0 Book Section %B A Companion to the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East %D 2012 %T Southern Mesopotamia %A Ur, Jason A. %E Potts, Daniel T. %B A Companion to the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East %I Blackwell %C Malden and Oxford %P 533-555 %G eng %U https://www.academia.edu/2027157/Ur_Jason_A._2012._Southern_Mesopotamia_in_A_Companion_to_the_Archaeology_of_the_Ancient_Near_East._Edited_by_Daniel_T._Potts_pp._533-555._Malden_and_Oxford_Blackwell %0 Book Section %B Looking North: The Socio-Economic Dynamics of the Northern Mesopotamian and Anatolian Regions during the Late Third and Early Second Millennium BC %D 2012 %T Spatial Scale and Urban Evolution at Tell Brak and Hamoukar at the End of the 3rd Millennium BC %A Ur, Jason A. %E Laneri, Nicola %E Pfälzner, Peter %E Valentini, Stefano %X n/a %B Looking North: The Socio-Economic Dynamics of the Northern Mesopotamian and Anatolian Regions during the Late Third and Early Second Millennium BC %S Studien zur Urbanisierung Nordmesopotamiens %I Tübingen University %P 25-35 %G eng %0 Book Section %B Oxford Handbook of Ancient Anatolian Studies %D 2011 %T Ancient Landscapes in Southeastern Anatolia %A Ur, Jason A. %E Steadman, Sharon R. %E McMahon, Gregory %X n/a %B Oxford Handbook of Ancient Anatolian Studies %I Oxford University Press %C Oxford %P 836-857 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Iraq %D 2011 %T The Architecture and Pottery of a Late 3rd Millennium BC Residential Quarter at Tell Hamoukar, Northeastern Syria %A Colantoni, Carlo %A Ur, Jason A. %B Iraq %V 73 %P 21-69 %G eng %U http://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/5342153 %0 Journal Article %J Current Anthropology %D 2011 %T The Myth of Isolated Civilizations (Review of What Makes Civilization? The Ancient Near East and the Future of the West by David Wengrow) %A Ur, Jason A. %X n/a %B Current Anthropology %V 52 %P 607-608 %G eng %0 Book Section %B Between the Cultures: The Central Tigris Region in Mesopotamia from the 3rd to the 1st Millennium BC %D 2011 %T

Detection of Early Settlements in the Central Tigris Region by Classifying Multi-Spectral Satellite Imagery: A Remote Sensing Approach to Map Early Settlements in the Near East

%A Menze, Bjoern H. %A Ur, Jason A. %E Miglus, Peter %E Mühl, Simone %B Between the Cultures: The Central Tigris Region in Mesopotamia from the 3rd to the 1st Millennium BC %S Heidelberger Studien zum Alten Orient 14 %I Heidelberger Orientverlag %C Heidelberg %P 361-367 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Paleorient %D 2011 %T Proto-Urbanism in the Late 5th Millennium BC: Survey and Excavations at Khirbat al-Fakhar (Hamoukar), Northeast Syria %A Al Quntar, Salam %A Khalidi, Lamya %A Ur, Jason %X Excavation and systematic surface collection since 1999 have revealed the outlines of a unique site in Northern Mesopotamia. Khirbat al-Fakhar is an extensive settlement of 300 ha, primarily occupied during the LC 1-2 periods (ca 4400-3800 cal . BC). Systematic surface collection , satellite imagery analysis , and targeted excavation allow a preliminary characterization of its settlement , in particular the abundance of evidence for intensive obsidian manufacture. This unexpectedly large and early settlement presents problems of demography , nature of sedentism, permanence of occupation, and obsidian manufacture and trade. In this article we discuss these issues in the light of current accounts of the development of societal complexity and urbanism in the region and argue that Khirbat al-Fakhar had characteristics of both villages and cities, qualifying it as proto-urban. %B Paleorient %V 37 %P 151-175 %G eng %U https://scholar.harvard.edu/sites/scholar.harvard.edu/files/jasonur/files/al_quntar_etal_2011_paleorient.pdf %N 2 %0 Journal Article %J Iraq %D 2011 %T The Spatial Dimensions of Early Mesopotamian Urbanism: The Tell Brak Suburban Survey, 2003-2006 %A Ur, Jason A. %A Karsgaard, Philip %A Oates, Joan %X The 2003–2006 Suburban Survey at Tell Brak investigated the spatial dimensions of the city’s urban origins and evolution via intensive systematic surface survey. This report places this research in the broader context of research on Near Eastern urban origins and development, describes the survey and remote sensing methods and summarises the results, which challenge several long-held models for the timing and geographical origins of urbanism in the Near East. Urbanism at Brak coalesced over the course of several centuries in the late fifth and early fourth millennia BC, when it evolved from a series of spatially discrete settlement zones into a 130-hectare city, without the benefit of irrigated agriculture. Other urban phases occurred in the late third millennium (70 hectare) and in the Late Bronze Age (45 hectare), all with different urban morphologies. Brak’s final settlement occurred in the Abbasid period, when a 14-hectare town grew around the Castellum. In addition to the timing, growth and variability of urban form at the site, the Suburban Survey also documented well preserved off-site ancient landscapes of tracks, field systems and irrigation canals. %B Iraq %V 73 %P 1-19 %G eng %U http://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/5366597 %0 Book Section %B Inside Ancient Kitchens: New Directions in the Study of Daily Meals and Feasts %D 2010 %T The Cycle of Production, Preparation, and Consumption in a Northern Mesopotamian City %A Ur, Jason A. %A Colantoni, Carlo %E Klarich, Elizabeth %X n/a %B Inside Ancient Kitchens: New Directions in the Study of Daily Meals and Feasts %I University Press of Colorado %C Boulder %P 55-82 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Journal of Archaeological Research %D 2010 %T Cycles of Civilization in Northern Mesopotamia, 4400-2000 BC %A Ur, Jason A. %X n/a %B Journal of Archaeological Research %V 18 %P 387-431 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Geoarchaeology %D 2010 %T The Geoarchaeology of Route Systems in Northern Syria %A Wilkinson, T.J. %A French, Charles %A Ur, Jason A. %A Semple, Miranda %X n/a %B Geoarchaeology %V 25 %P 745-771 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J 31. Kazı Sonuçları Toplantısı %D 2010 %T The Hirbemerdon Tepe Archaeological Project 2008: A Preliminary Report %A Laneri, Nicola %A Ur, Jason A. %X n/a %B 31. Kazı Sonuçları Toplantısı %P 213-229 %G eng %0 Online Database %D 2010 %T Landscapes of Settlement and Movement in Northeastern Syria %A Ur, Jason A. %X n/a %G eng %U http://hdl.handle.net/1902.1/14011 %0 Book %B Oriental Institute Publications 137 %D 2010 %T Urbanism and Cultural Landscapes in Northeastern Syria: The Tell Hamoukar Survey, 1999-2001 %A Ur, Jason A. %X

Tell Hamoukar is one of the largest Bronze Age sites in northern Mesopotamia. The present volume presents the results of three seasons of field survey and remote-sensing analysis at the site and its region. These studies were undertaken to address questions of urban origins, land use, and demographic trends through time. Site descriptions and settlement histories are presented for Hamoukar and fifty-nine other sites in its immediate hinterland over the last 8,000 years. The project paid close attention to the "off-site" landscape between sites and considered aspects of agricultural practices, land tenure, and patterns of movement. For each phase of occupation, the patterns of settlement and land use are contextualized within larger patterns of Mesopotamian history, with particular attention to the proto-urban fifth millennium B.C., the Uruk Expansion of the fourth millennium BC, the height of urbanism in the late third millennium, the impact of the Assyrian empire in the early first millennium BC, and the Abbasid landscape of the late first millennium AD.

The volume also includes a description of the unparalleled landscape of tracks in the Upper Khabur basin of Hassake province, northeastern Syria. Through analysis of CORONA satellite photographs, over 6,000 kilometers of premodern trackways were identified and mapped, mostly dating to the late third millennium and early Islamic periods. This area of northern Mesopotamia is thus one of the best-preserved ancient landscapes of movement in the world.

The volume's appendices describe the sixty sites, their surface assemblages, and the survey's ceramic typology.

%B Oriental Institute Publications 137 %I University of Chicago Oriental Institute %C Chicago %G eng %U https://oi.uchicago.edu/research/publications/oip/tell-hamoukar-volume-1-urbanism-and-cultural-landscapes-northeastern-syria %0 Book Section %B Landscapes of Movement: Paths, Trails, and Roads in Anthropological Perspective %D 2009 %T Emergent Landscapes of Movement in Early Bronze Age Northern Mesopotamia %A Ur, Jason A. %E Snead, James E. %E Erickson, Clark %E Darling, W. Andrew %X n/a %B Landscapes of Movement: Paths, Trails, and Roads in Anthropological Perspective %I University of Pennsylvania Museum Press %C Philadelphia %P 180-203 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Journal of Field Archaeology %D 2009 %T Pastoral Nomads of the Second and Third Millennia AD on the Upper Tigris River, Turkey: Archaeological Evidence from the Hirbemerdon Tepe Survey %A Ur, Jason A. %A Hammer, Emily L. %X n/a %B Journal of Field Archaeology %V 34 %P 37-56 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Antiquity %D 2008 %T The Hirbemerdon Tepe Archaeological Project %A Laneri, Nicola %A Schwartz, Mark %A Ur, Jason A. %X n/a %B Antiquity %V Project Gallery %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Anatolica %D 2008 %T The Hirbemerdon Tepe Archaeological Project 2006-2007: A Preliminary Report on the Middle Bronze Age ‘architectural complex’ and the Survey of the Site Catchment Area %A Laneri, Nicola %A Schwartz, Mark %A Ur, Jason A. %A Valentini, Stefano %A D'Agostino, Anacleto %A Berthon, Rémi %A Hald, Mette Marie %X n/a %B Anatolica %V 34 %P 177-240 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Symbols %D 2008 %T The Origins and Development of the First Cities in the Near East %A Ur, Jason A. %X n/a %B Symbols %V Spring 2008 %P 9-10, 21 %G eng %0 Book Section %B Beydar Studies I %D 2008 %T Settlement and Economic Landscapes of Tell Beydar and its Hinterland %A Ur, Jason A. %A Wilkinson, T.J. %E Lebeau, Marc %E Suleiman, Antoine %X n/a %B Beydar Studies I %I Brepols %C Turnhout %P 305-327 %G eng %0 Generic %D 2007 %T Agricultural and Pastoral Landscapes in the Near East: Case Studies using CORONA Satellite Photography %A Ur, Jason A. %X n/a %B ArchAtlas %V 2.1 %8 October 16, 2007 %G eng %U http://www.archatlas.org/workshop/Ur07.php %0 Conference Proceedings %B Proc 10th ISPMSRS (Intl. Symposium on Physical Measurements and Signatures in Remote Sensing) %D 2007 %T Classification of multispectral ASTER imagery in archaeological settlement survey in the Near East %A Menze, Bjoern H. %A Ur, Jason A. %E Schaepman, M. %X n/a %B Proc 10th ISPMSRS (Intl. Symposium on Physical Measurements and Signatures in Remote Sensing) %C Davos, Switzerland %8 March 12-14, 200 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Antiquity %D 2007 %T Early Mesopotamian Urbanism: A New View from the North %A Oates, Joan %A Augusta McMahon %A Karsgaard, Philip %A al-Quntar, Salam %A Ur, Jason A. %X n/a %B Antiquity %V 81 %P 585-600 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Antiquity %D 2007 %T Formation and Destruction of Pastoral and Irrigation Landscapes on the Mughan Steppe, North-Western Iran %A Alizadeh, Karim %A Ur, Jason A. %X

CORONA satellite photography taken in the 1960s continues to reveal buried ancient landscapes and sequences of landscapes – some of them no longer visible. In this new survey of the Mughan Steppe in north-western Iran, the authors map a ‘signature landscape’ belonging to Sasanian irrigators, and discover that the traces of the nomadic peoples that succeeded them also show up on CORONA – in the form of scoops for animal shelters. The remains of these highly significant pastoralists have been virtually obliterated since the CORONA surveys by a new wave of irrigation farming. Such archaeological evaluation of a landscape has grave implications for the heritage of grassland nomads and the appreciation of their impact on history.

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%B Antiquity %V 81 %P 148-160 %G eng %U https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/4269028 %0 Book Section %B The Model-Based Archaeology of Socionatural Systems %D 2007 %T Modeling Settlement Systems in a Dynamic Environment: Case Studies from Mesopotamia %A Wilkinson, T.J. %A Gibson, McGuire %A Christiansen, John %A Widell, Magnus %A Schloen, David %A Kouchoukos, Nicholas %A Woods, Christopher %A Sanders, John C. %A Simunich, Kathy-Lee %A Altaweel, Mark %A Ur, Jason A. %A Hritz, Carrie %A Lauinger, Jacob %A Paulette, Tate %A Tenney, Jonathan %E Kohler, Timothy A. %E van der Leeuw, Sander %X n/a %B The Model-Based Archaeology of Socionatural Systems %I School of American Research %C Santa Fe %P 175-208 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Science %D 2007 %T Urban Development in the Ancient Near East %A Ur, Jason A. %A Karsgaard, Philip %A Oates, Joan %X n/a %B Science %V 317 %P 1188 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J American Anthropologist %D 2007 %T Urbanization within a Dynamic Environment: Modelling Bronze Age Communities in Upper Mesopotamia %A Wilkinson, T.J. %A Christiansen, John %A Ur, Jason A. %A Widell, Magnus %A Altaweel, Mark %X n/a %B American Anthropologist %V 109 %P 52-68 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing %D 2006 %T Detection of Ancient Settlement Mounds: Archaeological Survey Based on the SRTM Terrain Model %A Menze, Bjoern H. %A Ur, Jason A. %A Sherratt, Andrew G. %X n/a %B Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing %V 72 %P 321-327 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J The SAA Archaeological Record %D 2006 %T Google Earth and Archaeology %A Ur, Jason A. %X Once upon a time, three-dimensional (3-D) visualization of landscapes was the exclusive realm of highly trained computer experts. The production of an oblique view of a landscape took several detailed stages, each involving obscure datasets, arcane knowledge, and expensive software (and occasionally large amounts of money). This situation changed in 2005 with the release of Google Earth, a new visualization and mapping program by the ever-expanding Google suite of applications. The Google Earth program (free download from http://earth.google.com) presents the user with an interactive globe... %B The SAA Archaeological Record %V 6 %P 35-38 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Iranian Center for Archaeological Research Archaeological Reports %D 2006 %T Mughan Steppe Archaeological Survey %A Alizadeh, Karim %A Ur, Jason %X n/a %B Iranian Center for Archaeological Research Archaeological Reports %V 4 %P 49-56 (In Farsi) %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Les Annales Archéologiques Arabes Syriennes %D 2006 %T Preliminary Report on the 2002 and 2003 Seasons of the Tell Brak Sustaining Area Survey %A Wright, Henry T. %A Rupley, Eric S.A. %A Ur, Jason A. %A Oates, Joan %A Ganem, Eyad %X The first and second seasons of the Tell Brak Sustaining Area Survey took place in the autumn of 2002 and 2003, over seven weeks from mid September through the beginning of November. %B Les Annales Archéologiques Arabes Syriennes %V 49-50 %P 7-21 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research %D 2005 %T Landscape and Settlement in the Neo-Assyrian Empire %A Wilkinson, T.J. %A Wilkinson, Eleanor %A Ur, Jason A. %A Altaweel, Mark %X n/a %B Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research %V 340 %P 23-56 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Cota Zero %D 2005 %T Les imatges per satèllit i l’estructura dels paisatges antics: exemples del Pròxim Orient %A Ur, Jason A. %X n/a %B Cota Zero %V 20 %P 129-138 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Iraq %D 2005 %T Sennacherib's Northern Assyrian Canals: New Insights from Satellite Imagery and Aerial Photography %A Ur, Jason A. %X n/a %B Iraq %V 67 %P 317-345 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Oriental Institute News & Notes %D 2004 %T CAMEL Laboratory Investigates the Landscape of Assyria from Space %A Ur, Jason A. %X n/a %B Oriental Institute News & Notes %V 2004 %P 6-7 %G eng %0 Book Section %B Side-by-Side Survey: Comparative Regional Studies in the Mediterranean World %D 2004 %T From Nucleation to Dispersal: Trends in Settlement Pattern in the Northern Fertile Crescent %A Wilkinson, T.J. %A Ur, Jason A. %A Casana, Jesse %E Cherry, John %E Susan Alcock %X n/a %B Side-by-Side Survey: Comparative Regional Studies in the Mediterranean World %I Oxbow Books %C Oxford %P 198-205 %G eng %0 Book Section %B Third Millennium Cuneiform Texts from Tell Beydar (Seasons 1996-2002) %D 2004 %T Tell Beydar/Nabada in its Regional Setting %A Sallaberger, Walther %A Ur, Jason A. %E Milano, Lucio %E Sallaberger, Walther %E Talon, Philippe %E Van Lerberghe, Karel %X n/a %B Third Millennium Cuneiform Texts from Tell Beydar (Seasons 1996-2002) %S Subartu 12 %I Brepols %C Turnhout %P 51-71 %G eng %0 Thesis %B Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations %D 2004 %T Urbanism and Society in the Third Millennium Upper Khabur Basin %A Ur, Jason A. %X n/a %B Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations %I University of Chicago %C Chicago %G eng %9 PhD dissertation %0 Journal Article %J Les Annales Archéologiques Arabes Syrienne %D 2004 %T المسح الاثري و دراسات المشهد الطبيعي في منطقة تل حموكار 1999- 2000 %A Ur, Jason A. %X n/a %B Les Annales Archéologiques Arabes Syrienne %V 47-48 %P 9-21 (Arabic section) %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Antiquity %D 2003 %T CORONA Satellite Photography and Ancient Road Networks: A Northern Mesopotamian Case Study %A Ur, Jason A. %X n/a %B Antiquity %V 77 %P 102-115 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J American Schools of Oriental Research Newsletter %D 2002 %T The Collapse of an Early Urban Center in Northern Mesopotamia: The Case of Tell Hamoukar %A Ur, Jason A. %X n/a %B American Schools of Oriental Research Newsletter %V 52 %P 8-9 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Akkadica %D 2002 %T Settlement and Landscape in Northern Mesopotamia: The Tell Hamoukar Survey 2000-2001 %A Ur, Jason A. %X n/a %B Akkadica %V 123 %P 57-88 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Iraq %D 2002 %T Surface Collection and Offsite Studies at Tell Hamoukar, 1999 %A Ur, Jason A. %X n/a %B Iraq %V 64 %P 15-44 %G eng