Andrea Squitieri

Revolutionizing a World

This book investigates the long-term continuity of large-scale states and empires, and its effect on the Near East’s social fabric, including the fundamental changes that occurred to major social institutions. Its geographical coverage spans, from east to west, modern-day Libya and Egypt to Central Asia, and from north to south, Anatolia to southern Arabia, incorporating modern-day Oman and Yemen. Its temporal coverage spans from the late eighth century BCE to the seventh century CE during the rise of Islam and collapse of the Sasanian Empire. The authors argue that the persistence of large states and empires starting in the eighth/seventh centuries BCE, which continued for many centuries, led to new socio-political structures and institutions emerging in the Near East. The primary processes that enabled this emergence were large-scale and long-distance movements, or population migrations. These patterns of social developments are analysed under different aspects: settlement patterns, urban structure, material culture, trade, governance, language spread and religion, all pointing at movement as the main catalyst for social change. This book’s argument is framed within a larger theoretical framework termed as ‘universalism’, a theory that explains many of the social transformations that happened to societies in the Near East, starting from the Neo-Assyrian period and continuing for centuries. Among other influences, the effects of these transformations are today manifested in modern languages, concepts of government, universal religions and monetized and globalized economies.

Unearthing the Dinka Settlement Complex: The 2016 Season at Gird-i Bazar and Qalat-i Dinka

This second volume of the series Peshdar Plain Project Publications presents the 2016 activities of the Peshdar Plain Project, with new data for the occupation of the Bora Plain on the upper reaches of the Lesser Zab near the modern district centre of Qaladze in the Neo-Assyrian and Sassanian periods. The book details the results of the first test excavations at the citadel of Qalat-i Dinka and of the on-going excavations at the settlement quarter of Gird-i Bazar. Here, a continuous excavated area of 625 m2 has been uncovered, occupied by several well-appointed multi-room houses with courtyards, wells and drainage systems and an open area around a pottery kiln, which was found complete with its last load. The book also presents the results of the geophysical exploration of the Bora Plain: on the one hand, the continuation of the magnetometer survey of the entire Neo-Assyrian settlement, now recognised to be a complex of at least 60 hectares, and on the other hand, the new electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) investigations of the ancient qanat irrigation system that seems to be connected to the Neo-Assyrian settlement. Three chapters on the pottery of Gird-i Bazar present a first overview of the attested chaines operatoires, the updated fabric classification on the basis of thin section petrography analysis and the first results of the residue analysis performed on a selection of vessels. Another chapter is devoted to the small finds of the Neo-Assyrian occupation. A chapter on the bioarchaeology of Gird-i Bazar presents preliminary results of the analysis of the animal bones and of the palaeobotanical remains from the Neo-Assyrian settlement and discusses the Sassanian-period graveyard, now dated by 14C analysis, on top of the ruins of the Neo-Assyrian occupation. The print edition of the book is available from PeWe-Verlag: www.pewe-verlag.de

Egyptian Stone Vessels in Canaan during the Late Bronze Age

their Nile Valley counterparts not only in shape, but also in all technological aspects – fabric properties (e.g., the admixture of large amounts of chopped straw as temper), manufacturing techniques, and decorative styles. For the reconstruction of a cultural scenario at the various Egyptian garrisons and bases, it is significant that local, southLevantine and Egyptian-style pottery was always found together in the same contexts. Therefore, it seems evident that such sites were inhabited both by Egyptian and Canaanite population components. That both Canaanite and Egyptian-style pottery was found in the same houses may underline the daily interaction of the two cultures at these sites. The virtual absence of Egyptiantype cooking vessels vis-à-vis an ubiquity of the generic Canaanite cooking pots might then suggest that the cooking was done by Canaanite women; food preparation was primarily the domain of women in the ancient world, while the Egyptians stationed at the Egyptian strongholds must have been mainly male administrators and soldiers. Could the contextual association of Canaanite and Egyptian pottery forms in the same house in general and the evidence related to cooking in particular point to a scenario according to which Egyptian personnel lived under the same roof in marriage with Canaanite women? It has been suggested by several scholars that the unprecedented quantities of Egyptian and Egyptian-style artifacts appearing in Canaan during the Ramesside Period does not necessarily attest to a sizable physical Egyptian presence (“direct rule”), but may partly also be the result of a desire of the Canaanite elites for things Egyptian (“elite emulation”). This may account for the appearance of certain prestige goods, such as scarabs, amulets, jewelry, and stone vessels, or provide an explanation for sites at which the signs of Egyptian involvement are less pronounced. However, it simply beggars the imagination that mass-produced Egyptian-style household pottery was manufactured in a purely Canaanite ambience. Associated with a low social prestige, such wares were simply not likely to be desirable items for local Canaanite elites. Moreover, as mentioned above, the production of locally made Egyptian forms ended abruptly with the end of the Egyptian hegemony over Canaan. If Canaanite potters had indeed been emulating Egyptian pottery for their elites, they would not have stopped doing so suddenly after the Egyptians retreated.