Paul Zimansky

Urartian Material Culture as State Assemblage: An Anomaly in the Archaeology of Empire

The distinctive artifacts associated with the kingdom of Urartu are normally assumed to constitute the material assemblage of a homogeneous culture. This article reviews the characteristics of these artifacts class by class, and argues that for the most part they are deliberate creations of an imperial government, not a broad spectrum of the east Anatolian population. Archaeological research on Urartu has focused on excavating fortresses, which are essentially state enclaves, rather than settlement sites. The model of Inca imperialism is invoked as an alternative to the presumption of cultural uniformity. The extent to which it applies and the issue of provincialism within the Urartian state can only be addressed by shifting the emphasis of Urartian archaeological studies toward the governed.

The Tell Abu Duwari project, 1988-1990

AbstractThe second (1988–1989) and third (1990) seasons of excavation and survey at the 2nd-millennium B.C. urban site of Tell Abu Duwari (ancient Mashkan-shapir), Iraq, have yielded important new evidence on the organization of ancient Mesopotamian cities. A combination of aerial and surface survey has provided a broad overview of the differing functional areas, and of the role played by canals, streets, and walls to divide the city. Excavations consisted of both small soundings and one broad horizontal exposure. The soundings were designed to test the relationship between surface traces and the remains beneath the ground, and the larger excavation generated an artifactual, faunal, and floral inventory from an administrative district which will be compared with similar collections excavated in other parts of the city in future seasons.

Mashkan-shapir and the Anatomy of an Old Babylonian City

The earliest textual references to Mashkan-shapir depict a town with humble origins. During the first quarter of the second millennium B.C.E., however, Mashkan-shapir became one of the most prominent cities in Mesopotamia because of its location at the northernmost point where the systems of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers converged sufficiently to permit navigation between them.

An Urartian Ozymandias

Make room on the roster of great builders of the Iron Age Near East-from Solomon to Sargon-for a forgotten potentate who ruled a Urartian kingdom in the highland region around Lakes Van and Urmia. Though he inspired no legends and left a meager impression on the written record, Rusa II, the last great king of Urartu, may have been the Iron Ages most energetic instigator of building projects.

Archaeology Returns to Ur: A New Dialog with Old Houses

More than eighty years after Woolleys departure, the authors have initiated excavations in Mesopotamias most celebrated residential district, Urs Area AH. Did private housing change significantly as Ur went from the capital of a bureaucratic empire under its Third Dynasty to a city state in the Isin-Larsa period? The authors opened four areas, two within Woolleys excavations and two just outside of them. In the former, there was a great deal more Isin-Larsa material to be excavated than Woolleys reports suggested. Architecture north of AH was very well-preserved and offered spaces in which Ur III materials can be accessed easily in coming seasons. The fourth excavation area, to the southwest of Area AH, revealed architecture of a different character, perhaps of the Old Babylonian period, lying at a lower elevation than the nearby “House of Abraham,” suggesting that the Isin-Larsa architecture of AH was built on a hill.