This volume presents the final report of the excavations at the Bani Surmah graveyard in Pusht-i Kuh Luristan, Iran, by Ghent University and the Royal Museums of Art and History, Brussels. The Excavations, directed by Louis Vanden Berghe, were conducted in 1966 and 1967. Thirty-seven tombs made of stone boulders were excavated. Some were small and measured between two and four meters in length. Most, however, were much larger and measured ten meters or more in length. Most tombs were collective and were used by several generations. The burial goods cover almost the whole third millennium. Bani Surmah is located in the sub-region I of the Pusht-i Kuh, which is the closest to Mesopotamia. Many of the objects found in the tombs, such as common and painted pottery, seals and metalwork are of Mesopotamian origin. The close ties of this region with Mesopotamia raise some questions about the historical geography. Also the way of life and subsistence of past population groups in Pusht-i Kuh are considered. All the finds are illustrated in line drawings, the tombs and most objects also in photo.

Conference proceedings presenting the first opportunity for leading figures in the burgeoning area of archaeological research in the Kurdish Autonomous Region of Iraq to gather and present all the key new projects which are revolutionising our understanding of the region.

This book sets out the primary issues and current debates in the use of ceramics to reconstruct and explain cultural economic and social processes in the Early Bronze age. By bringing together research on pottery from various parts of the southern Levant, it allows direct comparison of contemporary material from different regions. Alongside these empirical studies are discussions of general ceramic issues, so that the book highlights the potential of pottery as an investigative tool, and indicates fruitful directions for future research within the traditionally conservative field of Levantine archaeology.

This is the first systematic attempt to survey in detail the archaeological evidence for the crafts and craftsmanship of the Sumerians, Babylonians, and Assyrians in ancient Mesopotamia, covering the period ca. 8000-300 B.C.E. As creators of some of the earliest farming and urban communities known to us, these people were among the first pioneers of many crafts and skills that remain fundamental to modern ways of life. Many of the raw materials for crafts had to be imported from outside the river valley of the Tigris and Euphrates, providing an unusually sensitive indicator of the commercial and cultural contacts of Mesopotamia. In this book, Dr. Moorey reviews briefly the textual evidence, and then goes on to examine in detail the material evidence for a wide range of crafts using stones, both common and ornamental, animal products--from hippopotamus ivory to ostrich egg-shells--ceramics, glazed materials and glass, metals, and building materials. With a comprehensive bibliography, this will be a key work of reference for archaeologists and those interested in the early history of crafts and technology, as well as for specialist historians of the ancient Near East.

In Palace Ware Across the Neo-Assyrian Imperial Landscape, Alice Hunt investigates the social and symbolic meaning of Palace Ware by its cultural audience in the Neo-Assyrian central and annexed provinces, and the unincorporated territories, including buffer zones and vassal states. Traditionally, Palace Ware has been equated with imperial identity. By understanding these vessels as a vehicle through which interregional and intercultural relationships were negotiated and maintained she reveals their complexity gaining a more nuanced view of imperial dynamics. Palace Ware Across the Neo-Assyrian Imperial Landscape is the first work of its kind; providing in-depth analysis of the formal and fabric characteristic, production technology, and raw material provenance of Palace Ware, and locating these data within the larger narratives of power, presentation, symbol and meaning that shaped the Neo-Assyrian imperial landscape.

Three volumes present the proceedings of the 6th Broadening Horizons Conference, which took place at the Freie Universität Berlin from 24–28 June, 2019. This volume - Volume 3 - contains 14 papers from Session 4 — Crossing Boundaries: Connectivity and Interaction; and Session 6 — Landscape and Geography: Human Dynamics and Perceptions.