White-Levy Program for Archaeological Publications

The very sparse archaeological evidence and the limited amount of textual data concerning the final phase of the MBA and the beginning of the LBA constitutes a serious obstacle in reconstructing the development of settlement patterns and cultural traditions in the Upper Khabur Valley, the centre of the Mittani state.
In this respect, the stratified layers exposed in Tell Barri provide an opportunity to examine evidence from a continuously inhabited settlement, where changes can be evaluated based on modifications in the material assemblages of the site and in its architecture.
Examining the development of spatial organization and changes in the pottery assemblage, issues of cultural traditions, regional links and chronology will be discussed in an attempt to better understand the nature and meaning of the MBA-LBA transition as well as the changing status of the site during this obscure phase of its history.

Broadening Horizons 5





The organizers are pleased to invite papers for the upcoming international conference “Broadening Horizon 5: Civilizations in Contact”, which will be held in Udine (Italy) from June 5 to 8, 2017 at the Università Degli Studi di Udine.



Broadening Horizons 5 is an international congress dedicated to early-stage researchers and postgraduate students who work in a number of disciplines concerning the Ancient Near East and the Eastern Mediterranean, organized for the purpose of stimulating the presentation and discussion of new research and debate of common problems in the field, within a multidisciplinary and international framework.



The 5th edition will have as main general theme “Civilizations in Contact”.  Five sessions have been selected to address papers to the investigation of this topic; for each session a keynote speaker will give an introductory paper on the subject.



1.The Neolithic – Chalcolithic transition in Upper Mesopotamia. Subsistence strategies, economy, society and identity



2.The Levant in the Bronze Age: crossroad or frontier between different cultures? 

3.Imperial frontiers: the Assyrian periphery and interactions between Assyria and neighbouring kingdoms during the 1st millennium BC. .



4.The East Mediterranean during the Iron Age: the formation of the western artistic tradition as a result of contacts with the Near East



5.West vs East: from Hellenism to the Roman expansion in the Near East .



6.Marine connections: the Gulf and interactions between the Arabian peninsula, Mesopotamia, the Iranian world and beyond





Presentations offering wide-ranging and diverse perspectives on the proposed topics are particularly encouraged (i.e. landscape archaeology, material culture studies, theoretical frameworks, interdisciplinary research etc.).



Proposals for both papers and posters should be submitted via the website of the congress.

The call for papers opens on October 31 and closes on December 31, 2016. The Organizing Committee will assess the texts received with regard to their quality and pertinence to the conference themes. Accepted speakers will be notified shortly afterwards (usually within two weeks after the submission deadline)

Participation in the conference costs €50; subscriptions may be made from February 1 until April 15, 2017. After this date the conference fee increases to €80. No payment will be accepted after May 15, 2017.



Following the conference, presenters will be invited to submit their papers for review and publication in the Conference Proceedings.





More information is available on the conference website: bh5.uniud.it



We look forward to seeing you in Udine!



The Organizing Committee



Marco Iamoni (University of Udine)

Costanza Coppini (Freie Universität Berlin)

Katia Gavagnin (University of Udine)

Rocco Palermo (University of Groningen)

Francesca Simi (University of Venice / University of Tübingen)

Broadening Horizons is a series of international conferences on the archaeology and history of the Ancient Near East, dedicated to students and early-stage researchers in these fields. The fifth edition was held in Udine from 5th to 8th June 2017, hosted by the University of Udine, and organized by Marco Iamoni, Costanza Coppini, Katia Gavagnin, Rocco Palermo and Francesca Simi. Available online https://www.openstarts.units.it/handle/10077/30198

This book is the result of a workshop organized by the editors on April 5, 2018, during the 11th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East (ICAANE) in Munich, Germany.
The workshop’s goal was to discuss the archaeological traces, or lack thereof, of the so-called transitional periods in the long history of Northern Mesopotamia, from the Bronze Age to the Islamic period. What emerges from the contributions, which differ in terms of chronology, spatial extent, and research subject – from single sites to long term investigation, from material culture to historical approaches –, goes beyond the traditional approach to the Dark Ages, emphasizing phenomena of resilience and evolution, rather than drastic and abrupt changes. From the expansion and contraction of settlement patterns to the spatial redefinition of urban spaces and the persistence of certain ceramic horizons through time, the authors put back the material evidence on the agenda of the archaeological research on the Dark Ages.
The book offers a unique view, although from different angles, of some of the in-between periods of Mesopotamian history: The Middle-Late Bronze transition, the so-called post-Assyrian period, the evolution of late antiquity material culture into the Islamic period. Thus, the authors aim at redefining the concept of transition in the light of new or revised data from fundamental projects in Syria, Iraq, and Iraqi Kurdistan.