For these proposals, I am expecting only a paragraph (3-4 sentences) which describe the main research problem you will address and how you are planning to address it --in terms of:
a) the theoretical paradigm(s) you would want to explore (memory, imagination, ideology, spectacle, economy, architectural technology etc)
b) which case study/studies you will use in building your argument. I do recommend focusing on one or two so that it is managable.
Then I expect a preliminary bibliography that samples both of the above.
Daniela Alvarado
Something I have noticed that a lot of the cities we have studied have in common is not only a fortified wall to protect the city; but the images of city guardians located at important gates in many of these cities. I am curious to find out more about these guardians, whether they be the sphinxes at Hattusha, Assyrian lamassu, Syro-Hittite lions or the creatures on the Ishtar gate. I would like to investigate their meaning, their cultic uses if any, and if there are any connections to one another.
Sources:
Harrak, Amir; 1999. “Guardians of the gate: the Assyrian winged colossi,” Bulletin of the Canadian Society of Mesopotamian Studies 34: 23-37.
Mazzoni, Stefania; 1997. “The gate and the city: change and continuity in Syro-Hittite urban ideology,” in Die orientalische Stadt: Kontinuität, Wandel, Bruch. G. Wilhelm (ed.), SDV Saarbrücker Druckerei und Verlag: Saarbrücken: 307-338. (this is on the wiki)
Mellink, Machteld J.; 1974. “Hittite friezes and gate sculptures” in Anatolian Studies presented to Hans Gustav Güterbock on the occasion of his 65th birthday. Kurt Bittel, Ph.H.J. Houwink ten Cate, Erica Reiner (eds); Istanbul: Nederlands Historisch-Archaeologisch Instituut in het Nabije Oosten, 201-214.
Roobaert, Arlette; 1990. “The City Gate lions,” in Tell Ahmar 1988 Season. Guy Bunnens (ed.);Abr Nahrain Supplement 2. Leuven, 126-133.
Ussishkin, David; 1989. “The Erection of Royal Monuments in City-Gates,” in Anatolia and the Ancient Near East: studies in honor of Tahsin Özgüç. Kutlu Emre, Barthel Hrouda, Machteld Mellink, Nimet Özgüç (eds.); Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu, 485-496.
Chadwick, R.; 2001. “Iron age gate architecture in Jordan and Syria,” Bulletin of the Canadian Society of Mesopotamian Studies 36: 125-134.
De Camp, L. Sprague; 1968. The Dragon of the Ishtar Gate, New York, Lancer--> this book is historical fiction, so I will be using it more as a creative reference.
Stronach David and Stephen Lumsden; 1992. "UC Berkeley's Excavations at Nineveh" in Biblical Archaeologist: Vol. 55 No. 4, p. 227.
Kapelrud, Arvid S.; 1950. "The Gates of Hell and the Guardian Angels of Paradise" in Journal of the American Oriental Society: Vol. 70, No. 3, p. 155
Linder, Elisha; 1986. "The Khorsabad Wall Relief: A Mediterranean Seascape or River Transport of Timbers?" in Journal of the American Oriental Society Vol. 106, No. 2, p. 273.
John Anderson-Lynch
Michelle Beaulieu
Having worked on the Hittite city of Hattusha for my presentation earlier this semester, I would like to continue studying Hittite cities. I plan on specifically examining the Assyrian trading colonies, and the impact of this trade, the Assyrian residents, and the economy on the urban forms of the karum trading posts and Assyrian colonies in the Hittite empire, focusing on the karum of Kanesh. I also plan on using the materials from class on the Hittite empire, and possibly to create a comparison between Hattusha and the karum of Kanesh.
Bibliography
Archi, Alfonso, ed. Circulation of Goods in Non-Palatial Context in the Ancient Near East
Bryce, Trevor. Kingdom of the Hittites
Dercksen, J. G. Old Assyrian Copper Trade in Anatolia and Old Assyrian Institutions
Macqueen, J. G. The Hittites and their Contemporaries in Asia Minor
Whitehouse, Ruth. The First Cities
Yoffee, Norman. Explaining Trade in Ancient West Asia
Sarah Dawson
I will be investigating the ritual practices and funerary material culture of Ugarit in the Late Bronze Age. After examining Ugarit's ancestor cult and its materiality, I will compare it with cult practices in the Aegean. It is my expectation based on other types of material similarity that the funerary motifs and materials will be similar, though differences would be equally exciting.
Preliminary Bibliography
Ugarit
Buchholz, H. G. 1999. Ugarit, Zypern und Ägäis : Kulturbeziehungen im zweiten Jahrtausend v.Chr. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag.
Caquot, A. 1980. Ugaritic religion. Leiden: Brill.
Lewis, T. J. 1989. Cults of the dead in ancient Israel and Ugarit. Atlanta: Scholars Press.
Pardee, D. 2002. Ritual and cult at Ugarit. Leiden: Brill.
Pitard, W. T. 1994. The "Libation Installations" of the Tombs at Ugarit. Biblical Archaeologist 57.1: 20-37.
Schloen, J. D. 2001. The house of the father as fact and symbol : patrimonialism in Ugarit and the ancient Near East. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns.
van der Toorn, K. 1996. Family religion in Babylonia, Syria, and Israel : continuity and changes in the forms of religious life. Leiden: E.J. Brill.
Yon, M. 1997. La cité d'Ougarit sur le tell de Ras Shamra. Paris: Ed. Recherche sur les civilisations.
Aegean (Crete)
Marinatos, N. 1993. Minoan religion : ritual, image, and symbol. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.
Pötscher, W. 1990. Aspekte und Probleme der minoischen Religion : ein Versuch. Hildesheim: G. Olms.
Prent, M. 2005. Cretan sanctuaries and cults : continuity and change from Late Minoan IIIC to the Archaic period. Leiden: Brill.
Warren, P. 1988. Minoan religion as ritual action. Gothenburg: P. Astroms.
Willetts, R. F. 1962. Cretan cults and festivals. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Bochay Drum
inananana.docI will be researching and writing about the role of the city god in the development of the early city. I would like to discover what the significance of the city god is in the coming together of people to form a city and the urban space that they produce. I will be focusing on Inanna and Uruk as they are the first historical example we have of this phenomena in Mesopotamia.
Bibliography:
Van de Mieroop 2004: “Origins: The Uruk phenomenon,” in A history of the ancient Near East : ca. 3000-323 BC: 17-38.
Wheatley, Paul; 1971. “The nature of the ceremonial center” in The pivot of the four quarters: a preliminary inquiry into the origins and character of the ancient Chinese city. University Press Edinburgh: 225-243.
Liverani, Mario. Uruk the first city. Edited and Translated by Zainab Bahrani and Marc van de Mieroop. Equinox: London.
Moortgat, Anton; 1969. The art of ancient Mesopotamia. Phaidon: London, 1-18.
Bahrani, Z.; 2002. “Performativity and the image: narrative, representation and the Uruk vase,” in Leaving no stones unturned: essays on the Ancient Near East and Egypt in honor of Donald P. Hansen. E. Ehrenberg (ed.). Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns, 15-22.
Kate Janke
My final paper will focus on the dramatic fall of the city of Nineveh--much controversy and questions remain surrounding the exact circumstances; however, the Halzi Gate site at Nineveh undoubtedly provides the best look into how events unfolded in the city's final days. I will be focusing on the primary archaeological aspects and their interpretations and compare this with contemporary and narrative accounts which chronicle the city's fall. Below are articles and books I will use:
- Lumsden, Stephen; 2005. "The production of space at Nineveh," in Nineveh: Papers of the XLIXe Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, London 7-11 July 2003.
- Novak, Mirko; 2005. "From Ashur to Nineveh: the Assyrian town-planning programme," in Nineveh: Papers of the XLIXe Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, London 7-11 July 2003.
- Stronach, David; 1994. "Village to Metropolis: Nineveh and the beginnings of urbanism in Northern Mesopotamia," in Nuove fondazioni nel Vicino Oriente antico: realta e ideologia. Atti del colloquio 4-6 dicembre 1991.
- Stronach, David; 1995a. "Notes on the topography of Nineveh," in Neo-Assyrian geography. Mario Liverani (ed.); Università di Roma "La Sapienza," Dipartimento di Scienze storiche, archeologiche e anthropologiche dell'Antichità, Quaderni di Geografia Storica 5: Roma: Sargon srl, 161-170.
- Stronach, David; 1997b. "Notes on the fall of Nineveh," in Assyria 1995. Proceedings of the 10th Anniversary Symposium of the Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project. Simo Parpola & R.M. Whiting (eds.). Helsinki: The Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project, 307-324.
- Russell, John Malcolm; 1991. Sennacherib's palace without rival at Nineveh, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
- "UC Berkeley's Excavations at Nineveh" David Stronach, Stephen Lumsden
The Biblical Archaeologist, Vol. 55, No. 4 (Dec., 1992), pp. 227-233.
Luis Lanz-Tienda
While living in Tel Aviv my mother and I were fortunate enough to make arrangements almost every weekend to travel the historic countryside. It was during one of these weekend trips that I first learned of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. We were touring the city of Haifa when the bus driver started talking about a major city building project to be called the Hanging Gardens of Haifa, in honor of those which had existed in Babylon. Although I never learned much about the gardens on that trip, I did spawn an ever lasting curiosity about the ancient wonder and feel this research assignment is a perfect opportunity to further investigate the matter. Although I have not settled on a question to focus my paper on, I have narrowed down a topic. Below is a list of articles I have found on the subject matter that should help get me started and assist me in picking a more concrete direction to run with this still general topic.
Bequette, France. “Places of Power and Holiness,” Unesco Courier, Apr 1997, Vol. 50 Issue 4, p44
Dalley, Stephanie. “Ancient Mesopotamian Gardens and the identification of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon Resolved,” Garden History, Summer 1993, Vol. 21 Number 1, p1-13.
Dalley, Stephanie. “Hanging Gardens were a living carpet,” New Scientist, 1/22/2005, Vol. 185 Issue 2483, p15.
King, L. W. “Excavations at Babylon” The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Mar 1915, Vol. 26, Number 144, 244-250
Lyon, David G. “Recent Excavations at Babylon,” The Harvard Theological Review, Jul 1918, Vol. 11, Number 3. p307-321.
Meyer, Scott. “A brief history of Gardening,” Organic Gardening, Nov/Dec99, Vol. 46 issue 6, p40.
Wiseman, D. J. “Mesopotamian Gardens,” Anatolian Studies, 1983 Vol. 33, Special Number in Honour of the Seventy-Fifth Birthday of Dr. Richard Barnett. p137-144
Rachel Moranis
My final paper will analyze the theoretical paradigm of cities and memory. More specifically, I will attempt to investigate the Neo-Babylonian conceptualization of the past and how it relates to the making of urban space. For my case study, I will examine Nebuchadnezzar II and his efforts to preserve objects of antiquity.
Bibliography
Kuhrt, Amélie; 2001. “The palace(s) of Babylon,” in The royal palace institution in the First Millennium b.c.: regional development and cultural interchange between East and West.
Inge, Nielsen (ed.); Monographs of the Danish Institute at Athens: Athens, 77-94.
Van de Mieroop, Marc; 2003. "Reading Babylon" AJA 107.2: 257-275.
Winter, Irene J “Babylonian Archaeologists of the(ir) Mesopotamian Past”, Harvard
Wiseman, D.J. Nebuchadrezzar and Babylon, The Schweich Lectures of The British Academy, 1983
Chris Oates
Festivals transform urban space from streets and squares to processional routes and performance venues. I will compare these aspects of the Babylonia akitu festival with the Panathenaic Festival in Classical Athens. Specifically, I will look at the use of urban space and the construction of social identity in the festivals, especially the integration of political power, historical events, and religious rituals.
Bibliography:
Debord, Guy; 1995 (1967). The society of the spectacle. D. Nicholson-Smith (trans). New York: Zone Books, 11-24.
Bell, Catherine; 1997. Ritual: perspectives and dimensions. Oxford University Press, 1-22.
Bidmead, Julye; 2002. The akitu festival: religious continuity and royal legitimation in Mesopotamia. New Jersey: Gorgias Press: 1-15, 111-119, 169-174.
Pongratz-Leisten, Beate; 1997. “The interplay of military strategy and cultic practice in Assyrian politics,” in Assyria 1995. Proceedings of the 10th Anniversary Symposium of the Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project. Simo Parpola & R.M. Whiting (eds.). Helsinki: The Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project, 245-252.
Black, Jeremy A.; 1981. “The new year ceremonies in ancient Babylon: ‘taking Bel by the hand’ and a cultic picnic,” Religion 11: 39-59.
Sommer, Benjamin D.; 2000. “The Babylonian akitu festival: Rectifying the king or renewing the cosmos?” The Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern Society 27: 81-95.
Gerding, Henrik; "The Erectheion and the Panathenaic Procession," in the American Journal of Archaeology (110)3.
Maurizio, L. "The Panathenaic Procession" in Democracy, Empire and the Arts in Fifth Century Athens.
Shear, J.L, "Polis and Panathenaia" UPenn Ph.D. dissertation.
Parke, H.W; "1977. "Festivals of the Athenians" London, Thames and Hudson.
Kelsey Peterson
In my final paper, I will examine the relationship between the Assyrian examples of royal architectural inscriptions and the modern examples of architectural inscriptions as seen in modern American graffiti. Both mark the presence and influence of an individual, and records, for the life of the markings, what has occurred in the past at a particular site. On the other hand, they are very different in their source and the reasons behind their creation.
sidenote: I am having problems with finding sources about modern graffiti. I know that they must exist, I just don't know where to look.
Schnapp, Alain. "The Discovery of the Past". New York, Harry N. Abrams.
Van Dyke, Ruth. "Archaeologies of Memory". Oxford, Blackwell Publishing, Ltd.
Beaulieu, Paul-Alain; 1994. “Antiquarianism and the concern for the past in the Neo-Babylonian period,” Bulletin of the Canadian Society for Mesopotamian Society 28: 37-42.
Winter, Irene J.; 2000. “Babylonian archaeologists of the(ir) Mesopotamian past,” in Proceedings of the First International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East. P. Matthiae et. al. (eds.); Università degli studi di Roma “La Sapienza,”: Roma, 1785-1789.
Nelson, Robert. "Monuments and Memory"
Noah Wiener
I plan to explore the shifts in centers of ideology, both in terms of shifting religious centers (Assur, Babylon, etc.), and changing of predominant deities, (such as the shifts between Istar, Enlil, and Marduk, etc. as primary god). Within this study, I plan to examine which aspects of these cities made them ideal as religious centers, focusing especially on centers that were not the political center of the empire, such as Assur during the times when Assyria’s capital was Kalhu, Khorsabad, or Nineveh. Finally, I will study festivals that focused on worship of multiple deities, such as the Akitu festival, and consider how these festivals shaped the Ancient Near Eastern pantheon. (I may revise this topic slightly if tomorrow’s class on the Akitu festival changes my vision for the paper).
Brief Bibliography (tentative)
Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia by Jean Bottero Mesopotamia: La escritura, la razon y los dioses / The Scripture, the Reason and The Gods by Jean Bottero
Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilization by Leo Oppenheim
The Treasures of Darkness: A History of Mesopotamian Religion by Thorkild Jacobsen
Marlisa Wise
Contemporary urban planners don't often acknowledge the profound history of public space as architects commonly acknowledge their debt to great historical monuments. Yet the lineage of urban public space stretches back to the earliest cities, a heritage that deserves our further attention. I believe that a study of ancient Mesopotamian public spaces will demonstrate the use of architectural forms to communicate ideology (of state or religion) through processes still practiced today. I propose to examine how the nature of public space was determined in the cities of Karkamish and Nineveh, from the perspectives of urban theory and archeology. The remains of open space are simply dirt and air - to understand their nature a synthesis of surrounding buildings, functions and social structures is necessary – thus the nature of my research will necessarily be interdisciplinary. I will examine the design and function of public spaces within Nineveh and Karkamish through their architectural elements and ideologies drawing from various disciplines as they are relevant for an informed study.
Tentative Bibliography includes:
Pollock, Susan. Ancient Mesopotamia: the Eden that never was, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1997.
Frankfort, Henri. "Town Planning in Ancient Mesopotamia" Town Planning Review, (July 1950) 98-115
Lampl, Paul. Cities and Planning in the Ancient Near East, New York: George Braziller, 1968.
Wilkinson, Paul. "The Historical Roots of Urban Open Space Planning" Leisure Studies, 125-143.
Golany, Gideon. Ethics and Urban Design, New York, John Wiley & Sons, 1995.
Trancik, Roger. Finding Lost Space: Theories of Urban Design, John Wiley & Sons, 1986.
Van de Mieroop, Marc. The Ancient Mesopotamian City, Oxford, Oxford University Press. 1997.
