TAARII Newsletter the American Academic Research Institute in Iraq
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FALL 2012 PAGE 1 TAARII Newsletter The American Academic Research Institute in Iraq ISSUE NO. 7-2 FALL 2012 © TAARII TAARII AND THE IRAQI CULTURAL CENTER CO-HOST EVENTS On December 8 and 9, 2012, TAARII the ground — and they can be put understanding the archaeological record and the Iraqi Cultural Center (ICC) co- into their regional context (figs. 1.1– in regions of significant sedimentation. hosted a conference and an event on the 3). While satellite data have illuminated Epic of Gilgamesh in Washington, D.C. Mark Altaweel (University settlement and other archaeological On Saturday, December 8, a conference College London) summarized initial data within the study region, much entitled “Modern Techniques and archaeological and geo-archaeological of the archaeological record is Archaeological Sites in Iraq” was held results achieved in the Shahrizor region also obscured due to alleviation, at the Iraqi Cultural Center in Dupont within the province of Sulaymaniyah limiting our overall understanding Circle. The program was devoted to in Iraqi Kurdistan to better illuminate of the archaeological record. Paleo- eight reports on modern methods of the archaeological landscape. He environmental data have determined finding and recording archaeological also highlighted problems faced in that during the Pleistocene era (before sites in Iraq and the potential ca. 10,000 b.c.), many terraces use of these tools to monitor and were prominent in the landscape, protect those sites. which the later tell sites came to TAARII President McGuire occupy. In the Holocene (10,000 Gibson (University of b.c. and later), climate and Chicago) presented historical anthropogenic patterns became background that highlighted noticeable in the sedimentary the dramatic potential of the record. technologies available today. Jason Ur (Harvard University) When surface survey began in reviewed two remote sensing Iraq in the 1930s, Gibson said, datasets for archaeology in the the archaeologists involved semi-arid north of Iraq. The had maps and a few aerial first set, CORONA imagery, has photos taken via airplane. proven to be highly effective in In the 1950s, Robert McC. the Kurdistan Region around Adams, working with Fuad Erbil, as well as in adjacent Safar, created a systematic parts of the Syrian jazira. The approach using overlapping second, multi-spectral imagery aerial photographs and maps to from NASA’s ASTER sensor, begin locating more than 4,000 has also been successful in Syria sites in southern Iraq. With and should be equally promising the release of the CORONA in Iraq. By utilizing these remote satellite images in the 1980s sensing datasets, Ur said, surveys and the increasing availability can be both spatially extensive of Landsat, GoogleEarth, Figure 1.1. This false-color April 2000 Landsat image and methodologically intensive, of the Erbil Plain shows the city and its agricultural and other images used in a allowing archaeologists hinterland. Red represents vegetation, mostly winter Geographical Information to stay one step ahead of cereal crops, which are abundant in the hills north of the System (GIS), the sites in Iraq, city. The historically rich plain to its south is remarkably threats to Iraq’s heritage from as in the rest of the world, can uncultivated, the legacy of the 1987 military program of development. be located — even in cases village destruction and depopulation, from which it has Using southern Mesopotamia where they are not visible on never recovered. (Image Credit: Jason Ur) as a case study, Carrie Hritz PAGE 2 TAARII NEWSLETTER Figures 1.2–3. (Left) In this February 1967 CORONA satellite photo, the citadel and walls of Nineveh are clearly visible. A small town had grown up around the Nebi Yunus Mosque within the walls. (Right) By the time of the 2001 Landsat image, Mosul had grown across the Tigris River and surrounded Nineveh on all sides. Purple indicates bulidings. Sites throughout Iraq are threatened by similar processes. (Image Credits: Jason Ur) (Pennsylvania State University) both the maps and the satellite imagery, thick vegetation or sand, and located addressed, both quantitatively and which allowed the identification of within agricultural field and military qualitatively, long-held assumptions nearby archaeological sites. The second outposts. In 2008, Hamdani used concerning the nature and relationship method involved geo-referencing the satellite images and GIS to add 600 new of settlement patterns and river channel maps published in the Atlas based on sites to the original survey. The 1,200 systems in antiquity. GIS and image locations that could be identified on sites identified in this survey range in analysis, explained Hritz, can fill gaps both the maps in the Atlas and in the date from the Neolithic to Islamic times in the settlement record and support a imagery. The ultimate intended result of and include sites of all sizes. Although revised location for the Tigris River this project would be a digital atlas of many of the sites were looted, Hamdani during most of antiquity. Hritz’s work archaeological sites, where information explained, in many instances features, proposes a methodology for unweaving on size and site location can be joined including the remains of temples and and mapping preserved pieces of to the information on the periods of houses, were visible on the surface. ancient landscapes, thereby addressing occupation published in the Atlas. In one instance, a new Ur III site was larger issues of human modification of Abdulamir Hamdani (Stony Brook located far in the Western Desert, in an the landscape. University) presented the results of area that was not thought to have been Zaid Ibraheem (Pennsylvania State a preliminary archaeological survey occupied at that time. University) implemented GIS tools conducted in two phases between Elizabeth Stone (Stony Brook and remote sensing methods to make 2003 and 2010 in areas in southern University) presented three different the data included in the Atlas of the Iraq that were not covered by the early approaches to the use of the high- Archaeological Sites in Iraq accessible archaeological surveys. The first phase resolution imagery available from in today’s electronic world. The method was carried out from 2003–2008 with the Digital Globe Corporation. She used geo-referenced and high resolution the aim to identify which sites were in began with a quick recap of research Digital Globe imagery to help identify need of protection. This phase of the already completed and published the true location of the sites recorded survey allowed Hamdani to identify on the use of this imagery to track in the Atlas. Two methods were tested. 600 sites, but it failed to locate a large patterns of looting at already known In the first, comparisons were made number of medium and small, flat sites archaeological sites. Here the imagery between modern features recorded in because they were covered by either allows us to examine the timing, FALL 2012 PAGE 3 intensity, and location of the looting, as well as which periods were selected by the looters. Stone then showed how some of this imagery can reveal details of sub-surface architectural traces, making possible the evaluation of broad settlement patterns that are often quite different from the excavated material since they avoid the biases of archaeologists towards investigating public buildings within large urban sites. Stone ended with a description of an effort that was made to identify all potential sites located within the area around Umma in southern Iraq. The area surveyed includes desert, where sites are often obscured by Figure 1.4. Panelists at the “Modern Techniques and Archaeological Sites” sand dunes. Even cultivated areas can conference in Washington, D.C. (Photo Credit: Iraqi Cultural Center) have fossilized dunes that resemble archaeological sites. Nevertheless, as a palimpsest of varied economic, impacted by urban sprawl. Hanson many sites could be identified that social, political, and natural processes then discussed ongoing looting in were missed in earlier surveys, usually evolving together through everyday southern Iraq, focusing on the ancient — but not always — because they practice (or praxis) to create the site of Umma, with data from a series have since been looted. physical form of the community. As an of satellite images that document Using 1930s archival photography artifact, Witsell explained, the urban the destruction of this important and satellite imagery, Alexandra Witsell form of Khafajah provides physical archaeological site. (University of Chicago) presented a evidence for the transition between The program on Sunday, December city plan of the third-millennium b.c. two distinct political regimes, the Early 9, held at the Freer Gallery of Art, town of Khafajah that sheds light Dynastic and Akkadian periods of the focused on the Mesopotamian on Mesopotamian urban form and third millennium. Her presentation Epic of Gilgamesh in ancient and the role political power can play in broached the question: Is it possible to modern contexts. Christopher Woods shaping the built environment around see archaeologically the dichotomy of (University of Chicago) presented us. By viewing Khafajah and its built a “physical” city caught in a “political” the historical context of the Epic form holistically and as an artifact or “historical” transition? of Gilgamesh. Following Woods’ in and of itself, Witsell sees the city Katharyn Hanson (University of presentation, audience members Chicago) discussed watched the 30-minute documentary, the extent of the “The Epic of Gilgamesh,” an episode d a m a g e c a u s e d of the award-winning PBS series by by urban sprawl Seftel Productions and the Annenberg and looting. She Foundation entitled “Invitation to i l l u s t r a t e d t h e World Literature” (http://www. d a m a g e c a u s e d learner.org/courses/worldlit/ by urban sprawl gilgamesh/).