University of Wisconsin Milwaukee UWM Digital Commons Theses and Dissertations December 2015 A Preliminary Museological Analysis of the Milwaukee Public Museum's Euphrates Valley Expedition Metal Collection Jamie Patrick Henry University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.uwm.edu/etd Part of the Archaeological Anthropology Commons, Islamic World and Near East History Commons, and the Library and Information Science Commons Recommended Citation Henry, Jamie Patrick, "A Preliminary Museological Analysis of the Milwaukee Public Museum's Euphrates Valley Expedition Metal Collection" (2015). Theses and Dissertations. 1054. https://dc.uwm.edu/etd/1054 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by UWM Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of UWM Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A PRELIMINARY MUSEOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THE MILWAUKEE PUBLIC MUSEUM’S EUPHRATES VALLEY EXPEDITION METAL COLLECTION by Jamie Patrick Henry A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Anthropology at The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee December 2015 ABSTRACT A PRELIMINARY MUSEOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THE MILWAUKEE PUBLIC MUSEUM’S EUPHRATES VALLEY EXPEDITION METAL COLLECTION by Jamie Patrick Henry The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2015 Under the Supervision of Professor Bettina Arnold Destruction of ancient sites along the Euphrates River in northern Syria due to the construction of the Tabqa Dam and the formation of Lake Assad led to many international salvage expeditions, including those conducted between 1974 and 1978 by the Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM) at the site of Tell Hadidi, Syria under the direction of Dr. Rudolph Dornemann. The hundreds of thousands of artifacts collected represent the MPM’s share of the excavated material but the site has never been completely published. Only two previous studies have discussed the metal artifacts recovered during excavation. McClellan (1983) provided a short paper detailing compositional analysis of eight metal artifacts. Boor (2012) focused on Area C ceramics, but provided descriptions of 80 metal artifacts, based upon existing museum catalog information. This preliminary analysis presents an updated inventory of 941 metal artifacts as well as a wealth of additional information uncovered about the Tell Hadidi excavations and the Euphrates Valley Expedition, whose publication in some form become has become critical for several reasons recently. In 1991, with the retirement of Dr. Dornemann, the collection began a gradual decline into the obscurity often experienced by material not intended for extensive use in museum ii programs or exhibits. Salvage excavations attempt to maximize collections in order to save as much as possible, but such collections present particular problems for new museum staff members who have no expertise in the geographic area from which the material was excavated. For over 35 years the collection has languished in storage while institutional memory of its significance has gradually faded. More recently, through collections management and programming, as well as graduate thesis projects, it has become a valuable resource for a new generation of museum professionals. iii © Copyright by Jamie Patrick Henry, 2015 All Rights Reserved iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1. Introduction .................................................................................................... 1 Orphaned Collections........................................................................................................... 1 Artifact Research ................................................................................................................. 3 Contextual Challenges ......................................................................................................... 6 Tell Hadidi and the Milwaukee Public Museum ................................................................. 8 Developing a Collection and Excavation History ................................................................ 10 Tell Hadidi and the Euphrates River Valley ........................................................................ 11 Museum Narrative – A Salvaged Collection ....................................................................... 13 Results of the Expedition ..................................................................................................... 21 Research Questions .............................................................................................................. 23 Thesis Overview .................................................................................................................. 23 Chapter 2. Literature Review and Site History .............................................................. 25 Metalworking in the Near East and Upper Euphrates River Valley .................................... 25 Syrian Chronology ............................................................................................................... 27 Neolithic to Chalcolithic Transition..................................................................................... 29 Evidence for Metal during the Early Chalcolithic ............................................................... 30 Later Chalcolithic into the Uruk phase ................................................................................ 30 Evidence for Metal during the Fourth Millennium BCE ..................................................... 32 Early Bronze Age ................................................................................................................. 33 Evidence for Metal during the Early Bronze Age ............................................................... 34 Middle Bronze Age .............................................................................................................. 37 Evidence for Metal during the Middle Bronze Age ............................................................. 38 Late Bronze Age .................................................................................................................. 38 Evidence for Metal during the Late Bronze Age ................................................................. 39 Tell Hadidi Chronology ....................................................................................................... 39 Early Bronze Age (3050 – 2000 BCE) ................................................................................ 40 v Middle Bronze Age (2000 – 1550 BCE) ............................................................................. 43 Late Bronze Age (1550 – 1400 BCE) .................................................................................. 44 Summary .............................................................................................................................. 46 Tell Hadidi Research History............................................................................................... 46 Chapter 3. Methodology .................................................................................................... 48 Euphrates Valley Expedition Metal Collection ................................................................... 48 Project Overview ................................................................................................................. 49 Museum Documentation ...................................................................................................... 52 Collection History- Initial Review ....................................................................................... 55 Secondary Review ............................................................................................................... 61 Expedition and Database Numbering System...................................................................... 63 Euphrates Valley Expedition Collection .............................................................................. 64 Site Designation (EVE# Sequence) ..................................................................................... 65 Artifact Sorting and Organization ........................................................................................ 69 EVE Sequence ..................................................................................................................... 70 Numbering System Purpose ................................................................................................. 71 Reliability Scale 1-5 ............................................................................................................. 72 Artifact Category ................................................................................................................. 73 Running Sequence ............................................................................................................... 74 Lot Designation .................................................................................................................... 74 McClellan Samples .............................................................................................................. 74 Pilot Project Numbering System .......................................................................................... 75 The Pins ............................................................................................................................... 77