The notion of a primeval paradise is often associated with the absence of death for both humans and animals. Humans are envisioned as immortal, both humans and animals are restricted to a vegetarian diet, and all live together in perfect peace. This dissertation is an examinatio…
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Over the course of the third millennium BC, the human landscape of northern Mesopotamia transitioned from a period of small, dispersed settlements to one characterized by a more diverse network of villages, towns, and cities. This event was one component of a larger phenomenon t…
Ancient water management, especially for irrigation purposes, has featured prominently in anthropological theories on the development of socio-political and economic complexity. Traditional approaches have assumed that centralized control was needed to meet the managerial requir…
From the beginning of permanent human settlements, domesticated plants and animals have been a driving force in social and economic development. A flurry of research surrounds the developmental stages of domesticates in the Neolithic and a huge library of publications encompass …
This dissertation investigates one of the most important archaeological discoveries of the 20th century - the jewelry belonging to a female named Pu-abi buried in the so-called Royal Cemetery at the site of Ur in southern Mesopotamia, modern Iraq. The mid-third millennium B.C. a…
This dissertation is an edition with commentary of the administrative tablets dated by the year-eponymy of Habil-kinu found at Tell Leilan during the 1987 season. Tell Leilan is situated in the Habur triangle in northeastern Syria. The tablets are part of an Old Babylonian archi…
This dissertation analyses the burnt building in area C of Tell Al Hiba, Lagash in southern Iraq, excavated by the Joint Expedition of the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1970-1971. After a survey of the history of Lagash and th…
While much has been written on the formation and collapse of state-level societies, relatively little attention has been paid to the actual function of those societies. With this analysis, I hope to contribute to this area of investigation. Large-scale society cannot support its…
Archaeologists have long held that changing patterns of settlement within a region reflect the changing social organization of Its human population, but they have had little success developing general theory to explain or otherwise make use of this relationship. Much of this dif…
Excavations at Tell al-Raqa'i, a village site of the early urban period in northeastern Syria, revealed the remains of what is believed to be a specialized settlement which served as a locus for the processing, storage, and transport of cereal grains, presumably destined for one…
This dissertation is a study of the political history of the Mesopotamian kingdom of Larsa in the Early Old Babylonian Period, from the end of the Third Dynasty of Ur to the conquest of Larsa by Hammu-rāpi of Babylon (c. 2003–1762 B.C.). It is clear that the rulers of Larsa were…
Les fouilles de tell ‘Atij et de tell Gudeda, deux sites localisée en Mésopotamie septentrionale, dans la moyenne vallée du Khabour en Syrie et datés de la période Ninive 5 (3000–2500 av. J.-C.), ont permis de mettre au jour environ 5000 artfacts de pierre taillée. Le but premie…
This dissertation presents a descriptive analysis of the southern Mesopotamian city of Larsa during the Neo- and early Late-Babylonian Periods (sixth and early fifth centuries B.C.E.). Following an introductory chapter in which the scope of the project is outlined, Chapter Two p…
This work is a historical analysis of the written sources for the Neo-Elamite period, approximately 1000 to 550 BC, in southwestern Iran. Extant material for this subject is meager, especially with regard to the available Elamite inscriptions. The study thus relies primarily upo…
The dissertation argues that the Jerusalem temple functioned in ancient Israel/Judah as an economic institution in ways similar to Mesopotamian temples of the seventh to fifth centuries B.C.E. The study analyzes the administrative and economic information from temple archives in…
This dissertation describes the way in which ancient Near Eastern kingdoms practiced the art of warfare from the middle of the second millennium B.C. to the end of the united Israelite monarchy. It does so by studying the records of nations located within the Fertile Crescent an…
This dissertation investigates the appliqued serpent imagery found on pottery vessels in Mesopotamia and surrounding areas from approximately 3100 BC to the mid-second millennium BC. Chapter One presents the widely varying patterns of serpent imagery in different cultures. The z…
The primary purpose of this dissertation is to examine both the Akkadian royal hymns and prayers. Based on the cuneiform texts, analyses are given. Themes and motifs of both royal hymns and prayers are closely studied. The structure of both royal hymns and prayers is analyzed. C…
This thesis is a study of the history of Mosul during the seventh and eighth centuries. Drawing on the rich literary traditions of Arabic and Syriac, as well as on the much leaner material evidence that dates from the period, it charts the emergence of Mosul during the late anti…