UCL - INSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGY
ARCL 3075
Understanding Complex Societies:
Egypt and Mesopotamia in the third millennium BC
2014/2015
Year 2/3 Option for BA
Archaeology & Anthropology, Archaeology, Egyptian Archaeology,
Archaeology & Ancient History.
0.5 unit
Alabaster statuette from Uruk, southern Iraq
Step Pyramid complex at Saqqara, northern Egypt
Co-ordinator: Professor David Wengrow
d.wengrow@ucl.ac.uk
Room 601. Tel: 020 7679 4720
TURNITIN ID: 783244
PASSWORD: IoA1415
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
This option is designed to complement a wide range of undergraduate programmes,
including: Archaeology & Anthropology, Archaeology, Egyptian Archaeology, and
Archaeology & Ancient History. It provides a detailed understanding of the nature of early
complex societies through sustained comparison of the world’s two earliest examples, based
respectively in Egypt and Mesopotamia. Through weekly lectures, and accompanying
discussions, students will develop an awareness of the fundamental anthropological issues
raised by the parallel emergence of complex society in these two regions, as well as an
appreciation of the value of comparative studies for archaeological interpretation.
COURSE INFORMATION
This handbook contains the basic information about the content and administration of the
course. Additional subject-specific reading lists and individual session handouts will be given
out at appropriate points in the course. If students have queries about the objectives,
structure, content, assessment or organisation of the course, they should consult the Course
Co-ordinator. As preparation for the course it is recommended that students read:
D. Wengrow (2010) What Makes Civilization: the Ancient Near East and the Future of the West
(Oxford: Oxford University Press) INST ARCH DBA 100 WEN, ISSUE DESK IOA WEN 8
TEACHING METHODS
The course is taught through two-hour classes. For the first six weeks (Sessions 1-6) classes
will involve a combination of lectures and discussion, lead by the Course Coordinator.
Students are expected to have read at least two pieces from the reading lists in preparation
for each week. Recommended readings are highlighted with a (*). Sessions 7 and 8 focus
upon ‘art and imagery’ and will be based around the analysis and discussion of twelve objects
(six Egyptian, six Mesopotamian) selected by the Course Coordinator from the collections of
the British Museum. Students, working in pairs, will be assigned a particular object in
advance and will be given a reading linked to the object. In class, each pair will give a short
presentation (10 minutes) to the group on the object in question and its wider archaeological
significance, followed by 10 minutes of questions and comments from other students and
the course coordinator. Written guidance will be given in advance on the content of
presentations, and visual aids will be supplied. These presentations will not be formally
assessed; they are intended to provide students with experience in the presentation and
description of archaeological and art historical material. The last two sessions (9-10), on the
archaeology of written documents, will be taught by invited experts from the British
Museum.
PREREQUISITES
The course is suitable for both second and third year students, who will preferably—but not
necessarily—have some elementary background knowledge of Egyptian and/or
Mesopotamian archaeology (e.g. through attending Year 1 courses such as ‘Past Societies’
and ‘Introduction to Egyptian Archaeology’).
WORKLOAD
There will be 20 hours of lectures, including presentation and discussion sessions, for this
course. Students will be expected to undertake around 80 hours of reading for the course,
plus 40 hours preparing for and producing the assessed work. This adds up to a total
workload of some 140 hours for the course.
METHODS OF ASSESSMENT
This course is assessed by means of two pieces of written course-work, each of about 2500
words, which each contribute 50% to the final grade for the course.
If students are unclear about the nature of an assignment, they should discuss this with the
Course Co-ordinator.
The nature of the assignment and possible approaches to it will be discussed in class, in
advance of the submission deadline. A list of coursework titles and submissions deadlines is
provided at the end of this handbook.
CRITERIA FOR ASSESSMENT
The criteria for assessment used in this course are those agreed by the Board of Examiners
in Archaeology, and are included in the Undergraduate Handbook (available on the Institute
web-site: www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/handbook/common/). Criteria for assessment and
the grading system are also printed on all coursework coversheets. All coursework is
marked by two internal examiners and can be re-assessed by the External Examiner.
Therefore, the mark given by the initial examiner (prior to return) is a provisional assessment
for guidance only, and may be modified after consultation with the second internal examiner,
or by the External Examiner.
CITING OF SOURCES
Coursework should be expressed in a student’s own words giving the exact source of any
ideas, information, diagrams etc. that are taken from the work of others. Any direct
quotations from the work of others must be indicated as such by being placed between
inverted commas. Plagiarism is regarded as a very serious irregularity which can carry very
heavy penalties. It is your responsibility to read and abide by the requirements for
presentation, referencing and avoidance of plagiarism to be found in the IoA ‘Coursework
Guidelines’ at https://wiki.ucl.ac.uk/display/archadmin/Coursework+Guidelines
SUBMISSION OF COURSEWORK
The coursework must be stapled to a completed coversheet (available from outside Room
411A or at Reception) and submitted to the course co-ordinator’s pigeon hole via the Red
Essay Box at Reception by the appropriate deadline. Late submission will be penalized
unless permission has been granted and an Extension Request Form (ERF) completed.
Please see the IoA ‘Coursework Guidelines’ for full details
https://wiki.ucl.ac.uk/display/archadmin/Coursework+Guidelines
SUBMISSION OF COURSEWORK TO ‘TURNITIN’
In addition to submitting your coursework as described above, it is now a requirement that
you submit it electronically to the Turnitin system. You will be provided with the
necessary code for submitting your work for this course.
Students who fail to submit their coursework to Turnitin will not receive the mark for the
work in question until they have done so (although they will receive written feedback in the
usual way). The maximum mark for work that has not been submitted to Turnitin prior to
the meeting of the Board of Examiners will be a bare pass.
In advance of submitting your coursework for marking you may, if you wish, run your work
through the system in order to obtain a report on the originality of the wording and then
make any necessary adjustments prior to final submission.
Turnitin advisors will be
available to help you at specified times if you need help generating or interpreting the
reports.
It is important to recognise that the final decision about whether work contains plagiarism
rests with academic staff. Consequently, the presence or absence of matches in a Turnitin
report does not, by itself, provide a guarantee that the work in question either contains or is
free from plagiarism. Detailed instructions on the use of the system will be supplied
separately.
KEEPING COPIES
Please note that it is an Institute requirement that you retain a copy (this can be electronic)
of all coursework submitted. When your marked essay is returned to you, you should return
it to the marker within two weeks.
COMMUNICATION
If any changes need to be made to the course arrangements, these will normally be
communicated by email. It is therefore essential that you consult your UCL e-mail account
regularly.
DYSLEXIA AND OTHER DISABILITIES
If you have dyslexia or any other disability, please make your lecturers aware of this. Please
discuss with your lecturers whether there is any way in which they can help you. Students
with dyslexia are reminded to indicate this on each piece of coursework.
FEEDBACK
In trying to make this course as effective as possible, we welcome feedback from students
during the course of the year. All students are asked to give their views on the course in an
anonymous questionnaire which will be circulated at one of the last sessions of the course.
These questionnaires are taken seriously and help the Course Co-ordinator to develop the
course. The summarised responses are considered by the Institute's Staff-Student
Consultative Committee, Teaching Committee, and by the Faculty Teaching Committee.
If students are concerned about any aspect of this course we hope they will feel able to talk
to the Course Co-ordinator, but if they feel this is not appropriate, they should consult their
Personal Tutor, the Academic Administrator (Judy Medrington), or the Chair of Teaching
Committee (Dr. Sue Hamilton).
LIBRARIES
The libraries of the Institute of Archaeology and the Main Library at UCL will be the
principal resources for this course.
TEACHING SCHEDULE
All classes will take place in Term II on Thursdays, from 9am-11am in Room 410.
January 15th
Social and Economic Foundations: Mesopotamia
(David Wengrow)
January 22nd
Social and Economic Foundations: Egypt
(David Wengrow)
January 29th
Settlement Archaeology: Mesopotamia
(David Wengrow)
February 5th
Settlement Archaeology: Egypt
(David Wengrow)
February 12th
Mortuary Archaeology: Mesopotamia
(David Wengrow)
READING WEEK
February 26th
Mortuary Archaeology: Egypt
(David Wengrow)
March 5th
Art and Imagery: Mesopotamia
(Class presentations)
March 12th
Art and Imagery: Egypt
(Class presentation)
March 19th
Archaeology of Written Documents: Egypt
(Richard Bussmann)
March 26th
Archaeology of Written Documents: Mesopotamia
(Carl Walsh)
_______________________
COURSE SCOPE AND STRUCTURE
The first two sessions provide an orientation to the main themes of the course through an
examination of evidence for the formation of early states in Egypt and Mesopotamia, and
their distinct environmental settings and archaeological records. The remainder of the course
focuses upon data from the third millennium BC: the Egyptian Early Dynastic and Old
Kingdom, and the Mesopotamian Early Dynastic period. The subsequent First Intermediate
Period in Egypt and the Akkadian period in Mesopotamia will be anticipated, but neither will
be studied in the formal part of the course.
The main thrust of the option will be an examination in outline of the character of the
archaeological evidence for five aspects of contemporary society (see below) in order to see
how the pattern of this evidence has contributed to present understanding (and potential
misunderstanding) of the course of political, economic, ideological and social development
during the earliest literate periods in Egypt and Sumer (southern Mesopotamia). The
emphasis will be on material culture and its interpretation, but every opportunity will be
given to assess the role of art and written sources.
Themes:
1.
Social and Economic Foundations
Recent decades have seen dramatic advances in our understanding of the social and
economic background to the emergence of the world’s earliest states in Egypt and
Mesopotamia. The later prehistory of these regions—from the end of the last Ice Age,
c.10,000 BC to the appearance of the first writing systems, c.3300 BC—is now an extensive
field of study in its own right. It is increasingly clear that Neolithic societies in the Nile valley
and the Fertile Crescent followed distinct trajectories of social and cultural development,
while nevertheless sharing such fundamental features as the adoption of domesticated
animals and plants, and the elaboration of rich and varied material cultures.
2.
Settlement Archaeology
The archaeological evidence for the great organizations of the state is (with 3 below)
fundamental to modern study of Egypt and Sumer (southern Mesopotamia). But well
excavated settlement sites of the early historic period in both regions are very rare
(contemporary administrative and economic records are not much more common). It is
therefore necessary to focus on a few instructive examples, sifting and correlating the
evidence they provide in order to reconstruct a provisional general view in each case.
3.
Mortuary Archaeology
Reconstructing the society of the living from equipment provided for the dead is as
fundamental here as in so many areas of archaeological research. Architectural remains,
works of art and objects of daily use from funerary contexts play a primary role in current
reconstructions of the economic, political, social and ideological systems of early historic
Egypt and Sumer. This evidence is complementary to that in 2 (above) and demands the
same critical appraisal of the ways it is used by modern scholars.
4.
Art and Imagery
In both areas the development of complex societies stimulated the growth of craft skills to
furnish with fine objects and images the temples, palaces, and the homes and graves of the
elite. Pictures, like texts, were relatively scarce things in Old Kingdom Egypt and Early
Dynastic Sumer since they were primarily (where they survive) a matter of communication
between deities and rulers, and an elite, with the first two by far the most important. As such
they are vital indicators of the ideology of these early states. They call for as much attention
from archaeologists as they are more often given by art-historians and philologists, who have
been conventionally more concerned with the integration of pictures and texts (particularly
for Egypt, where writing was more enduringly and pervasively pictographic).
5.
The Archaeology of Written Documents
The interrelationship between unwritten archaeological data and inscriptions recovered by
archaeologists in both regions is no less vital for the earliest of the historical periods than it
is for the latest. But it is considerably more circumscribed then by the paucity of the
surviving contemporary documents and the difficulty of understanding the archaic forms of
Egyptian and Sumerian. This has meant that some aspects of the documentary evidence,
particularly those bearing on politics and religion, have often been elucidated in the light
either of fuller evidence from later periods or of later texts purporting to describe early
periods (“backward reconstruction”). The reliability of these procedures (no less prevalent in
handling non-textual sources) is as questionable as they are necessary for the moment and
needs to be recurrently assessed.
COURSE SYLLABUS AND READING LISTS
In the following pages you will find:
•
General reading lists for Old Kingdom Egypt and Early Dynastic Mesopotamia
•
A weekly outline for the course as a whole, which identifies essential and
supplementary readings relevant to each session. Information is provided as to
where in the UCL or BIAA library system individual readings are available; their
location and Teaching Collection (TC) number, and status (whether out on loan) can
also be accessed on the eUCLid computer catalogue system. Readings marked with
an * are considered essential to keep up with the topics covered in the course.
Copies of individual articles and chapters identified as essential reading are in the
Teaching Collection in the Institute Library (where permitted by copyright), or are
available ONLINE through links embedded in the reading lists below. Where neither
is possible, copies of the relevant books can be found at the short-load ISSUE
DESK, as well as on the open shelving. You are strongly encouraged to make use of
the additional ONLINE resources highlighted in the weekly reading lists.
•
A list of coursework titles and submission deadlines
Special Option: Bibliography
Mesopotamia: General
Adams, R. McC.
1981
Heartland of Cities (Chicago, London: University of Chicago
Press) INST ARCH DBB 100 ADA, ISSUE DESK IOA ADA 5
Crawford, H.
1991
Sumer and the Sumerians (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press) INST ARCH DBB 100 CRA, and 2nd edition: 2004
Jacobsen, T.
1970
Toward the Image of Tammuz and Other Essays on Mesopotamian
History and Culture (ed. W.L. Moran; Cambridge; Mass: Harvard
University Press; especially for the first essays on Mesopotamian
religion and numbers 8 and 9 no Mesopotamian political
development) INST ARCH DBA 600 JAC, ANCIENT HISTORY D 6 JAC
1976
The Treasures of Darkness: A History of Mesopotamian Religion
(Yale: Yale University Press) ISSUE DESK IOA JAC 2, ANCIENT
HISTORY D 74 JAC
1987
The Harps that Once … Sumerian Poetry in Translation (Yale:
Yale University Press) ANCIENT HISTORY D 4 HAR
Kramer, S.N.
1963
The Sumerians (Chicago: University of Chicago Press)
Landsberger, B.
1974
Three Essays on the Sumerians (Translations of earlier articles; M.
DeJ. Ellis; Los Angeles: Undena) INST ARCH DBB 200 LAN
Lloyd, S.
1978
The Archaeology of Mesopotamia: from the Old Stone Age to the
Persian Conquest. (London: Thames & Hudson) INST ARCH DBB 100
INST ARCH DBB 200 KRA, ANCIENT HISTORY D 12 KRA, ANTHROPOLOGY
PM 95 KRA
LLO
Matthews, R.L.
2003
The Archaeology of Mesopotamia. London: Routledge
Nissen, H.J.
1988
The Early History of the Ancient Near East, 9000-2000 BC
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press) INST ARCH DBA 200 NIS
Oppenheim, A.L.
1964
Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilization (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press) INST ARCH DBB 100 OPP, ANCIENT
INST ARCH DBB 100 MAT, ISSUE DESK IOA MAT 6
HISTORY D 5 OPP
Postgate, J.N.
1994
Early Mesopotamia. (London & New York: Routledge) INST ARCH
Reade, J.
2001
‘Assyrian King-Lists, the Royal Tombs of Ur, and Indus Origins’
Journal of Near Eastern Studies 60(1): 1-29.
DBB 100 POS, ISSUE DESK IOA POS 2
Main CLASSICS Pers and ONLINE (JSTOR)
Roaf, M.
2004
Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East (New
York: Facts on File) INST ARCH DBA 100 Qto ROA, ISSUE DESK IOA
ROA
Van de Mieroop, M. A History of the Ancient Near East, c.3000-323 BC. (Oxford:
2007
Blackwell) ANCIENT HISTORY B 5 MIE
Wengrow, D.
2010
What Makes Civilization? The Ancient Near East and the Future of
the West. (Oxford: Oxford University Press) INST ARCH DBA 100
WEN, ISSUE DESK IOA WEN 8
Special Option: Bibliography: Egypt: General
Baines, J.R. and
Malek, J. 2000
Cultural Atlas of Ancient Egypt (New York: Facts on File)
Bard, K.A.
2008
An Introduction to the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt. (Oxford:
Blackwell) EGYPTOLOGY A 5 BAR
Butzer, K.W.
1976
Early Hydraulic Civilization in Egypt: a Study in Cultural Ecology
(Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press) EGYPTOLOGY B 5
EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS A 2 BAI, ISSUE DESK IOA BAI 3
BUT, ISSUE DESK IOA BUT, and 2002 edition: ISSUE DESK IOA BUT
Frankfort, H.
1948
Kingship and the Gods. (Chicago: Chicago University Press)
Hayes, W.C.
1953
The Scepter of Egypt I: From Earliest Times to the end of the Old
Kingdom. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press)
INST ARCH DBA 200 FRA
EGYPTOLOGY A 5 HAY
Kemp, B.J.
1989
Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization. (London: Routledge)
Lichtheim, M.
1975
Ancient Egyptian Literature: A Book of Readings I: The Old and
Middle Kingdoms. (Berkeley: University of California Press)
EGYPTOLOGY B 5 KEM, ISSUE DESK IOA KEM, and 2006 (updated) edition
EGYPTOLOGY V 20 LIC
Malek, J.
1986
In the Shadow of the Pyramids: Egypt during the Old Kingdom.
(Norman: University of Oklahoma Press) EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS B
20 MAL
Simpson, W.K. et al. The Literature of Ancient Egypt: an Anthology of Stories,
2003
Instructions, Stelae, Autobiographies, and Poetry (London: Yale
University Press) EGYPTOLOGY V 20 SIM
Stevenson Smith, W. The Art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt (London: Yale
1998
University Press, 4th edition) EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS K 5 SMI, INST
ARCH SMI 10
Teeter, E. ed.
2011
Before the Pyramids (Chicago: Oriental Institute). EGYPTOLOGY
QUARTOS B 11 TEE Available online: http://oi.uchicago.edu/pdf/oimp33.pdf
Trigger, B. et al.
1983
Ancient Egypt: A Social History (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press) EGYPTOLOGY B 5 TRI, ISSUE DESK IOA TRI 1
Wengrow, D.
2006
The Archaeology of Early Egypt: Social Transformations in NorthEast Africa, 10,000-2650 BC. (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press) EGYPTOLOGY B 11 WEN, ISSUE DESK IOA WEN 7
Wilkinson, T.A.H.
1999
Early Dynastic Egypt (London: Routledge) EGYPTOLOGY B 12 WIL
Special Option: Bibliography
General: Materials and Technology: Egypt and Mesopotamia
Lucas, A.
1962
Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries. (London: E. Arnould)
Moorey, P.R.S.
1994
Ancient Mesopotamian Materials and Industries. “Oxford:
Clarendon Press) INST ARCH DBB 100 MOO, ISSUE DESK IOA MOO 7
Potts, D.T.
1997
Mesopotamian Civilization: the Material Foundations (New York:
Cornell University Press; with excellent interpretive sections on
a wide variety of topics) INST ARCH DBB 200 POT
Shaw, I. and
Nicholson, P.T.
2000
Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology. (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press) EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS S 5 NIC, INST
Stocks, D.A.
1993
‘Making stone vessels in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt’.
Antiquity 67: 596-603. INST ARCH Pers and ONLINE
EGYPTOLOGY S 5 LUC, INST ARCH TYLECOTE LUC
ARCH K Qto NIC
http://antiquity.ac.uk/Ant/067/0596/Ant0670596.pdf
Special Option: Bibliography
Week 1: Social and Economic Foundations: Mesopotamia
General
Pollock, S.
1999
Ancient Mesopotamia: the Eden that Never Was (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, chapters 2-4) INST ARCH DBB 100 POL,
ISSUE DESK IOA POL 2
*Roaf, M.
1990
Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East (New
York: Facts on File, pages 18-77) INST ARCH DBA 100 Qto ROA, ISSUE
DESK IOA ROA
Neolithic foundations
*Various Authors
1992
The Cradle of Civilization: Recent Archaeology in Iraq. Special
number of Biblical Archaeologist 55(4): chapters by T. Watkins,
Pushing Back the Frontiers of Mesopotamian Prehistory (pp.
176-181), S. Campbell, The Halaf Period in Iraq: Old Sites and
New (pp. 182-187), J.-L. Huot, The First Farmers at Oueili (pp.
188-195) INST ARCH Pers and ONLINE (JSTOR, or click links above)
Akkermans, P.M.M.G ‘An image of complexity: the burnt village at Late Neolithic Sabi
and Verhoeven, M. Abyad, Syria’. American Journal of Archaeology 99(1): 5-32, INST
1995
ARCH Pers, and ONLINE:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/506877.pdf
Frangipane, M.
2007
Different types of egalitarian societies and the development of
inequality in early Mesopotamia. World Archaeology 39(2): 15176. INST ARCH Pers, and ONLINE: click title of paper, above.
Oates, J.
1973
‘The background and development of early farming communities
in Mesopotamia and the Zagros’. Proceedings of the Prehistoric
Society 39: 147-81. INST ARCH Pers
Wengrow, D.
1998
‘The changing face of clay’: continuinty and change in the
transition from village to urban life in the Near East. Antiquity 72:
783-95 . INST ARCH Pers and ONLINE:
http://antiquity.ac.uk/Ant/072/0783/Ant0720783.pdf
The ‘Uruk Expansion’
Algaze, G.
1993
The Uruk world system : the dynamics of expansion of early
Mesopotamian civilization. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press)
INST ARCH DBB 100 ALG (expands on an influential 1989 article in
Current Anthropology, which can be viewed, with critical
responses, at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/2743567.pdf
Oates, J.
1993
‘Trade and power in the fifth and fourth millennia BC: new
evidence from northern Mesopotamia’. World Archaeology 24(3):
403-422. INST ARCH Pers and ONLINE:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/124716.pdf
Pollock, S.
1992
‘Bureaucrats and managers, peasants and pastoralists, imperialists
and traders: Research on the Uruk and Jemdet Nasr periods in
Mesopotamia’. Journal of World Prehistory 6: 297-336. INST ARCH
Pers
Rothman, M.
2001
Uruk Mesopotamia and its Neighbours: Cross-Cultural Interaction
in the Era of State Formation. Santa Fe: School of American
Research. INST ARCH DBB 100 ROT
Schwartz, G.
1988
‘Excavations at Karatut Mevkii and perspectives of the
Uruk/Jemdet Nasr expansion’. Akkadica 56: 1-41 INST ARCH Pers
Stein, G.
1999
Rethinking World Systems: Diasporas, Colonies and Interaction in
Uruk Mesopotamia. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. INST
ARCH DBB 100 STE, ISSUE DESK IOA STE 5
Sürenhagen, D.
1986
‘The dry-farming belt: the Uruk period and subsequent
developments’. In H. Weiss (ed.) The Origins of Cities in dryfarming Syria and Mesopotamia in the third millennium BC
(Guilford: Connecticut) INST ARCH DBA 100 WEI
Special bibliography for bevelled-rim bowls
Beale, T.W.
1978
‘Bevelled rim bowls and their implications for change and
economic organization in the later fourth millennium BC’. Journal
of Near Eastern Studies 37: 289-313. CLASSICS Pers and ONLINE:
http://www.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-2968(1978)37%3C289%3E1.0.CO;2-
Millard, A.R.
1988
‘The bevelled-rim bowls: their purpose and significance’. Iraq 50:
49-57. INST ARCH Pers
Buccellati, G.
1990
‘Salt at the dawn of history: the case of the bevelled-rim bowls’. In
P. Matthiae et al. (eds.) Resurrecting the Past: a Joint Tribute to
Adnan Bounni. (Istanbul: Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije
Oosten) INST ARCH DBD 100 BOU
Chazan, M. and
Lehner, M.
1990
‘An ancient analogy: pot baked bread in ancient Egypt and
Mesopotamia. Paléorient 16 (2): 21-35. INST ARCH Pers
The emergence of writing in southern Mesopotamia
Jasim, S.A. and
Oates, J.
1986
‘Early tokens and tablets in Mesopotamia’. World Archaeology 17:
348-62. INST ARCH Pers and ONLINE:
Nissen, H.J.
1986
‘The Archaic Texts from Uruk’. World Archaeology 17: 348-362
Nissen, H.J. et al.
1993
Archaic Bookkeeping: Early Writing and Techniques of Economic
Administration in the Ancient Near East. (Chicago & London:
Chicago University Press) INST ARCH DBA 600 NIS, ANCIENT HISTORY
http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/124700.pdf
INST ARCH Pers and ONLINE: http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/124698.pdf
B 4 NIS
Postgate, N.J.
1992
Early Mesopotamia (London & New York: Routledge, chapter 3).
INST ARCH DBB 100 POS, ISSUE DESK IOA POS 2
Links to relevant online presentations
Andrew Sherratt
Environmental Change: the evolution of Mesopotamia
Andrew Sherratt
Obsidian Trade in the Near East, 14,000 to 6500 BC
Cameron Petrie, Somerville College, Oxford
Exploring Routes and Plains in Southwest Iran
Andrew Sherratt
Tellspotting
Special Option: Bibliography
Week 2: Social and Economic Foundations: Egypt
General
Hoffman, M.A.
1991
Egypt before the Pharaohs. Austin: University of Texas Press.
(Much of the archaeology is now out of date, but the sections on
the history of prehistoric studies in Egypt remain
important) EGYPTOLOGY B 11 HOF
Midant-Reynes, B.
2000
The Prehistory of Egypt. Oxford: Blackwell
(trans. I Shaw) EGYPTOLOGY B 11 MID, ISSUE DESK IOA MID 2
*Savage, S.
2004
‘Some recent trends in the archaeology of Predynastic Egypt’.
Journal of Archaeological Research 9: 101-155
INST ARCH Pers and ONLINE: Access from article title, ABOVE
Spencer, A.J.
1993
Early Egypt: the Rise of Civilization in the Nile Valley
London: British Museum (Simple, clear survey illustrated from the
British Museum collection)
Wengrow, D.
2006
The Archaeology of Early Egypt: Social Transformations in NorthEast Africa, 10,000-2650 BC. (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press) EGYPTOLOGY B 11 WEN, ISSUE DESK IOA WEN 7
Wilkinson, T.A.H.
2007
The Egyptian World. London: Routledge (chapters 1-5 provide
useful overviews of the main environmental zones: Nile valley,
delta, deserts, oases, and urban forms) EGYPTOLOGY A 5 WIL, ISSUE
DESK IoA WIL 10
Wilkinson, T.A.H.
1999
Early Dynastic Egypt (London: Routledge) EGYPTOLOGY B 12 WIL
Neolithic foundations
Hassan, F.A.
1988
‘The predynastic of Egypt’. Journal of World Prehistory 2: 135185 (partially outdated, but still a stimulating survey) INST ARCH
Pers
Hassan, F.A.
‘Holocene environmental change and the origins and spread of
food production in the Middle East’. Adumatu 1: 7-28. INST ARCH
Pers
Hendrickx, S. and
Vermeersch, P.
2000
‘Prehistory: from the Palaeolithic to the Badarian culture’. In I.
Shaw (ed.) The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, pp.17-44. EGYPTOLOGY B 5 SHA, ISSUE DESK IOA
SHA 5
*Wengrow, D.
2001
Rethinking ‘cattle cults’ in Early Egypt: Towards a prehistoric
perspective on the Narmer Palette. Cambridge Archaeological
Journal 11: 91-104. INST ARCH Pers, and ONLINE: clink link from article
title (above)
Wengrow, D.
2006
The Archaeology of Early Egypt: Social Transformations in NorthEast Africa, 10,000-2650 BC. (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, chapters 1-3) EGYPTOLOGY B 11 WEN, ISSUE DESK IOA WEN 7
Wetterstrom, W.
1993
‘Foraging and farming in Egypt: the transition from hunting and
gathering to horticulture in the Nile valley’. In T. Shaw et al. (eds.)
The Archaeology of Africa: food, metals, towns. London:
Routledge, 165-226. INST ARCH DC 100 SHA, ISSUE DESK IOA SHA 6
Nabta Playa and the controversy over early cattle domestication
Kuper, R. and
2006
Climate-controlled Holocene occupation in the Sahara: motor of
Africa's evolution. Science 313: 803-807. ONLINE: click link from article
title (above)
Wendorf, F. and
Schild, R.
1998
Nabta Playa and its role in Northeastern African prehistory
Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 17: 97-123. INST ARCH
Wendorf, F. and
2002
Implications of incipient social complexity in the Late Neolithic in
the Egyptian Sahara. In R. Friedman (ed.) Egypt and Nubia: Gifts
of the Desert. London: British Museum Press, pp.12-20. INST ARCH
Pers and ONLINE: click link from article title (above) and then ‘PDF’ option
HB Qto BRE
Wengrow, D.
2003
On desert origins for the ancient Egyptians. Antiquity 77: 597-601
(Review of ‘The Archaeology of Nabta Playa’, by F. Wendorf et
al.; ‘The Pottery of Nabta Playa’, by K. Nelson et al.; and ‘Genesis
of the Pharaohs’, by T. Wilkinson)
The ‘unification’ of Egypt: approaches to state formation
Bard, K.A.
1994
From Farmers to Pharaohs: mortuary evidence for the rise of
complex society in Egypt. (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press).
EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS E 7 BAR
Baines, J.
1995
‘Origins of Egyptian kingship’. In D. O’Connor and D.P.
Silverman (eds.), Ancient Egyptian Kingship. Leiden, New York,
Köln: E.J. Brill, 95-156. EGYPTOLOGY B 20 OCO
Savage, S.
1997
‘Descent group competition and economic strategies in
Predynastic Egypt’. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 16:
226-68. INST ARCH Pers and ONLINE: click link from article title (above) and
then ‘PDF’option
Wengrow, D.
2006
The Archaeology of Early Egypt: Social Transformations in NorthEast Africa, 10,000-2650 BC. (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, chapters 4-10) EGYPTOLOGY B 11 WEN, ISSUE DESK IOA WEN 7
The emergence of writing in Egypt
Baines, J.
2007
‘Communication and display: the integration of early Egyptian art
and writing’. In J. Baines, Visual and Written Culture in Ancient
Egypt. (Oxford: Oxford University Press) pp.281-297.
EGYPTOLOGY B 20 BAI and ISSUE DESK IOA BAI (original version in Antiquity
also available ONLINE at:
http://www.antiquity.ac.uk/Ant/063/0471/Ant0630471.pdf
Dreyer, G.
1998
Umm el-Qaab I. Das Prädynastische Königsgrab U-j und seine
frühen Schriftzeugnisse. (site report for Tomb U-j at Abydos: now
a key context for the study of early Egyptian writing). Mainz
am Rhein: Von Zabern. EGYPTOL. Quartos E 60 [86]
Kahl, J.
2001
‘Hieroglyphic writing during the fourth millennium BC: an
analysis of systems’. Archéo-Nil 11: 103-25. INST ARCH Pers
Postgate, N., Tao, W., The evidence for early writing: Utilitarian or ceremonial
and Wilkinson, T
Antiquity 69: 459-80. INST ARCH Pers and ONLINE: click link from article
1995
title (above)
Early contacts between Egypt and Mesopotamia
Frankfort, H.
1941
‘The origin of monumental architecture in Egypt’. American
Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures 58: 329-58.
ONLINE:
Moorey, P.R.S.
1987
http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/528818.pdf
‘On tracking cultural transfers in prehistory: the case of Egypt
and lower Mesopotamia in the fourth millennium BC’. In M.J.
Rowlands et al. (eds.) Centre and Periphery in the Ancient World.
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) pp.36-46. ISSUE DESK
ROW 3
Teissier, B.
‘Glyptic evidence for a connection between Iran, Syro-Palestine
1987
and Egypt in the fourth and third millennia’. Iran 25: 27-53. INST
ARCH Pers
Important collections and catalogues of predynastic/Early Dynastic material
Asselberghs, H.
1961
Chaos en Beheersing: documenten uit aeneolithisch Egypte.
Leiden: E.J. Brill. (good illustrations of late predynastic
ceremonial objects) EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS B 11 ASS
Baumgartel, E.J.
1955
The Cultures of Prehistoric Egypt. London: Oxford University
Press for Griffith Institute.
1960
The Cultures of Prehistoric Egypt II. London: Oxford University
Press for Griffith Institute. EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS B 11 BAU
(commentaries now often out of date, but still an important survey)
Needler, W.
1984
Predynastic and Archaic Egypt in the Brooklyn Museum.
Brooklyn, NY: The Brooklyn Museum. ISSUE DESK IOA BRO 11
Payne, J.C.
1993
Catalogue of the Predynastic Egyptian Collection in the
Ashmolean Museum. Oxford: Clarendon Press. EGYPTOLOGY
QUARTOS C 10 BRI
Links to relevant online presentations
Digital Egypt at UCL (based on the collections of the Petrie Museum)—this is a key
learning resource, which includes timelines, maps, and detailed descriptions of key sites
illustrated with material from the UCL collections:
http://www.petrie.ucl.ac.uk/index2.html
You can also search the online catalogue of the Petrie Museum at:
http://www.petrie.ucl.ac.uk/index2.html
Special Option: Bibliography
Week 3: Settlement Archaeology: Mesopotamia
General
Adams, R. Mc.
1981
Heartland of Cities (Chicago & London: University of Chicago
Press), INST ARCH DBB 100 ADA, ISSUE DESK IOA ADA 5
Chapter 2: ‘The recovery of ancient settlement and irrigation patterns’, INST
ARCH TC 3028
1965
Land Behind Baghdad. A History of Settlement on the Diyala
Plains. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. IOA DBB
400 Qto.ADA (especially pages 4-12)
Adams, R. Mc. and
Nissen, H.
1972
The Uruk Countryside: the Natural Setting of Urban Societies.
Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. INST ARCH DBB
Black, J.
2002
‘The Sumerians in their landscape’. In T.Abusch (ed.) Riches
Hidden in Secret Places. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 41-61
100 ADA
ANCIENT HISTORY (MAIN LIBRARY) D6 ABU
Crawford, H.
1991
Sumer and the Sumerians (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press; chapters 3-5) INST ARCH DBB 100 CRA
Postgate, J.N.
1994
‘How many Sumerians per hectare?’. Cambridge Archaeological
Journal 4: 47-65. INST ARCH Pers
Wilkinson, T.J.
2003
Archaeological landscapes of the Near East. Tucson: University of
Arizona Press. INST ARCH DBA 100 WIL (Chapter excerpt: INST ARCH TC
3184)
Uruk Period
Rothman, M.
2002
Tepe Gawra: the evolution of a small, prehistoric center in
northern Iraq. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania
INST ARCH DBB 10 ROT
Strommenger, E.
1980
Habuba Kabira—Ein Stadt vor 5000 Jahren. (Mainz: von Zabern)
INST ARCH DBD 10 STR
Early Dynastic
(a) Al-Hiba
Crawford, V.E.
‘Excavations in the Swamps of Sumer’. Expedition 14(2): 12-20
1972
INST ARCH Pers and ONLINE (click link via article title)
*Hansen, D.P.
1992
‘Royal Building Activity at Sumerian Lagash in the Early
Dynastic Period’. Biblical Archaeologist 55(4): 206-11
INST ARCH Pers and ONLINE (click link via article title)
(b) Abu Salabikh:
Postgate, J.N.
1989
‘Excavations at Abu Salabikh, 1988-89’. Iraq LII: 95-106. INST
Green, A.R. (ed.)
1993
Abu Salabikh Excavations 4: the 6G Ash-tip and its contents:
cultic and administrative discard from the temple? (London:
British School of Archaeology) INST ARCH DBB 10 Qto ABU
(c)
ARCH Pers
Tell Asmar (Eshnunna)
Frankfort, H.
1936
Fifth Preliminary Report of the Iraq Expedition (Oriental Institute
Communications no.20; Chicago: University of Chicago Press),
1-14. (N.B. pp.35-59 on subdivision of the Early Dynastic Period)
INST ARCH DBB 10 FRA
Evans, J.M.
2007
‘The Square Temple at Tell Asmar and the construction of Early
Dynastic Mesopotamia, ca. 2900–2350 B.C.E.’. American Journal
of Archaeology 111(4): 599-632. INST ARCH Pers
Hill, H.D. in
Delougaz, P. et al.
1967
Private Houses and Graves in the Diyala Region (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press), 143-266, 274-8; siteplan, pl.23
(d)
Tell Fara
Martin, H.P.
1988
(e)
INST ARCH DBB 10 Qto Series ORI 88
Fara: a reconstruction of the ancient Mesopotamian city of
Shuruppak. Birmingham: Chris Martin. INST ARCH DBB 10 Qto MAR
Nippur
*Gibson, McG.
1993
‘Patterns of occupation at Nippur’. In Ellis, M. de Jong (ed.)
Nippur at the Centennial (Philadelphia: University Museum)
STORE 06-0829 and ONLINE at:
http://oi.uchicago.edu/research/projects/nip/#Articles
1993
‘Nippur, Sacred City of Enlil, Supreme God of Sumer and Akkad’,
al-Rafidan XIV: 1-18. INST ARCH Pers and ONLINE at:
http://oi.uchicago.edu/research/projects/nip/#Articles
MacMahon, A.
2006
Nippur V: the Early Dynastic to Akkadian Transition. (Chicago:
Oriental Institute) INST ARCH DBB 10 Qto NIP
Special Option: Bibliography
Week 4: Settlement Archaeology: Egypt
General
Bietak, M.
1979
‘Egyptology and the urban setting’. In K. Weeks (ed.) Egyptology
and the Social Sciences. Cairo: American University in Cairo
Press, pp.95-139. EGYPTOLOGY A 6 WEE, INST ARCH WEE
Butzer, K.W.
1978
‘Perspectives on irrigation civilization in Pharaonic Egypt;. In D.
Schmandt-Besserat (ed.) Immortal Egypt (University of Texas at
Austin), pp.13-18. EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS A 6 SCH
Kees, H.
1977
Ancient Egypt: a Cultural Topography. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press. EGYPTOLOGY A 20 KEE
Kemp, B.J.
1989
Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization (London: Routledge),
pp.65-83, 138-149 EGYPTOLOGY B 5 KEM, ISSUE DESK IOA KEM
O’Connor, D.
1992
‘The status of early Egyptian temples: an alternative theory’ (i.e. to
Kemp’s). In R. Friedman and B. Adams (eds.) The Followers of
Horus. Oxford: Oxbow, pp.83-86. EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS A 6 FRI,
ISSUE DESK IOA FRI 4
Trigger, B.G.
2003
Understanding Early Civilizations. (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press) INST ARCH BC 100 TRI, ISSUE DESK IOA TRI 8
Wilson, J.
1960
‘Civilization without cities’. In C.H. Kraeling and R.M. Adams
(eds.) City Invincible. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press)
ANCIENT HISTORY A 64 KRA
1955
Buto and Hierakonpolis in the Geography of Egypt. Journal of
Near Eastern Studies 14: 209-236. CLASSICS PERS and ONLINE: click
link to article title, ABOVE
Giza Plateau and Workers’ Town
Hawass, Z.
1996
‘The workmen’s community at Giza’. In M. Bietak (ed.) Haus und
Palast im alten Ägypten/ House and Palace in Ancient Egypt.
Vienna: Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, pp.5368. EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS K6 BIE
Lehner, M. and
Wetterstrom, W.
(eds.)
2007
Giza reports: the Giza Plateau mapping project. Volume 1. Boston:
Ancient Egypt Research Associates. EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS E 100
GIZ
Redding, R.W.
1992
‘Egyptian Old Kingdom patterns of animal use and the value of
faunal data in modelling socioeconomic systems’. Paléorient 18(2):
99-107 (includes evidence from Giza) INST ARCH Pers
*Browse online reports and images at: http://oi.uchicago.edu/research/projects/giz/
And at: http://www.aeraweb.org/gpmp_home.asp
The latter site includes a large number of online publications (see ‘Resources’ section).
The following is essential reading:
*Lehner, M.
2002
The Pyramid Age Settlement of the Southern Mount at Giza
Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 39 (2002): 2774 (INST ARCH PERS or click link from title above)
Eastern Delta sites
Ciałowicz, K.M.
2007.
Ivory and Gold: Beginnings of the Egyptian Art. Poznan:
Prehistoric Society. [summary of recent work at Tell el-Farkha,
with colour illustrations] EGYPTOLOGY M 20 CIA
Van Haarlem, W.M.
2001.
Tell Ibrahim Awad. Egyptian Archaeology 18: 33-5.
INST ARCH Pers
Kom el-Hisn (Western Delta)
Cagle, A.
2003
The Spatial Structure of Kom el-Hisn: An Old Kingdom Town in
the Western Nile Delta, Egypt. Oxford: Archeopress. EGYPTOLOGY
QUARTOS E 100 CAG, and also available at:
http://www.acagle.net/dissertation/disspage.html
Moens, M.-F. and
1988
‘The agricultural economy of an Old Kingdom town in Egypt’s
west delta: insights from plant remains’. Journal of Near Eastern
Studies 47: 159-73. CLASSICS Pers, and ONLINE:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/544958.pdf
Wenke, R. et al.
1988
‘Kom el Hisn: Excavation of an Old Kingdom Settlement in the
Egyptian Delta’. Journal of the American Research Center in
Egypt 25: 5-34.
Wenke, R. and
Brewer, D.J.
1996
‘The Archaic-Old Kingdom Delta: the evidence from Mendes and
Kom el-Hisn’. In M. Bietak (ed.) Haus und Palast im alten
Ägypten/ House and Palace in Ancient
Egypt.Vienna: Österreichischen Akademie der
Wissenschaften, pp.265-86. EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS K6 BIE
Sais (Western Delta)
See online reports at:
*http://www.dur.ac.uk/penelope.wilson/sais.html
Buto (Western Delta)
See online reports at:
*http://www.dainst.org/index_52_en.html
Hierakonpolis
Fairservis, W.A.Jr. Excavation of the Archaic Remains East of the Niched Gate,
1986
Season of 1981. The Hierakonpolis Project, Occasional Papers in
Anthropology 3. (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.: Vassar College)
EGYPTOLOGY E 100 FAI
Hoffman, M.A.
1976
‘The City of the Hawk: Seat of Egypt’s Ancient Civilization’.
Expedition 18(3): 32-41 INST ARCH Pers
Hoffman, M.A.
et al.
1986
‘A model of urban development for the Hierakonpolis region from
predynastic through Old Kingdom times’. Journal of the American
Research Center in Egypt 23: 175-187 INST ARCH Pers
And consult back issues of Nekhen News at INST ARCH Pers and ONLINE:
http://www.hierakonpolis.org/
Elephantine
Seidlmayer, S.J.
1996
‘Town and state in the early Old Kingdom. A view from
Elephantine’. In A.J. Spencer (ed.) Aspects of Early Egypt.
London: British Museum, 108-27, pls. 22-3. EGYPTOLOGY
QUARTOS A 6 SPE
Seidlmayer, S.J.
1996
‘Die Staatliche Anlage der 3. Dyn. in der Nordweststadt von
Elephantine. Archäologische und historische Probleme’. In M.
Bietak (ed.) Haus und Palast im alten Ägypten/ House and Palace
in Ancient Egypt. Vienna: Österreichischen Akademie der
Wissenschaften, pp.195-214. EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS K6 BIE
Ziermann, M.
1994
Elephantine XVI: Befestigungsanlagen und Stadtentwicklung in
der Frühzeit und im frühen Alten Reich. Mainz am Rhein: Philipp
von Zabern. EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS E 60 [87]
Ain Asil, Dakhleh Oasis
Soukiassian G.
1997
‘A governor’s palace at ‘Ayn Asil, Dakhla Oasis’. Egyptian
Archaeology 11: 15-7. INST ARCH PERS
Special Option: Bibliography
Week 5: Mortuary Archaeology: Mesopotamia
Cohen, A.C.
2005
Death Rituals, Ideology and the Development of Early
Mesopotamian Kingship. Leiden: Brill. INST ARCH DBB 100 COH
Delougaz, P. et al.
1967
Private Houses and Graves in the Diyala Region (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press) INST ARCH DBB 10 Qto Series ORI 88
Forest, J.D.
1983
Les Pratiques funéraires en Mésopotamie du Vème millénaire au
début du III ème. (Paris: Editions Recherche sur les civilisations)
INST ARCH DBB 100 FOR
Foxvog, D.A
1980
‘Funerary furnishings in an early Sumerian text from Adab’. In B.
Alster (ed.) Death in Mesopotamia (Copenhagen Studies in
Assyriology), pp.67-75. INST ARCH DBB Series REN 26, ANCIENT
HISTORY D 6 REN
Gansell, A.R.
2002
Identity and Adornment in the Third-millennium BC
Mesopotamian Royal Cemetery at Ur’. Cambridge Archaeological
Journal 17(1): 29-46 INST ARCH Pers and ONLINE (click first line of title,
above)
Laneri, N.
1999
‘Intramural tombs: a funerary tradition of the Middle Euphrates
valley during the IIIrd millennium BC’. Anatolica 25: 221-41. INST
ARCH Pers
Laneri, N. (ed.)
2007
Performing Death: Social Analyses of Funerary Traditions in the
Ancient Near East and Mediterranean. Chicago: Oriental Institute
(especially chapter by S. Pollock) INST ARCH DBA 100 LAN
Kramer, S.N.
1967
‘The death of Urnammu’. Journal of Cuneiform Studies 21: 10422. INST ARCH Pers and ONLINE:
http://www.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-0256(1967)21%3C104%3E1.0.CO;2-
Marchesi, G.
2004
‘Who was buried in the Royal Tombs of Ur? The epigraphic and
textual data’. Orientalia 73: 153-97. INST ARCH Pers
Martin, H.P. et al.
1985
Abu Salabikh Excavations 2: Graves 1-99. London: British School
of Archaeology in Iraq. INST ARCH DBB 10 Qto ABU
Michalowski, P.
‘The death of Shulgi’. Orientalia 46: 220-35. INST ARCH Pers
*Moorey, P.R.S.
1977
‘What do we know about the people buried in the Royal Cemetery
Ur’. Expedition 20(1): 24-40. INST ARCH Pers and ONLINE at:
http://www.museum.upenn.edu/new/Zine/20.1.shtml (see also
accompanying essay by S.N.Kramer: ‘The Ur Excavations and Sumerian
Literature’)
Moorey, P.R.S.
1966
‘A reconsideration of the excavations at Tell Ingharra (East Kish)’.
Iraq 28: 18-51 INST ARCH Pers
1970
‘Cemetery A at Kish: grave groups and chronology’. Iraq 32: 86120 INST ARCH Pers
1978
Kish Excavations 1923-1933. Oxford: Clarendon Press. INST ARCH
DBB 10 MOO
Pollock, S.
1991
‘Of priestesses, princes and poor relations: the dead in the Royal
Cemetery at Ur’. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 1(2): 171-89.
INST ARCH Pers
*Porter, A.
2002
‘The Dynamics of Death: ancestors, pastoralism, and the origins of
a third-millennium city in Syria’. Bulletin of the American Schools
of Oriental Research 325: 1-36. INST ARCH Pers and ONLINE at:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/1357712.pdf
Postgate, J.N.
1980
‘Early Dynastic burial customs at Abu Salabikh’. Sumer 36: 65-82
Sürenhagen, D.
2002
‘Death in Mesopotamia: the ‘Royal Tombs’ of Ur revisited’. In L.
Al-Gailani Werr et al. (eds.) Of Pots and Plans. London: NABU,
pp.324-338, INST ARCH DBA 100 Qto GAI
Woolley, C.L.
1934
Ur Excavations 2: The Royal Cemetery. London: British
Museum. INST ARCH DBB 10 Qto Series UR EXC 2
Woolley, C.L.
1982
Ur ‘of the Chaldees’ (revised by P.R.S. Moorey). New York:
Cornell University Press. ISSUE DESK IOA WOO 3
Zettler, R.L. and
Horne, L.
1998
Treasures from the Royal Tombs of Ur. Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press. INST ARCH DBB 300 ZET
INST ARCH Pers
Special Option: Bibliography
Week 6: Mortuary Archaeology: Egypt
*Bárta, M.
2004
‘Location of the Old Kingdom pyramids in Egypt’. Cambridge
Archaeological Journal 15: 177-191 INST ARCH PERS and ONLINE
[access from title, above]
Edwards, I.E..S.
1993
The Pyramids of Egypt (revised edition; London: Penguin)
Emery, W.B.
1962
Archaic Egypt (London: Penguin)
Harpur, Y.
1987
Decoration in Egyptian Tombs of the Old Kingdom: Studies in
Orientation and Scene Content (London & New York: KPI)
EGYPTOLOGY K 7 EDW
EGYPTOLOGY B 11 EME
EGYPTOLOGY M 20 HAR
Hart, G.
1991
Pharaohs and Pyramids: a guide through Old Kingdom Egypt.
(London: Herbert) EGYPTOLOGY K 7 HAR
Hawass, Z.
1995
‘Programs of the royal funerary complexes of the Fourth Dynasty’.
In D. O’Connor and D. Silverman (eds.) Ancient Egyptian
Kingship. Leiden: Brill, 221-262. EGYPTOLOGY B 20 OCO
Kemp, B.J.
1989
Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization (London: Routledge)
chapter 3: section on Giza. EGYPTOLOGY B 5 KEM, INST ARCH KEM
Lauer, J.P.
1976
Saqqara—the royal cemetery at Memphis—excavations and
discoveries since 1850 (London: Thames & Hudson)
EGYPTOLOGY E 100 LAU
Lehner, M.
1985
*1997
‘A contextual approach to the Giza pyramids’. Archiv für
Orientforschung Afo 32: 136-158 INST ARCH Pers
The Complete Pyramids. (London: Thames & Hudson)
EGYPTOLOGY K 7 LEH, ISSUE DESK IOA LEH (early chapters)
*O’Connor, D.
1973
‘Political systems and archaeological data in Egypt: 2600-1780
BC’. World Archaeology 6: 15-38 INST ARCH Pers and ONLINE:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/124176.pdf
Reisner, G.A.
1935
The Development of the Egyptian Tomb down to the accession of
Cheops. (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press)
EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS K 7 REI
Simpson, W.K.
1978
‘Aspects of Egyptian art: function and aesthetic’. In D. SchmandtBesserat (ed.) Immortal Egypt (Malibu: Undena), pp.19-25.
EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS A 6 SCH
Spencer, A.J.
Death in Ancient Egypt (London: Penguin) EGYPTOLOGY B 20 SPE
Taylor, J.H.
2001
Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt (London: British
Museum) EGYPTOLOGY R 5 TAY
Special Option: Bibliography
Week 7: Art and Imagery: Mesopotamia
Amiet, P.
1980a
La glyptique mésopotamienne archaique (2nd ed. Paris: ECNRS)
1980b
Art of the Ancient Near East. (New York: H.N. Abrams) ANCIENT
INST ARCH KG Qto AMI
HISTORY QUARTOS B 52 AMI
Black, J. and
A. Green 1992
Gods, Demons, and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia: an
illustrated dictionary. (London: British Museum) INST ARCH DBB
200 BLA, ANCIENT HISTORY D 73 BLA
Collon, D.
1987
1995
First Impressions: Cylinder Seals in the Ancient Near East.
(London: British Museum) INST ARCH KG COL
Ancient Near Eastern Art (London: British Museum) INST ARCH
DBA 300 COL, ISSUE DESK IOA COL 12, ANCIENT HISTORY B 52 COL
Frankfort, H.
1939
1939
Cylinder Seals: a documentary essay on the art and religion of the
ancient Near East. (London: Macmillan) INST ARCH KG FRA
Sculpture of the third millennium B.C. from Tell Asmar and
Khafajah. Chicago : University of Chicago Press
INST ARCH DBB 10 Qto Series ORI 44
1943
More Sculpture from the Diyala Region. Chicago : University of
Chicago Press. INST ARCH DBB 10 Qto FRA
1996
The Art and Architecture of the Ancient Orient (5th ed., New
Haven, London: Yale University Press) INST ARCH DBA 300 FRA,
INST ARCH FRA 5, and ISSUE DESK
Furlong, I.
1987
Divine Headdresses of Mesopotamia in the Early Dynastic Period
(Oxford: BAR). INST ARCH DBB 300 FUR
Moortgat, H.
1969
The Art of Ancient Mesopotamia (London: Phaidon) INST ARCH
Nadali, D.
2007
‘Monuments of war, war of monuments: some considerations on
commemorating war in the 3rd millennium BC’. Orientalia 76(4):
336-367. INST ARCH Pers
*Winter, I.J.
1985
(see course
‘After the battle is over: the Stele of the Vultures and the beginning
of historical narrative in the art of the ancient Near East’. In H.L.
Kersler and M.S. Simpson (eds.) Pictorial Narrative in Antiquity
DBB 300 MOO, ISSUE DESK IOA MOO 12
coordinator)
and the Middle Ages. (Washington: National Gallery of Art)
Schmandt-Besserat, ‘Images of Enship’. In M. Frangipane et al. (eds.) Between the
D. 1993
Rivers and Over the Mountains. (Rome: La Sapienza) INST ARCH
DBA 100 Qto PAL
And supplied reading for object analysis (supplied by Course Coordinator)
Special Option: Bibliography: Week 8: Art and Imagery: Egypt
*Baines, J.
1989
‘Communication and display: the integration of early Egyptian
art and writing’. Antiquity 63: 471-82 INST ARCH Pers and ONLINE:
click title-link (above), revised and updated version also available in J. Baines
(2007) Visual and written culture in ancient Egypt (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, EGYPTOLOGY B 20 BAI, ISSUE DESK IOA BAI)
1994
‘On the status and purposes of ancient Egyptian art’. Cambridge
Archaeological Journal 4: 67-94 INST ARCH Pers, revised and updated
version also available in J. Baines (2007) Visual and written culture in ancient
Egypt (Oxford: Oxford University Press, EGYPTOLOGY B 20 BAI, ISSUE DESK
IOA BAI)
Bolshakov, A.O.
1997
Man and his Double in Egyptian Ideology of the Old Kingdom.
(Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz) EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS R 5 BOL
Davis, W.
1992
Masking the Blow: the Scene of Representation in Late Prehistoric
Egyptian Art. (Berkeley: University of California Press)
EGYPTOLOGY M 5 DAV, ISSUE DESK IOA DAV 9
1989
The Canonical Tradition in Ancient Egyptian Art (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press) EGYPTOLOGY M 20 DAV, ISSUE DESK
IOA DAV 7
Eaton-Krauss
M. 1984
The Representations of Statuary in Private Tombs in the Old
Kingdom (Wiesbaden : Harrassowitz) EGYPTOLOGY M 10 EAT
GroenewegenFrankfort, H.A.
1951
Arrest and Movement: an essay on space and time in the
representational art of the ancient Near East. (London: Faber &
Faber, Introduction and chapters I-II) INST ARCH DBA 300 GRO
Hayes, W.C.
1953
The Scepter of Egypt I: From Earliest Times to the end of the Old
Kingdom. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press)
EGYPTOLOGY A 5 HAY
Schäfer, H.
1986
Principles of Egyptian Art (translated and edited, with an
introduction by John Baines: revised edition; Oxford: Clarendon
Press); also available in 2nd revised edition, EGYPTOLOGY M 5 SCH,
ISSUE DESK IOA SCH 10
Stevenson Smith, W. A History of Egyptian Sculpture and Painting in the Old Kingdom
1949
(London: Oxford University Press) EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS M 5 SMI
Stevenson Smith, W. The Art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt (London: Yale
1998
University Press, 4th edition) EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS K 5 SMI, INST
ARCH SMI 10 (early chapters)
And supplied reading for object analysis (supplied by Course Coordinator)
Special Option: Bibliography
Week 9: The Archaeology of Written Documents: Egypt
Allen, J.
2005
‘The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts’. Translated with an
introduction and notes. Writing from the ancient world 23. Atlanta,
Ga.: Society of Biblical Literature. EGYPTOLOGY V 30 ALL
*Baines, J.
1983
‘Literacy and ancient Egyptian society’. Man 18: 572-99
1989
Fischer, H.
1968
Science ANTHROPOLOGY Pers and ONLINE:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/2801598.pdf
‘Ancient Egyptian concepts and uses of the past: 3rd to 2nd
millennium BC evidence’. In R. Layton (ed.) Who Needs the Past?
Indigenous Values and Archaeology (London: Unwin Hyman),
pp131-149. INST ARCH BD LAY, ISSUE DESK IOA LAY 3
Dendera in the Third Millennium B.C. down to the Theban
Domination of Upper Egypt. New York : Augustin
EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS B 5 FIS
Lichtheim, M.
1975
Ancient Egyptian Literature: A Book of Readings I: The Old and
Middle Kingdoms. (Berkeley: University of California Press)
EGYPTOLOGY V 20 LIC
*Loprieno, A.
2003
‘Travel and fiction in Egyptian Literature’. In D.O’Connor and
S.Quirke (eds.) Mysterious Lands (London: UCL Press), pp.31-52
EGYPTOLOGY B 20 OCO, ISSUE DESK IOA OCO
1996 (ed.)
Ancient Egyptian Literature: History and Forms. (Leiden: Brill;
read selectively for general analyses and commentaries on early
texts) EGYPTOLOGY V10 LOP
Redford, D.
1986
Pharaonic King-Lists, Annals and Day-Books (Mississauga:
Benben) EGYPTOLOGY B20 RED
Regulski, I.
2009
The beginning of Hieratic Writing in Egypt. Studien zur
altägyptischen Kultur 38: 259 – 274.
Roth, A.M.
1991
Egyptian Phyles in the Old Kingdom: the Evolution of a System of
Social Organization. Chicago, Ill. : Oriental Institute of the
University of Chicago. EGYPTOLOGY B 20 ROT
Simpson, W.K. et al. The Literature of Ancient Egypt: an Anthology of Stories,
2003
Instructions, Stelae, Autobiographies, and Poetry (London: Yale
University Press) EGYPTOLOGY V 20 SIM
Strudwick, N.C.
2005
Texts from the Pyramid Age. (Atlanta: Society for Biblical
Literature) EGYPT T 6 STR
Wente, E.
1990
Letters from Ancient Egypt (Atlanta: Scholars Press)
*Wengrow, D.
2011
‘The invention of writing in Egypt’. In E. Teeter ed.
Before the Pyramids (Chicago: Oriental Institute), pp.103-8.
EGYPTOLOGY V 50 WEN
EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS B 11 TEE, and online at:
http://oi.uchicago.edu/pdf/oimp33.pdf
Wodzinska, A.
Potmarks from Early Dynastic Buto and Old Kingdom Giza: Their
2009
occurrence and economic significance. Available at:
http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/publications/online_journals/bmsaes/issue_13/w
odzinska.aspx
*And see also Petrie Museum webpage links and display relating to the Abusir Papyri:
http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/abughurab/abusir.html
Special Option: Bibliography
Week 10: The Archaeology of Written Documents: Mesopotamia
Cooper, J.
1983
Reconstructing History from Ancient Inscriptions: the
Umma/Lagash War (Malibu: Undena) ANCIENT HISTORY QUARTOS
D 14 COO
1986
Sumerian and Akkadian Inscriptions I: Pre-Sargonic Inscriptions.
(Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns) ANCIENT HISTORY D 4 COO
Dalley, S.
2000
Myths from Mesopotamia. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Edzard, D.O.
1994
‘Sumerian Epic: epic or fairy tale?’. Canadian Society for
Mesopotamian Studies, Bulletin 27 (May): 7-14. SOAS Library, Pers
INST. ARCH. DBA 610 DAL
Per 5L /660366
Foster, B.R.
2001
The Epic of Gilgamesh (New York & London: Norton)
Gelb, I.J. et al.
1989-1991
Earliest Land Tenure Systems in the Near East: Ancient Kudurrus
Chicago : Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago
SOAS Library, QED892.1 /822597
INST ARCH DBA 600 Qto GEL
Jacobsen, T.
1939
*1943
The Sumerian King List (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
INST ARCH DBB 200 JAC
‘Primitive democracy in ancient Mesopotamia’. Journal of Near
Eastern Studies 2: 159-172. CLASSICS Pers and ONLINE:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/542482.pdf
also: reprinted in W.L. Moran (ed.) 1972 Toward the Image of
Tammuz (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, and see also:
‘Early political development in Mesopotamia’) INST ARCH DBA 600
JAC, ANCIENT HISTORY D 6 JAC
Katz, D.
1993
Gilgamesh and Akka (for introductory sections on the relationship
of literary tradition and historicity) ANCIENT HISTORY D 79 GIL:K
Matthews, R.J.
1993
Cities, Seals and Writing: Archaic Seal Impressions from Jamdat
Nasr and Ur (Berlin: Mann) Issue Desk IOA MAT 1
*Michalowski, P.
1983
‘History as charter: some observations on the Sumerian King List’.
Journal of the American Oriental Society 103: 237-48.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/601880.pdf
Postgate, J.N.
1984
‘Cuneiform catalysts: the first information revolution’.
Archaeological Review from Cambridge 3: 4-18. INST ARCH Pers
1992
Early Mesopotamia (London: Routledge), passim (use the index).
INST ARCH DBB 100 POS, ISSUE DESK IOA POS 2
Steinkeller, P.
2002
‘Archaic city seals and the question of early Babylonian unity’. In
T.Abusch (ed.) Riches Hidden in Secret Places. (Winona Lake:
Eisenbrauns) ANCIENT HISTORY D 6 ABU
Vanstiphout, H.L.J.
2005
Epics of Sumerian Kings: The Matter of Aratta (Atlanta: Society of
Biblical Literature) ANCIENT HISTORY D 79 VAN
Key web resources
The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, Oxford University
http://www-etcsl.orient.ox.ac.uk/#
UCLA Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative:
http://cdli.ucla.edu/?section=collections
ASSESSMENTS
This course is assessed by means of two essays, each of between 2,375-2,625 words. Each
essay contributes 50% to the final grade for the course. Essay titles are to be chosen from
the selection below. All essays are to be submitted to the Course Co-ordinator (David
Wengrow) via the front desk at the Institute of Archaeology, by the following deadlines:
Essay 1 – WEDNESDAY 18th February, 2015
Essay 2 – WEDNESDAY 18th March, 2015
Please ensure that you copy the whole and exact title at the beginning of your
essay (Note: although most of the topics address either Egypt or Mesopotamia you are
encouraged to bring comparative insights and evidence from one region into the
discussion of the other wherever this seems useful and instructive)
Week 1
Social and Economic Foundations: Mesopotamia
EITHER: What developments in the villages of Mesopotamia before about 3500
BC would you identify as significant for the precocious development of towns in
Sumer and Susiana thereafter?
OR: What do you understand by the phrase ‘The Uruk Expansion’, c.3500-3000
BC? How would you explain it?
Week 2
Social and Economic Foundations: Egypt
EITHER: It has been argued by Kemp that state formation in Egypt took place ‘in
the absence of some of the more obvious factors’. What do you take this to mean,
and do you agree?
OR: How far do environmental factors explain the remarkable transformation of
Egyptian society between c.5000-3000 BC? What other factors should be brought
into account?
Week 3
Settlement Archaeology: Mesopotamia
What is the primary archaeological evidence for current reconstructions of the
emergence of city-states in Sumer in Early Dynastic I-III? What do we know
about their layout and institutions?
Week 4
Settlement Archaeology: Egypt
What light does the debate between Kemp and O’Connor over the status of
temples in the Protodynastic Period and Old Kingdom throw on the role of
towns in Egypt at this time?
Week 5
Mortuary Archaeology: Mesopotamia
To what extent does the “Royal Cemetery” at Ur illustrate Sumerian social
structure and attitudes to death?
Week 6
Mortuary Archaeology: Egypt
EITHER: What does the development of royal tombs tell us about the role of the
ruler and royal ideology in Old Kingdom Egypt?
OR: What do the primary elements in the interior decoration of mastaba tombs
reveal about Egyptian life and belief in the Old Kingdom (c.2650-2150 BC)?
Week 7
Art and Imagery: Mesopotamia
What are the main themes in Early Dynastic relief sculpture and seals? What do
they tell us of the cultural and historical conditions in which they were
produced?
Week 8
Art and Imagery: Egypt
How far can the main forms of art and imagery in Old Kingdom Egypt be
explained in terms of their religious functions?
Week 9
Written Documents: Egypt
What do you understand by the term ‘Egyptian literature’ in the Old Kingdom?
Week 10
Written Documents: Mesopotamia
What are the strengths and weaknesses of the written documents from which
Sumerian history, c.3000-2350 BC is currently reconstructed?