Seminar: The Chalcolithic Period in the Near East
Tuesday, 24 March, Topic 2: Ubaid period: politically and socially egalitarian or hierarchical?
Wright, Henry (1994 [1983]) Prestate political formations. In Chiefdoms and Early States in
the Near East: The Organizational Dynamics of Complexity, G. Stein und M. Rothman (ed.),
pp. 67-84. Madison: Prehistory Press.
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Stein, Gil (1994) Economy, ritual, and power in ‘Ubaid Mesopotamia. In Chiefdoms and Early
States in the Near East: The Organizational Dynamics of Complexity, G. Stein und M.
Rothman (eds.), pp. 35-46. Madison: Prehistory Press.
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Gurdil, Bekir (2010) Exploring social organizational aspects of the Ubaid communities: a case
study of Değirmentepe in eastern Turkey. In Beyond the Ubaid: Transformation and
Integration in the Late Prehistoric Societies of the Middle East, Robert Carter and Graham
Philip (eds.), pp. 361-375. Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization 63. Chicago: Oriental
Institute of the University of Chicago.
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Wednesday, 25 March, Topic 3: Ubaid period: localized/regional economies and interregional interactions
Stein, Gil und Rana Özbal (2007) A tale of two oikumenai: variation in the expansionary
dynamics of ‘Ubaid and Uruk Mesopotamia. In Settlement and Society: Ecology, Urbanism,
Trade and Technology in Mesopotamia and Beyond (Robert McC. Adams Festschrift),
Elizabeth Stone (ed.), pp. 329-342. Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology.
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Pollock, Susan (2010) Practices of daily life in fifth-millennium B.C. Iran and Mesopotamia. In
Beyond the Ubaid: Transformation and Integration in the Late Prehistoric Societies of the
Middle East, Robert Carter and Graham Philip (eds.), pp. 93-112. Studies in Ancient Oriental
Civilization 63. Chicago: Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.
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Carter, Robert (2008) Excavations and Ubaid-Period Boat Remains at H3, As-Sabiyah
(Kuwait). In Intercultural Relations Between South and Southwest Asia. Studies in
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Commemoration of E.C.L. During Caspers (1934-1996), E. Olijdam & R.H. Spoor, eds., pp. 92102. BAR International Series 1826.
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Oates, Joan (1977) Seafaring Merchants of Ur? Antiquity 51: 221-234.
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Thursday, 26 March, Topic 4: Uruk period, a culture-historical overview
Nissen, Hans (2002) Uruk: key site of the period and key site of the problem. In Artefacts of
Complexity: Tracking the Uruk in the Near East, J. Nicholas Postgate (ed.), pp. 1-16.
Warminster: Aris & Phillips.
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van Driel, Govert (2002) Jebel Aruda: Variations on a Late Uruk Domestic Theme. In Artefacts
of Complexity: Tracking the Uruk in the Near East, J. Nicholas Postgate (ed.), pp. 191-205.
Warminster: Aris & Phillips.
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Monday, 30 March, Topic 5: Uruk period: tributary economies, specialization, and the
growth of dependent labor
Bernbeck, Reinhard (2009) Class Conflict in Ancient Mesopotamia: Between Knowledge of
History and Historicising Knowledge. Anthropology of the Middle East 4: 33-64.
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Frangipane, Marcella (2010) Arslantepe. Growth and collapse of an early centralised system:
the archaeological evidence. In Economic Centralisation in Formative States. The
Archaeological Reconstruction of the Economic System in 4th Millennium Arslantepe, Marcella
Frangipane (ed.), pp. 23-42. Rome: Sapienza Università di Roma Dipartimento di Scienze
Storiche Archeologiche e Antropologiche dell’ Antichità.
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Frangipane, Marcella (2010) The political economy of the early central institutions at
Arslantepe. Concluding remarks. In Economic Centralisation in Formative States. The
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Archaeological Reconstruction of the Economic System in 4th Millennium Arslantepe, Marcella
Frangipane (ed.), pp. 289-307. Rome: Sapienza Università di Roma.
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Tuesday, 31 March, Topic 6: “Uruk expansion,” “Sumerian takeoff,” long-distance exchange
Algaze, Guillermo (2007) The Sumerian takeoff. In Settlement and Society: Ecology,
Urbanism, Trade and Technology in Mesopotamia and Beyond (Robert McC. Adams
Festschrift), Elizabeth Stone (ed.), pp. 343-368. Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology.
see also: Adams, Robert McCormick (2005) Critique of Guillermo Algaze’s “The
Sumerian Takeoff”. Structure and Dynamics: eJournal of Anthropological and Related
Sciences 1(1). http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/5m8043vf.
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Stein, Gil (2001) Indigenous social complexity at Hacinebi (Turkey) and the organization of
Uruk colonial contact. In Uruk Mesopotamia & Its Neighbors: Cross-Cultural Interactions in
the Era of State Formation, Mitchell Rothman (ed.), pp. 265-305. Santa Fe: School of
American Research.
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Rothman, Mitchell and Virginia Badler (2011) Contact and Development in Godin Period VI.
In On the High Road. The History of Godin Tepe, Iran, Hilary Gopnik and Mitchell Rothman,
with contributions by Robert Henrickson and Virginia Badler. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda. Read
pp. 82-137.
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Wednesday, 1 April, Topic 7: Recording, accounting, and the invention of writing
Nissen, Hans (1986) The archaic texts from Uruk. World Archaeology 17(3): 317-334.
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Englund, Robert (1998) Texts from the Late Uruk Period. In Mesopotamien: Späturuk-Zeit
und Frühdynastische Zeit, Josef Bauer, Robert Englund, and Manfred Krebernik, pp. 15-233.
Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 160/1. Freiburg: Universitätsverlag. Read pp. 15-41, 82-127.
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Dahl, Jacob. 2009. Early Writing in Iran: A Reappraisal. Iran 47:23-32.
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Thursday, 2 April, Topics 8-9: Representation of people; food and commensality
Pittman, Holly (1994) Towards an understanding of the role of glyptic imagery in the
administrative systems of Proto-literate Greater Mesopotamia. In Archives Before Writing,
Enrica Ferioli (ed.), pp. 177-210. Torino: Scriptorium.
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Pollock, Susan and Reinhard Bernbeck (2000) And they said, let us make gods in our image:
gendered ideologies in ancient Mesopotamia. In Reading the Body: Representations and
Remains in the Archaeological Record, Alison Rautman (ed.), pp. 150-64. Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press.
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Balossi Restelli, Francesca (2012) Eating at home and ‘dining’ out? Commensalities in the
Neolithic and Late Chalcolithic in the Near East. In Between Feasts and Daily Meals: Toward
an Archaeology of Commensal Spaces, Susan Pollock (ed.), e-Topoi Special Volume 2: 75-95.
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D’Anna, Maria Bianca & Carolin Jauß (2015) Cooking at 4th Millennium BCE Chogha Mish
(Iran) and Arslantepe (Turkey). Investigating the Social via the Material. In Commensality:
From Everyday Food to Feast, Susanne Kerner, Cynthia Chou & Morten Warmind (eds.).
London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
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Pollock, Susan (2012) Politics of food in early Mesopotamian centralized societies. Origini 24
n.s.: 153-168.
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Potts, Daniel (2009) Bevel-rim bowls and bakeries: evidence and explanations from Iran and
the Indo-Iranian Borderlands. Journal of Cuneiform Studies 61: 1-23.
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