Saggio sul culto e le aree sacre del Bronzo Medio a Ebl

The full release and circulation of excavation results often takes decades, thus slowing down progress in archaeology to a degree not in keeping with other scientific fields. The nonconformity of released data for digital processing also requires vast and costly data input and adaptation. Archaeology should face the cognitive challenges posed by digital environments, changing in scope and rhythm. We advocate the adoption of a synergy between recording techniques, field analytics, and a collaborative approach to create a new epistemological perspective, one in which research questions are constantly redefined through real-time, collaborative analysis of data as they are collected and/or searched for in an excavation. Since new questions are defined in science discourse after previous results have been disseminated and discussed within the scientific community, sharing evidence in remote with colleagues, both in the process of field collection and subsequent study, will be a key innovative feature, allowing a complex and real-time distant interaction with the scholarly community and leading to more rapid improvements in research agendas and queries.

This paper draws on the preliminary results of the QADIS survey project, conducted by the University of Bologna and the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage since 2016 in the Qadisiyah province. The project addresses phenomena related to anthropogenic transformation of landscapes in a region that was at the core of the early Mesopotamian urbanization process. Building upon the seminal work conducted by R. McC. Adams in the 1960 s and 1970 s, we implemented an integrated documentation technique to reconstruct at regional levels the changes in the dense network of human settlements and artificial water infrastructures characterizing the evolution of this archaeological landscape over time. The aim of the article is that of providing a finer-grained regional picture of 4^th and 3^rd millennium BC urban developments which can be useful for better conceptualizing the scale and pace of early Mesopotamian urbanism.

The processes of long-term urbanization in southern Mesopotamia are still insufficiently investigated, even though recent studies using large datasets and focusing on neighboring regions have paved the way to understanding the critical role of multiple variables in the shaping of settlement strategies by ancient human societies, among which climate change played an important role. In this paper, we tackle these issues by analyzing, within the new FloodPlains Web GIS project, a conspicuous amount of archaeological evidence collected over the past decades at approximately 5000 sites in southern Mesopotamia. We have measured modifications over time in a variety of demographic proxies generated through probabilistic approaches: our results show that the rapid climate changes, especially those that occurred around 5.2, 4.2, and 3.2 ka BP, may have contributed—in addition to other socioeconomic factors—to triggering the main urban and demographic cycles in southern Mesopotamia and that each cycle is characterized by specific settlement strategies in terms of the distribution and the dimension of the urban centers.

The top part of the famous basalt stele of Kubaba from Karkemish, made by Kamani around 790 BC, was discovered in 2015. This allows for a new discussion of the development of the iconography of the goddess. The stele completes the genealogy of the Karkemish rulers from the 9th century BC and includes the first mention of Sangara in hieroglyphic writing. Thanks to a study of archival materials in the British Museum and the rediscovery of additional stele fragments in the 1911-1920 dig house at the site, the later history of the monument now becomes better known.

The construction of dams represents an ever-growing threat to cultural heritage worldwide. Thousands of archaeological sites around the globe have been fully submerged or partially damaged by dams and other hydraulic infrastructures. Despite this dramatic scenario, the interest towards this issue by national and international institutions, archaeologists, cultural heritage experts, and local communities has been overshadowed by others, apparently more pressing ones, if not neglected altogether. The main drivers triggering the construction of dams and the destruction of archaeological sites include economic development and socio-political interests, often fostered by a low level of awareness of local populations towards heritage. The resulting damage ranges from the partial flooding of archaeological sites and their gradual erosion, to their complete flooding, as well as from the total or partial destruction due to the construction of dam-related infrastructures, to the dislocation and de-contextualisation of entire monuments. In order to counteract this widespread loss, it is necessary to improve current national and international legislations and to develop clear intervention protocols for the documentation and protection of archaeological sites, heritage monuments, and cultural landscapes in the event of flooding.