On salt, copper and gold: The origins of early mining and metallurgy in the Caucasus

On salt, copper and gold: The origins of early mining and metallurgy in the Caucasus

Marro, Catherine (editor)

Stöllner, Thomas (editor)

 

An international conference focused on the beginnings of mining and metallurgy in the Caucasus was organised in Tbilisi in June 16th-19th 2016 under the auspices of the National Museum of Georgia. This conference, which was funded by the Agence nationale de la recherche (France) and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Germany), aimed at discussing the intricate relationships between the emergence of mining and metallurgy, and the shaping of late prehistoric societies in south-western Asia. The Caucasus is renowned in Near Eastern archaeology for its wealth in natural resources, in particular in metal ores: for decades, scholars have surmised a specific causal relationships between the rise of complex, hierarchical societies in the Near‑East and the development of extractive metallurgy. Metallurgy, however, is only the most visible part of the story that accounts for the dramatic changes perceptible in south‑western Asia in the course of the 5th millennium BCE. Early mining, which is not restricted to metal-ore mining, certainly also had an impact in terms of economic networks, social dynamics, settlement patterns and regional integration, not only across the Caucasus, but also in the ancient Near and Middle East. Drawing on these fundamental questions, this book explores the socio-economic, technological and environmental background that favoured the rise of systematic mining and extractive metallurgy in the Caucasus at the end of the Chalcolithic. How far was early mining linked to the spread of specific subsistence strategies such as pastoral herding? Were mined resources mainly intended for local consumption or distributed throughout the Near East, towards Anatolia, Iran or Mesopotamia? Here are some of the issues that are discussed in the present volume, which contains 21 articles written by some of the most eminent specialists in Caucasian archaeology.

URI

https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/84070

DOI

10.4000/books.momeditions.12257

Webshop link

https://www.7switch.com/fr/ebo ...

ISBN

9782356681683, 9782356680747

Publisher

MOM Éditions

Publisher website

http://books.openedition.org/momeditions

Publication date and place

Lyon, 2021

Series

Archéologie(s),

Pages

476

Rights

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0

 

 

Mittanische und mittelassyrische Keramik: Eine chronologische, funktionale und produktionsökonomische Analyse

Mittanische und mittelassyrische Keramik: Eine chronologische, funktionale und produktionsökonomische Analyse

Pfälzner, Peter

 

Our knowledge of the Late Bronze Age utilitarian pottery of northern Mesopotamia has so far been based on a rather eclectic source material that did not offer anything approaching typological completeness and defied a more precise chronological classification. Moreover, the superficial impression hardly raised hope for improvement of the situation, since the material appeared rather stereotypical. This state of affairs, which was equivalent to a desideratum, is to be remedied with the present publication.

 

Unsere Kenntnis der spätbronzezeitlichen Gebrauchskeramik Nordmesopotamiens fußte bisher auf einem recht eklektischen Ausgangsmaterial, das keine annähernde typologische Vollständigkeit bot und sich einer genaueren zeitlichen Einteilung entzog. Der oberflächliche Eindruck ließ darüber hinaus kaum Hoffnung auf eine Verbesserung der Lage zu, weil das Material allzu stereotyp erschien. Diesem Zustand, der einem Desiderat gleichkam, soll mit der vorliegenden Publikation abgeholfen werden.

URI

https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/74544

DOI

doi:10.11588/propylaeum.87.84

ISBN

978-3-496-02505-4, 978-3-946654-18-6 (PDF)

Publisher

Reimer Verlag

Publisher website

http://www.reimer-mann-verlag.de/

Publication date and place

Berlin, 1995

Series

Berichte der Ausgrabung Tall Šēḫ Ḥamad, Dūr-Katlimmu (BATSH), 3

Classification

Rights

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

How to be an Assyriologist?

How to be an Assyriologist?

Dominique Charpin

 

Unlike works inherited from Greek or Roman Antiquity, writings from Mesopotamian civilization all come from excavations. Assyriologists work with clay tablets engraved with cuneiform characters. They piece together fragments of texts and organize them chronologically and geographically to gradually construct not only a political but also a social, economic and cultural history of Mesopotamia. The task is immense, and requires a multidisciplinary approach combining archaeology, epigraphy, philology, and history.

URI

https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/49606

DOI

10.4000/books.cdf.4922

ISBN

9782722604575

Publisher

Collège de France

Publisher website

http://books.openedition.org/cdf/

Publication date and place

2017

 

 

Personal Names in the Aramaic Inscriptions of Hatra

Personal Names in the Aramaic Inscriptions of Hatra

Marcato, Enrico

This book offers a comprehensive linguistic evaluation of the 376 personal names attested in the roughly 600 Aramaic inscriptions of Hatra, the famous Northern Mesopotamian city that flourished in the Parthian age, between the 1st century BC and the 3rd century AD. This study benefits from the publication of many Hatran inscriptions during recent decades, which have yielded rich onomastic data, and some fresh readings of these epigraphic sources. This work is subdivided into three main parts: an “Onomastic Catalogue”, a “Linguistic Analysis”, and a “Concordances Section”. The “Catalogue” is organized as a list of entries, in which every name is transliterated, translated (whenever possible), discussed from an etymological perspective, provided with onomastic parallels, and accompanied by its attestations in the Hatran Aramaic corpus. The “Catalogue” is followed by a “Linguistic Analysis” which describes, firstly, the principal orthographic, phonological, morphological, and syntactical features of Hatran names. The linguistic discussion proper is followed by a semantic taxonomy of the names which make up the corpus and an overview of the religious significance of the theophoric names. “Charts of Concordances” end the book.

URI

https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/178986

DOI

10.30687/978-88-6969-231-4

ISBN

9788869692314

Publication date and place

Venice, Italy, 2018

Imprint

Edizioni Ca’ Foscari – Venice University Press

Series

Antiquity Studies

Pages

204

 

Administration at Girsu in Gudea’s Time

Administration at Girsu in Gudea’s Time

Maiocchi, Massimo

Visicato, Giuseppe

The book offers the edition of all presently known administrative texts from Girsu (modern Telloh, Iraq), dated to the Lagash II period (XXII century BCE). The evidence consists of roughly 600 cuneiform tablets – including 34 published here for the first time – that are presently scattered over various collections (mostly in London, Paris, Istanbul, Strasbourg, Dublin). They are of enormous historical value, in that they provide unique information for the reconstruction of urbanization, political affairs, and social developments in Mesopotamia at the time of Gudea, the most notable figure of his dynasty, and of his son Urningirsu II.

URI

https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/178168

DOI

10.30687/978-88-6969-412-7

ISBN

9788869694127

Publication date and place

Venice, Italy, 2020

Imprint

Edizioni Ca’ Foscari – Venice University Press

Series

Antiquity Studies

Pages

462

 

 

 

CartAlex

CartAlex

 

CartAlex is the CEAlex maps platform designed to become the central portal for cartographic resources related to Alexandria and its region. It will soon include the catalogue of the CEAlex Map Collection, as well as all research projects based on spatial representation and modelling.

For its launch, the portal presents the Archaeological Map of Alexandria. This scientific project constitutes a first version, but it already includes a significant body of archaeological discoveries made within the city, drawing extensively upon the seminal work carried out by Barbara Tkaczow in the 1990s. This Geographic Information System (GIS) integrates several georeferenced map layers, including the reference reconstruction of ancient Alexandria by Mahmud Bey el-Falaki (1866), the archaeological map produced by Achille Adriani (1934), the plan published by Barbara Tkaczow (1993), and the Alexandrian cadastre by the Survey of Egypt (1933–1948). In due course, the platform will incorporate additional georeferenced maps and archaeological discoveries, particularly those relating to the necropoleis of Alexandria or recorded in more recent publications.

The creation of this digital infrastructure is the result of a multidisciplinary collaboration within the CEAlex. The initial modeling work was established by Mathias Cunault (internship - Université François Rabelais, Tours) in 2011, while the implementation of a first Web-GIS was led by Aubin Bettiol (internship - ENSG). The project subsequently benefited from in-depth work conducted by Filippo Mi on the expansion and correction of archaeological data. Cécile Shaalan (Head of the Cartography and Topography Department) and Vincent Razanajao (Head of Digital Humanities) collaborated on the supervision of this project. The development of the tool was carried out by the CEAlex IT department, with the commitment of Kamal Mohsen (Head of the IT Department), Mustafa Morsi, and Ezz El-Din Ahmed, and more generally, the entire institutional team.

This new tool constitutes an essential resource for archaeological research and for the promotion and preservation of Alexandria’s cultural heritage.

Open Access Journal: Getty Research Journal

 [First posted in AWOL 8 June 2025, updated 3 October 2026]

 

Getty Research Journal

ISSN: 1944-8740
E-ISSN: 2329-1249  

The Getty Research Journal is an open-access publication presenting peer-reviewed articles on the visual arts of all cultures, regions, and time periods.

The journal is published through Getty’s Quire software and freely available in web, PDF, and e-book formats. Topics often relate to Getty collections, initiatives, and broad research interests, although this is not a requirement for consideration. The journal welcomes a diversity of perspectives and methodological approaches, and seeks to include work that expands narratives on global culture. We encourage topics and cultural perspectives that remain marginalized in art history and related fields, as well as work by scholars of underrepresented backgrounds.

Previously available via subscription, the Getty Research Journal converted to a diamond open-access publication with the spring 2024 (no. 19) issue. Past issues (nos. 1–18) are available via subscription from Project MUSE while an evaluation is underway to determine the feasibility of making them freely available.

Getty Research Journal, No. 21

1. Editor’s NoteDoris Chon
2. The Getty Peacock Fresco: Unraveling Its History Through Technical and Historical InvestigationsKenneth Lapatin, Marie Svoboda, Sierra Schiano, Monica Ganio, and Karen Trentelman
3. Adding Works to Words: A Letter About Qing Court Painter Jean-Denis Attiret, S.J. (1702–68) in the Getty Research InstituteKristina Kleutghen
4. Fragmented Bodies, Substitute Bodies: Zodiac Heads from the Garden of Perfect Brightness and the Translation of Cultural HeritagePatricia J. Yu
5. The Global System of the Arts at the End of the Nineteenth Century and the Commissioning of a Sepulchral Monument in Santiago, ChileFernando Guzmán
6. Flaunting the Unfinished: Non finito as a Classicist Gesture in the Work of Ferdinand HodlerRoger Fayet
7. Cleaning Up in Public: Mother Art’s Domestic Labor Performances, 1973–78Lexington Davis
8. Primed to See: Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe’s Viewfinders: Black Women PhotographersEmilie Chesnutt Boone
9. Shorter Notices
   1. Worldwide Emotion: Interhemispheric Dialogue in David Alfaro Siqueiros’s América tropical oprimida y destrozada por los imperialismosJonah Gray
   2. Becoming Simone Forti: California, 1970–72Megan Metcalf
10. Conversation
    1. “This Show Is So Metal”: The Curators of Lumen: The Art and Science of Light in ConversationKristen Collins, Glenn Phillips, and Nancy K. Turner
11. About This Issue

Getty Research Journal, No. 20

2025

Table of Contents

• Editor’s Note
  Doris Chon
• Remembering and Remaking Christofle et Cie’s Second Empire
  Amy F. Ogata
• Victorious Laughter: Satirical Photomontage in Brigade KGK’s Photo Series From the 16th to the 17th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)
  Samuel Johnson
• Bennett Buck’s Good Neighbor Policy: A Case of Mistaken Identity
  James Oles
• Talking Criticism with David Antin, or Criticism at the Boundaries
  Alex Kitnick
• Lisette Model: Twelve Photographs: The Limited-Edition Portfolio and the Market for Photographic Prints in the United States
  Audrey Sands
• Unlocking Heritage at the Eastern State Penitentiary
  Rita Elizabeth Risser
• Like Father, Like Daughter: A Sketchbook Shared by Raymond and Rosa Bonheur, Rediscovered
  Alexandra Morrison
• Belonging Elsewhere: Felipe Baeza and Laura G. Gutiérrez in Conversation
  Felipe Baeza and Laura G. Gutiérrez

• Go to issue

 

Getty Research Journal, No. 19

2024

Table of Contents

• Editor’s Note
  Doris Chon
• Northern Africa or Central Iran? An Investigation into the Production Place of a Fragmentary Kufic Qur'an at the J. Paul Getty Museum
  Mahdi Sahragard
• Cuttings from an Illustrated Twelfth-Century French Manuscript Bible in Los Angeles and Berlin
  Beatrice Alai and Peter Kidd
• Jane Dieulafoy in Varamin: The Emamzadeh Yahya through a Nineteenth-Century Lens
  Keelan Overton
• Baghdad Kept on Working: Painting and Propaganda during the British Occupation of Iraq, 1941–45
  Anneka Lenssen
• Overthrowing Reality: Photo-Poems in 1980s German Democratic Republic Samizdat
  Anna Horakova and Isotta Poggi
• The Perpetual Unfolding of Photographic History: A Previously Unknown Panorama of Salvador, Bahia, by Rodolpho Lindemann
  Julieta Pestarino

• Go to issue

Past issues by subscription at Muse: Past Issues

 See AWOL's full List of Open Access Journals in Ancient Studies