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Excavations at the 109 hectare site of Kurd Qaburstan on the Erbil plain in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq were conducted by the Johns Hopkins University in 2013 and 2014. The Middle Bronze Age (Old Babylonian period) is the main period of occupation evident on the site, and the project therefore aims to study the character of a north Mesopotamian urban centre of the early second millennium b.c. On the high mound, excavations revealed three phases of Mittani (Late Bronze) period occupation, including evidence of elite residential architecture. On the low mound and the south slope of the high mound, Middle Bronze evidence included domestic remains with numerous ceramic vessels left in situ. Also dating to the Middle Bronze period is evidence of a city wall on the site edges. Later occupations include a cemetery, perhaps of Achaemenid date, on the south slope of the high mound and a Middle Islamic settlement on the southern lower town. Faunal and archaeobotanical analysis provide information on the plant and animal economy of the second millennium b.c. occupations, and geophysical results have documented a thirty-one hectare expanse of dense Middle Bronze Age architecture in the northern lower town.

The 1996 and 1997 seasons of the Hopkins-Amsterdam project in the Jabbul plain, western Syria, have generated new results on Bronze Age urbanism at Tell Umm el-Marra and elucidated longer-term settlement patterns in the Jabbul region. Excavation results have documented the foundation of Umm el-Marra as a regional center in the Early Bronze Age, provided new data on a period of decentralization in Middle Bronze I, and supplied evidence of the regeneration of urbanism in MB II. Faunal and archaeobotanical analysis broaden our understanding of these developments, attesting to an economy overwhelmingly dependent on the steppe environment, with an emphasis on large-scale onager hunting in MB II. Finally, a regional survey provides data on long-term demographic and socioeconomic trends, furnishing an expansive time range and spatial context for our under-standing of developmental patterns in the region. The survey results supply new information on the limits of the Uruk expansion, cycles of Bronze Age urbanization, changing patterns of steppe exploitation, and demo-graphic and agricultural extensification in the Byzantine and Early Islamic periods. Finally, a regional survey provides data on long-term demographic and socioeconomic trends, furnishing an expansive time range and spatial context for our understanding of developmental patterns in the region. The survey results supply new information on the limits of the Uruk expansion, cycles of Bronze Age urbanization, changing patterns of steppe exploitation, and demographic and agricultural extensification in the Byzantine and Early Islamic periods.* Disciplines Near Eastern Languages and Societies

Sacrifice is one of the most common manifestations of human religious thought and behavior, yet archaeology has only recently begun to devote significant attention to the practice. This article reviews the diverse ways in which archaeologists have studied sacrifice and how work might proceed in the future. Both animal and human sacrifice are considered, along with the question of whether these two manifestations of ritual killing are significantly distinct. After examining how sacrifice can be identified in the archaeological record, the review outlines important new developments in bioarchaeology and zooarchaeology that facilitate study of the geographical origin of victims, lifestyle, and health prior to sacrifice, preparations for sacrifice, methods of ritual killing, and postmortem treatment. Proceeding beyond the mechanics of the practice, the article discusses how archaeologists can study sacrifice in its social context as well as its spatial and temporal dimensions.