New Light on the Hydrology and Topography of Southern Babylonia in the Third Millennium

Steinkeller, Piotr

doi:10.1515/zava.2001.91.1.22

Cited by 31 publications

(11 citation statements)

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“…Much of the central alluvial plain was archaeologically surveyed by Robert Adams (35)(36)(37)(38)(39) before field research in Iraq came to a halt. Such survey data are dependent on pottery dating and are not an ideal proxy for population trends, but cautious inferences are possible.…”

Section: Insights From Islamic Mesopotamiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Collapse, environment, and society

Butzer

2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

355

242

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Historical collapse of ancient states poses intriguing social-ecological questions, as well as potential applications to global change and contemporary strategies for sustainability. Five Old World case studies are developed to identify interactive inputs, triggers, and feedbacks in devolution. Collapse is multicausal and rarely abrupt. Political simplification undermines traditional structures of authority to favor militarization, whereas disintegration is preconditioned or triggered by acute stress (insecurity, environmental or economic crises, famine), with breakdown accompanied or followed by demographic decline. Undue attention to stressors risks underestimating the intricate interplay of environmental, political, and sociocultural resilience in limiting the damages of collapse or in facilitating reconstruction. The conceptual model emphasizes resilience, as well as the historical roles of leaders, elites, and ideology. However, a historical model cannot simply be applied to contemporary problems of sustainability without adjustment for cumulative information and increasing possibilities for popular participation. Between the 14th and 18th centuries, Western Europe responded to environmental crises by innovation and intensification; such modernization was decentralized, protracted, flexible, and broadly based. Much of the current alarmist literature that claims to draw from historical experience is poorly focused, simplistic, and unhelpful. It fails to appreciate that resilience and readaptation depend on identified options, improved understanding, cultural solidarity, enlightened leadership, and opportunities for participation and fresh ideas.

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Section: Insights From Islamic Mesopotamiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Collapse, environment, and society

Butzer

2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

355

242

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“…But as explained in the following passages (Black et al 2004, 150-151 = lines 209-252), this is not the case: The trajectories of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers as they existed thousands of years ago are difficult to trace with certainty, and opinions differ (e.g. Jacobsen 1960;Adams 1981;Steinkeller 2001;Pournelle 2003;Hritz 2010;Ur 2013;Jotheri 2016, Jotheri et al 2017Rey 2019). The problem is that because southern Mesopotamia is so flat, the Tigris and Euphrates have frequently changed course due to flooding and fluctuating sea levels, thereby creating new river channels and leaving a complex of relic signatures on the ground.…”

Section: Voyage Of the Moon God: The Journey Of Nannamentioning

confidence: 99%

Lunar alignments at Ur

Romain

2020

JSA

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In ancient Sumer the Moon god, Nanna, was the patron deity for the city of Ur. In this article data are presented showing how the city of Ur was astronomically aligned to the Moon. Assessments are made using satellite imagery in combination with early maps and aerial photographs. Also shown is how the geographic location of Ur relative to Nippur may be related to the Moon's 18.6-year nodal cycle. It is also shown how lunar calendric data are likely embedded in an ancient legend that tells of the Moon god's journey from Ur to Nippur. Together these and other lines of evidence demonstrate how one of the world's oldest cities was shaped through its entanglement with the gods -and in particular, the Moon god Nanna.

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“…Very briefly, however, let me mention four major conceptual advances growing out of what has been a wide spectrum of important technological improvements, of which satellite imagery is probably the most central: (a) Assyriologist Piotr Steinkeller (2001) undertook to construct from cuneiform sources a mapped system of busy commercial waterways with suggested names of ports and distributaries; (b) Tony Wilkinson (2003) offered a powerful, original reminder that our common field of scholarly concern was never merely the loci of archaeological sites but was instead the embracing totality of worked and inhabited landscapes; (c) Elizabeth Stone (Stone & Zimansky 2004, Stone 2007b), working currently with advanced DigitalGlobe satellite imagery and very detailed, dated climatic data, is radically expanding the surface areas of scores of older surveyed sites with previously undetected architectural information; and (d ) Jennifer Pournelle (2007), recognizing the superficiality of the older form of surface identification, has highlighted the virtual certainty that not merely linear, artificial canalization patterns but clearly delineated, natural river courses in the lower alluvium emerged out of marshlands in conjunction with urbanization itself during the entire course of the fourth millennium. All these approaches point the way to the likely renaissance of future landscape themes when archaeological fieldwork in Iraq again becomes possible.…”

Section: Social and Natural Systems In Dynamic Interactionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ancient Mesopotamian Urbanism and Blurred Disciplinary Boundaries

Adams

2012

Annu. Rev. Anthropol.

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Most would agree that anthropology needs a degree of consensus and structure and, arguably, of "identity" as well. But as a discipline, its boundaries are blurred, with ongoing negotiations along its changing peripheries. Frontiers with history and the humanities are examples. Other examples are in the biological sciences, other social sciences, and public and academic policy. This article follows the form of a 65-year contextualized semiautobiography juxtaposing difficulties and ambiguities that have long characterized archaeological preoccupation with building models out of recoverable, material evidence alongside philological fidelity to the testimony of early literate records. My substantive field is ancient southern Mesopotamia, where the earliest beginnings of both urbanism and literacy can be traced. The challenge is to move beyond little more than mere coexistence toward better articulating "text" and "context" to form a more truly interdisciplinary dialogue. This approach touches on other individualized choice and behavioral boundaries as well.

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New Light on the Hydrology and Topography of Southern Babylonia in the Third Millennium

Cited by 31 publications

References 0 publications

Collapse, environment, and society

Collapse, environment, and society

Lunar alignments at Ur

Ancient Mesopotamian Urbanism and Blurred Disciplinary Boundaries

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