NMC 277: Death in the Ancient Near East

Thursday 1-3 pm; Room BF 323

Instructor: Anne Porter

Room 420, 4 Bancroft Avenue.

Office hours: Email:

Course Description

From cannibalism to dismemberment, human sacrifice to making pictures with the dead,

manipulation of the human body after death is a common feature of mortuary practices in the

Near East over a broad chronological and geographical range. This course asks what the

evidence for mortuary practices can tell us about issues such as religious beliefs, social and

political organization, and the growth of civilization.

Course Goals

You will have an understanding of: the archaeological methods for excavating and processing

human skeletal remains, the theoretical approaches to interpreting them, and, most importantly,

the significance of the dead to ancient societies. You will also learn how to read and evaluate

archaeological reports and analyses.

Assessment

40% Short Papers – 2 @ 20% each (ca. 2000 words): you may choose any weekly topic for

further investigation. You will be expected to identify and address a key issue related to the

topic. You may use the weekly prompts as a starting point, but additional marks will be given for

independent thinking. See also additional bibliography at the end of the syllabus for each week.

DUE SEPT 27 and DEC 1

45% Research Project: working in pairs, you will be given original excavation materials from

a single tomb from the site of Tell Banat to retrieve from it whatever information you can. You

will be graded on the work you do throughout the semester (40%), the written paper you submit

individually (40%), and your collaboration (20% - think team challenge Project Runway). The

written paper should include a log of time spent and tasks conducted, a description of your

methods, your data, and your interpretation of the results. In preparation to starting the project

you will attend an extra-curricular session providing the background to the excavations. DUE

NOV 17

10% Debates - 2 @ 5% each: in weeks five and nine you will use your assigned reading as the

basis of your position in a debate about theory and method. OCT 13, NOV 10

5% Analysis of a Secondary Source: Take a reading from the supplementary list for week

three. Summarize the key information provided, delineate the methods used, and assess the

theoretical underpinnings of the piece. DUE OCT 6

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Readings

This is a reading intensive course. You will be expected to read 20-40 pages per class. Readings

will sometimes be discussed in class, sometimes not. Some readings are given as a source of

information, but some will apply the techniques or theories we are discussing to a particular

subject. Approached critically these sources are also ways of learning how archaeologists do

things and why. For this reason you will be expected to do three things with the readings: extract

information, analyze the structure and implications of the piece, and break down the argument.

Most readings are available online at JSTOR, academia.edu or researchgate.net. Please consult

google scholar. Otherwise they will be posted in Blackboard. Please pay attention to the

directions in the weekly schedule. Please note that at the end of the weekly schedule there are

additional readings listed week by week. These are provided as starting points for the short paper

and for general interest.

Attendance

It is very difficult to pass this class unless you attend class regularly. There are three reasons for

this: one, I will be modeling for you in class the kind of work you are supposed to do for

assignments and exams; two, readings do not replace class content; and three, class discussions,

because they are the practice of analysis, are as important as any other part of the course. Exam

questions are taken directly from class materials and discussions.

Failure to complete all components of the assessment may result in a failing grade.

Failure to properly reference any written work or to acknowledge source material is considered

plagiarism and will result in a failing grade.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism consists of passing off someone else’s work as your own. This may be done in a

variety of ways, including, but not limited to: wholesale copying of another person’s writing;

getting someone else to write your work for you; quoting someone’s words directly within your

own writing, but failing to place the quote in quotation marks and/or failing to provide a

reference; failing to provide a reference for someone else’s words that you paraphrase; failing to

acknowledge information or ideas that have come from someone else. Plagiarism is a serious

offence and will be reported. It will be then treated according to school policies and may result in

expulsion. Please see the appropriate web page for the school’s plagiarism policy.

Classroom Policies

No phones or any other digital media are permitted. Class may not be recorded unless by prior

arrangement with instructor. Computers may be used to take notes only. Wikipedia is not

considered an acceptable source under any situation (so don’t bother consulting it in class). If

students persist in inappropriate use of electronic media, they will be asked to leave the class.

Behavior that distracts other students will not be permitted. Students are expected to discuss all

topics openly and civilly.

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WEEKLY SCHEDULE

Week One (Sept 15): The First Burials.

Why is the recognition of the first intentional disposal of the dead important, and what does it

mean for human evolution? What is the significance of selective treatment, investment in

decoration and symbolic behavior in burials? Can we always tell what is intentional or not?

Examples: Shanidar Cave, Sunghir, and Dolni Vestonice

Required Reading

Parker Pearson, Mike. (1999). The archaeology of death and burial, 142-161.

Week Two (Sept 22): The Natufians

The late Epipaleolithic is increasingly cited as the point in time when crucial changes in the Near

East, including treatments for the dead, began, reaching their full expression in the next period,

the Neolithic.

Examples: Ain Mallaha, Hilazon Tachit, Azraq.

Required Readings

Goring-Morris, A. N., & Belfer-Cohen, A. (2013). Different strokes for different folks: Near

Eastern Neolithic mortuary practices in perspective. Religion at work in a Neolithic society: Vital

matters, 35-57.

And Either Grosman, L., & Munro, N. D. (2016). A Natufian Ritual Event. Current

Anthropology, 57(3), 000.

Or Bocquentin, F., & Garrard, A. (2016). Natufian collective burial practice and cranial

pigmentation: A reconstruction from Azraq 18 (Jordan). Journal of Archaeological Science:

Reports.

Week Three (Sept 29): “Skull Cults”

From Anatolia to the Levant, the human skull becomes the focus of a variety of mortuary rituals

– but these treatments are not for everyone. What does selective treatment imply?

Examples: Ain Ghazal, Jericho and Çayönü

Required Readings:

Bonogofsky, M. (2003). Neolithic plastered skulls and railroading epistemologies. Bulletin of the

American Schools of Oriental Research, 1-10.

Kuijt, I. (2008). The regeneration of life. Current anthropology, 49(2), 171-197.

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Week Four (Oct 6): The Body

If change began in the Natufian, it is in the Neolithic that it really takes off. There is a wide range

of strange and fascinating things happening to the dead all over the Near East. Why? And how

can archaeologists tell exactly what has happened to the body after death?

Examples: Kfar HaHoresh, and Çatalhöyük,

Required Readings:

Goring-Morris, N., & Horwitz, L. K. (2007). Funerals and feasts during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic

B of the Near East. Antiquity, 81(314), 902-919.

Hodder, I. (2007). Çatalhöyük in the context of the Middle Eastern Neolithic. Annu. Rev.

Anthropol., 36, 105-120.

Week Five (Oct 13): Cannibalism – Consuming Friend or Foe?

This week we take a detailed look at the remains from Domuztepe and the theoretical

frameworks that may be applied in interpretation of them. The class will be divided into three

groups and you will be asked to debate the positions presented in the readings given to your

group.

Required Readings:

Conklin, B. A. (2001). Consuming grief: compassionate cannibalism in an Amazonian society. University

of Texas Press. Pp. XV – XXX; 65-108.

AND EITHER Kansa, S. W., & Campbell, S. (2004). Feasting with the dead? A ritual bone deposit

at Domuztepe, south eastern Turkey (c. 5550 cal BC). .Proceedings of the 9th ICAZ Conference,

Durham 2002. Vol 1: Behaviour Behind Bones (eds. Sharyn Jones O’Day et al.) pp. 2-13

OR Campbell, S. (2007). The dead and the living in Late Neolithic Mesopotamia. Sepolti tra i

vivi. Evidenza ed interpretazione di contesti funerari in abitato. Atti del Convegno

Internazionale, 125-140.

OR Carter, E. (2012). On human and animal sacrifice in the Late Neolithic at

Domuztepe. Sacred killing: The archaeology of sacrifice in the ancient Near East, 97-124.

Week Six (Oct 20). Victims of Violence?

In the next period of major change, the Late Chalcolithic or “Uruk” period, there is a remarkable

absence of burials. One of the few sets recovered, however, is extraordinary. This is the sequence

of mass burials found at Tell Majnuna. What can we learn about Uruk mortuary behavior from

this example? Can we, should we, speak of “normative practices?” In this discussion we are

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going to think about a number of issues, including the concept of “archaeological expertise”. Are

excavators always right in the analysis of their finds?

Required Reading:

McMahon, A., Sołtysiak, A., & Weber, J. (2011). Late Chalcolithic mass graves at Tell Brak,

Syria, and violent conflict during the growth of early city-states. Journal of Field

Archaeology, 36(3), 201-22

Brereton, G. (2016). Mortuary Rites, Economic Behaviour and the Circulation of Goods in the

Transition from Village to Urban Life in Early Mesopotamia. Cambridge Archaeological

Journal, 26(02), 191-216.

Week Seven (Oct 27) Texts – How to Read Them? How to Use Them?

Texts have had an inordinate influence on our understanding of death in greater Mesopotamia,

but the archaeological materials often do not conform to this understanding. So how should we

deal with the discrepancies? Do different kinds of texts offer different kinds of information?

Required Readings:

Katz, D. (1999). The messenger, Lulil and the cult of the dead. Revue d’Assyriologie 93, 107-18.

Gilgamesh, Enkidu and the Netherworld: http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-

bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.1.8.1.4&charenc=j#

Archi, A. (2002). Jewels for the Ladies of Ebla. Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische

Archäologie, 92(2), 161-199.

Week Eight (Nov 3): Killed. But why? Human Sacrifice and the State.

Filled with victims of human sacrifice and fabulous objects, the third millennium / Early

Dynastic cemetery at Ur is one of the world’s most spectacular archaeological discoveries. It has

occasioned constant theorization, but little actual scientific examination. Until recently. How do

the new results change the narrative – and does it matter?

Examples: Ur and Arslantepe

Required Reading:

Baadsgaard, A., Monge, J., & Zettler, R. (2012). Bludgeoned, Burned, and Beautified: Reevaluating

Mortuary Practices in the Royal Cemetery of Ur. Sacred killing: The archaeology of sacrifice in

the ancient Near East, 125-158.

Molleson, T., & Hodgson, D. (2016). The porters of Ur. Isimu, 3.

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Week Nine (Nov 10): Grave Goods.

Signs of wealth and prestige, gifts for the afterlife – or are grave goods far more complex than

either of these interpretations? Answers follow the prevailing intellectual trends. But are we

getting closer to the truth with each new approach? You will be asked to present the theoretical

perspective of your appointed reading.

Required Readings:

Fogelin, L. (2007). The Archaeology of Religious Ritual. Annual Review of Anthropology, 36, 55-71.

AND EITHER Laneri. N. The Discovery of a Funerary Ritual. Inanna/Ishtar and her descent to

the Netherworld in Titris Hoyuk, Turkey. East and West, 9-51.

OR Winter, I. (1999). Reading ritual in the archaeological record. In Fluchtpunkt Uruk:

Archiologische Einheit aus Methodischer Vielfalt. Schriftenfiur Hans Jorg Nissen, 229-56

OR Nishimura, Y. (2015). A Systematic Comparison of Material Culture between Household

Floors and Residential Burials in Late Third-Millennium BCE Mesopotamia. American Journal

of Archaeology, 119(4), 419-440.

OR Baker, J. L. (2006). The funeral kit: a newly defined Canaanite mortuary practice based on

the Middle and Late Bronze Age tomb complex at Ashkelon. Levant 38, 1-31.

Week Ten (Nov 17): Death on the Middle Euphrates.

After more than five hundred years from which we have recovered few burials, there is an

explosion of both mortuary remains and mortuary practices in the Early Bronze. The greatest

concentration of these is on the Middle Euphrates. How should we think about variation and

similarity in these practices?

Examples: Titris Hoyuk, Gre Virike, Jerablus Tahtani, Banat, Umm al Marra, and Tell Bi’a

No Required Readings

Week Eleven (Nov 24): Death and Identity in Palestine

From Bab edh-Dhra’ in the Early Bronze to the empty landscapes of the EB-MB, to the new

discoveries at Ashkelon, much of the discussion about burials in Palestine has centered on

identity – who were these people? Farmers or nomads, families or strangers? invaders or locals?

So how do we tell?

Examples: Bab edh-Dhra’, Ashkelon, Philistine sarcophagi.

Required Readings

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Chesson, M. S. (1999). Libraries of the dead: Early Bronze Age charnel houses and social

identity at urban Bab edh-Dhra', Jordan. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 18(2), 137-

164.

Greenhut, Z. (1995). EB IV Tombs and Burials in Palestine. Tel Aviv 22(1), 3-46.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/07/bible-philistine-israelite-israel-ashkelon-discovery-

burial-archaeology-sea-peoples/

Week 12 (Dec 1): Of Dogs and Donkeys: Animal Burials throughout Near Eastern History

Certain animals seem to have specific meaning to Near Eastern societies, playing a role in

foundation deposits, closure rituals, treaty ratification, and even having unique burial

installations of their own.

Examples: Tell Brak, Tell Banat, Umm al Marra, Ashkelon.

Required Readings

Oates, J., Molleson, T., & Sołtysiak, A. (2008). Equids and an acrobat: closure rituals at Tell

Brak. Antiquity, 82(316), 390-400.

Critique and response to the above http://www.antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/molleson/

Weber, J. (2012). Restoring order: death, display and authority. Sacred killing: The archaeology

of sacrifice in the ancient Near East, 159-90.

Way, K. C. (2013). Assessing sacred asses: Bronze Age donkey burials in the Near East. Levant.

Edrey, M. (2008). The dog burials at Achaemenid Ashkelon revisited. Tel Aviv 35(2), 267-282.

Additional references for each week for use in Paper 1

Week 1:

Toth, Nicholas, and Kathy Schick. (2015). Overview of Paleolithic Archaeology. Handbook of

Paleoanthropology: 2441-2464.

Formicola, V., Pontrandolfi, A., & Svoboda, J. (2001). The Upper Paleolithic triple burial of

Dolní Věstonice: Pathology and funerary behavior. American Journal of Physical Anthropology,

115(4), 372-379.

Alt, K. W., Pichler, S., Vach, W., Klıma, B., Vlcek, E., & Sedlmeier, J. (1997). Twenty-five

thousand-year-old triple burial from Dolnı Vestonice: An ice-age family. American Journal of

Physical Anthropology, 102, 123-131.

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Formicola, V. (2007). From the Sunghir children to the Romito Dwarf. Current Anthropology,

48(3), 446-453.

Week 2:

Valla, F., Bocquentin, F. (2008). Les maisons, les vivants, les morts: le cas de Mallaha (Eynan),

Israël. In Proceedings of the 5th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near

East III, 521–546.

Bocquentin, F., Cabellos, T., & Samuelian, N. (2013). Graves in context: field anthropology and

the investigation of interstratified floors and burials. Natufian Foragers in the Levant. Ann

Arbor: International Monographs in Prehistory, 185-92.

Maher, L. et al. A Unique Human-Fox Burial from a Pre-Natufian Cemetery in the Levant

(Jordan). Ed. Michael Petraglia. PLoS ONE 6.1 (2011): e15815. PMC. Web. 14 Aug. 2016.

Tchernov, E., and Valla. F. (1997). Two new dogs, and other Natufian dogs, from the southern

Levant." Journal of Archaeological Science, 24, 65-95.

Week 3:

Schulting, R.J. (2015). Mesolithc 'skull cults'? In Ancient Death Ways (K. von Hackwitz and R.

Peyroteo Stjerna, eds.), 19-46.

Özbek, M. (2009). Remodeled human skulls in Köşk Höyük (Neolithic age, Anatolia): a new

appraisal in view of recent discoveries. Journal of Archaeological Science, 36(2), 379-386.

Verhoeven, M. (2007). Losing one's head in the Neolithic: On the interpretation of headless

figurines. Levant 39(1), 175-183.

Kornienko, T. V. (2015). On the problem of human sacrifice in Northern Mesopotamia in the

pre-pottery Neolithic. Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia, 43(3), 42-49.

Slon, V., Sarig, R., Hershkovitz, I., Khalaily, H., & Milevski, I. (2014). The plastered skulls from

the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B Site of Yiftahel (Israel)–a computed tomography-based analysis.

PloS one, 9(2), e89242.

Week 4:

Moses, S. (2012). Socio‐political implications of Neolithic foundation deposits and the

possibility of child sacrifice: a case study at Çatalhöyük, Turkey. In Sacrifice and Archaeology:

Perspectives from the Ancient Near East and Beyond, 67- 93

Goring-Morris, N. (2002). The quick and the dead. In Life in Neolithic Farming Communities,

103-136.

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Kuijt, I. (1996). Negotiating equality through ritual: A consideration of Late Natufian and

Prepottery Neolithic A period mortuary practices. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology,

15(4), 313-336.

Kuijt, I., & Goring-Morris, N. (2002). Foraging, farming, and social complexity in the Pre-

Pottery Neolithic of the southern Levant: a review and synthesis. Journal of World Prehistory,

16(4), 361-440.

During, B. (2003). Burials in context, The 1960s inhumations of Çatalhöyük East. Anatolian

Studies 53, 1-15.

Week 5:

Pijoan, C. and Mansilla Lory, J. (1997). Evidence for Human Sacrifice, Bone Modification and

Cannibalism in Ancient Mexico. In Troubled Times: Violence and Warfare in the Past, 217-40.

Carter, E., Campbell, S., & Gauld, S. (2003). Elusive complexity: new data from late Halaf

Domuztepe in south central Turkey. Paléorient, 117-133.

Week 6:

McMahon, A. and Oates, J. (2007). Excavations at Tell Brak 2006-7. Iraq 69, 145-171.

Ur, J., Karsgaard, P., & Oates, J. (2011). The spatial dimensions of early Mesopotamian

urbanism: the Tell Brak suburban survey, 2003–2006. Iraq,73, 1-19.

Sołtysiak, A. (2007). Preliminary report on the human remains from Tell Majnuna (Spring

2007). Iraq, 69, 161-163.

Sołtysiak, A. (2015). Early urbanization and mobility at Tell Brak, NE Syria: the evidence from

femoral and tibial external shaft shape. HOMO-Journal of Comparative Human Biology, 66(2),

101-117.

Porter, A. (2015). Victims of Violence: Healing Social Ills through Mesopotamian Mortuary

Practice. Near Eastern Archaeology, 78(4), 252-262.

Week 7:

Lugalbanda in the mountain cave. http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-

bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.1.8.2.1&charenc=j#

Inanna’s descent to the Netherworld. http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-

bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.1.4.1&charenc=j#

Nergal and Ereshkigal.

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Kramer, S. N. (1967). The death of Ur-Nammu and his descent to the Netherworld. Journal of

Cuneiform studies, 21, 104-122. (read translation only)

Kramer, S. N. (1960). Death and nether world according to the Sumerian literary texts. Iraq,

22(1-2), 59-68.

Katz, D. (1995). Inanna’s Descent and undressing the dead as a divine Law. Zeitschrift für

Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie, 85(2), 221-233.

Week 8:

The Death of Gilgamesh: http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.1.8.1.3&charenc=j#

Porter, A. (2012). Mortal mirrors: creating kin through human sacrifice in third-millennium

Syro-Mesopotamia. Sacred Killing: the Archaeology of Sacrifice in the Ancient Near East, 189-

213.

Dickson, D. B. (2006). Public transcripts expressed in theatres of cruelty: the royal graves at Ur in

Mesopotamia. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 16(02), 123-144.

Molleson, T. and Hodgson, D. (2003). The Human Remains from Woolley's Excavations at Ur.

Iraq 65, 91-129.

Cohen, A. C. (Ed.). (2005). Death rituals, ideology, and the development of early Mesopotamian

kingship: towards a new understanding of Iraq's royal cemetery of Ur (Vol. 7). Brill.

Marchesi, G. (2004). Who was buried in the Royal Tombs of Ur? The epigraphic and textual data.

Orientalia, 73(2), 153-197.

Moorey, P. R. S. (1977). What do we know about the people buried in the Royal Cemetery?.

Expedition, 20(1), 24.

Pollock, S. (1991). Of priestesses, princes and poor relations: the dead in the Royal Cemetery of Ur.

Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 1(02), 171-189.

Week 9:

Lugalbanda in the mountain cave. http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-

bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.1.8.2.1&charenc=j#

Week 10:

Schwartz, G. M., Curvers, H. H., Dunham, S., & Stuart, B. (2003). A third-millennium BC elite

tomb and other new evidence from Tell Umm el-Marra, Syria. American Journal of

Archaeology, 325-361.

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Schwartz, G. M., Curvers, H. H., Dunham, S. S., Stuart, B., & Weber, J. A. (2006). A third-

millennium BC elite mortuary complex at Umm el-Marra, Syria: 2002 and 2004 excavations.

American Journal of Archaeology, 603-641.

Schwartz, G. M. (2013). Memory and its Demolition: Ancestors, Animals and Sacrifice at Umm

el-Marra, Syria. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 23(3), 495.

Okse, A. T. (2007). A ‘high’ terrace at Gre Virike to the north of Carchemish: Power of local

rulers as founders. In Euphrates River Valley Settlement: The Carchemish Sector in the Third

Millennium BC, 94-104.

Ökse, A. T. (2005). Early Bronze Age Chamber Tomb Complexes at Gre Virike (Period IIA) on

the Middle Euphrates. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 21-46.

Ökse, A. T. (2006). Early Bronze Age Graves at Gre Virike (Period II B): An Extraordinary

Cemetery on the Middle Euphrates. Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 65(1), 1-38.

Peltenburg, E. (1999). The living and the ancestors: Early Bronze Age mortuary practices at

Jerablus Tahtani. In Archaeology of the Upper Syrian Euphrates: The Tishrin Dam Area

Proceedings of the International Symposium, 427-442.

Week 11:

Blau, S. (2006). An analysis of human skeletal remains from two Middle Bronze Age tombs

from Jericho. Palestine Exploration Quarterly 138, 13-26

Covello-Paran, K. (2015). The Jezreel Valley During the Intermediate Bronze Age: Social and

Cultural Landscapes (Doctoral dissertation, Tel Aviv University), 209-283

Kennedy, M. A. (2015). Assessing the Early Bronze—Middle Bronze Age Transition in the

Southern Levant in Light of a Transitional Ceramic Vessel from Tell Umm Hammad, Jordan.

Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, (373), 199-216.

Gasperetti, M. A., & Sheridan, S. G. (2013). Cry Havoc: Interpersonal Violence at Early Bronze

Age Bab edh‐Dhra’. American Anthropologist, 115(3), 388-410.

Al-Muheisen, Z., & Al-Bashaireh, K. (2012). Ams Radiocarbon Determination and Cultural

Setting of The Vertical Shaft Tomb Complex At Tell Al-Husn, Irbid, Northern Jordan. Palestine

Exploration Quarterly, 144(2), 84-101.

Baker, J. L. (2010). Form and function of mortuary architecture: the Middle and Late Bronze

Age tomb complex at Ashkelon. Levant 42, 5-16.

Kennedy, M. A. (2015). EB IV Stone-Built Cist-Graves from Sir Flinders Petrie's Excavations

At Tell El-‘Ajjul. Palestine Exploration Quarterly, 147(2), 104-129.

Kennedy, M. A. (2016). The end of the 3rd millennium BC in the Levant: new perspectives and

old ideas. Levant, 1-32.

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Week 12:

Wapnish, P., & Hesse, B. (1993). Pampered pooches or plain pariahs? The Ashkelon dog

burials. The Biblical Archaeologist, 55-80.

Russell, N., & During, B. S. (2006). Worthy is the lamb: a double burial at Neolithic Çatalhöyük

(Turkey). Paléorient, 73-84.

Hesse, B., Wapnish, P., & Greer, J. (2012). Scripts of animal sacrifice in Levantine culture

history. In Sacred killing: The archaeology of sacrifice in the ancient Near East, 217-235.

Morey, D. F. (2006). Burying key evidence: the social bond between dogs and people. Journal of

Archaeological Science, 33(2), 158-175.