Oriental and European Archaeology (OREA)

Between 2900 and 2330 BCE, the Euphrates and Tiger alluvial plain was the site of kingdoms known to be the first to use writing in both an intensive and an extensive way and within different contexts, from practical to political, economic, religious or historical ones. Along with this decisive evolution, for the first time human settlements clearly witnessed the existence of hierarchical political and religious systems as parts of an interregional network. While we can find many examples of...

The fifth volume of the Çukuriçi Höyük series deals with the stratigraphy and architecture of Early Bronze Age settlements. In Early Bronze Age 1, a hitherto unique metalworking center for the region of western Anatolia is found at Çukuriçi Höyük. The large-scale excavations uncovered a densely built-up settlement area, which consisted of numerous buildings that can be accessed from squares and paths. In addition to the building materials used in the individual room units, this volume also...

"Çukuriçi Höyük 4. Household Economics in the Early Bronze Age Aegean" is a pioneering interdisciplinary account of households and socio-political organization in Aegean prehistory, written by a socio-cultural anthropologist embedded in a team of prehistoric archaeologists. Sabina Cveček applies methods of historical anthropology to address key issues in discussing households and socio-political organization at the dawn of the Bronze Age Aegean and beyond. By navigating through the “dwelling...

This volume collects the papers presented in a workshop held at the 10th ICAANE in Vienna in 2016. The ancient state of Lagash, with the three main sites of Tello (ancient Girsu), al-Hiba (ancient Lagash) and Tell Zurghul (ancient Nigin), was once a central and powerful political institution of Sumerian history, at least in the 3rd millennium BC. Excavated in the past, between the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, with the pioneering works by Ernest de Sarzec at Girsu and a few...

The publication presents the excavation of the Neolithic settlement strata of the tell Platia Magoula Zarkou, situated in the Peneios Plain in Western Thessaly (Greece). The tell is characterized by an uninterrupted settlement sequence which, according to the radiocarbon data, dates to the 6th millennium BC and includes the Middle Neolithic and early Late Neolithic of Greece. Geological and geophysical analyses situate the tell in its natural environment. They show that during the Neolithic...

This monograph focuses on the interdisciplinary examination of the metallurgical finds from Çukuriçi Höyük (western Turkey), which date from the Late Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age (c. 3300–2700 BC). The exceptionally rich ensemble includes almost all parts of the technological chain (chaîne opératoire), from tools, casting moulds, furnaces, ores, raw metal and ingots to finished products, tin bronzes and precious metals (Au, Ag). On the one hand, these remains were classified according to...

Syria has struggled and been divided by a civil war for over a decade. Human suffering and loss have been unprecedented in the area during the conflict. In this tragedy there are numerous problems that emerge in the loss of humanity and cultural identity. Cultural heritage is part of human identity and needs to be protected and preserved for the sake of the Syrians and the international community alike. Memories of places and artefacts, social connection and peace can be built on heritage that...

The present monograph by Teresa Bürge deals with the material culture of the city of Tell Abu al-Kharaz in the northern part of the Jordan Valley. The basis and starting point is an extremely well-preserved domestic compound dating from the early Iron Age – one of the most controversial periods of the Eastern Mediterranean: it follows the political and economic collapse of the Late Bronze Age and results in a re-structuration of the political and social organization, which – due to the present...

The volume presents the proceedings of the second international workshop on the Archaeology of the Arabian Peninsula. Following the first publication on the archaeology of Arabia (OREA 4), this second volume is devoted to connecting the evidence across the Arabian Peninsula and bridging the gap between traditionally distinct scholarly fields. Spanning a chronological range from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) to the Islamic period and encompassing regions from the south-eastern tip to the...

The present volume, edited by Johanna Lhuillier, gathers contributions presented during the workshop “Archaeology of Central Asia during the 1st millennium BC” at the 10th ICAANE in Vienna in April 2016. Designed to treat both the Iron Age and the Hellenistic period, it aims to capture the diversity of current archaeological work on the 1st millennium BC in Central Asia. It sheds new light on this challenging period by characterizing its cultural, socioeconomic, and political transformations...

This monograph presents a significant portion of the scientific results of the archaeological excavations at the Bronze Age settlement site of Punta di Zambrone on the Tyrrhenian coast of Calabria (southern Italy). These excavations were conducted from 2011 to 2013 in an Italian-Austrian cooperation. The book is the first in a series dedicated to the final publication of those excavations and focuses on the later part of the settlement history (13th–12th cent. BCE). Major topics include the...