I give here a brief overview of research interests and institutional activities relating to history. For my work in other fields see the links below.
Last updated: February 2012
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Education
History and philosophy were a major part of my initial training at the Liceo Gonzaga, which continued in a more substantial manner at the Catholic University of Milan with Albino Garzetti for the Greco-Roman period and Ezio Franceschini for the Middle Ages. The approach was in the solid Italian tradition, with an emphasis on the facts and a humanistic attention for the significance of human development in general. When I joined the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago in 1960, there was a ferment that pointed in the direction of a more explicit methodology, elicited by the confrontation with other disciplines, in particular anthropology, political sciences and phenomenology of religion: Ignace J. Gelb pointed me in the direction of economic history, A. Leo Oppenheim of the socio-economic dimension, and Thorkild Jacobsen of political institutions and religious experience.
While completing my PhD, I started teaching in the Department of History at Loyola University in Chicago, and this was an important catalyst in helping me focus more explicitly on matters of methodology. When, in 1965, I moved to UCLA, it had become important for me to be integrated in a history curriculum, and I was keen on having a joint appointment in the Department of History as well as in Near Eastern Languages. Within the former, I initiated a successful graduate program in Syro-Mesopotamian history, and the interaction with the large number of students who enrolled, as well as the committed involvement in undergraduate teaching, helped me develop a fully integrated approach where history provided the intellectual frame for a search for meaning out of the data. It was, in other words, the vehicle for a more satisfying understanding of the philological and archaeological base to which I was, concomitantly, paying ever greater attention.
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Teaching: Supervision of doctoral dissertations in history
| 1 |
1978 |
Michael J. Desrochers |
Aspects of the structure of Dilbat during the Old Babylonian period |
| 2 |
1978 |
Ronald Glaeseman |
The practice of the king's meal at Mari: A system of food distribution in the 2nd millennium |
| 3 |
1982 |
Sara Denning Bolle |
Wisdom in Akkadian literature : expression, instruction, dialogue |
| 4 |
1982 |
Matthew L. Jaffe |
The Old Babylonian letter: an examination of communication in Babylon, Larsa, Mari and Assyria |
| 5 |
1988 |
Mark W. Chavalas |
The house of Puzurum : a stratigraphic, distributional, and social analysis of domestic units from Tell Ashara/Terqa, Syria, from the middle of the second millenium B.C. |
| 6 |
1988 |
Amanda H. Podany |
The chronology and history of the Hana period |
| 7 |
1992 |
Judith R. Paul |
Mesopotamian ritual texts and the concept of the sacred in Mesopotamia |
| 8 |
1993 |
Robert D. Wexler |
The concepts of mortality and immortality in ancient Mesopotamia |
| 9 |
1994 |
Miki Yokoyama |
The administrative structure and economic function of public service (Ilkum) of the Old Babylonian state in the Old Babylonian period |
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Socio-political institutions
I have consistently looked at historical development in the light of the institutions that defined it. The 1959 article on the transition from Saul to David was a forerunner of the 1967 book on Cities and Nations: in both I was analyzing the structure of the state as it developed in Syria and Palestine along lines quite at variance with the classical Mesopotamian city-state, since the ethnic dimension served as the background for bonds of social coherence and solidarity that went beyond territorial contiguity.
In the 1966 book on the Amorites I began to explore the impact of nomadism on state formation, which developed into a series of studies on the subject, considered together below. The 1990, 1996 and 1999 articles are the most representative in terms of the definition and transformation of the underlying institutional structures.
The excavations at ancient Urkesh led me to explore further the differential modalities of state organization, and to propose alternatives to the classical Sumerian model of the city-state. Besides early suggestions in the 1999 and 2007 article, I have currently other articles in press that deal with this topic, particularly with reference to the earlier periods of the history of Urkesh. The alternative model that I propose is tied to an understanding of ethnic factors that related to the mountain hinterland of the population of Urkesh, which can be defined as "Hurrian" (see also below).
In the forthcoming essay on the Growth of the State, I deal at length with the topic of the development of socio-political institutions in Syro-Mesopotamia: the process of state formation is seen in new ways that highlight, inter alia, the self-perception of the various social groups.
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1958 "Il significato"
1959 "Da Saul a David"
1960 "Gli Israeliti"
1962 "La Carriera di David"
1964 "Enthronement of the king"
1966 Amorites Ur III Period Part 1, Part 2
1967 Cities and Nations of Ancient Syria
1977 "`Apirū and Munnabtūtu"
1986 "Glory of Ancient Syria"
1988 "Kingdom and Period"
1990 "From Khana to Lage"
1990 "'River Bank,' 'High Country'"
1990 "The Rural Landscape"
1991 "Note on the muškēnum"
1992 "Ebla and the Amorites"
1993 "Through a Tablet Darkly"
1993 "Gli Amorrei"
1994 "The Kudurrus as Monuments"
1996 "Role of Socio-Political Factors"
1997 "Syria in the Bronze Age"
1999 "Urkesh, Hurrian Urbanism"
2002 "Ta'ram-Agade"
2004 "Il secondo millennio"
2007 "Hurrian homeland"
in prep. The Growth of the State
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The urban revolution and writing
A key moment in human development was the introduction of writing that coincided with the establishment of the first cities. I have pursued this research interest with the goal of identifyign the perceptual impact that these transformations induced on social consciousness, and in an attempt to explain why the cluster of changes we call the "urban revolution" was so late in coming in relation to the very long prehistoric periods.
Related to this is my research in cuneiform writing from a linguistic point of view (see under linguistics).
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1975 "Urban Revolution"
1977 "Urban Revolution"
1981 "Origin of writing"
1990 "Salt at the Dawn"
2005 "Perception of function"
in prep. Cuneiform: nature & significance
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Ethnicity and the Hurrians
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Khana and the Amorites
Linguistics. – Following the 1966 book entitled The Amorites of the Ur III Period, a study devoted to the archaic period of Amorite, and my a review of Huffmon's Amorite Personal Names in 1968, I have maintained an active personal interest in linguistic matters, culminating in my Structural Grammar of Babylonian (which deals marginally with Amorite), and in a major article on Akkadian and Amorite phonology for a volume entitled The Phonology of Selected Asian and African Languages; a shorter article on Eblaite and Amorite onomastics has appeared in 1995.
Philology. – I published several new texts bearing on the Amorites in the 1966 book The Amorites of the Ur III Period; additional evidence was briefly presented in my article on a Terqa text (SMS 1977) and in my recent publication on the seal impressions of Mozan/Urkesh (AfO 1996). I have also held the overall responsibility for the publication of the texts found there, which I have entrusted to Olivier Rouault for publication, and which are closely related to those of Mari.
Archaeology. – As Director of the Joint Expedition to Terqa, I have worked for ten seasons in the Amorite “heartland.” The analysis of faunal remains from our site (undertaken by my former student Kathleen Galvin) has brought to light some significant new evidence concerning Amorite animal husbandry. I have authored several site reports on our excavations, and supervised the overall publication for our project. As Director of the Mozan/Urkesh Archaeological Project I work currently in the Khabur plains which represent the northern limit of Amorite expansion.
Geography and ethnography. – Extensive field research not only in Syria, but also in Iraq, Turkey and even the Caucasus has yielded a deeper insight of the impact of landscape on historical development. My work with geo-morphologists working on our expeditions to Terqa and Urkesh has contributed to my understanding of technical aspects of the landscape. A recent Guggenheim Fellowship (1994-95) has brought to a culmination these interests, allowing me to travel in the area at a time when I was not absorbed with commitments to the excavations, and especially to study from an ethnographic point of view the Winter habits of the shepherd families which I had come to know well during their Summer transhumance. add salt project
History. – My 1966 book The Amorites of the Ur III Period remains the only full-length treatment of the Amorites in the third millennium. Also, in my other book Cities and Nations of Ancient Syria (1967) I proposed a framework for an understanding of the political development of tribal configurations, which I am now applying to the Amorites. I have elaborated my new approach to Amorite history in a number of recent articles in BASOR (1988), the Kupper Volume (1990), the Tell al-Hamidiya Volume (1990), a French volume on Techniques et pratiques hydro-agricoles traditionelles (1990), the Gevirtz Volume (1991), Eblaitica (1992), the Italian Exhibition Catalog L'Eufrate e il tempo (1993), a review of Anbar's volume Les tribus Amorites (1996) and the article on Amorite Art for the just published multi-volume Dictionary of Art.
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1967 Palmyrene
1966 Amorites Ur III Period
1977 ""`Apirū and Munnabtūtu""
1990 "From Khana to Lage"
1990 "'River Bank,' 'High Country'"
1990 "The Rural Landscape"
1990 "Salt at the Dawn"
1991 "Note on the muškēnum"
1992 "Ebla and the Amorites"
1993 "Gli Amorrei"
1996 "Amorite"
1997 "Amorites"
1997 "Akkadian, Amorite Phonology"
2004 "Il secondo millennio"
2008 "Origins of the Tribe"
2012 Quando in alto 2.14, 6.5-7, 17.8
2012 Alle origini 11.1, 14.7, 16.7-8
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Syro-Mesopotamian religion
I have approached the study of religion in ancient Syria and Mesopotamia with particular interest for the dimension of spirituality as the engendering experience of culturally defined forms such as cult and ritual. In this context I have proposed an understanding of the relationship between polytheism and monotheism that is at variance with the mainstream: rather than a reductionist development, where monotheism is a rarefied polytheism or a polytheism of one, I see the two systems as mutually exclusive perceptions of the nature of the absolute and the human relationship to it.
While this is developed fully in the volume now in press, Quando in alto i cieli..., the substance was already presented in the earlier articles, especially in the 1995 "Ethics and Piety."
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1972 "La Beatitudini sullo sfondo"
1973 "Adapa, Genesis and Faith"
1981 "Wisdom or Not"
1982 "Descent of Inanna"
1995 "Ethics and Piety"
1996 "Mesopotamian Magic"
in press "Quando in alto i cieli..."
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Methodology
Questions of method are at the core of my research about specific issues, and I have discussed them within that context. The 1973 article deals explicitly with "methodological concerns," as an introduction to a volume of studies I edited, devoted to the same question.
Some of the special concepts that I have developed are those pertaining to perceptual geography (see especially
1990 "'River Bank,' 'High Country' "), the notion of function as underlying the growth of complexity (2005 "Perception of function"), the nature of polytheism (see above, the section on religion).
In the two forthcoming books, "Quando in alto i cieli..." and The Growth of the State I deal in more detail with questions of method, with regard to religion and socio-political institutions, respectively.
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1966 Amorites Ur III Period
1967 Cities and Nations of Ancient Syria
1973 "Methodological Concerns"
1988 "Kingdom and Period"
1990 "'River Bank,' 'High Country'"
1990 "The Rural Landscape"
1993 "Through a Tablet Darkly"
1996 "Role of Socio-Political Factors"
1999 "Urkesh, Hurrian Urbanism"
2004 "Il secondo millennio"
2005 "Perception of function"
2007 "Hurrian homeland"
2010 "Semiotics of Ethnicity"
in press "Quando in alto i cieli..."
in prep. The Growth of the State
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CV and other links
Curriculum Vitae |
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departmental
affiliations at UCLA |
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additional links |
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Photograph and page background
The photograph shown at the top of this page and here to the right was taken in August 2003, during the excavations in area AA at Tell Mozan.
It shows the stratigraphic sequence stretching over a millennium, from the Akkadian period Palace of Tupkish to the moment immediately preceding the abandonment after the Assyrian conquest.
The scene in the photo is thus symbolic of the great chronological span that a living city, buried under its own collapse, represents visually when under excavation. The longue durée concept applies here to the settlement as a whole, not to its individual components.
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