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Ömür Harmansah
  • School of Art and Art History
    University of Illinois at Chicago
    106 Jefferson Hall
    929 W Harrison Street, MC 201
    Chicago, Illinois 60607
  • 312-355-0616

Ömür Harmansah

University of Illinois at Chicago, Art and Art History, Department Member
Fresh Off the Press + Forthcoming
Rural Landscapes, Extraction, and Heritage Violence in the Middle Eastmore
by Ömür Harmansah
In this contribution, I discuss the various forms and levels of heritage violence that is taking place in an accelerated pace in the Turkish countryside in the last two to three decades under late capitalism. Performing archaeological... more
In this contribution, I discuss the various forms and levels of heritage violence that is taking place in an accelerated pace in the Turkish countryside in the last two to three decades under late capitalism. Performing archaeological fieldwork in Turkey since the early 1990s, one observes dramatic changes in the overall management of the countryside by the state and, in a related way, the status and the treatment of cultural heritage. This work derives from my field practice of landscape archaeology and architectural documentation with an eye for the politics of ecology and contested cultural heritage. By cultural heritage in this context, I refer primarily to archaeological artifacts, monuments, sites, landscapes, and other forms of material culture associated with the deep past but very much in the thick (politics) of the present. I include prominently here the ancestral (rural) landscapes of belonging, whether they are agricultural, pastoral, or geological. I find it unproductive and slightly misleading to classify heritage as tangible vs. intangible, because I consider the material worlds of cultural heritage as a sensorial assemblage, layered with materialities and entangled meanings, practices, stories, and histories. The tangible/intangible split seems very much like a Cartesian binary that cuts through an otherwise entangled whole. More specifically, I am interested in the variety of practices of heritage violence in the contemporary Middle Eastern countryside, which I characterize as forms of heritage injustice. The debates on heritage justice highlight the intimate connection between human rights and cultural heritage, characterize heritage work as work towards a form of social justice, and evoke the necessity and potentiality of future considerations of reparations. Thinking about heritage is particularly helpful when justice is not just imagined from the perspective of human individuals and communities, but symmetrically extended to non-human bodies with agency, tangled with human histories, such as a monument, a lake, a river, a mud volcano, or a cultural artifact from the past.
DOI: 10.4324/9781003188438
Publication Date: 2023
Publication Name: Rethinking Heritage in Precarious Times Coloniality, Climate Change, and Covid-19
Research Interests:
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Rural Landscapes, Extraction, and Heritage Violence in the Middle East (Pre-publication Draft)more
by Ömür Harmansah
Since the 1990s, Middle Eastern archaeologists working actively in the field have observed an unprecedented disposal of local landscapes under the sovereignty of late capitalism. This disposal took place in the form of infrastructure... more
Since the 1990s, Middle Eastern archaeologists working actively in the field have observed an unprecedented disposal of local landscapes under the sovereignty of late capitalism. This disposal took place in the form of infrastructure projects, extraction of resources in massive scales, and the broader contracting of the countryside to private companies for mining and quarrying. This assemblage of extractive operations brought about an increased intensity of the looting of cultural heritage. These heritage landscapes under increased threat of looting include historic buildings, archaeological sites and monuments, as well as ancestral landscapes of belonging, whether they are agricultural, pastoral, or geological. In this contribution, I argue that in the regions of the global south such as the Middle East and North Africa, we are living through an extreme episode of heritage violence, and this violence can be closely linked to other practices of extraction in the countryside and the climate crisis. A major challenge for heritage studies today is, on the one hand, being a chronicler of heritage destruction under the current neoliberal regimes, and on the other hand, to contextualize this violence within the conditions of disposability, precarity, extraction, dispossession, and salvage economy, which are more broadly associated with the regimes of climate and environmental injustice. This chapter draws attention to this overall state of injustice in the countryside, particularly in Turkey and suggests that such a political ecology of heritage injustice can only be addressed by a new form of politically engaged and on-the-ground fieldwork.
Publication Name: Resilient Heritage: Rethinking Heritage in Precarious Times
Research Interests:
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The Archaeology of Hittite Landscapes: A View from the Southwestern Borderlandsmore
by Ömür Harmansah, Peri Johnson, Ben Marsh, and Müge Durusu-Tanrıöver
This article layers material, physical, and textual landscapes of the Hittite Empire in a compact borderland region. We argue that a real strength of landscape archaeology is in understanding and articulating medium-scale landscapes... more
This article layers material, physical, and textual landscapes of the Hittite Empire in a compact borderland region. We argue that a real strength of landscape archaeology is in understanding and articulating medium-scale landscapes through archaeological survey methods and critical study of physical geography. Medium-scale landscapes are a milieu of daily human experience, movement, and visuality that spawn a densely textured countryside involving settlements, sacred places, quarries, roads, transhumance routes, and water infrastructures. Using the data and the experience from eight field seasons by the Yalburt Yaylası Archaeological Landscape Research Project team since 2010, we offer accounts of three specific landscapes: the Ilgın Plain, the Bulasan River valley near the Hittite fortress of Kale Tepesi, and the pastoral uplands of Yalburt Yaylası. For each, we demonstrate different sets of relationships and landscape dynamics during the Late Bronze Age, with specific emphasis on movement, settlement, taskscapes, land use, and human experience.
DOI: 10.5325/jeasmedarcherstu.10.1.0001
Publication Date: 2022
Publication Name: Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies
Research Interests:
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Books
Scribbling through History. Graffiti, People, and Places from Antiquity to Modernitymore
by Ömür Harmansah and Elizabeth Frood
For most people the mention of graffiti conjures up notions of subversion, defacement, and underground culture. The term was coined by classical archaeologists excavating Pompeii in the 19th century and has been embraced by modern street... more
For most people the mention of graffiti conjures up notions of subversion, defacement, and underground culture. The term was coined by classical archaeologists excavating Pompeii in the 19th century and has been embraced by modern street culture. Graffiti have been left on natural sites and public monuments for tens of thousands of years. They mark a position in time, a relation to space, and a territorial claim. They are also material displays of individual identity and social interaction. As an effective, socially accepted medium of self-definition, ancient graffiti may be compared to the modern use of social networks.

This book shows that graffiti, a very ancient practice long hidden behind modern disapproval and street culture, have been integral to literacy and self-expression throughout history. Graffiti bear witness to social events and religious practices that are difficult to track in normative and official discourses. This book addresses graffiti practices, in cultures ranging from ancient China and Egypt through early modern Europe to modern Turkey, in illustrated short essays by specialists. It proposes a holistic approach to graffiti as a cultural practice that plays a key role in crucial aspects of human experience and how they can be understood.
Publication Date: 2018
Research Interests:
Ancient Egyptian Religion, Ancient History, Archaeology, Egyptology, Prehistoric Archaeology, and 51 more
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Place, Memory and Healing: An Archaeology of Anatolian Rock Monumentsmore
by Ömür Harmansah
Place, Memory and Healing: An Archaeology of Anatolian Rock Monuments investigates the complex and deep histories of places, how they served as sites of memory and belonging for local communities over the centuries, and how they were... more
Place, Memory and Healing: An Archaeology of Anatolian Rock Monuments investigates the complex and deep histories of places, how they served as sites of memory and belonging for local communities over the centuries, and how they were appropriated and monumentalized in the hands of the political elites. Focusing on Anatolian rock monuments carved into the living rock at watery landscapes during the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages, this book develops an archaeology of place as a theory of cultural landscapes and as an engaged methodology of fieldwork in order to excavate the genealogies of places.

Advocating that archaeology can contribute substantively to the study of places in many fields of research and engagement within the humanities and the social sciences, this book seeks to move beyond the oft-conceived notion of places as fixed and unchanging, and argues that places are always unfinished, emergent, and hybrid. Rock cut monuments of Anatolian antiquity are discussed in the historical and micro-regional context of their making at the time of the Hittite Empire and its aftermath, while the book also investigates how such rock-cut places, springs, and caves are associated with new forms of storytelling, holy figures, miracles, and healing in their post-antique life. Anybody wishing to understand places of cultural significance both archaeologically as well as through current theoretical lenses such as heritage studies, ethnography of landscapes, social memory, embodied and sensory experience of the world, post-colonialism, political ecology, cultural geography, sustainability, and globalization will find the case studies and research within this book a doorway to exploring places in new and rewarding ways.
Publisher: Routledge
Publication Date: Dec 17, 2014
Research Interests:
Ancient History, Landscape Ecology, Archaeology, Geology, Anthropology, and 77 more
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Cities and the Shaping of Memory in the Ancient Near Eastmore
by Ömür Harmansah
""This book investigates the founding and building of cities in the ancient Near East. The creation of new cities was imagined as an ideological project or a divine intervention in the political narratives and mythologies of Near Eastern... more
""This book investigates the founding and building of cities in the ancient Near East. The creation of new cities was imagined as an ideological project or a divine intervention in the political narratives and mythologies of Near Eastern cultures, often masking the complex processes behind the social production of urban space. During the Early Iron Age (ca. 1200–850 BCE), Assyrian and Syro-Hittite rulers developed a highly performative official discourse that revolved around constructing cities, cultivating landscapes, building watercourses, erecting monuments, and initiating public festivals. This volume combs through archaeological, epigraphic, visual, architectural, and environmental evidence to tell the story of a region from the perspective of its spatial practices, landscape history, and architectural technologies. It argues that the cultural processes of the making of urban spaces shape collective memory and identity as well as sites of political performance and state spectacle.

Excerpt
http://www.cambridge.org/servlet/file/store6/item7256988/version1/9781107027947_excerpt.pdf""
More Info: Cambridge University Press 2013
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Publication Date: Mar 18, 2013
Research Interests:
Landscape Ecology, Urban Geography, Archaeology, Near Eastern Archaeology, Art History, and 96 more
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9781107027947_frontmatter.pdf
Harmansah_excerptall.pdf
Of Rocks and Water: Towards An Archaeology of Place more
by Ömür Harmansah, Ben Marsh, and Ian B Straughn
People are drawn to places where geology performs its miracles: ice-cold spring waters gushing from the rock, mysterious caves which act as conduits for ancestors and divinities traveling back and forth to the underworld, sacred bodies of... more
People are drawn to places where geology performs its miracles: ice-cold spring waters gushing from the rock, mysterious caves which act as conduits for ancestors and divinities traveling back and forth to the underworld, sacred bodies of water where communities make libations and offer sacrifices. This volume presents a series of archaeological landscapes from the Iranian highlands to the Anatolian Plateau, and from the Mediterranean borderlands to Mesoamerica. Contributors all have a deep interest in the making and the long-term history of unorthodox places of human interaction with the mineral world, specifically the landscapes of rocks and water. Working with rock reliefs, sacred springs and lakes, caves, cairns, ruins and other meaningful places, they draw attention to the need for a rigorous field methodology and theoretical framework for working with such special places. At a time when network models, urban-centered and macro-scale perspectives dominate discussions of ancient landscapes, this unusual volume takes us to remote, unmappable places of cultural practice, social imagination and political appropriation. It offers not only a diverse set of case studies approaching small meaningful places in their special geological grounding, but also suggests new methodologies and interpretive approaches to understand places and the processes of place-making.
More Info: Edited by Omur Harmansah. Joukowsky Institute Publications 5.
Publisher: Oxbow Books
Publication Date: Aug 11, 2014
Research Interests:
Cultural History, Landscape Ecology, Cultural Studies, Archaeology, Classical Archaeology, and 65 more
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00_prelims.pdf
Eski Yakındoğu'da Kent, Bellek, Anıtmore
by Ömür Harmansah
Yeni kentlerin yaratılması, Yakındoğu kültürlerinin siyasi anlatılarında ve mitlerinde ideolojik bir proje ya da ilahi bir müdahale olarak düşünülür ve kent mekânının toplumsal üretimi genellikle maskelenir. Ömür Harmanşah, bu kitapta,... more
Yeni kentlerin yaratılması, Yakındoğu kültürlerinin siyasi anlatılarında ve mitlerinde ideolojik bir proje ya da ilahi bir müdahale olarak düşünülür ve kent mekânının toplumsal üretimi genellikle maskelenir. Ömür Harmanşah, bu kitapta, kent mekânlarının toplumsal bellek ve kimliği şekillendirdiğini, bu mekân kurma pratiğinin siyasi edim ve devlet gösterisi alanları olduğunu iddia ediyor. Geç demir çağında (MÖ 1200-850 c.) Asur ve Suriye-Hitit hükümdarlarının; kentlerin inşası, sulama kanalları yapımı, anıt dikme ve halk festivalleri düzenleme pratikleri etrafında gelişen resmi söylemini inceliyor.
Erken demir çağında Asur İmparatorluğu ve Suriye-Hitit devletleri arasında kent kurmak; ortak bir inşa pratiği, resmi söylem ve kültürel kimlik kaynağıdır. Eski Yakındoğu’da Kent, Bellek, Anıt, bu çok yönlü tarihi olgunun karşılaştırmalı bir perspektifle yapılan ayrıntılı ve kapsamlı ilk analizi. Kitap, eskiçağ metinlerini, arkeolojik kazı ve yüzey araştırmaları ile çevre ve mekân analizlerini inceleyerek kent kurma pratiğinin kültürel bir tarihini sunuyor.
Location: Istanbul
Publisher: Koc Universitesi Yayinlari (Koc University Press)
Publication Date: Nov 2015
Research Interests:
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Assurlular: Dicle’den Toroslar’a Tanrı Assur’un Krallığı/The Assyrians: Kingdom of the God Aššur from Tigris to Taurus, K. Köroğlu, S.F. Adalı (ed.), Tüpraş Anadolu Uygarlıkları Serisi No.7/Tüpraş Anatolian Civilizations Series No. 7, (Series Ed. N. Tekdemir), İstanbul 2018, Yapı Kredi Yayınları.more
by Kemalettin Köroglu, Selim Adalı, Fikri KULAKOGLU, Andreas Schachner, Ömür Harmansah, Yigal Bloch, Elif Denel, Halil Tekin, tuba okse, and Nihat Tekdemir
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Mapping Augustan Romemore
by Ömür Harmansah and Eric Kondratieff
"Mapping Augustan Rome responds to a lacuna in the field of Roman archaeology and urbanism: there exists no comprehensive reasoned period plan of Republican or Imperial Rome. Our enterprise aimed to create a visual synopsis of what is... more
"Mapping Augustan Rome responds to a lacuna in the field of Roman archaeology and urbanism: there exists no comprehensive reasoned period plan of Republican or Imperial Rome. Our enterprise aimed to create a visual synopsis of what is known about the city of Rome c.A.D. 14 – a pivotal phase of Rome’s transformation into an imperial capital – and to justify our renderings in written form. The result is a set of large-scale maps (1:6000 for the Main Map; 1:3000 for the Central Area) and a critical commentary addressing every structure, area, and aspect depicted. The title, Mapping Augustan Rome, expressly conveys our belief that the work offered here is merely the beginning of a larger process of reasoned visualization to be carried out on many levels of scholarship and which may, eventually, result in a ‘map’ of Augustan Rome.

Begun in December of 1998, Mapping Augustan Rome had its origins in a graduate seminar initiated by Lothar Haselberger and co-taught with David Gilman Romano at the University of Pennsylvania. Contributors to the project included eleven graduate students and one undergraduate, hailing from various disciplines including archaeology, art history, ancient history, and classics. Each participant was assigned a region of the Urbs to research, producing written entries and annotated visual materials which were then transformed by D.G. Romano and two graduate students into a digital format. Concurrently, Andrew Gallia and Nicholas Stapp worked to model the physical topography of the Augustan city, one of the project’s notable innovations (for technical details: “Making the map”. At the end of the process, Mark Davison, a professional graphic designer, improved the legibility and aesthetics of the maps.

The written text includes two introductory chapters which outline the project’s goals, procedures and accomplishments “An introduction to the experiment”, and explain the intricacies of computerized map-making “Making the map”. The balance of the volume consists of individual entries which seek to justify and explain each aspect of the map. Each region of the city is addressed in a broad, over-arching entry, as are several urban systems such as aqueducts, city walls, and suburban expansion. Individual entries detail nearly 400 buildings, monuments, streets, tombs, neighborhoods, and horti, as well as more than 50 aspects of the Augustan city which could not be visualized, often due to an imperfectly known location (for a complete list, consult the indices of the Main Map). Rather than repeating information already available in topographic dictionaries such as the Lexicon Topographicum Urbis Romae, each entry is limited to issues which impact the rendering process; aspects and debates tangential to the focus of our work are cursorily treated, if at all."
More Info: directed by Lothar Haselberger in collaboration with David G. Romano & edited by Elisha Dumser. Journal of Roman Archaeology Supplement Series No. 50: Portsmouth, RI, 2002.
Publisher: Journal of Roman Archaeology Supplement Series
Publication Date: 2002
Publication Name: Mapping Augustan Rome
Research Interests:
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Journal Articles
Moving landscapes, making place: Cities, monuments and commemoration at Malizi/Melidmore
by Ömür Harmansah
The urbanization of Syro-Hittite (Luwian and Aramaean) states is one of most complex yet little explored regional processes in Near Eastern history and archaeology. In this study, I discuss aspects of landscape and settlement change in... more
The urbanization of Syro-Hittite (Luwian and Aramaean) states is one of most complex yet little explored regional processes in Near Eastern history and archaeology. In this study, I discuss aspects of landscape and settlement change in northern Syria and southeastern Anatolia during the Early Iron Age (ca. 1200-850 BC), and suggest that the emergent geo-politics of the region involved the foundation of cities and construction of specific types of commemorative monuments including rock reliefs, steles and city gates. ...
Publication Date: Jun 22, 2011
Publication Name: Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology
Research Interests:
The archaeology of Hittite landscapes: a view from the southwestern borderlandsmore
by Peri Johnson and Ömür Harmansah
Th is article layers material, physical, and textual landscapes of the Hittite Empire in a compact borderland region. We argue that a real strength of landscape archaeology is in understanding and articulating medium-scale landscapes... more
Th is article layers material, physical, and textual landscapes of the Hittite Empire in a compact borderland region. We argue that a real strength of landscape archaeology is in understanding and articulating medium-scale landscapes through archaeological survey methods and critical study of physical geography. Medium-scale landscapes are a milieu of daily human experience, movement, and visuality that spawn a densely textured countryside involving settlements, sacred places, quarries, roads, transhumance routes, and water infrastructures. Using the data and the experience from eight fi eld seasons by the Yalburt Yaylası Archaeological Landscape Research Project team since 2010, we off er accounts of three specifi c landscapes: the Ilgın Plain, the Bulasan River valley near the Hittite fortress of Kale Tepesi, and the pastoral uplands of Yalburt Yaylası. For each, we demonstrate diff erent sets of relationships and landscape dynamics during the Late Bronze Age, with specifi c emphasis on movement, settlement, taskscapes, land use, and human experience
Publication Date: 2022
Publication Name: Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies
Research Interests:
Harmanşah, Ömür; 2016. "ISIS, el patrimonio y el espectáculo de la destrucción en los medios globales" Claroscuro: Revista del centro de Estudios sobre Diversidad Cultural 15 (Dec 2016) 110-128.more
by Ömür Harmansah
En un reciente artículo publicado en Al -Monitor, Massoud Hamed señaló que en sus actividades recientes, el Estado Islámico (ISIS) está llevando acabo una política de “tierra quemada”en el centro-norte de Siria, en la región de Kobanê y... more
En un reciente artículo publicado en Al -Monitor, Massoud Hamed señaló que en sus actividades recientes, el Estado Islámico (ISIS) está llevando acabo una política de “tierra quemada”en el centro-norte de Siria, en la región de Kobanê y en Tell Abyad, ubicada al oeste del Éufrates y junto a la frontera turca. La zona comprende principalmente comunidades agropastorales mayoritariamente kurdas (Hamed 2015 ). Los militantes del Estado Islámico informan que han vaciado y demolido ciudades en esta región, y ahora se dirigen al campo: el Estado Islámico ha estado quemando campos agrícolas para devastar el paisaje que oficia de medio yfuente de subsistencia de estas comunidades. La tierra quemada es una dura política militar con profundas raíces históricas que tiene comoobjetivo aniquilar la totalidad de los paisajes que ofician de medios de subsistencia y negar el derecho humano básico a vivir de las comunidades locales, incluso después de que la batalla ha terminado.
Location: Argentina
More Info: http://ppct.caicyt.gov.ar/index.php/claroscuro/issue/view/622
Publisher: Centro de Estudios sobre Diversidad Cultural
Journal Name: Claroscuro: Revista del centro de Estudios Diversidad Cultural
Organization: Centro de Estudios sobre Diversidad Cultural
Research Interests:
Archaeology, Visual Studies, Art History, Media Studies, Museum Studies, and 54 more
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Harmanşah, Ömür; 2016. “IŞİD, Kültürel Miras ve Küresel Medyada Yıkım Gösterileri” Birikim 322: 72-81. [Translation from English to Turkish: Asya Ece Uzmay]more
by Ömür Harmansah and Asya Ece Uzmay
ISlD'in Suriye ve Irak'm imha edilmesi programının önde gelen unsurları arasında, kültürel mirasın yok edilmesi projesi; arkeoloji müzelerindeki eserlerin parçalanması, put kırıcılık ve arkeolojik alanlann, tapmaklarm, mezarlarm ve yerel... more
ISlD'in Suriye ve Irak'm imha edilmesi programının önde gelen unsurları arasında, kültürel mirasın yok edilmesi projesi; arkeoloji müzelerindeki eserlerin parçalanması, put kırıcılık ve arkeolojik alanlann, tapmaklarm, mezarlarm ve yerel halkın kutsal mekanlarının yerle bir edilmesi ve kütüphane ve arşivlerin yakılarak ortadan kaldırılması ile son zamanlarda medyanın dikkatini fazlasıyla çekti. Bu yazıda IŞİD'in arkeolojik mirası yıkım ve tahribatına odaklanacağım. Bu tahribatın yerel aidiyet duygusunu ve mirasın sahipleri olan yerel halklardaki toplumsal belleği ortadan kaldırmayı amaçlayan yerel kültür odaklı bir şiddet eylemi olarak görülebileceğini düşünüyorum. Bu yüzden, kültürel miras yıkımı yukarıda tanımlanan yanmış topraklar projesinin bir parçası ya da bölümü olarak görülebilir. Bir yandan da İslam Devleti’nin bu yıkımları, mirasın mekanlarına ve nesnelerine yönelik şiddetin medyatik bir gösterisi olarak kurguladığını ve koreografisini yaptığını ileri sürüyorum. Bu gösterilerin,  IŞİD’in en gelişmiş görselleştirme ve iletişim teknolojilerinden yararlanan, kendi imajını oluşturma ve yayma mekanizması yoluyla bize devamlı ve dikkatlice ulaştırdığı yeniden sahnelemeler veya tarihsel performanslar olduğunu savunacağım. Ayrıca, tüm dünyadaki arkeoloji camiasından gelmekte olan, ve genellikle basmakalıp hoşnutsuzluk ve şaşkınlık ifadelerinin ötesine geçmeyen, görece zayıf cevaplar hakkında da sorular ortaya atacağım. Aynı zamanda, IŞİD’in arkeolojik mirası neden ve nasıl sevmediğini, geç kapitalizm bağlamında cevaplamaya çalışacağım.
More Info: Birikim 322 (2016) 72-81
Journal Name: Birikim
Publication Date: Feb 2016
Research Interests:
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Harmanşah, Ömür; 2015. “ISIS, Heritage, and the Spectacles of Destruction in the Global Media” Near Eastern Archaeology 78.3: 170-177.more
by Ömür Harmansah
One highly prominent aspect of ISIS’s program of destruction in Syria and Iraq that has come to the media attention recently is their program of cultural heritage destruction that took the form of smashing artifacts in archaeological... more
One highly prominent aspect of ISIS’s program of destruction in Syria and Iraq that has come to the media attention recently is their program of cultural heritage destruction that took the form of smashing artifacts in archaeological museums, iconoclastic breaking and bulldozing of archaeological sites, dynamiting of shrines, tombs, and other holy sites of local communities, and burning of libraries and archives. In this paper, I focus on ISIS’s destruction of archaeological heritage. I argue that this destruction can be seen as a form of place-based violence that aims to annihilate the local sense of belonging, and the collective sense of memory among local communities to whom the heritage belongs. Therefore, heritage destruction can be seen as part and parcel of this scorched-earth strategy described above. I also argue that the Islamic State coordinates and choreographs these destructions as mediatic spectacles of violence aimed at objects and sites of heritage, and these spectacles take place as re-enactments or historical performances that are continuously and carefully communicated to us through ISIS’s own image-making and dissemination apparatus that increasingly utilizes the most advanced technologies of visualization and communication. I will also pose questions about the relatively weak responses from the archaeological community around the world that rarely went beyond the stereotypical expression of “dismay” to ISIS’s heritage destruction. At the same time, I will try to answer the why and how of ISIS’s dislike of archaeological heritage in the context of late capitalism.
More Info: Harmansah, Omur; 2015. "ISIS, Heritage, and the Spectacles of Destruction in the Global Media" Near Eastern Archaeology 78.3 (2015) 170-177.
Publication Date: Sep 9, 2015
Publication Name: Near Eastern Archaeology 78.3 (2015) 170-177
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, Landscape Ecology, Archaeology, Near Eastern Archaeology, Anthropology, and 120 more
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Harmanşah, Ömür; 2012. "Beyond Aššur: New Cities and the Assyrian Politics of Landscape," Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 365: 53-77.more
by Ömür Harmansah
This article investigates the making of Assyrian landscapes during the late second and early first millennia b.c.e. From the late 14th century b.c.e. onward, the Assyrians designated the emergent core of their territorial state as the... more
This article investigates the making of Assyrian landscapes during the late second and early first millennia b.c.e. From the late 14th century b.c.e. onward, the Assyrians designated the emergent core of their territorial state as the “Land of Aššur” in their royal inscriptions. However, over the course of the next several centuries, the cultural geography of the Land of Aššur was continuously redefined while gradually shifting northward from the arid environs of the city Aššur to the well-watered and resourceful landscapes around the confluence of the Tigris and the Upper and Lower Zab Rivers. Contemporaneously, the landscapes of the Upper Tigris basin (southeastern Turkey) and the Jazira witnessed extensive settlement and cultivation as Assyrian provinces and frontiers. Drawing on archaeological survey evidence and a critical reading of the textual accounts of urban foundations, this paper argues that such mobility of Assyrian landscapes was part and parcel of broader processes of environmental and settlement change in Upper Mesopotamia. Assyrian annalistic texts point to an elaborate rhetoric of landscape that portrays state interventions in the form of city foundations and building programs, construction of irrigation canals, planting of orchards, opening of new quarries, and settlement of populations. Furthermore, the making of commemorative monuments such as rock reliefs and stelae allowed the Assyrian state to inscribe symbolically charged places in foreign landscapes and incorporate them into the narratives of the empire. By drawing attention to the long-term trends of settlement in Upper Mesopotamia during the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages and the agency of landscapes, the article contextualizes the Assyrian political rhetoric of development at the time of a highly fluid world of geographical imagination.
More Info: Harmanşah, Ömür; 2012. "Beyond Aššur: New Cities and the Assyrian Politics of Landscape," Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 365: 53-77.
Research Interests:
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Harmanşah, Ömür; 2011. "Moving Landscapes, Making Place: Cities, Monuments and Commemoration at Malizi/Melid " Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 24.1: 55-83.more
by Ömür Harmansah
The urbanization of Syro-Hittite (Luwian and Aramaean) states is one of most complex yet little explored regional processes in Near Eastern history and archaeology. In this study, I discuss aspects of landscape and settlement change in... more
The urbanization of Syro-Hittite (Luwian and Aramaean) states is one of most complex yet little explored regional processes in Near Eastern history and archaeology. In this study, I discuss aspects of landscape and settlement change in northern Syria and southeastern Anatolia during the Early Iron Age (ca. 1200–850 BC), and suggest that the emergent geo-politics of the region involved the foundation of cities and construction of specific types of commemorative monuments including rock reliefs, steles and city gates. While defining new forms of territorial power, these monuments linked local polities to a shared Hittite past through their literary and visual rhetoric, and a discourse of inherited agricultural land. To contextualize the subject matter, I first discuss the gradual southward shift of an imperial Hittite center of power from central Anatolia towards Karkamiš and Tarhuntašša at the end of the Late Bronze Age, arguing against the widespread models of a sudden collapse of the Hittite Empire followed by dark ages. Furthermore, I present archaeological
and epigraphic evidence for the formation of the regional state Malizi/Melid. This Syro-Hittite kingdom established itself in the Malatya-Elbistan Plains in eastern Turkey during the first centuries of the Early Iron Age as one of the earliest political entities to emerge from the ashes of the Hittite Empire. Monuments raised by Malizean ‘country lords’ in rural and urban contexts suggest a picture of a fluid landscape in transition, one that was configured through the construction of cities, and other practices of place-making.
More Info: Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 24.1 (2011) 55-83.
Research Interests:
Archaeology, Anatolian Studies, Place and Identity, Material Culture Studies, Landscape Archaeology, and 36 more
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Harmanşah, Ömür; 2009. “Stones of Ayanis: new urban foundations and the architectonic culture in Urartu during the 7th c. BC,” Byzas 9 (Bautechnik im Antiken und Vorantiken Kleinasien. Internationale Konferenz 13-16. Juni 2007 in Istanbul). Martin Bachmann (ed.). Ege Yayınları: Istanbul, 177-197.more
by Ömür Harmansah
During the reign of Rusa II in the first half of 7th century BC, Lake Van Basin underwent a remarkable process of urbanization and reconfiguration of its political landscapes through the construction of new cities. The urban spaces that... more
During the reign of Rusa II in the first half of 7th century BC, Lake Van Basin underwent a remarkable process of urbanization and reconfiguration of its political landscapes through the construction of new cities. The urban spaces that were eventually created were demarcated with a particularly powerful and innovative
architectonic culture: finely carved stone masonry. I argue in this article that monumental building activity, as a historically conspicuous event, creates a medium of exchange of artisanal knowledge and technological innovation. The dramatic
urban landscape of the Iron age city at Ayanis (ancient Rusahinili-Eiduru-kai) in Eastern Turkey on the Eastern shore of Lake Van, features an impressive fabric of such architectonic culture, not only a product of long-term building technologies
in the region, but also that of a series of innovations associated with the reign of its founder Rusa II. This paper specifically focuses on the complex set of stone masonry techniques in the monumental structures at Ayanis, and attempts to reflect
on the multi-faceted aspects of symbolic technologies of production in the context of the foundation of the city. It argues that the highly refined stone masonry in Urartu was a symbolically charged architectural technology that effectively operated as royal insignia in the public sphere, but it also derived from the local corpus of building knowledge in the Lake Van basin.
More Info: in Bautechnik im Antiken und Vorantiken Kleinasien. Internationale Konferenz 13-16. Juni 2007 in Istanbul. (Byzas 9). Martin Bachmann (ed.). Ege Yayınları: Istanbul, 177-197.
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Harmanşah, Ömür; 2007. “Source of the Tigris: event, place and performance in the Assyrian landscapes of the Early Iron Age,” Archaeological Dialogues 14.2: 179-204.more
by Ömür Harmansah
Performative engagements with specific, culturally significant places were among the primary means of configuring landscapes in the ancient world. Ancient states often appropriated symbolic or ritual landscapes through commemorative... more
Performative engagements with specific, culturally significant places were among the primary means of configuring landscapes in the ancient world. Ancient states often appropriated symbolic or ritual landscapes through commemorative ceremonies and
building operations. These commemorative sites became event-places where state spectacles encountered and merged with local cult practices. The Early Iron Age inscriptions and reliefs carved on the cave walls of the Dibni Su sources at the
site of Birkleyn in Eastern Turkey, known as the ‘Source of the Tigris’ monuments, present a compelling paradigm for such spatial practices. Assyrian kings Tiglathpileser I (1114–1076 B.C.) and Shalmaneser III (858–824 B.C.) carved ‘images of kingship’ and accompanying royal inscriptions at this impressive site in a remote but politically contested region. This important commemorative event was represented in detail on Shalmaneser III’s bronze repouss´e bands from Imgul-Enlil (Tell Balawat) as
well as in his annalistic texts, rearticulating the performance of the place on public monuments in Assyrian urban contexts. This paper approaches the making of the Source of the Tigris monuments as a complex performative place-event. The effect
was to reconfigure a socially significant, mytho-poetic landscape into a landscape of commemoration and cult practice, illustrating Assyrian rhetorics of kingship. These rhetorics were maintained by articulate gestures of inscription that appropriated an already symbolically charged landscape in a liminal territory and made it durable through site-specific spatial practices and narrative representations.

Keywords: mytho-poetic landscape; commemorative monuments; rock reliefs; place; performance; event; rhetorics of kingship; acts of inscription
More Info: Archaeological Dialogues 14.2 (December 2007): 179-204.
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Harmanşah, Ömür; 2012. "Critical archaeologies for political engagements with place (Kritische Archaeologie: der Ort als Thema politischer Auseinandersetzung)" Forum Kritische Archäologie 1: 134-140.more
by Ömür Harmansah
One of the important challenges that the discip­line of archaeology faces in the 21st century is com­ing to terms with the implications of its field prac­tices, which are deeply rooted in the paradigms of colonialism and colonial... more
One of the important challenges that the discip­line of archaeology faces in the 21st century is com­ing to terms with the implications of its field prac­tices, which are deeply rooted in the paradigms of colonialism and colonial modernity. Looking from a place-­based perspective, since its inception archae­ology’s engagement with local places that were sub­ject to its surgical practices of exploration, excava­tion, survey, and documentation has been exploitat­ive at best, while the production of archaeological knowledge has often been entangled with imperialist discourses. Despite its persistent denials of political engagement in regions of active fieldwork, archae­ological field practices are deeply political enter­prises with much agency and impact on the history of places. It is my contention that places must be defended against destructive effects of globalization and the invasive neoliberal development, since places continue to be significant sources of cultural identity, memory, and belonging for local communit­ies (Escobar 2008),  and I argue that today archae­ologists as public intellectuals can play a major role in standing against the erasure of place.
More Info: Harmanşah, Ömür. 2012. Critical archaeologies for political engagements with place (Kritische Archaeologie: der Ort als Thema politischer Auseinandersetzung). Forum Kritische Archäologie 1: 134-140.
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The Location of Theory: A Discussion with Homi Bhabhamore
by Ömür Harmansah and Nick Shepherd
On Friday April 30th, 2010, the noted postcolonial theorist Homi Bhabha entered into discussion with Alejandro Haber, Yannis Hamilakis and Uzma Rizvi, as part of the opening plenary session of TAG 2010, the Theoretical Archaeology Group... more
On Friday April 30th, 2010, the noted postcolonial theorist Homi Bhabha entered into discussion with Alejandro Haber, Yannis Hamilakis and Uzma Rizvi, as part of the opening plenary session of TAG 2010, the Theoretical Archaeology Group conference at Brown University. The session was moderated by Nick Shepherd, and convened by O ¨ mür Harmansah on behalf of the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World. The theme for the plenary session was The Location of Theory (a full statement of the theme is given below). Haber, Hamilakis and Rizvi were asked to prepare 1000–2000 word statements in response to the theme. These were circulated in the weeks before TAG2010. Homi Bhabha gave a detailed and thoughtful response, in which he addressed each of the statements, and enlarged on the place and meaning of a project of theory in archaeology. In this issue of Archaeologies, we publish the statements by Haber, Ham-ilakis and Rizvi, produced in response to the session brief. The outline for the plenary session on The Location of Theory was multi-authored, and was workshopped by a group meeting in the Joukowsky Institute in the months leading up to TAG 2010. The full text of this statement follows: The TAG 2010 meeting at Brown University will open to debate the supposed universal applicability of Archaeological Theory (in the singular), given the emergent reaction and critique from scholars from various localities in the world which have long been generating diverse archaeological practices and theories (in the plural). Given archaeology's long history and intimate entanglements with impe-rialist, colonialist and even racist discourses, archaeological practice and theory have always been deeply political as an agent of change in the global scale and within histories of places. In the last few decades, archaeologists and archaeological theorists have been increasingly engaged with tracing the genealogies of the discipline in colonial modernity and reflecting on its powerfully political status in the postcolonial world (e.g. Hamilakis and Duke 2007; Liebmann and Rizvi 2008). Archaeological theory itself, with its theories of the center (such as pro-cessualism and postprocessualism) arguably has a globalizing tendency to FORUM ARCHAEOLOGIES
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Summers, G.D, F.E. Summers, N. Baturayoglu, Ö. Harmanşah, E. McIntosh; 1996. “The Kerkenes Dağ survey: an interim report,” Anatolian Studies 46: 200-234.more
by Ömür Harmansah, Nilufer Baturayoglu Yoney, and Geoffrey Summers
More Info: Anatolian Studies 46 (1996) 200-234. (co-authored with G.D. Summers, F.E. Summers, N. Baturayoglu, E. McIntosh).
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The Kerkenes Dağ Survey: an Interim Reportmore
by Geoffrey Summers and Ömür Harmansah
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Harmanşah, Ömür; 1997. “Mekansal hikayeler,” (Spatial Stories) Mimarlık 274: 22-25. Fotoğraflar: Aslı Tanrıkulumore
by Ömür Harmansah
Issue: 274
More Info: Mimarlık 274 (1997) 22-25 (in Turkish). Fotoğraflar: Aslı Tanrıkulu
Page Numbers: 22-25
Publication Date: 1997
Publication Name: Mimarlik
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Book Chapters
The History of Art: A Global View Prehistory to the Presentmore
by Ömür Harmansah
The History of Art: A Global View is the first major art history survey textbook—written by a team of expert authors—with a global narrative in mind. A chronological organization and “Seeing Connections” features help readers make... more
The History of Art: A Global View is the first major art history survey textbook—written by a team of expert authors—with a global narrative in mind. A chronological organization and “Seeing Connections” features help readers make cross-cultural comparisons, while brief, modular chapters (with on-page definitions) offer instructors unparalleled flexibility. You can assign more than one chapter per week for a fully global course, or skip and reorder chapters, for a more focused syllabus.
Organization: Thames and Hudson
Publication Date: Dec 15, 2021
Publication Name: The History of Art: A Global View Prehistory to the Present
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Rock Reliefs and Landscape Monumentsmore
by Ömür Harmansah
Rock reliefs, inscriptions, and stone-built water reservoirs constitute some of the most pervasive features of Near Eastern archaeological landscapes, both urban and rural. Carved into the living rock at geologically significant places... more
Rock reliefs, inscriptions, and stone-built water reservoirs constitute some of the most pervasive features of Near Eastern archaeological landscapes, both urban and rural. Carved into the living rock at geologically significant places such as springs, caves, or mountain passes, these monuments constituted sites of political spectacles and ritual practices. This chapter investigates various geographical, art historical, and archaeological aspects of rock monuments from the Early Bronze to the Middle Iron Age (ca. 2200 BCE-700 BCE), including questions of place and image-making, multiple inscription of places, borderland politics, and ritual practice. It argues that rock monuments constituted places of long-term cultural engagement and memory as well as territorial politics. An archaeological approach allows us to trace the genealogy of such sites as places of persistent/recurring use even prior to their carving, and suggests that they often represent local places of colonial appropriation by imperial powers.
More Info: Harmanşah, Ömür; (2018) “Rock Reliefs and Landscape Monuments” in A Companion to Ancient Near Eastern Art (Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World) Ann Gunter (ed). Malden MA: Blackwell, 483-505.
Page Numbers: 483-505
Publication Date: 2018
Publication Name: A Companion to Ancient Near Eastern Art (Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World)
Research Interests:
Landscape Ecology, Archaeology, Near Eastern Archaeology, Geology, Anthropology, and 52 more
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Pınarlar, Mağaralar, ve Hitit Anadolu’sunda Kırsal Peyzaj: Yalburt Yaylası Arkeolojik Yüzey Araştırma Projesi (Ilgın, Konya), 2011 Sezonu Sonuçları moremore
by Ömür Harmansah
PINARLAR, MAĞARALAR, VE HITIT ANADOLU'SUNDA KIRSAL PEYZAJ: YALBURT YAYLASI ARKEOLOJIK YÜZEY ARAŞTIRMA PROJESI (ILGIN, KONYA) 2011 SEZONU SONUÇLARI Ömür Harmanşah 1 Peri Johnson 1. Giriş Anadolu kırsal peyzajının hayatî unsurlarından... more
PINARLAR, MAĞARALAR, VE HITIT ANADOLU'SUNDA KIRSAL PEYZAJ: YALBURT YAYLASI ARKEOLOJIK YÜZEY ARAŞTIRMA PROJESI (ILGIN, KONYA) 2011 SEZONU SONUÇLARI Ömür Harmanşah 1 Peri Johnson 1. Giriş Anadolu kırsal peyzajının hayatî unsurlarından su pınarları, mağaralar, düdenler ve obruklar, farklı dönemlerde farklı toplumlar nazarında kültürel anlamlarla yüklenmiş, gündelik yaşam pratiklerinin odağı, hikayelerin ve mitolojilerin mekânı olmuşlardır. Kırsal çevreye dair yerel bilgi dağarcıkları ...
Publication Date: May 1, 2013
Deep time and landscape history in the Anthropocene: How can historical particularity be translated?more
by Ömür Harmansah
Attending the workshop Timescales: Ecological Temporalities Across Disciplines at the University of Pennsylvania in 2016, a fellow climate historian and I (a landscape archaeologist and architectural historian), were asked to respond to... more
Attending the workshop Timescales: Ecological Temporalities Across Disciplines at the University of Pennsylvania in 2016, a fellow climate historian and I (a landscape archaeologist and architectural historian), were asked to respond to the challenge: how can historical particularity be translated in the context of the contemporary debates on the current ecological crisis, the new geological epoch of the Anthropocene and the challenges they pose on the writing of history? One of the revolutionary aspects of the debate around climate change and the Anthropocene is the weakening of the strict separation between historical time, that is, the temporality of historical writing, and the temporality of geological structures of the planet earth, and the conviction that the non-human, geological time is considered to be outside of history or relatively stable and immutable. If the onset of the Anthropocene is a moment in which an unusual window is opened into the slow moving processes of the mineral world, like an accidental and deep cut into the stratigraphy of the sediments of earth’s history, and has demonstrated to us that the impact of human species has always been at work as a geological agent in that history, what exactly would be the implication of this new found understanding of deep time on historical accounts of the past? If the Anthropocene can be defined as narrow crack into deep time, I will suggest then that it offers a kind of temporality today in which the deep time leaks into the present. If we define ourselves in the present in reference to a kind of historicity, and place ourselves within a linear sequence of recorded history and thus dwell in such historically informed identities, what would be the impact of the Anthropocene to this placement and such settled identities? If the strength of historical writing has always been its contextualization of historical events and processes, as well as their particularity and contingency, how does one account for an alternative ontology of historical time that goes beyond micro-histories of political acts? Similarly speaking, excavating archaeologists work with fine-grained material residues of the deep past and have developed meticulously refined forensic apparatuses to study past human lives through their engagement with resilient material things in increasingly precise spatial contexts (Pétursdóttir 2017). How can all this archaeological and historical particularity be translated into the new sensitivities and new ontologies of time and the assemblage of more-than-human histories that have now become inescapable?
DOI: 10.5749/j.ctv1cdxg76.6
Publication Date: 2021
Publication Name: Timescales: Thinking Across Ecological Temporalities
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Karşılaşmalar, Etkileşimler ve ve Ortak Bir Kültürel Alan: Assur İmparatorluğu ve Demir Çağı Suriye-Hitit Devletlerimore
by Ömür Harmansah
Assur Devleti ile Suriye-Hitit devletleri arasındaki ilişkilerin niteliği arkeolog ve Eskiçağ tarihçilerinin yazılarında büyük oranda merkez-çevre modellerine dayanan değişmeyen bir formül olan emperyalizm, Assur egemenliği ve... more
Assur Devleti ile Suriye-Hitit devletleri arasındaki ilişkilerin niteliği arkeolog ve Eskiçağ tarihçilerinin yazılarında büyük oranda merkez-çevre modellerine dayanan değişmeyen bir formül olan emperyalizm, Assur egemenliği ve Suriye-Hitit direnişi başlığı altında temsil edilir. Böylece bu yapısalcı sabit ilişkiler modeli, neticede Suriye-Hitit devletlerinin zaptıyla ve Assur askeri gücüne istisnasız ve tam olarak boyun eğmesiyle sona eren yerleşik güç ilişkilerinin seyri ve teleolojik bir fetih anlatısı olarak nitelenir. Bu makalede, sorgulanmayan bir Assur emperyalizmi anlayışına dayanan tarihsel perspektiflerin genellikle Assur yıllık anlatımlarının, devlet destekli metinlerinin ve imparatorluk anıtlarından oluşan ve abartılı değil ise de gösterişli Assur külliyatının sunduğu cazip ancak taraflı perspektiflerin güdümünde olduğu önerisinde bulunuyorum. Dolayısıyla bu tür perspektifler kültürel pratikler, ekolojik tarihler, siyasal peyzajlar, sosyalleşme ve materyal kültür dünyaları gibi geçmişin diğer uzun vadeli ve daha yatay dağılmış yönlerine göre, kısa vadeli fetih ve tahakküm siyasi tarihlerine öncelik vermektedir.
Publication Date: 2020
Publication Name: Asurlular: Dicle’den Toroslar’a Tanrı Assur’un Krallığı
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Cities, the Underworld, and the infrastructure: The ecology of water in the Hittite worldmore
by Ömür Harmansah
In Invisible Cities , Italo Calvino poetically describes how the urban space is shaped, on the one hand, by the emotions and desires of a city’s inhabitants that materialize into architectural form and, on the other hand, by the flows of... more
In Invisible Cities , Italo Calvino poetically describes how the urban space is shaped, on the one hand, by the emotions and desires of a city’s inhabitants that materialize into architectural form and, on the other hand, by the flows of cultural imagination, spatial metaphors, and storytelling. It has been argued that Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari “insist how the city is a circulatory conduit, a flux that is always material (in all possible senses, including symbolic and discursive flows), but never fixed” (Kaika and Swyngedouw 2000: 120). To understand the materiality of urban space as an assemblage of material lows in its perpetually unfinished character is a productive way to address the vibrancy and materiality of city life discussed above. This is possible through an integration of archaeological methodology on ancient urban spaces, an eco- critical study of urban landscapes and a new materialist perspective. Leaning in this dir-ection, in this chapter, I  investigate water infrastructures in the Hittite cities of the Anatolian Bronze Age and demonstrate the theoretical possibilities that new materialism and political ecology offer to the study of ancient urban landscapes.
DOI: 10.4324/9781351008488
More Info: Cities, the Underworld, and the infrastructure: The ecology of water in the Hittite world In New Materialisms Ancient Urbanisms, Susan M. Alt and Timothy R. Pauketat (editors) London and New York: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group 218-244
Page Numbers: 218-244
Publication Date: 2019
Publication Name: New Materialisms Ancient Urbanisms, Susan M. Alt and Timothy R. Pauketat (editors)
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Visualizing the Moon in the Ancient Near Eastmore
by Ömür Harmansah
The moon played a major role in the ancient Middle Eastern world as a celestial body, as a material measure of time and temporality, as a site for predicting the future, and as a benevolent god of abundance, prosperity, and in certain... more
The moon played a major role in the ancient Middle Eastern world as a celestial body, as a material measure of time and temporality, as a site for predicting the future, and as a benevolent god of abundance, prosperity, and in certain places, even healing. In this essay, I discuss both the veneration and the visualization of the moon in Pre-Islamic (ritual) contexts to provide a visual-historical biography of the moon, which was imagined both as a divine presence and as a cosmic actor. For the sake of brevity and coherence, I will focus on the ancient Mesopotamian engagements with the moon during the Bronze and Iron Ages, and pursue the very popular cult of the moon in Hellenistic and Roman Anatolia. In doing so, as an art historian, my biased focus is on the various apparitions of the moon on monuments, works of art, and
the artifacts of visual culture, which will help me narrate its story. Contrary to the modern scientific vision of the moon as a “lifeless, rocky satellite,”3 the protagonist of this new materialist tale is no less than a major cosmic actor, a vibrant and powerful god who shaped and safeguarded the everyday life and fate of humanity. New materialism urges us to return to the matter, liberating it as much as possible from the ontological straitjacket of anthropocentric idealism, symbolism, and classification.
More Info: Harmanşah, Ömür; 2019. “Visualizing the Moon in the Ancient Near East,” in The Moon: A voyage Through Time. Christiane Gruber (ed.). Exhibition Catalogue. Toronto: Aga Khan Museum, 8-14.
Publication Date: 2019
Publication Name: The Moon: A Voyage Through Time
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Encounters, Interactions, and a Shared Cultural Sphere: The Assyrian Empire and the Syro-Hittite States of the Iron Agemore
by Ömür Harmansah
The nature of the relationship between the Assyrian state and the Syro-Hittite states is often represented in the writings of archaeologists and ancient historians under the rubric of imperialism, Assyrian sovereignty, and the... more
The nature of the relationship between the Assyrian state and the Syro-Hittite states is often represented in the writings of archaeologists and ancient historians under the rubric of imperialism, Assyrian sovereignty, and the Syro-Hittite resistance, an unchanging formula largely based on center-periphery models. This structuralist model of fixed relationships is thus characterized as a firmly-set trajectory of power relations and a teleological narrative of conquest, ending without exception with the eventual and complete submission and subjugation of Syro-Hittite states to Assyrian military power. While Syro-Hittite states are represented as vulnerable and politically weak entities, the Assyrian state is referred as an “expansionistic imperial power” or “superior invading force”. Had they escaped direct Assyrian sovereignty, these peripheral communities were at least deemed “Assyrianizing” in their material culture. This a priori qualification of Syro-Hittite-Assyrian relationships as an imbalanced power distribution is an outcome of the preponderance of studies of Assyrian sovereignty with an obsession with the (cosmic) image of the sovereign in his visual and verbal manifestations. Secondly it is often assumed that the study of Assyrian imperialism has always operated through coercion and military violence. Alternative forms of engagement between the Neo-Assyrian state and the Syro-Hittite kingdoms such as diplomacy, political negotiation, trade, exchange of ideas, politics of settlement, land management, taxation or traveling craftsmen and circulation of technology and knowledge are much more rarely discussed. In this paper, I suggest that historical perspectives on the unchallenged Assyrian imperialism are often driven by the alluring, yet biased perspectives offered by the sumptuous, if not excessive corpus of Assyrian annalistic accounts, state sponsored texts, and imperial monuments. Therefore such perspectives prioritize short-term political histories of conquest and domination over other longer term and more horizontally distributed aspects of the past such as cultural practices, ecological histories, political landscapes, socialization, or material worlds. The historicist accounts of the Near Eastern past can be challenged and perhaps balanced by evidence offered by archaeological, material, and environmental research, which present alternative and often contrasting perspectives on these particular histories. Prioritizing textual evidence often leaves out the material flows, delicate negotiations of power, dynamics of trade and exchange and the politics of resource extraction. Attending to other forms of evidence allows us to reflect on the complexity of the relationships between Assyria and the Syro-Hittite states. In this article, I pay particular attention to such interactions and encounters that are other than military in nature, and give priority to material evidence that challenge standard imperialist narratives of Assyrian textual accounts.
More Info: * Harmanşah, Ömür; 2018. “Encounters, Interactions and a Shared Cultural Sphere: Assyrian Empire and the Syro-Hittite States of the Iron Age,” in The Assyrians: Kingdom of the God Aššur from Tigris to Taurus. Edited by Kemalettin Köroğlu and Selim Ferruh Adalı. Istanbul: Yapı Kredi Publications: 256-275.
Page Numbers: 256-275
Publication Date: 2018
Publication Name: The Assyrians: Kingdom of the God Aššur from Tigris to Taurus.
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Rock Reliefs and Landscape Monumentsmore
by Ömür Harmansah
Fieldwork at rock reliefs and the study of stone monuments date to the earliest episodes of the archaeology of the Near East as a discipline. Yet network model‐based and macro‐scale perspectives on rock monuments also have the effect of... more
Fieldwork at rock reliefs and the study of stone monuments date to the earliest episodes of the archaeology of the Near East as a discipline. Yet network model‐based and macro‐scale perspectives on rock monuments also have the effect of removing rock‐cut images and inscriptions from the specific context of the cultural landscapes that surround them. The archaeological evidence demonstrates that rock relief sites are never really created through a single moment of act, or a state‐sponsored inscription of a previously untouched place. Carving reliefs and inscriptions on the living rock is a practice attested across a wide geographical area in the ancient Near East in distinct episodes during the Bronze and Iron Ages. Carving the rock is associated with coloniality and colonial violence, where constructed notions of “nature” appear in the colonial discourse. The chapter describes rock relief sites as political ecologies, where local cultural practices and imperialist interventions clash.
DOI: 10.1002/9781118336779.ch20
More Info: A Companion to Ancient Near Eastern Art. Edited by Ann C. Gunter. Online ISBN:9781118336779 |DOI:10.1002/9781118336779 © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Page Numbers: 483-505
Publication Date: 2018
Publication Name: A Companion to Ancient Near Eastern Art
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Graffiti or Monument? Inscription of Place at Anatolian Rock Reliefsmore
by Ömür Harmansah
Rock reliefs and inscriptions carved on the living rock in Near Eastern archaeological landscapes have often been called “monuments”. A place-based analysis of such sites of rock carving and inscription from the Anatolian countryside... more
Rock reliefs and inscriptions carved on the living rock in Near Eastern archaeological landscapes have often been called “monuments”. A place-based analysis of such sites of rock carving and inscription from the Anatolian countryside during the Late Bronze and Early-Middle Iron Ages (roughly 14th through 7th centuries BCE) suggest that many of the rock-cut inscriptions in Hieroglyphic Luwian and associated pictorial imagery oscillate between being a monument and a graffito, if one carefully consider the landscape context, carving technology, and the visual and verbal content of the reliefs and inscriptions. In this paper, I focus on a cluster of rock inscriptions and reliefs in western Anatolia at the sites of Karabel, Akpınar, and Suratkaya, whose inscriptions collectively link to a genealogy of kings in the Land of Mira. I argue that alternative ontologies of graffiti and its territorial character as a distribution of the body may shed light on our current interpretations of rock inscriptions and reliefs in Hittite and Iron Age Anatolia. I conclude by suggesting that the graffiti are no less political than monuments themselves; they also speak to territoriality, the desire to shape and control public space, and allow an effective referencing of the past.
More Info: * Harmanşah, Ömür; 2018. “Graffiti or Monument? Inscription of Place at Anatolian Rock Reliefs.” In Scribbling Through History: Graffiti, Places, and People from Antiquity to Modernity. Chloé Ragazzoli, Elizabeth Frood, Ömür Harmanşah, Chiara Salvador (eds). London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 49-63.
Publication Date: 2018
Publication Name: Scribbling Through History: Graffiti, Places, and People from Antiquity to Modernity
Research Interests:
Ancient History, Landscape Ecology, Archaeology, Geology, Art History, and 51 more
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Geologies of Belonging: The Political Ecology of Water in Central Anatoliamore
by Ömür Harmansah
Human communities have been continuously drawn to bodies of water. Scientific discourse on water characterizes it primarily as a natural resource that is increasingly scarce and unevenly distributed globally. Contrary to this extractive... more
Human communities have been continuously drawn to bodies of water. Scientific discourse on water characterizes it primarily as a natural resource that is increasingly scarce and unevenly distributed globally. Contrary to this extractive discourse, one can argue that bodies of water are also landscapes of water, which are constituted by the animate ecologies of springs, mountains, Lakes, and rivers, and participate in the political and geo-social configuration of the world. Archaeological field projects offer opportunities to engage with political ecologies of water. Firstly, the archaeological past offers the possibility of tracing the genealogies of water ecologies and understanding the powerful impact of water on regional histories of settlement. Secondly, archaeologists often work in contexts of development such as the construction of dams, power plants, irrigation programs, or other infrastructure projects. In the context of salvage projects, archaeologists are implicated in the conflicts over water ecologies among multiple stakeholders. This paper investigates the politics of water in the southwestern borderlands of the Hittite Empire of the central Anatolian plateau during the last centuries of the Late Bronze Age (roughly 1400-1175 BCE) in the regional context of the construction of two imperial Hittite water monuments: Yalburt Yaylası Mountain Spring Monument and the Köylütolu Yayla Earthen Dam.
More Info: Water and Power in Past Societies. Emily Holt (ed.). Suny Series, the Institute for European and Mediterranean Archaeology Distinguished Monograph. Buffalo, NY: State University of New York Press, 259-277.
Publication Date: 2018
Publication Name: Water and Power in Past Societies
Research Interests:
Landscape Ecology, Archaeology, Environmental Science, Geology, Anthropology, and 59 more
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Harmanşah, Ömür; 2017. “Borders are Rough-hewn: Monuments, Local Landscapes and the Politics of Place in a Hittite Borderland” in Bordered Places ǀ Bounded Times: Interdisciplinary perspectives on Turkey. E. Baysal and L. Karakatsanis (eds). London: British Institute at Ankara Monograph 51, 37-51.more
by Ömür Harmansah
Cultural historian Elliott Colla proposed in a recent paper that ancient borders, unlike their modern versions, were often roughly hewn, both materially and conceptually. With this he not only refers to the artfully crafted and... more
Cultural historian Elliott Colla proposed in a recent paper that ancient borders, unlike their modern versions, were often roughly hewn, both materially and conceptually. With this he not only refers to the artfully crafted and politically contested nature of borders in antiquity but also cleverly highlights their geological grounding. For the Hittite imperial landscapes, Colla's statement has special resonance, since Hittite frontiers are often discussed with respect to the making of rock reliefs and spring monuments that commemorate the kingship ideology at both politically contested border regions and appropriate local sites of geological wonder and cultic significance such as caves, springs and sinkholes. Treaties were signed and border disputes were settled at these liminal sites where divinities and ancestors of the underworld took part as witnesses. One such monument is the Yalburt Yaylasi Sacred Mountain Spring Monument that features a lengthy Hieroglyphic Luwian inscription put up by the Hittite kings in the countryside. Excavated by the Anatolian Civilisations Museum, Ankara, in the 1970s, the Yalburt Monument near Konya is dated to the time of Tudhaliya IV (1237- 1209 BC). Since 2010, the Yalburt Yaylasi Archaeological Landscape Research Project has investigated the landscapes surrounding the Yalburt Monument. The preliminary results of the extensive and intensive archaeological surveys suggest that the region of Yalburt was a deeply contested frontier, where the Land of Hatti linked to the politically powerful polities of western and southern Anatolia. This paper discusses the nature of a Hittite borderland with respect to settlement programs, monument construction and regional politics.
Volume: 51
Page Numbers: 37-51
Publication Date: 2017
Publication Name: Bordered Places ǀ Bounded times - Interdisciplinary perspectives on Turkey
Research Interests:
Religion, Ancient History, Cultural History, Landscape Ecology, Cultural Studies, and 109 more
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Harmanşah, Ömür; 2015. Stone Worlds: Technologies of Rock Carving and Place-Making in Anatolian Landscapes. In The Cambridge Prehistory of the Bronze and Iron Age Mediterranean, edited by A. Bernard Knapp, Peter van Dommelen. Cambridge University Press: 379-394.more
by Ömür Harmansah
In this chapter, I explore practices of rock carving on the Anatolian peninsula from a diachronic perspective, with special emphasis on the Late Bronze Age and Early–Middle Iron Ages (ca. 1600–550 BC). Linking together the materiality of... more
In this chapter, I explore practices of rock carving on the Anatolian peninsula from a diachronic perspective, with special emphasis on the Late Bronze Age and Early–Middle Iron Ages (ca. 1600–550 BC). Linking together the materiality of monuments, rock-carving technologies and issues of landscape imagination, I focus first on the commemorative rock reliefs across the Anatolian landscape, sponsored by the Hittite , Assyrian and Syro-Hittite states . Rock reliefs were carved at geologically prominent and culturally significant places such as springs, caves, sinkholes, rivers sources or along the river gorges. They constituted places for communicating with the underworld, the world of divinities and dead ancestor s. I then venture into the Urartian and Paphlagonian rock-cut tomb-carving practices and Phrygian rock-cut sanctuaries of the Iron Age to argue for the broader dissemination of the idea of altering karstic landscapes for cultic and funerary purposes. I maintain that rock monuments can only be understood as always being part of a complex assemblage in the long-term history of places. Using a limited number of examples, this chapter contributes to studies of landscape and place in Mediterranean archaeology by promoting a shift of focus
from macro-scale explanations of the environment to micro-scale engagement with located practices of place-making.
More Info: Book DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CHO9781139028387 Online ISBN: 9781139028387 Hardback ISBN: 9780521766883 Chapter DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CHO9781139028387.028
Publication Date: Jan 2015
Publication Name: The Cambridge Prehistory of the Bronze and Iron Age Mediterranean
Research Interests:
Religion, Ancient History, Cultural Studies, Archaeology, Art History, and 49 more
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Harmanşah, Ömür; 2014. “Urban Utopias and How They Fell Apart: The Political Ecology of Gezi Parkı,” in The Making of Turkey's Protest Movement: #occupygezi. Umut Özkırımlı (ed.). New York: Palgrave MacMillan/Palgrave Pilot, 121-133.more
by Ömür Harmansah
Drawing on the insights of the field of political ecology, this chapter suggests that 2013 Gezi protests in Istanbul represent the sudden but perhaps expected eruption of an urban grassroots movement for the defense of urban historical... more
Drawing on the insights of the field of political ecology, this chapter suggests that 2013 Gezi protests in Istanbul represent the sudden but perhaps expected eruption of an urban grassroots movement for the defense of urban historical heritage or the collectively used city spaces that were deeply imbued with social memory and a sense of belonging. Tracing the links between the Turkish government's recent urban development projects and the Ottoman nostalgia which has often been said to characterize AKP rule, this article shows how the protests signify a fatal blow to Erdogan's utopian vision, articulating with other ecologically conscious grassroots movements around the world.
More Info: IN: The Making of a Protest Movement in Turkey #occupygezi, Edition: 1, Chapter: 9, Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, Editors: Umut Özkırımlı, pp.121-133
Publication Date: May 28, 2014
Publication Name: The Making of a Protest Movement in Turkey #occupygezi
Research Interests:
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Event, Place, Performance: Rock Reliefs and Spring Monuments in Anatoliamore
by Ömür Harmansah
More Info: Harmanşah, Ömür; 2014. “Event, place, performance: Rock reliefs and spring monuments in Anatolia.” In Of Rocks and Water: Towards an Archaeology of Place. Ömür Harmanşah (ed). Joukowsky Institute Publications 5. Oxbow Books, 140-168.
Publication Date: Aug 11, 2014
Publication Name: Of Rocks and Water: Towards an Archaeology of Place
Research Interests:
Ancient History, Landscape Ecology, Archaeology, Near Eastern Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, and 51 more
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Introduction: Towards an Archaeology of Placemore
by Ömür Harmansah
Places are small, culturally significant locales that exist within a landscape. They are meaningful to specific cultural groups through everyday experience and shared stories associated with them. Places therefore gather a vast range of... more
Places are small, culturally significant locales that exist within a landscape. They are meaningful to specific cultural groups through everyday experience and shared stories associated with them. Places therefore gather a vast range of things in their microcosm: both animate and inanimate entities, residues, materials, knowledges, and stories. The material residues and cultural associations that cluster around places run deep in their temporality. Places are then generated and maintained by a spectrum of locally specific practices, from the situated activities of daily users of space, on the one hand, to the grandiose interventions of the political elite on the other. Combined, these social practices continually produce hybrid material forms and spatial configurations over time, and anchor communities to particular locales with a sense of cultural belonging. They become assemblages of shared memories, always pregnant for improvised events, despite the common essentialist notion of local places as static or conservative. Places thus serve as meaningful nexuses of human interaction, and as sites of immediate everyday experience. This edited volume is the outcome of a workshop/colloquium that tookplace at Brown University in March 2008, with the title Drawing on Rocks, Gathering by the Water: Archaeological Fieldwork at Rock Reliefs, Sacred Springs and Other Places. That event was intended to bring together academics who worked on similar questions concerning archaeological landscapes across the globe and specifically to focus on the making and unmaking of places of human interaction such as rock reliefs, sacred springs and lakes, cairns, ruins, and other meaningful places. The colloquium also provided a platform to discuss the experiences, the challenges, and the theoretical implications of working in the field and specifically at such unusual sites and landscapes. The intention was to bring to the table new archaeological perspectives on working at geologically and culturally distinctive locales where the particular geologies are encountered and uniquely reworked by local practices. This chapter is an introduction to the anthology of articles gathered under this topic.
More Info: * Harmanşah, Ömür; 2014. “Introduction: towards an archaeology of place.” In Of Rocks and Water: Towards an Archaeology of Place. Ömür Harmanşah (ed). Joukowsky Institute Publications 5. Oxbow Books, 1-12.
Publication Date: Aug 11, 2014
Publication Name: Of Rocks and Water: Towards an Archaeology of Place
Research Interests:
Ancient History, Landscape Ecology, Archaeology, Classical Archaeology, Near Eastern Archaeology, and 75 more
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Figures Carved on the Living Rock : Hittite Rock Monumentsmore
by Ömür Harmansah
More Info: Harmanşah, Ömür; 2014. “Figures Carved on the Living Rock : Hittite Rock Monuments” (Taşa Oyulmuş Sûretler: Hitit Kaya Anıtları) in Hitites: An Anatolian Empire. Metin Alparslan and Meltem Doğan Alparslan (eds). İstanbul: Yapı Kredi Yayınları. (In English and Turkish), 566-579.
Publication Date: Jan 2014
Publication Name: Hittites An Anatolian Empire (Hititler - Bir Anadolu İmparatorluğu)
Research Interests:
Ancient History, Landscape Ecology, Archaeology, Near Eastern Archaeology, Geology, and 50 more
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The Cattlepen and the Sheepfold: Cities, Temples, and Pastoral Power in Ancient Mesopotamia more
by Ömür Harmansah
The construction of cities, their monumental structures and ceremonial spaces, and their cultural life occupy considerable space in the early literary compositions from southern Mesopotamia. The scholarship on Mesopotamian cities has been... more
The construction of cities, their monumental structures and ceremonial spaces, and their cultural life occupy considerable space in the early literary compositions from southern Mesopotamia. The scholarship on Mesopotamian cities has been limited to questions of the emergence of urbanism and social complexity, state formation, labor organization, craft specialization, population estimates and settlement hierarchies during the Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Ages. This paper contributes to these debates through the discussion of a series of concepts concerning the city and urban life drawn from the early Mesopotamian corpus of poetry in Sumerian, with special emphasis on the so-called “city laments.”  This is, on the one hand, an attempt to bridge the gap between the archaeological accounts of early cities in the ancient Near East and the literary representations of urban space. On the other hand, the goal is to move towards understanding the poetics of urban space in Mesopotamia, to read cities as places of human experience, everyday practice, political discourse, and cultural imagination. The paper focuses on two frequently encountered metaphors concerning the city in early Mesopotamian poetry: the cattle pen and the sheepfold (Sum. tur and amaš), which takes us to the Mesopotamian conceptualization of the king as shepherd and the society as his flock. I suggest that early Mesopotamian economy and political structure presents us a fascinating case of what Michel Foucault has termed “pastoral power”. Considering Foucault’s notion of the “pastoral power” as a technology of governance and royal rhetoric, I discuss the cattle pen and sheepfold as spatial metaphors that define the Mesopotamian city between movement and settlement, between economies of pasturage and agriculture. Here, the city appears as a site where the king’s ideals of beneficence and pastoral power finds expression, while royal power is characterized not so much as governance over a territory but over a “multiplicity” (the “flock”). This rhetoric of power based itself on a regime of beneficence and care, rather than on violence and terror.
More Info: Edited by Deena Ragavan. Oriental Institute Seminars 9. Chicago: The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 2013: 371-392.
Publication Date: May 2013
Publication Name: Heaven on Earth: Temples, Ritual, and Cosmic Symbolism in the Ancient World
Research Interests:
Sumerian Religion, Ancient History, Cultural History, Cultural Studies, Archaeology, and 53 more
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Monuments and memory: Architecture and visual culture in ancient Anatolian historymore
by Ömür Harmansah
More Info: Oxford Handbook of Ancient Anatolia (10,000–323 BCE)]. Edited by Sharon R. Steadman and Gregory McMahon. Oxford University Press 2011: 623-651.
Research Interests:
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Upright Stones and Building Narratives: Formation of a Shared Architectural Practice In the Ancient Near Eastmore
by Ömür Harmansah
"The architectural practice of using orthostats—sculpted wall slabs in stone—in monumental buildings is usually understood as an idiosyncratic phenomenon in the Upper Mesopotamian cities of the Iron Age. Late Assyrian and Syro-Hittite... more
"The architectural practice of using orthostats—sculpted wall slabs in stone—in monumental buildings is usually understood as an idiosyncratic phenomenon in the Upper Mesopotamian cities of the Iron Age. Late Assyrian and Syro-Hittite rulers of this period are known for sponsoring building projects that incorporated carved orthostats into their architectural corpus, lining the monumental walls of ceremonial and public spaces. These orthostat programs were commemorative in nature and often took the form of pictorial narratives that structured and animated the ceremonial spaces of the Iron Age cities. Irene J.
Winter was among the very first to address critically the problems of representation in the narrative relief programs of Late Assyrian palaces, while breaking new ground in developing a contextual approach to study Syro-Hittite monuments within the artisanal networks of the early first millennium BC. In a number of articles, she eloquently demonstrated that architectural technologies and material styles offer exceptional opportunities to study cultural interaction between the Assyrian empire and the Syro-Hittite polities. As the following discussion was sparked in part by Irene Winter’s work on networks of cultural interaction, it seems appropriate on this occasion to present this paper on the architectural significance of the orthostats."
More Info: in Ancient Near Eastern Art in Context: Studies in Honor of Irene J. Winter by Her Students. Culture and History of the Ancient Near East. Jack Cheng and Marian H. Feldman (eds.). Leiden: Brill Publishers, 2007: pp. 69-99.
Publisher: Brill
Publication Date: Jan 1, 2007
Publication Name: Ancient Near Eastern Art in Context. Studies in Honor …
Research Interests:
Archaeology, Near Eastern Archaeology, Art History, Near Eastern Studies, Architecture, and 49 more
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“Ancient Mesopotamia” chapter including entries on Ur, Tell Asmar, Babylon, Khorsabad, and Development of Writingmore
by Ömür Harmansah
Ancient Mesopotamia, “the cradle of civilization,” was the birthplace of some of the earliest citiesof human history, a sophisticated writing system, complex bureaucracies and literary tradition, andthe highly skilled production of... more
Ancient Mesopotamia, “the cradle of civilization,” was the birthplace of some of the earliest citiesof human history, a sophisticated writing system, complex bureaucracies and literary tradition, andthe highly skilled production of artifacts. Te Euphrates and igris River basins form the backboneof this historical geography: Mesopotamia—literally “land between the rivers” in ancient Greek—the land of cities, agricultural prosperity, scribal culture, and textile production.
More Info: Archaeologica: The World’s Most Significant Sites and Cultural Treasures. Aedeen Cremin (ed.). London: Frances Lincoln Publishers, 2007: 214-223.
Research Interests:
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Eski Yakın Doğu’da Ortostatlı Yapıların Tektonik Estetiği ve Kültürel Bağlamı: Bölgeler-arası Paylaşılan Mimari bir Pratiğin Oluşumumore
by Ömür Harmansah
More Info: Eskiçag’ın Mekanları / Zamanları / Insanları: ODTÜ Mimarlık Tarihi Yüksek Lisans ve Doktora Programı Doktora Arastırmaları Sempozyumu III. 2-3 Haziran 2003, ODTÜ, Ankara. Lale Özgenel (ed.). Istanbul: Homer Kitabevi, 2005: 110-132.
Research Interests:
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New Public Criticism
The Conversion of Hagia Sophia: Desire, Spectacle, and a Historical Re-Enactmentmore
by Ömür Harmansah
The political spectacle of the conversion of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul from a museum and site of global heritage to a place of everyday Muslim worship has been discussed passionately by many in the last few weeks. In the following, I hope... more
The political spectacle of the conversion of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul from a museum and site of global heritage to a place of everyday Muslim worship has been discussed passionately by many in the last few weeks. In the following, I hope to join this debate to emphasize the fact that this radical conversion took place as a state spectacle and historical performance, and argue that the extraordinary architectural space of the Byzantine basilica has been re-appropriated as a site of an atavistic (albeit poorly coordinated) re-enactment of Sultan Mehmed II’s conquest. Secondly, I will suggest that Hagia Sophia has been an icon of secular modernity in Turkey, whereas the AKP government’s neo-Ottoman, neo-imperial gesture to recapture the holy space of the Hagia Sophia constitutes a legal, political, and indeed architectural undermining of the modernist institutions of museums and global cultural heritage, not unlike recent iconoclastic (although far more violent) acts of fundamentalist governments in the Middle East. Third, I will suggest that understanding the spatial violence and heritage injustice that resulted from the conversion requires a close listening to the diversity of voices and desires in the public imagination in Turkey, which stunningly reveals a range of reactions from nationalist conquest narratives to spiritual attachment to a deeply Ottoman space, conceived to have been held hostage since its conversion to a museum/architectural heritage site since the decree of 1934.
More Info: July 31, 2020 Responding to: Hagia Sophia: From Museum to Mosque
Publication Date: 2020
Publication Name: The Berkley Forum
Research Interests:
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Kaygılı Bir Bekleyiş: Kovid-19 Salgını ve Arkeolojik Sahamore
by Ömür Harmansah
Arkeolojiye meraklı halkın ve kamuoyunun pek az farkında olduğu, arkeolog akademisyenlerin de aralarında pek nadir konuştuğu bir saha ve kültürel miras gerçeği ile karşı karşıyayız aslına bakarsanız. Bu arkeolojik projelere bulaşmış... more
Arkeolojiye meraklı halkın ve kamuoyunun pek az farkında olduğu, arkeolog akademisyenlerin de aralarında pek nadir konuştuğu bir saha ve kültürel miras gerçeği ile karşı karşıyayız aslına bakarsanız. Bu arkeolojik projelere bulaşmış herkesin bildiği, ama bir sır gibi, odanın içindeki fil gibi bir türlü telaffuz edemediği bir gerçek. Bugün sadece Türkiye’de değil bütün Orta Doğu’da yapılan arkeolojik saha çalışmalarının önemli bir çoğunluğunun, amansız bir tahribat tehdidi altında bulunan arkeolojik mirası kurtarma kazıları ve araştırmalarının oluşturduğu gerçeği.

Arkeoloji bilimini besleyen en önemli can damarının saha çalışması olduğunu meslekten herkes iyi bilir. Kovid-19 salgını başka mesleklerin de başına getirdiği gibi, arkeolojinin can damarını tehdit ediyor ve arkeologlar bu konuda kaygılılar. Adapte olmamız beklenen bu yeni koşullarda saha çalışmasına çıkan arkeoloji emekçileri nasıl uyum sağlayacaklar? Saha pratikleri ve protokolleri bu açıdan nasıl değişecek? Arkeolojik projeler sahada ne türlü sağlık önlemleri alabilecekler? Bunların yanında salgının sebep olduğu, sosyal adaletsizliklerle nasıl başa çıkılacak? Bu sosyal adaletsizlikler arasında, kazılarda çalışan işçilerin istihdam edilememesini, tezleri saha çalışmalarına bağlı olan yüksek lisans ve doktora öğrencilerinin mağduriyetini, Kovid-19 dolayısıyla fonlarını kaybeden ve seyahat kısıtlamaları dolayısıyla ekiplerinden olan arkeoloji projelerini düşünebiliriz.
Issue: July
Page Numbers: 4-7
Publication Date: 2020
Publication Name: Aktuel Arkeoloji
Research Interests:
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Sahaya Çağrı: Yaratıcı bir Pratik olarak Arkeolojik Saha Çalışmasımore
by Ömür Harmansah
Kovid-19 pandemisi dolayısı ile evlere, apartman dairelerine, yurtlara, iç mekanlara hapsolan çoğumuz sokakların, kırların ya da sadece basitçe dışarıda olmanın ferahlığını ve özgürlüğünü, insan insana sohbetin keyfini özlüyoruz.... more
Kovid-19 pandemisi dolayısı ile evlere, apartman dairelerine, yurtlara, iç mekanlara hapsolan çoğumuz sokakların, kırların ya da sadece basitçe dışarıda olmanın ferahlığını ve özgürlüğünü, insan insana sohbetin keyfini özlüyoruz. Ayaklarımız karıncalanıyor, göğsümüz daralıyor. Bu özlem, hele hele ardında bir saha tutkusunu barındırıyorsa kapalı kalmak bir nebze daha zor. Baharın sonlarına doğru başlayan arkeolojik saha çalışması sezonu hemen hepimiz için belirsizliğini koruyor. Peki, alışmaya zorlandığımız bu karantinalı dünyada saha çalışması dediğimiz şey neye benzeyecek? Arkeoloji için ve benzeri saha çalışması yapan farklı disiplinler için pandeminin kısıtlamaları ne olacak? Kültürel miras ile, tarihsel ve arkeolojik peyzajlar ile, çevre ve mimarlık tarihi ile ilgilenen hemen herkes için sahada olmaktan, geçmişin kalıntıları ile yüz yüze çalışmaktan doğal bir şey var mı?
Publication Date: 2020
Publication Name: Aktüel Arkeoloji
Research Interests:
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Book Reviews
Review of Persian Historic Urban Landscapes: Interpreting and Managing Maibud Over 6000 Years by Eisa Esfanjary (2017) and The Iranian Expanse: Transforming Royal Identity Through Architecture, Landscape, and the Built Environment, 550 BCE-642 CE by Matthew Canepa (2018)more
by Ömür Harmansah
The concepts of architecture, landscape, memory, and heritage connect two recent monographs on Iran’s historical landscapes by Eisa Esfanjary and Matthew Canepa. Esfanjary’s Persian Historic Urban Landscapes investigates the Iranian city... more
The concepts of architecture, landscape, memory, and heritage connect two recent monographs on Iran’s historical landscapes by Eisa Esfanjary and Matthew Canepa. Esfanjary’s Persian Historic Urban Landscapes investigates the Iranian city of Maibud (or Meybod) from the perspective of urban conservation and architectural heritage. Canepa’s encyclopaedic volume, The Iranian Expanse, presents a deep history of Persian archaeological landscapes, with an emphasis on imperial programs of building, landscape transformation, and spatial imagination from the Achaemenid Empire to Islam. While the former focuses on a single city in early a late modernity, the latter examines the politics of the built environment from the late Iron Age to late Antiquity in a wider geography. Despite their spatio-temporal difference, both monographs engage with architectural space at multiple scales: (a) rural landscapes
and urban space; (b) buildings, monuments, and the urban fabric; and
(c) architectural materials, technologies, and the question of visuality. A central question that looms in the background of both monographs is what constitutes a Persian/Iranian city, and how to historicize architectural form within the regional context of the Iranian world and its historical contingencies.
DOI: 10.1386/ijia_00021_5
Issue: 2
Volume: 9
Page Numbers: 433-38
Publication Date: 2020
Publication Name: International Journal of Islamic Architecture
Research Interests:
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Review of Scott Redford and Nina Ergin, eds. Cities and Citadels in Turkey: From the Iron Age to the Seljuks. Leuven, Belgium: Peeters, 2013. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 74.2 (June 2015) 251-253.more
by Ömür Harmansah
Book review. This volume is the formal product of a symposium held in December 2009, one of the annual symposia organized by the Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations at Koç University. The editors and contributors have put in... more
Book review. This volume is the formal product of a symposium held in December 2009, one of the annual symposia organized by the Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations at Koç University. The editors and contributors have put in painstaking effort to create a collection of essays of great substance that will serve for many years as a major resource on Anatolian citadels, fortresses, and their defensive structures as cultural artifacts and as sociospatial
phenomena in their specific historical contexts.
More Info: Review of Scott Redford and Nina Ergin, eds. Cities and Citadels in Turkey: From the Iron Age to the Seljuks Leuven, Belgium: Peeters, 2013, 356 pp., 3 color and 192 b/w illus. 86. ISBN 9789042927124. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 74.2 (June 2015) 251-253.
Research Interests:
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Review of Marian H. Feldman, Diplomacy by Design: Luxury Arts and an "International Style" in the Ancient Near East, 1400-1200 BCE. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006.more
by Ömür Harmansah
More Info: Art Bulletin 90.1 (March 2008)
Research Interests:
Archaeology, Classical Archaeology, Anatolian Studies, Levantine Archaeology, Anatolian Archaeology, and 26 more
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Review of John E. Curtis and N. Tallis (eds.), The Balawat Gates of Ashurnasirpal II, The British Museum Press, London 2008. Ancient West & East 12 (2013) 362-366.more
by Ömür Harmansah
More Info: Ancient West & East.12 (2013) 362-366.
Publication Name: Ancient West & East.12 (2013) 362-366.
Research Interests:
Ancient History, Historical Geography, Archaeology, Visual Studies, Art History, and 46 more
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Yalburt Project Preliminary Publications
Mountains as Connected Landscapes of Alterity: Boz Mountain Range and its piedmontmore
by Ömür Harmansah, Peri Johnson, Müge Durusu-Tanrıöver, Shannon Martino, and Ben Marsh
Mountains are often groundlessly thought of as romantic backwaters lacking in development and civility, and portrayed as unruly places to pass through by academics working under the influence of ideologies of the state. Binaries of the... more
Mountains are often groundlessly thought of as romantic backwaters lacking in development and civility, and portrayed as unruly places to pass through by academics working under the influence of ideologies of the state. Binaries of the urban and the rural, or the perception of civilized lowlands and crude shepherds and loggers, do not adequately account for the linear ecologies that intimately connect the plains to the mountains. In this chapter we advocate for the significance of these connecting ecologies that resist the colonial or statist marginalization of mountain peoples and places. These connecting linear ecologies are substantive landscapes of everyday movement, the flow of water, taskscapes, and interconnected land use, and are not limited to roads and routes.

Academic perspectives on ancient communities of the mountains tend to associate them with “landscapes of terror” (e.g., Matthews 2004). In these scenarios, marginalized mountain peoples are presented either as “tribal” threats to urbanized elites of the prosperous plains and lowland and river valleys, or impediments to regional circulation (Horden and Purcell 2000: 80). Such perspectives are produced under the influence of urban archives; they are typical of uncritical characterizations of mountains from an elitist bias and have to be taken with a grain of salt. Archaeological survey evidence, strengthened by ethnohistorical research, presents a far more even-handed perspective on life in the mountains. In this chapter we point to the intimately entangled nature of lowlands and mountains in the local context of west central Anatolia. This chapter is a modest attempt to bring back mountains as complex and connected landscapes of alterity and to invite mountains back to their place within settlement history.
Volume: IV
More Info: Harmanşah, Ömür, Peri Johnson, Shannon Martino, Müge Durusu Tanrıöver and Ben Marsh; 2021. “Chapter 21. Mountains as Connected Landscapes of Alterity: Boz Mountain Range and its piedmont.” In The Archaeology of Anatolia Volume IV: Recent Discoveries (2018-2020), Sharon R. Steadman and Gregory McMahon, eds. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 287-299.
Page Numbers: 287-299
Publication Date: 2021
Publication Name: The Archaeology of Anatolia Volume IV: Recent Discoveries (2018-2020)
Research Interests:
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Yollar ve Güzergâhların Siyasi Ekolojisi: Yalburt Yaylası ve Çevresi Arkeolojik Yüzey Araştırma Projesi 2018 Sezonumore
by Ömür Harmansah and Peri Johnson
Orta Anadolu’nun ana karayolları üzerindeki pek çok tozlu ve uykulu kasabası gibi Ilgın ilçesi de ovası ile birlikte içinden geçerken zor farkedilen, dışarıdan pek de kayda değer bir izlenim uyandırmayan bir peyzaj olarak görülebilir.... more
Orta Anadolu’nun ana karayolları üzerindeki pek çok tozlu ve uykulu kasabası gibi Ilgın ilçesi de ovası ile birlikte içinden geçerken zor farkedilen, dışarıdan pek de kayda değer bir izlenim uyandırmayan bir peyzaj olarak görülebilir. Tarihin çeşitli evrelerinde, mesela M.Ö. 13. yüzyıl kralı 4. Tudhaliya’nın Ilgın’dan geçerek gittiği güneybatı Akdeniz seferinden övgüyle bahsettiği Yalburt Yaylası yazıtını okursanız, ya da Akamenid kralı Genç Kiros’un Ilgın ovasında paralı askerlerini bir araya getirip talim etmesini Zenofon’dan dinlerseniz, ve hatta çok daha yakın zamanda Mustafa Kemal’in aynı ovada 1922’de gerçekleştirdiği askeri manevrayı dikkatlice düşünürseniz; emperyal, askeri, ve ekonomik arşivlerin tarih boyunca Ilgın’ı sadece gelinip geçilen, geçici bir süre durulan bir yer olarak tasavvur ettiğini söyleyebiliriz. Ancak bu tarihsel kayıtlar ve arşivler, büyük ölçekli askeri seferlerden ya da kıtaları boylu boyuna geçen ticaret yollarından bahis açarken, bir yandan da Ilgın’ın kendine has bir mekân ve yerel karakteri olan bir peyzaj olarak anlaşılmasına engel olur, bu anlatıları göz ardı eder, ya da taraflı temsil eder. Bu makalede Yalburt Yaylası ve Çevresi Arkeolojik Yüzey Araştırma Projesi 2018 saha çalışmalarını özetlerken, Ilgın ve çevresinde Uluyol adı ile bilinen önemli ve yerel bir tarihsel yolun hikâyesini sunmak ve tarih arşivlerinde sürekli olarak baskın olan bu askeri sefer ve ticari kervan yolları söylemlerini sorgulamayı umuyoruz. Böylelikle de, metodolojik olarak yerleşim tarihi yazımında sürekli olarak söz sahibi yapılan tarihsel arşivlerin o sarsılmaz otoritesini, tarihsel metinlerin karşısına arkeolojik verileri koyarak ve siyasî ekoloji bakış açısını kullanarak bir nebze sarsmak istiyoruz.
Publication Date: 2020
Publication Name: 37. Araştırma Sonuçları Toplantısı
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The Political Ecology of Roads and Movement: The Yalburt Yaylası Archaeological Landscape Research Project 2018 Seasonmore
by Ömür Harmansah and Peri Johnson
The route through the Ilgın Plain is also understood to be a prominent one in the Anatolian exchange network during antiquity and afterwards. During the early Middle Bronze Age, the so-called Assyrian trading colony period in Anatolia,... more
The route through the Ilgın Plain is also understood to be a prominent one in the Anatolian exchange network during antiquity and afterwards. During the early Middle Bronze Age, the so-called Assyrian trading colony period in Anatolia, the major east–west route carrying the silver trade presumably went through the region, and it has been proposed that the port of trade for silver, Purušḫanda, must have been located somewhere along the Ilgın - Akşehir - Afyon axis. According to Strabo, Tyriaion (the Hellenistic/Roman urban settlement under Ilgın) is on the Hellenistic “common road” from Ephesus to the Euphrates. Moreover, it is known that the last Seljuk vizier, Sahip Ata, built a caravanserai in Ilgın to support trade. The study of interregional road infrastructures, largely derived from such anecdotal archival evidence, is helpful to some extent in understanding the connections between regional and local networks. However, investigating the complex local and microregional roads and routes requires a different methodology entirely, one that combines archaeological surface survey, geomorphology, and a long-term, deeply historical understanding of settlement histories. During the 2018 field season, the Yalburt Yaylası Archaeological Landscape Research Project foregrounded the question of roads and routes in the Ilgın Plain and in the wider survey area using the archaeological surface evidence for settlement and geomorphology. In this chapter we outline the preliminary results of the research.
Publication Date: 2019
Publication Name: The Archaeology of Anatolia Volume III
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Tuz Yolu Boyunca Ilgın Ovası: Yalburt Yaylası ve Çevresi Yüzey Araştırma Projesi 2015 Sezonu Sonuçlarımore
by Ömür Harmansah, Peri Johnson, Müge Durusu-Tanrıöver, and Ben Marsh
2010 yılından beri aralıksız olarak Konya İli, Ilgın İlçesi sınırları içinde sürdürülen Yalburt Yaylası ve Çevresi Arkeolojik Yüzey Araştırma Projesi, diyakronik bir yerleşim peyzajı tarihi projesi olarak jeomorfolojik araştırmaları... more
2010 yılından beri aralıksız olarak Konya İli, Ilgın İlçesi sınırları içinde sürdürülen Yalburt Yaylası ve Çevresi Arkeolojik Yüzey Araştırma Projesi, diyakronik bir yerleşim peyzajı tarihi projesi olarak jeomorfolojik araştırmaları arkeolojik yüzey taramaları ile eş ağırlıkta sürdüregelmiştir. Proje, daha önceki yayınlardan da anlaşılacağı gibi Tunç Çağı’nın sonlarından Demir Çağı ve onu takip eden Akamenid-Helenistik dönemlerine geçiş üzerine odaklanırken, araş-tırmanın ana amaç ve objektiflerini Hitit İmparatorluğu döneminde Pedassa bölgesinin üstlendiği sınır bölgesi kimliğinin yerel malzeme kültürü ve yerleşim coğrafyasına izdüşümlerinin anlaşılması oluşturur. Hidrolojik olarak biribirlerine bağlı Ilgın Ovası, Atlantı Ovası ve Çavuşçu Gölü havzaları, ve bu coğ-rafyayı sınırlayan kuzeyde Gavur Dağı’nın erozyonla aşınmış ve karst jeolojisi ile mağaralar ve düdenlerle zengin yaylaları ve son olarak güneyde ormanlık, yeşil ve sulak Boz Dağı’nın teraslanmış etekleri ve Beyşehir’e inen dar vadileri, Yalburt Projesi’ne son derece karmaşık bir yerleşim ekolojisi sunar. M.Ö. 13. yüzyılda, 4. Tudhaliya döneminde Karadağ sırtlarına inşa edilmiş olan Yalburt Yaylası Hiyeroglifli Kutsal Havuz Anıtı ile Kadınhanı yakınındaki Köylütolu Yayla Toprak Barajı aslında, yüzey araştırma ve jeomorfolojik-çevresel araştırmaların gösterdiği gibi imparatorluğun son döneminde gözlenen, Boğazköy’deki iktidarın eliyle yürütülmüş bir tarımsal kalkınma ve yeni yerleşim programının parçası olmalıdır.  Ben Marsh öncülüğünde sürdürülen jeomorfolojik çalışmalar özellikle eskiçağ ile günümüz arasında temel kaynaklar, toprak kullanımı, ve su rejimleri bakımından ortaya çıkan benzerlik ve farklılaşmayı belgelemeyi amaçlamıştır. Havzalar, nehir vadileri, ovalar ve yaylalık yüksek alanlardaki jeomorfolojik değişimleri ayrıntılı olarak incelenirken, bu değişimlerin bugün karşılaştığımız iyi korunmuş ya da korunanmamış, tahrip edilmiş arkeolojik peyzajları nasıl etkilediği göz önüne alınır. Aşağıda da değinileceği gibi jeomorfolojik süreçler bazen siyasi iktidar eliyle yürütülen baraj yapımı, sulama projeleri gibi büyük çaplı müdahelelerle de şekillendirilmiştir. Bu süreçlere iki önemli örnek olarak, Hitit Kralı 4. Tudhaliya’nın Köylütolu Yayla mevkiinde inşa ettirdiği toprak dolgu baraj ve T.C. Devlet Su İşleri teşkilatının 1960’lardan 1990’lara kadar sürdürdüğü Ilgın ve Atlantı Ovalarını sulama pro-jeleri verilebilir. 

Bu makalede öncelikle 2015 sezonunda yapılan çalışmaları öncelikle kısaca özetlenecektir. Makalenin ikinci kısmında ise Müge Durusu-Tanrıöver’in Ocak 2016’da tamamladığı “Hitit İmparatorluğu’nu Sınırboylarında Deneyimlemek” başlıklı doktora tezinin Yalburt Projesi kapsamındaki sonuçlarına değinilecektir.
Volume: 2
More Info: Candaş Keskin (ed). Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı, Kültür Varlıkları ve Müzeler Genel Müdürlüğü.
Page Numbers: 331-353.
Publication Date: 2018
Publication Name: 35. Araştırma Sonuçları Toplantısı
Research Interests:
Landscape Ecology, Geography, Cultural Geography, Archaeology, Near Eastern Archaeology, and 54 more
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Lake-Places, Local Hydrology and the Hittite Imperial Projects in the Ilgın Plain: Yalburt Yaylası Archaeological Landscape Research Project 2015-2016 Seasonsmore
by Ömür Harmansah, Peri Johnson, Ben Marsh, and Müge Durusu-Tanrıöver
Landscape archaeologists are well equipped to investigate long-term structural changes in settlement landscapes, especially through their collaborations with geomorphologists and paleo-environmental scientists. In the last several... more
Landscape archaeologists are well equipped to investigate long-term structural changes in settlement landscapes, especially through their collaborations with geomorphologists and paleo-environmental scientists. In the last several decades, landscape projects around the world have gradually built an extensive record of human-environment relationships in the Holocene, which started 11,700 years ago with the beginnings of agriculture and settled life. In the age of the Anthropocene, the proposed new geological epoch to follow the Holocene, survey archaeologists increasingly find themselves working in ruined postindustrial landscapes, salvage operations that are dictated by development projects, sites of mining and incommensurable extraction, and the margins of military conflict. These are the landscapes of the Anthropocene, torn apart from the traditionally idealized and pristine landscapes of the Holocene.
Landscapes of the Anthropocene are the lithosphere’s asphalt and concrete layers, sites of mining, extreme extraction, industrial-scale intervention, and chemical contamination; and second, the atmosphere’s global warming gases made from what has been excavated from the earth (fossil fuels like coal). A thirty-three square km open pit lignite mine and power plant are planned for the cultivated fields and pastoral foothills of the Çavuşçu-Kurugöl lake basin that lies within the survey area of the Yalburt Yaylası Archaeological Landscape Research Project in the Ilgın district of Konya province. This proposed sacrificial landscape is a part of the Anthropocene’s lithosphere and atmosphere. In this article, we present a third affected sphere by undertaking a comparison of the hydrosphere of Holocene (Bronze Age) and Anthropocene (contemporary/postindustrial) landscapes, focusing particularly on the dramatic changes in the hydrosphere that have made the agricultural landscapes of Ilgın disposable, thus laying the groundwork for making the lignite mine an acceptable future for the region.
Volume: II
More Info: The Archaeology of Anatolia: Recent Descoveries (2015-2016) Volume II, SR. Steadman and G. McMahon, eds. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press, 302-320.
Page Numbers: 302-320
Publication Date: 2017
Publication Name: The Archaeology of Anatolia: Recent Descoveries (2015-2016) Volume II
Research Interests:
Landscape Ecology, Archaeology, Near Eastern Archaeology, Environmental Science, Geology, and 65 more
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Johnson, P. and Ö. Harmanşah; 2015. “Landscape, Politics, and Water in the Hittite Borderlands: Yalburt Yaylası Archaeological Landscape Research Project 2010-2014,” In The Archaeology of Anatolia: Current Work (2013-2014). S. Steadman and G. McMahon (eds.) Cambridge Scholars Press, 255-277.more
by Peri Johnson and Ömür Harmansah
The Yalburt Yaylası Archaeological Landscape Project is a diachronic regional survey in central western Turkey, covering an area in the northwest of Konya Province in the district of Ilgın, with some spillover into the districts of... more
The Yalburt Yaylası Archaeological Landscape Project is a diachronic regional survey in central western Turkey, covering an area in the northwest of Konya Province in the district of Ilgın, with some spillover into the districts of Kadınhanı and Yunak.  The survey project was initiated in 2010 in the landscapes around two well-known Hittite (Late Bronze Age) imperial monuments with hieroglyphic Luwian inscriptions (Fig. 12-1). Both monuments were built in the southwestern borderlands of the Hittite Empire: the Yalburt Yaylası sacred mountain spring monument of Tudḫaliya IV (1237-1209 BCE) and the Köylütolu Yayla earthen dam. This paper summarizes the preliminary results of the survey between 2010 and 2014.
Publication Date: Sep 2015
Publication Name: The Archaeology of Anatolia: Current Work (2013-2014). Sharon Steadman and Gregory McMahon (eds.). Cambridge Scholars Press, 259-281.
Research Interests:
Landscape Ecology, Archaeology, Classical Archaeology, Near Eastern Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, and 78 more
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Harmanşah, Ömür and Peri Johnson; 2016. "Hittites on the Way to the Mediterranean: Yalburt Yaylası Archaeological Landscape Project 2015 Campaign" ANMED 2016-14: 296-300.more
by Ömür Harmansah and Peri Johnson
Harmanşah, Ömür and Peri Johnson; 2016. “Hittites on the Way to the Mediterranean: Yalburt Yaylası Archaeological Landscape Project 2015 Campaign - Akdeniz’e Doğru Hititler: Yalburt Yaylası Arkeolojik Yüzey Araştırma Projesi 2015 Sezonu”... more
Harmanşah, Ömür and Peri Johnson; 2016. “Hittites on the Way to the Mediterranean: Yalburt Yaylası Archaeological Landscape Project 2015 Campaign - Akdeniz’e Doğru Hititler: Yalburt Yaylası Arkeolojik Yüzey Araştırma Projesi 2015 Sezonu” ANMED News of Archaeology from ANATOLIA’S MEDITERRANEAN AREAS 2016-14: 296-300.
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Harmanşah, Ömür and Peri Johnson; 2016. “Hitit Ülkesi Sınırları’nda Peyzaj ve Yerleşim: Yalburt Yaylası ve Çevresi Arkeolojik Yüzey Araştırması Projesi Saha Çalışmaları 2014 Sezonu,” 33. Araştırma Sonuçları Toplantısı. Candaş Keskin (ed). Ankara: II Cilt. 235-250.more
by Ömür Harmansah
Tarihi 19. yüzyıl sonlarına kadar uzanan Hitit arkeolojisi ve imparatorluk tarihi, akademik bir araştırma alanı olarak derin ve zengin geçmişine rağmen, kırsal alan çalışmaları ve peyzaj ya da yerleşim arkeolojisi konusunda halen diğer... more
Tarihi 19. yüzyıl sonlarına kadar uzanan Hitit arkeolojisi ve imparatorluk tarihi, akademik bir araştırma alanı olarak derin ve zengin geçmişine rağmen, kırsal alan çalışmaları ve peyzaj ya da yerleşim arkeolojisi konusunda halen diğer bölgesel arkeoloji dallarına nispeten geride durmaktadır. Hitit imparatorluğu tarihi bu sebeple ağırlıkla Boğazköy, Ortaköy ve Kuşaklı gibi imparatorluk kentsel yerleşimleri ve bu arazilerde ele geçen yazılı metin arşivlerine ve bu metinler sayesinde üretilen tarihsel coğrafya tartışmalarına sırtını yaslar (Alparslan 2013; Van den Hout 2013). Halbuki dünya ölçeğinde arkeoloji disiplini kapsamında, özellikle de Orta Doğu ve Akdeniz arkeolojisi dünyasında 1970’lerden beri peyzaj arkeolojisi, metodolojik olarak arkeolojinin çevre bilimleri ile giderek artan sıcak ilişkisi hızla gelişmiştir ve eskiçağ geçmişine dair olan arkeolojik bilgi üretimi sürecine önemli katkılar yapmıştır (Wilkinson 2000, 2004). Özellikle arkeolojik peyzajlara ve arazilere olan müdahelesi ve imha etkisi son derece sınırlı metodolojileri, disiplinlerarası çalışmaların altını çizen yaklaşımı, uzun soluklu tarih yazımı ve eskiçağ toplumlarının alt tabakaları hakkında bilgi toplamaya olan özel eğilimi, eskiçağ peyzajlarını köyleri, mezraları, taş ocakları, mezarlık alanları, su başları, yolları, sulama sistemleri, kırsal kutsal alanları vb. ile birlikte bütüncül bir peyzaj anlayışı içinde araştırmaya gösterdiği özen, uzaktan algılama ve hızlı belgeleme tekniklerinin gelişmesi ile, ve belki de en önemlisi kültürel miras konusunda yerli halklarla kurulan doğrudan ilişkiler aracıığı ile kamusal alanda yaptığı korumacı müdaheleler ile Türkiye arkeolojisinde de giderek önem kazanmaktadır (Erciyas ve Sökmen 2011).

Yalburt Projesi 2010 senesinden beri düzenli olarak süren çalışmaları çerçevesinde bu yepyeni alana katkıda bulunmaya çalışırken, Hitit arkeolojisinde nadir olarak gözlenen bir alana eğilir, ve Hitit imparatorluğu kırsalı ve sınır bölgelerindeki siyasi iktidar-yerel kültür ilişkisini araştırır1. Diyakronik bir bölgesel proje olan Yalburt Yüzey Araştırması biribirine hidrolojik olarak
bağlanan Ilgın ve Atlantı Ovaları ile Çavuşçu Göl Havzası, onları birleştiren nehir vadileri, Yalburt Anıtı’nın da üzerinde konumlandığı Gavur Dağ karst yayla peyzajı ile güneyde Sultan Dağlarının bol pınarlı ve yeşil teraslarına odaklanır (Resim: 1). Bu tarihe kadar gerçekleştirilen arazi sezonlarının ön sonuçlarına göre, özellikle Hitit İmparatorluğu’nun son yüzyılına denk gelen dönemde imparatorluk merkezinden yapılan programlı müdahelelerle, Pedasa olarak bilinen bu sınır memleketinde, hem yeni bir sulama ağı kurulduğu,
tarımsal üretimin artırılmaya çalışıldığı ve hem de Ilgın Ovası’ndaki Boz Höyük gibi muhtemelen yönetsel işlevi olan yeni yerleşimler kurulduğu anlaşılmaktadır. Pedassa ülkesi, Hitit Yukarı Ülke ile batıda Arzawa ülkesi ve güneyde Akdeniz bölgesinde Parha’ya kadar uzanan Tarhuntašša Krallığı
arasında ihtilaflı bir sınır bölgesi teşkil eder. Arkeolojik yüzey araştırma sonucu gözlenen bu devlet müdahelesi, daha önce kırsal alanda kendi başına durduğu halleri ile pek iyi anlaşılamayan Yalburt Yaylası Dağ Pınarı Kutsal
Havuz Anıtı ile Köylütolu Barajı yapıları ile Karaköy Kale Tepesi Hitit kalesini daha sağlam bir tarihsel kapsama yerleştirir (Johnson ve Harmanşah 2015).
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Harmanşah, Ö.; P. Johnson; M. Durusu-Tanrıöver; 2016. “Kuru Göl Havzası’nda Yerleşim ve Çevre: Yalburt Yaylası ve Çevresi Arkeolojik Yüzey Araştırması 2013 Sezonu,” 33. Araştırma Sonuçları Toplantısı. Candaş Keskin (ed). Ankara, II Cilt.: 217-234.more
by Ömür Harmansah and Müge Durusu-Tanrıöver
Türkiye arkeolojisi kuram ve pratiğinde ve arkeolojik bilgi üretiminde peyzaj kavramı, ülke genelinde sistematik olarak yürütülen yüzey araştırması projeleri sayesinde gün geçtikçe daha çok yerleşip önemli bir konuma gelmektedir.... more
Türkiye arkeolojisi kuram ve pratiğinde ve arkeolojik bilgi üretiminde peyzaj kavramı, ülke genelinde sistematik olarak yürütülen yüzey araştırması projeleri sayesinde gün geçtikçe daha çok yerleşip önemli bir konuma gelmektedir. Arkeolojik ve çevre verileri ışığında uzun soluklu bölgesel tarihyazımına imkan tanıyan yerleşim sistemleri ya da yerleşim ekolojisi çalışmaları, doğası gereği enterdispliner niteliktedir ve dolayısıyla en azından arkeoloji, jeomorfoloji, çevre bilimleri, sanat tarihi ve antropoloji alanlarını bir saha projesi kapsamında biraraya getirir. Sadece bir kazı öncesi yer seçme faaliyeti olarak değil, bölgesel yerleşim ve çevre tarihine derinlemesine ve eleştirel bakan, peyzaj, mahal, yerel bilgi, arazi kullanımı, sürdürülebilirlik, uzun vadeli yerel tarih gibi meseleleri kendine dert edinen bu projeler Anadolu yarımadası
tarihi coğrafyası için önemli anlatılar üretebilir, üretmektedir. Bu yönleriyle Türkiye’deki arkeolojik yüzey araştırmaları ve peyzaj tarihi projelerinin metodolojik temelleri, bir yandan Ön Asya (Mezopotamya) arkeolojisinden uzun süredir bilinen bölgesel saha araştırma geleneğine (Wilkinson 2000), öte yandan da Akdeniz dünyasında, özellikle İtalya ve Yunanistan’da yaygın
olan sistematik ve yoğun arazi taraması odaklı yüzey araştırmaları geleneğine dayanır (Given, Knapp, Noller, Sollars, ve Kassianidou; 2013). Bu tür projelerde peyzaj tarihine, hem günümüzün hem de eski çağların yerel siyasi dinamikleri çercevesinde ve büyük ölçekli kalkınma projeleri, devletlerin ve
dış sermayenin kırsal yaşama müdaheleleri ile yerel halkların bunlarla olan ilişkisi kapsamında bakılabilir, bakılmaktadır. Su, tarım toprağı, maden, orman, ve kültürel miras gibi yerel kaynaklar üzerine şekillenen bu siyasi ekolojilere
uzun soluklu ve tarihsel derinlikli bir bakış açısı en verimli olarak bir peyzaj arkeolojisi metodolojisi sayesinde mümkün olabilir.

Yalburt Yaylası Arkeolojik Yüzey Araştırma Projesi, 2010 yılından beri sürdürmekte olduğumuz, Konya ili Ilgın ilçesi sınırları içerisinde çok-dönemli/diyakronik bölgesel bir kırsal peyzaj ve yerleşim tarihi projesidir (Harmanşah ve Johnson 2012, 2013, 2014). Hatırlanacağı gibi proje araştırma sorunsalının merkezine Hitit İmparatorluk dönemine ait anıtsal hiyeroglif yazıtlı Yalburt Yaylası Kutsal Dağ Pınar Anıtı ile yine hiyeroglif yazıtlı Köylütolu Hitit Barajı yapısını alarak özellikle bu anıtların içine oturduğu bölgesel yerleşim peyzajı ve siyasi kapsamını uzun vadeli bir eskiçağ tarihi sürecine yayarak inceler. Projenin dördüncü sezonu saha çalışmaları, 9-22 Temmuz tarihleri arasında iki hafta zarfında kısa olarak gerçekleştirilmiştir. Ayrıca 23 Temmuz-13 Ağustos tarihleri arasındaki üç haftalık sürede de Akşehir Müzesi’nde daha önceki sezonlarda ele geçen seramik ve diğer yüzey buluntuları incelenmesi ile yayına hazırlık çalışmalarının ilki gerçekleştirilmiştir. Bu makalede arazi çalışmalarımızın her iki aşamasında elde edilen veriler ve ön sonuçlarının bir özeti sunulacaktır
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Harmanşah, Ömür; Peri Johnson and Müge Durusu-Tanrıöver; 2014. "A Hittite King at the Spring of Yalburt: Bronze Age, Cold Waters and the Anatolian Landscape” Actual Archaeology Magazine 10 (Summer 2014): 10-16.more
by Ömür Harmansah, Peri Johnson, and Müge Durusu-Tanrıöver
To the north of the Ilgın Plain and on the southern slopes of the Gavurdağ-Karadağ massif lies Yalburt, a summer pasture settlement (a yayla) belonging to the village of Şuhut/ Çobankaya. As the story is told by the residents of Yalburt,... more
To the north of the Ilgın Plain and on the southern slopes of the Gavurdağ-Karadağ massif lies Yalburt, a summer pasture settlement (a yayla) belonging to the village of Şuhut/ Çobankaya. As the story is told by the residents of Yalburt, immediately uphill from the yayla used to be a well known as Kocakuyu that had the sweetest and the coldest waters in the area. No matter how much you drew from it, its water was never lessened.
More Info: Actual Archaeology June 2014: 10-16
Publication Date: Jun 2014
Research Interests:
Ancient History, Landscape Ecology, Archaeology, Near Eastern Archaeology, Geology, and 54 more
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Yalburt Pınarı’nda bir Hitit kralı, Tunç Çağı, soğuk sular ve Anadolu peyzajımore
by Müge Durusu-Tanrıöver, Peri Johnson, and Ömür Harmansah
More Info: Magazine article on Yalburt Yaylası Project published in Actüel Arkeoloji (in Turkish)
Research Interests:
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Harmanşah, Ömür and Peri Johnson; 2014 . “Yalburt’a Çıkan Bütün Yollar: Yalburt Yaylası Arkeolojik Yüzey Araştırması (Konya) 2012 Sezonu Çalışmaları,” 31. Araştırma Sonuçları Toplantısı. Adil Özme (ed). Ankara, Cilt II: 377-394.more
by Ömür Harmansah and Peri Johnson
More Info: 31. Araştırma Sonuçları Toplantısı. Adil Özme (ed). Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kültür Varlıkları ve Müzeler Genel Müdürlüğü , II Cilt.: 377-394.
Publication Name: 31. Araştırma Sonuçları Toplantısı
Research Interests:
Ancient History, Landscape Ecology, Geography, Human Geography, Archaeology, and 81 more
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Harmanşah, Ö. and P. Johnson; 2013. “Pınarlar, Mağaralar, ve Hitit Anadolu’sunda Kırsal Peyzaj: Yalburt Yaylası Arkeolojik Yüzey Araştırma Projesi (Ilgın, Konya), 2011 Sezonu Sonuçları.” 30. Araştırma Sonuçları Toplantısı. Adil Özme (ed). Ankara, 2. Cilt: 73-84.more
by Ömür Harmansah and Peri Johnson
More Info: Harmansah, Omur and Peri Johnson; in press (2013), in 30. Araştırma Sonuçları Toplantısı. Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kültür Varlıkları ve Müzeler Genel Müdürlüğü, Ankara.
Publication Date: May 2013
Publication Name: 30. Araştırma Sonuçları Toplantısı Bildirileri.
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Yalburt Yaylası (Ilgın, Konya) Arkeolojik Yüzey Araştırma Projesi, 2010 Sezonu Sonuçlarımore
by Ömür Harmansah and Peri Johnson
More Info: 29. Araştırma Sonuçları Toplantısı. Adil Özme (ed). Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kültür Varlıkları ve Müzeler Genel Müdürlüğü Yayın No: 153/2. Volume 2: 335-360. (with Peri A. Johnson)
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Yalburt Pınarı’nda bir Hitit Kralı: Tunç Çağı, Soğuk Sular ve Anadolu Peyzajımore
by Ömür Harmansah, Peri Johnson, and Müge Durusu-Tanrıöver
More Info: Harmanşah, Ömür; Peri Johnson and Müge Durusu-Tanrıöver; 2014. “Yalburt Pınarı’nda bir Hitit Kralı: Tunç Çağı, Soğuk Sular ve Anadolu Peyzajı" Arkeoloji Aktüel 37 (Mart-Nisan 2014) 10-15.
Publication Date: Mar 2014
Publication Name: Arkeoloji Aktüel 37
Research Interests:
Landscape Ecology, Archaeology, Classical Archaeology, Geology, Geomorphology, and 30 more
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Political Ecology as Practice (HWW Project)
A l l H a v e t h e S a m e B r e a t h: An Arts/Humanities Collaboration on Political Ecologymore
by Ömür Harmansah
All have the same breath emerges out of a two-year interdisciplinary, collaborative project in which groups of anthropologists, archaeologists, art historians, artists, geographers, and scientists, have been investigating the politics of... more
All have the same breath emerges out of a two-year interdisciplinary, collaborative project in which groups of anthropologists, archaeologists, art historians, artists, geographers, and scientists, have been investigating the politics of the environment and how the changing climate is experienced and negotiated across the world. The exhibition considers our relationship to the earth, and how that relationship is mediated by outside forces. The title signals the vital importance of acknowledging that all things—human, animal, vegetable, and mineral—are dependent on the same ecosystem and, indeed, breath the same air. The artists in All have the same breath give visual expression to the lived realities of those experiencing a changing landscape across the globe. Rather than engaging with the politics and rhetoric of climate change, All have the same breath raises urgent questions about how the global environmental crisis is experienced and articulated.

Major support for All have the same breath is provided by the Humanities Without Walls consortium, based at the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The Humanities Without Walls consortium is funded by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Additional support both to this project and the Political Ecologies Working Group is provided by the UIC Institute for the Humanities. Additional support is provided by the School of Art & Art History, the College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts, University of Illinois at Chicago; the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; and a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.
Location: Chicago Illinois
More Info: Gallery 400, January 18 - March 9, 2019. Artists: Tamara Becerra Valdez, Leticia Bernaus, Stella Brown, Bochay Drum, Robert Lundberg, Polen Ly, Cate Richards, Geissler/Sann, Nicole Tu-Maung, Ayub Wali Research Collaborators: Dilcan Acer, Alize Arıcan, Ian G. Baird, Tarini Bedi, Paul Bick, Ralph Cintron, Casey Corcoran, Charles Corwin, Molly Doane, Caitlyn Knecht Dye, W. Nathan Green, Peri Johnson, Ömür Harmanşah, Tannya Islas, Zhe Yu Lee, Haley LeRand, Javairia Shahid, Shivana Shresth, David H. Wise.
Organization: University of Illinois at Chicago
Publication Date: 2019
Publication Name: CADA Newsletter Fall 2019
Research Interests:
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All have the same breathmore
by Ömür Harmansah
All have the same breath is a contemporary art exhibition that emerges out of a two-year interdisciplinary, collaborative project in which groups of anthropologists, archaeologists, art historians, artists, geographers, and scientists,... more
All have the same breath is a contemporary art exhibition that emerges out of a two-year interdisciplinary, collaborative project in which groups of anthropologists, archaeologists, art historians, artists, geographers, and scientists, have been investigating the politics of the environment and how the changing climate is experienced and negotiated across the world. The exhibition considers our relationship to the earth, and how that relationship is mediated by outside forces. The title signals the vital importance of acknowledging that all things—human, animal, vegetable, and mineral—are dependent on the same ecosystem and, indeed, breath the same air. The artists in All have the same breath give visual expression to the lived realities of those experiencing a changing landscape across the globe. Rather than engaging with the politics and rhetoric of climate change, All have the same breath raises urgent questions about how the global environmental crisis is experienced and articulated.

Artists: Tamara Becerra Valdez, Leticia Bernaus, Stella Brown, Bochay Drum, Robert Lundberg, Polen Ly, Cate Richards, Geissler/Sann, Nicole Tu-Maung, Ayub Wali

Research Collaborators: Dilcan Acer, Alize Arıcan, Ian G. Baird, Tarini Bedi, Paul Bick, Ralph Cintron, Casey Corcoran, Charles Corwin, Molly Doane, Caitlyn Knecht Dye, W. Nathan Green, Peri Johnson, Ömür Harmanşah, Tannya Islas, Zhe Yu Lee, Haley LeRand, Javairia Shahid, Shivana Shresth, David H. Wise
Publication Date: 2019
Research Interests:
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Political Ecology as Practice : The Field Guidemore
by Ömür Harmansah and Pinar Uner Yilmaz
This publication is a product of the project “Political Ecology as Practice: A Regional Approach to the Anthropocene.” This project is funded by the Humanities Without Walls Consortium, based at the Illinois Program for Research in the... more
This publication is a product of the project “Political Ecology as Practice: A Regional Approach to the Anthropocene.” This project is funded by the Humanities Without Walls Consortium, based at the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The Humanities Without Walls Consortium is funded by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

This field guide is produced as a guide and inspiration for the project’s eight field initiatives that took place at different field sites and regions around the world (in 2017 and 2018) including Bolivia, Cambodia, Pakistan, Turkey and the United States,. It also includes the protocols for the project’s fieldwork initiatives, conceptual framework of the related exhibition (2019), and a series of relevant essays.

Political Ecology in Practice: A Field Guide is publication distributed at the Fieldworker’s Workshop, April 20- 21 2018, in Chicago, IL.

Editorial Team:
Omür Harmanşah
Tamara Becerra Valdez
Pinar Uner Yilmaz
Publication Date: 2018
Research Interests:
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Field Reports
Yalburt Yaylası ve Çevresi Arkeolojik Yüzey Araştırma Projesi, Karaköy Kale Tepesi ve Çavuşçugöl Uzun Pınar (Ilgın, Konya) 2021 Sezonu Arazi Çalışmaları Raporumore
by Ömür Harmansah
Yalburt Yaylası ve Çevresi Arkeolojik Yüzey Araştırma Projesi, Karaköy Kale Tepesi ve Çavuşçugöl Uzun Pınar (Ilgın, Konya) 2021 Sezonu Arazi Çalışmaları Raporu” (Preliminary Report for Yalburt Yaylası Archaeological Landscape Research... more
Yalburt Yaylası ve Çevresi Arkeolojik Yüzey Araştırma Projesi, Karaköy Kale Tepesi ve Çavuşçugöl Uzun Pınar (Ilgın, Konya) 2021 Sezonu Arazi Çalışmaları Raporu” (Preliminary Report for Yalburt Yaylası Archaeological Landscape Research Project, Karaköy Kale Tepesi and Çavuşçugöl Uzun Pınar (Ilgın, Konya) Field Season 2021).
Publication Date: 2022
Research Interests:
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Yalburt Yaylası Arkeolojik Yüzey Araştırma Projesi (Ilgın, Konya) 2018 Sezonu Arazi Çalışmaları Raporumore
by Ömür Harmansah
Yalburt Yaylası Arkeolojik Yüzey Araştırması Projesi’nin sekizinci arazi sezonu 11 Temmuz-31 Temmuz 2018 tarihleri arasında T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı, Kültür Varlıkları ve Müzeler Genel Müdürlüğü’nün 19 Haziran 2018 tarih ve 518969... more
Yalburt Yaylası Arkeolojik Yüzey Araştırması Projesi’nin sekizinci arazi sezonu 11 Temmuz-31 Temmuz 2018 tarihleri arasında T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı, Kültür Varlıkları ve Müzeler Genel Müdürlüğü’nün 19 Haziran 2018 tarih ve 518969 sayılı izinleri ile, Doç. Dr. Ömür Harmanşah başkanlığında gerçekleştirildi . Projenin yardımcı başkanlığını ve saha koordinatörlüğünü Dr. Peri Johnson üstlendi. Saha çalışmalarına, projemiz ekibinden, School of the Art Institute of Chicago öğretim üyelerinden Dr. Shannon Martino 4 ve 3. Binyıl (Kalkolitik ve İlk Tunç) seramikleri sorumlusu olarak katılmıştır. Ayrıca Brown Üniversitesi mezunu, ve projemizin eski ekip üyelerinden Bochay Drum çalışmalara kısmi olarak katılmıştır. Tüm ekip üyelerine özverili çalışmaları için teşekkür ederiz. Bakanlık temsilcimiz olarak Bandırma Müze Müdürlüğü uzmanlarından arkeolog Muzaffer Saçkesen görev yapmıştır. Yardımları ve özverili çalışmaları için kendisine müteşekkiriz (Resim 1). 2018 Sezonu ağırlıklı olarak arkeolojik yüzey araştırması ve arkeolojik alanların belgelenmesi çalışmalarına adanmıştır. Yüzey araştırmasının izin başvuruları kapsamında belirlenen amaç ve objektiflerin önemli bir kısmı 2018 sezonunda başarı ile tamamlanmıştır. 2018 sezonunda, izin başvurumuzdaki amaç ve objektifler çerçevesinde belirtildiği üzere, yaygın arkeolojik yüzey araştırması çalışmalarına devam edilmiş ve eksik kalan köy arazileri ziyaret edilerek arkeolojik alan tespiti ve belgelemesi yapılmıştır. Bu çalışmalarda temel olarak, topoğrafik ve mimari belgeleme, sistematik olarak yüzey buluntularının toplanması ve bunların el GPS’leri ile 1:25,000’lik haritalar dijital olarak işlenmesi, fotoğraf ve video çekimleri, çalışma alanlarının jeoloji ve jeomorfolojisi, bitki örtüsü, hidrolojisi ve diğer peyzaj özelliklerine dair yazılı belgelerin oluşturularak proje veritabanına işlenmesi teşkil etmiştir.
Publication Date: 2019
Publication Name: Yalburt Yaylası 2018
Research Interests:
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Yalburt Yaylası Arkeolojik Yüzey Araştırma Projesi (Ilgın, Konya) 2016 Sezonu Arazi Çalışmaları Raporumore
by Ömür Harmansah
Yalburt Yaylası Arkeolojik Yüzey Araştırması Projesi’nin altıncı arazi sezonu 13 Temmuz-8 Ağustos 2016 tarihleri arasında T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı, Kültür Varlıkları ve Müzeler Genel Müdürlüğü’nün 30 Haziran 2016 tarih ve 124625... more
Yalburt Yaylası Arkeolojik Yüzey Araştırması Projesi’nin altıncı arazi sezonu 13 Temmuz-8 Ağustos 2016 tarihleri arasında T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı, Kültür Varlıkları ve Müzeler Genel Müdürlüğü’nün 30 Haziran 2016 tarih ve 124625 sayılı resmi izinleri ile, Doç. Dr. Ömür Harmanşah başkanlığında gerçekleştirildi . Projenin yardımcı başkanlığını ve saha koordinatörlüğünü Dr. Peri Johnson üstlendi. Saha çalışmalarına, projemiz ekibinden, Bilkent Üniversitesi’nden Dr. Müge Durusu-Tanrıöver 2. Binyıl seramikleri sorumlusu olarak katılmıştır. İstanbul Üniversitesi, Arkeoloji Bölümü mezunu  arkeolog Bircan Acer arazi fotoğraflama ve yüzey araştırma ekibi üyeliği görevlerini almıştır. Ayrıca Brown Üniversitesi mezunu, ve projemizin eski ekip üyelerinden Bochay Drum ve Gazi Üniversitesi, Arkeoloji Bölümü öğrencisi Hasan Fidan çalışmalara kısmi olarak katılmışlardır. Tüm ekip üyelerine özverili çalışmaları için teşekkür ederiz. Bakanlık temsilcimiz olarak Niğde Müze Müdürlüğü uzmanlarından arkeolog Murat Tektaş görev yapmıştır. Yardımları ve özverili çalışmaları için kendisine müteşekkiriz (Resim 1). 2016 Sezonu ağırlıklı olarak arkeolojik yüzey araştırması ve arkeolojik alanların belgelenmesi ve Yalburt Anıtı yazıtları belgeleme çalışmalarına adanmıştır.  Yüzey araştırmasının izin başvuruları kapsamında belirlenen amaç ve objektiflerin önemli bir kısmı 2016 sezonunda başarı ile tamamlanmıştır. Başvurumuzda belirlenen arazi çalışmalarına yönelik önemli bir amaç, Köylütolu Yayla Hitit barajının topoğrafik, hidrolojik ve arkeolojik kapsamının daha iyi anlaşılabilmesi için Kadınhanı ilçesi Konurören ve Köylütolu Yayla köyleri çevresinin teşkil ettiği alanın araştırılması idi. Bu sebeple Köylütolu Köyü, Konurören, Karaköy, Hacıpirli, Afşarlı, Kurthasanlı ve Çavdar köylerinin kapladığı ve Bulasan vadisinin batısında kalan hafif engelebeli coğrafya ayrıntılı bir biçimde arkeolojik anlamda belgelendi. Bu bölgede rastlanan ve yerli halk tarafından gölyeri olarak tanımlanan, eski dönemde yarı bataklık olup şimdilerde kurumaya yüz tutmuş karstik çöküntü alanlarına odaklanıldı. Projemiz için son derece önemi bir bulgu olarak bu gölyeri arazilerinin her birinin birer eski çağ yerleşmesi ile topoğrafik olarak bitişik olduğu tespit edildi.  Tespit edilen arkeolojik alanlar arasında özellikle Gölyeri Höyük, Afşarlı Höyük, ve Hacıpirli Kahveci Mezarlığı bu açıdan önem taşımaktadır (Bkz Resim 2). Köylütolu Yayla barajı’nda Büyük Büvet ve Küçük Büvet mevkileri’nde 2015 yılında yapılan arkeolojik tespitleri desteklemek amacı ile Köylütolu Barajı’nın yakın çevresindeki alanlar taranarak bu alandaki arkeolojik yerleşimler tespit edilmiştir. Köylütolu’na son derece yakın olan geniş kapsamlı Gölyeri, Gelinuğru ve Bağlar mevkii yerleşimlerde Hitit dönemi yerleşimlerinin varlığı tespit edilmiş, böylelikle Köylütolu Anıtı tam anlamıyla bir çevresel kapsama oturtulmuştur. Bu açıdan 2016 sezonu çalışmaları tam bir başarı ile sonuçlanmıştır.
Publication Date: 2017
Research Interests:
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Yalburt Yaylası Arkeolojİk Yüzey Araştırma Projesi (Ilgın, Konya) 2015 Sezonu Arazi Çalışmaları Raporumore
by Ömür Harmansah
Yalburt Yaylası Arkeolojik Yüzey Araştırması Projesi’nin altıncı arazi sezonu 29 Haziran-16 Temmuz tarihleri arasında T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı, Kültür Varlıkları ve Müzeler Genel Müdürlüğü’nün 12 Haziran 2015 tarih ve 116053 sayılı... more
Yalburt Yaylası Arkeolojik Yüzey Araştırması Projesi’nin altıncı arazi sezonu 29 Haziran-16 Temmuz tarihleri arasında T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı, Kültür Varlıkları ve Müzeler Genel Müdürlüğü’nün 12 Haziran 2015 tarih ve 116053 sayılı resmi izinleri ile, Doç. Dr. Ömür Harmanşah başkanlığında gerçekleştirildi. Projenin yardımcı başkanlığını ve saha koordinatörlüğünü Dr. Peri Johnson üstlendi. Saha çalışmalarına, Bucknell Üniversitesi’nden jeomorfoloji ve çevre bilimleri uzmanı Prof. Dr. Ben Marsh, mimari koruma ve restorasyon dalında doktora öğrencisi B. Nilgün Öz (Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi- Mimarlık Fakültesi, Mimari Koruma ve Restorasyon Anabilim Dalı) ile lisans öğrencileri Bircan Acer (İstanbul Üniversitesi, Arkeoloji Bölümü) ve Hasan Fidan (Gazi Üniversitesi, Arkeoloji Bölümü) katıldılar. Tüm ekip üyelerine özverili çalışmaları için teşekkür ederiz. Bakanlık temsilcimiz Konya Akşehir Müze Müdürlüğü uzmanı sanat tarihçi Muzaffer Saçkesen idi. Yardımları için kendisine müteşekkiriz. 2015 Sezonu ağırlıklı olarak jeomorfolojik incelemeler, Yalburt Anıtı konservasyon çalışmalarına hazırlık çalışmaları ve kısmen de yeni arkeolojik alanların belgelenmesine adanmıştır.
Research Interests:
Landscape Ecology, Archaeology, Classical Archaeology, Near Eastern Archaeology, Geology, and 52 more
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Yalburt Yaylası ve Çevresi Arkeolojik Yüzey Araştırma Projesi (Ilgın, Konya) 2014 Sezonu Arazi Çalışmaları Raporumore
by Ömür Harmansah and Peri Johnson
Research Interests:
Archaeology, Near Eastern Archaeology, Geomorphology, Art History, Near Eastern Studies, and 36 more
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Yalburt Yaylası Arkeolojik Yüzey Araştırması (Ilgin, Konya) 2013 Sezonu Arazi Çalışmaları Raporumore
by Ben Marsh, Ömür Harmansah, and Peri Johnson
Research Interests:
Ancient History, Landscape Ecology, Archaeology, Geology, Geomorphology, and 52 more
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Yalburt Yaylası Arkeolojik Yüzey Araştırma Projesi (Ilgın, Konya) 2012 sezonu arazi çalışmaları raporumore
by Peri Johnson and Ömür Harmansah
More Info: Report on 2012 survey in Konya Province (in Turkish)
Research Interests:
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Yalburt Yaylası Arkeolojik Yüzey Araştırma Projesi (Ilgın, Konya) 2012 Sezonu Arazi Çalışmaları Raporu more
by Peri Johnson and Ömür Harmansah
More Info: Authors: Ömür Harmansah and Peri Johnson. Date: December 2012. Presented to the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
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Springs, Caves and the Rural Landscape in Hittite Anatolia: Yalburt Yaylası Archaeological Landscape Research Project (Ilgın, Konya) Preliminary Results of the 2011 Seasonmore
by Ömür Harmansah
This is a translation of the following published article: Ömür Harmanşah and Peri Johnson; 2013. “Pınarlar, Mağaralar, ve Hitit Anadolu’sunda Kırsal Peyzaj: Yalburt Yaylası Arkeolojik Yüzey Araştırma Projesi (Ilgın, Konya), 2011 Sezonu... more
This is a translation of the following published article: Ömür Harmanşah and Peri Johnson; 2013. “Pınarlar, Mağaralar, ve Hitit Anadolu’sunda Kırsal Peyzaj: Yalburt Yaylası Arkeolojik Yüzey Araştırma Projesi (Ilgın, Konya), 2011 Sezonu Sonuçları.” 30. Araştırma Sonuçları Toplantısı. Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kültür Varlıkları ve Müzeler Genel Müdürlüğü, 2. Cilt: 73-84.
Research Interests:
Ancient History, Cultural History, Landscape Ecology, Cultural Studies, Archaeology, and 77 more
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Yalburt Yaylası Arkeolojik Yüzey Araştırması (Ilgin, Konya) 2011 Sezonu Arazi Çalışmaları Raporumore
by Ömür Harmansah
Research Interests:
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Yalburt Yaylası Archaeological Landscape Research Project 2010 Field Season Reportmore
by Peri Johnson and Ömür Harmansah
More Info: Includes the translation of Harmanşah and Johnson 2012.
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Yalburt Yaylası Arkeolojik Yüzey Araştırma Projesi 2010 Arazi Çalışmaları Raporumore
by Ömür Harmansah
Research Interests:
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Translated Books
Ticaret Tüccarlar ve Antik Kentmore
by Ömür Harmansah
More Info: Trade, Traders and the Ancient City</a>. Helen Parkins and Christopher Smith (der.) Ömür Harmanşah (çev.) Istanbul: Homer Kitabevi, 2010.
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Encyclopedia Entries
City. I: Ancient Near Eastmore
by Ömür Harmansah
More Info: Harmansah, Ömür; in press. "City. I: Ancient Near East" in Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception. Edited by Hermann Spieckermann et al. Verlag Walter de Gruyter, Berlin and New York.
Research Interests:
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Web Publications
Digital Augustan Rome (Website / Interactive Map + Catalogue)more
by Eric Kondratieff, Elisha Ann Dumser, Ömür Harmansah, Carlos Noreña, and Kevin Tracy
From the Website's Home Page: Digital Augustan Rome: http://digitalaugustanrome.org/ See also: Mapping Augustan Rome, L. Haselberger, D.G. Romano, E.A. Dumser, edds. JRA Supplement 50. Providence 2002 (1st ed) / 2008 (2nd ed).... more
From the Website's Home Page:
Digital Augustan Rome: http://digitalaugustanrome.org/
See also: Mapping Augustan Rome, L. Haselberger, D.G. Romano, E.A. Dumser, edds. JRA Supplement 50. Providence 2002 (1st ed) / 2008 (2nd ed).

Introduction
By: David Gilman Romano

Digital Augustan Rome is a long term mapping project that is prepared to provide a worthy digital successor to the published book and maps of Mapping Augustan Rome that appeared as Supplement 50 in the Journal of Roman Archaeology Series, 2002. The volume was directed by Lothar Haselberger in collaboration with David Gilman Romano and edited by Elisha Dumser. The entries were written by over 12 authors.

Digital Augustan Rome has also been a group effort and I have been ably assisted in this endeavor by Dr. Nicholas L. Stapp and Mark Davison who were also my collaborators on the original map from the 2002 publication. Our intentions were first signaled at the Third Williams Symposium on Classical Architecture held in Rome in May of 2004 where we presented a brief summary of our thoughts and plans on a successor to the Mapping Augustan Rome volume.1 Since the earliest days of the Mapping Augustan Rome project, it has been our intent to produce a digital version of the results and we have been working towards this goal virtually from the outset. The work of this digital project is the direct result of work carried out in the Archaeological Mapping Lab of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. The work of the lab (formerly the Corinth Computer Project lab) since 1984 has been devoted to using the most modern methods of digital cartography, remote sensing and GIS in the field of ancient cities, landscapes and sanctuaries in order to study and better understand their composition, organization and planning.

The Digital Augustan Rome project relies totally on the work that has been accomplished for the paper volume and maps and is based on the entries of each of the authors that are listed separately here under Mapping Augustan Rome. Whereas Mapping Augustan Rome has appeared in its 2002 published form and a reprinted edition with corrections in 2009, Digital Augustan Rome is envisaged as a living resource for the study of Augustan Rome, one that will be able to be updated and modified as modern research brings new information about the Augustan city to light. In this way it will serve as a ongoing project with the goal to incorporate new information into the digital map.

The maps of the Mapping Augustan Rome project are two: 1:6,000 scale, a map of the entire city with an area of approximately 20 square kilometers and a 1:3,000 scale that is a map focused on the center of the Augustan city, specifically the forum area and neighboring regions. Digital Augustan Rome is based on the 1:6000 map of the publication that has been scanned and digitally linked with the names of all of the entries.

Digital Augustan Rome has been envisaged as a digital publication in three stages that include the phases of work that need to be accomplished. In addition a fourth stage is anticipated as the ongoing work of the project.
Publication Date: 2013
Publication Name: Digital Augustan Rome
Research Interests:
Durusu-Tanrıöver, Müge and Ömür Harmanşah; 2014. “Embedded! Archaeologists and Anthropologists in Modern Landscapes of Conflict” Anthropology News 55.6 (June 2014): e44–e47. more
by Ömür Harmansah and Müge Durusu-Tanrıöver
Research Interests:
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Cities and Desiremore
by Ömür Harmansah
Publication Name: ASOR Blog
Research Interests:
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Cities_of_Desire___The_ASOR_Blog.pdf
asorblog.docx
Mapping sitting: datable structures, state imagination and the subordinated bodymore
by Ömür Harmansah
This piece was written in the context of my graduate seminar The Rise (and Demise) of the State in the Near East taught at Brown University's Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World in Fall 2007. I am grateful to the... more
This piece was written in the context of my graduate seminar The Rise (and Demise) of the State in the Near East taught at Brown University's Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World in Fall 2007. I am grateful to the whole group for the intriguing and heated discussions in that seminar.

http://traumwerk.stanford.edu/archaeolog/2007/12/mapping_sitting_datable_struct.html
Research Interests:
The Leech Pond at Kerkenes Dağmore
by Ömür Harmansah
The Leech Pond is a practiced place, where a site-specific interest of the inhabitants of the landscape has flourished with mixed feelings of healing, hope, sacredness, imagination. It is a place where animals and humans interact in a... more
The Leech Pond is a practiced place, where a site-specific interest of the inhabitants of the landscape has flourished with mixed feelings of healing, hope, sacredness, imagination. It is a place where animals and humans interact in a very intimate way at the site of an ancient pond. It is remote, on top of the mountain where only shepherds and their sheep hang out in addition to the ghosts of ancestors who stroll through the place at night. But pilgrims from all over the region visit this holy place.
More Info: Archaeolog (4/2009)
Publication Date: 2009
Publication Name: archaeolog: all things archaeological
Research Interests:
Urban Utopias and How They Fell Apartmore
by Ömür Harmansah
The uprising that started with Taksim Square’s Gezi Park in Istanbul on 28 May 2013 emerged as a unique movement of resistance in Turkey’s history and has continued without interruption in the last several weeks. The Gezi Park Movement... more
The uprising that started with Taksim Square’s Gezi Park in Istanbul on 28 May 2013 emerged as a unique movement of resistance in Turkey’s history and has continued without interruption in the last several weeks. The Gezi Park Movement will be remembered as a successful mass movement of youth activism whose main purpose has been to reclaim public space in the cities in Turkey and the rural countryside, a political ecology that is under threat from the government’s neo-liberal utopias of development and capital intervention. The protestors on the streets have proven that they care deeply for their environment and have put themselves at risk in reclaiming their rights to the public space in Turkey.
Publication Date: 2013
Publication Name: Jadaliyya
Research Interests:
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Op Eds
The endangered future of the pastmore
by Ömür Harmansah
$57 million! $28 million! Such record prices for antiquities ring louder than the lamentations of any archaeologist over the destruction of clues to the ancient world. A number of news organizations reported on Sotheby's auction on Dec.... more
$57 million! $28 million!

Such record prices for antiquities ring louder than the lamentations of any archaeologist over the destruction of clues to the ancient world.

A number of news organizations reported on Sotheby's auction on Dec. 5 in New York, but their headlines tell only part of the story: "Ancient figure of lion shatters record price for sculpture at auction" (BBC World News); "Sculpture as old as civilization tops $65m" (The Sydney Morning Herald); "Tiny lioness figure fetches hefty $57M U.S. at auction" (CBC).

Why not simply say: "Loot and you will make vast sums of money!"
More Info: Opinion Editorial Piece co-authored with Christopher Witmore. International Herald Tribune, 21 December 2007.
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Talks
Disposable Landscapes, Disposable Heritage: Politics of the Ancient Past in the Anthropocenemore
by Ömür Harmansah
Publication Date: 2017
Publication Name: University of New Hampshire, Center for the Humanities, Saul O Sidore Memorial Lecture Series 2017-2018 "Who Owns the Past?" Delivered on November 20
Research Interests:
Ancient History, Landscape Ecology, Geography, Archaeology, Near Eastern Archaeology, and 38 more
Why Babylon?/Pourquoi Babylone?more
by Ömür Harmansah
https://vimeo.com/328830863 Archaeological imaginations of antiquity resemble in its logic very closely to the utopias of the future. These utopian visions often adopt fragments of an exotic distance past from the ancient world and... more
https://vimeo.com/328830863
Archaeological imaginations of antiquity resemble in its logic very closely to the utopias of the future. These utopian visions often adopt fragments of an exotic distance past from the ancient world and projected into the future as an avant-garde, a utopian vision, transporting what is familiar to a territory of the unfamiliar. Archaeology in a way does the same in the opposite
direction and constructs the ancient world as an exotic unfamiliar landscape, alien to our modernity. The city of Babylon with its Tower of Babel is perhaps one of the most captivating fragments of antiquity that continuously
surfaces in the course of history.
Publication Date: 2016
Publication Name: Histoires Courtes
Research Interests:
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"Event Place Performance: The Making of the Urban Space in Early Iron Age Karkamish"more
by Ömür Harmansah
Location: Brown University Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World
Research Interests:
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Teaching Documents
AH140 World Architecture, Climate, and Ecology An Alternative History Syllabusmore
by Ömür Harmansah
This course offers an alternative history of world architecture from the local and regional perspectives of climate and ecology. We will study indigenous technologies, cultures, and practices of building among societies of the region... more
This course offers an alternative history of world architecture from the local and regional perspectives of climate and ecology. We will study indigenous technologies, cultures, and practices of building among societies of the region usually referred to as “the Global South,” including the Middle East, Africa, Central and South Asia, and South America. Material and architectural cultures of the historical and contemporary communities in these regions are not conventionally studied under the rubric of the Western canon. In this course, we turn our attention to these communities and their building cultures, which are marginalized through reductive and colonial terminology such as “vernacular”, “traditional”, “primitive” or “premodern” architecture, since they are imagined outside the modernist profession of architecture. Vernacular architecture has been falsely identified as timeless, unchanging, and immobile. This course questions such colonial presumptions. 

Architecture or building, in its basic definition, provides shelter for humans and animals (but also sometimes plants). The construction of buildings fulfills this basic need for all communities across the planet if we consider housing as a basic human right. The way we build is fundamentally tied to the place where we build, its specific climate, the material resources that are available around it, its geological or hydrological character, and other basic conditions of its immediate environment. The choice of building materials and technologies of construction are developed relying on the availability of resources and the conditions of the local environment, while the creative input of the indigenous builder or the craftsmen poetically transforms the limitations of the materials and the environment into what we might call dwelling  the innovative, constructive act of inhabiting the earth, or the spatial act of settling that is resilient and sustainable. In this way, architectural knowledge is formed and passed down from one generation to the other, from one community to the next. A sense of space and a sense of dwelling and belonging is developed through the cumulative act of building. In this course, we will investigate different forms of dwelling in strikingly different geographies and ecologies of living. While doing so, we will dive deep into discussion questions of technology, environment, climate change, building materials, structure, indigeneity, and indigenous knowledge.
Research Interests:
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AH 522 Landscapes of the Anthropocene Syllabus publicmore
by Ömür Harmansah
This graduate seminar will engage in recent debates on climate change, the global ecological crisis, and the new geological epoch known as the Anthropocene. Particular attention will be paid to the newly emerging fields of environmental... more
This graduate seminar will engage in recent debates on climate change, the global ecological crisis, and the new geological epoch known as the Anthropocene. Particular attention will be paid to the newly emerging fields of environmental arts and humanities. How are artists, historians, and others in the humanities responding to the new climate regime and the urgent need to decolonize the planet? What can humanities do for world communities in their struggles for climate and heritage justice against extractive economies of late capitalism? What are some of the difficult questions raised about the entrenched Western concepts of growth, progress, freedom, humanism, and anthropocentrism? In this seminar, we will tap into debates critical of what brought the Planet Earth to its catastrophic status, touching on posthumanism, new materialism, ecocriticism, and political ecology.
Publication Date: 2023
Publication Name: Landscapes of the Anthropocene
Research Interests:
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AH 110 World History of Art and the Built Environment Syllabusmore
by Ömür Harmansah
Course Description Who lived in the Tower of Babel? What went into the creation of the Parthenon? What is common between the Mausoleum of Halikarnassos in Anatolia and Augustus's Mausoleum in Rome? What stories of war are told on Trajan's... more
Course Description Who lived in the Tower of Babel? What went into the creation of the Parthenon? What is common between the Mausoleum of Halikarnassos in Anatolia and Augustus's Mausoleum in Rome? What stories of war are told on Trajan's column? Why do we still care about the works of art, buildings, and cities of the ancient and medieval past? This course offers an introduction to the art, architecture, and material culture of the ancient and medieval cultures of the Mediterranean, Asia, Middle East, Africa and the New World. We will explore works of art, architectural monuments, and artifacts from Mesopotamia, Egypt, prehistoric Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean, the classical art of Greece and Rome, Byzantine Empire as well as medieval Europe with occasional forays into other regions in the world such as Africa, South America, East Asia and the Indian Subcontinent. Art can be broadly described as creative and imaginative work of human communities and individuals using their material skills and acquired bodies of knowledge, in order to build a meaningful world around them. This course studies the art and architecture of ancient and medieval communities through their material and visual culture. Therefore the history of art goes back to the paintings on the walls of prehistoric caves and stone tools made by the earliest human communities. The course starts with the Paleolithic cave paintings of Europe and Africa and the monumental ritual architecture of the Near Eastern Neolithic, and stretches all the way to the late antique-early Islamic Jerusalem, Byzantine Istanbul/Constantinople and Gothic capitals of Europe. The survey will highlight monuments such as the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Assyrian Palaces, Minoan palaces and frescoes, Egyptian pyramids and mortuary complexes, the Acropolis and the classical city of Athens, Ephesus and Pergamum, ceremonial capitals of the Persian Empire in Persepolis and Pasargadae, Republican and imperial monuments in Rome, Pompeii, and the great North African cities of the Roman Empire. We will finish the course with Istanbul's Byzantine church Hagia Sophia, Early Christian and Islamic monuments in Jerusalem, Islamic Andalusia and early Gothic structures of Europe.
Publication Date: 2021
Publication Name: Syllabus
Research Interests:
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Material Worlds: Topics in Material Culture Studies (2019 Edition)more
by Ömür Harmansah
Things, artifacts, objects... These are our intimate companions as we live in and make sense of the world. We tend to categorize them as fetishes, souvenirs, heirlooms, tools, knick knacks, voodoo dolls, marionettes, toys, furniture,... more
Things, artifacts, objects... These are our intimate companions as we live in and make sense of the world. We tend to categorize them as fetishes, souvenirs, heirlooms, tools, knick knacks, voodoo dolls, marionettes, toys, furniture, relics, object d’art, rocks, fossils, buildings, landscapes, amounting to what we cumulatively call “material culture”. Art historians, archaeologists, cultural anthropologists and ethnohistorians among others have attempted to make sense of the past (and the present) through the material residues, artifacts, remnants of human practices. Things, fetishized or not, become protagonists in our reconstructions of the past, as we increasingly believe that societies construct their world through the making of things, their use, circulation, discard. However, are things happy about such instrumentalization, categorization and secondary positioning as inanimate and silent members of the world? The recent interest in the academia on materiality has brought about a new age of things, the so-called “material turn,” revisiting old theories of materialism and asking fresh questions about alternative, object-oriented ontologies. In this course we will explore new work on thing theory, materials and materiality, the social life and the cultural biography of objects, their ability to configure social realities, human subjectivities, and cultural identities.

In this seminar, we will pay close attention to the contemporary theories in the field of material culture studies with a special focus on the materials, materiality, agency, and technologies of production. This includes new materialist perspectives on the potency and vibrancy of things, everyday objects, and works of art and architecture, while addressing issues of materiality, technology, and agency through archaeological and art historical case studies, drawn from ancient, medieval, and modern contexts. We will explore new studies on object-oriented ontologies that challenge the long-held divide between subjects and objects, and question the assumed superiority of the human race over animate and inanimate beings.

Archaeological, historical, contemporary and ethnographic case studies will be explored to understand the social relations behind skilled craftsmanship and the poetics of making. This includes bodies of evidence such as prehistoric figurines, ancestor statues, Mesopotamian and Greek cult statues, fetishes of the African- Portuguese early colonial encounter, Byzantine icons, an 18th century chess-playing automaton, Trobriand canoe-prows and Assyrian sculpture recent destroyed by ISIS among others. We will be concerned with how objects take over their own agencies and consider how they should be seen not as completed, fixed entities but as things always in the process of becoming. We will explore the ways in which collective memories are preserved, performed and obliterated in material bodies. We will take a close look at human subject - material object relations in everyday life and question the Western categories of objecthood and subjecthood.
Research Interests:
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HUM 101. The Politics of Archaeology and Heritage in the Middle East (Engaged Humanities Seminar)more
by Ömür Harmansah
Our understanding of the past is profoundly impacted by the politics of the present. Since the 19th century, archaeological projects in the Middle East have always been entangled with local politics. In this course, we will explore the... more
Our understanding of the past is profoundly impacted by the politics of the present. Since the 19th century, archaeological projects in the Middle East have always been entangled with local politics. In this course, we will explore the use and abuse of archaeology among the modern nation states in the Middle East since the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century.  What do ancient pharaohs mean to modern Egyptians? Who suggested that Hittites of ancient Anatolia were the ancestors of Turks? Why do modern Assyrian Christians still celebrate ancient festivals like the Akitu?  How do archaeological projects in Israel-Palestine attempt to verify Biblical texts? Why did Saddam Hussein consider himself the last Babylonian king? Discussing the formation of modern nation states and their secular modernity, we will study the integration of imagined ancient pasts and cultural heritage in the making of national identities and state ideologies. We will interrogate how the pervasive force of archaeology became nationalistic obsession since the late 19th century.

The seminar is also intended to capture current debates on cultural heritage in the Middle East. Such debates have intensified recently with the civil conflicts and political unrest in countries like Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan. The looting of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad, the bombing of Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan, ISIS’s destruction of archaeological artifacts and sites in Iraq and Syria, extensive looting of archaeological sites across the Middle East and the illegal antiquities trade are topics of interest for this course. How can we address this extensive destruction of world heritage that are increasingly becoming targeted in our times of crisis?
Research Interests:
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Pain, Suffering, Violence and Visual Mediamore
by Ömür Harmansah
This studio/seminar is an arts and art history collaboration, combining theory and praxis by integrating creative work with art theory, criticism and history. Representation of pain and human suffering has always been a vibrant subject of... more
This studio/seminar is an arts and art history collaboration, combining theory and praxis by integrating creative work with art theory, criticism and history. Representation of pain and human suffering has always been a vibrant subject of debate in the history of art from the Pergamene sculpture of dying Gauls and snake bitten Laocoön to Edward Munch's Der Schrei der Natur or Otto Dix's War graphics. In the new world order of late capitalism, we are constantly bombarded with visceral images of human suffering: the image of the Syrian refugee boy Alan Kurdi washed ashore on the Turkish coast, ISIS beheadings, scenes of torture in Abu Ghraib prison, the repeated image of the starving African child. The pornographic intensity and numbing effect of violent and painful imagery in the digital age raises serious questions about the ethics and politics of representation: how does one deal with the pain of others and the questions raised by its visualization? How can we understand the permanent depicting of individual hardship and suffering in times of invisible threats to mankind? What does it mean to be alive in the Anthropocene and what can we expect in the future? This seminar will seek creative, collaborative responses and critical debate on the relationship between visuality and pain, suffering, and violence.
Research Interests:
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Architecture and Memory: Ancient Monuments, Modern Memorialsmore
by Ömür Harmansah
“The creation of buildings for commemoration is one of the oldest purposes of architecture.” Adrian Forty, Words and Buildings (2004). 206. Why did the Philadelphia police bomb a house in West Philadelphia in 1985 and let the whole... more
“The creation of buildings for commemoration is one of the oldest purposes of architecture.”

Adrian Forty, Words and Buildings (2004). 206.

Why did the Philadelphia police bomb a house in West Philadelphia in 1985 and let the whole neighborhood burn for hours? Why did a Hindu nationalist mob destroy a 16th century mosque in Ayodhya during a riot in 1992? Why is “Ground Zero” such a powerful and evocative place? Why did ancient Babylonian kings dig around to locate the foundations of ancient temples? Why do ruins always draw our interest and curiosity? What stories are told on the walls of ancient, medieval and modern structures?

Before the invention of the printing press, buildings and monuments have been considered as the “book of humanity” on which the stories of humanity had been inscribed. Buildings have been mediators of the past, with their powerful presence and often turbulent histories. Stories cling to their stones, which become visible residues of the human lives that shape them. Memories, imaginations and experiences, collectively shared or individual, give meaning to architectural spaces. This course explores the intersections of memory and architecture through various archaeological case studies from the ancient world. We will work on the hypothesis that memory is not simply a matter of the individual mind: it is always materially manifested and it is always part of our everyday lives.
Research Interests:
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AH 209 The Art and Archaeology of the Ancient Near Eastmore
by Ömür Harmansah
Who lived in the Tower of Babel? Who was buried in the Royal Tombs of Ur? How were the ziggurats built? Peoples of the Ancient Near East produced a unique body of works of art, artifacts, and monuments, using a remarkable variety of... more
Who lived in the Tower of Babel? Who was buried in the Royal Tombs of Ur? How were the ziggurats built? Peoples of the Ancient Near East produced a unique body of works of art, artifacts, and monuments, using a remarkable variety of materials and technologies, and created a long-lasting and diverse visual and material culture. This introductory lecture course investigates the art, architecture, and visual culture of Near Eastern societies from prehistoric times to the time of Alexander the Great (ca. 330 BC). The art and architecture of the earliest urban centers in ancient Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Syria, Iran and the Levant will be studied. We will explore not only how modern scholars make sense of pictorial, sculptural and architectural forms of Near Eastern art, but will also investigate various technologies of production.

Art can be broadly described as the creative and imaginative work of human communities and individuals using their material skills and acquired bodies of knowledge, in order to build a meaningful world around them. Architecture involves the building arts that on the one hand allow human communities to construct shelters, houses, and public monuments, while on the other hand characterizes the culturally specific way that they shape the space, the landscape, and the environment around them. Material culture includes everything that one uses in everyday life from kitchen utensils to writing implements, from clothing to cell phones. These are our intimate companions as we live in and make sense of the world. We tend to categorize them as fetishes, souvenirs, heirlooms, tools, knick knacks, voodoo dolls, marionettes, toys, furniture, relics, fossils, pots and pans, amounting to what we cumulatively call “material culture”. Visual culture is the culture of looking at and seeing the world in a particular way and producing images that reflect and embody those specific ways of seeing. In this course, we explore these different categories of things, monuments, and art that are produced by the ancient Near Eastern cultures.

We will start with a discussion of the history of research in/on the Middle East, by the antiquarians, the first archaeologists in the 19th century and the establishment of the first museums to exhibit their finds. The chronological journey of the course starts with the Palaeolithic cave paintings and Neolithic figurines from the oldest, prehistoric communities in the Middle East, and take us all the way to the time when the Middle East was gradually Hellenized after the conquests of Alexander the Great and the collapse of the last Near Eastern empire- the Achaemenid Persian Empire.  The survey will highlight precious, sacred objects such as the Uruk Vase, burial goods such as the Royal Tombs of Ur, public monuments such as the Stele of Naram Sin or the Law Stele of Hammurabi, architectural complexes such as the Assyrian Palaces, legendary wonders such as the Hanging Gardens of Babylon or the Tower of Babel.
Research Interests:
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AH 522 Political Ecologies: Perspectives on Nature, Place, and Heritagemore
by Ömür Harmansah
"What is to be done with political ecology? Nothing. What is to be done? Political Ecology!" Bruno Latour (Politics of Nature 2004: 1) "Gravel —an aggregate formed by water— became the likely inspiration for this book, a collage of... more
"What is to be done with political ecology? Nothing. What is to be done? Political Ecology!" Bruno Latour (Politics of Nature 2004: 1)

"Gravel —an aggregate formed by water— became the likely inspiration for this book, a collage of concerns about the ways intersect with nature in the arid Southwest. The humble gravel pit offers an entrance to the strata of place, suggesting some fissures in the capitalist narrative into which art can flow. "
Lucy Lippard (Undermining, 1-2)

We live in very unusual, disturbing times. Debates on the onset of the Anthropocene (the new proposed geological epoch), climate change, and the global environmental crisis have brought to attention that we are at an important turning point in history of the planet earth, while in many places communities are increasingly denied basic rights to their environment, including access to water, land, clean air, biodiversity, and heritage. The social movements of ecological resistance experienced at the Dakota Access Pipeline, or during the privatization of water in Cochabamba, Bolivia, or the construction of the Merowe High Dam in the Northern Sudan, or the Sardinian resistance to the construction of a national environmental preserve speak to us as various local ecologies where the interests of global capitalism, nation states, and the indigenous communities come into conflict. Political ecology is a rapidly growing field of research and political platform concerning the place-based activism in coming to terms with development projects, extreme resource extraction, military conflict, and the other effects of globalization and late capitalist world order. This graduate seminar will investigate key contemporary debates in and fieldwork methodologies of political ecology through the perspective of humanities and the arts, with a special focus on nature, place, and heritage. These three concepts remain at the core of artistic, literary, and architectural engagements with the environment in recent history and will form the main threads of discussion within the seminar. Case studies will feature examples of threats over architectural and natural heritage at sites of dam construction and resource extraction, destruction of archaeological and cultural heritage at sites of military conflict, genealogies of places and landscapes, debates on deep past and deep future, and ecologically conscious art practice.

The primary objective of this seminar is to build collectively a new and innovative way of approaching the politics of ecology from the specific, creative perspective of the humanities and the arts. What is the challenge of ecology and global ecological crisis and local politics of the environment to the humanities and the arts? Political ecology has long been a cross-disciplinary field, and derived its strength from the multiplicity of fields taking part in it, such as political science, environmental sciences, human geography, anthropology of social movements, etc. But what would an explicitly humanities and arts approach to ecology look like? Moreover, political ecology also aims to create platforms of debate not restricted to academic discourse, but are open to dialogue to other stakeholders outside academia. How would one address the challenges of ecological conflicts in various places in the world through an arts and humanities initiative? These are the core questions we will attempt to address in this seminar.
Research Interests:
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AH 110 World History of Art & the Built Environment I (Fall 2017 New Edition)more
by Ömür Harmansah
What went into the creation of the Parthenon? Who lived in the Tower of Babel? What is common between the Mausoleum of Halikarnassos in Anatolia and Augustus’s Mausoleum in Rome? What stories of war are told on Trajan’s column? Why do we... more
What went into the creation of the Parthenon? Who lived in the Tower of Babel? What is common between the Mausoleum of Halikarnassos in Anatolia and Augustus’s Mausoleum in Rome? What stories of war are told on Trajan’s column? Why do we still care about the works of art, buildings, and cities of the ancient and medieval past? This course offers an introduction to the art, architecture, and material culture of the ancient and medieval cultures of the Mediterranean, Asia, Middle East, Africa and the New World. We will explore works of art, architectural monuments, and artifacts from Mesopotamia, Egypt, prehistoric Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean, the classical art of Greece and Rome, Byzantine Empire as well as medieval Europe with occasional forays into other regions in the world such as Africa, South America, East Asia and the Indian Subcontinent. 

Art can be broadly described as creative and imaginative work of human communities and individuals using their material skills and acquired bodies of knowledge, in order to build a meaningful world around them. This course studies the art and architecture of ancient and medieval communities through their material and visual culture. Therefore the history of art goes back to the paintings on the walls of prehistoric caves and stone tools made by the earliest human communities.  The course starts with the Palaeolithic cave paintings of Europe and Africa and the monumental ritual architecture of the Near Eastern Neolithic, and stretches all the way to the late antique-early Islamic Jerusalem, Byzantine Istanbul/Constantinople and Gothic capitals of Europe. The survey will highlight monuments such as the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Assyrian Palaces, Minoan palaces and frescoes, Egyptian pyramids and mortuary complexes, the Acropolis and the classical city of Athens, Ephesus and Pergamum, ceremonial capitals of the Persian empire in Persepolis and Pasargadae, Republican and imperial monuments in Rome, Pompeii, and the great North African cities of the Roman Empire. We will finish the course with Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia, Islamic Andalusia and early Gothic structures of Europe.
Research Interests:
Archaeology, Egyptology, Roman History, Visual Studies, Art History, and 59 more
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AH 466 Material Worlds: Topics in Material Culture Studiesmore
by Ömür Harmansah
Things, artifacts, objects... These are our intimate companions as we live in and make sense of the world. We tend to categorize them as fetishes, souvenirs, heirlooms, tools, knick knacks, voodoo dolls, marionettes, toys, furniture,... more
Things, artifacts, objects... These are our intimate companions as we live in and make sense of the world. We tend to categorize them as fetishes, souvenirs, heirlooms, tools, knick knacks, voodoo dolls, marionettes, toys, furniture, relics, object d’art, rocks, fossils, buildings, landscapes, amounting to what we cumulatively call “material culture”. Art historians, archaeologists, cultural anthropologists and ethnohistorians among others have attempted to make sense of the past (and the present) through the material residues, artifacts, remnants of human practices. Things, fetishized or not, become protagonists in our reconstructions of the past, as we increasingly believe that societies construct their world through the making of things, their use, circulation, discard. However, are things happy about such instrumentalization, categorization and secondary positioning as inanimate and silent members of the world? The recent interest in the academia on materiality has brought about a new age of things, the so-called “material turn,” revisiting old theories of materialism and asking fresh questions about alternative, object-oriented ontologies. In this course we will explore new work on thing theory, materials and materiality, the social life and the cultural biography of objects, their ability to configure social realities, human subjectivities, and cultural identities.
Research Interests:
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AH 211 Cities and Festivals: Architectural Practice and Urban Space in the Ancient Near East (History of Urbanism)more
by Ömür Harmansah
Cities are layered topographies of personal and collective histories, enchanted places of experience, theaters of action, places of belonging and love, and messy landscapes of everyday life. City spaces come alive with public events,... more
Cities are layered topographies of personal and collective histories, enchanted places of experience, theaters of action, places of belonging and love, and messy landscapes of everyday life. City spaces come alive with public events, while they are built through daily acts of the city’s citizens, sometimes dramatic decisions of its planners, and always the residues of its material past. As Charles Baudelaire has put it “the form of a city changes more quickly than the human heart.” In the last century, artists, writers, intellectuals have radically criticized the deteriorating urban life and alienation in industrial and post-industrial cities, and discussed social and political potentials of urban life known from history. In this class, we will explore the cities of the ancient past from the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East to discuss those potentials, negotiated between ideal visions of the city and architectural realities, and between the ambitious projects of developing urban centers and the everyday action of people on city streets.

What did the ancient cities look like and how were they shaped in architectural form and in the imagination of its citizens? How did public events, festivals, rituals, and state spectacles shape or impact the layout of a city? In the light of contemporary theories of cities and urban space, this class will investigate eleven cities drawn chronologically from the cities of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East, starting with the Mesopotamian cities such as Ur and Nippur to the Assyrian capital Nineveh and Nebuchadnezzar II's Babylon, ending with late antique Jerusalem and Byzantine Constantinople. We will discuss the making of cities with emphasis on the organization of public events such as festivals, urban rituals, ceremonies, and carnivals that shape their urban spaces. We will therefore discuss the making of cities, negotiated between the representations of urban ideals, politics of space, monumental construction, and the material practices of the society, and explore aspects of the recent scholarly opinion that societies established their relationship with history through their construction and manipulation of architectural spaces.
Research Interests:
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AH 522 Body, Performance, and Architectural Space in the Ancient Near Eastern World (Issues in Architecture, Design and Urbanism)more
by Ömür Harmansah
Bodies make space speak. This graduate seminar investigates the relationship between bodily practice, social performance, and the production of architectural space. Critical literature on the human body, its gender and sexuality, its... more
Bodies make space speak. This graduate seminar investigates the relationship between bodily practice, social performance, and the production of architectural space. Critical literature on the human body, its gender and sexuality, its materiality, and everyday life have flourished in the recent decades, while discussions of architectural space, place and landscape came to the foreground. Drawing on this corpus of recent scholarship in the social sciences and humanities, we will work closely with architectural, art historical and archaeological case studies drawn from the ancient Near Eastern world, and consider the impact of such new paradigms on the field. Neolithic figurines, megalithic monuments, rock reliefs, cave paintings, funerary rituals, urban festivals and festive spaces with visual narrative programs will constitute some of the case studies. Discussions of embodiment, embodied subjectivity, agency of objects, animism of architectural spaces and landscapes, gendered representation of the body, gender performance, multi-sensorial experience of the everyday world, spectacles of the state and biopolitics will play a central role in the seminar. While reading theoretical scholarship on body, performance and space, we will also be studying closely select case studies of archaeological sites, bodies of material evidence drawn from athe ancient Middle Eastern world from prehistory to the late Iron Age.
Research Interests:
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Introduction to Art Historymore
by Ömür Harmansah
This course is an introduction to art history as a field of cultural production. The readings and conference discussions will be directed towards exploring not only the paradigmatic works of art and architecture from antiquity to... more
This course is an introduction to art history as a field of cultural production. The readings and conference discussions will be directed towards exploring not only the paradigmatic works of art and architecture from antiquity to post-modernity but also the interpretive texts produced about them. Emphasis will be placed on the shift of practices of artifact production with skilled crafting in pre-industrial societies towards modern definitions of art and visual culture with their distinctive socio-cultural status in the contemporary world. Case studies are thus drawn from ancient Near Eastern and classical antiquity as well as the Western post-industrial art. While the development of the discipline form 18th century onwards will be problematized, core discursive issues in art history such as representation, iconography, narrative, technology, style, museum studies will be addressed.
More Info: Reed College 2006
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Archaeologies of the Near Eastmore
by Ömür Harmansah
Writing, urbanism, agriculture, imperialism: the ancient Near East is known as the place where earliest agriculture flourished, cities were developed and writing was invented. In the recent decades, the Middle East has largely been a... more
Writing, urbanism, agriculture, imperialism: the ancient Near East is known as the place where earliest agriculture flourished, cities were developed and writing was invented. In the recent decades, the Middle East has largely been a place of political instability and unrest, while the archaeological field research in the region has been overwhelmingly impacted by the current socio-political climate. In this course we will explore the archaeological history and current archaeological practice in the Middle East, in connection with Western colonialism, the formation of nation states and ongoing military conflicts. The social and cultural history of the Near East from prehistory to the end of Iron age (300 BC) will be covered as well. Studying the material remains of the ancient past is never entirely about discovering and recovering ancient societies from the deep corners of antiquity: it is more about our modern concerns of self-definition, cultural identity, ideals and ideologies of the present. Throughout the semester therefore, we will also investigate some of interpretive approaches and concepts used within Near Eastern archaeology. The main goal of the course is to develop a critical understanding of ancient societies and their material culture from an interdisciplinary, post-colonial perspective.

We will study the art and material culture of various Middle Eastern societies (including Mesopotamian, Syrian, Anatolian, Levantine, Iranian). We will explore their major cities like Ur, Nineveh and Babylon as well as their villages, their festivals and rituals, their kings, priests, craftsmen as well as their peasants, their impressive palaces, temples and ziggurats as well as modest mudbrick houses, their mythologies, poems, royal inscriptions as well as mundane letters. We will explore how the textual sources and archaeological evidence can be put together to arrive at novel interpretations of the past. In the Middle East, archaeology is frequently a politicized field, and the contemporary political circumstances have a massive impact on how the ancient past is documented, studied and represented. Using several archaeological case studies in the ancient Middle East, the course intends to unpack the modern scholarly and public context of archaeological discourses. It will not only provide a broad empirical bases for the region’s social and cultural history but also will allow students to see how particular ways of writing history is embedded in contemporary socio-political climate. The class will be a mixture of lectures and class discussions.
More Info: Spring 2012 Brown University Course
Research Interests:
Archaeology, Near Eastern Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Art History, Near Eastern Studies, and 31 more
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The Rise (and Demise) of the State in the Near Eastmore
by Ömür Harmansah
"The state... is not an object...(but) an ideological project. It is first and foremost an exercise in legitimation... It conceals real history and relations of subjection behind an a-historical mask of legitimative illusion... The real... more
"The state... is not an object...(but) an ideological project. It is first and foremost an exercise in legitimation... It conceals real history and relations of subjection behind an a-historical mask of legitimative illusion... The real official secret, however, is the secret of the non-existence of the state"
Abrams 1988: 76-77.

The discourses on the state and state formation have dominated archaeological explorations of Early Mesopotamia in association with the development of social and bureaucratic complexity, agricultural technologies, monumental architecture, urbanization, long distance trade, colonization and the development of writing. Archaeological evidence from the material worlds of the early Near East (especially during the 4th and 3rd millennia BC) have been written under narratives of the state from chiefdoms to city-states and to empires, while the artifacts, texts and spaces of the past were painstakingly linked to the ideologies, power structures and political economies of the state. This course unpacks this preoccupation with states and power as a modernist scholarly practice and deconstruct its instrumentalizations of the material pasts. We will consider the more recent explicit postcolonial/postprocessual distancing of academic interests from such frames of reference, and explore alternative paradigms that challenge neo-evolutionary narratives of the state and social complexity. Turning the macro models of the state on their head, we will focus on how micro level material practices constitute the social world, and in what ways an explicitly archaeological approach can contribute to the critique of those macro models. Exploring various case studies from the ancient Near East, questions of social practices and social change, domination and resistance, collectivity, materiality and agency, political landscapes and state spectacles will be brought up in our discussions, while focusing primarily on Mesopotamia, Anatolia and the Levant from 9000 BC to approximately 2000 BC.
More Info: A Graduate Seminar ~ Fall 2007 Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World Brown University
Research Interests:
Ancient History, Landscape Ecology, Cultural Studies, Archaeology, Anatolian Studies, and 39 more
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Contemporary Issues in Archaeological Theorymore
by Ömür Harmansah
This course explores how archaeologists make sense of the world from artifacts of the past. Human practices and cultural processes resonate, live within the material traces that surround us in our everyday life. How do archaeologists... more
This course explores how archaeologists make sense of the world from artifacts of the past. Human practices and cultural processes resonate, live within the material traces that surround us in our everyday life. How do archaeologists re-imagine these traces as residues of real people in history rather than imaginary beings and ghosts? How do archaeologists place material objects and spaces in the context of human practices, cultural processes and long-term history? In short, we will read, think and write about archaeological ways of thinking about the world.

Archaeology, as a modern discipline, investigates the past through the study of its material remains. This material record is documented and interpreted through various intellectual activities from fieldwork to publication. But archaeologists are usually torn between their work in the field (digging, surveying, drawing, travelling, taking notes) and in their academic environment (processing data, interpreting, publishing). Throughout the semester we will spend some thought on this divided life between the field and discourse, and explore some of the novel attempts have been made to bridge them.

Archaeology frequently becomes entangled with our daily lives through its politicized engagement with the past and issues of identity. We will examine various theoretical approaches and historiographic models used in archaeology since its inception in the 19th century, while putting a particular emphasis on the recent developments in the theories and methodologies in archaeology in the last few decades. It is intended to provide a solid theoretical and historigraphic basis for the discipline of archaeology. The first few weeks of the course will be dedicated to discussing the central movements in the discipline such as culture-history, New Archaeology, and contextual archaeology, while the second half deals with more contemporary theoretical paradigms such as gender and sexuality, technology and agency, space, place and landscape, and issues of cultural heritage. Particular archaeological materials, sites, projects will be used in discussing the potentials and disadvantages of various approaches. Archaeological case studies will be drawn mostly from the ancient Western Asian and Mediterranean worlds.
More Info: Spring 2008 Course at Brown University
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Intimate Stories: Narrative in Ancient Visual Culturemore
by Ömür Harmansah
Images tell stories that carry us to imaginary worlds other than our own. An arresting story in pictures engages us deeply, opening the doors of fantastic places and times. In antiquity many architectural monuments displayed pictorial... more
Images tell stories that carry us to imaginary worlds other than our own. An arresting story in pictures engages us deeply, opening the doors of fantastic places and times. In antiquity many architectural monuments displayed pictorial narratives that animated public spaces and enthralled broad audiences. This course explores cultural aspects of visual narrative imagery from Western Asian and Mediterranean worlds, from magical hunt scenes in Palaeolithic caves to mythical histories of Mesopotamian sculpted stones; from the paradises on Egyptian tomb walls to Aegean frescoes and Assyrian reliefs of exotic landscapes, from domestic intimacies on Greek vases to Roman commemorations of campaigns to the fringes of the known world. Using contemporary perspectives on ancient art, we will explore the material power and the everyday significance of such pictorial representations as intimate visual spectacles.
Research Interests:
Archaeology, Classical Archaeology, Egyptology, Near Eastern Archaeology, Classics, and 38 more
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Art in Antiquity: An Introductionmore
by Ömür Harmansah
What went into the creation of the Parthenon? Who lived in the Tower of Babel? Why do we still care about the buildings, cities, and art of the ancient past? This course offers an introduction to the art, architecture, and material... more
What went into the creation of the Parthenon? Who lived in the Tower of Babel? Why do we still care about the buildings, cities, and art of the ancient past? This course offers an introduction to the art, architecture, and material culture of the ancient world in Western Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean worlds. We will explore a diversity of powerful things and monuments from Egyptian pyramids and Near Eastern palaces, to the 'classical' art of Greece and Rome.

This course offers a survey of the art of the ancient Mediterranean world. We will explore important architectural monuments, artifacts and works of art from Mesopotamia, Egypt, prehistoric Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean, Greece and Rome, through visually rich, chronologically structured lectures. The intention is to give students a well-rounded background in the art, visual culture, architecture and archaeology of the Western Asian and Eastern Mediterranean worlds. The course starts with the monumental stone-henge like ritual architecture of the Near Eastern Neolithic, and stretches all the way to the late antique-early Islamic Jerusalem and Byzantine Istanbul/Constantinople. The survey will highlight monuments such as the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Assyrian Palaces, Minoan palaces and frescoes, Egyptian pyramids and mortuary complexes, the Acropolis and the classical city of Athens, Ephesus, Alexandria and Pergamum, ceremonial capitals of the Persian empire in Persepolis and Pasargadae, cities and victories of Alexander the Great, Hellenistic altar of Zeus from Pergamum, Mausoleum of Halicarnassus and the Seven Wonders of the World, Republican and imperial monuments in Rome, Pompeii, and the great North African cities of the Roman Empire and finish with Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia.
Research Interests:
Ancient Egyptian Religion, Ancient History, Archaeology, Egyptology, Near Eastern Archaeology, and 44 more
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Art and Visual Culture in the Ancient Near Eastmore
by Ömür Harmansah
Peoples of the Ancient Near East produced a unique corpus of artifacts and monuments, using a remarkable variety of raw materials and technologies of making, and created a diverse culture of visuality and materiality from prehistory... more
Peoples of the Ancient Near East produced a unique corpus of artifacts and monuments, using a remarkable variety of raw materials and technologies of making, and created a diverse culture of visuality and materiality from prehistory onwards. This graduate seminar investigates the art, architecture, and visual cultures from Anatolia to the Iraqi southern alluvium, from the Levant to Iran and the Caucasus shared this common pictorial language in a variety of ways. We will explore not only how modern scholars make sense of pictorial, sculptural and architectural forms of Near Eastern art, but will also investigate various technologies of production. Selected bodies of archaeological, architectural and pictorial evidence from the Near East will be scrutinized while also debating relevant art and architecture historical methodologies and discourses in direct relationship to that material. Conceptual issues such as narrative, representation, perspective, agency, materiality, facture, technology, style, iconography, symbolism, landscape, space, and power will be explored.
Location: Brown University
Research Interests:
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Places of Healing: Memory, Miracle, and Storytellingmore
by Ömür Harmansah
The growing field of medical geography puts emphasis on the bodily experience of place and the production of local knowledge about specific places, while it draws on the constitutive link between bodies, wellness, memory, and place. From... more
The growing field of medical geography puts emphasis on the bodily experience of place and the production of local knowledge about specific places, while it draws on the constitutive link between bodies, wellness, memory, and place. From antiquity to our day, therapeutic landscapes such as mineral and thermal springs, mysterious caves, shrines and churches built at sacred springs, volcanic ash mud baths, rocky landscapes emitting odorous gasses that stimulate hallucination, and ponds filled with medicinal leeches that cure blood diseases, all attracted health pilgrims who immersed their bodies into the geological substance of these locales or ingested their waters for miraculous healing. Practices of storytelling transformed these locales into places of memory and long term pilgrimage. This seminar investigates places of bodily healing and miracle from a cultural studies perspective, and takes into account recent scholarly literature on place, bodily experience, memory, and storytelling. The case studies will be primarily drawn from the Mediterranean world and Western Asia. Special emphasis will be placed on geologically wondrous locales such as Lourdes in France, Hierapolis in Southwestern Turkey and the Agiasma churches of Byzantine Istanbul that link ancient places of healing to modern sites of pilgrimage and religious heritage.
More Info: A Cogut Center for the Humanities Topics Seminar at Brown University
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Water, Culture, and Powermore
by Ömür Harmansah
More Info: http://waterculturepower.wordpress.com/ Water is the source of life. In the midst of a global climate change, environmental crises for water resources and the political debates over water, we have come to the full realization of our complete dependence on water. This course investigates our long term attachment and engagement with water using archaeology, environmental history, visual, literary and historical sources. The cultural and political aspects of water around springs, rivers, lakes, marshes, and living by the sea are explored from the Last Ice Age to late antiquity. Human societies small or large tended to live close to water, near marshes, springs or lakes and made wise use of water resources using a variety of different technologies. In this course, we explore water management in ancient cities of the Near East and classical antiquity in the Mediterranean.
Research Interests:
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Archaeologies of Placemore
by Ömür Harmansah
More Info: Graduate Seminar Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World Brown University ~ Spring 2009 Course Description Can we write a place-oriented history of our past? Our lives, the way we define ourselves, our memories and experiences are tightly intertwoven with the nature of places we live in, the history of towns and countrysides that we belong to, and the landscapes in which we grow up. The concept of place, as a site of human practice in and with the material world, has recently become a prevailing concept in the humanities and social sciences, a hot topic. In this course we will explore how archaeology and ethnographic research addresses material complexities and cultural meanings of places in the broader context of landscapes. We will investigate critical theories of place, space and landscape, while working with case studies from the ancient Near East and the Eastern Mediterranean as well as the contemporary world. We will seek the question, how through particular fieldwork practices of archaeologists, anthropologists, contemporary artists, geographers and mapmakers, one can access and document the rich meanings, stories, and memories of places, their layered material corpus. Particular attention will be given to Anatolian landscapes through its long-term history with a special focus on springs, caves, sinkholes, river valleys and river sources distributed in the landscape, and various ways such geological features and "natural" places are inscribed with human practices. Using a multi-sited approach to archaeological and ethnographic fieldwork, we will investigate in detail various practices of place-making. We will also be concerned about cultural biographies of sites, diachronic change in the landscapes and explore how they were used and re-inscribed by various societies in a long-term perspective.
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Introduction to the Ancient Near East more
by Ömür Harmansah
More Info: Department of Egyptology and Ancient Western Asian Studies Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World Brown University ~ Fall 2009 This course offers an introduction to the study of the political, social and cultural history of the ancient Near East, from prehistory to the end of the Iron age (ca. 330 BC). Both literary sources and archaeological evidence are examined as relevant. Near East is understood here in its widest geographic extent, including primarily the Mesopotamian lowlands, Iranian and Syro-Anatolian highlands, as well as the Levantine coast. The course not only offers a foundational survey of the historical developments in the region, but also addresses the broader methodological and historiographic problems involved in Near Eastern studies. State formation and the development of complex societies, cult practices and cuneiform literary traditions, art, architecture and material culture, issues of landscape and settlement systems, agricultural production, regional and interregional trade, and craft production will constitute the central issues in the course. On a week-by-week basis, the course will explore the cultural and political developments in the Near Eastern world, from the first hunter-gatherer societies of the region to the end of the Persian Empire. In this way students will gain a general understanding of the long-term historical developments, while also studying particular episodes of history in greater focus, reading archaeological scholarship, studying historical and literary texts in translation, exploring the material culture of various cultural groups, and surveying selected examples of architectural monuments and archaeological sites. Students will also get a good understanding of the variety of textual soruces available from the region, inclusing monumental display inscriptions, annalistic historical texts, literary compositions, letters, ritual texts, economic documents and the like in a variety of languages including Sumerian, Akkadian, Hittite, Luwian, Aramaic and others. Reading the scholarly literature on various topics, students will also get a substantial understanding of the historigraphic and methodological issues in the disciplinary field.
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Under the Tower of Babel: Archaeology, Politics, and Identity in the Modern Middle Eastmore
by Ömür Harmansah
More Info: Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World Brown University ~ Spring 2010 Course Description What do phaoroahs mean to modern Egyptians? Why did Saddam Hussein consider himself the last Neo-Babylonian king? Who suggested that ancient Hittites were the ancestors of Turks? Why do modern Assyrian Christians still celebrate ancient Assyrian festivals? How do archaeological projects in Israel-Palestine attempt to verify Biblical texts? Our understanding of the past is profoundly impacted by political ideologies of the present. In this course, we are interested in exploring the use (and abuse) of archaeological pasts among the modern nation states in the Middle East since the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. Discussing the constructions of secular modernity in the formation of modern nation states in the Middle East, we will explore various case studies of the integration of imagined ancient pasts in the making of collective identities and state ideologies. While we explore the related archaeological activities that intended to satisfy such needs, we will interrogate how the pervasive force of archaeology become nationalistic obsessions from the late 19th century to this day.
Research Interests:
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The Archaeology of the Assyrian Empire: Cities, Landscapes and Material Culture more
by Ömür Harmansah
More Info: Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World Brown University, Fall 2011 Course Description Ritual, war and conquest! This is our modern image of the Assyrian Empire, one of the most powerful territorial states of the ancient world and the Near East. Assyrians are famous for their ambitious patronage ofbuilding capital cities and cultivating landscapes, the architecture of their palaces and temples, the elaborate structure of state bureaucracy, taxation and provincial administration, military expeditions, mass deportations and sumptuous cult festivals, the rich corpus of comme...
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Workshops
CFP: NEW ASOR Session "Near Eastern Archaeology as Salvage Operation Ethics, Politics and Method"more
by Ömür Harmansah
Ever since its early beginnings in the 19th century, archaeological fieldwork in the Middle East has much too often taken the form of a salvage operation in contexts of fast moving development projects and ongoing military conflicts that... more
Ever since its early beginnings in the 19th century, archaeological fieldwork in the Middle East has much too often taken the form of a salvage operation in contexts of fast moving development projects and ongoing military conflicts that threaten cultural heritage. Construction of dam projects, building of roads, railways, and oil lines, large scale irrigation and various infrastructure projects, political instability, intensive looting operations open doors to archaeologists to work in precarious landscapes, working in a fast pace and with duly adjusted methodologies. While the ticking clock of destructive forces and anxious engineers dictate less than desirable methodologies to survey and excavate, salvage operations often lead to unusually intensive investigation of particular regions producing a wealth of regionally specific data, channel unexpected funding resources into archaeological and heritage conservation projects and allow easier acquisition of official permits. The increased scale of development projects in countries such as Turkey, and the threat of violence in countries such as Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan has impacted the way archaeologists do fieldwork, while archaeologists inevitably find themselves in politically charged situations where multiple stakeholders challenge the role of the archaeologist and his/her relationship to local governments, multi-national companies, local communities, and activist groups. This session invites scholars to consider the ethical, political, and methodological issues which concern archaeological field projects that take the form of salvage operations. Both theoretical approaches and on-the-ground case studies are welcome. How has this rescue nature of archaeology impacted and shaped archaeological practice in the Middle East? Where does salvage operation locate archaeologists in the political ecologies of the field? The session will, on the one hand, open a platform for real experiences of salvage archaeology on the ground, such as the recent Ilısu Dam Projects in Southeastern Turkey. On the other hand, salvage archaeology can be adopted as an allegorical concept to debate more theoretically on methodologies, politics and ethics of archaeological fieldwork in the Middle East.
Research Interests:
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CFP.pdf
CFP.pdf
Embedded! Archaeologists and Anthropologists in Modern Landscapes of Conflictmore
by Ömür Harmansah
This workshop is the second leg of the annual Engaged Scholarship Workshops organized by Brown University’s Middle East Studies, under the broader initiative entitled “Knowledge Production, Ethics, Solidarity: Stories from the field.”... more
This workshop is the second leg of the annual Engaged Scholarship Workshops organized by Brown University’s Middle East Studies, under the broader initiative entitled “Knowledge Production, Ethics, Solidarity: Stories from the field.” These two-day workshops take place in the spring of every academic year. The format of the gatherings is explicitly geared towards offering an open platform of critical discussion for controversial topics that emerge from the intersection of academic fieldwork, ethics, social movements and activism. The Second Engaged Scholarship Workshop will be concerned with the contemporary archaeological and anthropological field practices in contexts of war and social conflict and their ethical implications.

In recent decades, both archaeologists and anthropologists who work in the precarious war zones in the Middle East have been increasingly drawn into collaborations with western and local military forces via initiatives such as the so called Human Terrain Systems, adopting military technologies for accessing data about otherwise inaccessible places, and accepting funding from the military for field research. These developments intersect with a cultural/social scientific turn in the U.S. military. Likewise, in recent years, several new archaeological projects have been initiated by western archaeological teams in war-torn countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine. Concerns of western institutions for the loss of cultural heritage are often canalized into initiatives to rescue heritage, supported by narratives of global ownership. The methodological, ethical, political, cultural, and practical implications of these new initiatives and collaborations however have been rarely discussed in academic contexts, even though their problematic aspects have been pointed out persistently by several anthropologists and archaeologists, for example through the Network of Concerned Anthropologists. This workshop will provide a platform for an open and critical discussion of the ethical implications of archaeological and anthropological fieldwork in conflict zones in the Middle East, collaborations with the military and what it means to be embedded in the military complex in both the contemporary and the historical contexts.

Workshop Format

The core of the workshop is organized around 3 sessions. Each session is composed of a series of papers and one commentator. Papers will be pre-circulated two weeks ahead of the workshop (due April 15th, 2014) and made available to the discussants so that they can draft their response. The paper presenters will briefly summarize their positions in 12-15 minute presentations, which will be followed by a substantive response from a discussant (20-25 minutes). The workshop will be concluded with two hours of open forum/round table discussion.
Research Interests:
Place Memory, Place Politics: Cultural Perspectives on the Local and Localitymore
by Ömür Harmansah
"Places are small, meaningful locales that are brought to existence by everyday experiences and practices of ordinary people, their long term emotional investment, attachment, and sense of belonging. Places are meaningful to local... more
"Places are small, meaningful locales that are brought to existence by everyday experiences and practices of ordinary people, their long term emotional investment, attachment, and sense of belonging. Places are meaningful to local communities due to specific collective memories that are associated with them, the accumulated constellation of material traces and residues of lived experience that configured them over a long period of time, and the events that punctuate place histories. As Arturo Escobar has succinctly put it, “place continues to be an important source of culture and identity” (2008:7) despite the current and pervasive effects of globalization and neoliberal development that brings about the erasure of place. Widely used technologies of mapping in the social sciences and humanities today such as Geographical Information Systems, Remote Sensing and the use declassified military satellite imagery, network models and 3-D visual fly-through reconstructions remain focused on promoting large territories, big picture landscapes, and the visual spectacles of pictorial representation. In this world of dramatic and sweeping perspectives, small places and their cultural biographies are often rendered unmappable, therefore invisible.

Places are inherently politically contested for they are frequently prone to appropriation by political agents and colonial powers. Marko Živković in his “Serbian Landscapes of Dreamtime” spoke of places of power that “have become widely shared symbolic tokens in a particular polity because they accumulated many and varied layers of meaning” and that “the powers that be always seek to insert their ideology through these locations on which we drape our memories.” (Živković 2011: 169). Places of religious practice such as shrines and sacred spots, places of healing and therapeutic landscapes, storied locales such as caves, unusual rock formations and haunted ruins, memorialized locations of significant events, sites of heritage and ancestral memory come to the foreground when thinking about small places.

How do academics in the humanities and the social sciences approach places that are so vital for communities around the world, so widely contested and vulnerable to erasure? This workshop is intended to provide a platform of critical discussion in the humanities and social sciences to explore, map and make visible small places that are draped with particular memories, configured by cultural practices, and contested in political terms. It seeks genealogical approaches to place to unwrap layers of accumulated meaning in the social sphere. Cultural biographies of place, historical and archaeological case studies of socially significant places, studies of politically contested sites of memory, case studies in political ecologies and place-based resistance will form the core of the discussions at the workshop, which will bring together scholars working on contemporary, early modern, medieval and ancient worlds.

WORKSHOP FORMAT

The workshop will start with a keynote address by a prominent thinker on place, politics and memory. Following this, there will be 7-8 formal papers during the workshop divided into three sessions composed of two papers each. Papers will be pre-circulated 2 weeks ahead of time to discussants. Each session will be composed of 30-35 minute presentations of the two formal papers, followed by a 20-25 minute response from the session discussant (preferably to be elected from local UT Austin faculty). Following the response, there will be a 40-45 minute open forum discussion, moderated by the session chair/discussant."
More Info: Donald D. Harrington Fellowship Workshop, Departments of Middle East Studies and Religious Studies University of Texas at Austin April 11-12, 2014
Conference End Date: Apr 12, 2014
Conference Start Date: Apr 11, 2014
Research Interests:
Papers
Monuments and Memory: Architecture and Visual Culture in Ancient Anatolian Historymore
by Ömür Harmansah
This article on long-term cultural landscapes of Anatolia focuses on various episodes of fragmentation and connectivity with adjacent regions, through the study of monumental architecture and visual/material culture from prehistory to the... more
This article on long-term cultural landscapes of Anatolia focuses on various episodes of fragmentation and connectivity with adjacent regions, through the study of monumental architecture and visual/material culture from prehistory to the end of the Achaemenid period. It attempts to trace a line of thought around monumentality and social memory, in order to see our paradigms from Anatolian history in a critical long-term perspective. The article argues that architecture and monuments are the most visible and powerful remnants of past civilizations, especially through funerary monuments, and that Anatolia, with its vast array of monuments from multitudinous peoples leaving their mark over centuries, provides a unique opportunity to study, and marvel at, the “landscape of the dead.”
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication Date: 2011
Publication Name: Oxford Handbooks Online
Research Interests:
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