The scholars leading research and teaching on the ancient world.
Ancient Urbanism; Conflict and Warfare; Mesopotamian Archaeology; Sensory Archaeology
Augusta McMahon is the Glen A. Lloyd Distinguished Service Professor in the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, Department of Middle Eastern Studies, and the College, and she is the current Director of the Nippur Excavation in south Iraq. After her PhD at the University of Chicago in 1993, Augusta was Professor of Mesopotamian Archaeology at the University of Cambridge (UK) from 1995 to 2022, before returning to Chicago in late 2022. She was Field Director of the Tell Brak excavation project, in northeast Syria, from 2006 to 2011 and carried out fieldwork at the nearby site of Chagar Bazar in Syria, as well as at Nippur, Lagash and Nineveh in Iraq, and further sites in Turkey, Egypt and Yemen. Her current research addresses the origins of urbanism and its challenges, including violent conflict; the porosity of city boundaries; the demography and density of peri-urban zones; the contribution of the grey economy to urban resilience; and sensory approaches to the past built environment.
Series / Volume
Oriental Institute Publications 129
Series / Volume
ISAC Seminars 16
Series / Volume
Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization 71
Books
Articles
The Nippur Expedition investigates one of Mesopotamia’s most important and long-lived cities: the sacred center of Enlil, a place whose temples, neighborhoods, public buildings, tablets, and…
This course surveys the archaeology of (I) the villages and states of Mesopotamia (approximately the modern countries of Iraq and Syria) during the late 7th through late 3rd millennia BCE or (II) the states to empires of the 2nd-1st millennia BCE. Students are introduced to the range of Mesopotamian sites and material culture, the region’s variable landscapes and environments, and key themes and debates in the study of this literate complex society. Themes include the origins of irrigation and urbanism; inequality and formalisation of violent conflict; craft specialisation; the forms and meanings of funerary practices; presentation of power; religious ritual and beliefs, symbolism and style in art, and the archaeological signatures of empire.
Students will direct work in one or more excavation areas, including recording, managing the local workforce, and developing strategies together with the project director. Depending on level of experience, students will also lead or contribute to assessment and recording of one type of material culture or data (e.g., surface survey, ceramics, glass), including interpretation and synthesizing preliminary results in the field.
