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Insights into Islamic Archaeology and Material Culture explores the evolution of this dynamic field, highlighting new methodologies, interdisciplinary approaches, and shifting paradigms. Stemming from a 2013 seminar in Jerusalem, the volume critically examines whether the means and goals of Islamic archaeology have changed significantly from those that defined the discipline’s major advances in the twentieth century. The book’s fourteen contributors reassess long-held perspectives, emphasizing the need to move beyond orientalist interpretations and historiographic dependencies and instead foster a more neutral and analytical approach to early Islamic material culture. The collection showcases research on key sites such as Quṣayr ʿAmra, Khirbat al-Mafjar, and al-Ṣinnabra and offers fresh views on settlement patterns, agricultural economies, and the sociopolitical functions of Umayyad palaces, among other topics.

The volume also highlights the interplay among archaeology, conservation, and cultural heritage studies, illustrating how technical advances—such as the conservation of Quṣayr ʿAmra’s frescoes—have reshaped scholars’ understanding of early Islamic visual culture. Its essays challenge established narratives of cultural decline following the rise of Islam, demonstrating instead a dynamic period of adaptation, innovation, and exchange still reflected in later eras, as evidenced by Islamic interactions with the Frankish world. Through its diverse perspectives, Insights into Islamic Archaeology and Material Culture serves as both a critical reassessment of the field’s past and a blueprint for its future, fundamentally advocating for an inclusive, methodologically rigorous approach that integrates archaeology with the broader humanities and social sciences.

Contents
List of Figures
Abbreviations
Acknowledgments, by Katia Cytryn
Introduction: Insights into Islamic Archaeology, by Katia Cytryn
1. Revolution or Evolution? Agricultural Fields in Early Islamic Palestine, by Gideon Avni
2. Early Islamic Industry and Urbanism: The Site of Matzliah (Ramla South) as a Case Study of Reciprocal Influence between Production and Urban Planning, by Amir Gorzalczany
3. Quṣayr ʿAmra Wall Paintings Conservation Project, by Gaetano Palumbo and Giovanna De Palma
4. The 2009 Excavations at al-Ṣinnabra, by Tawfiq Daʿadli
5. The Jericho Mafjar Project: New Ceramics for an Old Monument, by Donald Whitcomb
6. Khirbat al-Mafjar Revisited (I): The New Umayyad Mosque within the Qaṣr and Its Implications for the Building Sequence and Setting of the Complex (a New Understanding through Architectural, Stratigraphy and Landscape Archaeology), by Ignacio Arce
7. A Grape Press Discovered at Khirbat al-Mafjar, by Jehad Yasin and Awni Shawamra
8. Down to Downtown: Jericho in Late Antiquity and Recent Excavations at Tell al-Ḥassan, by Michael Jennings and Anthony Lauricella
9. The Influence of Islam on Frankish Visual Culture, by Lisa Mahoney
10. Conclusion: New Directions for Islamic Archaeology in the Twenty-First Century, by Kristoffer Damgaard

• Studies in Ancient Cultures 4
• Chicago: Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, 2025
• ISBN (paperback) 978-1-61491-131-9
• ISBN (eBook) 978-1-61491-132-6
• Pp. 232 (xxiii + 209), 110 figures
• Softcover, 9 x 11.75 inches
• $89.95