Project Description

The site of Lagash (modern Tell al Hiba) is a very large (450 ha) urban site primarily of Early Dynstic date with some later occupation in isolated areas. We know from cuneiform texts that the site was an important center of the epynomous city state of Lagash together with Girsu to the north and Nigin to the south. The site was systematically excavated for six seasons in the 1960-1990 by NYU/Met museum. Their results included the excavation of three temple complexes and an elite administrative area. The current Lagash Archaeological Project returned to the site in 2019 with the intention of investigating the non-elite sectors of site through multimodal methods which emphasize remote sensing through UAV drone photogrpahy, magnetometry, surface survey, geoarchaeological coring as well as selective excavation with extensive sampling for faunal, floral, and microstratigraphic contexts. The Early Dynastic period is when the urban institutions of the Mespotamian tradition were first established and codified. While we have some understanding of this process from texts and from the exploration of elite contexts, no excavation in the region has undertaken to systematically explore the lifeways of the urban population. Our work will contribute substantially to understanding of the variety within the living communities and their engagement with both craft production and agriculture. We are seeking to give texture through archaeological investigation to the non-elite members of the community. Ultimately we are seeking to discover whether the hypothesis of urban middle class proposed by Monica Smith is useful for understanding this very early stage of urbanization in Mesopotamia. In the four seasons that we have had we have revealed a ceramic production area with more than a dozen kilns which we have autopsied for phasing and construction, and four occupation areas associated with the kilns. In the same area but in an earlier (ED I) phase, we revealed what we are interpreting a public eatery (“tavern”). A complete survey of the site has produced heatmaps of different artifact types indicating potential areas of investigation of other crafts, such as stone working, shell working, and perhaps metal smithing. Additionally we are seeking to understand the organization of the totality of the site. The recent interpretation of the site as marshed based is wrong. We have demonstrated that through ground truthing features that are visible on the surface. What we have learned is that the profound erosion which has taken place on the site makes ground truthing curcial to understanding any feature visible throug UAV photography. With the SenSys magnetometer we have imaged around 5 percent of the site with excellent results. We will continue to prioritize this method, ground truthing as well as undertaking horizontal excavation to expose the domestic and craft production areas in different but comparable neighborhoods which can be defined through remote sensing. The other significant component of our project is geoarchaeological. Through collaboration with Woods Hole Oceanographic insitute and other facilities we have retrieved more than 20 cores both on and off the site. Hte longest core is 20m deep and is providing a securely dated record of the rapidly shifting waterscapes surrounding the site from 13000 BCE until today. This evidence revolutizes our understanding of the profound impact of water on both the settlement histories and selected lifeways. We present our findings on a constantly updates bilingual (English and Arabic) website hosted at the University of Pennsylvania. hppts://web.upenn.edu/lagash Our project fully embraces the ASOR guidelines for diversity, equity and inclusion. We have a team that is 2/3rd female, including both the Project director and field director. We encourage all participates to acquire enough Arabic to be able to function with our local collaborators and staff. We welcome and have LGBTQ+ individuals. All participants are treated with respect, given access to equal training and other opportunities. We do not tolerate any harrassment or disrepect either within the team or between the team and our hosts. In the past four seasons, we have had no covid cases on the project. We are completely prepared to deal with such a case if it should arise. We have a more than adequate supply of tests (which we give the the village when we leave). We require that anytime any one feels unwell that they immediately test a number of times. We take care to isolate sick individuals even though they do not have to covid virus. We have a space dedicated to this use if necessary. We have an adequate supply of medications. We require masking for the first week in indoor spaces for both the team and the house staff. After that, we are careful and institute masking if it seems appropriate. All of the exavation work is outside, we provide masks for any workers who request them. There is a local hospital about 20 minutes from the site. One of the family members of the owners of the housing compound is a doctor in that facility. The annual budget for the project is around $80,000. We have fifteen staff members coming from the US, Italy, France, Iraq. We have applied for a multiyear NSF and are waiting to hear the results. We have a support contribution from the MMA in the amount of $20,000. We have received a $34,000 support for remote sensing and geoarchaeolgoical work from the Univerity of Pennsylvania. The support from the Penn Museum varies. The $5000 requested in the application will be specifically applied to expanding the training program that we have developed for the project. if awarded this grant we would be able to embed two Iraqi archaeology students in the project for its entire duration. We would train them in all aspects of our work, and would follow up with them in the months after the season, allowing them to participate in the analysis and publication of the results. We have already done this on a smaller/shorter scale with our survey and remote sensing team.