Proceedings of the 8th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East : 30 April-4 May 2012, University of Warsaw / edited by Piotr Bielinski, Michal Gawlikowski, ... [et al].

"... 8th International Congress of the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East 30 April-4 May 2012, University of Warsaw.

Includes bibliographical references.

Volume 1 : Plenary Sessions : Opening Speach / Paolo Matthiae -- Fire Altars and Fire Temples in the First Millennia BC/AD in the Iranian World : Some Remarks / Remy Boucharlat -- General Overiew of the Excavation Works and Policies in Turkey / Abdullah Kocapınar -- Township and Villages -- Symbolic Place-Making and the Emergence of Sedentism in the Early Neolitic of South-East Anatolia : A Review of Evidence and a New Interpretive Framework / Çiğdem Atakuman -- A Procession of Chalcolithic Villagers : Reconsidering Hennessy's 'Processional' Wall Pinting from Teleilat Ghassul Jordan / Bernadette Drabsh -- Linking the Mountains to the Plains : The Material Culture and Lifestyle of the Local Communities in Southeastern Anatolia During the Iron Age / Guido Guarducci -- Geo-Politics and Trade in Central Anatolia in the Middle Bronze Age / Alessio Palmisano -- The Road to the Citadel of Kanesh. Urban Structure and Spatial Organization of the City during the Assyrian Colony Period / Maciej Makowski -- The Architectural Sequence at Malatya during the Hittite and Neo-Hittite Periods : a Proposal / Corrado Alvaro -- The Struggle towards Unity : State Building and Settlement Processes in the rise of Urartu-Bianili / Simone Bonzano -- Townships or Villages? Remarks on Middle Bronze IA in the Southern Levant 39236 / Marta D'Andrea -- Rural-Urban Relations between Tel Zahara and Beth Shean in the Roman and Hellenistic Periods in Palestine / Susan Cohen -- Was Hatra the Second Babylon? / Krzysztof Jakubiak -- Medieval Transformations of the Roman Urban Fabrik in Antioch. Study for an Operating History of the City / Claudio Rubini -- Early Neo-Assyrian Dur Katlimmu / Anja Fügert, F. Janoscha Kreppner, Hartmut Kühne, Jens Rohde -- Early Iron Age Town and Village Life in the Upper Tigris River Valley of Southeastern Turkey / Timothy Matney -- Bronze Age Doemstic Architecture in Eastern Syria : Familiar, Social and Economic Implications / Juliette Mas -- Forms of Urban Settlements. Differences and Elaborations of Urban Settlements in the Middle Euphrates Valley / Mohammed Al-Khaled -- Exploring the Outer City of a Major EBA Center : Recent Excavations in the Eastern Extent of Tell Chuera's Lower Town (2005-2010) / Tobias B. H. Helms, Alexander Tamm -- Seal-Impressed Jars from the Hamrin Valley, Iraq / Steve Renette -- Diachronic Developments at the Central Monumental Complex of Ancient Urkesh (Tell Mozan) / Federico Buccellati -- The Life and death of Tell Hazna I settlement / Shahmardan Amirov -- About the first town planning. Near East, 4th-1st millenium / Jean-Claude Margueron --

Tell al Raqa'i and Khafajah : Two Constrasting Ideologies of Economic Exploitation. Territorial Network Control, Internal Subssistence and Urban Systems / Francesco Del Bravo -- Life at the Edge of the Settlement : the MBA-LBA Transition at the Northern and Southern Slope of Tell Barri (NE Syria) / Anacleto D'Agostino, Constanza Coppini -- HighTemples i the Northern Mesopotamian Landscape / Patrizia Camatta -- Early Dynastic Kish-City-State or Country-State? / Dorota Lawecka -- High and Low - The Minor Arts for the Elite and for the Populace -- Concept of 'High' and 'Low' in Ancient Near Eastern Art Theory and Methodology / Silvana Di Paolo -- Can the Definition 'Popular versus Official' be Applied to Ancient Near-Eastern Production? / Laura Battini -- Categorizing Images and Objects : Where and How Ancient Artefacts might be Evaluated / Davide Nadalı -- Bone Figurative Objects From the Third Millennium Levels of Tell Ashara-Terqa : an Example of Minor Art / Paola Poli -- Minor Arts and Society in the Chalcolithic of the Southern Levant / Ianır Milevski, Bernardo Gandulla -- Do the Imags on the Chalcolithic Ossuaries Comprise Attributes? / Dina Shalem -- Early Clay Technologies : Studies in Early Neolithic Clay Usage from the Central Zagros / Amy Richardson -- Is a pin Mightier than a Sword? Metal Item as Grave Goods during the Early Bronze I and II in the Upper Euphrates Valley / Leigh A. Stork -- The Drum Shape from the Burnt Palace of Beycesultan, Level V. A Typical Production of an Unusual Object / Fabrizio Giovannetti -- Cardiophylax en Urartu : Un Modéle Celtibére / Fabrice De Backer -- Bronze Age Anthropomorphic Figurines from Northern and North-Eastern Iran : A Reappraisal in the Light of New Discoveries / Birgül Öğüt, Christian Konrad Piller -- The Deep Well of the Past : Earliest Seal Impressions from the City of Ur / Petr Charvat -- Temples and Figurines. The Coroplastic from Area HH at Ebla (Syria) during the EB IVB period / Luca Peyronel -- From Models to Chariot / Mattia Raccidi -- On the Wooden Carvings from Ebla : Some Suggestions from Work in Progress / Rita Dolce -- Of Pots and Doves. Some Possible Evidence for Popular Cults in the Ebla Palaces in MB II / Frances Pinnock -- Stone Bar-Handled Bowls : Characteristics and Value / Andrea Squitieri -- The Coroplastic Art of the Persian Tell Mardikh/Ebla : Some Notes on Iconography and Context / Maria Gabriella Micale.

The 8th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East (VIII ICAANE) was held in Warsaw in spring 2012, jointly organized by the University of Warsaw, the K. Michalowski Foundation and the Institute of Prehistory of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan. The three-volume Proceedings contain the latest information and analyses reported at the VIII ICAANE. The first volume contains papers presented during plenary sessions as well as two of the main themes: Township and Villages and High and Low - The Minor Arts for the Elite and for the Populace. The second volume includes the most extensive session dedicated to the results of field research, Excavations and Progress Reports, covering the entire Near East, the Gulf countries and the Caucasus. The volume is completed by contributions presented during the poster session. The third volume is a collection of four themes: Archaeology of Fire, Bioarchaeology - an innovation of the 8th ICAANE, introduced to bring together scholars working within interdisciplinary projects on various aspects of the ecology of the ancient populations of the Near East -, Conservation, Preservation and Site Management and the Islamic Session. Anyone with an interest in the ancient Near East will find much to enjoy and appreciate in these three impressive volumes.