Hi all!
I was asked by a faculty member for help sourcing a text on the Archaeology of the Middle East that means some specific criteria. I am looking into it, but would love to know if anyone has ideas/input. The request is this:
Our book orders are due at Halloween for the winter. I am worried that most of the reading I usually use will not keep post-covid students engaged in the right ways!! So--I am looking for an open access (or affordable) textbook on the Archaeology of the Middle East/Southwest Asia/the Near East that
a) discusses cultural heritage preservation and site destruction in a sensitive and up-to-date way
b) utilizes an anthropological perspective on social organization, change through time, state formation, the beginning of writing, early urbanism, gender, political economy and the use of force, craft specialization, and religion
c) does not get bogged down in ceramic "types" but does include lots of illustrations and maps,
d) tries to decolonize the discipline as much as possible (!) with the work of local archaeologists and an acknowledgement of the colonial history of the discipline, and
e) is not "Biblical Archaeology", which centers archaeological sites and questions from religious texts (the Bible, the Talmud). (I mainly emphasize Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and parts of Iran in my class, and I don't focus on Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, or Jordan after the Late Neolithic/Early Chalcolithic.)
If you know of something, please feel free to shoot me an email at awalker2@wlu.edu
Thanks so much!
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Amira Walker
Research and Instruction Librarian
Washington and Lee University
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