Ömür Harmansah: Research

Research Profile on Brown's Faculty Research Page

Research Interests

Architectural history and material culture of the ancient Near East, particularly Syria, Anatolia and Mesopotamia; architectural and archaeological theory; landscape theory; urbanization and urban space; cultural studies and critical/social theory; theories of representation; commemorative monuments and collective memory; theories of space, body and performance; material culture studies; production and circulation of artisanal knowledge; architectural documentation of archaeological sites.

Degrees

May 2005 - PhD in the History of Art, University of Pennsylvania.

Dissertation: "Spatial Narratives, Commemorative Practices and the Building Project: New Urban Foundations in Upper Syro-Mesopotamia During the Early Iron Age." (sad but true: it is finished)

June 1996 - M.A. in the History of Architecture, Middle East Technical University, Ankara.

M.A. Thesis: "Drama, Marginality and Space: Architecture of Ritual Action in Archaic Greece; A Hellenistic Paradigm: Pergamum."

June 1993 - B.Architecture in Architecture, Middle East Technical University, Ankara.

Field Projects

Ongoing

Southern Beyşehir Lake Basin Archaeological Research Project.
Early and Middle Phrygian Architecture at Gordion.
Architectural ethnography at Ayanis.
Stone artisans of the Southeast Anatolian city: landscape, masonry tradition and urban aesthetics (an ethnographic documentary).

Past

Gordion Archaeological Project at Yassihoyuk, Turkey: I worked at Gordion in the summers of 2002, 2003 and 2007, focusing on the Early Iron Age architecture and construction techniques. Linked website maintained by Richard C. Henrickson.
Ayanis Excavations, Van Turkey. I worked on the Iron age (Urartian) stone masonry and other building techniques for two seasons in 2001 and 2002. Preliminary results of this work was presented at Penn in 2001.
Kerkenes Dag Project: Archaeological survey and excavations of an Iron age mountain-top settlement in the East-Central Anatolian plateau. I worked at this site as an architectural assistant between 1993 and 1998.
Ohio-State University Excavations at Isthmia, Greece: I participated in the latest phases of architectural documentation of the Roman Bath at Isthmia between 1995 and 1999.
Dissertation fieldwork in 2001-2003 involved the study of Middle Bronze, Late Bronze and Iron Age sites in Eastern and Southeastern Turkey and Northern Syria. I also worked at the museums in Van,Gaziantep, and Anatolian Civilizations Museum in Ankara with research permit from Ministry of Culture, Turkish Republic, particularly focusing on Syro-Hittite and Urartian stone monuments.

Publications

2009. "Download
ViewStones of Ayanis: New urban foundations and the architectonic culture in Urartu during the 7th c. BC," in Bautechnik im Antiken und Vorantiken Kleinasien. Internationale Konferenz 13-16. Juni 2007 in Istanbul. (Byzas 9). Martin Bachmann (ed.). Ege Yayınları: Istanbul, 177-197.
2008. Review of Marian H. Feldman. Diplomacy by Design: Luxury Arts and an "International Style" in the Ancient Near East, 1400-1200 BCE. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006. Art Bulletin 90.1 (March 2008).
2007. “Source of the Tigris: event, place and performance in the Assyrian landscapes of the Early Iron Age,” Archaeological Dialogues 14.2 (December): 179-204.
2007. “Upright stones and building narratives: formation of a shared architectural practice in the ancient Near East” in Ancient Near Eastern Art in Context: Studies in Honor of Irene J. Winter by Her Students. Culture and History of the Ancient Near East. Jack Cheng and Marian H. Feldman (eds.). Leiden: Brill Publishers, pp. 69-99. Read the note in Jack Cheng's blog.
2007. Download
View“Ancient Mesopotamia” chapter including entries on Ur, Tell Asmar, Babylon, Khorsabad, and Development of Writing. In Archaeologica: The World’s Most Significant Sites and Cultural Treasures. Aedeen Cremin (ed.). London: Frances Lincoln Publishers, 214-223.
2005. “Download
ViewEski Yakın Dogu’da Ortostatlı yapıların Tektonik Estetigi ve Kültürel Baglamı: Bölgeler-arası Paylasılan Mimari bir Pratigin Olusumu,” in Eskiçag’ın Mekanları / Zamanları / Insanları: ODTÜ Mimarlık Tarihi Yüksek Lisans ve Doktora Programı Doktora Arastırmaları Sempozyumu III. 2-3 Haziran 2003, ODTÜ, Ankara. Lale Özgenel (ed.). Istanbul: Homer Kitabevi, 110-132.
2002. Mapping Augustan Rome, directed by Lothar Haselberger in collaboration with David G. Romano & edited by Elisha Dumser. Journal of Roman Archaeology Supplement Series No. 50: Portsmouth, RI, 2002. (Series of entries and map contributions). Project website for Mapping Augustan Rome Project.
1997. “Download
ViewMekansal Hikayeler,” (Spatial Stories) Mimarlık 274 (1997) 22-25 (in Turkish).
1997 “Download
ViewA preliminary research on the building materials and the decay forms of the Taksiyarhis Church in Ayvalık (Kydonies),” in Proceedings of the Fourth International Symposium on the Conservation of Monuments in the Mediterranean, Rhodes 6-11 May 1997, vol 4: 415-35. (with Neriman Sahin, Dimitris Papasotiriu).
1996 “Download
ViewThe Kerkenes Dag survey: An interim report,” Anatolian Studies 46 (1996) 200-234. (with G.D. Summers, F.E. Summers, N. Baturayoglu, E. McIntosh).
1996 “Download
ViewAyvalık için bir Öndeyis” (Prolegomenon to the study of the city Ayvalık), Birikim 86/87 (1996) 140-143. (in Turkish with Aslı Tanrıkulu).

Recent Conference Papers, Presentations (downloadable pdfs):

"Event Place Performance: The Making of the Urban Space in Early Iron Age Karkamish" Brown University, April 6, 2007.

"Source of the Tigris, Origin of the World: Place and performance in the Assyrian landscapes of the Early Iron Age" Brown University, Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World Brown Bag Series "Entrenched", May 3, 2007.
"Spatial narratives: social memory and architectural practice in Early Iron Age Karkamis." Paper presented at the CAA (College Art Association) 94th Annual Conference on February 22-25, 2006 in Boston MA in the Art History Open Session: Western Asian Art. Chair: Prof John M Russell.
"Architectonic aspects and cultural significance of raising orthostats in the Ancient Near East: formation of a shared architectural practice." Paper presented at the AIA (Archaeological Institute of America) Annual Meeting on January 6-9, 2005 in Boston MA, in Session 5B: Architecture in the Near East and Mesopotamia. Chair: Prof Paul Zimansky.
"Source of the Tigris: royal rhetoric and commemorative monuments in the Upper Mesopotamian landscapes of the Early Iron Age" Paper presented at the ASOR (American Schools of Oriental Research) Annual Meeting on November 17-21, 2004, in San Antonio TX, in Session A44. "Theoretical & Anthropological Approaches to Near Eastern and Eastern Mediterranean Art and Archaeology," chaired by Sarah Kielt Costello (Binghamton University, SUNY) Louise A. Hitchcock (Universty of Melbourne) Andrew McCarthy (University of Edinburgh).
"The shepherd, the cattle-pen and the cedar forest: ideals of divine kingship, mythical city and fecund landscapes in early Mesopotamian literature." Penn Graduate Humanities Forum "Suspending (dis)belief" on March 27th, 2004: The Graduate Humanities Forum's website is here.
"New cities and commemorative landscapes in the Upper Mesopotamian Iron Age: between social practices and cultural representations." University of Pennsylvania, Department of Art History Dissertation Colloquium on October 18, 2003.
"New Foundations in the Ancient Near East: the preliminary results of fieldwork at Urartian sites in the Lake Van Basin, Eastern Turkey." AAMW Lunch talk on Nov 16, 2001.

Graduate School Work (downloadable pdfs):

"Limestone Hills of North Syria in Late Antiquity: problems of rural decline" Presented at "DECLINE: All good things must come to an end?" A graduate symposium at Bryn Mawr College, which was organized by Department of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology and took place in October 1999.
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ViewAugustus and his Mausoleum: architecture and urban ideology. Seminar paper written for ARTH 521. Topics in Roman Commemorative Art in Spring 1999 (taught by Prof. Ann L. Kuttner) at the University of Pennsylvania, Department of Art History.
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ViewKassite boundary stones: an art-historical overview. Seminar paper written for Arth 422 Art of the Ancient Near East in Spring 1998 (taught by Prof. Holly Pittman).
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ViewArchitectural symbolism in the funerary complex of Djoser (Horus Netjerykhet) at Saqqara. Seminar paper written for ARTH 623. Art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt in Fall 1998 (taught by Prof. Holly Pittman).
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ViewEarly Medieval temples in Orissa: an architectural inquiry. Seminar paper written for ARTH 515. Proseminar in Indian Architecture in Fall 1998 (taught by Prof. Michael Meister).
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ViewArt of Eva Hesse: on the borders of minimalism. Seminar paper written for ARTH 687. Twentieth Century Art: Post-1945 in Spring 1998 (taught by Prof. Thierry de Duve).
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ViewChanging settlement patterns and urban development in the Late Bronze Age Cyprus. Seminar paper written for ANTH 644 Archaeology of Seafaring (taught by Prof. Frederick Hiebert).
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ViewReview of Charles M. Radding & William W. Clark. Medieval Architecture and Medieval Learning; Builders and Masters in the Age of Romanesque and Gothic. (New Haven and London, 1992.). Paper written for ARTH 641 Medieval Architecture (taught by Prof. Cecil Striker)
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ViewThe making of a frontier: Alexander the Great and the Greeks in Central Asia. Seminar paper written for ARTH 514 The Impact of Ancient Near Eastern and Classical Art upon the Art of India (taught by Prof. Elizabeth Stone).
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ViewGrowth of the Polis in Aristotle and the case of Archaic Corinthia. Seminar paper written for Arth 530 Polis & Civitas: Theory and Practice of Graeco-Roman Urbanism (taught by Prof Lothar Haselberger) in Spring 1998.

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