Ömür Harmansah: Home

Ömür Harmanşah

Assistant Professor of Archaeology
and Egyptology and Ancient Western Asian Studies

Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World
and the Department of Egyptology and Ancient Western Asian Studies
Brown University Box 1837
Rhode Island Hall Room 102
60 George Street, Providence, RI 02912, USA.
Tel: 401-863-6411 Fax: 401-863-9423
E-mail: Omur_Harmansah@brown.edu
Office: Rhode Island Hall 102
Office Hours: Tuesdays 1-3 pm.

Working in the field of archaeology, architectural history and material culture of the ancient Near East, Ömür Harmanşah's academic interests are increasingly focused on the intersections of architectural space, bodily performance and collective memory. He is particularly influenced by the developing fields of material culture studies, anthropological theories of art, technology and agency, ethnographies of space, place and landscape, and phenomenological approaches to spatiality. Read more...

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Events

The Cultural Life of Caves: From Palaeolithic Shamans to Seven Sleepers. January 18-21, 2012. Pera Museum Auditorum, Istanbul, Turkey. Co-organized by Suna-Inan Kirac Foundation Istanbul Research Institute and Brown University's Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World.

Theoretical Archaeology Group 2010 Meeting at Brown: The Location of Theory Friday, April 30th to Sunday, May 2nd, 2010. Brown University, Providence, RI.

Drawing on rocks, gathering by the water: archaeological fieldwork at rock reliefs, sacred springs and other places. Workshop/conference held at the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World, March 1st 2008. Streaming video of the whole event.

Research and Field Projects

Archaeology of place and place-making: Re-orienting ancient Anatolian rock reliefs and spring monuments

Yalburt Yaylası Archaeological Landscape Research Project (Konya Province, Turkey).

Other Field Projects

Recent and Forthcoming Publications

In press (2013). Cities and the Shaping of Memory in the Ancient Near East. Cambridge University Press.

In press (2012). " Stone worlds: technologies of rock-carving and place-making in Anatolian landscapes " Cambridge Handbook of the Bronze Age - Iron Age Mediterranean World. A. Bernard Knapp and Peter van Dommelen (eds.). Cambridge University Press.

2012. " Beyond Aššur: New Cities and the Assyrian Politics of Landscape," Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 365: 53-77.

2011. "Monuments and memory: Architecture and visual culture in ancient Anatolian history," in Oxford Handbook of Ancient Anatolia (10,000–323 BCE). Edited by Sharon R. Steadman and Gregory McMahon. Oxford University Press, 623-651.

2011. "Moving Landscapes, Making Place: Cities, Monuments and Commemoration at Malizi/Melid " Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 24.1: 55-83.

2009. “Stones 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.

2009. "The Leech Pond at Kerkenes Dağ" Archeolog (April 30, 2009).

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.

Editorial work

2010. Member of Editorial Advisory Board, Journal Of Mediterranean Archaeology
2012. Editorial Board Member, Near Eastern Archaeology, American Schools of Oriental Research (Class of 2013).

Recent work on the web

"New Babylon" in Re:Bell (October 2011).
Opinion Editorial Piece "The endangered future of the past" with Christopher Witmore. International Herald Tribune, 21 December 2007.
Archaeolog entry Mapping sitting: datable structures, state imagination and the subordinated body
Panopticon. The Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia
Panopticon. The Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia II
Short wiki articles on various topics

Course wikis

Dissertation committee work

Lyra Monteiro, “Racializing the Ancient World: Ancestry and Identity in the Early United States. Dissertation Committee Member and Reader. Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World, Brown University, 2012.

Bradley Sekedat, “Rethinking resources: The material and social networks of Eastern Mediterranean quarries in the Roman period.” Dissertation Committee Member and Reader. Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World, Brown University, 2012.

Cecelia Feldman Weiss, “Living Fluidly: The uses and meanings of water in Asia Minor (Second Century BCE – Second Century CE)” Dissertation Co-chair of Committee with Susan E. Alcock. Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World, Brown University, 2011.

Christopher A. Tuttle, “The Nabataean coroplastic arts: a new approach for studying terracotta figurines, plaques, vessels, and other clay objects”. Dissertation Committtee Member and Reader. Joukowsky institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World, Brown University, 2008.

Small workshops