Carved depiction of Great King Hartapu, who ruled in the 8th century BCE in the Konya Plain.

This three-year project aims to reconstruct the political geography of the Tabalian confederation, a group of small kingdoms in south-central Anatolia (Türkiye) that existed during the late 9th-early 7th centuries BCE squeezed in between the two major powers of the time, Phrygia and Assyria. While we have extensive written sources (including Assyrian annals and local Luwian monumental inscriptions) and significant archaeological data (excavated and surveyed settlements and forts, landscape monuments) covering this period, very little interdisciplinary research has been done to synthesize them into a coherent picture.

Our goal is to reassess this varied evidence within an integrative analytical environment where we can combine conceptual frameworks and methods stemming from history, philology, landscape archaeology and digital archaeology. We plan in particular to (a) create high-resolution 3D and RTI models of key Luwian inscriptions; which in turn (b) provide improved translations of these monuments, particularly those shedding light on relations between different Tabalian rulers; and (c) integrate textual-borne evidence with a GIS-led analysis of human and natural landscapes to sketch the diachronically changing Tabalian power networks and map them onto real-world geographies.

Cadır Höyük.

Çadır Höyük is located on the north central Anatolian plateau. There has been continuous occupation at Çadır for at least 6,000 years (late 6th millennium BCE to the 13th century CE). Excavations commenced in 1994, continuing to the present time. Steadman is the fourth project director, preceded by Gorny (1994-2009), McMahon (with whom she co-directed, 2010-2019), and Şerifoğlu (2020-2021). Excavations include (trenches are 10 x 10 m): ten trenches exposing the Chalcolithic occupation (lower S slope); over ten trenches dedicated to Byzantine occupation (summit); six trenches focused on Hittite/Bronze Age occupation (N and E slope); four trenches dedicated to the Iron Age (various areas); previous excavations and a few current trenches having investigated the Classical/Hellenistic periods.

We have a housing/research compound which comfortably houses 30 people. A four room-lab provides ample research area. A newly-built conservation lab is separate. We have a two-room equipment storage facility, and a three-room storage depot for archaeological materials. A guard lives at this compound year-round.

Our senior research team has been with the project for a decade or more. Each year we train undergrad/grad students, from Türkiye and elsewhere, in field and lab methods. We have a strong and inclusive publication history.

Island of Motya.

Since 1977, the University of Palermo has led research at the site of ancient Motya, an island city in western Sicily founded by Phoenician colonists in the 8th century BCE that grew into a strategic Carthaginian center. This project made several noteworthy contributions to the scholarship of the Mediterranean in its early years, including the documentation of a large pottery workshop that features kilns of Levantine tradition and the revelation of the world-renowned “Youth of Motya” statue, a mid-5th century BCE masterpiece crafted of Parian marble. After 2013, the Palermo Archaeological Mission has grown to become a multinational project with active collaborations with the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Tübingen. Current research foci at Motya include the excavation of pre-Phoenician contexts to understand Bronze Age land use and settlement, excavation of Punic monumental buildings and public spaces, excavation of the archaic necropolis coupled with bio-archaeological and genetic research, and extensive geophysical prospection, surface survey, and test excavations to understand the development of Motya’s urban structure and changes in the ethnic identities of its residents over time. These ongoing research efforts are integrated with education including a field school where students from the University of Palermo and elsewhere come together to gain experience in all facets of archaeological fieldwork.

The Sebittu Project is a long-term study of the agrarian economies and environmental impacts of imperial expansion during the Iron Age of Iraqi Kurdistan. Centered on a cluster of seven villages, hamlets, and farmsteads in the Erbil Plain, the Sebittu Project looks at Neo-Assyrian imperial economy through a “bottom-up” perspective. The Sebittu Project focuses on the collection and intepretation of paleobotanical, zooarchaeological, and environmental data from primary contexts to address broad research questions regarding models of Assyrian imperial expansion, internal organization of agrarian settlements, regional economies, paleoenvironment conditions, and human impacts on the landscape.