Asingeran Excavation Project (AEP)
Research
PRID DIP. ECCELLENZA
Asingeran Excavation Project (AEP)
Funder: MIUR
Scientific Director: Prof. Marco Iamoni
Research Unit: Prof. Marco Iamoni, Prof. Daniele Morandi Bonacossi
The research objective is the archaeological investigation of the site of Asingeran, with particular attention to the prehistoric phases pertaining to the Pottery Neolithic and to the Chalcolitic (7th–4th millennium BC). The project aims at studying the dynamics which transformed the societies of Northern Mesopotamia from simple communities, organized in egalitarian systems, to the later, more complex societies characterised by hierarchies, intensive exploitation of the territorial resources and by the emergence of specialized craftmanships.
The Asingeran Project consists of five years of field investigations, with the purpose of studying the stratigraphy, the definition of the different settlement periods – and consequently, the reconstruction of the main chronologies, both relative and absolute. This first phase will be followed by two years of in-depth study of the findings (stone and ceramic), as well as the review of the excavation documentation in view of a final publication of the results of the first five years. Further investigation will be planned, if necessary, in order to solve possible stratigraphical problems (identification of more sub-phases, sampling for bioarchaeological analysis).