The transition from Assyria to the Seleucids in North Mesopotamia is one of the most fascinating examples of imperial durability, manifested through phenomena of change and resilience. In his talk titled “The Archaeology of Imperial Durability in North Mesopotamia: Rural Communities and Landscape from Assyria to the Seleucids,” Rocco Palermo will use a multi-scalar approach to explore the transformation of the settlements structure in the former Assyrian heartland from the late Iron Age to the end of the 1st millennium BCE. Using data from the Erbil Plain Archaeological Survey and the Girdi Matrab Archaeological Project, both operating in Northern Iraq, I will define aspects of top-down and bottom-up intervention on the landscape as well as the response – or lack thereof – local communities.
The language of the event is English. This hybrid lecture is open to public and registration is not required. It will be possible to join remotely via Zoom to the event as well. To participate remotely click here (password: ANAMED) on the day of the event. You will connect to the livestream of the event via Zoom.
Rocco Palermo is Assistant Professor of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology at Bryn Mawr College (USA). Prior to the current affiliation he was Researcher (RTD) at the University of Pisa (Italy). From 2017 to 2021 Rocco was a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Groningen (The Netherlands), where he was awarded a prestigious VENI Grant from the Dutch Council for Scientific Research (NWO). Between 2015 and 2017 he was a Postdoctoral Grantee at the University of Naples Federico II (Italy) within the STAR Program funded by the European Science Foundation. Since 2017 Rocco is also an Associate Research Fellow of the Anthropology Department at Harvard University (USA).
Rocco obtained his joint PhD from the University of Naples Federico II and the Université de Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne in 2014. He has carried out numerous archaeological projects in South-West Asia (Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Oman, Saudi Arabia). Rocco was the Associate Director of the Erbil Plain Archaeological Survey (Harvard) between 2018 and 2022. Since 2022 he is the Director of the Girdi Matrab Archaeological Project, located in the province of Erbil, in Northern Iraq.
Rocco is the author of On the Edge of Empires. North Mesopotamia during the Roman Period, published by Routledge in 2019. He is currently working on a book preliminarily titled: Landscapes of Imperial Durability. South-West Asia from Assyria to Rome under contract with Cambridge University Press.