Kyle Brunner
New York University
Melding Silver and Gold: A Historical and Archaeological Study on the Transformation of the Byzantine and Sasanian Frontier into an Early Islamic Province
Kyle Brunner is a historian and archaeologist of Upper Mesopotamia (al-Jazira) during the Late Antique and Early Islamic periods (ca. 500–900 CE). He specializes in Arabic and Syriac historiography, landscape archaeology, and the social history of interactions between sedentary and pastoral communities across Upper Mesopotamia.
His current dissertation project is entitled “Melding Silver and Gold: The History and Archaeology of the Byzantine-Sasanian Frontier under Early Islam.” During his time at ANAMED, he will research the political economy of Nisibis (modern Nusaybin) and its surrounding hinterland during the Umayyad and Abbasid periods and how nearby monastic communities competed for land and resources with caliphal authorities.