
Barbara HelwingFreie Universität Berlin | FUB
Barbara Helwing
PhD
About
80
Publications
32,233
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632
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Introduction
Additional affiliations
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin Preußischer Kulturbesitz
Position
- Managing Director
January 2016 - June 2019
March 2008 - September 2014
Publications
Publications (80)
The ten essays in this book focus on archaeological approaches to the utilization of highland regions in southwestern and central Asia from the Paleolithic era to the present. Contributions combine case studies with theoretical considerations to explore adaptive strategies of movement and discuss the significance of mobility within archaeological a...
I was honored to present DAI Eurasia Dpartments 2024 Thomsen Lecture at the Ethnolopgical Museum in Berlin, see
https://www.dainst.org/en/newsroom/noslug/538
Read online here: https://www.sidestone.com/books/what-does-this-have-to-do-with-archaeology
Book DOI: 10.59641/c2g2395e
Data from the marriage of paleomagnetism and archaeology (archaeomagnetism) are the backbone of attempts to create geomagnetic field models for ancient times. Paleointensity experimental design has been the focus of intensive efforts and the requirements and shortcomings are increasingly well understood. Some archaeological materials have excellent...
The Oriental Institute's Prehistoric Project directed by Robert Braidwood was a prime example of problem-driven research into the early steps of sedentary life in the ‘Hilly Flanks of the Fertile Crescent’. In seeking the foundations of changing lifeways in new methods to access the material sources sustaining life, Braidwood built on earlier conce...
Book accompanying the final exhibition of the Vorderasiatisches Museum "Liam Gillick. FIltered Time", a contemporary commentary on the museum's permanent exhibition on display from April to October 2023.
The recent archaeological and archaeometallurgical investigations have revealed simulta-neous silver and copper production in a number of central Iranian prehistoric sites includ-ing Arisman, Sialk, and Tappeh Sofalin during the Late Fourth- Early Third Millennia BCE.
Some archaeometallurgical remains including ore (Figure 1a), slag, litharge frag...
Excavations in Tepe Barveh were conducted with the aim to shed further light on the period of painted Bronze Age wares and to refine the existing chronology for the Lesser Zab Basin in the first half of the 3rd millennium BC. Thanks to its location in the upper valley of the Lesser Zab, the Barveh region served as a natural pathway for interaction...
In the 1st millennium BCE Sri Lanka was central to the wide-spanning trading networks in the Western Indian Ocean region. Population agglomerations grew on the coast and further inland, where Anuradhapura emerged as the major central place. Parallel agglomerations formed in the south in Tissamaharama and in the north on Jaffna Peninsula in Kantharo...
Geological and mineral resources have played a key role in the development of civilizations,
both ancient and modern. No one would deny that there have been many benefits from this
exploitation of the earth’s resources, but there have been some negative ones as well. This is a
matter which concerns us here. We wish to underscore that the fast-gr...
This article provides a synthetic overview on recent research into the Neolithic settlement history in the Mil Steppe of southern Azerbaijan. Short-lived and closely spaced, these settlement sites represent short-term and shifting occupations during a narrow time range, from 5800 to 5300 BCE. A highly diverse material culture attests to variable cu...
The Arisman ancient metallurgical site is located in western Central Iran. This site hosts hugemetallurgical remains from the late 4th to early 3rdmillennium BCE, which attest to an extensiveproduction of arsenical copper and silver at the same time. Despite the archaeometallurgicalinvestigations that have so far been carried out at Arisman, some q...
Overview article on the development of early metallurgy in Iran
Review of the terminology and concepts linked to the term "proto-Elamite"
Ein bisher unbekannter Brief des Archäologen Ernst Herzfeld vom September 1932 an seinen Freund, den Diplomaten Friedrich Werner Graf von der Schulenburg, bildet den Ausgangspunkt für neue Überlegungen zur Ausgrabung des Takht-e Rostam bei Persepolis. Der Beitrag verbindet forschungsgeschichtliche und archäologische Fragestellungen.
I introduce infant burials from a 4th millennium BCE context in Oylum Höyük and compare these with Tell Sheikh Hassan
This study presents a new approach for detection and mapping of ancient slag heaps using 16-band multispectral satellite imagery. Understanding the distribution of slag (a byproduct of metal production) is of great importance for understanding how metallurgy shaped long-term economic and political change across the ancient Near East. This study pre...
Iran, despite its size, geographic location and past cultural influence, has largely been a blind spot for human population genetic studies. With only sparse genetic information on the Iranian population available, we pursued its genome-wide and geographic characterization based on 1021 samples from eleven ethnic groups. We show that Iranians, whil...
Recent survey and excavation conducted in
the Mil Plain region of the southern part of
the Republic of Azerbaijan challenges traditional
notions of Neolithic sedentism. Here,
the authors present their findings, and propose
that prior to its abandonment towards the end
of the sixth millennium BC, the occupation of
the region was comprised of numerou...
The Kura Projects involved three French and German teams excavating settlements in the southern Caucasus along the Kura Valley, two in Azerbaijan (Kamiltepe and Mentesh Tepe) and one in Georgia (Aruchlo). They aimed at a reconstruction of the chronology, economy and environment, from the Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age.
Festschrift to the 65th birthday of Ernst Pernicka
Hardback Edition: ISBN 978-1-78570-724-7 Digital Edition: ISBN 978-1-78570-725-4 (epub) A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library and the Library of Congress All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by...
In the recent years, a few investigations have been accomplished by Iranian and Iranian‐
German teams on the early mining and ancient metallurgy of Iran. This paper
summarizes the recent geological, mineralogical, and geochemical studies performed on
the ancient sites of Sialk, Arisman, Tappeh Sofalin and Tappeh Shoghali as well as the
ancient copp...
This article presents arguments to date the Neolithic graveyard at Tell es-Sawwan to the “ Initial Pottery Neolithic” (ca the middle of the 7th millennium cal. BC). Stratigraphy and burial customs as well as material culture allow to draw comparisons with sites of this period. They additionally indicate a strong cultural continuity with the PPNB pe...
This paper describes a project aimed at developing innovative strategies for the preservation, protection and display of archaeological heritage sites of the Mil Steppe/lower Karabakh region in southwestern Azerbaijan that reconcile the need for heritage protection with the basic needs of its mainly rural population, which has been displaced by the...
The paper aims to provide a robust basis for the construction
of a regional cultural periodization in the north-western
Central Plateau of Iran by combining stratigraphical
observations and available radiocarbon data for a number
of archaeological sites, including new dates alongside published
dates. The proceeding is a one-by-one evaluation
of the...
IntroductionArchaeological Sources, Sequences, and BiasesBecoming NeolithicThe Fully Established Pottery NeolithicTechnical and Social Innovations in the Chalcolithic PeriodCraft Specialization and Trade ContactsProto-urban Centers in the Highlands: The Proto-Elamite PeriodGuide to Further Reading
Kamiltepe is located in the Mil steppe, a plain which is situated between the confluence of river Aras and river Kura in South West Azerbaijan. The western boundary of the Mil steppe is determined by the Karabakh Mountains which consist of Mesozoic sedimentary rocks especially those of volcanic origin like tuff‐conglomerates, clayey slates and tuff...
New thoughts about the use of archaeological stratigraphies! Is this so? The discussion article by Patricia A. McAnany and Ian Hodder aims at the construction of a theoretical framework to expound and discuss the problems of archaeological stratigraphy. Such a theoretical framework is urgently needed, they feel, and has been largely neglected until...
The article presents the results of the excavations in the Neolithic Site Kamiltepe by the first joint Azerbaijan-German Archaeological Expedition to the Milplain in south-western Azerbaijan in 2009. The Site is dated to the middle of the 6th millennium BC and consists of A Mudbrik platform of at least 18 m length and an adjacent domestic architect...
I have had requests for this paper, but it is really only a short summary published under the name of Lloyd Weeks, the convenor of the conference:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322720039_The_2007_Early_Iranian_Metallurgy_Workshop_at_the_University_of_Nottingham
The article presents a comparison of material culture from Tappe Hesār and Arisman, two sites occupied during the 4 th to early 3 rd mill. BC on opposite sides of the Central Iranian desert. Both sites developed into specialized craft production centers during the 4 th mill. BC, Tappe Hesār focussing on lapis lazuli processing and Arismān on copper...
Following a lacuna in active fieldwork during the 1980s, archaeological fieldwork in Iran has been vigorously resumed since the mid 1990s. However, the results of this work remains largely unknown to the non-Persian-speaking public. This reports seeks to introduce the results of archaeological fieldwork carried out in Iran over the last decade, the...
Commensal feasting is a social practice that allows the constant negotiation and manipulation of social relations as well as a reconfirmation of power structures. Feasting is therefore regarded as an important tool in the creation of inequality and in the emergence of social complexity. The identification of feasting events in the archaeological re...
Ian Hodder, ed., Towards Reflexive Method in Archaeology: The Example at Çatalhöyük. (McDonald Institute Monograph – British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara Monograph No. 28, Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, 2000, 238 pp., hbk, ISBN 1 902937 02 3, €81) - Volume 5 Issue 2 - Barbara Helwing
This is my dissertation work in which I studied the Late Chalcolithic pottery from Hassek Höyük, Province Urfa, Turkey. Hassek Höyük was always considered an "Uruk outpost" in the Taurus foothills, however the ceramic assemblage comprises a fair amount of ceramics with local feats, a ´n observation I continued to elaborate on later.
Pottery analysis at Hassek Höyük revealed inconsistencies in the material record, where it is possible to identify a group of hybrid pottery combining stylistic and technological features of both the Uruk and the Syro-Anatolian Late Chalcolithic cultures. This hybrid pottery at Hassek Höyük is interpreted as the work of local craftsmen who, during...