Cette étude vise à identifier ce qu’a pu être le costume de la sphère royale en Mésopotamie de l’époque d’Akkad à l’époque néo-babylonienne. Dans ce cadre, le costume est entendu comme l’ensemble des pièces susceptibles d’être portées – habits, couvre-chefs, ceintures, chaussures, bijoux, armes, insignes, etc. – de même que les coiffures ou les cosmétiques qui contribuent à l’apparence. Bien que la plupart d’entre eux ait aujourd’hui disparu, quelques vestiges matériels du costume mésopotamien subsistent et une multitude de textes et d’images l’évoque. Leur confrontation permet donc de restituer en partie la garde-robe royale. Pour ce faire, l’étude dresse d’abord un catalogue des matières et des pièces ayant pu être portées, lequel démontre une grande variété de types vestimentaires dont certains modèles particulièrement précieux. Cet inventaire typologique fournit le cadre d’une réflexion synthétique plus large sur la confection des habits ainsi que sur les permanences et les évolutions des différentes pièces identifiées. Notre travail retrace également la manière dont les éléments de costume étaient combinés ensemble, qui les portait et dans quels contextes. Par ailleurs, l’étude examine les facteurs de distinction sexuelle du costume, de même que les spécificités de l’habillement du souverain, à la fois parmi les autres membres de la sphère royale et entre rois des différentes cours mésopotamiennes. Enfin, le costume n’étant pas seulement un élément essentiel de la vie quotidienne mais aussi le vecteur de multiples discours, l’étude souligne son importance en Mésopotamie à travers sa valeur financière et sa place dans l’économie ainsi qu’à travers son rôle symbolique. / This study aims to identify the different elements that could have composed the costume in Ancient Mesopotamian royal sphere from Akkadian time to the fall of Neo-Babylonian Empire. The term of costume is understood as everything worn including clothes, hats, belts, baldrics, gloves, shoes, jewels, weapons, etc., and what contributes to the general appearance such as hairdresses or cosmetics. Although most of the material evidences of the costume in Ancient Mesopotamia have now disappeared, ancient texts and images relate it. Their confrontation enables us to partially reconstruct the royal wardrobe. The royal wardrobe included different types of pieces, each of them in a great variety of models, among which many were very precious. First, our study makes the inventory of clothing types and materials attested or presumed but also demonstrates how costume pieces were combined together, who worn them and in which circumstances. This typological study constitutes the base of a larger reflection upon the way costumes were made, the evolution over the analyzed period or the consistency of the different pieces of clothes. This part also sums up the gender distinction points of the costume and the specificities of the king’s costume in the royal sphere and between the various Mesopotamian courts. Finally, costume being not only an essential part of daily life but also a mean of communication, this study underlines its importance in Mesopotamia through its financial value, its major place in the economy and also through its symbolic role.

In this dissertation, I study a critical transition in the urban development of Tell es-Sweyhat, a large site in Syria occupied from c. 3000-1900 BCE. In the middle of the third millennium, Sweyhat was an open town centered on a fortress. It was ringed with cemeteries and had a ceremonial public building in its outskirts (Sweyhat Period 3). Around 2150 BCE, the settlement experienced a sudden expansion from 15HA to 35-40HA. Sweyhat became a fortified city with a high central ceremonial platform and no formal cemetery (Sweyhat Period 4). The new fortifications combined with increased population density signifies Sweyhat's transition from a town to a regional urban center. In this dissertation, I identify the changes in land use during this transition and examine the accompanying social changes. I focus on several domestic structures excavated along the edge of the Sweyhat 4 Inner City wall, along with the associated artifact inventories, including spinning and weaving equipment, grinding and cooking equipment, and whole ceramic vessels. One adult burial and several infant burials were also uncovered here. Additional soundings reached down into the Sweyhat 3 layers of this neighborhood. I synthesize the data from these excavations alongside architectural remains and artifact assemblages from other excavated areas of the site, to create a narrative of the changes in the site's occupational history and the possible meanings inherent in those changes. The results reveal that the character and location of certain daily and special activities changed, including mourning the dead, grain storage, grinding and cooking activities, and ceremonial activities. The outer town cemeteries were abandoned, possibly in favor of individual household burials. Grain storage, grinding, and cooking activities that had been located in the central storage area moved to the home. The locus of ceremonial activities shifted from the public building in the outer town to a new structure located in the city center. Access to this new structure was limited: it sat atop a high terrace that was accessible only by particular ramps or stairways, in a district at the center of the city's two fortifications. These shifts suggest increased control of formerly accessible public activities and greater attention to individual privacy. These changes were an integral part of Tell es-Sweyhat's transition from open town to walled city.

Este trabalho fará um estudo comparativo do conceito de doença e a cura na Mesopotâmia e na Bíblia hebraica. Serão analisados o agente ou agentes da doença e da cura, o local do processo terapêutico e a aplicação ou não de materia medica. A doença é uma das maldições encontradas nos tratados do Oriente Médio Antigo e na Aliança na Bíblia Hebraica e é vista, por ambas as culturas, como uma das formas de punição divina. / This work will do comparative study of illness and healings concept in the Mesopotamia and in Israel. The illness and healings agent or agents, the local of therapeutic process and the application or not of materia medica will be analyzed in this research. Illness is one of the curses found in the Ancient Near Easts treaties and Hebrew Bibles Covenant and it is seen, for the both cultures, like divine punishment.

This thesis creatively reconsiders the ancient Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh and offers a design of the ancient epic as a contemporary, illustrated text. The work is concerned with notions of heroism, and methods relating to construction of imagery. The manifestation of this investigation is the illustrated book Gilgamesh, the Hero of Mesopotamia, which comprises the principal site of research in the project. It consists of thirty-six drawings that explore cyclic composition as a form of narrative discourse.

This thesis creatively reconsiders the ancient Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh and offers a design of the ancient epic as a contemporary, illustrated text. The work is concerned with notions of heroism, and methods relating to construction of imagery. The manifestation of this investigation is the illustrated book Gilgamesh, the Hero of Mesopotamia, which comprises the principal site of research in the project. It consists of thirty-six drawings that explore cyclic composition as a form of narrative discourse.

Este trabalho fará um estudo comparativo do conceito de doença e a cura na Mesopotâmia e na Bíblia hebraica. Serão analisados o agente ou agentes da doença e da cura, o local do processo terapêutico e a aplicação ou não de materia medica. A doença é uma das maldições encontradas nos tratados do Oriente Médio Antigo e na Aliança na Bíblia Hebraica e é vista, por ambas as culturas, como uma das formas de punição divina. / This work will do comparative study of illness and healings concept in the Mesopotamia and in Israel. The illness and healings agent or agents, the local of therapeutic process and the application or not of materia medica will be analyzed in this research. Illness is one of the curses found in the Ancient Near Easts treaties and Hebrew Bibles Covenant and it is seen, for the both cultures, like divine punishment.

My thesis interrogates the role that the sense of smell plays in the experience of place, arguing that scent has been virtually ignored in public history contexts. The thesis will review the foundational scholarship on the history of the senses and relate the findings of interdisciplinary research that demonstrates how the senses alter one's understanding of the environment and even the formation of memories. This work is relevant to the field of public history since smell can be used to captivate the public in a memorable—and potentially more authentic—engagement with the Mesopotamian past. To address gaps in the present scholarship, I will create a blueprint for an exhibit space that will center around the olfactory experience of place. The reconstructions involved in the design will focus upon medicinal recipes used to treat a variety of ailments in northern Mesopotamia during the Neo-Assyrian period (ca. 9th to 7th centuries BCE). My historical investigations of the medical texts from Mesopotamia will focus upon the identification of ingredients, primarily botanical, with the goal being to recreate ancient remedies for the public to discover through scentscapes. The historical reconstructions will consider modern conceptualizations of socially constructed places, showing how embodied experiences can be better represented by historians and cultural heritage professionals.

This dissertation investigates the manner in which animals are treated, respected, and thought about In ancient Mesopotamia. The animals are seen in every level of culture and in a variety of roles. The dissertation tries to unravel how humans thought about animals as seen through Akkadian literature. The Akkadian literature is an excellent source of information since it has a long literary tradition with a conglomeration of text genres providing an opportunity to observe the attitudes, emotions, and beliefs Babylonian and Assyrian cultures had towards wild animals.

Los ampuláridos son caracoles dulceacuícolas considerados importantes invasores a nivel mundial, aunque esta mala reputación se debe a solo tres especies que causan múltiples impactos ecológicos, sanitarios y económicos, y sobre las cuales se ha centrado el interés científico. Los aspectos biológicos y ecológicos de la mayoría de los ampuláridos son prácticamente desconocidos y su estado de conservación no ha sido abordado aun, como es el caso de Pomacea megastoma y Pomacea americanista. El objetivo de esta tesis fue proporcionar evidencia nueva sobre estas dos especies, hasta hace poco pertenecientes al género Pomella, e incluir el estudio de una población que posiblemente constituya una tercera especie (Pomacea sp1). Se obtuvo información de sus hábitats y distribuciones geográficas actuales y se estudiaron los rasgos de sus ciclos de vida bajo condiciones controladas. También se estimaron sus principales parámetros demográficos y de crecimiento corporal, y se compararon sus características morfológicas. La combinación de estos datos es relevante para evaluar su grado de vulnerabilidad y permitir una aproximación acerca del estatus específico de Pomacea sp1. Para analizar la distribución geográfica se realizó un muestreo exhaustivo en cursos de agua de la Mesopotamia Argentina y se revisaron las colecciones malacológicas de dos importantes museos. A partir de masas de huevos colectadas en el campo se iniciaron cohortes de 50 individuos de cada especie, criados individualmente bajo condiciones homogéneas controladas (26 ± 1 °C, fotoperíodo de 14 horas y lechuga ad libitum) hasta su muerte natural. Semanalmente se midió la longitud de sus conchillas, se les permitió el apareamiento en un acuario colectivo y se registró el número de huevos depositados y de neonatos. Los muestreos de campo confirmaron su asociación con fondos duros y sus limitadas distribuciones geográficas: P. americanista en el Alto Paraná y río Iguazú y P. megastoma en el río Uruguay y margen izquierda del Río de la Plata, mientras que Pomacea sp1 solo se halló en un afluente del río Uruguay. Antiguos registros de museo por fuera de estas áreas sugieren un rango de distribución más amplio en el pasado para las tres especies. Sus huevos calcáreos depositados sobre sustratos emergentes y el desarrollo de neonatos precociales apoyan su inclusión en el género Pomacea. Las cohortes de Pomacea sp1, P. americanista y P. megastoma presentaron importantes diferencias en sus tallas (43,6; 58,9 y 65,8 mm) y longevidades (84, 143 y 207 semanas) máximas. Las tallas de las conchillas, ajustadas al modelo de von Bertalanffy, reflejaron diferencias en el crecimiento corporal, tanto de hembras (K= 0,094; 0,100 y 0,038 sem-1 ) como de machos (K= 0,086; 0,101 y 0,037 sem-1 ). La supervivencia y la fecundidad permitieron confeccionar tablas de vida mensuales de las tres cohortes y estimar sus parámetros demográficos: tanto la tasa intrínseca de crecimiento de P. americanista como la de Pomacea sp1 se estimaron en 0,579 mes-1 , siendo más del triple que la de P. megastoma (0,183 mes-1 ); ésta última exhibió un tiempo generacional de 35,6 meses, frente a los 15,9 de P. americanista y los 11,9 de Pomacea sp1. En laboratorio, las hembras de P. americanista mostraron un comportamiento de cópulas múltiples, mientras que las de P. megastoma y Pomacea sp1 participaron en una o unas pocas cópulas en su vida, pero de mayor duración. Las tres cohortes mostraron importantes diferencias en el tamaño de sus huevos y en la morfología de sus vainas del pene, y presentaron dimorfismo sexual en la forma de sus conchillas y opérculos, en la edad a la madurez sexual y en su crecimiento. La cría bajo idénticas condiciones permite descartar que las diferencias observadas en el campo tengan un origen ecofenotípico, ya que persistieron en el laboratorio, apoyando la idea de que Pomacea sp1 constituye una especie aun no descrita. Si bien las tres cohortes mostraron ciclos de vida semélparos, en el campo podrían ser iteróparos y plurianuales debido a la estacionalidad térmica. Aunque algunos rasgos estudiados podrían indicar cierta invasividad, la mayoría de ellos, sumados a su hábitat restringido a fondos duros y a la fragilidad de los mismos, las convierte en especies potencialmente vulnerables. La evidencia aquí presentada sugiere que P. americanista, P. megastoma y Pomacea sp1 son tres especies diferentes entre sí y diferentes en conjunto a otras especies del género; sin embargo, se requiere complementar con otros estudios, sobre todo genéticos, para determinar si los rasgos compartidos se deben a convergencia por la ocupación de hábitats semejantes o a un ancestro común. / Ampullariids or apple snails are freshwater snails considered as important invaders worldwide, although this bad reputation is due to only three species that cause multiple ecological, sanitary and economic impacts, and on which most scientific interest has focused. The biological and ecological aspects of most ampullariids are practically unknown and their conservation status has not yet been addressed, as is the case of Pomacea megastoma and Pomacea americanista. The objective of this thesis was to provide new evidence on these two species, until recently placed in the genus Pomella, and to study a population that possibly constitutes a third species (Pomacea sp1). Information on their current habitats and geographic distributions was obtained and their life history traits were studied under controlled conditions. Their main parameters of demographic and somatic growth were also estimated, and their morphological characteristics were compared. The combination of these data is relevant to assess the degree of vulnerability and to approach a definition of the specific status of Pomacea sp1. To analyze the geographical distribution of the three taxa, an exhaustive sampling was carried out in watercourses of Mesopotamia Argentina and the malacological collections of two important museums were reviewed. Cohorts of 50 individuals were started from egg masses of each species collected in the field and reared individually until their natural death under controlled homogeneous conditions (26 ± 1 °C, photoperiod of 14 hours and lettuce ad libitum). The length of their shells was measured weekly, snails were allowed to mate in collective aquaria, and the number of laid eggs and of hatchlings were recorded. Field samplings confirmed their association with hard bottoms and their limited geographic distributions: P. americanista in the Alto Paraná and Iguazú River and P. megastoma in the Uruguay River and left bank of the Río de la Plata, while Pomacea sp1 was only found in a tributary of the Uruguay River. Older museum records outside of these areas suggest a wider past range for all three species. Their calcareous eggs deposited on emerging substrates and the development of precocial hatchlings support their inclusion in the genus Pomacea. The cohorts of Pomacea sp1, P. americanista and P. megastoma showed important differences in their maximum lengths (43.6, 58.9 and 65.8 mm) and longevities (84, 143 and 207 weeks). Shell sizes, adjusted to the von Bertalanffy model, reflected differences in somatic growth rates, both in females (K = 0.094, 0.100 and 0.038 weeks-1 ) and males (K = 0.086, 0.101 and 0.037 weeks-1 ). Survival and fertility data allowed the calculation of life tables for the three cohorts and to estimate their demographic parameters on a monthly basis: the intrinsic growth rate of both P. americanista and Pomacea sp1 was estimated at 0.579 month-1 , being more than threefold higher than that of P. megastoma (0.183 month-1 ); the generation time of the latter was 35.6 months, as compared to 15.9 and 11.9 months for P. americanista and Pomacea sp1, respectively. In the laboratory, P. americanista females showed multiple copulation behaviour, while P. megastoma and Pomacea sp1 females participated in one or a few copulations in their lifetime, but of a longer duration. The three cohorts showed important differences in their egg size and penis sheath morphology; they presented sexual dimorphism in the shape of their shells and opercula, in the age at sexual maturity and in shell growth. Breeding under identical conditions makes it possible to rule out that the differences observed in the field have an ecophenotypic origin, since they persisted in the laboratory, supporting the idea that Pomacea sp1 constitutes a not-yet-described species. Although the three cohorts showed semelparous life cycles, under field conditions they could be iteroparous and multi-annual due to thermal seasonality. Although some traits of the studied species could indicate invasiveness, most others, in addition to their restricted and fragile hard bottom habitats, make them potentially vulnerable species. The evidence presented here supports that P. americanista, P. megastoma and Pomacea sp1 are three species different from each other and also different as a whole from other species of the genus; however, complementary studies, especially genetic ones, are necessary to determine if the shared traits are due to convergence by the occupation of similar habitats or to a common ancestor

The present study explores the ways in which competing frameworks of knowledge sought to order society in early Islamic Mesopotamia (60–193 AH/680–809 CE). This research examines the conditions under which two frameworks of knowledge came into being; how they tried to maximize their power through forging alliance with the caliphate; how they established the legitimacy of their knowledge; and how they promoted their visions of social order. The first framework of knowledge is associated with the secretaries, as state bureaucrats, who helped transfer ancient administrative methods and practices to the emerging Islamic polity. Their immense assistance in tackling manifold problems of the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates consisted not only in offering technical know-how, useful administrative practices, expertise, and political wisdom, but also in addressing the foundational problems of the polity. This research argues that the secretaries' solution to the caliphate's structural problems—particularly the crisis of legitimacy—might have run counter to the social order promoted by Muslim religious scholars (the 'ulamā'). The secretaries' framework of knowledge and its concomitant social order, then, posed a threat to the authority of the 'ulamā' who pursued an alternative framework of knowledge rooted in sacred sources of law. Delving into a number of treatises composed and/or translated by the champions of these knowledge frameworks (e.g., ‘Abd al-Ḥamīd b. Yaḥyā, Ibn al-Muqaffa‘, and Abū Yūsuf), this dissertation concludes that the validation of knowledge and expertise involved more than solving specific problems such as maximizing the government revenues and efficiently collecting taxes from subjects; it rather relied on the ability of knowledge and expertise to offer solutions to the problem of social and political order. / Ph. D.