2. From the Prehistory of Upper Mesopotamia to the Bronze and Iron Age Societies of the Levant. Volume 1

This volume contains 21 papers presented at Sessions 1 (The Neolithic–Chalcolithic transition in Upper Mesopotamia. Subsistence strategies, economy, society and identity; key note speaker M. Frangipane) and 2 (The Levant in the Bronze Age: crossroad or frontier between different cultures?; key note speaker A. Maeir) of the 5th edition of the “Broadening Horizons” Conference, which was held at the University of Udine from 5th to 8th June 2017. Broadening Horizons is an international meeting that aims to offer an opportunity for relatively informal discussion, especially (though not exclusively) for young/early career archaeologists specialized in the ancient Near East and disciplines relevant to the main theme of each congress session. All the papers have passed a double blind peer-review process and provide significant contributions on a number of topics – among which material culture (e.g. pottery tradition and architecture), settlement pattern, social changes, cultural transmission and economic dynamics – that are of fundamental importance for the archaeology of Mesopotamia and the Levant.

Marco Iamoni is a research fellow at the Department of Humanities and Cultural Heritage of the University of Udine. He has been working in the Middle East since 1999, with excavations and surveys conducted in Syria (in particular at Qatna and Palmyra), Oman, Lebanon and Iraq (Kurdistan Region). He has authored several scientific works, among which a monograph entitled “The Late MBA and LBA Pottery Horizons at Qatna. Innovation and Conservation in the Ceramic Tradition of a Regional Capital and the Implications for Second Millennium Syrian Chronology” published in 2012 by Forum Editrice as the second volume in the series “Studi Archeologici su Qatna”. He has recently begun two joint research projects in Lebanon (the Northern Lebanon Project) and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (the Asingeran Excavation Project), that involve direct field investigations regarding his two current major research areas: the development of Bronze Age societies in the Levant and Western Syria, and the onset and rapid growth of socio-economic complexity in Upper Mesopotamia.