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Safeguard our treasures!
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On
the High Road Specifications to be announced. Edited
by:
The site of Godin Tepe is located in the southeastern corner of the Kangavar valley in central western Iran, at the western end of the Silk Road. Excavated by the late T. Cuyler Young Jr. under the auspices of the Royal Ontario Museum from 1965 to 1977, Godin provides the longest continuous sequence of occupation of any archaeological site in central western Iran. On the High Road will trace the 4000-year history of this uniquely important settlement and demonstrate how, at each successive phase of occupation, the people of Godin exploited their home's position at the crossroads of cultures. "On the High Road" will provide the first major publication of the material remains from Godin. The assemblage of artifacts includes over ten thousand pottery sherds and elaborately painted vessels; about seven hundred unique stone, ceramic, bone, and metal objects including jewelry, bronze drinking bowls, and clay animal figurines; some of the earliest clay tablets and sealings from Iran; and hundreds of samples of organic material and animal bone which have provided evidence for early wine and beer production as well as some of the oldest documented domesticated horse remains in Iran. The long overdue publication of Godin will constitute a major contribution to the scholarship of the archaeology of the Near East and will provide a fitting culmination to one of the most important archaeological projects of Iranian archaeology from the last half of the 20th century. The book will also serve as a record of the lifework of former ROM director and internationally respected scholar of early Iranian history, the late T. Cuyler Young Jr. "On
the High Road" will be aimed at a broad readership. The authors
will weave a narrative of the remarkable 4000-year history of Godin
while explaining how archaeological remains are used to reconstruct
the past. Select architectural plans and reconstruction as well as photos
and drawings of the most complete objects will illustrate the art and
architecture of the various phases at the site, and will also be used
to demonstrate how artifacts can offer us clues into the social, economic,
and spiritual lives of the people that used them. The printed volume
will be supplemented by an extensive online database that will provide
further detail and illustration for those scholars in search of more
indepth information about the site. This innovative approach to publishing
Godin Tepe will make this important site accessible to a wider audience
than can be served by a traditional site report, while at the same time
providing the data that is required for future scholarship. Hilary
Gopnik received her BA in Anthropology and Classics from McGill University
in Montreal, Canada, and her MA/PhD in Near Eastern Studies from the
University of Toronto. Her doctoral dissertation, under the supervision
of Dr. T. Cuyler Young Jr., dealt with the ceramics from the Iron Age
level at Godin Tepe. Gopnik is particularly interested in exploring
the role of style in both modern and ancient cultures. She has written
about aspects of style as reflected in a range of artifact types including
pottery, high art, and architecture. For the past ten years Gopnik has
worked as a professional writer and editor with an emphasis on history
and biography. Mitchell
S. Rothman is a professor of Anthropology and Archaeology and founder
of the Anthropology Department at Widener University in Chester, Pennsylvania.
He was educated at Washington University in St. Louis, The University
of Michigan in Ann Arbor Michigan, and Hunter College of the City University
of New York, receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania
in 1988. Dr. Rothman took his early archaeology training in the Eastern,
Midwestern, and Southwestern United States. He began working in Iran
in 1974, and undertook a survey in the Zagros Valley of Borujerd in
1978. Over the last two decades he has conducted archaeological fieldwork
in Turkey. Rothman's research interests include the origins of complex
societies in the late fifth through early third millennia BC in Mesopotamia,
and the effect of crosscultural interaction on societal evolution. His
major research projects include the reanalysis of the excavations of
Tepe Gawra in northeastern Iraq; field projects under his direction
at two late fourth through third millennium sites on the Upper Euphrates
River; and a survey in the highland valley of Muš west of Lake
Van.
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