Sevil Baltali

Archaeology of the Near East

I am a doctoral candidate in the Anthropology Department of the University of Virginia. I received my B.A in archaeology and art history from Bilkent University in Turkey, and my M.A degree from the Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations Department of the University of Chicago. My research interests lie in cultural interaction and change, political economy, architectural analysis, archaeological method and theory, archaeology of gender and material style and function, particularly in the ancient Near East. I have worked extensively on archaeological projects in southeastern Turkey. I also worked on surface surveys in England, and architectural restoration project in France.
Currently, I am writing my dissertation entitled Architecture and Social Organization in Northern Mesopotamia, with the financial support of the University of Virginia dissertation write-up fellowship. In my dissertation, I focus on the ways northern Mesopotamian societies were organized with an emphasis on identifying the relationship between cultural interaction, house and temple form and function, and social organization. During this period in northern Mesopotamia (ca. 3700-3100 BC) we see wide spread distribution of southern Uruk style material cultural elements. To be able to identify the social meanings of these styles, I analyzed their cultural integration and re-contextualization within northern Mesopotamian architectural contexts. I diachronically examined northern Mesopotamian houses and temples as social spaces through which larger dimensions of social relations were produced, reproduced and transformed. I illustrate how these ritual-architectural spaces were constructed and used as sources of power by different individuals and/or groups within northern Mesopotamian societies. I argue that the informally negotiated and fluid concentrations of social power was transformed into reified durable authority roles through the re-arrangement of temple/house locations, plans, the spaces within them, the decorative aspects and technological styles.
The archaeological data for my dissertation are derived from my analyses of architecture and artifacts at the four sites, including their unpublished excavation records. The data were collected during 2002, 2003 and 2004. I was supported in this ongoing research by the Explorers Club field research grant, a University of Virginia Department of Anthropology research grant, a Dumas Malone dissertation research grant and the American Schools of Oriental Research Mesopotamian fellowship. I collected my data by joining the excavations at the sites of Hacinebi, Arslantepe and Kazane. I have conducted archival analysis at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago (Studying excavation reports of Hacinebi), at the archives of University of Pennsylvania Museum (analyzing excavation reports of Tepe Gawra), and at the University of Rome, "La Sapienza" (working on field records of Arslantepe). I have also conducted excavations at the 4th millennium levels of Kazane under the auspices of University of Virginia.

Publications

Baltali, S 2007 (in prep) "Culture Contact, Integration and Architectural Style: Archaeological Evidence from Northern Mesopotamia," Stanford Journal of Archaeology. Volume III.

Baltali, S and Wattenmaker, P et al. 2006 (in press) "Excavations at Kazane, 2002-2004" Kazi Sonuçlari Toplantisi. Ankara: Republic of Turkey

Baltali, S. 2006 (in prep.) "Culture Contact, Diffusion and Integration: The "Uruk Expansion" Problem Revisited" Journal of Social Archaeology.