Graduate Student, Anthropology
Thesis Title: Local Landscapes of Nomadic Pastoralists in Southeastern Turkey
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Jason Ur
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About
I am an anthropological archaeologist who focuses on complex societies in the Near East and their impacts on their environments. In particular, I have studied the relationship between sedentary and mobile communities and their associated natural and engineered landscapes in Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. Methodologically, I have expertise in landscape archaeology, employing GIS and spatial analysis to integrate the results of archaeological survey and excavation with spatial data gleaned from historical texts, ethnography, environmental records, digital terrain models, and satellite imagery.
My dissertation examines the empirical evidence for pastoral nomadic land-use strategies and modes of inhabiting and transforming the landscape in Ottoman period southeastern Turkey. Even when enclosed by territorial nation states, I demonstrate that pastoral nomadic groups retained control over the organization of their local landscapes and invested in permanent landscape improvements that enhanced the availability of natural resources and oriented camping and herding patterns over long periods of time. In the discussion of the results and significance of this research, I engage with many of the ideas central to the historical ecology research framework. I re-examine the related concept of “landscape capital”—cumulative investments in the landscape undertaken as a means of subsisting, marking territory, and expressing sense of place—in the context of mobile societies.
Outside of my dissertation, I am involved in the excavation of the sites of Muweilah (Iron Age) and Tell Abraq (Bronze and Iron Ages) in the UAE and in the publication of salvage surveys documenting 8000 years of settlement patterns along the Tigris River in southeastern Turkey.
Contact Information
| Address: | 11 Divinity Avenue |
