Michael J Harrower
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 80226 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Michael J Harrower |
| NOMBRES | Michael J |
| APELLIDO | Harrower |
| FIRMA | HARROWER M J |
| AFILIACIONES | Johns Hopkins University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9290-7624 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 24 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 229 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 23 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 1 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2002 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 9 |
Drone-based thermal imaging of subsurface architecture
Thermography is a promising method in arid environments with near surface features. • Thermal imagery reveals settlement plan of Iron Age copper production site Raki 2. • Raki 2′s full plan is substantial and combines dense and dispersed architecture. • Domestic architecture at Raki 2 paralleled at other Iron Age sites. This paper presents thermal imagery of Raki 2, a large Iron Age copper production site near Yanqul, Oman. The site, composed of …
Methodological Advances in Understanding Environmental Constraints on Sustainability and Industrial Periodicity of Ancient Copper Smelting in Southeast Arabia
Industrial periodicity is a hallmark of modern and ancient extractive economies. In Southeast Arabia, current evidence demonstrates that intensive periods of copper production are bracketed by century- to millennia-scale periods of little to no production. Explanations for this periodicity range from environmental degradation (e.g., deforestation related to unsustainable fuelwood provisioning) to shifts in local and distant trade networks to inte…
The Boundaries of Ancient Trade
Mapping spatial patterning of Bronze Age towers in Oman according to water flow accumulation
Water played an undeniably significant role in the origins of complex societies across the Near East, but political complexity in regions like Southeast Arabia diverges dramatically from the more well‐known histories of Egypt, the Levant and Mesopotamia. Through quantitative analysis, this paper investigates spatial associations between water availability and Umm an‐Nar towers in Adh Dhahirah Governorate of Oman. We hypothesise that ancient Umm a…
The Basilica of Betä Sämaʿtiʾ in its Aksūmite, Early Christian, and Late Antique Context
The ancient Kingdom of Aksūm, located in Ethiopia and Eritrea, was one of the most influential civilizations of the first millennium ce. More than a dozen Aksūmite structures attest to the spread of Christianity from the fourth to the seventh centuries ce. Among these structures, a basilica recently discovered at the site of Betä Sämaʿtiʾ in northern Ethiopia first constructed during the fourth century ce constitutes one of the earliest examples …
Aksumite Settlement Patterns
Landscape History of Hadramawt
Spatial Archaeology
To some, archaeology is best framed as a science, and to others it is envisioned as part of the humanities; but in our view archaeology as a discipline is strongest when it acknowledges the value of and incorporates both scientific and humanistic perspectives. Despite the many successes of scientifically-oriented archaeology, we contend that our discipline cannot achieve its broader aims without the humanities. We illustrate our argument by delin…
Water, Geography, and Aksumite Civilization
Beta Samati
From Rural Collectables to Global Commodities
Hyperspectral satellite imagery detection of ancient raw material sources
Soft‐stone vessels (made of the rock chloritite, which is comprised of the mineral chlorite) are an important component of the material culture record of ancient southeast Arabia. Given the prevalence of soft‐stone vessels in domestic and funerary contexts, and the natural geological occurrence of chloritite in the region, archaeologists have long suspected that soft‐stone vessels could have been produced in United Arab Emirates (UAE) or Oman. Ho…
First discovery of ancient soft‐stone (chlorite) vessel production in Arabia
Soft‐stone vessels are a prominent feature of ancient culture throughout south‐east Arabia and the Gulf. Chlorite and steatite occur naturally in the al‐Hajar Mountains of the United Arab Emirates ( UAE ) and Oman; but until now, apart from the discovery of a few unfinished pieces, ancient production of soft‐stone vessels had yet to be documented in Arabia. This paper reports the discovery and preliminary analysis of soft‐stone vessel production …
If a picture is worth a thousand words…3D modelling of a Bronze Age tower in Oman
Three-dimensional imagery is rapidly transforming the reconstruction, visualization and conceptualization of ancient monuments. We report (and reflect on the value of) digital reconstruction of a third-millennium bc megalithic tower and surrounding landscape using a combination of architectural drawing, 3D photogrammetry and geographic information systems (GIS) mapping. Our results indicate that at least 181 metric tons of limestone (mean boulder…
Landscapes of State Formation
Cattle Cults of the Arabian Neolithic and Early Territorial Societies
At the cusp of food production, Near Eastern societies adopted new territorial practices, including archaeologically visible sedentism and nonsedentary social defenses more challenging to identify archaeologically. New archaeological and paleoenvironmental evidence for Arabia's earliest-known sacrifices points to territorial maintenance in arid highland southern Yemen. Here sedentism was not an option prior to agriculture. Seasonally mobile pasto…
Gazetteer of small-scale monuments in prehistoric Hadramawt, Yemen
International audience
Landscapes of death
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) hydrological modeling in archaeology
General/Specific, Local/Global
The Horn of Africa and Southwest Arabia are less than 30 km apart, yet the timing and nature of transitions to agriculture along the margins of the southern Red Sea differ substantially. This paper compares and contrasts the beginnings of agriculture in highland Ethiopia/Eritrea and Yemen. We evaluate the applicability of general models, emphasize social circumstances and particularities, and highlight the importance of differing spatiotemporal s…
Is the hydraulic hypothesis dead yet? Irrigation and social change in ancient Yemen
Irrigation played an important role throughout ancient Southwest Arabian histories. Irrigation structures provide some of the earliest evidence of crop agriculture and large-scale flash floodwater irrigation systems sustained ancient states; the region thus offers important potential for reconsidering links between irrigation and social change. This paper examines millennia-long connections between social relations and the increasing technologica…
The Pre-Aksumite and Aksumite Settlement of NE Tigrai, Ethiopia
The first systematic archaeological survey conducted in NE Tigrai has produced new insights into the settlement history of the Pre-Aksumite and Aksumite kingdoms (800 B.C.–A.D. 700) of northern Ethiopia. Results of settlement data and ceramic and lithic artifact analyses from Gulo-Makeda indicate that the region experienced marked continuity in site occupations through time, suggesting a degree of political and economic stability that contrasts t…
Hydrology, Ideology, and the Origins of Irrigation in Ancient Southwest Arabia
As an archaeologically less-known region, Southwest Arabia offers new insights that can contribute to interregional understanding of agriculture's beginnings. The relative importance of environmental and social factors is an issue that has proven particularly contentious for both general and regionally focused explanations of transitions to agriculture. Geomatics analyses of landforms and runoff and ethnoarchaeological consideration of cairn tomb…
Mapping the roots of agriculture in southern Arabia
Satellite remote sensing, global positioning system (GPS) and geographical information system (GIS) technologies form a powerful methodological and analytical triad for archaeological research, particularly in remote regions where few large‐scale maps are available. This paper outlines the application of these technologies as a component of the Roots of Agriculture in Southern Arabia (RASA) research project and provides a review for archaeologist…
Cattle Cults of the Arabian Neolithic and Early Territorial Societies
At the cusp of food production, Near Eastern societies adopted new territorial practices, including archaeologically visible sedentism and nonsedentary social defenses more challenging to identify archaeologically. New archaeological and paleoenvironmental evidence for Arabia's earliest-known sacrifices points to territorial maintenance in arid highland southern Yemen. Here sedentism was not an option prior to agriculture. Seasonally mobile pasto…
Landscapes of death
Hydrology, Ideology, and the Origins of Irrigation in Ancient Southwest Arabia
As an archaeologically less-known region, Southwest Arabia offers new insights that can contribute to interregional understanding of agriculture's beginnings. The relative importance of environmental and social factors is an issue that has proven particularly contentious for both general and regionally focused explanations of transitions to agriculture. Geomatics analyses of landforms and runoff and ethnoarchaeological consideration of cairn tomb…
Is the hydraulic hypothesis dead yet? Irrigation and social change in ancient Yemen
Irrigation played an important role throughout ancient Southwest Arabian histories. Irrigation structures provide some of the earliest evidence of crop agriculture and large-scale flash floodwater irrigation systems sustained ancient states; the region thus offers important potential for reconsidering links between irrigation and social change. This paper examines millennia-long connections between social relations and the increasing technologica…
The Pre-Aksumite and Aksumite Settlement of NE Tigrai, Ethiopia
The first systematic archaeological survey conducted in NE Tigrai has produced new insights into the settlement history of the Pre-Aksumite and Aksumite kingdoms (800 B.C.–A.D. 700) of northern Ethiopia. Results of settlement data and ceramic and lithic artifact analyses from Gulo-Makeda indicate that the region experienced marked continuity in site occupations through time, suggesting a degree of political and economic stability that contrasts t…
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) hydrological modeling in archaeology
General/Specific, Local/Global
The Horn of Africa and Southwest Arabia are less than 30 km apart, yet the timing and nature of transitions to agriculture along the margins of the southern Red Sea differ substantially. This paper compares and contrasts the beginnings of agriculture in highland Ethiopia/Eritrea and Yemen. We evaluate the applicability of general models, emphasize social circumstances and particularities, and highlight the importance of differing spatiotemporal s…
Landscapes of State Formation
Beta Samati
Gazetteer of small-scale monuments in prehistoric Hadramawt, Yemen
International audience
First discovery of ancient soft‐stone (chlorite) vessel production in Arabia
Soft‐stone vessels are a prominent feature of ancient culture throughout south‐east Arabia and the Gulf. Chlorite and steatite occur naturally in the al‐Hajar Mountains of the United Arab Emirates ( UAE ) and Oman; but until now, apart from the discovery of a few unfinished pieces, ancient production of soft‐stone vessels had yet to be documented in Arabia. This paper reports the discovery and preliminary analysis of soft‐stone vessel production …
Mapping the roots of agriculture in southern Arabia
Satellite remote sensing, global positioning system (GPS) and geographical information system (GIS) technologies form a powerful methodological and analytical triad for archaeological research, particularly in remote regions where few large‐scale maps are available. This paper outlines the application of these technologies as a component of the Roots of Agriculture in Southern Arabia (RASA) research project and provides a review for archaeologist…
Aksumite Settlement Patterns
Water, Geography, and Aksumite Civilization
Hyperspectral satellite imagery detection of ancient raw material sources
Soft‐stone vessels (made of the rock chloritite, which is comprised of the mineral chlorite) are an important component of the material culture record of ancient southeast Arabia. Given the prevalence of soft‐stone vessels in domestic and funerary contexts, and the natural geological occurrence of chloritite in the region, archaeologists have long suspected that soft‐stone vessels could have been produced in United Arab Emirates (UAE) or Oman. Ho…
Methodological Advances in Understanding Environmental Constraints on Sustainability and Industrial Periodicity of Ancient Copper Smelting in Southeast Arabia
Industrial periodicity is a hallmark of modern and ancient extractive economies. In Southeast Arabia, current evidence demonstrates that intensive periods of copper production are bracketed by century- to millennia-scale periods of little to no production. Explanations for this periodicity range from environmental degradation (e.g., deforestation related to unsustainable fuelwood provisioning) to shifts in local and distant trade networks to inte…
Mapping spatial patterning of Bronze Age towers in Oman according to water flow accumulation
Water played an undeniably significant role in the origins of complex societies across the Near East, but political complexity in regions like Southeast Arabia diverges dramatically from the more well‐known histories of Egypt, the Levant and Mesopotamia. Through quantitative analysis, this paper investigates spatial associations between water availability and Umm an‐Nar towers in Adh Dhahirah Governorate of Oman. We hypothesise that ancient Umm a…
Mapping the roots of agriculture in southern Arabia
Satellite remote sensing, global positioning system (GPS) and geographical information system (GIS) technologies form a powerful methodological and analytical triad for archaeological research, particularly in remote regions where few large‐scale maps are available. This paper outlines the application of these technologies as a component of the Roots of Agriculture in Southern Arabia (RASA) research project and provides a review for archaeologist…
The Pre-Aksumite and Aksumite Settlement of NE Tigrai, Ethiopia
The first systematic archaeological survey conducted in NE Tigrai has produced new insights into the settlement history of the Pre-Aksumite and Aksumite kingdoms (800 B.C.–A.D. 700) of northern Ethiopia. Results of settlement data and ceramic and lithic artifact analyses from Gulo-Makeda indicate that the region experienced marked continuity in site occupations through time, suggesting a degree of political and economic stability that contrasts t…
Hydrology, Ideology, and the Origins of Irrigation in Ancient Southwest Arabia
As an archaeologically less-known region, Southwest Arabia offers new insights that can contribute to interregional understanding of agriculture's beginnings. The relative importance of environmental and social factors is an issue that has proven particularly contentious for both general and regionally focused explanations of transitions to agriculture. Geomatics analyses of landforms and runoff and ethnoarchaeological consideration of cairn tomb…
Is the hydraulic hypothesis dead yet? Irrigation and social change in ancient Yemen
Irrigation played an important role throughout ancient Southwest Arabian histories. Irrigation structures provide some of the earliest evidence of crop agriculture and large-scale flash floodwater irrigation systems sustained ancient states; the region thus offers important potential for reconsidering links between irrigation and social change. This paper examines millennia-long connections between social relations and the increasing technologica…
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) hydrological modeling in archaeology
General/Specific, Local/Global
The Horn of Africa and Southwest Arabia are less than 30 km apart, yet the timing and nature of transitions to agriculture along the margins of the southern Red Sea differ substantially. This paper compares and contrasts the beginnings of agriculture in highland Ethiopia/Eritrea and Yemen. We evaluate the applicability of general models, emphasize social circumstances and particularities, and highlight the importance of differing spatiotemporal s…
Gazetteer of small-scale monuments in prehistoric Hadramawt, Yemen
International audience
Landscapes of death
Cattle Cults of the Arabian Neolithic and Early Territorial Societies
At the cusp of food production, Near Eastern societies adopted new territorial practices, including archaeologically visible sedentism and nonsedentary social defenses more challenging to identify archaeologically. New archaeological and paleoenvironmental evidence for Arabia's earliest-known sacrifices points to territorial maintenance in arid highland southern Yemen. Here sedentism was not an option prior to agriculture. Seasonally mobile pasto…
If a picture is worth a thousand words…3D modelling of a Bronze Age tower in Oman
Three-dimensional imagery is rapidly transforming the reconstruction, visualization and conceptualization of ancient monuments. We report (and reflect on the value of) digital reconstruction of a third-millennium bc megalithic tower and surrounding landscape using a combination of architectural drawing, 3D photogrammetry and geographic information systems (GIS) mapping. Our results indicate that at least 181 metric tons of limestone (mean boulder…
Landscapes of State Formation
First discovery of ancient soft‐stone (chlorite) vessel production in Arabia
Soft‐stone vessels are a prominent feature of ancient culture throughout south‐east Arabia and the Gulf. Chlorite and steatite occur naturally in the al‐Hajar Mountains of the United Arab Emirates ( UAE ) and Oman; but until now, apart from the discovery of a few unfinished pieces, ancient production of soft‐stone vessels had yet to be documented in Arabia. This paper reports the discovery and preliminary analysis of soft‐stone vessel production …
From Rural Collectables to Global Commodities
Hyperspectral satellite imagery detection of ancient raw material sources
Soft‐stone vessels (made of the rock chloritite, which is comprised of the mineral chlorite) are an important component of the material culture record of ancient southeast Arabia. Given the prevalence of soft‐stone vessels in domestic and funerary contexts, and the natural geological occurrence of chloritite in the region, archaeologists have long suspected that soft‐stone vessels could have been produced in United Arab Emirates (UAE) or Oman. Ho…
Beta Samati
Landscape History of Hadramawt
Spatial Archaeology
To some, archaeology is best framed as a science, and to others it is envisioned as part of the humanities; but in our view archaeology as a discipline is strongest when it acknowledges the value of and incorporates both scientific and humanistic perspectives. Despite the many successes of scientifically-oriented archaeology, we contend that our discipline cannot achieve its broader aims without the humanities. We illustrate our argument by delin…
Water, Geography, and Aksumite Civilization
Aksumite Settlement Patterns
Mapping spatial patterning of Bronze Age towers in Oman according to water flow accumulation
Water played an undeniably significant role in the origins of complex societies across the Near East, but political complexity in regions like Southeast Arabia diverges dramatically from the more well‐known histories of Egypt, the Levant and Mesopotamia. Through quantitative analysis, this paper investigates spatial associations between water availability and Umm an‐Nar towers in Adh Dhahirah Governorate of Oman. We hypothesise that ancient Umm a…
The Basilica of Betä Sämaʿtiʾ in its Aksūmite, Early Christian, and Late Antique Context
The ancient Kingdom of Aksūm, located in Ethiopia and Eritrea, was one of the most influential civilizations of the first millennium ce. More than a dozen Aksūmite structures attest to the spread of Christianity from the fourth to the seventh centuries ce. Among these structures, a basilica recently discovered at the site of Betä Sämaʿtiʾ in northern Ethiopia first constructed during the fourth century ce constitutes one of the earliest examples …
The Boundaries of Ancient Trade
Methodological Advances in Understanding Environmental Constraints on Sustainability and Industrial Periodicity of Ancient Copper Smelting in Southeast Arabia
Industrial periodicity is a hallmark of modern and ancient extractive economies. In Southeast Arabia, current evidence demonstrates that intensive periods of copper production are bracketed by century- to millennia-scale periods of little to no production. Explanations for this periodicity range from environmental degradation (e.g., deforestation related to unsustainable fuelwood provisioning) to shifts in local and distant trade networks to inte…
Drone-based thermal imaging of subsurface architecture
Thermography is a promising method in arid environments with near surface features. • Thermal imagery reveals settlement plan of Iron Age copper production site Raki 2. • Raki 2′s full plan is substantial and combines dense and dispersed architecture. • Domestic architecture at Raki 2 paralleled at other Iron Age sites. This paper presents thermal imagery of Raki 2, a large Iron Age copper production site near Yanqul, Oman. The site, composed of …
Archaeology (21 obras) · Geography (20 obras) · Archaeology and Historical Studies (13 obras) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (12 obras) · History (12 obras) · Archaeological Research and Protection (8 obras) · Ancient history (7 obras) · Geology (7 obras) · Ecology (6 obras) · History (6 obras)