Mark Altaweel
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 121387 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Mark Altaweel |
| NOMBRES | Mark |
| APELLIDO | Altaweel |
| FIRMA | ALTAWEEL M |
| AFILIACIONES | University College London |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1807-3737 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 50 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 193 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 49 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 2 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2005 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 7 |
Archeological theory and AI
The increasing capabilities of AI in automation and integration within existing methodology present a new opportunity for disciplines to address long-standing theoretical challenges. This is evident in archaeology, where persistent theoretical debates and interpretive variability present prime opportunities for applying AI-based techniques to address uncertainty. Using the phenomenology of agent-based modeling (ABM), we propose the incorporation …
The sand deposit underneath the Ishtar Temple in Assur, Iraq
First-ever systematic mineralogical investigation of sands from an archaeological context in Iraq. • Sand layer beneath temple's first building phase mirrors a southern Mesopotamian practice for the first time in north. • Sands derive from the Zagros Mountains, located upstream from the Tigris tributary, in the Lesser Zab region. • Implications on Ishtar at Assur, linked to Inana in southern Mesopotamia or the Hurrian deity Shawushka (or Shaushka…
Using Generative AI for Reconstructing Cultural Artifacts
Generative AI, propelled by innovations like ChatGPT, has gained widespread recognition. In the realm of archeology, there exists significant potential for generative AI, particularly in reconstructing the appearance of cultural artifacts through the introduction of 2D or 3D renderings derived from damaged or degraded objects. In this study, we showcase and evaluate the practical application of Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), harnessing t…
Explaining the rise of moralizing religions
The causes, consequences, and timing of the rise of moralizing religions in world history have been the focus of intense debate. Progress has been limited by the availability of quantitative data to test competing theories, by divergent ideas regarding both predictor and outcomes variables, and by differences of opinion over methodology. To address all these problems, we utilize Seshat: Global History Databank, a large storehouse of information d…
Big Gods and big science
Our target article empirically tested the Big Gods Hypothesis which proposes that beliefs in moralizing supernatural punishment (MSP) contributed to the evolution of socio-political complexity (SPC) in world history. We tested this hypothesis using a suite of measures of MSP, SPC, and other potential evolutionary drivers coded in Seshat: Global History Databank. Our analyses indicate that intensity of warfare and productivity of agriculture were …
Monitoring Looting at Cultural Heritage Sites
The looting of cultural heritage sites has been a growing problem and threatens national economies, social identity, destroys research potential, and traumatizes communities. For many countries, the challenge in protecting heritage is that there are often too few resources, particularly paid site guards, while sites can also be in remote locations. Here, we develop a new approach that applies deep learning methods to detect the presence of lootin…
Empires and the acceleration of wealth inequality in the pre-Islamic Near East
We present an approach comparing wealth inequality between c. 3000 BCE and 224 CE in the Near East using house sizes and urban area from 1060 houses in 98 archaeological sites. We divide this dataset into two chronological phases, firstly c. 3000-800 BCE and secondly 800 BCE - 224 CE. The first phase is characterised by small, relatively weak states, while the second phase is characterised by major empires and large states, termed as the Age of E…
New Agendas in Remote Sensing and Landscape Archaeology in the Near East
New Agendas in Remote Sensing and Landscape Archaeology in the near East
Quantifying object similarity
The sale of heritage on eBay
The marketisation of heritage has been a major topic of interest among heritage specialists studying how the online marketplace shapes sales. Missing from that debate is a large-scale analysis seeking to understand market trends on popular selling platforms such as eBay. Sites such as eBay can inform what heritage items are of interest to the wider public, and thus what is potentially of greater cultural value, while also demonstrating monetary v…
Recent Archaeology in Iraq, 2018–2019
New Insights on the Role of Environmental Dynamics Shaping Southern Mesopotamia
Recent fieldwork and archival sedimentary materials from southern Iraq have revealed new insights into the environment that shaped southern Mesopotamia from the pre-Ubaid (early Holocene) until the early Islamic period. These data have been combined with northern Iraqi speleothem, or stalagmite, data that have revealed relevant palaeoclimate information. The new results are investigated in light of textual sources and satellite remote sensing wor…
The Market for Heritage
The trade in antiquities and cultural objects has proven difficult to understand and yet is highly dynamic. Currently, there are few computational tools that allow researchers to systematically understand the nature of the legal market, which can also potentially provide insights into the illegal market such as types of objects traded and countries trading antiquities. Online sales in antiquities and cultural objects are often unstructured data; …
Finding a Relatively Flat Archaeological Site with Minimal Ceramics
We present a new technique to detect flat archaeological sites with minimal ceramics using an unmanned aerial vehicle that maps surface stone concentrations. Methods deployed include point pattern analysis of stone concentrations and a machine-learning technique using unsupervised classification of visible stone signature qualities, which are used in simple linear regressions to compare with geophysical and ceramic surface survey results of a sit…
Explaining the Rise of Moralizing Religions
The causes, consequences, and timing of the rise of moralizing religions in world history have been the focus of intense debate. Progress has been limited by the availability of quantitative data to test competing theories, by divergent ideas regarding both predictor and outcomes variables, and by differences of opinion over methodology. To address all these problems, we utilize Seshat: Global History Databank, a large storehouse of information d…
Recent Archaeology in Iraq
Holocene fluvial and anthropogenic processes in the region of Uruk in southern Mesopotamia
Urban and Transport Scaling
Scaling methods have been applied to study modern urban areas and how they create accelerated, feedback growth in some systems while efficient use in others. For ancient cities, results have shown that cities act as social reactors that lead to positive feedback growth in socioeconomic measures. In this paper, we assess the relationship between settlement area expressed through mound area from Late Chalcolithic and Bronze Age sites and mean hollo…
Mid- to late-Holocene archaeology, environment and climate in the northeast Kurdistan region of Iraq
This work presents new data from phytolith and speleothem analyses that cover the middle to late Holocene from northeastern Iraq in the Kurdistan region. Coupling these data with previous work, we demonstrate how the region’s environment and climate developed during a time when agriculture became not only established but settlements started to transform into larger urban areas. Results demonstrate a wetter phase during the middle Holocene relativ…
The heritage of Brexit
This article assesses the role of the pre-modern past in the construction of political identities relating to the UK's membership in the European Union by examining how materials and ideas from Iron Age to Early Medieval Britain and Europe were leveraged by those who discussed the topic of Brexit in over 1.4 million messages published in dedicated Facebook pages. Through a combination of data-intensive and qualitative investigations of textual da…
Some Recent and Current Archaeology in Iraq
Some Recent and Current Archaeology in Iraq
Revisiting Tell Begum
Tell Begum was previously explored by Iraqi archaeologists in the 1960s when excavations revealed a multi-period site. Among the key finds were Halaf period remains that are relatively rare in the region of the Shahrizor plain and included polychrome ceramics suggesting a local variation of the Halaf culture. Recent investigations and excavations in 2011 and 2013 revealed a 5 hectare site inhabited during the Halaf, Ubaid, Late Chalcolithic, and …
Some Recent and Current Archaeology in Iraq
The heritage of Brexit
This article assesses the role of the pre-modern past in the construction of political identities relating to the UK's membership in the European Union by examining how materials and ideas from Iron Age to Early Medieval Britain and Europe were leveraged by those who discussed the topic of Brexit in over 1.4 million messages published in dedicated Facebook pages. Through a combination of data-intensive and qualitative investigations of textual da…
Urbanization within a Dynamic Environment
Here agent-based models are employed to explore the behavior of small communities and their associated economic systems within an area of climatically marginal environment in northern Syria and Iraq. The examples, drawn from late prehistoric and Bronze Age societies that developed at the onset of urbanization, show how small communities might respond to various resource stresses and environmental fluctuations. The computer simulations demonstrate…
The use of Aster satellite imagery in archaeological contexts
Multispectral ASTER satellite imagery has recently become available for scholarly research. The overall bandwidth and spatial resolution of the system give it an advantage over older Landsat satellites. In northern Mesopotamia, modern day north Iraq, hollow ways, sites and canals have all been located using the ASTER system. This system has proven to be useful in both verifying results found in CORONA satellite data and locating potential archaeo…
Understanding Ancient Societies
Archaeologists and other scholars interested in the past have begun to explore issues in ancient societies by incorporating new computer simulation techniques in their research. Among the popular approaches, agent-based methodologies are commonly used to answer questions involving the interactions of natural and social systems. Building upon such efforts, a new object-oriented simulation framework is being developed for ancient Mesopotamia that c…
Application of an entropy maximizing and dynamics model for understanding settlement structure
We present a spatial interaction entropy maximizing and structural dynamics model of settlements from the Middle Bronze (MBA) and Iron Ages (IA) in the Khabur Triangle (KT) region within Syria. The model addresses factors that make locations attractive for trade and settlement, affecting settlement growth and change. We explore why some sites become relatively major settlements, while others diminish in the periods discussed. We assess how politi…
Assessing the resilience of irrigation agriculture
Empires and the acceleration of wealth inequality in the pre-Islamic Near East
We present an approach comparing wealth inequality between c. 3000 BCE and 224 CE in the Near East using house sizes and urban area from 1060 houses in 98 archaeological sites. We divide this dataset into two chronological phases, firstly c. 3000-800 BCE and secondly 800 BCE - 224 CE. The first phase is characterised by small, relatively weak states, while the second phase is characterised by major empires and large states, termed as the Age of E…
Investigating agricultural sustainability and strategies in northern Mesopotamia
Monitoring Looting at Cultural Heritage Sites
The looting of cultural heritage sites has been a growing problem and threatens national economies, social identity, destroys research potential, and traumatizes communities. For many countries, the challenge in protecting heritage is that there are often too few resources, particularly paid site guards, while sites can also be in remote locations. Here, we develop a new approach that applies deep learning methods to detect the presence of lootin…
Simulation of Natural and Social Process Interactions
New multimodel simulations of Bronze Age Mesopotamian settlement system dynamics, using advanced object-based simulation frameworks, are addressing fine-scale interaction of natural processes (crop growth, hydrology, etc.) and social processes (kinship-driven behaviors, farming and herding practices, etc.) on a daily basis across multigenerational model runs. Key components of these simulations are representations of initial settlement population…
The Market for Heritage
The trade in antiquities and cultural objects has proven difficult to understand and yet is highly dynamic. Currently, there are few computational tools that allow researchers to systematically understand the nature of the legal market, which can also potentially provide insights into the illegal market such as types of objects traded and countries trading antiquities. Online sales in antiquities and cultural objects are often unstructured data; …
Urban and Transport Scaling
Scaling methods have been applied to study modern urban areas and how they create accelerated, feedback growth in some systems while efficient use in others. For ancient cities, results have shown that cities act as social reactors that lead to positive feedback growth in socioeconomic measures. In this paper, we assess the relationship between settlement area expressed through mound area from Late Chalcolithic and Bronze Age sites and mean hollo…
Mid- to late-Holocene archaeology, environment and climate in the northeast Kurdistan region of Iraq
This work presents new data from phytolith and speleothem analyses that cover the middle to late Holocene from northeastern Iraq in the Kurdistan region. Coupling these data with previous work, we demonstrate how the region’s environment and climate developed during a time when agriculture became not only established but settlements started to transform into larger urban areas. Results demonstrate a wetter phase during the middle Holocene relativ…
Visualizing Situational Data
As anthropogenic and environmental behaviors rapidly evolve many ecosystems and communities, managers of natural resources, scientists, and other stakeholders increasingly need tools that can rapidly alert them to emerging events that can affect social well-being. Data detailing such behaviors may derive from textual sources with varying content, requiring an approach to merge multiple media sources and create linked relationships between relevan…
Route Selection and Pedestrian Traffic
This paper presents an object-oriented approach that tightly integrates multiple modeling techniques and GIS in order to investigate route selections made by pedestrians in an ancient urban environment. Our applied method allows the integration of agent-based (ABM) and human metabolic models in order to enable different agent types, based on age and sex cohorts, to select street network routes that access different urban structures. The case stud…
A Framework to Structure Agent-Based Modeling Data for Social-Ecological Systems
Agent-based models (ABMs), perhaps used along with other methods, are increasingly being applied to address problems involving social-ecological systems (SES). However, systematic and standardized techniques for organizing data requirements and collecting information for such models are generally not applied. Defining the types of data that need to be collected is a critical step in instantiating relevant models and detailing behavioral patterns.…
The sale of heritage on eBay
The marketisation of heritage has been a major topic of interest among heritage specialists studying how the online marketplace shapes sales. Missing from that debate is a large-scale analysis seeking to understand market trends on popular selling platforms such as eBay. Sites such as eBay can inform what heritage items are of interest to the wider public, and thus what is potentially of greater cultural value, while also demonstrating monetary v…
Evaluating Settlement Structures in the Ancient Near East using Spatial Interaction Entropy Maximization
We explore settlement structures and hierarchy found in different archaeological periods in northern, specifically the Khabur Triangle (KT), and southern Mesopotamia (SM) using a spatial interaction entropy maximization (SIEM) modeling and simulation method. Regional settlement patterns are investigated in order to understand what feedback levels for settlement benefits, or incentives, and abilities to move or disperse between sites in a landscap…
Settlement Dynamics and Hierarchy from Agent Decision-Making
This paper presents an agent-based complex system simulation of settlement structure change using methods derived from entropy maximization modeling. The approach is applied to model the movement of people and goods in urban settings to study how settlement size hierarchy develops. While entropy maximization is well known for assessing settlement structure change over different spatiotemporal settings, approaches have rarely attempted to develop …
Finding a Relatively Flat Archaeological Site with Minimal Ceramics
We present a new technique to detect flat archaeological sites with minimal ceramics using an unmanned aerial vehicle that maps surface stone concentrations. Methods deployed include point pattern analysis of stone concentrations and a machine-learning technique using unsupervised classification of visible stone signature qualities, which are used in simple linear regressions to compare with geophysical and ceramic surface survey results of a sit…
Explaining the Rise of Moralizing Religions
The causes, consequences, and timing of the rise of moralizing religions in world history have been the focus of intense debate. Progress has been limited by the availability of quantitative data to test competing theories, by divergent ideas regarding both predictor and outcomes variables, and by differences of opinion over methodology. To address all these problems, we utilize Seshat: Global History Databank, a large storehouse of information d…
Landscapes of interaction and conflict in the Middle Bronze Age
Landscape and Settlement in the Neo-Assyrian Empire
Archaeological surveys and satellite images are used to provide insights into the structure and scale of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. When this empire attained its peak during the eighth and seventh centuries B.C., it resulted in a distinct imprint on the landscape which differs significantly from that of the Bronze Age. In the Neo-Assyrian period, capital cities attained unprecedented size, rural settlement patterns were predominantly dispersed, the…
The use of Aster satellite imagery in archaeological contexts
Multispectral ASTER satellite imagery has recently become available for scholarly research. The overall bandwidth and spatial resolution of the system give it an advantage over older Landsat satellites. In northern Mesopotamia, modern day north Iraq, hollow ways, sites and canals have all been located using the ASTER system. This system has proven to be useful in both verifying results found in CORONA satellite data and locating potential archaeo…
Understanding Ancient Societies
Archaeologists and other scholars interested in the past have begun to explore issues in ancient societies by incorporating new computer simulation techniques in their research. Among the popular approaches, agent-based methodologies are commonly used to answer questions involving the interactions of natural and social systems. Building upon such efforts, a new object-oriented simulation framework is being developed for ancient Mesopotamia that c…
Excavations in Iraq
This article is the first in a series that aims to present the results of Iraqi excavations from the Ray Jazirah Project (RJP) that took place between 1987 and 1994. An Iraqi archaeologist involved in the RJP, who has chosen to remain anonymous, has recently provided all the primary data used in this and future reports. Gratitude to my Iraqi colleague, who continues to work in difficult circumstances, must be given for contributions to, and invol…
Simulation of Natural and Social Process Interactions
New multimodel simulations of Bronze Age Mesopotamian settlement system dynamics, using advanced object-based simulation frameworks, are addressing fine-scale interaction of natural processes (crop growth, hydrology, etc.) and social processes (kinship-driven behaviors, farming and herding practices, etc.) on a daily basis across multigenerational model runs. Key components of these simulations are representations of initial settlement population…
Excavations in Iraq
This is the second article in a series detailing archaeological results from salvage excavations conducted in northern Iraq during the 1980s and early 1990s. An introduction and background information to the overall salvage project and specific information on fifteen excavated sites in the northern Jazirah, near the Iraq-Syria border and mostly within T. J. Wilkinson and D. J. Tucker's North Jazira Survey (NJS; see Wilkinson and Tucker 1995), wer…
Investigating agricultural sustainability and strategies in northern Mesopotamia
Urbanization within a Dynamic Environment
Here agent-based models are employed to explore the behavior of small communities and their associated economic systems within an area of climatically marginal environment in northern Syria and Iraq. The examples, drawn from late prehistoric and Bronze Age societies that developed at the onset of urbanization, show how small communities might respond to various resource stresses and environmental fluctuations. The computer simulations demonstrate…
Social Influence and Decision-Making
This paper presents a model, using concepts from artificial neural networks, that explains how small rural communities make decisions that affect access to potable freshwater. Field observations indicate that social relationships as well as individual goals and perceptions of decision makers have a strong influence on decisions that are made by community councils. Our work identifies three types of agents, which we designate as alpha, beta, and g…
Visualizing Situational Data
As anthropogenic and environmental behaviors rapidly evolve many ecosystems and communities, managers of natural resources, scientists, and other stakeholders increasingly need tools that can rapidly alert them to emerging events that can affect social well-being. Data detailing such behaviors may derive from textual sources with varying content, requiring an approach to merge multiple media sources and create linked relationships between relevan…
Route Selection and Pedestrian Traffic
This paper presents an object-oriented approach that tightly integrates multiple modeling techniques and GIS in order to investigate route selections made by pedestrians in an ancient urban environment. Our applied method allows the integration of agent-based (ABM) and human metabolic models in order to enable different agent types, based on age and sex cohorts, to select street network routes that access different urban structures. The case stud…
A Framework to Structure Agent-Based Modeling Data for Social-Ecological Systems
Agent-based models (ABMs), perhaps used along with other methods, are increasingly being applied to address problems involving social-ecological systems (SES). However, systematic and standardized techniques for organizing data requirements and collecting information for such models are generally not applied. Defining the types of data that need to be collected is a critical step in instantiating relevant models and detailing behavioral patterns.…
Assessing the Impacts of Local Knowledge and Technology on Climate Change Vulnerability in Remote Communities
The introduction of new technologies into small remote communities can alter how individuals acquire knowledge about their surrounding environment. This is especially true when technologies that satisfy basic needs, such as freshwater use, create a distance (i.e., diminishing exposure) between individuals and their environment. However, such distancing can potentially be countered by the transfer of local knowledge between community members and f…
Assessing the resilience of irrigation agriculture
Some Recent and Current Fieldwork in Iraq
New Investigations in the Environment, History, and Archaeology of the Iraqi Hilly Flanks
Recent palaeoenvironmental, historical, and archaeological investigations, primarily consisting of site reconnaissance, in the Shahrizor region within the province of Sulaymaniyah in Iraqi Kurdistan are bringing to light new information on the region's social and socio-ecological development. This paper summarises two seasons of work by researchers from German, British, Dutch, and Iraqi-Kurdish institutions working in the survey region. Palaeoenv…
Mobilizing for Change
Theories on the establishment and propagation of political movements through mobilization have emerged and evolved over the last half century. Among the major theoretical frameworks that have been advanced are resource mobilization theory, political process theory, and culture theory. However, despite these developments, relatively few methodological approaches have applied bottom-up computational modeling and simulation in explaining movement de…
Report on the Excavations at Tell Sitak
Recent excavations at Tell Sitak in Iraqi Kurdistan contribute new information on the Neo-Assyrian and Sasanian occupation of this region. The site was most likely occupied between the eighth and sixth centuries b.c. , in other words during the Neo-Assyrian period and perhaps for some time after. Architectural remains suggest that during this phase its primary function may have been as a fortress; smaller finds include ceramics and one Neo-Assyri…
Some Recent and Current Archaeology in Iraq
Report on the Excavations at Merquly
The site of Merquly is located in a mountain pass c . 40 km north-west of Slemani (Sulaimaniyah), Iraq. Excavation at the site in 2009 revealed a fortified structure whose rooms at multiple elevations reflect a terraced structure adapted to the steep landscape contours of its setting. Both architectural preservation and quantity of finds were relatively limited; however, despite the nearby presence of a prominent Parthian period rock relief, cera…
Settlement Dynamics and Hierarchy from Agent Decision-Making
This paper presents an agent-based complex system simulation of settlement structure change using methods derived from entropy maximization modeling. The approach is applied to model the movement of people and goods in urban settings to study how settlement size hierarchy develops. While entropy maximization is well known for assessing settlement structure change over different spatiotemporal settings, approaches have rarely attempted to develop …
Application of an entropy maximizing and dynamics model for understanding settlement structure
We present a spatial interaction entropy maximizing and structural dynamics model of settlements from the Middle Bronze (MBA) and Iron Ages (IA) in the Khabur Triangle (KT) region within Syria. The model addresses factors that make locations attractive for trade and settlement, affecting settlement growth and change. We explore why some sites become relatively major settlements, while others diminish in the periods discussed. We assess how politi…
Some Recent and Current Archaeology in Iraq
Revolutionizing a World
This book investigates the long-term continuity of large-scale states and empires, and its effect on the Near East?s social fabric, including the fundamental changes that occurred to major social institutions. Its geographical coverage spans, from east to west, modern-day Libya and Egypt to Central Asia, and from north to south, Anatolia to southern Arabia, incorporating modern-day Oman and Yemen. Its temporal coverage spans from the late eighth …
Modeling Strategic Decisions in the Formation of the Early Neo-Assyrian Empire
Understanding patterns of conflict and pathways in which political history became established is critical to understanding how large states and empires ultimately develop and come to rule given regions and influence subsequent events. We employ a spatiotemporal Cox regression model to investigate possible causes as to why regions were attacked by the Neo-Assyrian (912-608 BCE) state. The model helps to explain how strategic benefits and costs lea…
Archaeology (34 obras) · Geography (33 obras) · Computer Science (23 obras) · History (19 obras) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (18 obras) · Archaeological Research and Protection (14 obras) · Archaeology and Historical Studies (12 obras) · Economics (10 obras) · Eurasian Exchange Networks (9 obras) · Mesopotamia (9 obras)