Mette Marie Hald
Biographic Data
| ID | 225818 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Mette Marie Hald |
| GIVEN NAMES | Mette Marie |
| FAMILY NAME | Hald |
| SIGNATURE | HALD M M |
| AFFILIATIONS | National Museum of Denmark |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3610-332X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 23 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 63 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 23 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Food remains from Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age Hama, Syria: Exploring the cooking practices and culinary catchment zone of an ancient city
Evaluating microstructural malting identification markers in charred archaeological cereal grains
Identifying ancient malting and brewing practices provides key insights into diet, technology, and social practices. This study evaluates the diagnostic reliability of microstructural malting markers in 50 charred cereal grains from six Danish archaeological sites spanning 1–1650 CE. Using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), two proposed methodologies for detecting malting were assessed: amylolytic modification of starch granules and thinning of …
Infant Care in Early Bronze Age Syria: Newly Identified Clay Rattles at Hama
International audience
Years and Counting: Ongoing research on Hama, inland Western Syria
Between 1931 and 1938, a team of Danish archaeologists excavated the ancient site of Hama in inland Western Syria. A substantial portion of the discovered artifacts has been preserved in the National Museum of Denmark. Since then, sporadic research on the collection has been carried out. Most recently, two interdisciplinary research projects have initiated a range of analyses, including petrography, 14C dating, archaeomagnetism, residue analysis,…
There and back again: Local institutions, an Uruk expansion and the rejection of centralisation in the Sirwan/Upper Diyala region
During the fourth millennium BC, public institutions developed at several large settlements across greater Mesopotamia. These are widely acknowledged as the first cities and states, yet surprisingly little is known about their emergence, functioning and demise. Here, the authors present new evidence of public institutions at the site of Shakhi Kora in the lower Sirwan/upper Diyala river valley of north-east Iraq. A sequence of four Late Chalcolit…
All the way from the Baltic: Amber beads from an Iron Age grave at Hama, western Syria
Widening and diversifying trade networks are often cited among the boom and bust of Bronze and Iron Age worlds. The great distances that goods could travel during these periods are exemplified here as the authors describe the spectroscopic identification of Baltic amber beads in an Iron Age cremation grave at Hama in Syria. Yet these beads are not unique in the Near Eastern record; as the authors show, comparable finds and references to amber or …
Farming during turbulent times: Agriculture, food crops, and manuring practices in Bronze Age to Viking Age Denmark
An archaeomagnetic intensity-based search for order in the chaos of the destruction of Hama (Syria) dated to 720 BCE
Revealing invisible stews: New results of organic residue analyses of Beveled Rim Bowls from the Late Chalcolithic site of Shakhi Kora, Kurdistan Region of Iraq
Beveled Rim Bowls (BRBs) are the most iconic and well-known vessel type of ancient Southwest Asia. Roughly and carelessly produced, these conical bowls are attested in their thousands at 4th millennium BCE sites from southern Iraq and the Persian Gulf to the highlands of eastern Turkey and Iran. Questions regarding their function and relationship with emergent state institutions have stood at the centre of nearly a century of debates about the na…
The lost landscape of Borgring: Geoarchaeological investigations into the navigation to, and location of, the Danish Viking Age ring fortress
Geoarchaeological investigations at Borgring, a recently identified Danish Viking Age ring fortress, reconstructs the original landscape showing how the site was expanded and modified to accommodate a structure of pre-defined size and how this large-scale project demonstrates the willingness to invest significant resources in its precise positioning. The investigations also assess the possibility of navigating along the nearby stream from the coa…
Fragments of meals in eastern Denmark from the Viking Age to the Renaissance: New evidence from organic remains in latrines
A series of latrines from Denmark, spanning the periods Viking Age to Renaissance (800s–1680s AD), have been analysed for their contents of macroscopic plant remains, pollen, and animal bones. Here we present the results and discuss the findings in relation to ancient meals. The latrines cover a period of roughly 900 years, enabling us to trace the introduction of certain types of food and the disappearance of others over time. Some plant foods h…
Identification of prehistoric malting and partial grain germination from starch granules in charred barley grains
Babylonian Encounters in the Upper Diyala River Valley: Contextualizing the Results of Regional Survey and the 2016-2017 Excavations at Khani Masi
Kassite Babylonia counts among the great powers of the Late Bronze Age Near East. Its kings exchanged diplomatic letters with the pharaohs of Egypt and held their own against their Assyrian and Elamite neighbors. Babylonia's internal workings, however, remain understood in their outlines only, as do its elite's expansionary ambitions, the degrees to which they may have been realized, and the nature of ensuing imperial encounters. This is especial…
Tales from the barrels: Results from a multi-proxy analysis of a latrine from Renaissance Copenhagen, Denmark
The combined analyses of grains, seeds, fruits, pollen, animal bones and parasite eggs from a latrine dating from the late 1680s provides us with a detailed view of the diet in a Renaissance neighbourhood in Copenhagen. Analyses show that the residents had access to a varied diet of primarily fish, bread/porridge, and a range of fruits, nuts and herbs, including exotic products deriving from a global trade network. This study also shows that comb…
Revealing invisible brews: A new approach to the chemical identification of ancient beer
Isotope evidence for agricultural extensification reveals how the world's first cities were fed
Dating Knossos and the arrival of the earliest Neolithic in the southern Aegean
Ritual and Identity in Rural Mesopotamia: Hirbemerdon Tepe and the Upper Tigris River Valley in the Middle Bronze Age
International audience
Further work at Kilise Tepe, 2007-2011: Refining the Bronze to Iron Age transition
The excavations at Kilise Tepe in the 1990s inevitably left a range of research questions unanswered, and our second spell of work at the site from 2007 to 2011 sought to address some of these, relating to the later second and early first millennia. This article gathers the architectural and stratigraphie results of the renewed excavations, presenting the fresh information about the layout and character of the Late Bronze Age North-West Building …
Tolerating change at Late Chalcolithic Tell Brak: Responses of an early urban society to an uncertain climate
Recent excavation and survey work in northern Mesopotamia has shown that the Late Chalcolithic urban-based society, based on rain-fed agriculture, in many ways matches that of southern Mesopotamian Uruk civilisation where irrigation agriculture is attributed a key role. This northern civilisation thrived for some thousand years from the late 5th to 4th millennium BC. Reconstruction of the climate of the region during this period suggests that a c…
Distribution of crops at late Early Bronze Age Titriş Höyük, southeast Anatolia: Towards a model for the identification of consumers of centrally organised food distribution
Storage of crops during the fourth and third millennia b.c. at the settlement mound of Tell Brak, northeast Syria
Excavations at Tell Brak 2006–2007
Excavations at Tell Brak in 2006–7 explored two key episodes in Mesopotamian political and social history, developing early social complexity in the fifth to fourth millennia BC and the shift from territorial state to early empire in the second millennium BC. Late Chalcolithic complexity is represented in Area TW on the main mound and at the outlying sub-mound of Tell Majnuna, while investigation of the Old Babylonian to Mitanni state-to-empire t…
Revealing invisible brews: A new approach to the chemical identification of ancient beer
Distribution of crops at late Early Bronze Age Titriş Höyük, southeast Anatolia: Towards a model for the identification of consumers of centrally organised food distribution
Storage of crops during the fourth and third millennia b.c. at the settlement mound of Tell Brak, northeast Syria
Tolerating change at Late Chalcolithic Tell Brak: Responses of an early urban society to an uncertain climate
Recent excavation and survey work in northern Mesopotamia has shown that the Late Chalcolithic urban-based society, based on rain-fed agriculture, in many ways matches that of southern Mesopotamian Uruk civilisation where irrigation agriculture is attributed a key role. This northern civilisation thrived for some thousand years from the late 5th to 4th millennium BC. Reconstruction of the climate of the region during this period suggests that a c…
Ritual and Identity in Rural Mesopotamia: Hirbemerdon Tepe and the Upper Tigris River Valley in the Middle Bronze Age
International audience
Babylonian Encounters in the Upper Diyala River Valley: Contextualizing the Results of Regional Survey and the 2016-2017 Excavations at Khani Masi
Kassite Babylonia counts among the great powers of the Late Bronze Age Near East. Its kings exchanged diplomatic letters with the pharaohs of Egypt and held their own against their Assyrian and Elamite neighbors. Babylonia's internal workings, however, remain understood in their outlines only, as do its elite's expansionary ambitions, the degrees to which they may have been realized, and the nature of ensuing imperial encounters. This is especial…
Dating Knossos and the arrival of the earliest Neolithic in the southern Aegean
There and back again: Local institutions, an Uruk expansion and the rejection of centralisation in the Sirwan/Upper Diyala region
During the fourth millennium BC, public institutions developed at several large settlements across greater Mesopotamia. These are widely acknowledged as the first cities and states, yet surprisingly little is known about their emergence, functioning and demise. Here, the authors present new evidence of public institutions at the site of Shakhi Kora in the lower Sirwan/upper Diyala river valley of north-east Iraq. A sequence of four Late Chalcolit…
Identification of prehistoric malting and partial grain germination from starch granules in charred barley grains
Tales from the barrels: Results from a multi-proxy analysis of a latrine from Renaissance Copenhagen, Denmark
The combined analyses of grains, seeds, fruits, pollen, animal bones and parasite eggs from a latrine dating from the late 1680s provides us with a detailed view of the diet in a Renaissance neighbourhood in Copenhagen. Analyses show that the residents had access to a varied diet of primarily fish, bread/porridge, and a range of fruits, nuts and herbs, including exotic products deriving from a global trade network. This study also shows that comb…
Further work at Kilise Tepe, 2007-2011: Refining the Bronze to Iron Age transition
The excavations at Kilise Tepe in the 1990s inevitably left a range of research questions unanswered, and our second spell of work at the site from 2007 to 2011 sought to address some of these, relating to the later second and early first millennia. This article gathers the architectural and stratigraphie results of the renewed excavations, presenting the fresh information about the layout and character of the Late Bronze Age North-West Building …
Farming during turbulent times: Agriculture, food crops, and manuring practices in Bronze Age to Viking Age Denmark
Revealing invisible stews: New results of organic residue analyses of Beveled Rim Bowls from the Late Chalcolithic site of Shakhi Kora, Kurdistan Region of Iraq
Beveled Rim Bowls (BRBs) are the most iconic and well-known vessel type of ancient Southwest Asia. Roughly and carelessly produced, these conical bowls are attested in their thousands at 4th millennium BCE sites from southern Iraq and the Persian Gulf to the highlands of eastern Turkey and Iran. Questions regarding their function and relationship with emergent state institutions have stood at the centre of nearly a century of debates about the na…
Excavations at Tell Brak 2006–2007
Excavations at Tell Brak in 2006–7 explored two key episodes in Mesopotamian political and social history, developing early social complexity in the fifth to fourth millennia BC and the shift from territorial state to early empire in the second millennium BC. Late Chalcolithic complexity is represented in Area TW on the main mound and at the outlying sub-mound of Tell Majnuna, while investigation of the Old Babylonian to Mitanni state-to-empire t…
Storage of crops during the fourth and third millennia b.c. at the settlement mound of Tell Brak, northeast Syria
Distribution of crops at late Early Bronze Age Titriş Höyük, southeast Anatolia: Towards a model for the identification of consumers of centrally organised food distribution
Tolerating change at Late Chalcolithic Tell Brak: Responses of an early urban society to an uncertain climate
Recent excavation and survey work in northern Mesopotamia has shown that the Late Chalcolithic urban-based society, based on rain-fed agriculture, in many ways matches that of southern Mesopotamian Uruk civilisation where irrigation agriculture is attributed a key role. This northern civilisation thrived for some thousand years from the late 5th to 4th millennium BC. Reconstruction of the climate of the region during this period suggests that a c…
Further work at Kilise Tepe, 2007-2011: Refining the Bronze to Iron Age transition
The excavations at Kilise Tepe in the 1990s inevitably left a range of research questions unanswered, and our second spell of work at the site from 2007 to 2011 sought to address some of these, relating to the later second and early first millennia. This article gathers the architectural and stratigraphie results of the renewed excavations, presenting the fresh information about the layout and character of the Late Bronze Age North-West Building …
Ritual and Identity in Rural Mesopotamia: Hirbemerdon Tepe and the Upper Tigris River Valley in the Middle Bronze Age
International audience
Isotope evidence for agricultural extensification reveals how the world's first cities were fed
Dating Knossos and the arrival of the earliest Neolithic in the southern Aegean
Tales from the barrels: Results from a multi-proxy analysis of a latrine from Renaissance Copenhagen, Denmark
The combined analyses of grains, seeds, fruits, pollen, animal bones and parasite eggs from a latrine dating from the late 1680s provides us with a detailed view of the diet in a Renaissance neighbourhood in Copenhagen. Analyses show that the residents had access to a varied diet of primarily fish, bread/porridge, and a range of fruits, nuts and herbs, including exotic products deriving from a global trade network. This study also shows that comb…
Revealing invisible brews: A new approach to the chemical identification of ancient beer
Babylonian Encounters in the Upper Diyala River Valley: Contextualizing the Results of Regional Survey and the 2016-2017 Excavations at Khani Masi
Kassite Babylonia counts among the great powers of the Late Bronze Age Near East. Its kings exchanged diplomatic letters with the pharaohs of Egypt and held their own against their Assyrian and Elamite neighbors. Babylonia's internal workings, however, remain understood in their outlines only, as do its elite's expansionary ambitions, the degrees to which they may have been realized, and the nature of ensuing imperial encounters. This is especial…
Fragments of meals in eastern Denmark from the Viking Age to the Renaissance: New evidence from organic remains in latrines
A series of latrines from Denmark, spanning the periods Viking Age to Renaissance (800s–1680s AD), have been analysed for their contents of macroscopic plant remains, pollen, and animal bones. Here we present the results and discuss the findings in relation to ancient meals. The latrines cover a period of roughly 900 years, enabling us to trace the introduction of certain types of food and the disappearance of others over time. Some plant foods h…
Identification of prehistoric malting and partial grain germination from starch granules in charred barley grains
The lost landscape of Borgring: Geoarchaeological investigations into the navigation to, and location of, the Danish Viking Age ring fortress
Geoarchaeological investigations at Borgring, a recently identified Danish Viking Age ring fortress, reconstructs the original landscape showing how the site was expanded and modified to accommodate a structure of pre-defined size and how this large-scale project demonstrates the willingness to invest significant resources in its precise positioning. The investigations also assess the possibility of navigating along the nearby stream from the coa…
Revealing invisible stews: New results of organic residue analyses of Beveled Rim Bowls from the Late Chalcolithic site of Shakhi Kora, Kurdistan Region of Iraq
Beveled Rim Bowls (BRBs) are the most iconic and well-known vessel type of ancient Southwest Asia. Roughly and carelessly produced, these conical bowls are attested in their thousands at 4th millennium BCE sites from southern Iraq and the Persian Gulf to the highlands of eastern Turkey and Iran. Questions regarding their function and relationship with emergent state institutions have stood at the centre of nearly a century of debates about the na…
An archaeomagnetic intensity-based search for order in the chaos of the destruction of Hama (Syria) dated to 720 BCE
Farming during turbulent times: Agriculture, food crops, and manuring practices in Bronze Age to Viking Age Denmark
Infant Care in Early Bronze Age Syria: Newly Identified Clay Rattles at Hama
International audience
Years and Counting: Ongoing research on Hama, inland Western Syria
Between 1931 and 1938, a team of Danish archaeologists excavated the ancient site of Hama in inland Western Syria. A substantial portion of the discovered artifacts has been preserved in the National Museum of Denmark. Since then, sporadic research on the collection has been carried out. Most recently, two interdisciplinary research projects have initiated a range of analyses, including petrography, 14C dating, archaeomagnetism, residue analysis,…
There and back again: Local institutions, an Uruk expansion and the rejection of centralisation in the Sirwan/Upper Diyala region
During the fourth millennium BC, public institutions developed at several large settlements across greater Mesopotamia. These are widely acknowledged as the first cities and states, yet surprisingly little is known about their emergence, functioning and demise. Here, the authors present new evidence of public institutions at the site of Shakhi Kora in the lower Sirwan/upper Diyala river valley of north-east Iraq. A sequence of four Late Chalcolit…
All the way from the Baltic: Amber beads from an Iron Age grave at Hama, western Syria
Widening and diversifying trade networks are often cited among the boom and bust of Bronze and Iron Age worlds. The great distances that goods could travel during these periods are exemplified here as the authors describe the spectroscopic identification of Baltic amber beads in an Iron Age cremation grave at Hama in Syria. Yet these beads are not unique in the Near Eastern record; as the authors show, comparable finds and references to amber or …
Food remains from Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age Hama, Syria: Exploring the cooking practices and culinary catchment zone of an ancient city
Evaluating microstructural malting identification markers in charred archaeological cereal grains
Identifying ancient malting and brewing practices provides key insights into diet, technology, and social practices. This study evaluates the diagnostic reliability of microstructural malting markers in 50 charred cereal grains from six Danish archaeological sites spanning 1–1650 CE. Using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), two proposed methodologies for detecting malting were assessed: amylolytic modification of starch granules and thinning of …
Archaeology (18 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (16 works) · Geography (16 works) · History (12 works) · Ancient history (11 works) · Bronze Age (9 works) · Ancient Near East History (8 works) · Biology (6 works) · Excavation (6 works) · Archaeology and Historical Studies (5 works)