Agency and Identity in the Ancient Near East: New Paths Forward (Approaches to Anthropological Archaeology)

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Agency and Identity in the Ancient Near East New Paths Forward

edited by Sharon R. Steadman and Jennifer C. Ross

Equinox Publishing Ltd

.

e~ulnox London

Oakville

Contents

vii

Acknowledgments I.

Agency and Identity in the Ancient Near East: New Paths Forward Jennifer C. Ross and Sharon R. Steadman

1

I. THE AGENCY OF PLACE

2. Published by UK: USA:

~~~nCox2P8uMblislhlsng Ltd., ,

I Chelsea Manor Studios, Flood Street, London SW3 5SR an treet, Oakville, CT 06779

3.

www.equlnoxpub.com

4.

First published 20 I0

Movement Across the Landscape and Residential Stability: Agency and Place in the Southern Levantine Early Bronze Age Jennifer E. Jones

13

Agency, Architecture, and Archaeology: Prehistoric Settlements in Central Anatolia Sharon R. Steadman

27

Agents in Motion Scott Branting

47

© Sharon R. Steadman and Jennifer C. Ross 20 I 0

II. THE AGENCY OF DAILY PRACTICE

All rights reserved. No part of this publication rna be reproduced or transmitted In any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, Including hotoco In y without prior permission In writing ~rom th:~u~il;~~~:.dlng or any Information storage or retrieval system, Library of Congress Catalogulng-In-Publicatlon Data A catalogue record for this book Is available from the Library of Congress ISBN

9781845534431

(hardback)

Typeset by Forthcoming Publications Ltd www.forthcomlngpublicatlons.com

5.

6.

7.

Printed and bound In the UK by CPI Antony Rowe, Chlppenham and Eastbourne

8.

Subsistence Actions at C;:atalhoyi.il< Nerissa Russell and Amy Bogaard

63

The Scribal Artifact: Technological Innovation In the Urul< Period Jennifer C. Ross

80

Shared Painting: The Practice of Decorating Late Neolithic Pottery in Northern Mesopotamia A. Gabriela Castro Gessner

99

Early Islamic Pottery: Evidence of a Revolution in Diet and Dining Habits? Jodi Magness

117

vi

AGENCY AND IDENTITY IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST

Acknowledgments

III. THE AGENCY OF POWER

9.

Material Culture and Identity: Assyrians, Aramaeans

a~d the Indigenous Peoples of Iron Age Southeaster~ Anatolia

TImothy Matney 10.

II.

12.

129

Object Agency? Spatial Perspective, Social Relations, and the Stele of Hammurabi Marian H. Feldman Akkad and Agency, Archaeology and Annals: Considering Power and Intent in Third-Millennium BCE Mesopotamia Anne Porter Agency, Identity, and the Hittite State Gregory McMahon

148

166

181

IV. BEYOND AGENCY 13.

Beyond Agency: Identity and Individuals In Archaeology A. Bernard Knapp

About the Contributors Index

193 201 203

The editors would like to thank a number of people without whom this project would not have been completed. First and foremost, we extend our gratitude to our authors, whose willingness to embark on the project gave us heart that it could be done, and whose ideas and words have inspired us in ways we hope this book embodies and expresses. Special thanks go to A. Bernard Knapp, for his patience and interest in the central themes of the volume, his willingness to participate in all stages of its development, and for his crucial final chapter which not only provides an excellent synthesis but moves the volume forward, 'beyond agency'. This book was 'born' on a journey through the Lake District in Turkey, a lovely vacation after a season of excavation, taken with Greg McMahon and his daughter, Megan. We thank the McMahons for bearing with us on that trip, and debating the utility of agency studies, an apt activity that foreshadowed the debates our authors engaged in while developing their chapters (and the lively conversations we had as groups when we saw each other at ASOR and other venues). Appropriately, the volume has come together in a pair of meetings at another vacation spot, the home of Bill and Cathy Siegl, jennifer's in-laws, in the Poconos. We are grateful for the hospitality of the Siegls, who are not responsible for any flaws (or broken dishes) in the final product. We also thank our husbands, who sustained us not only during these meetings, but through the entire process. An acknowledgement of Tom Levy's support for the inclusion of our volume in the Approaches to Anthropological Archaeology series is much deserved, and we close by thanking the entire staff at Equinox for their help in bringing this volume to fruition.

1

Agency and Identity in the Ancient

Near East New Paths Forward Jennifer c. Ross and Sharon R. Steadman

Defining Agency The concepts of 'agency' and 'identity' have been incorporated into archaeological theory, and sometimes practice, since the 1980s and 1990s, as part of a realignment of the archaeological endeavor under post-processualisJl1. In the theoretical literature of the 1980s, scholars advocated shifting the focus of archaeology from the reconstruction of culture and from cultural and environmental constraints upon action (often termed 'structure') to the study of individuals as active producers of and participants in society (Hodder 1986, 2(00). As is the case with much archaeological theory, agency and identity concepts have been derived from other disciplines-in this case, archaeology's sister disciplines of anthropology (BourdieuJ 977, 1990) and sociology (Giddens 1979,1984). In these fields, the study of individuals and small groups had long been emphasized, with some prominence given to verbal and material self-representation. 'Agency' may be defined as the human capacity for motivated, reflexive action having some consequence (if not always an expected or intended outcome). Agency pertains to individuals and groups; it may also, more controversially, be applied to objects (Gell 1998; see Feldman, this volume). 'Identity' studies recognize that an individual may have many simultaneous, as well as consecutive, identities during her or his lifetime (Meske II 20(1). These identities may include sex, gender, age, socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, religion, and occupation. An individual can choose to accentuate some aspects of her identity and to suppress others; a second person might select still other features in describing the first, demonstrating the contingent and discursive nature of identity. Often identity has a material component, as an individual1l1ay produce, manipulate or use objects or spaces in expressing identity. It is this material expression that makes agency and identity so appropriate and conducive to archaeological analysis. The microscale implementation of excavation offers archaeologists a window onto the actions and self-representations of past individuals, within speciflc historical and cultural contexts. So far, archaeological work on identity and agency has been very much 'contextdependent', contingent on one's scholarly background and geographic and chronological focus (see Porter, this volume). British archaeologists have taken on l11uch of the theoretical and practical work on agency, perhaps owing to the derivation of the theory from Anthony Giddens's theory of 'structuration' (Barrett 20()1). Archaeological work on identity has beenl110re widespread, but has focused, in particular, on ethnic and gender identity (jones 1997; Meske1l2002; Meskell and Joyce 2()03 ).

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AGENCY AND IDENTITY IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST

For scholars workin ' h N , , glUt e ear East, concepts of agency d 'd ' h lIttle lUtO our practices and ideas Th h b an 1 entIty ave penetrated very , I ' ere as een some research on t' I ' , partlcu arly ethnicity (Emberling 1997) d d (A h rna ena expressIOns of Identity, er Eastern archaeology has long been orient:~ t gen d IS er-h