Ebla Chora Landscape Studies – Trends in Settlement Patterns from the Early Bronze to the Iron Age

Agnese Vacca is an archaeologist of the Ancient Near East. She obtained her PhD in Near Eastern Archaeology at Sapienza University of Rome in 2014. From 2015 to 2018 she was Research Fellow at the same university (Department of Classics), on behalf of which she was charged with research activities and support for educational tasks. She has participated in research projects with the Sapienza University of Rome (EBLA-CHORA PROJECT, FP7-IDEAS-ERC), the University IULM and the University of Milan (PRIN 2009). She conducted archaeological researches in Syria and Iraq since 2006, at Tell Mardikh/Ebla, Syria (2006-2010, Sapienza University of Rome, directors P. Matthiae and F. Pinnock), Tell Tuqan, Syria (2009-2010, Università del Salento, director F. Baffi) and Tell Surghul/Nigin, Iraq (2015, directors D. Nadali, Sapienza University of Rome, A. Polcaro, Università degli Studi di Perugia). She is Vice-Director of the Italian Archaeological Expedition to the Erbil Plain (MAIPE), Iraqi Kurdistan (director, L. Peyronel, Università degli Studi di Milano).

She collaborates with universities and research institutes, on behalf of which she has been entrusted with the study and publication of archaeological materials and contexts dating to the EB III-IV and to the Ubaid and Late Chalcolithic periods (Tell Mardikh/Ebla - Syria, Sapienza University of Rome; Tell Tuqan - Syria, Università del Salento; Tilmen Höyük - Turkey, Alma Mater Studiorum, Bologna; Tell Helawa - Iraqi Kurdistan, University of Milan; Hama - Syria, National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen).

Her research focuses on the 4^thand 3^rd millennium BC “first” and “second” urbanization in Upper Mesopotamia and Syria; the definition of local chronologies; social complexity and material culture; technology and ancient economies (organization of the manufacture and specialization, with a special focus on ceramics, and ancient weight systems).

She is the author of several works in peer-reviewed academic journals, series and conference proceedings, including a forthcoming monograph (Materiali e Studi Archeologici di Ebla X, Harrassowitz verlag). She has attended numerous national and international congresses on Near Eastern Archaeology and invited seminars and lectures. She is member of the editorial boards of Studia Eblaitica and Contributi e Materiali di Archeologia Orientale.