Early Mesopotamian Urbanism at Tell Brak, Syria

Professor Augusta McMahon was the Tell Brak Field Director from 2006 to 2011. She has excavated widely in Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Egypt, and Yemen. Her research focuses on late prehistoric and historic Mesopotamia, particularly issues of early urbanism and urban challenges, social stress and warfare, political economy, and sensory archaeology, during the 5th through 1st millennia BC. From 1995 to August 2022, she was a member of the Department of Archaeology at the University of Cambridge; from September 2022, she will be the Professor of Mesopotamian Archaeology at the University of Chicago.