Harvey Weiss
Professor of Near Eastern Archaeology in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and Anthropology and Environmental Studies
Bio
Personal Information
Professor Weiss' research interests include Mesopotamia, early agriculture, cities and empires; Holocene paleoclimatology and environmental change. Additionally, Professor Weiss has been the Director since 1978 of the Tell Leilan Project (www.leilan.yale.edu), which has redefined the relationships between dynamic natural and social forces in the third millennium B.C. through excavation, GPS/GIS-implemented regional survey and paleoclimatology investigations at one of the largest archaeological sites in Syria. The project is now engaged in the retrieval and analysis of the Akkadian Palace, and is collapse (2200 BC), at Tell Leilan. Yale Tell Leilan Research volumes 3 and 4 are in preparation.
Background
Education: Ph.D. 1976, University of Pennsylvania.
Yale University: Professor, Anthropology, Near East Language and Civilization, and Environmental Studies.
Research: Mesopotamia, early agriculture, cities and empires; Holocene paleoclimatology and environmental change. Director, Tell Leilan Project, Syria, 1978—present.
Recent Publications
- 2008 — Micro- and Macro-Contexts of the Tell Leilan Eastern Lower Town Palace Archives, in Jesper Eidem, The Eastern Lower Town Palace Archives. Yale Tell Leilan Research, volume 2. New Haven: Yale University Press (with Lauren Ristvet).
- 2006 — Holocene Climate and Cultural Evolution in Late Prehistoric-Early Historic West Asia," in M. Staubwasser and H. Weiss, eds., Holocene Climate and Cultural Evolution in Late Prehistoric-Early Historic West Asia. Quaternary Research (special issue) Volume 66, Issue 3 (November), pp. 372-387 (with M. Staubwasser).
- 2005 — The Habur Region in the Late Third and Early Second Millennium B.C., in W. Orthmann, ed., The History and Archaeology of Syria. Vol. 1. Saarbrucken: Saarbrucken Verlag (with Lauren Ristvet).
- 2003 — Ninevite 5 Periods and Processes in E. Rova and H. Weiss, eds., The Origins of North Mesopotamian Civilization. Brepols. Subartu IX. Pp. 593-625.
- 2001 — What Drives Societal Collapse? (with Raymond Bradley) Science 291 (26 January): 609-610.
Contact Information
harvey.weiss@yale.edu
B13 Hall of Graduate Studies
432-4080 (Office)