Iraq's Marsh Arabs in the Garden of Eden
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Museum Publication
Published: November 5, 2004
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 285
ISBN-13: 9781931707749
Subjects: Middle East - General; Marshes; History; Archaeology / Anthropology; Tigris-Euphrates Delta (Iraq and Iran); History: World; Tigris-Euphrates Delta (Iraq a; Material culture; Archaeology; Ethnology; Iraq
First sentence: In 1968 a discovery that would change my research focus from ancient pottery to ethnoarchaeology occurred during my second week as part of a team excavating at al-Hiba, an eroded mound on the edge of the marshes of southern Iraq.
Description: "From 1968 to 1990, Edward Ochsenschlager conducted ethno-archaeological fieldwork near a mound called al-Hiba, in the marshes of southern Iraq. In examining the material culture of three tribes - their use of mud, reed, wood, and bitumen, and their husbandry of cattle, water buffalo, and sheep - he chronicles what is now a lost way of life. He helps us understand ancient manufacturing processes, an artifact's significance and the skill of those who create and use it, and the substantial moral authority wielded by village craftspeople. He reveals the complexities involved in the process of change, both natural and enforced."--Jacket.