This volume is a tribute dedicated to Karin Bartl, former director of the Damascus Branch of the German Archaeological Institute´s Orient Department, who in her career has conducted extensive research in the field of Near Eastern Archaeology and beyond. The book features 28 papers written by 38 of her colleagues and friends from Afghanistan, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, The Netherlands, Syria and the United States. The various contributions combine archaeological, theoretical, and historical studies ranging from the Neolithic to the Ottoman Period, mainly covering the Levant, but also dealing with the cultural regions of Afghanistan, Turkey, and the Arabian Peninsula including Yemen.

Tabula Gratulatoria

Map of Sites Dealt with in this Volume

Introduction: Karin Bartl – An Appreciation

Publications of Karin Bartl

Ricardo Eichmann: Karin Bartl: eine Würdigung

Mahmoud Hamoud: Elanvolle Jahre im Dienst des Kulturerbes Syriens (Arabic/German) 

Mamoun Fansa: Die Zerstörung des Kulturerbes und der Krieg in Syrien

Hélèn Sader: Archaeology in Lebanon: A Revival

Alexander Ahrens: A Hundred Years Ago: Military Landscapes of the Southern Jordan Valley During World War I 

Michel al-Maqdissi: Notes d’archéologie levantine LXIV: De Khan Sheikhoun à Baghouz – Documents des archives de R. du Mesnil du Buisson (Musée du Louvre)

Ute Franke / Thomas Urban / Khair Mohammad Khairzade: The ‘Musalla’-Complex in Herat Revisited: Recent Archaeological Investigations at the Gawhar Shad Madrasa

Bethany J. Walker: Jordan’s Northern Highlands in the Later Islamic Periods: Rural Prosperity Beyond the Decapolis 

Dörte Rokitta-Krumnow / Franziska Bloch: « Le plaisir est une qualité de peu d’ambition » Gambling and Games in the Near East

Maamoun Abdulkarim / Afaf Laila: The Decorations in the Domestic Architecture in the Village of Sergilla in Northern Syria During the Byzantine Period

Peter M. M. G. Akkermans / Merel L. Brüning: A Late Roman Pastoralist Ironworking Site in the North-Eastern Black Desert, Jordan

Massoud Badawi: Les recherches archéologiques dans la plaine de Jablé et son territoire

Klaus Stefan Freyberger: Die Karawanenstadt Petra im Spannungsfeld zwischen lokaler Tradition und auswärtigen Kulturen im 1. Jh. v. Chr.

Mechthild Ladurner: Felswohnanlagen in Petra: Möglichkeiten der Erfassung und Analyse des Felswohnbaus in der Haupstadt des Nabatäerreiches

Sarah Japp: Die sogenannten Fenestrated Vessels: Eine spezifische Form von Weihrauchbrennern im sabäischen Südarabien

Kristina Pfeiffer: Zoomed into the Entrance: Some Features on the Tomb Site of Dibba 76 / Emirate of Fujairah

Uwe Sievertsen: Die Keramik aus der Nachnutzung des Assyrischen Statthalterpalastes von Tell Halaf

Hans H. Curvers: Tell al-Raqaʾi, Syria (2900–2450 BCE): A Mytho-Poeic Approach

Lutz Martin: Nahe bei den Eltern: Säuglingsbestattungen in der frühbronzezeitlichen Siedlung von Tell Abu Hgaira I in Nordost-Syrien

Giorgio Buccellati / Marilyn Kelly-Buccellati: Archaeological Digital Narratives: The Case of Urkesh Ceramics

Bernd Müller-Neuhof: The Surroundings of Jawa (NE-Jordan): An Eastern Outlier of the Dolmen Phenomenon? Late Chalcolithic–Early Bronze Age Transition in Southern Jordan: Changes in Material and Social Structure

Susanne Kerner: Late Chalcolithic–Early Bronze Age Transition in Southern Jordan: Changes in Material and Social Structure

Bernhard Weninger: Construction of Continental-Scale Archaeological Chronologies by Threshold Discrimination of Calibrated 14C-Probability Distributions

Jana Anvari: The Difficulties of Finding and Interpreting Storage Facilities: Thoughts from the Central Anatolian Neolithic

Gary Rollefson: New Light from the Black Desert: A Comparison of Hunter-Herder. Occupation in Wadi al-Qattafi and in Wisad Pools

Felix Levenson: Communal Projects in the Near Eastern Neolithic: Manifestations of Shared Intentionality in Architecture as Part of the Neolithic Revolution and a Common Monumentality

Laura Dietrich / Oliver Dietrich / Jens Notroff: Life and Afterlife of Neolithic “Greenstone” Vessels from Göbekli Tepe

Zeidan Kafafi: The Pre-Pottery Neolithic A Horizon in Jordan: A Synthesis

List of Contributors