ASOR committees focusing on work in Syria and Iraq have been functioning for decades to coordinate American research efforts in these countries while actual Institutes are not possible. Committee members include scholars from around the country.

The Baghdad Committee (whose formal name is the Committee on Mesopotamian Civilization) oversees the production of the Journal of Cuneiform Studies, has published a newsletter on archaeological and other research in Iraq, has coordinated field projects throughout Iraq, and for a period of time had an Institute functioning in Baghdad. The committee offers the Mesopotamian Fellowship for researchers studying the region, through the generosity of the James B. Nies bequest. Review the recent efforts of ASOR members and staff to help rebuild archaeology in Iraq on our Iraq information page or read a history of ASOR's Baghdad School which operated in Iraq from 1923-1969.

The Damascus Committee has been functioning for a shorter period of time. It serves as a clearinghouse for information on projects in Syria, expedites research work in that country as much as possible, supports the excavation of a key ancient site at Tell Qarqur in the Orontes River Valley, and has provided a newsletter for interested researchers.

ASOR members present reports on their current research in Mesopotamia and Syria at our Annual Meeting. Read abstracts from the 2004 Meeting from the sessions Archaeology of Mesopotamia I and Archaeology of Mesopotamia II, and those from nearby areas such as those in Archaeology of Syria and Anatolia session I and session II

Current fellow:

Past fellowship recipients:

2006/2007

       Aubrey Baadsgaard (PhD student, University of Pennsylvania)
       "The Social Social Dynamics of Dress in Early Dynastic Mesopotamia "

2005/2006

Jacob Lauinger (PhD student, University of Chicago)
"Unpublished Old Babylonian/Middle Bronze Age Tablets from Alalakh (Level VII), their Archival Context, and their Chronological Implications"

2004/2005

Sevil Baltali (PhD student, University of Virginia)
"Domestic Architecture, Use of Space and Social Organization in Uruk period Northern Mesopotamia"

2003/2004

Bekir Gürdil (PhD student, UCLA)
"Degirmentepe Social Organization and the Ubaid Period of Greater Mesopotamia"

2002/2003

Sarah Graff (PhD student, University of Chicago)
"Production and Distribution in Spatial and Historical Context: the Case of Northwestern Syria"

2001/2002

Jennifer Pournelle (PhD student, University of California - San Diego)
"The Littoral Foundations of the Sumerian State: Southern Mesopotamian Alluvial Landscapes"

2000/2001

Jason Ur (PhD student, University of Chicago)
"Upper Khabur Basin Archaeological Survey"

Britt Hartenberger (PhD student, Boston University), supplemental fellowship (declined)
"Analysis of the Organization of Household and Specialized Craft Production at Titris Höyük in the Context of Regional Chipped Stone Industries"

1999/2000

Seth Richardson (PhD student, Columbia University)
"The Collapse of a Complex State: The End of the Old Babylonian Period at Sippar, 1641 - 1621 B.C.E."

1998/1999

Christopher Edens (post-doctoral, University of Pennsylvania Museum)
"Technological Style and Chipped Stone: Sickle Blades and the Uruk expansion in southeast Turkey"

Tonia Sharlach (PhD student, Harvard University), supplemental fellowship
"Bala: Economic Exchange between Center and Provinces in the Ur III State"

1997/1998

Cheryl Coursey (PhD student, SUNY Binghamton)
"Pretty Pots for Hot Shots? Intrasite Variability in Ceramic Production and Consumption during the Halaf Period (c. 6000-5200 B.C.)"

1996/1997

Michael Danti (PhD student, University of Pennsylvania)
"An Archaeological Survey of the Tell es-Sweyhat Region, Syria"

1995/1996

Kathryn Slanski (PhD student, Harvard University)
"The Form and Function of the Babylonian kudurrus"

1994/1995

Bradley Parker (PhD student, UCLA)
"Economics and Empire: The Role of Commercial Interaction in Imperial Expansion on the Northern Frontier of Assyria"

1993/1994

Eleonora Cussini (PhD, Johns Hopkins University)
"A Paleographic Study of the Imperial Aramaic Argillary Script"

1992/1993

Stephen Lumsden (PhD, Bilkent University, Turkey)
"Applications of Remote Sensing for the Study of Nineveh"

1991/1992

Melody Pope (PhD student, SUNY Binghamton)
"The Economy and Organization of Chipped Stone Tool Production and use during the Uruk and Jemdet Nasr Periods in Alluvial Mesopotamia"

1990/1991

Asli Ozyar (PhD student, Bryn Mawr College)
"The Program and Context of Southeast Anatolian Relief Orthostats"

1989/1990

John Russell (PhD, Columbia University)
"Sennacherib's Palace: An Archaeological Test of Cuneiform Sources"

1988/1989  (no fellow)

1987/1988

Dianna Bolt (Univ. of California, Berkeley)
"Archaeological and Osteological Analysis of Tell Mohammed 'Arab burials: A Study in Social, Occupational and Health Status"

1986/1987

Zainab Bahrani (PhD student, New York University)
"The Pottery of al Hiba, Area C"

1985/1986

Edward M. Luby (PhD student, SUNY Stony Brook)
"Social Class and Burial Data in Early Dynastic Mesopotamia"

1984/1985

Diana Stein (Harvard Semitic Museum / Oriental Inst., London)
"An Archaeological and Sociological Study of the Cylinder Seal Impressions from Nuzi in Iraq"

1983/1984

Susan Pollock (University of Michigan)
"Artifacts and Social Categories in the Royal Cemetery of Ur"

1982/1983

Glenn Schwartz (PhD, Yale University)
"The Tell Leilan Sequence Applied: A Relative Chronology for Northern Mesopotamia and Syria-Palestine"

1981/1982  (no fellow)
1980/1981  Daniel Potts
1979/1980  Richard L. Zettler
1978/1979  Yoko Tomabechi
1976/1977  (no fellow)
1975/1976  (no fellow)
1974/1975  Elizabeth Jewell
1973/1974  Coreitha Qualls
1972/1974  Norman Yoffee
1971/1972  Elizabeth Carter
1970/1971  Stephen Lieberman

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