Back in the field and looking good! Stay tuned for updates on our 4th (wow!!) season at Qach Rresh, an Assyrian-Achaemenid admin site in Iraqi Kurdistan! 🏺 🪏 🤓

I'm here at Harvard! Giving a talk today on Assyrian control and our results from excavating at Qach Rresh. Pop in if you're in Cambridge! 🏺😁

Red wine, dog, and getting this dang (overdue) draft done. 🍷🖋️

We still have a lot of work to do at QR, but it's already changing the way we're thinking of centralized Assyrian administration in the countryside, not just urban areas! And the tons of post-Assyrian material at the site is starting to help us target an under-studied period, too. Stay tuned! 😉

The main admin buildings were largely abandoned following imperial collapse, instead being used as dumping areas in post -Assyrian/Achaemenid periods.

🚨New excavation results!🚨 🏺

Our first results from excavations at Qach Rresh in Iraqi Kurdistan are published! QR is a site founded in the rural core of the Assyria at the empire's height (c. 700 BCE). It was likely used for administering rural production.

OA link: doi.org/10.1017/irq....

Was NOT expecting this when I moved down to Atlanta... The pup is delighted, though.❄️🐶

And an obligatory face photo 📸

Happy first day of the new year, brought to you by 3.5 Ramesses IIs.

Not a bad view for Christmas Eve.

In Oman! Troubleshooting drones and taking photos of camels 😍🏺

When a part of your UAV camera rig breaks 24 hours before heading out to the field, you make an emergency trip to the 3D printer... #Fridaythe13th 🏺

Testing out the new thermal camera for aerial thermography, so you can bet that the pup is the first subject. 🐶🌄

I'm giving a talk today at 2:25p in the Arlington room! Come hear our results from the 2024 season of RLIIM working at Qach Rresh, a Neo-Assyrian-Achaemenid site on the Erbil Plain. #ASOR24

Tomorrow on Thurs in the Arlington room, we have an awesome lineup in our Empires session at #ASOR24 ! Starting bright and early at 8:15 and filling up three sessions with great papers. Looking forward to seeing you, ASOR friends!!

Insanely happy to see all the RLIIM team members who presented their awesome research (both RLIIM-related and not) at ASOR this year! How do I get to work with such cool people??

Well that's... a delightful and unexpected thing to find in your inbox on Monday morning!

Had to slip in SOMETHING cheesy for Halloween in the lecture for today....