Papers by Jason R Kennedy
From Households to Empires: Papers in Memory of Bradley J. Parker, 2023
This paper reviews Bradley Parker's analysis of household activities at Kenan Tepe. Our goal is t... more This paper reviews Bradley Parker's analysis of household activities at Kenan Tepe. Our goal is to review his findings from the analysis of microarchaeological data from the Burnt House, labelled Ubaid Structure 4, and the surfaces and storage facilities surrounding it. We will then combine this data with the findings from ground stone and ceramic use alteration analyses to add another activity present in the Burnt House: beer
production. Our approach to household archaeology here broadly follows Bradley’s work as a means to investigate the activities of the inhabitants of the Ubaid period structures through spatial analysis and detailed examinations of artifacts.
From Households to Empires: Papers in Memory of Bradley J. Parker, 2023
What Does This Have to Do with Archaeology? Essays on the Occasion of the 65th Birthday of Reinhard Bernbeck, 2023
One of the central concerns of Reinhard Bernbeck’s career has been the exploration and exposition... more One of the central concerns of Reinhard Bernbeck’s career has been the exploration and exposition of power and the deleterious effects that state institutions have on marginalized peoples. Working with Reinhard was an awakening experience in my own reflections on power dynamics in the past and the present. In this paper, I want to expand on an interpretative possibility that Reinhard and Sarah Costello expressed in their analysis of the Late Chalcolithic hamlet of Yenice Yanı 1 in southeastern Turkey (Bernbeck and Costello 2011). This paper will review the commensal practices of the Late Chalcolithic 3 in the Upper Tigris River valley and contrast those practices with the contemporaneous food distribution systems of emerging centralized institutions in northern Mesopotamia. Building on Reinhard and Sarah’s analysis of the Yenice Yanı 1 materials, I will explore the Late Chalcolithic 3 ceramic assemblage consisting of large ‘hammerhead bowls’ and ‘casseroles’ as the material remnants of acts of resistance to the reshaping of commensal relations created by the distribution of rations by emerging elites and centralizing institutions in northern Mesopotamia. I suggest that emphasizing collective food consumption through shared serving vessels was a direct act of resistance to the individualizing tendency of elite distributed rations that expressed centralized authority in northern Mesopotamia in the mid-4th millennium BCE.
Archaeology of Food and Foodways, 2023
The archaeology of beer has received significant attention in the last three decades. However, ma... more The archaeology of beer has received significant attention in the last three decades. However, many studies focus on the special role that beer played in sumptuous prestige feasts and for conducting commensal politics, with an emphasis on elite motivations. In this paper, I view the production of beer as a cornerstone of state exploitation in the early states of Egypt and Mesopotamia. I will briefly outline the archaeological and glyptic evidence for beer production in the early historic periods of the ancient Near East, and its role in providing for the workforce of the early state. The consumption of beer as payment for state-sponsored labor projects changes the commensal dynamics of society. Repeatedly consuming daily rations of beer at the location of labor creates an identity as worker and subject; that is, as one who works for someone else for their subsistence. In this sense, beer may have been crucial in creating class identity for the worker, as well as providing the means of control for the elites in society who organized its production and distribution.
Paléorient, 2022
Excavations at Kenan Tepe by the Upper Tigris Archaeological Research Project (UTARP) revealed fo... more Excavations at Kenan Tepe by the Upper Tigris Archaeological Research Project (UTARP) revealed four phases of Ubaid period occupation. The goal of this paper is to place the final phase of occupation at the site, Kenan Tepe Ubaid phase 4 (KTU phase 4), into a broader regional context, and to situate the KTU phase 4 ceramic assemblage within the Ubaid to post-Ubaid transition (Late Chalcolithic 1) of greater Mesopotamia. Recent excavations and studies from throughout Greater Mesopotamia have highlighted the local variation of this transition. This paper will compare the materials from KTU phase 4 to other sites in the Upper Tigris region to provide an overview of regional character during this time in the Tigris Valley in southeastern Turkey. Additionally, I will present the results of the use-alteration analysis from the KTU phase 4 occupation to outline the function of ceramics and the daily practices of the inhabitants of Kenan Tepe. This analysis could aid in identifying regional variations of ceramic use that can highlight differences in social and economic organizations within communities during the Ubaid to post-Ubaid transition.
BASOR, 2010
Research on Ubaid ceramics has traditionally focused on categorizing and describing ceramic types... more Research on Ubaid ceramics has traditionally focused on categorizing and describing ceramic types or building chronologies. Only in a few cases have researchers sought a broader understanding of Ubaid assemblages by focusing on the quantification, rather than the qualification, of Ubaid ceramic data. In this study, we analyze the entirety of the Ubaid ceramic assemblage from reliable contexts at the site of
Kenan Tepe in southeastern Turkey—a total of 14,333 ceramic sherds. In sorting the ceramics by fabric, form, surface treatment, rim type, and vessel size, this study provides statistically significant empirical data pertaining to three avenues of analysis. First, we focus on the characteristics of the overall assemblage of Ubaid ceramics from Kenan Tepe. Second, we analyze the data diachronically to highlight stability
and change through the four phases of Ubaid occupation at Kenan Tepe. And third, we investigate the spatial distribution of part of the assemblage in and around a large Ubaid-period domestic structure. We contend that quantitative studies of entire excavated ceramic assemblages allow researchers a more complete understanding of
ceramic assemblages, provide a firmer foundation for theorizing vessel function, and offer the tools to make empirically based assessments of ancient lifeways.
Books by Jason R Kennedy
From Households to Empires: Papers in Memory of Bradley J. Parker, 2023
Bradley J. Parker made numerous contributions to the field of archaeology and Assyriology on a br... more Bradley J. Parker made numerous contributions to the field of archaeology and Assyriology on a broad array of topics spanning six millennia of archaeological history in both ancient Mesopotamia and the Andes. His varied research interests included the archaeology of empires and imperial dynamics, frontiers and borderlands, households and micro-archaeology, ethnoarchaeology, aerial drone mapping, and the politics of archaeology and nationalism.
This volume contains a collection of essays from his friends, colleagues and former students that cover three broad themes: household archaeology, frontiers and borderlands, and the archaeology of empire. Our goal is to explore Bradley’s indelible legacy in the field of archaeology and how his work will contribute to academic discourses in the future.
Dissertation by Jason R Kennedy
Unpublished Dissertation, 2019
Recent scholarship on the Ubaid period of greater Mesopotamia has suggested that elites used expe... more Recent scholarship on the Ubaid period of greater Mesopotamia has suggested that elites used expediently produced scraped bowls served as ration containers for dependent laborers, while painted Ubaid vessels functioned as prestige items for emergent elites during the Terminal Ubaid (Late Chalcolithic 1, 4400-4200 BCE) period of northern Mesopotamia. However, little evidence supporting the existence of social hierarchies has been discovered at Terminal Ubaid sites in northern Mesopotamia. The central hypothesis of this dissertation is that scraped bowls were used in sporadic feasts to recruit extra-household labor during times of labor shortage by households of roughly similar social standing. Rather than serving as prestige wares, I also suggest painted ceramics were used in the daily contexts of food consumption. The ceramic use-alteration analysis of the Ubaid pottery from Kenan Tepe in Diyarbakir Province, southeastern Turkey was designed to explore this hypothetical case further by addressing whether painted ceramics and coarse, scraped bowls were used by different socio-economic groups, namely elites and commoners, or whether these types of pottery were used in different social contexts by people of similar social standing. The patterns of ceramic use observed can reconstruct the practices of daily preparation and consumption of food and the commensal relationships formed by the consumption of food in the Ubaid community at Kenan Tepe.
Conference Presentations by Jason R Kennedy
SAA Annual Meeting, 2023
The Copacabana Peninsula of Lake Titicaca, in modern Bolivia and Peru, is a landscape that has be... more The Copacabana Peninsula of Lake Titicaca, in modern Bolivia and Peru, is a landscape that has been heavily modified through the construction of stone-walled terraces on the slopes facing the shores of Lake Titicaca and the intermontane valley systems. Previous research by the Yaya-Mama Archaeological Project has demonstrated that terrace construction began during the Early Horizon period and continued through the Late Horizon occupation and represents accretional construction organized by small-scale communities united through religious ceremony and heterarchical organization. The quality of their construction is attested by the fact
that many of the ancient terraces are still in use by modern Aymara communities. However, the difficult terrain, sheer scale of ancient construction, and the abandonment or destruction of the ancient terraces have prevented archaeologists from accurate measurements of the terrace system. This poster presents the results of a preliminary study using digitally mapped extant terraces as training data for a support vector machine learning classification of multispectral satellite imagery collected from Planet Labs. The terrace systems identified in this classification help to reconstruct agricultural activity of the ancient communities of the Copacabana Peninsula.
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Papers by Jason R Kennedy
production. Our approach to household archaeology here broadly follows Bradley’s work as a means to investigate the activities of the inhabitants of the Ubaid period structures through spatial analysis and detailed examinations of artifacts.
Kenan Tepe in southeastern Turkey—a total of 14,333 ceramic sherds. In sorting the ceramics by fabric, form, surface treatment, rim type, and vessel size, this study provides statistically significant empirical data pertaining to three avenues of analysis. First, we focus on the characteristics of the overall assemblage of Ubaid ceramics from Kenan Tepe. Second, we analyze the data diachronically to highlight stability
and change through the four phases of Ubaid occupation at Kenan Tepe. And third, we investigate the spatial distribution of part of the assemblage in and around a large Ubaid-period domestic structure. We contend that quantitative studies of entire excavated ceramic assemblages allow researchers a more complete understanding of
ceramic assemblages, provide a firmer foundation for theorizing vessel function, and offer the tools to make empirically based assessments of ancient lifeways.
Books by Jason R Kennedy
This volume contains a collection of essays from his friends, colleagues and former students that cover three broad themes: household archaeology, frontiers and borderlands, and the archaeology of empire. Our goal is to explore Bradley’s indelible legacy in the field of archaeology and how his work will contribute to academic discourses in the future.
Dissertation by Jason R Kennedy
Conference Presentations by Jason R Kennedy
that many of the ancient terraces are still in use by modern Aymara communities. However, the difficult terrain, sheer scale of ancient construction, and the abandonment or destruction of the ancient terraces have prevented archaeologists from accurate measurements of the terrace system. This poster presents the results of a preliminary study using digitally mapped extant terraces as training data for a support vector machine learning classification of multispectral satellite imagery collected from Planet Labs. The terrace systems identified in this classification help to reconstruct agricultural activity of the ancient communities of the Copacabana Peninsula.
production. Our approach to household archaeology here broadly follows Bradley’s work as a means to investigate the activities of the inhabitants of the Ubaid period structures through spatial analysis and detailed examinations of artifacts.
Kenan Tepe in southeastern Turkey—a total of 14,333 ceramic sherds. In sorting the ceramics by fabric, form, surface treatment, rim type, and vessel size, this study provides statistically significant empirical data pertaining to three avenues of analysis. First, we focus on the characteristics of the overall assemblage of Ubaid ceramics from Kenan Tepe. Second, we analyze the data diachronically to highlight stability
and change through the four phases of Ubaid occupation at Kenan Tepe. And third, we investigate the spatial distribution of part of the assemblage in and around a large Ubaid-period domestic structure. We contend that quantitative studies of entire excavated ceramic assemblages allow researchers a more complete understanding of
ceramic assemblages, provide a firmer foundation for theorizing vessel function, and offer the tools to make empirically based assessments of ancient lifeways.
This volume contains a collection of essays from his friends, colleagues and former students that cover three broad themes: household archaeology, frontiers and borderlands, and the archaeology of empire. Our goal is to explore Bradley’s indelible legacy in the field of archaeology and how his work will contribute to academic discourses in the future.
that many of the ancient terraces are still in use by modern Aymara communities. However, the difficult terrain, sheer scale of ancient construction, and the abandonment or destruction of the ancient terraces have prevented archaeologists from accurate measurements of the terrace system. This poster presents the results of a preliminary study using digitally mapped extant terraces as training data for a support vector machine learning classification of multispectral satellite imagery collected from Planet Labs. The terrace systems identified in this classification help to reconstruct agricultural activity of the ancient communities of the Copacabana Peninsula.