Cybernetica Mesopotamica
Part Two. The Project
The proposal

Publications and dissemination

Giorgio Buccellati – May 2022

The results of our research project will consist primarily of a number of websites and books, that will dovetail to emphasize the theoretical impact of the research. Some of the websites and books will be completed during the first two years of the project, and all of them by the end of the tenure of the project.

Every publication or event will give ample recognition to the support from the Balzan Foundation. We feel strongly that this is a collaborative project with the Foundation, which we will keep well informed about upcoming events. (This is already the case with an important “Convegno” at the Catholic University of Milan on the 4th and 5th of May 2022.)

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Websites

The d-discourse.net website articulates in full detail the theory. It is currently in pro­gress, and access to it is given here only as an indication of what the final website will be (ID and pw “discourse”). It will serve as the basic theoretical statement which is being implemented in the remaining websites undertaken by the project.

The urkesh.org website in its complete form will be fully accessible and will serve as the flagship of the entire system. It will also serve as a hub for the websites, or digital books, devoted to the topical sections and to the excavations units.

The 4banks.net cluster of websites will include all the projected websites except for the one on art.

Needless to say, all websites will be open access.

We give here a synoptic chart of websites and digital books to be completed by the end of the three year period of tenure of the grant. Links are to partially completed versions of these websites.

Theory digital discourse
Urkesh website main website and hub
Urkesh topical books ceramics; glyptic; human figurines; physical anthropology
Urkesh unit books A9; A10; A12;A14; A15; A16; A20; J1; J2; J3; J4; J5; J6
Four banks - second edition methodology
Four banks main hub; religion; politics; literature; language

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Books

We plan to publish two books, one by each of the two PIs in the project. Both will correlate closely two pertinent websites, with the aim to show similarities and difference between the two approaches.

G. Buccellati will publish a book on the website theory as presented in the d-discourse website.

M. Kelly-Buccellati will publish a book on Urkesh ceramics as presented in the ceramics digital book of the Urkesh website.

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Outreach

We have not, to date, made a concerted effort to make our project known. This was due to the fact that only critique-of-AR.net had reached a level of completeness where it could be opened to the public. We will do this now in the measure in which new websites reach the appropriate level of completeness. We will use four main channels, as follows.

Online systems. – We will make known the project and its results on various channels and blogs, promoting an ongoing dialog on the merits of the system.

Round tables. – The PIs and the Deputy PI will organize round tables and workshops at different universities, as had been done already at San Damaso University in Madrid, the Politecnico in Milan and the Catholic University in Milan. Some of the other venues currently being planned are the Pázmány University in Budapest, the University of Pavia and the University of Graz.

Congresses. – The younger members of the staff will present various aspects of the project at different scholarly congresses around the world, as has already been happening in the last two years in both Europe and the US.

Wider public. – We will seek out select media outlets that would be receptive to the deeper instances of what we are trying to do. While we are already present on social media, we do not consider this avenue as meeting a real need in our case.

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Timeline

The websites and digital books indicated and the books will be completed by the end of the three year period of tenure of the grant.

We plan to have two round tables each year (of the three year grant period). In 2022 the venues will be the Catholic University of Milan and the Pázmány University in Budapest. In 2023 we will propose them at the University of Pavia and the University of Graz. In 2024 we will propose them at the University of Florence and Masaryk University in Brno.

We plan to have our younger collaborators continue to present papers at various Congresses, as they have done in recent years. This will happen on a yearly basis, and the preferred venues are ASOR (American Schools of Overseas Research), AIA (the Archaeological Institute of America), EAA (the European Association of Archaeologists), ICANE (the International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East), CAA (Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology ), EADH (European Association for Digital Humanities).

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