Wandering through Early Urbanized Landscapes in Syro-Mesopotamia

In modern surveys, research design has become an integrated task drawing not only from many different fields, but applying simultaneously diverse perspectives and approaches too, from micro- to macro-scales, envisioning a continuum of data which binds nested landscapes and humanscapes. Two recent projects, Ebla Chora – characterizing the 3rd millennium BC diverse ecological niches east and south of Ebla – and QADIS – unraveling settlement patterns and eco-strategies in a central mesopotamian area between Nippur and Fara – attempted at showcasing such an approach both on the field and on previously acquired data, building upon the outstanding work and ideas put forward by Robert McCormick Adams fifty years ago.