Current Projects

In this book, I argue that the putatively self-evident notion of “discovery” has led to a Eurocentric form of tunnel vision which focuses on the deeds of individual “discoverers,” systematically neglects local sources, networks, structures, and glosses over the multilayered histories of local engagement with ancient Mesopotamian sites. By taking the site of Tello as an example and incorporating underrepresented sources from across millennia, I critically engage with “discovery” as an all-powerful paradigm—a paradigm that is far more than a mere rhetorical device but has had immense material-historical consequences.

My second book project will present a comprehensive history of the Ottoman Imperial Museum in Istanbul, expanding on my work on the acquisition, exhibition, and publication settings of ancient Mesopotamian artworks.

The first author known by name in history was a woman: Enheduanna. The exhibition that I co-curated with Sidney Babcock at the Morgan Library & Museum not only made Enheduanna its focal point but also brought together a comprehensive selection of artworks that capture rich and shifting expressions of women’s lives in Mesopotamia during the late fourth and third millennia BC.

An unwritten rule reigns over my field: Art-historical and archaeological studies on ancient Mesopotamia do not integrate Ottoman primary sources, while historians of the late Ottoman Empire are not interested in art historical and archaeological method and theory.