Guillermo Algaze
Guillermo Algaze is an anthropologist and professor at University of California, San Diego and a 2003 recipient of the MacArthur "Genius" Award for his work studying the imperialism and colonialism of ancient civilisations, particularly the Uruk expansion in ancient Mesopotamia. Algaze is the chair of the anthropology department at UCSD and project director of the Titris Hoyuk excavation in southern Turkey. [1][2][3][4][5]
Early life and education
Algaze, a 1976 graduate of the University of Puerto Rico, lives in San Diego with his wife Susan and their young daughter Arielle. Raised in Puerto Rico after his birth in Cuba, Algaze moved to the continental United States and earned his doctorate from the University of Chicago in 1986. He joined the University of California, San Diego faculty in 1990.[4]
Academic work
Colonial expansion theory
In the 1990s, Algaze was a major proponent of an anthropological theory on the spread of civilisation from the Euphrates valley area and ancient Mesopotamia, arguing that colonial expansion from south to north (from the area that is currently southern Iraq) was responsible for the establishment of city-states in northern Iraq and Syria and southeastern Turkey. Following discoveries in the new millenium, Algaze says he has been "eating a lot of crow", acknowledging that evidence suggests societies in the nothern area emerged simultaneously and independently of the Mesopotamian expansion. [3][6][7]
Books
- Guillermo Algaze (November 2008). Ancient Mesopotamia at the Dawn of Civilization: The Evolution of an Urban Landscape. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226013770.
- Guillermo Algaze (June 2005). The Uruk World System: The Dynamics of Expansion of Early Mesopotamian Civilization, Second Edition. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226013824.
References
- ^ http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/facultyexperts/details.asp?exp=16802
- ^ John Noble Wilford (May 25, 1993). "Trade or Colonialism? Ruins May Give Answer". New York Times.
- ^ a b John Noble Wilford (May 23, 2000). "Ruins Alter Ideas Of How Civilisation Spread". New York Times.
- ^ a b "$500,000 "GENIUS" AWARD GOES TO UCSD ANTHROPOLOGIST GUILLERMO ALGAZE". University of California, San Diego. October 5, 2003.
- ^ Felicia R. Lee (October 5, 2003). "24 Win MacArthur 'Genius Awards' of $500,000". New York Times.
- ^ John Noble Wilford (January 4, 1994). "Enduring Mystery Solved as Tin Is Found in Turkey". New York Times.
- ^ John Noble Wilford (January 21, 2007). "In Syria, ruins reveal early city's violent end: Archaeologists find Tell Hamoukar fell in 3500 B.C. battle". San Francisco Chronicle.