Professor Giorgio Buccellati on Urkesh, a Dead City and Yet Alive-After Lunch Lecture

Facilitated by the UCLA Emeriti Association and the UCLA Retirees Association

Introduction by Kara Cooney, Prof. and Chair, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures

Urkesh, a dead city and yet alive. From clay to silicon: the pride of a lost heritage and a digital innovation

Giorgio Buccellati and Marilyn Kelly-Buccellati

Urkesh is the name of one of the first cities in history: it started around 4000 B.C. and it "died out" around 1200 B.C. How does a city "die"? When it is completely abandoned, in which case, in an environment like that of today's northeastern Syria, it turns into a hillock, a "tell" as is known in Arabic.

2021 Balzan Prize for Art and Archaeology of the Ancient Near East.

For their achievements in the study of Hurrian culture and for highlighting its importance as the foundation of a great urban civilization, among the most flourishing in the ancient Near East in the third millennium BCE; for promoting a digital approach to the study of archaeology; for enhancing theoretical reflection on the nature of this discipline.