Harvey Weiss

Professor of Near Eastern Archaeology and Environmental Studies
203-432-4080
304 Elm Street, New Haven, CT 06511
Fields of interest : 

Mesopotamia, early agriculture, cities and empires; Holocene paleoclimatology and environmental change

Harvey Weiss is Professor of Near Eastern Archaeology and Environmental Studies. His research interests include Mesopotamia, early agriculture, early cities and empires, Holocene paleoclimatology and the social adaptations to environmental change. He is the director of the Tell Leilan Project, which has redefined the relationships between dynamic natural and social forces in the third millennium B.C. through excavation, regional survey and paleoclimatology investigations at one of the largest archaeological sites in Syria. The project is now engaged in the analysis and publication of the Tell Leilan Akkadian Palace and the region-wide societal collapse at the 2200 BC megadrought .

Publications:

Harvey Weiss 2017 “Megadrought, Collapse and Causality,” in H. Weiss, ed., Megadrought and Collapse. Oxford University Press. Pp. 1- 31.

Harvey Weiss 2017 “4.2 ka BP Megadrought and the Akkadian Collapse,” in H. Weiss, ed., Megadrought and Collapse. Oxford University Press. pp. 93-160.

Amy Styring, Mike Charles, Harvey Weiss, et al. 2017 “Isotope evidence for agricultural extensification reveals how the world’s first cities were fed,” Nature Plants 3, 17076.
doi: 10.1038/nplants.2017.76

Harvey Weiss 2017 “ ‘Seventeen kings who lived in tents’, “ in F. Hoflmayer, ed., The Late Third Millennium in the Ancient Near East. Chicago: Oriental institute. Pp. 131-162.