Biography
I conduct archaeological research in Iraq and Iran. Following initial archaeological training at Ghent University (Belgium) and Leiden University (Netherlands), with fieldwork in Belgium, Tunisia, Corsica, Syria, Azerbaijan, and the UAE, I obtained my PhD at the University of Pennsylvania (USA) in 2018. In the following years, I taught archaeology and ancient history at the University of Pennsylvania, Bryn Mawr College, and Western Washington University. In 2020, I was awarded a Killam Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the University of British Columbia (Canada). I was appointed as Assistant Professor in Mesopotamian Archaeology in Cambridge in 2023.
Since 2013, my primary fieldwork project is at Kani Shaie in the Bazyan Valley in Sulaymaniyah, Iraqi Kurdistan. In addition, with Holly Pittman at the Penn Museum, I publish the archival legacy data from the 1968-1990 excavations at al-Hiba, the ancient Sumerian city of Lagash, where the Lagash Archaeological Project has resumed excavations since 2019.
Research
- Archaeology of Mesopotamia
- Archaeology of Iran
- Focus on Chalcolithic and Bronze Age
- Mountain Archaeology
- Ceramic analysis: functional assemblages and consumption practices
My research interest is mainly in bottom-up approaches to emergent social complexity in southwest Asia. I am particularly interested in diverse forms of supracommunal organization and identity formation in the context of human-environment interactions (e.g., dispersed communities in mountainous landscapes; marshland urbanism; mobility patterns).
My fieldwork and archival legacy data projects integrate the Mesopotamian lowlands of Iraq with the Zagros Mountains of western Iran. I co-direct and participate in projects throughout these regions:
- 2013–present: co-director of the Kani Shaie Archaeological Project (including Bazyan Valley survey) in Iraqi Kurdistan
- 2010–present: Al-Hiba Publication Project (based at the Penn Museum) and Lagash Archaeological Project (directed by Holly Pittman since 2019)
- 2015–present: analysis and publication of the Mahidasht Survey Project archive (1975-78; Royal Ontario Museum and National Museum of Iran)
Key Publications
Books
Renette, S. 2019. Lagash I – The Ceramic Corpus from Al-Hiba, 1968-1990: A chrono-typology of the pottery tradition in southern Mesopotamia during the third and early second millennium BCE, ARATTA I, Turnhout: Brepols.
Articles
Renette, S., Lewis, M., Wencel, M., Farahani, A. & Tomé, A. 2023. Establishing an Absolute Chronological Framework for the Late Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age in Iraqi Kurdistan: Radiocarbon Dates from Kani Shaie, Radiocarbon, 65.1: 209-231. https://doi.org/10.1017/RDC.2022.72
Renette, S. 2023. The Historical Geography of Western Iran: An archaeological perspective on the location of Kimaš, in: Gorris, E., Tavernier, J. & De Graef, K. (eds.) Proceedings of the Susa and Elam Conference II: History, Language, Religion and Culture, Mémoires de la Délégation Française 60, Leiden: Brill.
Renette, S. 2022. Defining Dalma: an incipient mountain identity?, Paléorient 48.1: 131-153. https://doi.org/10.4000/paleorient.1699
Renette, S., Khayani, A. & Levine, L.D. 2021. Chogha Maran: A local center of the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age in the Central Zagros, Iranica Antiqua 56: 1-169. https://doi.org/10.2143/IA.56.0.3290273
Renette, S., Abu Jayyab, K., Gibbon, E., Lewis, M.P., Abdullkarim Qadir, Z., Cabral, R. & Tomé, A.G. 2021. Late Chalcolithic Ceramic Development in Southern Iraqi Kurdistan: The Stratigraphic Sounding at Kani Shaie, IRAQ 83: 119-166. https://doi.org/10.1017/irq.2021.1
Books
Renette, S. 2019. Lagash I – The Ceramic Corpus from Al-Hiba, 1968-1990: A chrono-typology of the pottery tradition in southern Mesopotamia during the third and early second millennium BCE, ARATTA I, Turnhout: Brepols.
Journal Articles
2023
Ahmad, M. & Renette, S. 2023. Middle Islamic Rural Occupation at Kani Shaie in Iraqi Kurdistan, BASOR 389. https://doi.org/10.1086/724059
Renette, S., Lewis, M., Wencel, M., Farahani, A. & Tomé, A. 2023. Establishing an Absolute Chronological Framework for the Late Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age in Iraqi Kurdistan: Radiocarbon Dates from Kani Shaie, Radiocarbon, 65.1: 209-231. https://doi.org/10.1017/RDC.2022.72
2022
Renette, S. 2022. Defining Dalma: an incipient mountain identity?, Paléorient 48.1: 131-153. https://doi.org/10.4000/paleorient.1699
2021
Renette, S., Khayani, A. & Levine, L.D. 2021. Chogha Maran: A local center of the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age in the Central Zagros, Iranica Antiqua 56: 1-169. https://doi.org/10.2143/IA.56.0.3290273
Renette, S., Abu Jayyab, K., Gibbon, E., Lewis, M.P., Abdullkarim Qadir, Z., Cabral, R. & Tomé, A.G. 2021. Late Chalcolithic Ceramic Development in Southern Iraqi Kurdistan: The Stratigraphic Sounding at Kani Shaie, IRAQ 83: 119-166. https://doi.org/10.1017/irq.2021.1
Renette, S., Mohammadi Ghasrian, S. & Ghafoori, O. 2021. The Mahidasht Survey Project (1975-78) Revisited: Initial report on new collaborative efforts to catalogue and publish legacy data at the National Museum of Iran, Journal of the National Museum of Iran 2.1: 43-58.
Zamani Dadaneh, M., Renette, S. & Saed Mucheshi, A. 2021. Connections between the northern Zagros and Mesopotamia during the fifth millennium BCE: New insights from Tepe Namashir, Origini 45: 7-34.
2020
Renette, S. & Mohammadi Ghasrian, S. 2020. The Central and Northern Zagros during the Late Chalcolithic: An Updated Ceramic Chronology based on Recent Fieldwork Results in Western Iran, Paléorient 46.1-2: 109-132. https://doi.org/10.4000/paleorient.366
2016
Renette, S. 2016. Traders of the Mountains: The Early Bronze Age in Iraqi Kurdistan, Expedition 58.1: 16-23.
2015
Renette, S. 2015. Painted Pottery from Al-Hiba: Godin Tepe III Chronology and Interactions between Ancient Lagash and Elam, IRAN 53: 49-63. https://doi.org/10.1080/05786967.2015.11834750
2010
Renette, S. 2010. A Reassessment of the Round Buildings in the Hamrin Valley (Central Iraq) during the Early Third Millennium BCE, Paléorient 35.2: 79-98.
Book Chapters
2022
Renette, S. 2022. Some Observations on Regional Ceramic Traditions at al-Hiba/Lagash, in: Nadali, D., Pittman, H. & Polcaro, A. (eds.), Ancient Lagash: Current Research and Future Trajectories. Proceedings of the Workshop held at the 10th ICAANE in Vienna, April 2016, OREA, Vienna: VÖAW, 145-160.
Goodman, R., Renette, S. & Carter, E. 2022. The al-Hiba Survey Revisited, in: Nadali, D., Pittman, H. & Polcaro, A. (eds.), Ancient Lagash: Current Research and Future Trajectories. Proceedings of the Workshop held at the 10th ICAANE in Vienna, April 2016, OREA, Vienna: VÖAW, 123-144.
2019
Renette, S. 2019. Stratigraphy, in: Rova, E. (ed.) Associated Regional Chronologies for the Ancient Near East and the Eastern Mediterranean: Tigridian Region, ARCANE 5, Turnhout: Brepols, 31-62.
2014
Renette, S. 2014. Feasts on Many Occasions: Diversity in Mesopotamian Banquet Scenes from the Early Dynastic Period, in: Altmann, P. & Fu, J. (eds.) Feasting in the Archaeology and Texts of the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near East, Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 61-86.
Conference Proceedings
2023
Renette, S. 2023. The Historical Geography of Western Iran: An archaeological perspective on the location of Kimaš, in: Gorris, E., Tavernier, J. & De Graef, K. (eds.) Proceedings of the Susa and Elam Conference II: History, Language, Religion and Culture, Mémoires de la Délégation Française 60, Leiden: Brill.
2018
Renette, S. 2018. The Early Bronze Age Zagros Interaction Sphere: A View from Kani Shaie, in: Azizi Kharanghi, M.H., Khanipour, M. & Naseri, R. (ed.) Proceedings of the International Congress of Young Archaeologists, Tehran, October 11-14, 2015, Vol. 3, Tehran: Iranology Foundation.
2016
Chalikias, K., Beeler, M., Pearce, A. & Renette, S. 2016. The Future of the Past: From Amphipolis to Mosul, New Approaches to Cultural Heritage Preservation in the Eastern Mediterranean, in: Chalikias, K. et al. (eds.) The Future of the Past: From Amphipolis to Mosul, New Approaches to Cultural Heritage Preservation in the Eastern Mediterranean, Heritage, Conservation & Archaeology, Archaeological Institute of America Site Preservation Program.
Tomé, A., Cabral, R. & Renette, S. 2016. Kani Shaie Archaeological Project: New Fieldwork in the Bazyan Valley, Sulaimaniyah, in: Kopanias, K. & Macginnis, J. (eds.) Archaeological Research in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and Adjacent Areas, Oxford: Archaeopress.
2014
Renette, S. 2014. Seal-Impressed Jars from the Hamrin Valley, Iraq, in: Bielinski, P. et al. (eds.) Proceedings of the 8th International Congress of the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
2012
Renette, S. 2012. The Trans-Tigridian Corridor in the Early Third Millennium BCE, in: De Graef, K. & Tavernier, J. (eds.) Susa and Elam. Archaeological, Philological, Historical and Geographical Perspectives. Proceedings of the International Congress Ghent University, December 14 – 17, 2009, Leiden: Brill.
Teaching and Supervisions
I am responsible for teaching the archaeology of Mesopotamia from prehistory to the Persian periods. I co-cordinate first year paper A3: Introduction to the Cultures of Egypt and Mesopotamia. Depending on the year I coordinate A25/G7 Mesopotamian Archaeology I:prehistory and early states or A26/G8 Mesopotamian Archaeology II: territorial states to empires.
I am interested in supervising MPhil and PhD students in topics related to the archaeology of southwest Asia, especially within Greater Mesopotamia (from eastern Anatolia to the Persian Gulf) and western Iran. I particularly encourage topics that combine archaeological data (both archival and ongoing fieldwork) or art historical sources with historical concerns. Additional topics of interest include material culture analysis, landscape archaeology, ancient foodways, functional assemblages, seals and sealing practices, or refinement of chronologies.
Other Professional Activities
Editor of the Al-Hiba (Lagash) Publication Project
