Dr Daniel Calderbank

  • Lecturer (Archaeology)

email: Daniel.Calderbank@glasgow.ac.uk

Room 315, Molema Building, Lilybank Gardens, G12 8RZ

Import to contacts

ORCID iDhttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-8273-526X

Research interests

My research focuses on ancient Mesopotamian craft traditions to assess the complex ways in which ancient states and communities materially reproduced themselves. My main research interests include:

  • Late Chalcolithic
  • Middle-Late Bronze Age
  • The archaeology of the Sealand Dynasty
  • Technologies and chaîne opératoires
  • Pottery production and use
  • Ancient state power and localised political developments
  • Food, drink, and cultural identity
  • Wetlands as marginal places
  • Community engagement and archaeological storytelling
  • Archaeological Heritage and Wetland Awareness Research network (AHWAR). Director.

I have worked on archaeological excavation, survey, and cultural heritage projects in southern Iraq, Iraqi-Kurdistan, Cyprus, and Scotland, and am currently involved with the following projects:

 

Publications

List by: Type | Date

Jump to: 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017
Number of items: 13.

2025

Glatz, C. et al. (2025) There and back again: local institutions, an Uruk expansion and the rejection of centralisation in the Sirwan/Upper Diyala region. Antiquity, 99(403), pp. 48-63. (doi: 10.15184/aqy.2024.189) (Early Online Publication)

2024

Glatz, Claudia ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5346-1255, Calderbank, Daniel ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8273-526X, Chelazzi, Francesca, Sameen, Salah Mohammed, Erskine, Neil, Del Bravo, Francesco, Abdullatif, Nawzad, Hald, Mette Marie, Miglio, Adam E., Perruchini, Elsa, Ali, Mohammed, Hamdan, Sarwat, Sorotou, Aphrodite, Jensen, Eric, Palyvos, Aris, Gravdal Heimvik, Synnøve, Bendrey, Robin, Pearson, Jessica, Lauinger, Jacob, Moscone, Daniele, Squitieri, Andrea, Baysal, Emma and Twiss, Katheryn (2024) Place, Encounter, and the Making of Communities: The Lower Sirwan/Upper Diyala River Valley from Prehistory to the Iron Age. Series: Sirwan regional project publications. Sidestone Press Academics: Leiden. (doi: 10.59641/oo367ra)

Glatz, C. et al. (2024) Archaeology as cultural heritage in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq: developing an integrated approach beyond narratives of catastrophe and emergency response. Current Anthropology, 65(S26), S1-S195. (doi: 10.1086/731723)

2023

Calderbank, Daniel ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8273-526X (2023) The pottery: a typological and technological overview. In: Tell Khaiber: A Fortified Centre of the First Sealand Dynasty. Series: Archaeology of ancient Iraq (2). Moonrise Press: Ludlow, pp. 123-162. ISBN 9781910169049

Calderbank, Daniel ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8273-526X (2023) Lagash I: The Ceramic Corpus from Al-Hiba, 1968–1990. A Chrono-Typology of the Pottery Tradition in Southern Mesopotamia during the 3rd and Early 2nd Millenium BCE. By Steve Renette. ARATTA I. Turnhout: Brepols, 2021. Pp. xxiv + 450 + 228 black and white illustrations + 1 color illustration + 366 tables. €95 (paper). Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 82(2), [Book Review] (In Press)

2021

Calderbank, Daniel ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8273-526X (2021) Pottery from Tell Khaiber: A Craft Tradition of the First Sealand Dynasty. Series: Archaeology of Ancient Iraq. Moonrise Press Ltd: Ludlow. ISBN 9781910169025

Calderbank, Daniel ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8273-526X (2021) What's in a vessel's name? A relational text-object approach to the uses of Mesopotamian pottery. American Journal of Archaeology, 125(1), pp. 29-64. (doi: 10.3764/aja.125.1.0029)

2020

Calderbank, Daniel ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8273-526X (2020) Dispersed communities of practise during the First Dynasty of the Sealand: the pottery from Tell Khaiber, Southern Iraq. In: Paulus, Susanne and Clayden, Tim (eds.) Babylonia Under the Sealand and Kassite Dynasties. De Gruyter, pp. 58-79. ISBN 9781501517068 (doi: 10.1515/9781501510298-004)

Calderbank, Daniel ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8273-526X (2020) Gulf connections at Tell Khaiber. Interpreting standardised pottery styles in the Sealand period. In: Otto, Adelheid, Herles, Michael, Kaniuth, Kai, Korn, Lorenz and Heidenreich, Anja (eds.) Proceedings of the International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East. Harrassowitz, pp. 31-42. ISBN 9783447113670

2019

Glatz, C. et al. (2019) Babylonian encounters in the Upper Diyala Valley: contextualizing the results of regional survey and the 2016-2017 excavations at Khani Masi. American Journal of Archaeology, 123(3), pp. 439-471. (doi: 10.3764/aja.123.3.0439)

2018

Calderbank, Daniel ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8273-526X (2018) Ancient states and infrastructural power: Europe, Asia, and America. European Review of History: Revue europeenne d'histoire, 25(6), pp. 1081-1083. (doi: 10.1080/13507486.2018.1434046)[Book Review]

2017

Campbell, Stuart, Moon, Jane, Killick, Robert, Calderbank, Daniel ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8273-526X, Robson, Eleanor, Shepperson, Mary and Slater, Fay (2017) Tell Khaiber: An administrative centre of the Sealand period. Iraq, 79, pp. 21-46. (doi: 10.1017/irq.2017.1)

Calderbank, Daniel ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8273-526X and Moon, Jane (2017) A ceramic assemblage of the early literate periods from Sumer. In: Heffron, Yağmur, Stone, Adam and Worthington, Martin (eds.) At the Dawn of History: Ancient Near Eastern Studies in Honour of J. N. Postgate. Eisenbrauns, pp. 73-84. ISBN 9781575064710

This list was generated on Tue Jul 15 22:28:39 2025 BST.
Jump to: Articles | Books | Book Sections | Book Reviews
Number of items: 13.

Articles

Glatz, C. et al. (2025) There and back again: local institutions, an Uruk expansion and the rejection of centralisation in the Sirwan/Upper Diyala region. Antiquity, 99(403), pp. 48-63. (doi: 10.15184/aqy.2024.189) (Early Online Publication)

Glatz, C. et al. (2024) Archaeology as cultural heritage in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq: developing an integrated approach beyond narratives of catastrophe and emergency response. Current Anthropology, 65(S26), S1-S195. (doi: 10.1086/731723)

Calderbank, Daniel ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8273-526X (2021) What's in a vessel's name? A relational text-object approach to the uses of Mesopotamian pottery. American Journal of Archaeology, 125(1), pp. 29-64. (doi: 10.3764/aja.125.1.0029)

Glatz, C. et al. (2019) Babylonian encounters in the Upper Diyala Valley: contextualizing the results of regional survey and the 2016-2017 excavations at Khani Masi. American Journal of Archaeology, 123(3), pp. 439-471. (doi: 10.3764/aja.123.3.0439)

Campbell, Stuart, Moon, Jane, Killick, Robert, Calderbank, Daniel ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8273-526X, Robson, Eleanor, Shepperson, Mary and Slater, Fay (2017) Tell Khaiber: An administrative centre of the Sealand period. Iraq, 79, pp. 21-46. (doi: 10.1017/irq.2017.1)

Books

Glatz, Claudia ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5346-1255, Calderbank, Daniel ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8273-526X, Chelazzi, Francesca, Sameen, Salah Mohammed, Erskine, Neil, Del Bravo, Francesco, Abdullatif, Nawzad, Hald, Mette Marie, Miglio, Adam E., Perruchini, Elsa, Ali, Mohammed, Hamdan, Sarwat, Sorotou, Aphrodite, Jensen, Eric, Palyvos, Aris, Gravdal Heimvik, Synnøve, Bendrey, Robin, Pearson, Jessica, Lauinger, Jacob, Moscone, Daniele, Squitieri, Andrea, Baysal, Emma and Twiss, Katheryn (2024) Place, Encounter, and the Making of Communities: The Lower Sirwan/Upper Diyala River Valley from Prehistory to the Iron Age. Series: Sirwan regional project publications. Sidestone Press Academics: Leiden. (doi: 10.59641/oo367ra)

Calderbank, Daniel ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8273-526X (2021) Pottery from Tell Khaiber: A Craft Tradition of the First Sealand Dynasty. Series: Archaeology of Ancient Iraq. Moonrise Press Ltd: Ludlow. ISBN 9781910169025

Book Sections

Calderbank, Daniel ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8273-526X (2023) The pottery: a typological and technological overview. In: Tell Khaiber: A Fortified Centre of the First Sealand Dynasty. Series: Archaeology of ancient Iraq (2). Moonrise Press: Ludlow, pp. 123-162. ISBN 9781910169049

Calderbank, Daniel ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8273-526X (2020) Dispersed communities of practise during the First Dynasty of the Sealand: the pottery from Tell Khaiber, Southern Iraq. In: Paulus, Susanne and Clayden, Tim (eds.) Babylonia Under the Sealand and Kassite Dynasties. De Gruyter, pp. 58-79. ISBN 9781501517068 (doi: 10.1515/9781501510298-004)

Calderbank, Daniel ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8273-526X (2020) Gulf connections at Tell Khaiber. Interpreting standardised pottery styles in the Sealand period. In: Otto, Adelheid, Herles, Michael, Kaniuth, Kai, Korn, Lorenz and Heidenreich, Anja (eds.) Proceedings of the International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East. Harrassowitz, pp. 31-42. ISBN 9783447113670

Calderbank, Daniel ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8273-526X and Moon, Jane (2017) A ceramic assemblage of the early literate periods from Sumer. In: Heffron, Yağmur, Stone, Adam and Worthington, Martin (eds.) At the Dawn of History: Ancient Near Eastern Studies in Honour of J. N. Postgate. Eisenbrauns, pp. 73-84. ISBN 9781575064710

Book Reviews

Calderbank, Daniel ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8273-526X (2023) Lagash I: The Ceramic Corpus from Al-Hiba, 1968–1990. A Chrono-Typology of the Pottery Tradition in Southern Mesopotamia during the 3rd and Early 2nd Millenium BCE. By Steve Renette. ARATTA I. Turnhout: Brepols, 2021. Pp. xxiv + 450 + 228 black and white illustrations + 1 color illustration + 366 tables. €95 (paper). Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 82(2), [Book Review] (In Press)

Calderbank, Daniel ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8273-526X (2018) Ancient states and infrastructural power: Europe, Asia, and America. European Review of History: Revue europeenne d'histoire, 25(6), pp. 1081-1083. (doi: 10.1080/13507486.2018.1434046)[Book Review]

This list was generated on Tue Jul 15 22:28:39 2025 BST.

Grants

Archaeological Pasts and Sustainable Futures in Iraq’s Marshlands (Glasgow Centre for International Development)

2024-2025: A historiographic investigation of the archaeology of Iraq’s marshes, combined with a participatory research program of interviews with local communities in the region (£13,020). PI.

Life at the Margins of Power: the reach of Mesopotamian states during the 2nd millennium BCE (British Academy)

2019-2022: This fellowship utilised a range of scientific, textual, and anthropological approaches to Mesopotamian pottery assemblages with the aim of transforming our current conceptual models of everyday crafts in early complex societies. (£322,353.35) PI.

Tepe Kalan and the Political Landscape of the Middle Bronze Age Sirwan/Upper Diyala (British Institute for the Study of Iraq)

2019: Directed a short season of excavations at Middle-Late Bronze Age Tepe Kalan, a large settlement located close to the Sirwan/Diyala river, Iraqi-Kurdistan (£6,890) PI.

Supervision

I welcome proposals for postgraduate research in the following areas:

  • Chalcolithic/Bronze Age Mesopotamia
  • Craft traditions and political production
  • Pottery analysis (production and use)
  • Contemporary issues in Southwest Asian archaeology
  • Archaeological practice, public engagement and sustainability
  • Alsheikh Hasan Awwad, Tareq
    Syrian Archaeological Excavations after the independence of 1946 to 2024: Archaeological Methods and Practices, and Challenges
  • Stone, Emma Elizabeth Porter
    The Use and Transportation of Amber in the Egyptian New Kingdom: Connecting International Late Bronze Age Trade and Cultural Identities

Teaching


Calderbank, Daniel