THE LIBRARY

Articles and guides

Selected case studies and useful reading questions: what was found, how was it studied and what follows from the evidence?

The articles and guides here connect case studies with methods: layers and dating, critical reading, pottery, coins, inscriptions and raw materials. Choose a question, then follow the sources and related reading. Checking an abstract is never presented as reviewing an entire paper.

Find an article by subject
Clear selection

2 articles and guides

The Met's timeline dates the Mustansiriyya Madrasa in Baghdad 1228-33 and calls it the first college built for the four canonical schools of Sunni law. What that sentence tells us, and what it does not say about the building.

2 min read, approximately

City and site · Mesopotamia

Samarra: a short-lived Abbasid capital

According to UNESCO, Samarra was a capital from 836 to 892, and the site stretches 41.5 km along both banks of the Tigris. What a capital that lasted about half a century can show, and what the sentence on the 80% that "remain to be excavated" means.

3 min read, approximately

Reading, accessibility & privacy tools

Adjust the reading experience to suit you. These tools complement your browser and device accessibility settings. Changes apply to this page; they are kept for another visit only if you allowed that in the privacy dialog.