Dr Brenna Hassett
Research Associate
Institute of Archaeology Gordon Square
Institute of Archaeology
- Joined UCL
- 1st Jul 2018
Research summary
Brenna is Research Co-Investigator on the AHRC-funded project 'Radical Death and Early State Formation in the Ancient Near East' (2018-2022):
Excavations at the site of Başur Höyük in northern Mesopotamia
(modern-day Siirt Province, Turkey) have revealed an Early Bronze Age
(3100-2900 cal. BC) cemetery of elite burials, with bundles of bronze
spears, thousands of beads, and other high value items. These elite
burials are constructed immediately after the collapse of the larger
regional network of southern Mesopotamian Uruk culture in the last
century of the 4th millennium. Başur provides a unique opportunity to
investigate the effects of the Uruk collapse and subsequent development
of early states on a local community, and to understand their response
to the withdrawal of a larger regional power. This project will look at
the evidence of how the people of Başur lived using stable isotopes (in
conjunction with the international Co-I, Suzanne Pilaar Birch) and aDNA
(in conjunction with Ian Barnes and Selina Brace of the Natural History
Museum) to investigate geographic origin, mobility, and diet alongside
studying evidence of disease and hardship in childhood to understand the
lives of the individuals in both elite and sacrificial burial contexts,
and finally to start to unpick the geographic and hierarchical
relationships at work in the period preceding the first states.
Education
- University College London
- Other higher degree, Master of Arts | 2004
- University of California
- First Degree, Bachelor of Arts | 2002