Dr Yağmur Heffron
Lecturer in the History of the Ancient Middle East
Yağmur is an archaeologist of ancient Anatolia whose work explores the convergence of material culture and textual history. Her research focuses on the religious history of Anatolia in the early second millennium B.C., particularly on issues of religious identity, ritual hybridity, and textual vs. material visibility of cult practices. Yağmur’s work seeks to articulate viable methodologies of integrating text, image, and archaeology. Her research interests also include the contemporary history of gender relations and labour management in archaeological fieldwork in the Middle East.
Prior to joining UCL Yağmur held an Anniversary Fellowship at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge, before which she was Assistant Director of the Neubauer Expedition to Zincirli (Türkiye) and Research Associate of the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures (formerly Oriental Institute), University of Chicago. Yağmur has excavated at numerous sites in Türkiye, including Tell Atchana/Alalakh, Kinet Höyük, and Kilise Tepe. Since 2015 her fieldwork has focused on central Anatolia, first as part of the Çadır Höyük Archaeological Project, and currently as Assistant Director of the Uşaklı Höyük Archaeological Project, which she joined in 2022.
Selected publications
- Heffron Y and N Highcock 2025 “Mercantile and Religious Identities in Anatolia in the Middle Bronze Age” in Identities in Antiquity in Identities in Antiquity, J. Skinner, V. Manolopoulou, C. Tsouparopoulou (eds.). Routledge, 142-62
- Heffron Y and F Tütüncü Çağlar 2024 “A Partnership of Unequals: Historicising Labour Relations between Local and Foreign Archaeologists in Türkiye through Ottoman Comparanda” Bulletin of the History of Archaeology 34/1: 1-16
- Highcock N and Y Heffron 2023 “Work Hard Play Hard: Gameboards and Merchants’ Way of Life in Middle Bronze Age Anatolia” Ash Sharq 7: 181-200
- Heffron Y 2021 “Factoids of Assyrian presence in Anatolia: towards a historiography of archaeological interpretation at Kültepe-Kaneš” Anatolian Studies 71: 185-206
- Heffron Y 2020 “Paraphernalia of Funerary Display at Kaneš: A Closer Look at Gold Eye- and Mouth-pieces.” Archiv für Orientforschung 47/1: 81-22
For a full list of publications, see Yağmur’s Iris profile.
Grants/projects
Assistant Director, Uşaklı Höyük Archaeological Project.
Teaching
- HIST0164 Bronze Age States in the Ancient Middle East (Survey)
- HIST0029 Migrants and Expats: Old Assyrian Identity Politics (SYRS)
- HIST0029 Ancient Anatolia through Material Culture (Advanced Seminar)
- HIST0806 Death and Dying in Ancient Mesopotamia (Special Subject)
- HIST0834 Art Historical Approaches to the Ancient Middle East (elective MA module)
- HIST0836 Images and Image-Making in the Ancient Middle East (elective MA module)
PhD Supervision
Yağmur is interested in receiving research proposals from prospective students on topics in Bronze Age archaeology and social history of the ancient Middle East, especially on religion and ritual practices, and visual culture.
Current students: Joshua Britton (UCL History) “Individual Agency during the kārum Period in Central Anatolia”; Abaan Zaidi (UCL History) “Like A Bull Tearing the Land: Human-environment relationships in Neo-Assyrian Palace Reliefs; Wenqi Fang (UCL History) “A Feminist Analysis of Female Demons in Mesopotamia”; Ofelia Tychon (UCL Institute of Archaeology) “Agricultural Sustainability and Imperial Collapse: the case of the fall of Assyria”; İrem Nogay (UCL Greek and Latin) “Sickness in the Hittite Court”; Rebecca Dartnall (UCL Greek and Latin), “Gold, Grain, or Glory? Reconstructing the political and economic landscape in Upper Mesopotamia and motivations for the Hittite raid on Babylon during the reign of Mursili I”
Contact information
Email: y.heffron@ucl.ac.uk
Telephone: 020 7679 3612
Office: 308, 25 Gordon Square
Student support & feedback hours:
Term 1: Mondays 16.30-17.30 (in person), book through Moodle, and Wednesdays 13.00-14.00 (Zoom), book through Moodle.
Student support & feedback hours are an opportunity for students to chat with their module tutors about their ideas, any support they might need with the module, and to go through feedback from their assessments.
Department/faculty roles
- Tutor Ancient History MA
External roles
- Membership Secretary, British Association of Near Eastern Archaeology (BANEA)
- Membership Secretary, London Centre for the Ancient Near East (LCANE)
- Board of Management, Gerald Averay Wainwright Fund for Near Eastern Archaeology, University of Oxford
- Scientific Committee, Ash Sharq, Bulletin of the Ancient Near East
- Editorial Board, Anatolian Studies
Qualifications
PhD University of Cambridge, 2011