狐狸视频

Ambitious U of T-led project on ancient Middle East gets $2.5-million boost from federal government

CRANE is one of two projects led by 狐狸视频 scholars to receive lucrative global partnership grants
Photo of Timothy Harrison
The Orontes Watershed represents a 鈥渕icrocosm of the larger Middle East in terms of its geography, its social complexity and its political history,鈥 says Timothy Harrison, who is leading the CRANE project (photo by Diana Tyszko)

An ambitious project that pools together knowledge from top archeologists working in the Orontes Watershed, a geographical region rich in ancient history, is expanding thanks to a $2.5-million grant from the Canadian government.

The , or CRANE, led by archaeology Professor Timothy Harrison, is one of two projects at the 狐狸视频 sharing almost $5 million in new partnership grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

Shelley Craig, an associate professor at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, is also receiving $2.5 million in funding for her collaborative study on how information and communication technologies can be used to negotiate gender and sexual minority youth identity and well-being.

Read more on Craig鈥檚 research

鈥淐ompetition is fierce among scholars in the social sciences and humanities for these generous grants, which enable scholars to have flexibility and take risks in their work,鈥 said Vivek Goel, U of T鈥檚 vice-president of research and innovation. 鈥淲e鈥檙e incredibly proud that U of T professors Harrison and Craig have been chosen by SSHRC this year.鈥

CRANE, which started in 2012 thanks to a previous SSHRC grant, is studying more than 13,000 years of civilizations that dotted the banks of the Orontes, an ancient riverine superhighway flowing from modern-day Lebanon north to Turkey.

The Egyptians under Ramses II battled the Hittites along these banks; the Romans built bridges over the river and dammed a section to form an artificial lake in Syria. At various points in the past, the Assyrians, Greeks, Macedonians and the Crusaders all converged here, too.

The area represents a 鈥渕icrocosm of the larger Middle East in terms of its geography, its social complexity and its political history,鈥 explained Harrison via Skype from Antioch, an ancient Greek city on the river in southern Turkey.

The sheer weight of history and the scattered documentation by hundreds of researchers in dozens of countries over decades of work is just one of the massive complications for CRANE. The current political climate in the Near East region is another 鈥 it鈥檚 actually illegal for researchers from certain countries to work together.

Archaeologists also tend to be competitive and 鈥渜uite proprietary of their data,鈥 he said.

In the years since it started, CRANE has made significant progress and, in version 2.0, it鈥檚 geographically expanding to the whole Eastern Mediterranean.

The city of Antakya, called Antioch in ancient times, on the Orontes (photo courtesy of CRANE)

鈥淐olleagues think we鈥檙e absolutely crazy or delusional,鈥 said Harrison, who has conducted excavations for two decades in the Orontes Watershed.

鈥淚t is kind of crazy to bring together researchers who are working in Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and Israel, but it is what we鈥檙e trying to do. We鈥檙e crazy enough to at least try.鈥

CRANE, he said, is creating 鈥渁 third-party, neutral space that鈥檚 free from the confines of politics or geography.鈥

It鈥檚 all about building trust and extolling the benefits of collaboration, he said, admitting he still gets choked up when he鈥檚 asked to explain the project, which was first proposed by colleagues back in the 1990s.

Now, CRANE is at the forefront of creating cutting-edge tools all partners can use such as a common database that contains detailed archeological inventories and artifact registries from thousands and thousands of sites.

They鈥檝e partnered with computer scientists on machine learning algorithms that can shape-match artifacts, as well with big data experts at the Argonne National Laboratory to develop large-scale computer models and simulations of ancient social groups. The supercomputers can reconstruct the earliest origins of the region and make modern-day predictions.

Partners involved include U of T, the University of British Columbia, Carleton University, the University of Chicago, Cornell University, Durham University and the University of Bologna, collaborators in Europe and in the Near East, as well as industry partnerships with IBM Canada in CRANE 1.0 and Autodesk in 2.0.

鈥淚t exponentially opens things up鈥 for studying human history, said Harrison. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 know what connections or insights can be gleaned. I don鈥檛 think we can anticipate where it might go.鈥

Already, teamwork has paid off for organizations like UNESCO, which is working to document the destruction wrought on the region鈥檚 cultural heritage during Syria鈥檚 devastating civil war. When approached, all CRANE needed to do was hit send on the data and they had it almost immediately.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 an unanticipated outcome from CRANE 1.0,鈥 Harrison said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 been an explosion in groups and researchers in Europe and North America that want to participate.

鈥淚 think everyone collectively recognizes that sharing and collaborating means we can participate and contribute to big global questions.鈥

Unfinished statues from the Iron Age site of Yesemek in the Islahiye valley (photo courtesy of CRANE)

One of those questions is the impact of climate change on very localized environments over time. U of T physicist Richard Peltier, a globally renowned climate change expert, is conducting research around 鈥渄ownscaling鈥 of large computational models to make predictions at the local level, perhaps down to the kilometre.

鈥淐RANE will test their climate models against the archaeological and paleo data sets that we鈥檙e building", said Harrison. 鈥淲e鈥檒l test the climate models they鈥檙e building in SciNet to 鈥榞round truth鈥 their models against some of the empirical data sets we鈥檝e been building. It鈥檚 a really exciting new project.鈥

Read more on SciNet and Niagara, U of T鈥檚 new supercomputer

Harrison is passionate about the importance of social sciences and humanities in dealing with the big global problems we now face.

鈥淲hen physicists and microbiologists are coming to us and asking us to set up partnerships and collaborations with them, they鈥檙e realizing that we have something important to contribute to these larger questions,鈥 he said.

鈥淚 think that we鈥檙e sometimes our own worst enemy. We鈥檝e allowed ourselves to be marginalized because we鈥檝e gotten into such esoteric and highly specialized fields 鈥 everyone is trying to protect their own data. By not collaborating, we鈥檝e marginalized ourselves.

鈥淲e believe deeply and fundamentally that the past 鈥 the long record of human history 鈥 is directly connected to the present and to the issues of the day, whether it鈥檚 dealing with climate, the environment, political conflict or even nutrition. We believe we can contribute to questions in all of those fields. The past and its archaeological record has an enormous rich body of knowledge that can contribute to that.鈥

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