An archaeological perspective on Hammurabi’s time: Architecture, material record and stratigraphy during the first half of the II millennium BCE at Tell Muhammad and the Baghdad region.

The discovery, in the mid-nineteenth century, at Tell Muhammad (Baghdad), of copper-alloy mace heads bearing the inscription “the palace of Hammurabi” immediately highlighted the importance of the site within the first half of the second millennium BCE.The research project will therefore aim to reconstruct the different phases of occupation of the site through a careful analysis of the stratigraphic sequences, the materials recovered during the archaeological excavations, and the mud-brick architecture. As part of this analytical process, comparison with the maincontemporary sites in the region (Tell Harmal, Tell al-Dhiba’i, Tell Ishchali, Tell Asmar, and Khafajah) will be of fundamental importance.In addition to providing the basis for future scientific publications, the results of the research will also be disseminated through outreach activities for a non- specialist audience.