Takahiro Odaka

Affiliation: Institute of Liberal Arts and Science (ad. Institute for the Study of Ancient Civilizations and Cultural Resources)
Job Class: Associate Professor
Specialty: West Asian Archaeology
*Kanazawa University

Research activities

Since 1996, I have participated in several archaeological field projects in Near Eastern countries such as Syria, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Jordan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and currently, Iraqi Kurdistan. My research focuses on the process from early farming society to civilized urban society, which stimulated the formation of the ancient Near Eastern world.

Currently I am directing The Zagros Piedmont Prehistoric Project that includes excavations at Shakar Tepe and Shaikh Marif in the Shahrizor Plain, Iraqi Kurdistan, and studies of prehistoric materials collected from northern Iraqi sites. Particularly through ceramic studies, I am trying to identify the multilayered spatiotemporal framework between Neolithization and Urbanization by considering ecological environments, subsistence economy, and human mobility.

I hope that these activities provide a basis for comparative study of ancient civilizations all over the world by empirically tracing the formation process of the Mesopotamian Civilization, the oldest civilization emerged approximately 5000 years ago.

Selected recent papers

• Odaka, T. 2024. Tell Begum, Shaikh Marif and Shakar Tepe: The Late Neolithic Pottery in the Shahrizor Plain, Iraqi Kurdistan. In T. Richter and H. Darabi (eds.), The Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic in the Eastern Fertile Crescent: Revisiting the Hilly Flanks, pp. 261-278. Abingdon and New York, Routledge.
• Odaka, T. 2023. Clay Containers and Mobility in the Final Stage of Neolithisation: Storage Bins and the Earliest Pottery at Tell el-Kerkh, Northwest Syria. In O. P. Nieuwenhuyse, R. Bernbeck and K. Berghuijs (eds.), Containers of Change: Ancient Container Technologies from Eastern to Western Asia, pp. 223-237. Leiden, Sidestone Press.
• Odaka, T., O. Maeda, K. Shimogama, Y. S. Hayakawa, Y. Nishiaki, N. A. Mohammed and K. Rasheed 2023. Late Prehistoric Investigations at Shakar Tepe, the Shahrizor Plain, Iraqi Kurdistan: Preliminary Results of the First Season (2019). In N. Marchetti et al. (eds.), Proceedings of the 12th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, vol. 2: Field Reports, Islamic Archaeology, pp. 415-428. Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz.
• Odaka, T., O. Maeda, T. Miki, Y. S. Hayakawa, P. Yewer and H. Hama Gharib 2023. Excavations at Shaikh Marif, Iraqi Kurdistan: Preliminary Report of the First Season (2022). Ancient Civilizations and Cultural Resources 1: 1-22.
• Odaka, T. and O. Nieuwenhuyse 2022. Halaf Pottery in the East End: Insights from Tell Begum, Iraqi Kurdistan. Orient 57: 113-124.
• Odaka, T. 2021. Neolithic Potsherds from Tell Hassuna: The Collection of the University Museum, the University of Tokyo. In R. Özbal, M. Erdalkıran and Y. Tonoike (eds.), Neolithic Pottery from the Near East: Production, Distribution and Use, pp. 169-179. Istanbul, Koç University Press.
• Odaka, T., O. Maeda, K. Shimogama, Y. S. Hayakawa, Y. Nishiaki, N. A. Mohammed and K. Rasheed 2020. Late Neolithic in the Shahrizor Plain, Iraqi Kurdistan: New Excavations at Shakar Tepe, 2019. Neo-Lithics 20: 53-57.
• Odaka, T., O. Nieuwenhuyse and S. Mühl 2019. From the 7th to the 6th Millennium BC in Iraqi Kurdistan: A Local Ceramic Horizon in the Shahrizor Plain. Paléorient 45(2): 67-83.
• Odaka, T. 2019. Neolithic Potsherds from Matarrah, Northern Iraq: The Collection of the University Museum, the University of Tokyo. In S. Nakamura, T. Adachi and M. Abe (eds.), Decades in Deserts: Essays on Near Eastern Archaeology in Honour of Sumio Fujii, pp. 251-260. Tokyo, Rokuichi Syobou.