Katherine S Burke
I am a lecturer at UCLA teaching courses in my field of specialty, Islamic Archaeology. My research has tended to focus on the 12th and 13th centuries CE in Egypt and Syria, and has been particularly taken the form of using ceramic analysis to illustrate cultural contacts between regions. Past research has also focused on the intersections and divergences of textual and material data. I am also interested in the issues arising from detecting or assigning cultural and ethnic identities to archaeological remains.
Research areas: 10th-13th c Mediterranean trade, 11th-14th c Red Sea and Indian Ocean trade; Islamic and Crusader Greater Syria.
Current project: Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project (Associate Director and Islamic Archaeologist)
Teaching interests and experience:
Archaeology of the Central Islamic Lands (survey), Coptic and Islamic Archaeology of Egypt, Medieval Syrian Archaeology, Iranian Islamic Archaeology, Turkish Islamic Archaeology
Education
PhD with honors in Islamic Archaeology in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago, Spring 2007.
MA in Islamic Archaeology in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago, Spring 2005.
MSt in Islamic Art and Archaeology at the University of Oxford, Spring 1998.
BA Honors in Women's Studies, magna cum laude, at the University of South Florida, Spring 1994.
Research areas: 10th-13th c Mediterranean trade, 11th-14th c Red Sea and Indian Ocean trade; Islamic and Crusader Greater Syria.
Current project: Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project (Associate Director and Islamic Archaeologist)
Teaching interests and experience:
Archaeology of the Central Islamic Lands (survey), Coptic and Islamic Archaeology of Egypt, Medieval Syrian Archaeology, Iranian Islamic Archaeology, Turkish Islamic Archaeology
Education
PhD with honors in Islamic Archaeology in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago, Spring 2007.
MA in Islamic Archaeology in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago, Spring 2005.
MSt in Islamic Art and Archaeology at the University of Oxford, Spring 1998.
BA Honors in Women's Studies, magna cum laude, at the University of South Florida, Spring 1994.
less
Related Authors
InterestsView All (25)
Uploads
Papers by Katherine S Burke
often the case in Egypt, a wide range of artifacts was also preserved at the Sheikh’s House due to its arid environment, including wood, leather, fiber, basketry, floor matting, bundles of reeds, cloth, paper, plant matter, ceramic, glass, and stone. The preservation
of so many of the material remains, as well as documents in contexts, affords a rare opportunity in historical archaeology to study written texts in their material contexts, and to aid the archaeological reconstruction of life at the site with textual data from the site itself. The texts and their contexts can also be tested against each other to illuminate the strengths and weaknesses of each type of data. In addition, reading the texts in their order of deposition provides a more nuanced understanding of events at
the Sheikh’s House than is possible when the texts are read out of order. At the same time, the contents of the letters illuminate the phases of building, rebuilding, and use of this domestic and mercantile complex throughout the over half century in which it functioned as part of a shipping node located at Quseir al-Qadim on the Red Sea.
a museum collection: the possibility of close dating and contextual association with other artifacts. This article discusses the collection of textiles in the Sheikh’s House from these perspectives. The archaeological contexts allow an association
with other artifacts within architectural settings. A more important feature of these contexts is the presence of hundreds of fragments of letters written in Arabic on paper; this textual documentation allows a reconstruction of the individuals
who used the textiles and, more broadly, an extremely detailed examination of their trading community. On a larger scale, the archaeological narrative may present this community in relationship to the people of the Cairo Geniza, to the archaeology of Fustat (Cairo), and its mercantile role in the larger picture of Indian Ocean History.
Talks by Katherine S Burke
often the case in Egypt, a wide range of artifacts was also preserved at the Sheikh’s House due to its arid environment, including wood, leather, fiber, basketry, floor matting, bundles of reeds, cloth, paper, plant matter, ceramic, glass, and stone. The preservation
of so many of the material remains, as well as documents in contexts, affords a rare opportunity in historical archaeology to study written texts in their material contexts, and to aid the archaeological reconstruction of life at the site with textual data from the site itself. The texts and their contexts can also be tested against each other to illuminate the strengths and weaknesses of each type of data. In addition, reading the texts in their order of deposition provides a more nuanced understanding of events at
the Sheikh’s House than is possible when the texts are read out of order. At the same time, the contents of the letters illuminate the phases of building, rebuilding, and use of this domestic and mercantile complex throughout the over half century in which it functioned as part of a shipping node located at Quseir al-Qadim on the Red Sea.
a museum collection: the possibility of close dating and contextual association with other artifacts. This article discusses the collection of textiles in the Sheikh’s House from these perspectives. The archaeological contexts allow an association
with other artifacts within architectural settings. A more important feature of these contexts is the presence of hundreds of fragments of letters written in Arabic on paper; this textual documentation allows a reconstruction of the individuals
who used the textiles and, more broadly, an extremely detailed examination of their trading community. On a larger scale, the archaeological narrative may present this community in relationship to the people of the Cairo Geniza, to the archaeology of Fustat (Cairo), and its mercantile role in the larger picture of Indian Ocean History.