About

Kathryn Grossman is an archaeologist and zooarchaeologist with expertise in the complex societies of Southwest Asia and the eastern Mediterranean. Her current research focuses on resistance to state-making, the biographies of early cities, and human/non-human animal relationships in early complex societies. She directs the Makounta-Voules Archaeological Project and has been a senior staff member on archaeological projects across Syria, Cyprus, Egypt, and Iraq. Grossman is also co-authoring the final report on excavations at Tell Qarqur, Syria, where she worked from 2006 to 2010. At NC State, she teaches courses in Introductory Archaeology, Mesopotamian Archaeology, Zooarchaeology, Egyptian Archaeology, and Archaeological Field Methods. Her previous teaching experience includes positions at MIT and Bradley University.

Research topics

• Political Science
• History
• Economy
• Economics
• Archaeology
• Sociology
• Ancient history
• Geography
• Economic history
• Medicine
• Law
• Political economy

Selected publications

• Cities are different animals: A zooarchaeology of urbanism at Hamoukar, Syria, 5th–3rd millennia BC

  Journal of Archaeological Science · 2025-11-14 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  The advent of urbanism marks a significant shift in human lifeways, and comparative study has shown that the world has seen many different forms of urbanism. We argue that animals were a fundamental part of what made cities different from other forms of settlement and different from one another. In this article, we provide the first long-term, diachronic analysis of a Mesopotamian city that foregrounds the evolving role of animals. We argue that the site of Hamoukar in northeastern Syria is best viewed as a succession of three cities, each distinctive in its own way and each dependent on animals in its own fashion. To make this argument, we summarize urban dynamics at Hamoukar from the late 5th through mid-late 3rd millennia BC, with a particular focus on faunal remains. We show that intensive and potentially long-distance caprine management was key to the first city; a more mixed animal economy, with caprines potentially harvested for wool, defined the second city; and pigs dominated the meat supply of the third city. Analysis of changing patterns in species composition, caprine survivorship, secondary products exploitation, and biometrics demonstrates that the three different cities were––both literally and metaphorically––different animals. • Cities are multispecies spaces and centers animals in urban economy. • A diachronic zooarchaeological analysis from an early Mesopotamian city. • Analyses of species composition, caprine survivorship, and biometrics. • Changes in animal economy define Hamoukar as three successive cities.

  PublisherDOI

• Animal husbandry in the arid southern Levant during the later historical periods: new zooarchaeological data from the Roman Aqaba Project, Jordan

  Levant · 2025-01-02

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• THE STRATIGRAPHY OF URBAN DEVELOPMENT AT HAMOUKAR DURING THE EARLY BRONZE AGE: RESULTS FROM THE 2008–2010 SEASONS

  Iraq · 2025-11-25 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  This article presents the results of excavations in Early Bronze Age levels at the site of Hamoukar in northeastern Syria. During the 2008 and 2010 field seasons, excavations in the lower town at Hamoukar uncovered evidence for three distinct architectural phases dating to the second half of the third millennium B.C. Prior to these excavations, attention had been focused on the final phase of Early Bronze Age occupation in the lower town, when the settlement was violently destroyed and then abandoned. It is now possible, however, to provide a backstory for the settlement’s violent end and also a more complicated––if still preliminary––account of exactly how the urbanisation process played out at the site. This article presents a summary of the Early Bronze Age stratigraphic sequence in the lower town at Hamoukar and, at the same time, a description of new evidence for the evolution of social, economic, and ritual practice across three phases of urban development. A brief comparison with urban trajectories at two other contemporary sites highlights the heterogeneity of cities and urban dynamics in Early Bronze Age northern Mesopotamia.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Cities are Different Animals: A Zooarchaeology of Urbanism at Hamoukar, Syria, 5th–3rd Millennium Bc

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Animal Afterlives at Petra

  HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) · 2023-11-15

  article1st authorCorresponding

  International audience

  Publisher

• Exploring Ancient Cities: Archaeological Insights — Part 2

  2022

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Archaeology
  • Geography
  • History

  Archaeology is a discipline that is well-positioned to study the 6000 years of urban living, and ancient cities can provide insight into some of the wicked problems of modern urbanism. In this (Part 2 of 2) Kathryn Grossman, Ph.D. discusses how archaeologists study ancient cities (it requires careful research design!). You’ll also learn how studying ancient cities reveals the diversity of forms cities have taken, and how they have sustained (or failed to sustain) themselves.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Exploring Ancient Cities: Archaeological Insights — Part 1

  2022-01-15

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Archaeology is a discipline that is well-positioned to study the 6000 years of urban living, and ancient cities can provide insight into some of the wicked problems of modern urbanism. In this video (Part 1 of 2) Kathryn Grossman, Ph.D. discusses how archaeologists study ancient cities (it requires careful research design!). You’ll also learn how studying ancient cities reveals the diversity of forms cities have taken, and how they have sustained (or failed to sustain) themselves.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Early Cities and Settlements

  2022

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • History
  • Economic history

  Archaeologists Tate Paulette, Ph.D. and Kathryn Grossman, Ph.D. describe the stories of the first settlements and cities and the circumstances that spawned many of the diseases we still battle today. Dr. Tate Paulette’s research focuses on food, hygiene, and beer. Dr. Kate Grossman’s research focuses on the domestic animals humans relied on.

  PublisherDOI

• 2017 Survey of Two Prehistoric Sites in Western Cyprus: Stroumpi- Pigi-Agios Andronikos and Makounta-Voules-Mersinoudia

  Harrassowitz Verlag eBooks · 2020-01-01

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  The northern coast of Cyprus has long been of interest to archaeologists researching the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age on the island. However, no prehistoric sites have been excavated in the region around the Chrysochou Bay, along the island’s northwest coast. With easy access to rich mineral sources, to the sea, to resources in the upland forests, and to arable land, this region would certainly have been attractive to the prehistoric inhabitants of the island. In the summer of 2017, the Cypriot Department of Antiquities granted the authors a permit to conduct surface collection and geophysical survey at the site of Makounta-Voules- Mersinoudia, a large prehistoric site approximately 2.5 km from the coast of Chrysochou Bay, approximately 5 km of the town of Polis. The site of Makounta-Voules-Mersinoudia has been visited by archaeologists many times in recent decades but until now has not been subjected to systematic, intensive survey. In this paper, we present the results of our first season of work at Makounta-Voules-Mersinoudia, outline some of the implications of our results, and describe our plan for future work at the site. We also present the results of a rescue project that we conducted on behalf of the Department of Antiquities: surface survey and geophysical study at the site of Stroumpi-Pigi-Agios Andronikos, a small prehistoric site just outside the town of Stroumpi.

  PublisherDOI

• 2017 Survey of Two Prehistoric Sites in Western Cyprus:

  Harrassowitz Verlag eBooks · 2020-04-16

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Theodore J. Cachey

  400 shared

• Gerald Prince

  California University of Pennsylvania

  400 shared

• Thomas Hale

  University of Oxford

  400 shared

• Gwen Kirkpatrick

  400 shared

• Ronald W. Tobin

  400 shared

• John M. Lipski

  Pennsylvania State University

  400 shared

• Joseph Τ. Snow

  400 shared

• Norris Lacy

  University of California, Santa Barbara

  400 shared