FACULTY & STAFF

Dr. A. Asa Eger

Contact Information

Email: aaeger@uncg.edu
Office: MHRA 2113
Office Phone: 336-334-5203

Education

Ph.D., University of Chicago, 2008
M.A., University of Chicago, 2002
B.A., Rutgers University, 1998

Academic Positions

Professor, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2009-

Research Interests

• Islamic and Byzantine archaeology and history
• Eastern Mediterranean (Anatolia, Syria-Palestine, Cyprus)
• Landscape and Settlement Archaeology
• Frontier and Borderlands
• Environmental History
• Coastal Archaeology
• Urban Archaeology and Urban-Rural Relations
• Legacy Archaeology
• Public Archaeology, Archaeology of the 19th-20th Centuries (Late Islamic)
• Ceramics and Production

Current Projects

I currently co-direct excavations at Caesarea Maritima in Israel as part of the Coastal Caesarea Archaeological Project, a consortium project combining land and sea excavations, public archaeology, history, and outreach. I am now in the process of writing three archaeological final reports. I am publishing the final report of the excavations at the site of Tüpraş Field, the 10th century frontier fortress of Ḥiṣn al-Tīnāt in Turkey, which I directed. I am currently working on republishing the material from the excavations at Antioch by Princeton conducted in the 1930s. In addition, I am doing the same with material from the survey of the plain of the Aleppo (the Qoueiq / Quwayq River valley). All of these archaeological reports will be published as books.

Courses Taught

• HIS 207: Empires of the Desert: The Rise of Islamic Civilization (Topics in Pre-Modern World History) - Part one survey of the context, rise, and spread of Islamic civilization from the sixth century until the Crusades.
• HIS 209: Age of the Sultanates: Patronage, Power, and Art in Islamic Civilization (Topics in Modern World History II) - Part two survey of the context, rise, and spread of Islamic civilization from the Crusades until the present day.
• HIS 380: Environmental History of the Near East (Topics in the Near and Middle East) – Examines how human culture has adapted to its environment and how environment has helped shape the rise and fall of empires, covering the Paleolithic to Modern periods.
• HIS 380: Unearthing Islam's Past: Art, Archaeology, and History (Topics in the Near and Middle East) - Survey of Islamic monuments, material culture, and the field of archaeological exploration in Islamic lands from the 6th to 16th centuries.
• HIS 380: Byzantium: The First Christian Empire (Topics in the Near and Middle East) - Survey of Byzantine art and archaeology, political, socio- economic, and religious history through analysis of material culture and texts.
• HIS 390: Undergraduate Internship (fieldwork in Caesarea, Israel)
• HIS 411C: Town and Country in the Medieval Islamic World - Speaking and writing intensive seminar exploring the nature of urbanism and rural settlements, land use and the spread of agricultural crops and techniques, manufacturing industries and trade, and the economy of the Islamic world from the 6th to 14th centuries.
• HIS 414: From Istanbul to Constantinople: A City and its Monuments – Seminar on the religious and cultural history of the city of Istanbul in the Byzantine and Ottoman periods through its monuments. Includes study abroad component of a one week visit to the city. Co-taught with Dr. Derek Krueger (Religious Studies).
• HIS 414: Cyprus and the Medieval Mediterranean: An Island and its Monuments - Seminar on the religious and cultural history of Cyprus from the Late Roman through modern periods through its topography and monuments. Includes study abroad component of a one week visit to the island. Co-taught with Dr. Derek Krueger (Religious Studies).
• HIS 414: Borders and Frontiers in the Classical and Medieval Mediterranean World - Seminar examining the theoretical concepts and roles of frontiers in the Mediterranean from the Roman to Islamic periods.
• HIS 478: Research Methods in Historical Archaeology (fieldwork in Caesarea, Israel)
• HIS 690: Graduate Internship (fieldwork in Caesarea, Israel)
• HIS 709: Introductory Research Seminar
• HIS 716: Graduate Colloquium in World History (team-taught with four faculty)

Selected Publications

• Antioch: A History. With Andrea U. de Giorgi. London/New York: Routledge, 2021.
• The Archaeology of Islamic Frontiers: from the Mediterranean to the Caspian Sea. Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2019.
• The Islamic-Byzantine Frontier: Interaction and Exchange Among Muslim and Christian Communities (I.B. Tauris, 2014). Winner of American School Oriental Research G. Ernest Wright Book Award
• The Spaces Between the Teeth: A Gazetteer of Towns on the Islamic-Byzantine Frontier. Istanbul: Ege Yayinlari, 2016.
• "The Agricultural Landscape of the Umayyad North and the Islamic-Byzantine Frontier." In Ambassadors, Artists, and Theologians: Byzantine Relations with the Near East from the Ninth to Thirteenth Centuries. Edited by Z. Chitwood and J. Pahlitzsch. Byzanz Between Orient and Occident (BOO) 12. (Mainz, Germany: RGZM, 2018) pp. 4-17.
• Other publications listed on Vitae.

Selected Awards and Honors

• Barakat Trust and Max Van Berchem Foundation for Caesarea Excavation in Israel, 2023
• American Council of Learned Societies, Fellow, 2016-2017
• Dumbarton Oaks, Byzantine Studies, Fellow, Spring 2012
• Program in Hellenic Studies, Princeton University, Visiting Research Fellow, Fall 2011
• Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations, Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey, Senior Fellow, 2008-2009
• Other awards and honors listed on Vitae.

Master's Research Projects Directed

• Melissa Huggins (Public History Capstone), “Votives of Cetamura.” Fall 2020-Spring 2021
• Lawrence Wilson, “The Umayyad Qusur Desert Castles” and “Fifth and Sixth Century Arabs: The Forever Evolving Puzzle” Fall 2020-Spring 2021
• Jonathan Jackson, "Young Turks and Ataturk's Nationalism" and "Decline of the Jannisaries" Fall 2018-Spring 2019
• Richard Bock, "Ethnic Change and Identity in the Byzantine East" and "Urban Transformation from the Byzantine to Islamic Periods" Fall 2017-Spring 2018
• Laura Malloy, "Jews in the Early Islamic Period" Spring 2013
• Wes Clifton, "Islamic Perspectives on the Crusades" Fall 2011-Spring 2012
• Stacie Keevil, "Jewish Diaspora in the Ottoman Empire & Medieval Jewish Society and Sabbatai Zevi" Fall 2010

Curriculum Vitae