Conservation at the core of archaeological strategy : the case of ancient Urkesh at Tell Mozan

For too long conservation has been considered extrinsic to archaeology, rather than a basic part of the process. As a result, its potential for contributing from within to the articulation of archaeological methods and to the development of theoretical arguments has not been fully realized. But such an approach--integrating conservation into archaeological work at a site--has been central to excavations at Tell Mozan, the location of ancient Urkesh in northeastern Syria. [Publication abstract]