Maria Gabriella Micale is currently Post-Doc at TOPOI-Excellence Cluster in Berlin and archaeologist member of the Italian Archaeological Expedition in Tell Mardikh/Ebla (Syria). She holds an MA and a PhD from the Sapienza University of Rome. She is author of "L'Immagine dell'architettura nel rilievo storico neoassiro" (=CMAO 14), 2011, Rome, and published articles about ancient Near Eastern architecture and images of architecture, archaeological drawings and modern reception of ancient architecture.
How Do We Want the Past to Be? The question is not purely rhetoric: rather, it points out the importance of how archaeologists deal with the interpretation and visualization of the past that they excavate and study. The essays in this book offer a contribution to the current debate on archaeology and the contemporary methodological approaches to the study of ancient Near Eastern architecture.