FISHSKINLAB - MESOPOTAMIAN FISH SKIN

MESOPOTAMIAN FISH SKIN

My latest article, 'Mesopotamian Fish Skin: Between Ritual and Material Reality', has been published in Valonia: A Journal of Anatolian Pasts. https://pdf.journalagent.com/valonia/pdfs/VLN_2_1_47_71.pdf

This publication is especially meaningful to me. It grew out of a double fellowship experience: autumn 2023 in Istanbul at Koç University Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (ANAMED), followed by spring 2024 in Florence at Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut. At ANAMED, I worked alongside remarkable Turkish colleagues in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake. Our shared conversations, mutual care, and weekly presentations—chaired by Christopher Roosevelt—shaped the direction of this article, while also giving rise to lasting friendships.

My bigest thanks go to Christopher for his constant support during both the fellowship and the editorial process, and to the two anonymous reviewers whose insights strengthened the final text enormously. I am also grateful to the ANAMED fellows for their generosity with ideas and references, and to Çiğdem Yıldırım and Samet Emre for their invaluable assistance through the ANAMED library.

Warm thanks as well to William Fitzhugh (Smithsonian Institution Arctic Studies Center) and William Wierzbowski (University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology) for supporting the original grant application, and to Laura Fernández, my long-standing friend and collaborator, for ensuring that the visual material reflects the same rigour as the text. As someone who works across research and creative practice, I value scholarship that is both intellectually rigorous and carefully designed. I am grateful to Valonia for the editorial care that made this possible.