The Old Babylonian Period of ancient Mesopotamia (20th-17th centuries BC) is one of the first periods in the history of mankind, from which a large number of written sources are known, so that we can gain an insight into the daily life of a wider circle of the  ancient society. Using cuneiform documents written on durable clay tablets (inheritance, marriage, gift, adoption, sale documents, trials, letters, private records) and archaeological sources (houses, household equipments) we have the opportunity to examine different types of households as a basic unit of society, thus a new approach. In my study, four different household types were distinguished. It can be clearly seen the relationship between the size, the interior design of the dwellings, the set of objects and the social status of the owners. For example, each type of household is characterized by the number and quality of artifacts, with items made of expensive imported raw materials, such as furniture made of special types of wood, or metal vessels, being a particularly important difference. It is clear that the architectural background and set of objects of the largest households have been designed to be able to receive a large number of guests. Hospitality and feasting operated the network of households as a fundamental social organizing force.

An important part of my research is the investigation of a Grd-i Tle, in Iraqi Kurdistan. The main goal of the one-month series of excavations every year since 2016 is to better understand the functioning of one of the most important powers of the Ancient Near East, the Neo-Assyrian Empire (9th-7th centuries BC), even through its border areas. Grd-i Tle (its ancient name is not yet known today) may have been a local administrative center dominating the western half of the extremely fertile Rania Valley, where imperial officials could control the resources of the area. It is particularly important that this settlement was destroyed during an enemy attack, perhaps a Scythian invasion, so the artifacts remained in greater amount than usual among the ruins. The research of the 30-meter-high hill, which preserves the remains of almost 10,000 years of settlements, also provides an opportunity to study the local cultural features of the region. In addition to Neo-Assyrian period, we have so far excavated the remains of an Islamic fortress and cemetery and a Hellenistic-Parthian settlement. An important part of the research is the documentation, recording in a large database and processing of the huge amount of finds found so far.

In 509 AD a mud brick monastery was built on the remains of the Bronze Age city of Tuttul on the hill of Tell Bi’a near present-day Raqqa (Syria). The site has been excavated by an archaeological expedition of the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft since 1980, and already in the early years many different smaller parts of the monastery were excavated, but the function of the building has not yet been revealed. I joined the research group in 1990, and the Syriac inscriptions on the mosaic floors found in the area entrusted to me at that time made it clear that it was a monastery. Due to the importance of the building, the complex was researched in a separate program. In three seasons, we excavated most of the ensemble of more than fifty explored rooms. During the work, in addition to the church following the Syrian Orthodox (Jacobite) tradition, three almost completely intact, high-quality mosaic floors were found, which were decorated with a multitude of animal figures, especially birds. We also dug an in Syria completely unique dining room (refectorium) and kitchen with circular mud benches that have parallels only in Egypt. The ruins of a mud brick monastery are extremely rare in the area of Syria-Palestine, its mud debris preserved many other traces of former life. Currently, after the publication of several sub-studies, the final publication is being prepared.