Background
Algaze was born on November 24, 1954, in Havana, Cuba, and was raised in Puerto Rico.
Algaze was born on November 24, 1954, in Havana, Cuba, and was raised in Puerto Rico.
He graduated from the University of Puerto Rico in 1976.
Algaze later moved to the continental United States, and became a citizen. In 1986, he earned his doctorate from the University of Chicago. He joined the University of California, San Diego faculty in 1990, he taught there as a professor for several years and currently serves as the chair of the anthropology department.
Algaze"s archaeological interests have mostly been around Mesopotamian history and culture.
His work has contributed to a vast amount of information in relation to Mesopotamia. In the 1990s, Algaze was a major proponent of an anthropological theory on the spread of civilisation from the Euphrates valley area and ancient Mesopotamia, arguing that colonial expansion from south to north (from the area that is currently southern Iraq) was responsible for the establishment of city-states in northern Iraq and Syria and southeastern Turkey.
Following discoveries in the new millennium, Algaze says he has been "eating a lot of crow", acknowledging that evidence suggests societies in the northern area emerged simultaneously and independently of the Mesopotamian expansion.