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A36)
Archaeology of People I
Theme: Archaeology of Early Bronze Age People: Celebrating the Contributions of Walter Rast and Thomas Schaub
Meredith Chesson,
University of Notre Dame, and Walter Aufrecht, University of Lethbridge,
Presiding
132) Rafi Greenberg,
Tel Aviv University
Tel Bet Yerah: Life in the City
Excavations conducted
sporadically between 1944 and 1986 in residential areas in the southern
part of Tel Bet Yerah open a window onto the dynamics of life in an
EBA urban setting. The observation of some eleven EB II-III occupation
phases in two adjacent soundings reveals:
· Cycles of construction, repair,
and abandonment of domestic structures
· Contraction
and expansion of open spaces
· Imposition and undermining
of urban planning schemes
· The emergence of barrio
industries
Understanding the shifting time-space routines at this central site
will help flesh out claims for the qualitative impact of life in large
urban agglomerations on EBA society as a whole.
133) R. Thomas
Schaub, Indiana Univ. of Pennsylvania
Wall Builders of the Early Bronze I-II at Bab edh-Dhra' and Contemporary
Sites
As more excavations
take place at Early Bronze Ages sites in the Southern Levant our understanding
of the development of the techniques of the wall builders improves.
The massive stone ramparts uncovered at Tanaach, 'Ai, Bab edh-Dhra'
and Yarmuth, among other sites, appear to be the last stage in an architectural
process that began at some sites with the construction of simple mud
brick town walls. Each site had its own topographical challenges but
a sufficient number of parallels have emerged to suggest that these
early mud brick town walls were often thickened by the builders in successive
stages from late EB I into EB II. Recently published evidence from the
Bab edh-Dhra' town site will be used to illustrate the development of
other techniques used by the builders. Evidence from contemporary sites
will be examined for the possibility of shared patterns in construction
methods and measurement standards.
134) David McCreery, Willamette
University
Agriculture
and Religion at Bab edh-Dhra' and Numeira during the Urban EBIII Period
Without contemporary
literary documentation our attempts to reconstruct the character of
religious beliefs and practices at Early Bronze Age sites like Bab edh-Dhra`
and Numeira are severely restricted. On the other hand, paleoethnobotanical
investigations have produced a fairly clear picture of the agricultural
industries and natural environment of the Southeastern Dead Sea Basin
during the EBIII Period. Given the fact that concerns about fertility
were central to most ancient near eastern religious traditions, it is
the contention of this paper that a careful examination of the EBIII
crops, agricultural technology and the natural environment can provide
insights into the likely nature of the religious beliefs of the Bab
edh-Dhra` and Numeira inhabitants at the height of the urban period.
135) Mohammad Najjar, Dept.
of Antiquities, Jordan
Topographic
Prominence in an Archaeological Landscape on the Madaba Plain, Jordan
The Early
Bronze Age (3500-2000 B.C.) represents a time of fundamental social
change in the Southern Levant when the first fortified towns and urban
centers evolved. In Jordan archaeological excavations on the Southeastern
Dead Sea Plain since 1960s have revealed the largest EBA cemeteries
in the Middle East and have yielded thousands of finds related to mortuary
practices. This unique assemblage of material culture provides vital
information for accurately reconstructing these practices, as well as
understanding some of the dimensions of the material culture that were
linked to significant changes in social evolution in that period. Recent
excavations at Safi and Feifa (Southeastern Ghor) provide such rich
and varied material on this topic and offer a unique comparative set
to what we know from Bab edh-Dhra' in terms of tomb architecture, body
treatment, and grave goods. The unusually large sample of artifacts
will help us in understanding the life of people as active participants
and creators of history and in reconstructing of EBA communities of
Ancient Jordan.
136) Pierre de
Miroschedji, CNRS
Tel Yarmuth and the Emergence of Proto-State Organizations in the
Southern Levant of the Third Millennium BCE
In
operation since 1980, the Tel Yarmuth excavations have yielded considerable
information for monitoring and understanding the gradual development
of political organizations in the Southwestern Levant. Beside various
remains of monumental architecture dated to the EB II-III, the site
has revealed a sequence of three successive EB III palaces, two of which
were built one above the other following the large-scale urban reorganization
of an area previously devoted to domestic dwellings. The latest of these
palaces, Palace B1, testifies to the existence of an elaborate palatial
architecture and to the functioning of what may be called a palatial
economy. It was part of a larger complex of public buildings distributed
over an area of about 1.5 hectares, which implies a remarkable concentration
of power on this site.
The paper will attempt to evaluate these
discoveries against the background of the socio-political developments
taking place during this period in southwestern Palestine, especially
in light of the recent discoveries at Tell es-Sakan. It will suggest
that toward the end of the EB III, political organization may have appeared
that exceeded the territorial extension of a single city-state.
137) Stephen Savage,
Arizona State University
From Maadi to the Plain of Antioch: What can Basalt Spindle Whorls
tell us about Overland Trade in the EBA Levant?
During
the second half of the fourth millennium B.C, trade between Egypt and
Canaan was extensive, and Mesopotamian objects are found in Egyptian
contexts. Egyptian trading enclaves appear in southern Canaan and trading
centers existed in northern Syro-Mesopotamia, which were connected to
the major Uruk Period city-states in the southern alluvial plains. The
way in which contacts between Egypt and Mesopotamia were established
and maintained has remained problematic, with sea and land alternatives.
The land routes have been viewed as less likely, because of an apparent
gap between the Egypt-Canaan and Canaan-Uruk systems. There is, however,
intriguing evidence of an overland trade network that reached from Maadi
to the Plain of Antioch, operated by Canaanite middlemen that may help
bridge the gap between Egypt and Mesopotamia. Basalt spindle whorls
can be found at Maadi in Egypt, at Hama and Tell Judeidah, (Uruk enclaves,
outposts or trading partners) in northern Syria, and at dozens of Canaanite
sites in the Late Chalcolithic and EB I-II periods. Significantly, evidence
for their manufacture seems confined to the upper Jordan Valley. The
occurrence of these items on many Canaanite sites can be used to outline
a trade network comprised of many intersecting routes that took advantage
of the Levantine coast and the extensive wadi systems to bridge the
overland gap between Predynastic Egypt and Mesopotamia.
138) Daniella Bar-Yosef
Mayer, Peabody Museum, Harvard University
Nawamis, Shells, and Early Bronze Age Pastoralism
The
study of 20,000 shells discovered in the nawamis tombs in southern
Sinai enabled partial reconstruction of the economy of their builders.
Their age, based on shell artifact typology, is from the Chalcolithic
through EBAII. Both a bangle type made of the large gastropod Lambis
sp. and beads made of Conus sp. date the sites. The only other
site where both types appear, though not together, is Bab-edh-Dhra.
According to our reconstruction, based
in part on the presence of these artifacts in other sites, pastoralists
inhabiting the deserts of the southern Levant, especially the Negev
and the Sinai, traded in various items (shell, metals, ceramics and
more) and had contacts reaching from southern Sinai, to the Dead Sea
Plain, Northern Negev and the Nile delta.
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A37)
Archaeology of Syria
Mark W. Chavalas,
University of Wisconsin - La Crosse, Presiding
139) Glenn Schwartz, Johns
Hopkins University
A Third
Millennium Elite Mortuary Complex from Umm el-Marra
In
the 2000 season of excavations at Umm el-Marra in the Jabbul plain of
western Syria, a "royal" tomb was discovered on the site acropolis containing
the intact remains of three layers of individuals associated with high
status ornaments. Subsequent work at the site supports our hypothesis
that the site center consisted of an elevated and probably elite mortuary
complex of the mid-late EB period. Among the results obtained were the
excavation of a much larger tomb near the first example excavated, as
well as brick installations containing the remains of sacrificed equids
and other animals.
140) Sarah
Randolph Graff, University of Chicago
A Study
of Bronze Age Economy in the Ghab, Northwestern Syria
What was the economic relationship between the Ghab and other areas
of the region of western Syria during the third millennium B.C.? Previous
research has linked the Ghab to other major cities at this time using
similarities in material culture, especially pottery. These cities include,
for example, Asharneh, Aleppo, Ebla, Hama, Qal'at el Mudiq and Qatna
as well as sites in nearby regions such as the Rouj Basin, the River
Qoueiq region, and the Amuq valley. These correlates suggest some kind
of economic relationship related either to production, trade, consumption,
or all three. This paper will describe a current research project on
the Early Bronze Age economy of the Ghab involving surface survey, cylinder
seals and sealings from Tell Qarqur, textual evidence from the Ebla
archives, and a detailed ceramic analysis including petrographic analysis.
This project has been designed to examine the possible economic relationships
between the Ghab and its neighbors and to understand these relationships
in their broader regional context. An overview of the project will be
presented as well as current research results and interpretations.
141) Matthew
Rutz, University of Pennsylvania
The Stele
in and out of Cultic Contexts in Bronze Age Syria: Signs of Authority
at Emar and Ekalte
The stelae from Bronze Age Syria provide a potentially fruitful perspective
from which to view ancient Syrian religious ideologies and practices,
since these objects have been identified in both the archaeological
and epigraphic records. Furthermore, these stelae exhibit both continuity
and disjunction with their southern Mesopotamian (na-rú-a) and Anatolian
(na4ZI.KIN/huwaši) analogues. Previous work by archaeologists has focused
on establishing the basic sequence of Early (Mari, Tell Chuera), Middle
(Ebla), and Late (Ugarit, Hazor) Bronze artifacts and archaeological
contexts. In contrast, philologists have concentrated on identifying
the ancient Syrian term for 'stele' (sikkanu) in Early (Ebla, Puzriš-Dagan),
Middle (Mari, Tuttul, Tell Sifr/Kutalla), and Late (Ugarit, Emar, Tell
Munbaqa/Ekalte, Hattuša) Bronze epigraphic sources. Because of the formidable
problems of geographic distribution, local variation, and diachronic
change, most attempts at synthesis have amounted to little more than
juxtaposition.
This paper will concentrate on a holistic
reading of the Late Bronze artifacts and documents, since these sources
exhibit the widest distribution of archaeological contexts (temples,
royal/private houses) and literary genres (votive, narrative poetic,
ritual, private legal texts). Did the stelae represent the local pantheon,
express the ideology of an ancestor cult, or serve some altogether different
function?
A stele is a physical, public mediator
of social discourse. As such, it is a visible sign and locus of the
negotiation of changing power relations among gods, ruling elites, and
the general population. This paper will contend that each context in
which a stele appears necessarily implies all of its other contexts.
142) Michael
Decker, Rice University
Fortified
Towns, Towers, and Refugees in Syria-Palestine in Late Antiquity
Rural towers, fortresses and farms with a fortified aspect were a common
feature on the landscape, especially on the edge of settlement in Late
Roman-Early Byzantine (4th-7th centuries) Oriens. The terminology, architectural
form and context of these buildings are discussed within their archaeological
and historical context. Stabl Antar, a sixth-century fort on the edge
of the Syrian steppe east of Apamea, forms the primary case study on
which this investigation is centered. Although presently interpreted
as a fort, Stabl Antar is probably best viewed as a fortified farm and
the center of an agricultural estate.
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A38)
Ancient Near Eastern Art
Eleanor
Guralnick, Independent Researcher, Presiding
143) Emily
Miller-Bonney, California State University - Fullerton
Snake
Goddesses Redux: A Re-evaluation of the Minoan Snake Goddess
When Arthur
Evans found two faience female figures, one with snakes wrapped around
her arms and the other holding snakes in her hands, in the Neo-Palatial
Temple Repositories at Knossos, he identified them as the Snake Goddess
and a votary respectively. Unique in the Minoan repertoire, their identity
and purpose remain a mystery.
Some proponents of seeing both as goddesses
have looked to comparanda in Late Bronze Age Near Eastern glyptic where
similar images are identified by inscriptions as divinities and thus
related to the larger class of Mistresses of the Animals. Others have
pointed to the Late Minoan III snake tubes and terra cotta goddesses
with upraised arms and attributes of birds, plants and snakes, as evidence
for the divinity of these figures, the LM III works a final expression
of the Neo-palatial snake cult.
This paper adopts a different perspective
and considers the faience snake handlers within the context of Pre-
and Proto-palatial iconographic and gestural traditions in which, it
is suggested, figurines, anthropomorphic vases and representations on
pottery depicted ritual participants and not goddesses, a reading supported
by the contexts in which the earlier objects have been found. Seen against
this background the faience figures, it is suggested, may be evidence
for the impact of Near Eastern iconography on pre-existing types, initiating
a process in which female worshipers were transformed into the dominatrix
of nature, the Mistress of the Animals.
144) Harold Liebowitz,
University of Texas, Austin
Late Bronze
and Iron Age Terracotta Human Figurines and Wheeled Vehicles as Evidence
for Regionalism
The object
of this paper is to demonstrate chronological and regional differences
in the repertoire and style of terra-cotta human figurines and wheeled
vehicles in the Levant during the Late Bronze and Iron Ages. These differences
will be shown to correlate with differences and changes in the ceramic
repertoire during these periods in the different cultural zones to be
delineated. This study promises to further our knowledge of the significant
degree of regionalism in the Levant during the Late Bronze and Iron
Ages through a study of one specific genre of popular art.
145) Eleanor Guralnick,
Independent Researcher
Standards
of Measure at Nineveh and Nimrud
In a series
of campaigns the extant untrimmed sculptured slabs from the Late Assyrian
palaces at Nineveh and Nimrud currently in Western museums in London,
Paris, Berlin and New York have been measured. The assumption inspiring
this effort is that the ancient Assyrians would never have undertaken
the enormous task of building very large palaces, of quarrying and dragging
so very many huge blocks of stone the necessary long distances without
cutting them to size, thus eliminating wasted transport effort. It has
long been known from the ancient written records that there were standards
of measure in Mesopotamia. Unfortunately no standard of measure has
ever been found in northern Mesopotamia dating to the Late Assyrian
period. Studies based on measurements of bricks and buildings have not
lead to definitive results. However, the Late Assyrian standards of
measure are now becoming known thanks to research on the measurements
of the sculptured slabs that decorated the palaces.
146) Michael Fuller, St.
Louis Community College
Art of
Early and Medieval Islamic Syria
Muslim, Christian
and Jewish artisans produced exceptional examples of art in Syria during
the Umayyad, Abbasid, and Ayyubid Periods. They worked in a variety
of mediums including ceramic, glass, metal, sculpture, textiles and
wood. This is one period where we have detailed information of the diversity
of artistic mediums and the variety of artistic schools that would emerge.
Textual and archaeological evidence allow for a detailed picture of
the range and function of ancient art in Syria during the Early and
Medieval Islamic phases. Examples will be drawn from Damascus, Aleppo,
Raqqa, and smaller cities (yes, even Tuneinir!).
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A39
Ancient Mediterranean Trade
Eric H. Cline,
George Washington University, Presiding
147) Ezra Marcus, University
of Haifa
The Annals
of Amenemhet II and Middle Kingdom Maritime Trade
Since its initial publication in the early 1980s, the large fragment
of an annalistic text of Amenemhet II, which was found at Mit Rahina,
has only gradually entered the scholarly literature as an exceptional
source of information about the Egyptian Middle Kingdom. Among the many
events and actions detailed in the text are temple endowments, the visits
of foreigners and other groups to the court bearing valuable goods,
the arrival of two ships bearing booty from Egyptian military forays
into the northern Levant, and, in another apparently seaborne transport,
the bringing of people (slaves) from iasy (Alashiya). The seaborne transport
from the Levant, in particular, is rich in qualitative and quantitative
detail that includes numbers of items, weight and volume, allowing these
registers to be interpreted as akin to a "bill of lading". This presentation
will consider the implications of this evidence as it relates to the
scope and scale of maritime trade during the first half of the second
millennium, BCE, and examine the broader evidence for Egyptian maritime
affairs during the reign of Amenemhet II.
148) Jack Holladay, University
of Toronto
Judaeans
in Egypt and 'The Camp of the Phoenicians' at Tell el-Maskhuta
With some instructive exceptions, tracing the nodes of trading networks,
particularly overland, throughout the ancient Near East has proven extremely
difficult. Exceptions proving that such networks did exist over much
of "historical" time are, however, well known. E.g., small EB-I Egyptian
trading colonies in southern Palestine, Old Assyrian Trade colonies
in Anatolia, Phoenician Carthage, with its own Punic ports in Spain,
small Phoenician sites (and Dor!) along the Palestinian coast (but also
inland), and scattered Greek trading colonies around the Mediterranean,
including Mesad Hashavyahu in Palestine and the mixed mercenary/trading
entrepot of Naukratis in the Egyptian delta. Recently I have detailed
arguments for "archaeological markers" indicating the presence and reach
of numerous trading entities ("diasporas") at Tell el-Dab'a Avaris,
and for Anatolian, Egyptian, Arabian, and "Proto-Israelite"/Hebrew diasporas
in MB II-Early Iron Age Syria-Palestine. Reinvestigating the appearance
of typically "Judaean" decanters - some made in Egypt - in the Egyptian
delta, already known since Petrie's very early excavations at Defenneh
(1880's), in the light of the excavations at Tell el-Maskhuta has revealed
the presence of Judaean settlers during the site's earliest years (minimally,
ca. 605-568 B.C.) in the context of a broader trade-related "quarter"
of the fortified enclosure. The existence of a Phoenician shrine, destroyed
in the Persian invasion of 525 B.C., in the same sector suggests that,
as at Memphis (Herotodus), this area may have been called the "Camp
of the Phoenicians."
149) Carolina Aznar, Harvard
University
Storage
Jars and Exchanges in the Iron Age II Southern Levant
The study
of storage jars, vessels used as foodstuff containers and carriers,
can provide abundant information on the exchanges within and between
ancient societies. This paper will present the preliminary results of
a typological, contextual and petrographic analysis conducted on a group
of Iron Age II storage jars coming from several sites in the Southern
Levant, including Tel Keisan, Megiddo, Gezer, Ashdod and others. Through
it, a picture of the pottery and foodstuff exchanges within and among
the Israelite, Phoenician and Philistine ethnic groups during that period
will be proposed.
150) Wolfgang Zwickel,
University of Mainz
The Trade
with Precious Stones in the Southern Levant in the First Millennium
B.C.
Precious stones were one of the most important fields of trade in antiquity.
Many different stones were found in excavations in Israel, Palestine
and Jordan, all of them imported. The stones, known by the Old and New
Testament and the Archaeology of the Southern Levant, will be in the
center of the lecture. On the one side there will be an investigation,
which stones are really meant in the Bible. Putting together all the
information we have, both their mention in text sources (especially
in Exodus 28:17-20, Revelation 21:19-20 and Pliny, Natural History XXXVII)
and the stones found in archaeological excavations, will make it possible
to draw some new insights in the translation of the Hebrew and Greek
terms (cf. W. Zwickel (Ed.) 2002). On the other side the origin of those
newly defined stones will be checked in order to get some information
about the trade in this area. The stones are typical for the long-distance
trade in antiquity, since some of them originate in Spain, Afghanistan,
Persia, India and the southern parts of Egypt. Others come from Northern
Egypt, the Sinai, Turkey and the southern East Jordan.
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A40)
Archaeology of People II
Theme: Archaeology of
Early Bronze Age People: Celebrating the Contributions of Walter Rast
and Thomas Schaub
Meredith Chesson, University
of Notre Dame and Walter Aufrecht, University of Lethbridge, Presiding
151) Yorke Rowan,
Smithsonian Institution
Shifts
in Material Culture Production: Evidence from the Early Bronze I site
of Nahal Tillah, Israel
Shifts
in material culture assemblages during the Chalcolithic to Early Bronze
Age transition in the southern Levant are just one of many indicators
of a significant change in the region. Determining the reason for this
change remains a challenge for scholars of later prehistory. Excavations
at Nahal Tillah, the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age (I) site on the
lower terrace of Tell Halif, excavated under the auspices of the University
of California, San Diego, exposed evidence for a Protodynastic-Early
Dynastic Egyptian presence. Material culture found at the site points
to indigenous continuity with earlier Chalcolithic occupations as well
as distinct changes in material culture and production during the Early
Bronze Age occupation. Maceheads excavated from Nahal Tillah suggest
on-site production and an increasingly standardized intent in form and
material. Macehead manufacture hints at a shift, perhaps toward an increasingly
"attached" form of specialized production, indicative of increasingly
controlled spheres of production.
152) Gloria London, Burke
Museum
The End
of the Calcite Tradition in Cooking Pots, or merely a Pause?
Mineralogical
analysis of ceramics is a focus of Bab edh-Dhra' pottery excavated by
W. Rast and T. Schaub. Early Bronze Age cooking pots tempered with calcite
from Bab edh-Dhra' are representative of a long lived ceramic tradition
of calcareous inclusions in cook ware. Calcite tempering has been shown
to be advantageous for pots subjected to repeated reheatings. In his
study of Iron Age sherds from Jerusalem, excavated by K. M. Kenyon,
H. J. Franken has demonstrated the eventual 'liberation' of cooking
pots from calcite and other calcareous rocks for inclusions. The shift
quartz, grog and a mix of non-plastic tempering, has been recently examined
for sherds excavated at Hisban in the 1970's by the Madaba Plains Project.
Mineralogical characterization by R. Shuster, UNO, was supplemented
by INAA carried by H. Neff to determine the sequence of events culminating
in the use of a wide variety of non-plastics for cooking pots. The wares
were made by a wide variety of potters at numerous locations. These
findings have implications for the organization of the ceramics industry.
As a result of the 'liberation' from calcite, all potters, including
those without access to calcite were able to shape cooking pots. The
industry was no longer the reserve of a limited group of producers.
153) Nancy Lapp, Pittsburgh
Theological Seminary
The Cylinder
Seal Impressions from Numeira
The Dead
Sea Plain sites have one of the largest collections of cylinder seals
and impressions from Early Bronze sites of Palestine and Transjordan,
second only in number to those that have been found at Zeraqon in the
north of Jordan. Those from Bab edh-Dhra will soon appear in the next
volume of the Dead Sea Plain excavation reports. This paper will examine
the cylinder seal impression from Numeira and their relation to those
from Bab edh-Dhra and other Early Bronze sites. Can we know anything
about the peoples that designed these and used the vessels, and their
relations to peoples who made similar seals, usually from considerable
distance during this period?
154) Tim Harrison, University
of Toronto
Community Life, Household Production, and the Ceramic Industry of EBA Tell al
'Umayri
Recent theoretical
discussions concerning the organization of EBA southern Levantine society
have increasingly acknowledged the existence (and persistence) of kinship-based
social networks throughout this period. Most recently, however, a model
of corporate group structure has been proposed (Philip, 2001), in which
the primary organizational unit that emerged operated at the supra-household
level. According to this view, these larger corporate social identities
represented collective communal responses (or strategies), prompted
in large part by the introduction of new technologies, that were designed
to mobilize labor and other resources, and thereby expand agricultural
production and the accumulation of economic surplus. Philip's 'Corporate
Village' model provides a useful conceptual framework with which to
examine the organization of craft production, and more specifically
ceramic production, at the community and household levels during the
EBA. This paper will seek to identify archaeological correlates that
might be suggestive of a ceramic industry organized at the corporate
village level, and then test these against the archaeological evidence
available from the EBA agricultural village settlement of Tell al-'Umayri,
located in the Highlands of Central Jordan.
155) Kay Prag, Manchester
Museum
The Domestic
Unit at Tell Iktanu, its Derivations and Functions
In
discussions of the transition from EB III to EBIV (Inter.EB.MB) and
the zone of disruption observed throughout most of the eastern Mediterranean
region in the later third millennium, the impact on people tends to
be underwritten in favour of what caused the visible changes in the
archaeological record. This despite the facts that much of the EB III
population in the south Levant lived in walled towns, the majority of
the known population during the succeeding period lived in open (if
sometimes large) settlements, and that this major social transition
is by most ascribed to changes within the indigenous population. What
perceptions were held in a contemporary society which exhibits mobility
and flexibility? Was settlement abandonment a social or a socio-economic
phenomenon? To what extent did political as opposed to environmental
factors play a role in such a major social transformation? Was social
identity involved? The site at Iktanu, with its visible and large exposure,
has a key role in addressing such issues. The plans of domestic units
reveal patterns which can be related to local regimes and compared with
contemporary domestic architecture, especially in northern Syria, where
much has been excavated in recent years. In addition, as all the heavy
(non-portable) domestic equipment appears to have survived virtually
complete in Phase 2 at Iktanu, much can be learnt about the use of domestic
space. The reconstruction of one unit and its contents also provides
a visual model reflecting the data.
156) Suzanne Richard, Gannon
University
The EB
IV Archaeological Household at Khirbet Iskander
Khirbet
Iskander, an Early Bronze Age site on the Plateau north of the Wadi
el-Mujib, is well known for its wonderfully preserved architecture dating
to the EB IV period, ca. 2350-2000 BCE. Extensive horizontal exposure
in both Areas B and C has revealed numerous complete structures, of
variable type, each with an array of artifact categories and features.
Structures include single and multiple-roomed residences, as well as
courtyards and auxiliary rooms. It is possible to illustrate differential
housing complexes and assemblages in Areas B and C, suggesting that
at the community level there were functional and behavioral distinctions
among the inhabitants. To test the inference that the use of space and
domestic activities in a clearly delineated residential neighborhood
(Area B) do in fact differ from those found in households proximate
to a more public area (Area C), our research focused on a spatial analysis
of intra-structural activity areas. The preliminary results of this
research clarify the nature of the EB IV household, provide insights
into specialist and domestic production activities, and support organizational
distinctions in Areas B and C at Khirbet Iskander.
157) William Dever,
University of Arizona
EB IV 'Paleo-bedouin', Ruralism, and Conceptual Landscapes
The
hundreds of known settlements of Palestine and Transjordan in the EB
IV period (ca. 2300-2000 BC) are predominantly rural--either seasonal
transhumant encampments in the semi-arid marginal zones, or small villages
dependent upon dry-farming and small-scale animal husbandry. Conventional
models explain the abandonment of urban sites in this period as due
to the "collapse" of Early Bronze Age society, as a response to environmental
degradation, or as a result of other unknown factors. This paper will
argue that the perennial pastoral-nomadic morpheme of the typical Levantine
"dimorphic" society simply prevailed overall upon the collapse of urban
society toward the end of the 3rd millennium BC. Displaced peoples migrated
naturally to the rural areas and to non-sedentary lifestyles because
they had long been preconditioned to an ideal, still to be found in
Middle Eastern societies, that constituted a "mental landscape" favoring
the countryside. That concept is reflected archaeologically in EB IV,
particularly in settlement types and patterns; cave-dwelling and primitive
house-styles; and in isolated shaft-tomb cemeteries with disarticulated
burials.
158) Graham Philip,
University of Durham
The Early Bronze
IV of the Southern Levant: the Sum of its Contradictions
Abstract not available.
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A41)
Workshop on Caesarea Maritima
Theme: Studies on Caesarea
Maritima, Israel
Kenneth G. Holum,
University of Maryland, Presiding
159) Peter Lampinen, Bausman,
PA
Architecture,
Cult, and Coin Types at Caesarea Maritima
This paper
will explore the civic coinage of Caesarea and representations of sacred
architecture and religious cults depicted on the coins. The changing
features of the coinage will be discussed and information on new coin
types and varieties will be added to promote our understanding of how
these subjects were treated by the coin designers. Parallels and divergences
will be studied between the coinage systems of Caesarea and other cities,
both within the region of Judaea and Samaria and in the wider Roman
Empire. The architecture of sacred space which we have come to understand
on the ground through excavation will be contrasted with what we can
ascertain through examination of the coin types.
160) Anna Iamim,
Porria-Illit, Israel
Laying
Foundations: The Evolution of Wall Foundation Technology from the 8th
to the 13th Century Based on Evidence from Area TP
Caesarea's
Area TP, the Temple Platform, was the site, successively, of four major
architectural complexes, all studied thoroughly in the excavations now
completed. These complexes were King Herod's Temple to Roma and Augustus,
earliest in date, then an Early Christian Church of the 6th through
8th centuries, then a domestic occupation during the Early Islamic period,
then, finally, a monumental occupation that may have set in already
in the Early Islamic period but later incorporated the Crusader basilica
of St. Peter in the 12th and 13th centuries. Naturally, what mainly
survives of the successive phases is foundations, and foundations are
therefore a main factor in our interpretation of the architecture of
successive cultural phases. The author discussed Temple and Church foundations
in earlier papers, so this one will focus on the technology employed
for building foundations between the 8th and 13th centuries CE. In general,
the Early Islamic and Crusader foundations present a less esthetic appearance
to the modern eye than those of the preceding eight centuries, yet their
builders did possess a special set of skills evident in the construction
of both narrow domestic foundation walls and in those of monumental
dimensions. In the course of examining the evidence of these skills,
we will explore what the foundations tell us about their builders and
consider whether the building techniques were native to the site or
represent an imported building technology.
161) Jennifer Stabler,
University of Maryland
The Byzantine-Islamic
Transition: Garden Features from Caesarea's Southwest Zone (Areas CV
and KK)
From 1990 to 1993
the Combined Caesarea Excavations explored Areas CV and KK in Caesarea's
Southwest Zone, the sector south of Caesarea's medieval fortification
wall. During the Byzantine Period (4th century through early 7th), this
sector was occupied by four or five large urban mansions that were associated
with a number of adjacent warehouses (horrea). The latter presumably
functioned, in part at least, for collection and storage of grain and
other products taken as rent from estates in the surrounding countryside,
properties owned by the same wealthy families who inhabited the nearby
mansions.
After the Muslim invasion and capture
of Caesarea in 641 CE, however, the occupation in the Southwest Zone
changed dramatically. This paper will discuss the archaeological evidence
for the new occupation and the ceramic and numismatic evidence for dating
it. Within a decade or two of the Muslim conquest, both the mansions
and the warehouses in Caesarea's Southwest Zone were abandoned completely.
After some robbing and collapse of the old buildings, a new occupation
emerged consisting of irrigated gardens. The lower portions of old walls
were left in place to serve as windbreaks. Garden soil was imported
and laid between the low walls. Wells and channels for irrigation were
constructed of stone. The coin and ceramic evidence recovered from the
garden soil deposits and the well shafts indicates construction shortly
after the Muslim conquest and continued use through the 7th century
and possibly into the 8th. Subsequently, a thick layer of sand apparently
dredged from Caesarea's nearby Inner Harbor covered the gardens in the
8th and 9th centuries, and it was in this sand layer that a Muslim cemetery
was established by the 9th century.
162) Kenneth G. Holum,
University of Maryland
The Byzantine-Islamic
Transition: Explaining the End of Ancient Caesarea
In 1991 the
author addressed ASOR on the topic "Archaeological Evidence for the
Fall of Byzantine Caesarea," a paper later published in BASOR
286 (1992): 73-85. I took earlier studies of Caesarea to task for assuming
that the Persian and Muslim conquests of Caesarea in the 7th century
had ended urbanism at the site by wanton destruction of urban buildings.
The evidence earlier alleged, site-wide "destruction" layers, appears
actually to have been an artifact of the excavators' preconceived notion
of willful destruction. Expanded Caesarea excavations through the 1990s
confirmed this side of my argument. Large tracts of urban terrain excavated
down to Byzantine levels, yielded no further destruction layers, and
the old theories of deurbanization have now been tacitly abandoned.
I also suggested in 1991 that what actually
caused the swift collapse of ancient urbanism at Caesarea was the flight
of the urban aristocracy. This elite had been in fact the city's raison
d'ętre, and its flight may well have brought a precipitous end to
ancient urbanism. This elite flight now appears well documented archaeologically
at Caesarea in the mansions of the Southwest Zone and their relatively
rapid abandonment after the conquests. The new occupation of irrigated
gardens, extending over both the mansions and the neighboring horrea,
represents vividly the dissolution of ancient links between the old
urban elite and the surrounding countryside. Indeed, investigation reveals
similar evidence of aristocratic flight from urban sites across the
Roman Empire, all the way from Palestine to Britain. Aristocrats abandoning
the cities counted as a main cause of transformation in the Roman world
at the end of antiquity.
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A42)
Material Culture and History: Ottoman Syro-Palestine
Řystein LaBianca,
Andrews University and Bert de Vries, Calvin College, Presiding
164) Eveline van der Steen,W.
F. Albright Institute
The Tribes
of Kerak
The country of Moab, with its fertile plains, has always been a favorite
both with pastoralists and with cultivators, who, incidentally, often
belonged to the same tribe. Because of its fertility it played a special
role in providing other parts of the region with food. Travelers like
Burckhardt and Seetzen, who visited the country at the beginning of
the 19th century describe the territorial struggles and conflicts that
ensued as a result of tribes competing for this country. The town of
Kerak held a special position as a tribal stronghold in this Bedouin
country, where practically all other settlement had disappeared by the
end of the Ottoman empire. During the second half of the 19th century
the Ottoman Empire made an effort to regain this control. The struggle
for power of the different tribes, their economic pursuits and their
relations hips with the territories to the north and south, and with
the Empire itself is developed into a model that may throw light on
other periods, and explain some of the changes in settlement systems
of the region over the millennia.
165) David C. Chaudoir,
University of Arkansas
Ethnohistorical
Approaches to Late Ottoman Hisban, Jordan
Stemming from initial research carried out during the 2001 field season
of Madaba Plains Project- Tall Hisban, this paper presents ethnographic
and historical data that lead to four scenarios explaining Palestinian
engagement in the East Bank during the Late Ottoman period, specifically
in the village of Hisban around the 1830 -1831. Using an inscription
which contains a hijra date found on a lintel of the Hisban Ottoman
era qasr complex, I offer new theories about Palestinian (specifically
Nabulsi) involvement in Hisban in relation to reforms in the Ottoman
Empire during this time period. I offer an outline of archival and ethnographic
research that should be conducted to test these theoretical scenarios
during the next field season at MPP Hisban, and argue for the continued
importance of ethnographic research in concert with archaeological expeditions
in Hisban.
166) Kamal Abdulfattah,
Birzeit University
Middle
East Nomadism in the Modern Era
Pre-modern
types of nomadism will live on in the collective memories of all Middle
Eastern peoples as a distinctive and beloved part of the rich cultural
legacy - memories going back as far as scenitae (tent-dwellers) of classical
antiquity, and the knights and poets of pre-Islamic Arabia.
Nomadism could be defined simply as the
practice of wondering from pasture to pasture to sustain grazing livestock
and to search for perennial and seasonal water for herds and their owners.
Nomadism could also be described as a pattern of life that makes use
of the meager bio-resources of peripheral areas for the raising of animals
on the available plant-cover.
This life pattern leads by nature to
periodic seasonal and cyclical movement of the nomadic groups in full
nomadic, semi-nomadic or transhumant patterns. The nomads' Spartan and
free way of life gave them a strong spirit of independence, a tight
adherence to kinship and a high degree of readiness and ability to defend
themselves against all eventual threats. To succeed nomads had to be
organized collectively through strong feelings of belonging and group
loyalty.
The creation of modern states with their
newly emerging economies and societies have forced radical changes in
nomadic life patterns - economic activities, social structure and political
organization. More and more nomads are being integrated into the mainstream
patterns, so that sedentarization and urbanization are transforming
the lives of large sections of Middle Eastern nomadic populations.
167) Ahmed Rjoob,
Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Palestine
Late Ottoman Mill Sites in the Wadi El-Far'a, West Bank
The
first phase of a new archaeological survey of the Wadi el-Far'a watershed
was conducted from 2001-2003 by as component of the Wadi el-Far'a Project
- a comprehensive development study carried out by a partnership team
under the auspices of Birzeit University and Calvin College, funded
by the Association Liaison Office for University Cooperation in Development.
The team - Kimberly DeWall, Ihab Dababsa and Ahmed Rjoob - published
its preliminary findings in the Wadi el-Far'a Project Report (January
2003) available at www.calvin.edu/~dvrb.
The survey doubled the number of known
archaeological sites to 110. Of this total 37 are water mills, mostly
dating from the late Ottoman period, with some still in use in the mid-20th
century, as late as 1965. This paper will present an overview of these
mill sites, a preliminary assessment of the milling industry they represent
and will conclude with recommendations for their further study and conservation.
These recommendations will be tailored to planning the use of these
sites in the teaching of Palestinian cultural heritage to both local
residents and tourists.
168) Widad Kawar,
Amman, Jordan, and Sally de Vries, Grand Rapids, Michigan
Late Ottoman Cultural Treasurers of Palestine and Jordan - A Representative
Display
From
2001-2003 the presenters have prepared - with a grant from the Joukowsky
Foundation - a catalogue of the extensive collection of costumes and
accessories assembled and housed by Widad Kawar in Amman, Jordan.. This
presentation will be a brief introduction to the contents of the catalogue,
which is to be used as a resource for the study of Late Ottoman personal
and household artifacts covering the towns, villages and nomadic areas
of Palestine, Jordan and South Syria.
The display, "Late Ottoman Cultural Treasures
of Palestine and Jordan," is designed to dovetail with the rest of the
session on the Late Ottoman period, and will feature costumes and artifacts
from representative towns and nomadic regions, selected from Kerak,
Ma'an, Hebron, Jerusalem, Ramallah, Nablus, Gaza, and Bir Saba / Sinai.
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A43)
The World of Women
Beth Alpert Nakhai,
University of Arizona, Presiding
169) Uzi Avner, Arava Institute
Gender
in the Desert Prehistoric Religion
Ancient religion
of the desert (6th-3rd millennia B.C.) can be studied by the remains
of various cult and burial sites. To date, 207 sites of masseboth (standing
stones) and 154 open-air sanctuaries are recorded in the Negev and eastern
Sinai, as well as many other cult installations and burial grounds.
Interpretation of symbols represented in these sites permit some observations
on the ancients' pantheon and the relative position of gods and goddesses.
In masseboth sites, a general distinction
can be made between the broad stones that represented goddesses, and
narrow stones for male gods. These are found either as individual stones
or in groups of repeating numbers and combinations. Among individual
masseboth, broad stones predominate (72.6%), and they also hold a dominant
position in some types of the groups.
A similar distinction is also possible
in open sanctuaries, based on their design and attached symbols. 'Female'
sanctuaries dominate (62.3%), however, in 25 pairs, built in a consistent
pattern, the 'male' sanctuary gains the senior position (the right side).
Seven pairs of 'female' sanctuaries are presently known, but no 'male'
pairs. Also in burial, female fertility symbolism is well-emphasized.
Generally, it is apparent that goddesses
were more frequently appealed to, but the rising position of male gods
is also apparent through these remains. In a broader sense, the desert
is very rich with prehistoric cult sites, reflecting a complex spiritual
world of the population. Surprisingly, these sites represent a well-established
pantheon, which probably preceded that of the fertile lands.
170) Gay Robins, Emory
University
The Construction
of Gender Identity in New Kingdom Egyptian Art
The aim of
this paper, building on earlier studies by the author, is to examine
how gender is constructed in representations of male and female figures
in New Kingdom Egyptian art, and to explore what this tells us about
how men and women were perceived as relating to each other within society.
Before drawing any conclusions, one must be aware of problems inherent
in the material. What is shown in the visual material is an idealized
system that reflects the views of the elite male ruling group for whom
the art was produced. This elite system was presumably grounded in actual
social structure but, as texts show, the lived realities of that structure
were far messier than the elite ideal. Thus what I am exploring is an
elite construct relating to reality but not reality. In examining this
elite system, I shall analyze differences between the ways in which
male and female elite figures are represented, for instance, with regard
to skin color, pose, costume, items carried, and location within scenes,
in order to show how male and female identity are constructed in opposition
to one another. I shall also examine how images of elite figures compare
to those of the non-elite and whether status affects gender construction.
I shall end the paper by suggesting how we can use the visual evidence
to draw conclusions about positive and negative aspects of the position
of elite women within New Kingdom Egyptian society.
171) Beth Alpert Nakhai,
University of Arizona
Gender
Implications of Infant Abandonment and Child Sacrifice in Iron II Judah
Biblical evidence
suggests that both child sacrifice and the intentional abandonment of
very young children took place in Iron II Judah. The evidence further
suggests that it was girls who bore the disproportionate impact of these
practices. Gendered infanticide, the abandonment of infants and young
girls, is documented in the Classical world and in the anthropological
record. Most often, this form of gendered violence was used to cope
with pressures created by insufficient food resources or by the death
of the mother.
Throughout the Iron II, the people of
Judah were subject to intense economic stress. They struggled to maintain
an adequate food supply in the face of civil war, external military
threat, high taxation and population growth. Their system of land transference,
fundamental to agricultural self-sufficiency, placed a premium on sons.
Too many daughters may have been seen as an unnecessary burden.
Socially sanctioned gendered violence
must have had a powerful impact on the women of Judah, although the
Bible offers little sense of what that impact might have been. Gendered
archaeology examines the material correlates of gender and reconstructs
the lives of women in antiquity. The troubling matter of gendered infanticide
and child sacrifice in Judah provides an example of the difficulties
encountered by those working in the field, for without written texts
much necessary evidence would not be available. On the other hand, the
questions raised by the text suggest important issues that archaeologists
must consider when analyzing their data.
172) Aubrey Baadsgaard,
University of Pennsylvania
A Taste
of Women's Sociality: A New Perspective on Women and Cooking in the
Iron Age Levant
Some attention
has been paid to social constructions of gender with respect to the
performance of domestic activities in the Iron Age. What has been neglected
is an attempt to go beyond idealized notions of what "domestic practice"
should entail as drawn from the assumed dominant patriarchal structure
of the Bible and other sources. The material remains of cooking, usually
in the form of ovens and the their accompanying features and utensils,
provide some much needed insight into the range of variation possible
in the actual performance of cooking by women living in the Iron Age.
The high frequency of ovens in domestic contexts parallels other findings
and reinforces the assumed social relegation of cooking as a domestic
activity most often done by women in concert with other domestic tasks.
Variations in the location of ovens within and outside what is usually
considered domestic space, however, indicates that women could organize
domestic tasks according to personal preference and perhaps in ways
that allowed for informal social networks between women in multiple
households. Such variation in the material record undercuts views of
cooking and other domestic activities as static and repetitive tasks
restricted to set areas, indicating instead that cooking was a social
activity that took place within less strictly defined, broad fields
of action. Indeed, the evidence suggests that cooking occurred on a
larger domestic stage where the factors of family life, gender roles,
and women's responsibility for the well-being of family members could
come together and the social relationships between and among households
be formed and negotiated.
173) Cynthia Finlayson,
Brigham Young University
Mot'a
Marriage, Matriarchal Lineages, and the Archaeological Evidence from
Palmyra, Syria
In 1903 Dr.
W. Robertson Smith published his revolutionary study, Kinship and
Marriage in Early Arabia (Beacon Press, Boston) in which he discussed
the phenomenon of mot'a marriage in Arab tribal contexts. The mot'a
or temporary contract marriage allowed for a union to be initiated by
females with specified males, and the resultant offspring of that union
to build up the woman's clan, not that of the male partner. This arrangement
thus gave individual women significant influence as well as the potential
to be the progenitors of their own subclans and tribes. It also allowed
viable options for Semitic Arab and Aramaean clans to perpetuate lineages
despite high mortality rates due to harsh environments, disease, and
warfare. These options were based, however, on the gendered power of
women.
Since Smith's publication, the existence
and practice of mot'a marriage has not been explored in any depth in
the archaeological record. Significantly, the female portraits of Palmyra,
Syria represent the largest extant collection of community portraits
with accompanying genealogies from a late Roman context in the Near
East. This era was extremely important in the developing milieu of the
pre-Islamic world. This paper thus presents the findings of a five season,
on site study of these portraits with a specific emphasis on an investigation
of the evidence for mot'a marriage and its manifestations among the
Arab/Aramaean tribes of ancient Palmyra. New evidence will be presented
that corrects many of Smith's assumptions with regard to the social
status of women and the practice of the mot'a arrangement. This study
thus represents a significant contribution to an increased understanding
of the position of women in the ancient Near East as evidenced by the
extant archaeological record.
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A44)
Khirbet Qana Publication Workshop II
Alysia Fischer,
Independent Researcher and Douglas Edwards, University of Puget Sound,
Presiding
Discussion.
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A45)
Archaeology of Mesopotamia
Richard Zettler,
University of Pennsylvania, Presiding
174) Carrie Hritz,
University of Chicago
The Hidden Landscape of Southern Mesopotamia
Much of our understanding of southern Mesopotamian settlement and irrigation
systems is the direct result of archaeological survey. Despite the recognized
importance of archaeological survey, less than 1/3 of the alluvial plain
of southern Mesopotamia has been surveyed. As a result, the basic settlement
pattern of southern Mesopotamia through time reflects a concentration
on the central portion of the plain and its respective landscape.
It has become clear that this compelling
picture of landscape and settlement is incomplete. Scholars such as
Gasche et al have begun to elaborate the settlement picture with more
detailed studies of ground-surveyed areas. The incorporation of new
technologies such as GIS and Remote Sensing as well as the harnessing
of varied data sources will allow for more detailed analysis of ground
surveyed areas and the addition of areas not fully represented by previous
archaeological survey.
The focus of this paper is one area that
has been under-represented. This is the cultivation zone to the west
of the heartland of the Mesopotamian alluvium as defined by the surveys
of Robert McAdams (1981). This paper will show that by studying the
available data sources, such as 1919 British maps, 1968 Corona satellite
photographs and Spot 1992-5 satellite images, a new analysis of this
area is possible. The identification of archaeological sites and their
potentially associated watercourses will present a dataset of landscape
features. A preliminary analysis of this area will address questions
of settlement shifts over time and assess the impact of this new landscape
reconstruction to traditional interpretations of the archaeological
record in southern Mesopotamia.
175)
Andrew McCarthy, University of Edinburgh
Gateway
to Power: Tell Leilan Excavations at the City Gate
In
2002, excavations continued at the site of Tell Leilan in northeastern
Syria. Recent roadworks conducted to expand the access road leading
to the site resulted in damage to the outer rampart of the ancient city.
Although there was irretrievable loss due to bulldozer cuts, the opportunity
was taken to examine the large section cut through what has long been
believed to be the city gate area. Detailed work was undertaken examining
the section and excavations revealed interesting data relating to chronology
of the site and the region, the nature of the city gate complex at Tell
Leilan and inferentially at other sites, and the sequence of social
and environmental changes in the 3rd and 2nd millennia. This paper presents
the studies conducted regarding the city gate excavation, their interpretation
in relation to the development of walled cities and to the cultural
sequence of northern Mesopotamia. Particularly interesting is the fact
that city gates from this time period are not commonly archaeologically
investigated, and the Tell Leilan excavation can shed light on an important
but often overlooked architectural feature. Also, the clear stratigraphic
details of the walled area and highly precise dates give us an important
refinement of the cycles of population agglomeration, state formation,
power consolidation and subsequent collapse in this region.
176) Paul Zimansky,
Boston University
Hamida
and Brak: Material Culture in the Heartland of Mitanni
Soundings
undertaken in 1987 at Tell Hamida in Iraq's North Jezira produced an
assemblage of artifacts dating to the period of Mitanni's greatest imperial
prominence. In recent years, excavated materials from other central
Mitannian sites have been published, notably from Tell Brak. This paper
will present a comparative study of these assemblages in an effort to
define commonalities and diversities within the core area of Mitanni,
an empire otherwise largely known from external documentation and artifacts
from the periphery.
177) Elizabeth
Stone, SUNY Stony Brook
The Mesopotamian
City
This
paper brings together data from textual sources, site survey data, and
the archaeological record to provide a vivid picture of the ancient
Mesopotamian city. Drawing from both third millennium and early second
millennium data, this paper will explore the makeup and distribution
of houses and households, the evidence for social mobility, neighborhood
organization and the role of the major institutions, the palace and
temple. It will conclude with an examination of overall planning within
both large and small urban sites, placing the urban experience within
the broader settlement context. Together these different data strands
under examination result in a detailed understanding of the dynamics
of urban life that is unparalleled for other early complex societies,
whether within the Near East or elsewhere.
178) Marian Feldman,
University of California, Berkeley
Assur Tomb 45 and the Birth of the Assyrian Empire
The
powerful Assyrian empire of the 9th through 7th centuries BCE had its
foundations in the preceding millennium when it emerged as an independent
state and began expansionist policies to the west. Yet the Late Bronze
Age international world of the 14th and 13th centuries operated according
to strict protocol couched in terms of brotherhood, parity, and reciprocity.
Taking material culture as constitutive of social identity, this paper
explores the clash between the two divergent 'world views' of imperialism
and diplomacy through an archaeological and art historical case study
of Assur Tomb 45. The well built stone tomb can be associated with the
archive of Babu-aha-iddina, a powerful Assyrian official involved in
international affairs. The diversity and richness of its luxurious grave
goods, in conjunction with the historical figure of Babu-aha-iddina,
permit an exploration of Assyrian cultural identity on the cusp of imperialism.
Many of the pieces exhibit connections with foreign regions, while at
the same time asserting a new Assyrian artistic identity. For example,
a matched ivory pyxis and comb set and a carved alabaster vase suggest
visual metaphors for Assyria's nascent ideology. Their adoption of internationalizing
motifs with diplomatic symbolism hints at Assyria's initial attempts
at acceptance among the diplomatic community, while the state's ultimate
rejection of diplomacy in favor of imperialism finds expression in the
creation of a forceful Assyrian style based on narrative and verisimilitude
that climaxed in the well known palace reliefs depicting war and hunting
of the Neo-Assyrian empire.
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A46)
Arabia I
Theme:
Archaeology and Epigraphy in Arabia
David F. Graf,
University of Miami, Presiding
179) John F. Healey, University
of Manchester
New Evidence
for the Nabataean Legal Tradition and its Relation to Aramaic Common
Law
The definitive
publication in 2002 of the Nabataean legal papyri from the Cave of Letters
establishes a new basis for the study of Nabataean law, an aspect of
Nabataean society which was previously only accessible to us through
a single legal text published in 1954 and the legalistic language of
the tomb inscriptions of Hegra (Mada'in Salih) in Saudi Arabia, known
since the late 19th century. Since the new publication appeared, the
speaker has been actively engaged in researching the position of Nabataean
legal practice within the Aramaic 'Common Law' tradition and in contact
with Hellenistic/Roman law. Whereas earlier work was very largely confined
to the study of legal terminology, it is now possible to see Nabataean
law in a broader context, both in terms of praxis (e.g. 'double documents',
subscriptions and witnessing, etc.) and in terms of comparison with
contemporary documents in Jewish Aramaic and Syriac. The new Nabataean
documents come from a rural center at the southern tip of the Dead Sea
where Jewish and 'pagan' subjects of the Nabataean kingdom were in close
contact. This close contact is reflected in the mutual influences detectable
in the Jewish and non-Jewish legal documents from the area, though there
is no doubt that most of the documents written both by Jews and non-Jews
belong firmly within the tradition of Aramaic Common Law known to us
from the Elephantine documents and continuing through to the Syriac
legal documents of the third century C.E..
180) Orit Shamir, Israel
Antiquities Authority
Textiles
Basketry and Cordage found along the Spice Route joining Petra and Gaza
from the Nabataean Period
Most of the
way stations such as Mo'a, Sha'ar Ramon and 'En Rahel located on the
Spice routes joining Petra and Gaza have yielded textiles, basketry
and cordage. They display a remarkable variety of materials (wool, goat
hair, camel hair, linen, date-palm) and techniques (tabby, extended
tabby, twill) suggesting their diverse geographical origins (Middle
East, Mesopotamian origin, Europe, Galil or Jordan Valley). Some of
the textiles are dyed or decorated with bands, stripes or tapestry in
red, blue, green and/or other colors. They were used for clothing, bags
or reused for other purposes. A great deal can be learned from the textiles,
basketry and cordage about the population of the different sites: their
social, economic and political situation. For example, textiles from
Mo'a and Sha'ar Ramon demonstrate a greater variety of techniques such
as twills and dyes compare to 'En Rahel, a fact which may be due to
their location on the main road which were perhaps more heavily traveled
by the caravans. Patched textiles are few, contra the Cave of Letters,
where although the textiles were of excellent quality, they were heavily
patched and re-patched because of siege conditions. The spinning and
weaving workmanship is of a high standard. In general, the uniformity
of dyeing in the samples analyzed is of a very high quality; this homogeneity
is even visible on the microscopic level. All these features and the
ability to obtain these clothes attest to the high economic status of
these Nabatean tradesmen and merchants, "sailors of the desert," living
two thousand years ago.
181) Susan Gelb, University
of Texas at Austin
Invisible Paths: Hadrian's Itinerary through Arabia in AD 130
The Emperor Hadrian's itinerary though Arabia in AD 130 has been difficult
for scholars to identify due to the lack of textual and epigraphic evidence.
There is a wealth of Hadrianic period inscriptions concerning the imperial
cult and building dedications in Asia Minor, but the record for Arabia
is strangely silent in this regard. I demonstrate that by studying the
monuments of Arabia and taking into consideration the ancient highway
system, Hadrian's visits can be identified architecturally at Gerasa,
Philadelphia, and Petra. Based on my dissertation research (Architecture
and Romanization: Hadrian's Visit to the Provincia Arabia in AD 130)
I have determined that the Hadrianic period monuments were a hybrid
of Nabataean and other local styles with recognizable features of Hadrian's
"baroque" revival. By comparing some of the architectural styles of
monuments in Arabia to those of known Hadrianic date in Asia Minor,
Syria, and Rome, I am able to supply physical evidence for the imperial
visit to Arabia. The creation of syncretistic monuments in honor of
the emperor that consciously blended Roman style with indigenous features
maintained local identity while acknowledging the new Roman presence.
I argue that the resultant architectural acculturation has (to some
extent) obscured the Hadrianic origins of the monuments. A clearer view
of this local phenomenon will identify the emperor's itinerary and advance
studies of 'Romanization' in the East.
182) Jason Moralee, Illinois
Wesleyan
The Re-Use
of Pagan Inscriptions in Christian Gerasa
The reuse
of literary and material fragments of the past has been the subject
of vigorous inquiry in the last generation of scholarship on the ancient,
late antique, and medieval world. Largely absent from these studies
is any consideration of the reuse of inscriptions, though there is abundant
evidence suggesting that Christians in late antiquity routinely reused
pagan inscriptions for use in public and private, and secular and religious
contexts. This paper presents the epigraphic record from late antique
Gerasa as a case study of this activity. There, at least a dozen such
inscriptions were reused in Christian structures. Gerasene reuse will
be compared with similar acts of despoliation at Baalbek in Lebanon,
Ezra in Syria, and Horvath Hesheq in Israel. It will be suggested that
this is an expression of Christian triumphalism: the past, in epigraphic
form, served as a reminder of the horrors of persecution, a memorial
to those who had suffered death, and a monument to Christianity's eventual
victory. By imbedding pagan relics into the structure and decorative
features of churches, Christians emphasized their triumph, while fashioning
pagan inscriptions into innocuous curios, whose scripts, with their
old-fashioned letter forms, became proof for the triumphal narratives
that Christians in late antiquity acquired and propagated through sermons,
martyrologies, and hagiographies. When read together with the inscriptions,
the literary evidence sheds light on how people in late antiquity forged
a specifically Christian mentality buttressed by physical reminders
of the past in the form of the inscribed word.
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A47)
Archaeology of Jordan I
Bruce Routledge, University
of Pennsylvania, Presiding
183) Ian Kuijt and Meredith
Chesson, University of Notre Dame
Regional Abandonment vs. Occupational Continuity: New Research on
Pottery Neolithic Settlements on the Southeastern Dead Sea Plain and
Southern Jordan
Archaeological
excavations at relatively well known Pottery Neolithic settlements in
the southern Levant provide relatively solid documentation of the architectural
and artifactual practices of some major settlements, and illustrates
that these occupations were characterized by integrated systems of life
in settled villages and hamlets with flexible systems of animal exploitation.
In specific areas such as southeastern Plain of the Dead Sea, however,
it is only recently that researchers have started to develop an understanding
of the nature of Pottery Neolithic and Chalcolithic lifeways. These
studies indicate that existing models for the abandonment of this area
in the Pottery Neolithic are not supported by available data. Archaeological
materials recovered from 'Ain Waida' and other regional sites provide
strong support for arguments for regional continuity through the Pottery
Neolithic periods on the southeast Dead Sea Plain, and depending upon
how one views the timing and definition of Neolithic and Chalcolithic
cultures, evidence for general occupational continuity between the Pottery
Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods.
184) Greg Linton, Great
Lakes Christian College
Results
of the 2001 Karak Resources Project Regional Survey
The
2001 season of the Karak Resources Project Regional Survey focused on
an area 50 km2 in size located east of the limits of the Miller-Pinkerton
Survey and south of the limits of the Limes Zone Survey. The survey
identified forty-one sites not covered by the Miller-Pinkerton Survey,
thirty-five of which are not listed in JADIS. The presentation will
focus on sites that illustrate water management in antiquity. A previously
unknown Iron Age site adjacent to Khirbet el-Akuzeh contains seven cisterns
and two reservoirs. Several extensive water systems located in the Muheir
el-Fajj reveal the use of water channels, cisterns, and reservoirs in
the Roman era. Sites that reveal the attempt to manage a challenging
environment in the eastern desert will also be reviewed. A complex of
ruins near the Desert Highway called Khirbet el-Askar indicate a community
that existed in Roman and Byzantine times. North of that site is a possible
Roman and Byzantine military site that was previously unknown. It consists
of several watchtowers, enclosures, and a small fort that may have been
built in the Iron Age. This site is located within a gap of Roman military
installations between el-Lejjun and Wadi el-Hesa. Neither of these sites
has revealed any means of water collection and storage. Future investigation
will focus on the possible relation between these two sites and the
means by which they managed their resources.
185) Alexis Boutin, University
of Pennsylvania
Is Ancestor
Veneration Reserved for the Elderly? The View from Ancient Jordan
According to common wisdom, an individual must have achieved a certain
social status, reached a prescribed age, or successfully raised offspring
in order to be the subject of ancestor veneration. So how can we account
for the regular presence of children, who possess none of these characteristics,
in the communal burial grounds of cultures that venerate their ancestors?
This conundrum highlights the inadequacy of current archaeological paradigms
of ancestor veneration. By focusing on the agential role of children,
it becomes evident that becoming an ancestor is a process that begins
as early as infancy, and involves the individual and the community,
the living and the dead.
The life stages and social transitions
that lead toward ancesterdom are historically and socially contingent.
It is possible to elucidate such rites of passage in the archaeological
record by means of the differential mortuary treatment that children
were afforded, depending on their various stages of dependence and development.
Ethnographic analogy and archaeological evidence indicate that the cultures
associated with the Late Bronze-Iron Age cave burials in the Baq'ah
Valley of Jordan likely engaged in ancestor veneration. The mortuary
treatment of children in these burials suggests their ongoing relevance
to traditions of ancestor veneration even in times of political and
economic transition.
186) Jim Pace, Elon University
Form and Decoration of Mudaybi' Iron II Pottery
The development of a corpus of "Moabite" pottery, especially the pottery of
the Karak plateau that stretches between the Wadi Mujib and the Wadi
Hasa, is in its infancy. This is primarily due to the lack of excavations
on the plateau that yield Iron II ceramics in sealed strata. Except
for pottery published from excavations by Worschech at el-Balua', there
are few examples with which parallels can be made. However the Karak
Resources Project has unearthed sizeable quantities of Iron II pottery
in its excavations at Khirbat al-Mudaybi' in 1997, 1999, and 2001. This
presentation offers examples of the form and decoration of Iron II pottery
of Mudaybi' and discusses how they relate to those found elsewhere on
the Karak plateau for the purpose of advancing the Moabite ceramic corpus.
187) Bethany Walker, Oklahoma
State University
The Nalka-Hibras Survey: Archaeology Investigations of Mamluk Agricultural
Policy
The economic
decline of Jordan in the middle ages must be understood as part of the
larger atmosphere of political, financial, social, and environmental
decline of Greater Syria under Mamluk administration during the fifteenth
and early sixteenth centuries. This archaeological survey of northern
Jordan is part of a larger study on Mamluk agricultural policies in
the country: their successes in the fourteenth century and apparent
failure by the fifteenth. The oft-repeated whole-scale abandonment of
this region after the plague of the 1340s is far from proven. It remains
to be determined to what degree Jordan really was abandoned by the Mamluk
authorities and subsequently depopulated and what factors accounted
for this.
A combined reading of medieval written sources
and archaeological reports indicates that Jordanian villages experienced
the mixed benefits of an uneven investment in local agriculture by the
Mamluk state, which was often quite exploitative. This walking survey
of several villages in northern Jordan helped clarify Mamluk agricultural
policies in Jordan by determining when and where (and under what circumstances)
agricultural investment in Jordan began by Mamluk officials, quantifying
that investment, identifying when it came to an end and why, and assessing
the environmental damage to the region by the worst of these policies.
The survey, in combination with soil analysis and archival research,
attests to the continued economic viability of this region throughout
the Middle and Late Islamic periods.
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A48)
Casting the First Stone: Recent Studies of Ground and Chipped Stone
Tools
Yorke M. Rowan,
Smithsonian Institution, and Jennie R. Ebeling, University of Evansville,
Presiding
188) Seiji Kadowaki, University
of Toronto
Spatial
Analysis of Lithic Tools from Tabaqat-al Buma, a Pottery Neolithic Settlement
in Northern Jordan
This
paper examines intra-site spatial distribution of lithic tools at Tabaqat-al
Bûma, a Pottery Neolithic farmstead located in Wadi Ziqlab, northern
Jordan. Spatial analyses of lithic artifacts at the Levantine Neolithic
sites are still underdeveloped compared to its counterparts in the Palaeolithic
period, although the recovery of architectural remains at most of the
Neolithic sites, such as Tabaqat-al Bûma, allows archaeologists
to detect significant spatial contexts of artifacts more clearly than
at the Palaeolithic sites. Several studies indicate that spatial analyses
of artifacts recovered in association with architectural remains contribute
to the elucidation of room functions and the spatial structure of indoor
or outdoor domestic activities.
The excavation at Tabaqat-al Bûma
revealed several rectilinear architectural remains ranging from about
8m² to 15m² in size, and the site's stratigraphical analysis
suggests that only some of the buildings were synchronically inhabited
with open spaces or abandoned buildings as potential outdoor activity
areas. In this paper, my analysis of the spatial distribution of lithic
tools from various contexts in one occupational phase provides us with
insights into the spatial organization of domestic activities at the
Neolithic farmstead. Additionally, it has implications for the settlement
characteristics of Tabaqat-al Bûma and the community organization
of site inhabitants.
189) Philipp M.
Rassmann, University of Washington
Rocking
on Pig Hill: Modification and Recycling of Ground Stone at Domuztepe,
Turkey
Using material collected over several seasons of excavation at Domuztepe,
a late Halaf site in southeast Turkey, this paper explores the likelihood
that the ground stone at the site had been heavily modified and recycled
largely as a result of the need to meet a variety of purposes over time.
The paper examines metrical and nominal data for a variety of ground
stone tool classes. The great range and continuity in the sizes, shapes
and use damage within and between the tool classes suggest a long use
life for the tools as well as the possibility that the tools served
a variety of purposes. Applying metrical data and macroscopic use-wear
analysis, this paper suggests that much of the ground stone assemblage
may have been used to manufacture objects of stone and other materials
including objects of organic material such as bone and wood. Altogether
the data corresponds well with other indicators at Domuztepe that suggest
1) the importance of Domuztepe as a regional center, perhaps for stone
processing and ritual activities and 2) that Domuztepe had been a large
settlement part of which may have been largely transient.
190) Charles Faulkner,
University of Tennessee
A Study
of Ground Stone Implements from the Karak Plateau
Present descriptions of ground stone implements from the Levant are
often simple, convenient typologies based largely on form instead of
combinations of attributes that formed a mental template for the maker
and user of these artifacts. While form is an important attribute of
classification, this study focuses on other important attributes such
as manufacturing or reduction techniques, use wear, breakage patterns,
and recycling of the ground stone artifacts recovered in the survey
of the Karak Plateau and the excavation of the al-Mudaybi site in Jordan.
191) Jennie
R. Ebeling, University of Evansville
Basalt
Bowl Production at Tel Hazor
This presentation will focus on the remains of a basalt bowl production
area unearthed in recent excavations at Tel Hazor; it appears to be
the first basalt bowl workshop identified in an Iron Age context in
Israel. Several types of broken or unfinished basalt vessels/mortars,
including pedestal bowls, ring base bowls, tripods, plates, and others,
were found primarily in Iron II loci in Area M. The results of a preliminary
analysis of the manufacturing process, along with a discussion of the
archaeological context of the artifacts, will be presented.
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A49)
Organic Approaches to Near Eastern Archaeology
Edward
F. Maher, University of Illinois - Chicago, Presiding
192)
Nitzan Mekel-Bobrov, University of Chicago
Kinship System in the Bronze Age Levant: Ancient DNA Analysis of
Human Remains from Ashkelon, Israel
Patrilineal
kinship is central to a great myriad of arguments regarding the nature
of Bronze Age Levantine society. Studies of burial practices and religious
beliefs have focused on patrilineal ancestor worship, models of economic
systems have tended to divide Levantine society into a palace-based
and a patrilineal kinship-based sector, and notions of the political
hegemony of the royal court have centered on the monarch's symbolic
role as an "ideological father." Empirical evidence for kinship behaviour
in the ancient Levant has been virtually nonexistent, partly due to
the limitations of traditional bioarchaeology. Osteological data cannot
be used to determine a specific kinship system. The purpose of this
paper is to directly assess kinship affinities in Bronze Age Levantine
burials, using ancient DNA, in order to test the validity of the widespread
assumption of a patrilineal kinship system in many of the arguments
made regarding Levantine society in this period. Specifically, ancient
DNA analysis has been carried out on the mtDNA Hypervariable Regions
I and II of twelve individuals from a single burial chamber at the Bronze
Age site of Ashkelon, located on the Mediterranean coast of Israel.
By comparing the nature and extent of sequence diversity in the ancient
sample with known sequence diversities of modern populations it was
possible to detect the genetic signature of a specific kinship system.
The results of the ancient DNA analysis of the Ashkelon human remains
are the first empirical evidence for a strongly patrilineal kinship
system in the Bronze Age Levant.
193)
Kevin McGeough, University of Pennsylvania
The Uses and Abuses of Textual Evidence in the Study of Organic Materials
Organic materials
are frequently preserved indirectly in the archaeological record through
the medium of texts. The forces of deterioration that work against the
preservation of texts are different from those that work against the
preservation of the organic materials themselves. This makes the written
record a valuable locus of evidence to supplement our understanding
of ancient organic materials. The comparison of archaeological and textual
evidence to illuminate the use of organic materials can be a valuable
approach. Since preservation is incomplete in both datasets, the use
of both kinds of evidence can help provide a more complete picture.
The palace archives of the Late Bronze Age city of Ugarit provide ample
record of the production and circulation of organic materials within
the ancient site. The relatively poor archaeological techniques used
in the earliest excavations have obscured the organic remains. But using
the textual records, some analysis of the role of organic materials
in the economic life of ancient Ugarit can be made. This paper shall
discuss the evidence for organic materials in the palace records of
Late Bronze Ugarit. Specific emphasis will be given to discussion of
the problems and limitations of textual evidence that are not always
obvious to those who do not normally integrate textual data into their
study of ancient organic materials. Appropriate and inappropriate uses
of textual data will be demonstrated.
194) Alexandra Thompson
and M.P. Richards, University of Bradford
Investigation
of Animal Diet and Subsistence Practices in Ancient Egypt and Nubia
through Stable Isotope Analysis
This
paper presents new information on Egyptian and Nubian animal diet management
using stable isotope analysis of bone collagen from archaeozoological
remains. Stable isotope analysis is an established technique in the
investigation of palaeodiet and can give information about the average,
long-term diet of an individual. Carbon isotope analysis gives information
about the aquatic vs. terrestrial components of the diet as well as
the main plant type consumed (i.e. C3 photosynthetic pathway vs. C4).
Nitrogen isotopes allow the distinction of the trophic level from which
dietary protein was obtained, i.e. the amount of plant foods in the
diet compared to animal products. The nitrogen value may also give information
about the ecosystem from which the animal was consuming food, giving
suggestions as to husbandry practices. The Egyptian animal samples used
are from a range of species and sites and provide baseline isotopic
values for protein known to have been consumed from archaeological evidence.
Faunal samples from the Nubian site of Kerma dating to the Middle Kerma
period have also been included in the study as a comparative Nile Valley
animal population. This data can also aid in the interpretation of isotopic
values obtained from samples of the human population in the Nile valley.
195) Thomas Hulit, University
of Durham
Untanned
Animal Hide Products in the Ancient Near East
Hide
products were an important element in daily life of the ancient near
east. Each time an animal was slaughtered, there was a hide available
for use. The method of treating hides and the products manufactured
from them is an aspect of archaeology that is rarely acknowledged, primarily
due to the ephemeral nature of organic remains in the archaeological
record. One area in which hide products were in particular demand was
in the ancient military. From rawhide scale body armour to chariot fittings
to shield coverings, the list of military uses for hide products is
almost endless. Egyptian archaeological sites show occasional remarkable
preservation which should serve, with due academic caution, as a broad
example of the types of organic artifacts (both military and civilian)
that one might expect to have originally been present in much of the
rest of the Near East.
196) Shawn Bubel,
University of Lethbridge
The Actions of Burrowing Animals on the Archaeological Record: Faunaturbation
as an Altering Force
Faunaturbation,
defined as the alteration of a sediment or soil horizon by animal activity,
is a common postdepositional process seen throughout the Near East.
Burrowing animals are especially destructive faunaturbative agents that
can effectively disturb the original context of an archaeological assemblage.
They are able to displace artifacts horizontally and vertically, altering
the association and the chronological sequence of the remains. Evidence
of their past actions can be noted in the forms of krotovinas (filled
in burrows), open tunnels and animal remains. At many sites, however,
these features or ecofacts are no longer present or detectable and therefore
the alteration burrowing animals may have caused would go unrecorded,
potentially resulting in a misinterpretation of the human activity that
went on. New studies have shown that by focusing on the connections
between the characteristics of the artifacts and their proveniences,
faunaturbation can be distinguished and, in some cases, delimited. Fieldwork
and experiments revealed that artifacts are displaced downward at different
rates depending on their characteristics and the properties of the sediment
or soil. The result is a vertically spread cultural deposit. In the
case of a single, short-term occupation on a sandy soil, the assemblage
would have a vertical spread with the smaller pieces closer to the surface
than the larger items. If, however, the site was occupied more than
once, the multiple assemblages would be mixed together making interpretation
difficult. In either situation the detection of faunaturbation is vital
to understanding the human activity that has taken place.
197) Stephen Buckley,
University of York
The Identification of Organic Embalming Agents from Ancient Yemeni
Mummies
Little
is known about the mummies of Yemen. They are usually dismissed as rudimentary,
despite the reference to 'a canopic jar' in published work on the archaeology
of ancient Yemen. Analytical studies have been carried out [1-2] to
gain insight into the sources and nature of the "resins" employed in
Egyptian mummification, but those utilized in the mummies of Yemen have
not been the subject of similar scientific study. Mummification was
a complex process combining the practical considerations of body preservation
with ritualistic/symbolic concerns. Thus, the study of these mummies
could provide insights into important facets of ancient Yemeni culture.
Comparisons with Egyptian and other mummy making cultures can also be
made. This study concerned the chemical analysis of the organic materials
associated with 10 Yemeni mummies dating from c. 1200 BC to 300 BC.
Due to the complex nature of the aged organic materials likely to have
been present, solvent extraction was followed by molecular separation
and subsequent molecular identification (gas chromatography-mass spectrometry)
allowing the characterization and identification of the biological marker
compounds deriving from the plant and animal products employed in the
embalming. Materials identified included animal fats, plant gums, waxes
and balsamic resins. Importantly, the gum resins of frankincense and
myrrh, traditionally associated with Yemen, were not present. For the
first time evidence is presented for the origin and likely significance
of these organic unguents, including clear evidence of ritual practice.
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A50)
Arabia II
Theme: Workshop
on Archaeology in Saudi Arabia
John F. Healey,
University of Manchester, Presiding
198) Majeed Khan, Ministry
of Antiquities and Museums, Saudi Arabia
Symbolism
in the Rock Art of Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia is not
only rich in oil, but also in its cultural heritage. Over 2000 rock
art sites have been recorded in the Kingdom, making it one of the three
richest rock art regions of the world, rivaling Africa and Australia.
The signs and symbols used constitute an essential element of pre-historic
rock appearing in almost every composition. A large variety of these
appear with human and animal figures, but they have not been subjected
to the same scrutiny. Anati's earlier work was fundamental, but only
preliminary. Past scholars viewed symbols only as aesthetic expressions
and non-rational representations, bur rock art is now entering a new
era where such symbols and signs are interpreted as intelligent and
realistic patterns. On the basis of the comprehensive Rock Art and Epigraphic
Survey begun in 1984 by the Department of Antiquities and Museums in
Saudi Arabia, it will be proposed that the semantic, epistemic, and
cognitive role of these signs and symbols performed a communicative
function that is intimately connected with the independent development
of writing in Arabia. Such an interpretation may help shed light on
the rock art in other regions of the world.
199) David F. Graf,
University of Miami
Nabonidus' Tayma': New Archaeological and Epigraphical Evidence
There are over 4,000 archaeological sites in Saudi Arabia, many of which
are of first-rate importance. Among these prime sites is that of Tayma'
in the northwest of the kingdom. From inscriptions on stelae from the
Harran in Turkey and his capital in Babylon, we know that King Nabonidus
of Babylon shifted his residence to Tayma' from ca. 552-542 B.C., after
slaying its king and slaughtering the herds of the inhabitants of the
city. His tenure at the Arabian oasis is reflected in monumental palaces
and extensive walls at the city, including an extensive ring of defensive
works that encircle the settlement. Excavations at the al-Ablaq, al
Hamra, and al-Radham palaces have provided evidence for the period,
but the most startling finds are epigraphic, attesting the presence
and activities of the king in the region. These include Aramaic stelae
and Old North Arabian texts found in the environs. A survey of this
evidence confirming the Babylonian cuneiform accounts will be presented.
200) Majeed Khan,
Ministry of Antiquities and Museums, Saudi Arabia
Is Mount
Sinai in Saudi Arabia?
In
rather sensational style, two American adventurers Robert Cornuke and
Larry Williams illegally crossed into Saudi Arabia and claimed to have
found evidence that Mount Sinai is located at Jabal al-Lawz, 200 km
west of Tabuk in the northwest of the Arabian peninsula. Their claim
was publicized in Howard Blum's The Gold of Exodus: The Discovery
of the True Mount Sinai (1999) and Bob Cornuke and David Halbrook's
In Search of the Mountain of God: The Discovery of the Real Mount
Sinai (2000). Jabal al-Lawz ("The mountain of almonds') is the highest
mountain in northwest Arabia, but it is hardly unknown or unexplored.
In 1995, the Ministry of Antiquities and Museums in Saudi Arabia conducted
an extensive survey of the mountain and its environs, and excavated
the adjacent settlement of Tareeq Aba al-'Ajal. The results of this
archaeological exploration will be presented and the claim that Jabal
al-Lawz is Mount Sinai critically examined.
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A51)
Archaeology of Jordan II
Gerald
Mattingly, Johnson Bible College, Presiding
201) Joel Drinkard,
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
'The King sitting in the gate' (2 Sam 19:9): Iron Age Gates East
of the Jordan
"Behold,
the king sitting in the gate [2 Samuel 19:9, Heb.]." Thus David greeted
his troops in Mahanaim after Absalom's death. We have numerous examples
of Iron Age gates from west of the Jordan. But until recently we have
had no Iron Age gates east of the Jordan. Now we have three good examples:
Bethsaida/Geshur, Mudaynah on the Wadi eth-Thamid, and Mudaybi` in Moab.
This paper will offer some comparison of the three gate structures while
focusing on the Mudaybi gate complex where the author has worked since
the inception of the Karak Resources Project in 1995.
202) Annlee Dolan, University
of Toronto
Wadi ath-Thamad
Site 13: The Role of Open Air Cult Sites in Iron Age Society
Open air cult sites have received increasing attention with the excavations
at Horvat Qitmit, `En Haseva and the "Bull Site." The discovery of these
extramural shrines has raised questions about their function within
Iron Age society and the religious traditions they represent. Although
the precise role these shrines played is not yet known, the recent discovery
of another such site provides an opportunity to shed further light on
these intriguing religious complexes. Wadi ath-Thamad Sit |