T H U R S D A Y  S E S S I O N S

A2, Archaeology of Mesopotamia

Constance Gane, University of California, Berkeley, Presiding

2) Jason Ur, University of Chicago
Third Millennium Road Systems in Upper Mesopotamia

      Northern Mesopotamia underwent a rapid process of urbanization in the middle of the 3rd millennium BC.  In the Upper Khabur basin of northeastern Syria, the archaeological manifestation of this process in terms of settlement sites has been well established through excavations at the major centers of Brak, Mozan, Leilan and Hamoukar as well as through intensive surveys. Equally impressive were the effects of this process on the landscape beyond the site limits, particularly the network of roads that connected these sites to their agricultural hinterlands and to each other.  The surviving traces of these networks can be mapped through remote sensing data sources such as declassified CORONA satellite photographs and ASTER multispectral images.  When integrated with settlement pattern data in a GIS database, these roads can be subjected to spatial analyses which offer clues to the underlying ancient political economy which produced them.  This paper will discuss the mapping and interpretation of ancient road systems in the areas of the Tell Beydar and Tell Hamoukar Surveys, where ground control was available, and also in other areas of the Upper Khabur basin.

3) Jeanne Nijhowne, Binghamton University
Out with the Old, In with the New:  Reassessing the Transition Between Old Babylonian and Kassite Cylinder Seals

      This paper examines the purported link between the iconography on Old Babylonian and Kassite cylinder seals. In the past, it has been generally accepted that Kassite seal styles were direct descendants of their Late Old Babylonian counterparts. Most of these conclusions rest on comparisons between individual seals. But a detailed analysis of Old Babylonian and Kassite seals reveals an almost complete break in the iconographic tradition between the two periods. Virtually every standard symbol on the Old Babylonian seals dropped out of the Kassite repertoire. Based on these findings, I suggest that seal carving died out for a time in central Babylonia. When seals were reintroduced, the symbolic messages conveyed by Old Babylonian iconography were no longer useful in the current political and religious situation. The Kassites adopted new sets of symbols to address different sets of cultural concerns.

4) Clemens Reichel, University of Chicago
Administrative Complexity at Hamoukar during the Fourth Millennium B.C. – a view from Seals and Sealings

      Since 1999 several hundreds of clay sealings, dating to the late fourth and mid-third millennium, were found during the excavations at Hamoukar in northeastern Syria. More recently, in 2001 some 200 sealings were found in a burnt tripartite building, dating to the late fourth millennium B.C and therefore more or less contemporary with the Late Chalcolithic administrative building at Arslantepe Level VIa. This presentation will give an overview over the sealing types found at Hamoukar and specifically addressing the ones from the burnt building. A spatial and quantitative analysis of the distribution pattern of both sealings and other artifacts has provided some important first clues concerning the function of this building. While certain parallels in iconography and sealing types to the material found at Arslantepe can be noted, certain clear differences in iconography and distribution pattern point towards a functionally different and distinct role of this building. The presence of Uruk-type cylinder seals on impressions next to 'local' stamp seals and certain iconographic elements clearly reflect the complex and highly diversified interaction with the Southern Mesopotamian Uruk culture and the Susiana that Hamoukar engaged in during the fourth millennium B.C.

5) Amy Barron, University of Toronto
An Artifactual Approach to Neo-Assyrian Weapons

      A great deal of past scholarship on Assyrian military equipment has focused on the images presented on the reliefs of the Neo-Assyrian kings.  The most notable of these studies attempted to trace the development of Assyrian weaponry through the reliefs of successive Assyrian kings from Ashurnasirpal in the ninth century to Ashurbanipal in the seventh.  However, enough artifacts survive that an approach considering them on their own merit seems long overdue.  Only after a careful evaluation of existing weapons should the reliefs be approached.  The material evidence can be used to check the veracity of the artistic representations.  Such a check upon the truth represented in Assyrian reliefs is significant, for every individual item which can be proven or disproven to be accurate provides us with a check on the whole.  While the weapons and armor of Neo-Assyrian reliefs do appear to show changes and patterns over time, the actual artifacts will call into question how much reliance can be put on these artistic representations.  Questions of space, design, and ideology all played a part in the reliefs.  Alone they are not enough to lead us to an understanding of Assyrian military equipment.

6) Mark Altaweel, University of Chicago
Settlement in the Area of Ashur

      Qala't ash-Sherqat has long been known to be the ancient Assyrian city of Ashur.  The importance of this city is documented in historical and archaeological records discovered over the last one hundred and fifty years.  Many important historical developments in Mesopotamia and the Near East have related to Ashur.  For instance, Ashur was at the center of a large trade network in the Old Assyrian period.  In the Middle Assyrian period, when Assyria became a major military force in the Near East, Ashur was the capital of this kingdom.  Settlement history in the area surrounding this important religious and political center, however, is virtually unknown. 
      In this paper I will show the prehistoric and historic development of settlements in the area of Qala't ash-Sherqat.  The area of interest will cover approximately a 20 km radius around Ashur.  The results of this paper will derive from satellite imagery and field survey (to be conducted in the spring and summer of 2002, political circumstances permitting). 
      Some issues that will be discussed will include: How smaller sites near Ashur were effected after the city lost its status as the political capital of Assyria during the Neo-Assyrian period.  Another important question is how the rise of Ashur, during the third millennium BC and Old Assyrian period, affected surrounding settlements.  Environmental questions, such as how settlement patterns would have been impacted during periods of rainfall increase and decrease, will be discussed. I also hope to show, using satellite imagery, that canals may have been important for both transportation and irrigation agriculture in northern Mesopotamia.

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A3, Maritime/Nautical Issues

Aaron Brody, Pacific School of Religion, Presiding

7) Doreen Danis Barako, Texas A & M University
An Analysis of the Galley Ware from a Ninth-Century Shipwreck at Bozburun, Turkey

      In the summer of 1995, the Institute of Nautical Archaeology began the excavation of a ninth-century C.E. Byzantine shipwreck off the southwestern coast of Turkey on the Bozburun peninsula.  The wreck was chosen from among over 100 known along the Turkish coast because of its significance for a study of medieval economics, technology, and international relations.  The ship's main cargo was comprised of more than 1,000 amphoras; however, in the area of the galley, as defined by the disposition of hearth tiles and charcoal deposits, an assemblage of 17 ceramic and copper vessels was recovered.  This galley ware assemblage contributes important data about the following:  first, shipboard life, including crew size and methods of meal preparation; second, degree of similarity with galley ware assemblages from other Byzantine shipwrecks (i.e., Yassý Ada and Serçe Limaný shipwrecks) and with kitchen ware assemblages from terrestrial sites (e.g., Byzantine Shops at Sardis); and chronology, in that the Bozburun shipwreck and its cargo can be dated precisely to 875 C.E., a period poorly documented in the archaeological record.  At this time, the eastern Mediterranean economy, shattered by the Arab conquest of the mid-seventh century, began the recovery that would lay the groundwork for the economic explosion of the eleventh and twelfth centuries C.E.

8) Matthew Harpster, Texas A & M University,
The Bozburun Ship: Early Standards in Construction?

      Between the years 1995 and 1998, students from Texas A&M University and members of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology participated in the excavation of this 9th-century AD Byzantine merchantman off the southwest coast of Turkey. The preserved hull remains from this ship are significant for two reasons. Primarily, this preserved material represents the only fully excavated 9th-century AD shipwreck from the Mediterranean. As this material occupies the middle of a 400 year period in which there is no other comparative material, the study of this hull will provide us with information regarding ship construction that is unavailable elsewhere.
      Secondly, it also seems that this material reflects economic and mercantile changes in the recovering Byzantine Empire. As Byzantium imposed greater levels of control over merchants and goods traveling across its borders, it seems there was a corresponding increase in the standardization of items associated with that trade. As this preserved hull material suggests standards of construction previously seen only in later vessels, this ship is additionally significant as it may reflect the beginnings of these uniform methods.                       

9) Athena Trakadas, National Museum of Denmark Centre for Maritime Archaeology, Early Byzantine Ship Iconography in the Eastern Mediterranean: Towards a Vessel Type?

      The record of ships and seafaring in the eastern Mediterranean during the early Byzantine period is poorly preserved. There exist few contemporary shipwreck remains from the region, and relevant textual sources from several centuries later focus primarily on general warfare tactics or several specific engagements between the Byzantine and emerging Arab navies. As a consequence of this lacuna, a critical examination of the contemporary ship iconography is necessary not only to reveal specific vessel details but for the overall study of seafaring in the region.
      A survey of pictorial ship representations from the eastern Mediterranean, including Palestine, Jordan, Syrian, Egypt, and Cyrenaica, elucidates certain details regarding ship types, hull forms, and rigging. The sources of Byzantine iconographic examples from the period ca. 300–750AD are primarily mosaic floors, both secular and sacred, but also graffiti, both formal and extempore. From this modest corpus, one may note that almost all examples depicted are small fishing vessels, or coastal and inland water transports. Some vessels have one mast that is supported by a high mast-step, and most vessels bear recurving sterns and have open or partially-decked hulls. Most interesting is the presence of a cutwater or prow on many of these vessels. These examples,  however, may not be indicative of larger, seagoing ships that certainly existed during the period, but collectively suggest that a certain small vessel type with a distinct construction was most likely utlized throughout the eastern Mediterranean during the early Byzantine period.

10) Beverly Goodman, McMaster University,
A Combined Sedimentological Micropaleontological Approach to Coastal Reconstruction at Liman Tepe, Turkey

      Micropaleontological and sedimentoligical analyses are being used to reconstruct the sea-level history of Liman Tepe’s coastline. At present, two areas of archaeological interest at Liman Tepe are being excavated. One is a Bronze Age settlement located 50 meters inland from the present coastline and the second is a submerged feature that resembles a harbor key and extends 25 meters from the coastline. An understanding of sea-level change over time is necessary to accurately reconstruct the history of human occupation at Liman Tepe.
      Previous studies of Holocene seal-level changes in the Aegean have recognized a general trend from lower sea-levels prior to 10,000 years ago to close-to-modern levels during the past 2,000 years. However, substantial site-to-site variation in relative sea-level merits the close examination of sea-level histories for individual coastal archaeological sites.
      At Liman Tepe, sediment cores collected during the 2001 and 2002 field seasons have been analyzed micropaleontologically and sedimentologically, and the results suggest that the landscape has been altered by changing sea-levels. Given a one-meter seal-level regression, the currently submerged feature would be located very close to sea-level. Sedimentological cores extracted from the Bronze Age site suggest that during initial occupation, the site was flanked by marshy areas not present in the modern environment. Sediment core analysis is proving to be an especially useful technique in the reconstruction of the ancient coastline at Liman Tepe, Turkey.

11) Christopher Monroe, Pierpont Morgan Library,
Vessel Volumetrics and the Myth of the Cyclopean Ship

      An Akkadian text from Ugarit (RS 20.212) reports that a “big ship” could carry 2000 units of grain in one or two loads. The unit is often assumed to be the 300 liter kor, which implies the existence of ships the size of Hellenistic freighters. Although even the largest watercraft mentioned in Mesopotamian texts did not carry so much, the Akkadian letters is often cited with other evidence to argue that huge ships sailed the Late Bronze Age Eastern Mediterranean in this time of intensified international trading. This paper demonstrates that no single type of evidence, be it hull remains, depictions, texts, size, and number of anchors, or size and number of storage jars, provides a reliable measure of ship size. Yet taken together these methods can be used to weed out absurd figures and arrive at a maximum burden supported by all the evidence. A deductive process that involves considering the size of the ships excavated at Uluburun and Kyrenia, along with the capacities of jars on board, suggests that the unit in RS 20.212 is a standard jar measure, the Akkadian sutu of about 7 liters. Thus, the text tells us that a “big ship” of the day carried about 40kor, or about 12,000 liters. Technological reasons for limited size are briefly discussed and the paper concludes by demonstrating how this revision argues for a wide variety of socioeconomic shipping scenarios.

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A4, Hebrew Bible, History, and Archaeology I

Daniel Browining, William Carey College, Presiding

12) Anson F. Rainey, Tel Aviv University,
Who Killed Joram and Ahaziah? Syntax in the Tel Dan Inscription

      The paper will demonstrate that the syntax of the Tel Dan Inscription with a change of verbal conjugation pattern from the narrative preterite to the suffix conjugation strongly favors Rainey’s suggestion that Joram and Ahaziah are the subjects of the QTL verbs, which themselves were most likely in the G passive stem.  It follows that the author of the Tel Dan inscription (probably Hazael) does not claim to have killed the Israelite and Judean kings himself.  Therefore, there is no reason to doubt the biblical report that it was Jehu who assassinated them.
      An acute palaeographical observation made by Arye Bernstein when examining the inscription in Jerusalem adds further support.  The high probability of Bernstein’s suggestion was in turn supported by a personal examination of the inscription in Santa Ana, CA by Rainey and Bruce Zuckerman.

13) Itzchack Shai, Bar-Ilan University,
The Philistine Political Organization During the Iron Age IIA

      Until the last decade, scholarly consensus held that the Philistines were a new ethnic group, whose origin was seen in the Aegean Sea region.  This was based on examination of their material culture, which differed substantially from the local Canaanite Late Bronze Age tradition. The relations of the material culture in which this was seen included the ceramic corpus, urban planning, and cultic paraphemalie, as well as the depictions of the Philistines and other Sea Peoples in the Medinet Habu Temple in Egypt. According to the Bible, this immigrant ethnic group had its own political organization. It seems that during the Iron Age I, the five Philistine cities were united or were politically connected a kind of a cooperation.
      On the other hand, knowledge about of the Philistines at the end of the Iron Age derives primarily from the Assyrian and Babylonian texts, written in the 8th-7th centuries BCE. They mentioned the cities of Philistia, yet did not speak of them as a single, unified entity. In this paper, based on the biblical, Assyrian and Egyptian sources, it will be suggested that during the Iron Age IIa, the Philistine cities were still united, or at least collaborated vis-à-vis their foreign relations.

14) David T. Sugimoto, Keio University, Tokyo,
Female Disc-Holding Figurines from Palestine—A Typological Study

      Disc-holding female figurines are well known in Palestine.  Their function and identity, however, have yet to be clarified.  Some scholars suggest that the discs represent sun-discs, bread, or tambourines.  Some scholars suggest a division into sub-types.
      By cataloguing these figurines and analyzing them typologically, we can conclude the following:  1) we cannot identify any sub-types because some have mixed features; 2) the differences between naked and clothed, and the plaque style and the pillar style reflect differences in geography and period; and 3) all the discs have to be identified as tambourines.
      Since the discs are identified as tambourines, it is useful to investigate the use of the Hebrew word tp (tambourine) in the OT to understand the use of tambourines in first millennium Palestine.  Tp is associated with three types of celebration:  worship, feasts, and welcoming the return of soldiers.  It is never related to ecstatic fertility cults.  In the case of the first two types of celebration, the tambourine is always used with other instruments, and the player is not identified.  However, in the third type of celebration, only the tambourine is emphasized, and the player is always identified as female.
      In light of these social conditions, it is most natural to relate these female tambourine-player figurines with prayers of safe return of soldiers from the battle.  If the figurines represent a goddess, Ashtaroth, the war goddess of the first millennium is a more likely candidate than Asherah, the mother goddess of Palestine.

15) Richard Hess, Denver Seminary,
Israelite Identity and Personal Names from the Book of Judges

      The purpose of this study is to examine the personal names of various figures described in the book of Judges and to consider their relationship to the onomastics of Iron Age Palestine.  In particular, the concern is to define whether or not the personal names exhibit similarities to others in the period of Iron I or whether they resemble names of later periods in terms of their elements and structure.  It will be argued that, at least in some cases, there is a distinctive relationship to the onomastics of Iron I that is not attested in the inventory of names from later periods.  Thus this allows for consideration of these names as providing a window into the identity of Israel and its neighbors in the Iron I period. 

16) Raz Kletter, Haifa University,
Lack of Iron I Burials in the Highlands and Israelite Identity

      Despite many years of excavations and surveys in Palestine's central highlands, very few Iron I burials are known, as opposed to many rich cemeteries from the LB and Iron II periods.  Most scholars have ignored this phenomenon.  However, it is meaningful and cannot be explained on grounds of randomness of research or low population density. Some burials, like Dothan cave I, are Iron Age I chronologically, but culturally belong to the LB world. We have practically no burials from the hundreds of highland settlements which have been found (and excavated) by Mazar, Zertal, Finkelstein and others.  It is unlikely that the new settlers did not bury their dead (cf. the stress of later biblical sources about burial).  Also, abandonment of the dead is usually restricted to specific segments in a society, such as poor or newborns, not to all the dead.  The lack of burials can be cautiously related with social structure, namely, a relatively poor and “egalitarian” society.  It also marks a clear break from the former LB culture, despite the recent tendency to see the Iron I as a completely internal development.  When coming to learn about the identity of the new settlers, however, we are at a loss.  Archaeology, in my view, cannot indicate ethnicity if historical sources are lacking, especially “inner” sources.  Following Anthony Smith, Iron I Israelites were an “ethnic category,” but not necessarily an “ethnic community.”

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A5) Prehistoric Archaeology I

Theme: Neolithic and Chalcolithic Periods

E.B. Banning, University of Toronto, Presiding

17) Ian Kujit, Notre Dame University, and Bill Finlayson, Centre for British Research in the Levant,
Excavations at Neolithic Dhra’, Jordan: New Insights into the Forager-Farmer Transition Along the Dead Sea

      The transition from foraging to farming in the Near East is widely recognized as one of, if not the, major cultural transition in human prehistory.  Excavations at the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A period site of Dhra‘, Jordan, have provided new insights into the transition from foraging to farming along the Dead Sea some 11,300 CAL BP.   Guided by geophysical research to help identify structures below the surface, excavations in 1994, 2001 and 2002 reveal archaeological evidence for the early existence of multiple circular and semi-circular stone and mud structures (both residential and for storage), smaller features, and an extensive assemblage of chipped and ground-stone tools.  These excavations illustrate that early sedentary communities founded on foraging of wild game and plants, and probably upon horticulture of wild plant resources, developed the economic and social adaptations upon which later and better known Pre-Pottery Neolithic occupations were based.  In combination with field research at several other settlements in the Jordan Valley, this research illustrates that relatively large early Neolithic communities existed in areas south of the Dead Sea traditionally viewed as having had no significant Early Neolithic occupation.

18) Ghattas Sayej, La Trobe University, Australia,
Lithic Intra-assemblage Variability: A Case Study from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A Site of Zahrat edh-Dhra’ 2, Jordan

      This paper provides a detailed description of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) period chipped stone industry and groundstone objects recovered during two seasons of excavations at the site of Zahrat edh-Dhra‘ 2 (ZAD 2), on the eastern side of the Dead Sea, Jordan. The retouched flint component of ZAD 2 is characterized by a high proportion of retouched bladelets, retouched flakes, scrapers, notches, borers, tranchet axes and Hagdud truncations (the second largest amount recovered after Netiv Hagdud), but very few projectile points. However, at the nearby site of Dhra‘ the majority of retouched tools were projectile points and not a single Hagdud truncation was recovered. The comparison between these two sites provides new and clear evidence for intra-assemblage variability. Furthermore, based on the evidence of material culture as well as many radiocarbon dates from ZAD 2, it is argued that there is a necessity for an extension of the PPNA in the southern-central Levant up until ca. 9300 BP. Accordingly, the nature and the chronology of the Early Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (EPPNB) should be reconsidered.

19) Katheryn Twiss, University of California, Berkeley
Interiors and Exteriors: The Locations of Meat in the Jordanian Neolithic

      This paper explores Neolithic social patterns and practices through the lens of food practices at the site of Wadi Fidan 1 in southern Jordan. Asfood is acquired, prepared, consumed and discarded, it moves both through space and through an intricate network of cultural meanings and practices. Analysis of the locations of food within a society therefore includes consideration of both its physical and its cultural situations as it passes through people's lives. Food practices are linked to ideas about social solidarity and differentiation, health, tastes, taboos, religion, economics, politics, and personal and cultural identity. Social patterns shape a people's food habits, while their economic institutions enable them to produce their supplies.
      These cultural structures are reflected in the distribution of food remains within sites and across the landscape. The well-preserved and abundant faunal remains from Wadi Fidan 1 testify, therefore, to Neolithic social constructs and ideologies as well as to economic and nutritional patterns.  The interpretations presented in this paper are based on an analysis of these bones and their contexts within the site.Neolithic food practices were cultural patterns carried out by individuals, families, neighborhoods, and towns- by people who knew each other, came into contact with each other, and were engaged in mutual construction and negotiation of their culture. It is only as the concatenation of such small-scale, localized practices that larger cultural patterns were constructed.

20) Alan H. Simmons, University of Nevada, Las Vegas,
New Dimensions to the Cypriot Neolithic: Test Excavations at ‘Ais Yiorkis

      Recent discoveries have dramatically challenged conventional notions of the early prehistory of Cyprus. The excavation of Akrotiri Aetokremnos extended the chronological occupation of the island to the early Holocene, and recent discoveries at Aceramic Neolithic sites show material linkages with Pre-Pottery Neolithic B cultures from the Levantine mainland. These findings also document the presence of cattle in the Cypriot Neolithic, an economic resource previously thought not to have been on the island until the Bronze Age. Recent rest excavations at the small upland Aceramic Neolithic site of ‘Ais Yiorkis, near Paphos, have contributed to the expansion of our knowledge of the early settlers of Cyprus.

21) Sarah Costello, SUNY Binghamton,
Preliminary Excavations at Yernice Yani 1, Diyarbakir Province, Turkey

      While a great deal of scholarly attention has been paid to this period of state formation and colonization in Mesopotamia, the preceding period from the mid-fifth to the mid-fourth millennium has been understudied, largely because few sites of this period have been excavated.  Yenice Yani 1, a small tell site in the Tigris River valley, is one of the few sites of the ‘Ubaid period to be excavated in this region of northern Mesopotamia. Our pilot season of excavation was planned to gather stratigraphic evidence as to the exact chronological span of the site, which was dated on the basis of surface finds to the mid-fifth to mid-fourth millennia BC. We also began to investigate the proportions of, and relationships between, the foreign and local material culture at the site. While some researchers are now suggesting that long-term culture contact went hand-in-hand with the formation of the state in southern Mesopotamia, the nature of that contact is both misunderstood and disputed.   Some researchers continue to see intense culture-contact only as a result of the state formation process, part of “economic imperialism.”  We hope that our  project will shed light on a murky area, the so-called “pre-contact” periphery of the earliest civilization.

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A6) Artifacts: The Inside Story

Elizabeth Friedman, Illinois Institute of Technology, Presiding

22) Christopher P. Thornton, University of Pennsylvania; C.C. Lamberg-Karlovsky, Harvard University; Martin Liezers, Thermo Elemental; and Suzanne M.M. Young, Harvard University,
On Pins and Needles: A Reassessment of the Metallurgical Sequence of the Iranian Plateau through Chemical and Metallographic Analyses of a “Trinket” Technology

      The site of Tepe Yahya in southeastern Iran was occupied nearly continuously from c. 5500-300 BCE.  Copper-base metal objects were found in all cultural levels, although there was little evidence for smelting or metalworking.  In order to document smelting techniques and alloying resources of the cultures that produced and distributed these metals, 105 copper-base pins and other “trinkets” were analyzed by ICP-MS for their elemental constituents.  Several artifacts were also analyzed metallographically to document fabrication techniques.  These results were combined with previous metallographic analyses performed on this collection by Dennis Heskel in 1982.
      The combined analytical results demonstrate only two major changes in the 5000-year metallurgical sequence of Tepe Yahya.  By the mid-4th millennium BCE, imported arsenical copper replaces the indigenous native copper industry, related perhaps to the arrival of the Proto-Elamite culture.  The arsenical copper that first arrives during this transition period is basically indistinguishable from that found in the Iron Age three millennia later.  The second major change occurred at the end of the Late Bronze Age (c. 1800-1400 BCE), when the repertoire of available metals expanded to include tin-bronze, proto-pewter (PbSn), and brass.  These new metals, most of which have no equals on the Iranian Plateau at this time, are only found in a single area of the site in association with artifacts from Central Asia.  These results raise old questions about tin trade routes in the Bronze Age, while providing possible evidence for an association between tin and the lead-zinc resources of southern Central Asia.

23) Jonathan Schnereger and Lynn Schwartz, University of Southern California; Meg Abraham, University of Oxford/ Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and Bradley Parker, University of Utah,

Possible Evidence of Early Iron Production at Kenan Tepe in Eastern Turkey

      The 2000 and 2001 excavation seasons at Kenan Tepe in eastern Turkey yielded a range of metal finds, including copper, bronze, iron, smelted lead, and slags. Of particular note are terrestrial iron finds in contexts dated to the early second millennium BCE, or possibly the late third millennium BCE.  A meteoritic origin is ruled out on the basis of nickel content.  Kenan Tepe is thus far the only site in its general region to yield processed iron in this early period.
      This paper details the elemental characterization of these very high iron content finds, the nature of the contexts in which they were found, and the implications of metal processing at Kenan Tepe for assumptions about early iron working in Anatolia.  Additionally, the Early Iron Age contexts, which represent the indigenous practices in place before the region's domination by the Assyrians, will be examined within the context of a typology of ancient iron production facilities.  Methods developed to aid in the recovery of faint traces of small-scale metal and ore processing will also be explained.  Metal finds from the various contexts at Kenan Tepe were assessed using standard metallurgical analysis including optical microscopy, SEM/EDS and PIXE (proton induced X-ray emission). The findings will be discussed in relation to socio-political events in the wider region, in particular, in relation to periodic northern Mesopotamian expansion and exploitation of this region through from the Middle Bronze through Iron Ages.

24) Daniella E. Bar-Yosef Mayer, Peabody Museum, Harvard University; Naomi Porat, Geological Survey of Israel; Zvi Gal, Dina Shalem, and Howard Smithline, Israel Antiquities Authority
New Evidence for Chalcolithic Pyrotechnology

      The Chalcolithic burial cave of Peq’in, northern Galilee, Israel, yielded about 190 beads made of white paste. They range in size from 2–4 mm in diameter and 1–3 mm in height. Hole diameter is approximately 1 mm. All were found in ossuaries. The beads were analyzed using X-Ray diffracation (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). Under the SEM the beads contain silicon, and magnesium with traces of copper and iron. The texture is of loosely packed elongated columnar crystals with no preferred orientation. In places they are covered by aggregates of very fine powder of similar composition. XRD analyses revealed that the beads are made of enstatite and cristobalite. Enstatite is a magnesium-bearing pyroxene while cristobalite is a high-temperature polymorph of quartz is heated to 1470 degrees C.
      We propose that the beads were manufactured by heating talc to a high temperature. First, a paste was prepared from powdered talc and water, then shaped into long tubes and fired at a high temperature. This firing hardened the paste and transformed the talc into enstatite and cristobalite. Finally the tube was sliced to form beads.
      Neither the talc nor enstatite is found in Israel. The nearest possible sources are basic metamorphic rocks exposed in Turkey or Egypt. The nearest location where similar technology is known is the Indus Valley. This is the first documentation of Chalcolithic pyrotechnology applied for non-metallurgical purposes. This find of prime importance for both technological innovations and long distance trade during this period.

25) Colleen Stapleton and Samuel E. Swanson, University of Georgia,
Glass Production in the Near East During the Late Ninth Century B.C.

     There is little archaeological evidence for a continuation in the production of glass from the end of the second millennium BC until about the seventh century BC. Recent chemical analyses of artifacts made of glass and other vitreous materials from the site of Hasanlu in northwestern Iran indicate that glass and other vitreous materials were being manufactured in the region around Hasanlu during the ninth century BC. Dr. Robert H. Dyson and his colleagues of The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology carried out excavations at Hasanlu located southwest of Lake Urmia in the Solduz Valley, Azjerbaijan, northwest Iran. Hasanlu was sacked at the very end of the ninth century BC and the excavated material examined in this paper comes from this destruction layer, Period IVB.
    Chemical and image analyses using an electron microprobe and laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry were performed on a variety of vitreous materials in order to identify the raw materials and determine the manufacturing techniques. The results indicate that the technology involved in manufacturing the vitreous materials was highly complex and that technological knowledge was shared between glassmakers, metallurgists and potters. For example, technically sophisticated mixes of metallurgical lead-antimony slags and the natural mineral dolomite were used to make white opaque glaze, and specifically chosen slags from smelted copper ores were used to make dark brown glasses.
     The results of this research address a significant gap in understanding the history of glass between about the thirteenth and seventh centuries BC.

26) Christine Ehlers, Boston University,
Urartian Bronzes from Ayanis

     Over a decade of excavation at the Urartian site of Van-Ayanis in eastern Turkey has yielded countless bronze objects. Samples taken from a corpus of over 50 objects from these excavations, both from the citadel and contemporary outer town contexts, are being examined using metallographic and compositional analyses to uncover the production techniques and technological approaches used to furnish Urartian bronzework.
     The majority of research and publication on bronze artifacts from Urartu has focused on the design and appearance of the material and the distinctive aesthetic of bronzework produced for Imperial Urartu during the first millennium B.C.E. The technological behavior of metalsmiths furnishing Urartian bronzework, however, is a fundamental characteristic of the archaeological record that has been the subject of limited study. Using analytical tools of materials science, it is possible to begin to reconstruct and characterize the "technological style" employed in the production of Urartian bronze material.
     Data obtained from the analyses of samples from an extensive collection of excavated materials from Ayanis, along with the results of analyses of objects from comparative Urartian collections, will enable me to uncover patterns in the methods used by smiths to fashion the bronzework of Urartu. The character and degree of variability exhibited by the production histories of objects will be discussed from a perspective that considers technological processes and human agency, as well as material products, as indicators of the context-social, political, and technological-in which Urartian bronze workers operated.

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A7) Madaba Plains of Jordan I

Randall Younker, Andrews University, Presiding

27) Larry Herr, Canadian University College, and Doug Clark, Walla Walla College,
Tall al-‘Umayri (Madaba Plains Project): Report on the 2002 Season

      This presentation will provide an update on the excavations of the Madaba Plains Project- `Umayri in Jordan during the summer season of 2002.  Excavations took place on the western and southern portions of the tell in fields representing our continuing research into the Late Bronze Age, early and late Iron Age settlements on the tell, as well as a late Hellenistic farmstead.  An extremely rare, well-constructed Late Bronze building, partially excavated in previous seasons, should provide a good deal of information about this period of exceptionally limited remains in central Jordan.  Further exploration of early Iron Age structures has already expanded our picture not only of life and survival in the hill country of central Jordan in a strongly fortified village, but of worship practices as well.  A ceramic shrine model, from the late Iron I period, while having parallels elsewhere in the Levant, nevertheless contains unique features, which deserve wider study.  The Hellenistic farmstead along the southern escarpment of the tell has been highly productive in terms of finds, again from a period not well represented in the Jordanian highlands.  This report will also note and assess progress on restoring and presenting Tall al-`Umayri to local and foreign publics.

28) Doug Clark, Walla Walla College,
Iron I Domestic Housing (Especially the "Four Room" House) in Jordan

      This presentation will provide the results of recent research into Iron I domestic housing in Jordan, with a focus on the central part of the country ­ the territory of what became ancient Ammon and Moab.  Although there appears to have been an explosion of small settlements east of the Jordan Rift Valley following the Late Bronze Age, few have been excavated and fewer still have produced coherent early Iron I  architecture.  Of the sites yielding domestic buildings from this period, Tall al-`Umayri boasts one of the earliest “four-room” houses in existence and by far the best preserved anywhere.  It will provide the starting point for reflections on the human dimensions of their construction and maintenance, and life as we can know and interpret it within and around them ­ space utilization, gender roles, economic function. Additional sites producing Iron I domestic architecture include, among others, Khirbet  Mudaynat `Aliya and Khirbet Mudaynat Mu`arradjeh, south of the Wadi Mujib;  Khirbet al-Lahun on the northern escarpment of the Wadi Mujib; Tall Dayr  `Alla, Tall as-Sa`idiyeh, Pella and Tall Abu al-Kharaz in the Jordan  Valley; and Tall al-Fukhar in the north.  What can we know from the accumulation of evidence thus far excavated, including finds in Iron I tombs around Amman and Irbid, about life and survival during this tumultuous period of the Jordan’s history?

29) Margreet Steiner, Leiden University,
A Study of the Iron Age Pottery of Kirbet Al-Mudayna

      Khirbet al-Mudayna is a Iron Age site in the Wadi ath-Thamad, on the northern border of ancient Moab. The excavation is part of a the Wadit ath-Thamad Project under the direction of Prof. P.M. Michèle Daviau. During the excavations of 1996-2001 a casemate wall, a large six-chambered gate and a small shrine with benches alongside the walls have been excavated. Several limestone altars were found inside, one with a complete Moabite inscription. One of the questions concerning the site is whether it can be identified as a a Moabite fortification. A preliminary comparison of the pottery from the nearby Ammonite site of Tell Jawa shows a definite difference in pottery types. Another important aspect to be researched is the economic background of Khirbet Mudayna. The Moabite pottery repertoire is largely `terra incognita. A thorough survey of material from a stratigraphically excavated site is sorely needed.The current research on the Khirbet Al-Mudayna pottery will include  a presentation of the pottery repertoire, dating of the pottery, a technological analysis of wares, shaping techniques and firing temperatures to distinguish regional workshops, and  an analysis of imported materials to identify regional and supraregional contacts. This study is done in close co-operation with the Deptartment of Pottery Technology of Leiden University.

30) Bethany Walker, Oklahoma State University,
Reassessing the Early Islamic Period in the Madaba Plains: The Islamic Qusur at Tall Hisban

      The discovery of a multi-room house of the early Islamic period at Tall Hisban was one of the highlights of the 2001 season. This complex, occupied during the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates, was the first architecture of this period identified at the site. The house, along with industrial installations and lengthy Kufic inscriptions, indicates that Tall Hisban was occupied well into the tenth century, challenging long-held assumptions about the nature of Umayyad occupation in the Transjordan and the region’s political “decline” under the Abbasids. The Umayyad and Abbasid periods in the Madaba Plains are still poorly understood. Only a few sites of these periods have been excavated and most are at an early stage of interpretation (ex. the Amman Citadel, Madaba, Umm al-Walid, Umm al-Rasas, Mount Nebo, Yaduda, Tall Jawa). Recent developments in ceramic typology have furthered such efforts in identifying Umayyad sites. As at Tall Hisban, most of these sites indicate a lengthy (and peaceful) transition from Christian to Muslim occupation and continued occupation well into the Abbasid period. In an effort to reassess the early Islamic history of the citadel (qasr) at Tall Hisban, a strongly historical approach has been adopted. This paper will present progress in Islamic ceramic typology at the site, the results of recent area surveys and epigraphic analysis, and a re-reading of contemporary Arabic sources through the lens of anthropologically based tribal theory. It is argued that the Madaba Plains continued to be politically and economically viable long after the Abbasids came to power.

31) Øystein LaBianca, Andrews University, and Lynda Carroll, Binghamton University,
Settlement and Land Use during the Late Islamic Period at Tall Hisban

      One of the goals of the 2001 field season at Tall Hisban was to document the changes in settlement patterns and land use during the Late Islamic period (1500-present). These centuries can be subdivided into six successive cultural periods: the post-Mamluk (1500-1520); Early Ottoman  (1520-1600); pre-modern tribal (1600-1850); pioneer (1850-920); Mandate (1920-1940); and Hashemite (1940-present).   To understand the changes that occurred during the Late Islamic period, five interrelated questions were addressed.  1) How, and under what circumstances, did the use of the Tall change during the Late Islamic period?; 2) How was the use of land in the areas surrounding Tall Hisban - including habitational caves and a Qasr dating to the 19th century - related to the Tall itself?;  3) What were the relationships between the Ottoman state and local populations that affected settlement and land use?; 4) How were building and abandonment of habitation sites at Tall  Hisban linked to the development of the modern village of Hesban?; and 5)  How have 20th century modernization efforts affected both settlement patterns and the current landscape of  the site.   Methodologically, these questions required the expertise of archaeologists, architectural historians, and ethnographers, each using complimentary lines of evidence to address the changes through time. This multifaceted approach allowed researchers to piece together the recent settlement history of this site using archaeological evidence, architectural surveys of standing buildings, ethnographic interviews with local residents, and an examination of historical sources dealing with these last five centuries.

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A8) Prehistoric Archaeology II

Theme: The Paleolithic

Gary O. Rollefson, University of California-Riverside, and Edward B. Banning, University of Toronto, Presiding

32) Christophe Delage, University of California-Santa Cruz,
Chert Procurement in the Acheulean of Gesher Benot Yaaqov (Upper Jordan Valley, Israel)

     Research focusing on prehistoric lithic procurement originally concerned exclusively the analysis of chert exploitation at primary geological settings. Later on, scholars realized that secondary sources (i.e., river beds, conglomerates) had been underestimated and could play in some contexts a major role in the procurement strategies. While studying the flint assemblages from Gesher Benot Yaaqov we were confronted with a more complex picture. Several problems appeared related to the ancient age of the site, which has just been pushed back to the Lower-Middle Pleistocene boundary (0.8-0.7 Ma). Some of these concern the reconstruction of the paleolandscape and the availability of chert sources. Detailed geoarchaeological survey, combined with a thorough geomorphologic analysis of the Quaternary sequence in the Upper Jordan Valley, has allowed us 1) to get a good estimation of the potential and the location of chert nodules around GBY; and 2) to suggest a geographical origin for most of the flint types present at the site. Most of the lithic material could be found in the local environment of GBY (0-10 km), in superficial contexts of deposition, such as riverbeds (mainly Nahal Dishon and Nahal Hazor) and conglomerates. Nevertheless there is one type (with battered cortex) that originates no closer than 20-30 km, located south of the present Sea of Galilee.

33) Leslie A. Quintero, Philip J. Wilkie, and Gary Rollefson, University of California-Riverside,
The Jafr Acheulian Assemblages and Pleistocene Lakeshore Levels

     Samples of Acheulian bifaces and Levallois material collected during a recent survey of the northern and eastern margins of the el-Jafr Basin have been analyzed in terms of technological, typological, and metric attributes. The results suggest a correlation of the location of Acheulian hunter-gatherer butchering sites with a rising Pleistocene lake level during the Middle Pleistocene period (ca. 500 to 250 k.y.a.).

34) Alexandra Sumner, University of Toronto,
The Stony Path to Evolving Cultural Complexity

      Current analysis of Middle Paleolithic stone tool collections gathered from the Nile River Valley by the Yale University Prehistoric Expedition to Nubia (YUPEN) during the early 1960s has revealed a number of distinct reduction patterns among a large assortment of lithic cores. These patterns, based on typological and technological attributes, fall comfortably within at least two of three chronological stages: Classic, Nubian I and Nubian II Levallois phases originally established by Van Peer and Vandermeersch (1990). I suggest the chronologically based patterns identified in the YUPEN cores and presently assigned to both the Classic and Nubian II stages, not only have implications regarding raw material economy and procurement strategies, but additionally can be tied to environmental constraints, population size, and group learning patterns (Mithen 1994). A hypothesis as to how these various populations were living and moving on the landscape can be correlated to migratory routes within this region and neighbouring territories. Consequently, this research contributes to a deeper understanding of the behavioural patterns of Middle Paleolithic populations as they slowly moved through North Africa and into the Levantine corridor. Additionally, application of the results of this study will provide a wider range of information beyond that which is presently understood about subsistence variation in this area between anatomically modern humans and Archaic Homo sapiens population.

35) Lisa Maher, University of Toronto,
Small Tools in a Big Valley: Recent Work on the Middle Paleolithic in Wadi Ziqlab, Jordan

      Recent archaeological research on the Middle Epipalaeolithic of the Levant has dramatically increased our knowledge of both the known distribution of sites dating to this period and the nature of variability within and between assemblages. However, known sites of this period have been scarce in northern Jordan. New data from three seasons of work in Wadi Ziqlab, northern Jordan, highlights the presence of at least one major Geometric Kebaran site, emphasizes the complexity of Middle Epipalaeolithic assemblages, and allows insights into the relationships between Middle Epipalaeolithic cultural entities in northern Jordan and Israel. Fresh analyses that take the new and growing body of data into account are critical to understanding the nature and distribution of Epipalaeolithic occupation across the Levant. 

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A9) Poster Session

Rhonda G. Root, Andrews University, and Gary Christopherson, University of Arizona, Presiding

36) John S. Holladay and Taber M. James, University of Toronto,
New Vistas in Archaeological Publishing: The Gezer Gateway 2002

Abstract not available.

37) Michael Weigl, University of Vienna,
Iron Age Weaponry from Tel Bethsaida, Israel

      During the ongoing excavations at Tel Bethsaida at the northern shore of the sea of Galilee, a large deposit of iron age weaponry (arrowheads, spearheads etc.) was found within the Iron Age II City Gate. The finds have been documented and will be published in the forthcoming edition of Studies on Bethsaida. Yet, they have not been studied in detail since their discovery, and neither a typology nor an analysis of their provenance and possible relation to the destruction of the settlement during the Assyrian conquest have been undertaken. The proposed poster will present the finds and compare them with available material from other Iron Age II sites in the land of Israel and from Assyria. Also, a theory about the origin and the function of the deposit will be presented.

38) Andrew Graham, University of Toronto,
Prelude to Excavation: Preliminary Results of the Topographic and Surface Survey of Khirbet al-Mukhayyat, Jordan

      The site of Khirbet al-Mukhayyat (Ancient Nebo) lies some 9 km northwest of Madaba, on the southeastern spur of the Nebo ridge.  Situated on a steep limestone promontory, Mukhayyat commands an impressive view overshadowing the Dead Sea and Jordan valley to the west.  Most famous for its Byzantine mosaics and ecclesiastical architecture, Mukhayyat also boasts an extensive array of tombs, caves, cisterns, various agricultural installations and a well-preserved fortification system.  Despite the abundance of this material, previous archaeological research at Mukhayyat has generally concentrated its efforts towards the examination and preservation of the Byzantine occupation at the site.  While such research has been a significant contribution to the understanding of Byzantine culture in this region, the exclusion of earlier material has left a gap in our understanding of the occupational sequence at Mukhayyat.  In preparation of further archaeological investigation aimed at filling this gap, an intensive topographical survey of Mukhayyat was completed in 2000.  Utilizing existing maps and GPS/Total Station technology, a DEM (Digital Elevation Model) of the site was created as the foundation dataset for the Mukhayyat GIS.  This data provided the boundaries of the survey universe implemented during the 2001 surface sherding of the site during which a total of 23,210 samples were recovered.  This poster will present the preliminary results of these efforts.

39) Lynn Swartz Dodd, University of Southern California; Bradley Parker, University of Utah; Andy Creekmore, Northwestern University; and Peter Cobb, University of Utah,
The Upper Tigris Archaeological Research Project (UTARP)

      The Upper Tigris Archaeological Research Project is a multi-year excavation and survey project focused on the Upper Tigris River Region of southeastern Turkey. This poster session will present information and data from the last four years of excavation and survey from several sites in the Upper Tigris River region in both graphic and digital form. A poster series will present maps of the region and the sites, satellite photographs of the area, descriptions of major finds (artifacts and architecture) and will briefly summarize the implications of the results. Over the past three years members of the UTARP project have been working on a method of digitally integrating all of the data from our research into a sortable, image-rich, relational database. Particular attention will be paid to how the digital photo and data capture are improving the quality of the data, especially critical to the research goals of a rescue excavation (the site will be inundated under a lake behind the Ilisu dam). The digital portion of the session will be shown using a PC laptop and digital data projector.

40) Jed Dunlop, University of Toronto,
An Analysis of Prehistoric Cultures in Tihama Yemen and their Ties with East Africa

      The analysis of the sites of al-Midamman and al-Mastur, Bronze age and Calcolithic sites respectively.  The analysis will take place in the form of a comparison of material culture, linguistic, and paloegrpahic traits.  An attempt is made to determine the origins of the people and cultures inhabiting the Tihama plain during this time.  As there are no corresponding sites in Arabia, Mesopotamia or the Levant, an investigation of the West african coast of Ethiopia, Eritrea, and surrounding regions of East Africa will determine whether there was indeed migration across the Red Sea in Prehistoric times.

41) Heather Amrbose, SUNY Buffalo,
Geophysical Investigations of Ancient Hawara, Jordan

      Ancient Hawara (modern Humayma) was a small trading post and caravan way-station in Edom, the desert region of southern Jordan.  Excavation at Humayma, ancient Hawara/Hauarra, has revealed  an early second-century Roman fort, the earliest large Roman fort known in Jordan, and one of the very few principate forts known in the Near East. The basic design of the fort has been documented, along with the arrangement of a few of its  internal structures, and a habitation structure associated with the vicus (the associated civilian settlement).  A campaign of geophysical survey is planned for the summer of 2002. Geophysical investigations will be used to extrapolate existing excavation data and aid in locating sites of future excavation within the fort and surrounding vicus.  This survey should provide a reliable plan of all the structures in the fort, and document the extent and layout of the vicus.  Magnetometry, electrical resistivity, and ground-penetrating radar will be used in two phases.  Phase 1 data will be collected in a grid along an orthogonal set of 10-m-spaced profile lines covering a 450x450-m area including the fort and vicus.  This data will be used to constrain the location of larger-scale features and aid in identifying focus areas for Phase 2.  In Phase 2, smaller regions will be surveyed in more detail on a grid of orthogonal, 2.5-m-spaced profile lines.

42) Friedrich Schipper, University of Vienna,
Jason’s Gymnasium in Jerusalem

      At their outset both Books of Maccabees describe the introduction of pagan customs into Jerusalem by so called “unlawful men“ (1 Macc 1,11-15; 2 Macc 4,7-22). These texts are part of a polemics against the High Priest Jason who was appointed by Antiochos Epiphanes and together with his followers symbolized a “Greek“ conduct of life opposed to Jewish traditions. A considerable portion of the texts is about the establishment of a Greek gymnasium in Jerusalem. The poster deals with the archaeology of Greek athletics and the Jews in Palestine and the diaspora.

43) Laura B. Mazow, University of Arizona,
Will the Real Jebel Qa’aqir Please Stand Up!

      Spatial distribution analyses of excavated artifacts have been limited by assemblage size and division of material culture into specialist categories. Distribution studies have been confined to investigations of single object classes or pre-defined categories of “luxury” versus “utilitarian”, or “foreign” versus “local.”  At the site of Tel Miqne-Ekron in the early Iron Age, study has concentrated on the difference between the “Aegean-influenced” and “Canaanite-tradition” material culture. This focus has masked much of the variability in the data set
      This paper will demonstrate the potential of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for the organization and analysis of excavated artifacts and spatial data on an intrasite level. The advantage of a GIS is its ability to integrate multiple data sets, thus allowing the investigation of the composite assemblage. The artifact information can then be overlaid on an excavation grid or an architectural plan, displaying queries as spatial maps. In this paper, I will demonstrate how a GIS can be used to discern patterns of artifact distributions and to suggest relationships within the assemblage at the site of Tel Miqne-Ekron in the early Iron Age.

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A10) Ten Years of Renewed Excavation at Megiddo

Baruch Halpern, Pennsylvania State University, Presiding

44) Yuval Gadot, Tel Aviv University,
Megiddo and the International Road: The ‘Aruna Pass Survey

      In trying to reconstruct Megiddo's importance in the Bronze and Iron Ages, scholars gave special attention to the site’s close ties with the international road from Egypt to Syria and Mesopotamia, which crosses from the coastal plain to the Jezreel Valley via the Aruna pass. The paper will deal with the results of a comprehensive survey conducted in the Aruna pass. It will describe the changing settlement patterns there in relation to the main periods of habitation at Megiddo. The archaeological results will then be evaluated against historical sources relating to the international road.

45) Norma Franklin and Jennifer Peersmann, Tel Aviv University,
Site Formation Analysis: The Megiddo Bedrock Study

      This paper will reveal the profile of the bedrock that lies beneath Tel Megiddo. Once exposed the very different landscape of the original hill will help illuminate the plan of the earliest city. The authors consider that an awareness of the pre-existing terrain is essential for an understanding of how the site was utilized by the builders of each successive city. This is essential for gaining an understanding of the macro-stratigraphy of the site. The simple technique employed will be explained and a recommendation made for its use at other sites.

46) David Ussishkin, Tel Aviv University,
Excavations in the Bronze Age Layers, including the Schumacher Trench

      The paper will survey and summarize the results achieved in the renewed excavations at Megiddo, carried out in the Bronze Age strata. Work was conducted in the Early Bronze Age cultic area, in the Middle and Late Bronze Age strata and fortifications in the lower terrace, in the Late Bronze city gate, and finally in the trench dug by Gotlieb Schumacher a century ago. Here  the “Nordburg,” “Mittelburg” and the so-called “Aegean” tomb have been studied afresh.

47) Benjamin Sass, Tel Aviv University,
New Insights on Megiddo and Egypt during the EB I

      The paper surveys the Egyptian and Egyptianizing finds from pre-3000-B.C. Megiddo uncovered by the Chicago and Tel Aviv expeditions, and attempts to integrate these finds into the general picture of Egypto-Levantine interrelations of the time.

48) Ann Killebrew, Pennsylvania State University, and Eric H. Cline, George Washington University,
Iron Age Palace and Stables

      For the past three decades, Yadin's discovery of Palace 6000 at Megiddo has formed one of the cornerstones of the interpretation of the 10th century BCE in Israel and a basis for the identification of archaeological layers attributed to the Solomonic period. Beginning in 1998, this area at the northern end of Megiddo was reopened as part of the ongoing excavations being conducted at the site by Tel Aviv and Pennsylvania State Universities. Known as the location of the “Northern Stables” as well as Palace 6000, the area had been partially excavated previously by the University of Chicago during their excavations of 1925-1939 and by Y. Yadin in intermittent seasons from 1960-1972. Our goal has been to reexamine and uncover more of Palace 6000 to incorporate it into the public presentation of the site.
      At least six major stratigraphic layers have been uncovered, L0 to L5, corresponding to Strata II-VIA of the Chicago excavations. The best preserved and most exposed layer is L2 (Stratum IVA), containing a series of long narrow tripartite structures — Chicago's so-called Northern Stables. Parts of three of these units were uncovered during 1998; more of these units and part of a fourth were uncovered during 2000. Due to the excellent preservation of Unit 1 and the rear portions of Units 2-4, the exposure of Palace 6000 (Level L3 = Stratum IVB/VA) was limited in the 1998 season. During the 2000 season, after thorough excavation and recording, portions of the easternmost Units 3 and 4 were removed so that more of Palace 6000 could be recovered.
      Since no detailed reports were ever published either for the so-called Northern Stables or for Palace 6000, valuable information regarding the function and relative dating of these structures has now been added as a result of these recent excavations.

49) Baruch Halpern, Pennsylvania State University, and Paula Wapnish, University of Alabama,
Iron Age Bones

Abstract not available.

50) Noga Blockman, Tel Aviv University,
The Last Canaanites: The Stratum VIA Building

      The paper will deal with Level 4 in Area K at Megiddo (University of Chicago's Stratum VIA). It will present the stratigraphy and layout of a large courtyard building, which was fully excavated in the seasons of 1998-2000. It will then discuss the finds from the building: pottery, flint implements and other objects. Finally, the paper will tackle some broader issues: the function of the building, its date and the nature of its destruction. These finds have far reaching implications for the understanding of the history of Megiddo in the turn of the second millennium BCE.

51) Israel Finkelstein, Tel Aviv University,
Archaeological and Historical Conclusions

The Paper will deal with the implications of the results of the renewed excavations at Megiddo for the history of the Levant. Special emphasis will be given to the Iron Age: Recovery of Megiddo after the destruction of the Late Bronze city; the 10th century BCE; the Omride city; the 8th century BCE zenith and the Assyrian takeover. Main themes to be discussed include chronology, change in material cluture, urban-rural relationship etc.

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A11) Reports on Current Excavations, ASOR Affiliated

Rachel Hallote, Purchase College, Presiding

52) Burton MacDonald, St. Francis Xavier University,
Methodologies and Results: Recent (1999–2001) Survey Work in the Tafila-Busayra Region of Southern Jordan

      Team members of the Tafila-Busayra Archaeological Survey devoted three seasons (1990–2001) to the investigations of some 480 square kilometers from At-Tafila and Busayra in the west to the Desert Highway, in the area of Jurf ad-Darawish, in the east. The work, using methodologies based on transecting 120 random squares of three topographical zones plus purposive survey, resulted in the discovery of 290 sites, most of which are still unknown to the scholarly community. In addition, investigation of a Pleistocene lake in the area of Jurf ad-Darawish documented at least seasonal habitation from ca. 250,000 years ago down to the beginning of the ceramic periods in Jordan. The paper will discuss the methodologies that the survey team used and the results of such usage.

53) Gerald Mattingly, Johnson Bible College,
The Karak Resources Project’s 2001 Field Season

      In response to the Miller-Pinkerton Survey (1978–1983), Karak Resources Project (KRP) has conducted four seasons of field research between Wadi Mujib and Wadi Hasa since 1995. The site of Khirbat al-Mudaybi (located southeast of Karak, near the “Desert Highway”) was selected for excavation as a case study in resource utilization. In this relatively neglected region of central Jordan, KRP investigates how the ancient population “made a living” on the edge of the Syrian Desert and exploited site location to obtain necessary food, water, raw materials, and trade goods.
      In 1997, 1999, and 2001, the Karak Project worked on three fronts: (1) archaeological survey (with 138 new sites documented so far); (2) regional scientific studies (with studies of surface geology and soils, water resources, botany, and ethnography); and (3) excavation of the well preserved, compact fortress, al-Mudaybi, which was originally built in the eight century B.C.E. to guard Moab’s agricultural heartland and to serve, or monitor, traders and travelers entering the Karak district via Fajj al-Usaykir. KRP has excavated a total of 18 squares in four sections of the site and has revealed a monumental gate complex, other interesting architectural features, and evidence of domsetic activities from Iron Age II and Byzantine and Islamic periods.

54) Martha Sharp Joukowsky, Brown University,
The 2002 Brown University Petra Great Temple Excavations

Abstract not available.

55) Rudolph Dornemann, American Schools of Oriental Research,
The 2002 Season of Excavations at Tell Qarqur, Syria

      The 2002 season at Tell Qarqur concentrated on resolving a number of outstanding questions concerning our Iron Age II, Iron Age I and Early Bronze Age IV occupations on the high southern tell. In the Iron II gateway area, Area A, on the south side of the tell, a destruction phase inside the gateway was excavated and two new squares were brought down to Iron II levels to provide a broader architecture exposure of this phase. We also maximized our exposure of the two phases of major Early Bronze IVA architecture in this area. On the north side of the high tell, we exposed several phases of major Iron II architectural remains in Area E. Excavation also continued in earlier levels in this area, where in Square E3 we carried the final phases of the Early Bronze sequence down to the Early Bronze IVB levels excavated in E4 in previous seasons. In Area B on the east side of the tell, near its highest point, we brought the Iron I sequence down to 12th century BC levels. Iron I and II levels were also excavated on the lower northern tell in Area D.

56) Douglas Edwards, University of Puget Sound,
Excavations and Survey at Khirbet Qana in the Galilee: 2001–2002

      Khirbet Qana lies prominently on the north side of a significant east-west corridor, the Bet Netofa Valley in lower Galilee. Although archaeologists and historians have visited the site for many years, no systematic survey or archaeological excavation had occurred prior to our initial survey in 1997 and subsequent excavations between 1998-2002.  Its close proximity to significant urban centers and numerous villages make it an ideal site to address the interaction between urban areas and the countryside.  Few village sites have been excavated in the region and no systematic survey done of the area. Kh. Qana as a village site with a plethora of remains ranging from the Neolithic period to the 19th c. A.D. helps that gap. Most architectural remains come from the late Hellenistic through Byzantine period and include an ER stepped pool complex, columbarium, ER tombs, numerous cisterns, an ER industrial complex (for dyeing?), and a probable ER synagogue. A Christian pilgrim complex founded in the 5th/6th century and used into the Crusader period illustrates how the site transformed from a Jewish village to a Christian pilgrim site.

57) Beth Alpert Nakhai, University of Arizona,
Tell el-Wawiyat: Stability and Change in the Iron I Galilee

      Tell el-Wawiyat is a small multi-period mound located in the Bet Netofah Valley, the southernmost of the Galilee's six intermontane valleys.  Its excavators, J.P. Dessel, Bonnie L. Wisthoff and I, selected it for excavation in part to explore the nature of the Canaanite-Israelite transition in the twelfth century BCE.  What we discovered in two seasons of excavation underscores the complexity of this cultural transition.
      At Wawiyat, the passage from the Late Bronze IIB to the Iron IA was smooth.  Two large buildings were used throughout both periods and no disruption in the rather comfortable lifestyle of the LBA is apparent in the Iron IA.  To the contrary, the twelfth century occupants of Wawiyat enjoyed a quality of life not experienced by their contemporaries in other parts of the land.  Eventually, though, they abandoned the site.  In the eleventh century, the Iron IB, squatters moved in and built temporary housing within the extant structures.  Once they left, Wawiyat was never reoccupied.  This presentation explores the question of how Wawiyat can help us explain cultural continuity and change in the Lower Galilee, during the period generally thought to have witnessed the transition from Canaanite to Israelite.

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A12) Leaving No Stone Unturned: Recent Studies of Ground and Chipped Stone Tools in the Southern Levant

Yorke M. Rowan, Pennsylvania State University-Erie and Jennie R. Ebeling, Hebrew University, Presiding

58) Philipp Rassmann, University of Washington,
Stones on Stone: Assessing the Use of Hand Stones as Tools to Process Stone Artifacts at PPNB Ba’jan in Southern Jordan

      Archaeologists have long assumed that ground stone tools, including mortars, pestles, hand stones and slabs, served primarily as plant-processing tools.  Experimental and ethnographic use-wear studies by J. Adams provide limited support for this belief suggesting, instead, a variety of uses.  On hand stones for example, only certain wear patterns suggest their utilization to process grass seeds.  Additional wear patterns indicate the use of hand stones to process other organic materials such as animal hides, wood or bone.  To build upon this research, this paper examines the prospect that, as multi-functional tools, hand stones also could have served as tools to process stone artifacts. 
      Using material collected over several seasons of excavation at Ba¡¯ja, a PPNB site in southern Jordan, this paper examines metrical and nominal data for hand stones in conjunction with evidence for sand stone ring production.  The great range of sizes and shapes among the hand stones suggest a long use life for the tools as well as the possibility that the tools served a variety of purposes.  Recovery of thousands of sand stone ring fragments, in various stages of production, indicates the likelihood of stone ring production.  Considering this data in conjunction with each other, this paper considers the possibility that the hand stones may have been used to process sandstone in preparation for ring production at Ba¡¯ja.  This paper applies use-wear and metrical data to assess how the overall wear of the hand stones may indicate such a means of utilizing stone on stone.

59) Sorin Hermon, Ben-Gurion University, Israel,
Socio-Economic Aspects of Chalcolithic (4500–3500 BC) Societies in the Southern Levant—A Lithic Perspective

      Several reduction sequences characterize lithic industries of the Chalcolithic period:
1.a simple one, aiming at producing non-determined flakes, mostly from unipolar or amorphous cores, to be used as supports for ad hoc  tools (retouched flakes, truncations, notches, borers and scrapers in some occasions).  2.a blade one, aimed at producing blanks to be modified into sickle-blades, from banded flint pyramidal cores.  3.a bladelet one; microliths, mostly micrograttoirs on semi-translucent flint were their main product.  4.a sequence that produced bifacials. 5.an apparent very complex one, aimed at producing perforated tools (discs and stars).  6.a sequence devoted to the production of tabular scrapers.
      The paper will focus on several subjects: Organization of production of each reduction sequence presented above; socio-economic implications of lithic production, by means of comparison of typo-technological aspects of assemblages from various sites, presence of workshops, evidences of exchange-networks, and comparison of conclusions with other research fields, as archaeometallurgy, pottery, etc.

60) Walter Rast, Valparaiso University, and Tom Schaub, Indiana University of Pennsylvania,
Basalt Bowls in EB IA Shaft Tombs at Bad edh-Dhra: Production, Placement, and Symbol

      A true marker of EB IA shaft tombs at Bab edh-Dhra is the basalt bowl.  Many tombs of this phase contain at least one such bowl, if that is the proper term for these specially crafted stone objects.  Several theories have been proposed for the source of the basalt.  A proposal for the source of the stone is presented which, it is believed, also affected the way they were made. How they were placed in the tombs is addressed.  An attempt is made to understand these objects as symbols.    

61) Harold Liebowitz, University of Texas at Austin,
Late Bronze and Iron Age Ground Stone Assemblages from Tel Yin’am

      In this talk I discuss the Late Bronze and Iron Age assemblages of millstones, mortars and pestles, grinding stones and scoria rubbers from Tel Yin'am in the eastern Lower Galilee. The primary objectives of this paper are to:  1. propose ground stone typologies that can be used (in addition to traditional pottery typologies) as chronological indicators, 2. to correlate these developments at Tel Yin'am with developments at other northern sites, in contrast with sites elsewhere, to determine regional variations and the degree of inter-site trade and cultural exchange, 3. to study the choice of stone (regular gray basalt, vesicular basalt and scoria) for specific functions, and 4. to propose a reconstruction of the primary and secondary, or perhaps multiple uses of these implements on the basis of wear patterns.

62) David Amit, Israel Antiquities Authority,
New Research on Stone Vessels in the Early Roman Period

      The Late Second Temple (early Roman) period was characterized by increased observance of purity laws among the Jews in ancient Israel. One aspect of this phenomenon is discussed here­ that is, stone vessels. Functionally they were used for storage of foodstuffs, drinking and for the table. The reason for their popularity was preference given for their use under Halacha, (Jewish ritual law), which dictates that stone vessels do not become ritually impure through use for food and drink, unlike the more commonly utilized pottery vessels.
      Stone vessels are especially common in Jerusalem and the surrounding region due to the proximity to the Temple. Furthermore, these vessels are frequent finds in other Second Temple period sites in Judea, Galilee, the Golan, and Transjordan.  The primary research into this phenomena was conducted by Yitzhak Magen, based on the finds from caves at Hizma, northeast of Jerusalem that were used both as a quarry and as a workshop for stone vessels.
      Recent excavations in 1999 in a similar cave complex on Mount Scopus, east of Jerusalem, exposed a wide range of vessel types and fragments of ossuaries broken during the production process.  Also found were metal quarrying tools and parts of the lathe used to produce the vessels.  These objects allow us to provide a new understanding of the technological processes relevant to the production of stone vessels. In 2001 an additional cave was excavated near Nazareth, enabling comparative research of typological and technological aspects in Jerusalem and the Galilee.  It adds new information to the study of this unique phenomenon.

63) Jane Peterson, Marquette University,
Discussant

A13) Symposium on Recent Research in the Madaba Plains of Jordan II

Larry Herr, Canadian University College, Presiding

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A14) Connectivity in Antiquity I (Joint ASOR/AAA Session)

Theme: Bronze Age World System Cycles of Expansion and Contraction Revisited

Øystein S. LaBianca, Andrews University, Presiding

64) Andre Gunder Frank, Northeastern University, and William R. Thompson, Indiana University,
Bronze Age World System Cycles of Expansion and Contraction Revisited

     Frank’s 1993 article in Current Anthropology made a case for alternations in economic prosperity and depression that characterized the functioning of a Bronze Age world system. The response to the argument varied.  Some welcomed the idea of attempting to theorize about long-term change while others rejected the undertaking for a variety of reasons (e.g., difficulties in seeing the existence of a “world system”, difficulties in making uniform generalizations about eras of prosperity and depression, weak evidence, defense of turf from the intrusion of an outsider, and so forth).  Yet the point remains that archaeologists and ancient historians are reluctant to talk about processes of century and millennial duration.  If there is some possibility that long-term change processes have been at work, it is incumbent upon us to attempt to establish their existence, tempo, causation, and impacts.  Frank (1993) characterized 3000 - 2600, 2500-24/300, 2000-1800/1750, and 16/1500-1200 B.C. as periods of economic expansion.  The years of 2600-2400, 24/2300-2000, 1800/1750-16/1500, and 1200-1000 B.C. were categorized as years of economic expansion.  We propose to examine four questions:

1) Can the periodicity of economic fluctuations be pushed back before 3000 B.C.? , 2) Can the evidence mustered be improved by excluding non-economic phenomena such as migrations and warfare and canvassing the appropriate and expanding literature on ancient economic history more comprehensively?, 3) Can the evidence on fluctuations tell us more about the scope and degree of integration/ interdependence of economic interactions in the Bronze Age?, and 4) Can whatever support for cycles of expansion and contraction that emerges - assuming that some does - be linked to other long-term processes of pulsation and early forms of globalization?  

Discussants:
65) James R. Wiseman, Boston University
66) P. Nick Kardulias, College of Wooster
67) Øystein S. LaBianca, Andrews University

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A15) Reports on Current Excavations, non-ASOR Affiliated I

Robert Mullins, Albright Institute of Archaeological Research, Presiding

68) Chang-Ho Ji, La Sierra University,
The Iron Age Temple at Khirbat ‘Ataruz

      At Khirbat `Ataruz, the 2000 and 2001 seasons of excavation gave special attention to the Iron Age settlement history at the site and its relationship with the Mesha Inscription.  The results of our excavation seem to largely support what it relates.  The most conspicuous discoveries are a potential altar, a platform on which the Iron II settlers placed various cultic vessels and objects for religious purposes, and a fallen standing stone found between the altar and the platform.  Surprisingly, the temple appears to have survived the violent destruction and been reused by the subsequent settlers, which probably occurred in the early or mid Iron II period.  Implications of the archaeological findings will be addressed in the context of Israelite and Moabite history and religion.

69) Kim Codella, University of California, Berkeley,
Reports on Current Research in Shari-Sabz, Uzbekistan

      For the past three years UBAM (Uzbek Berkeley Archaeological Mission), has been conducting survey and archeological work in the region of Shari-Sabz just south of the city of Samarkand, Uzbekistan. This joint US-Uzbek project began in 1999 with the preliminary excavation of two sites in the region. This preliminary work was under the direction of Dr. Sanjoyt Mehendele and Professor David Stronach from U.C. Berkeley and Dr. Mutalib Hasanov of the Archaeological Institute of Samarkand. We were able to confirm the existence of pre-Achaemenid, Achaemenid (550-331 BC), and post-Achaemenid levels at the site of Padyatak Tepe, located just northwest of the modern town of Kitab. In 2000 a survey of the region around Padyatak was conducted to identify sites that may date to the Achaemenid period with the hope of establishing Pre and Post Achaemenid settlement patterns in the region  ca. 500 BC. In addition, the survey, using GPS locators enabled us to map many sites that our Uzbek and previously Soviet colleagues had excavated, but had not systematically mapped and categorized. This summer, 2002, a team from U.C. Berkeley will return to continue excavation at Padyatak Tepe. We would like to present our preliminary findings on an area that until now has received little attention from western scholars and archaeologists.

70) Bill Leadbetter, Edith Cowan University,
Populating Aperlae

      Aperlae, a maritime site on the southern coast of Lycia, enjoyed a long floruit based upon the production of raw purple dye. Although long neglected, the site is now being  explored and mapped. What is particularly interesting about the site is that over a quarter of it lies below the water line.  Over the last two years, the author has been conducting an epigraphic survey at Aperlae in Lycia in conjunction with the underwater and terrestrial surveys of architectural remains being conducted respectively by Professors Hohlfelder and Vann. Over forty inscriptions have been identified, some of which were already published, while many others are entirely new texts. The vast majority of these texts are sepulchral in character, and are the major body of textual evidence about the people of Aperlae.
      In this paper, the author will set out the location, dating and nature of Aperlae's sepulchral inscriptions, and offer some texts, preliminary translations and commentary. These texts largely fit into a traditional Lycian formula for sepulchral texts which may indicate demographic changes in Aperlae itself. Probably founded as a Hellenistic colony, most of the extant texts follow something of a formula which is consistent with the Lycian epitaph. This may indicate that either a largely Hellenic population absorbed Lycian cultural language over time or that an original population of Greek colonists was subsequently out-populated by a local settlers moving to take advantage of the wealth which could be gained from purple production.

71) Boyue Yau Tipp, Arizona State University,
Perseus in Tell Halif

      Approximately 760 terracotta figurine fragments were recovered from Phase III in the 1992, 1993, and 1999 seasons of the Lahav Research Project in Tell Halif, Israel. Various fragments from this corpus possess attributes of the Greek hero Perseus.  The harpe and the Gorgoneion either alone or in a kibisis are two of the distinguishing characteristics that typically identify Perseus.  A curved articulation and a spherical form appear on a number of the fragments found at Tell Halif.  Two of these fragments are significant in the preservation of the torso and the hands holding the named objects.
      Strata V in which the terracottas were found dates to the sixth through fourth centuries B.C.  During this time-frame, the Perseus theme was popular in Greek representations.  The influx of Greek materials might have influenced the types found in Tell Halif.  Attic ceramic material from the city of Jaffa, which lies on the coast approximately a hundred miles northwest of Tell Halif, substantiates the Greek material culture in the region.  The Greek interchange as well as the eastern origins of the figure of Perseus might have contributed to the presence of the hero in this area.

72) Renate Rosenthal-Hegginbottom, Tel Dor Expedition,
Lead Votives from Tel Dor

      Three votives from Tel Dor, two identical plaques with a mounted horseman and a mirror frame with a legionary eagle, belong to sacral lead objects common in many parts of the Roman empire. For study purposes they can be classified into four groups: isolated examples from Ashdod, Hirbet Sugar, Masada, Petra, Awzai in the Lebanon and groups from Marissa-Tel Sandahannah, Baalbek-Heliopolis and the Danube provinces.  Two aspects will be dealt with: the iconographical derivation and the local significance.  The pictorial type of the mounted horseman begins with representations of Alexander the Great and the imperial adventus, followed by Christ's entry into Jerusalem and horsemen on Coptic textiles.  The subject is identified as the triumphant ruler on horseback, the victorious conqueror and the successful hunter.  The mirror frame belongs to the Roman-Byzantine plaques, made of clay, calcite, and soft limestone and adorned with pagan, Jewish and Christian motifs.  Among the more than fifty parallels there are considerable differences in the concept of the images, the find-spots and the wide geographical distribution.  The objects were placed as votives in temples and public and private shrines, thrown into springs and reservoirs in water rituals and used as charms and spells against the powers of evil. In conclusion, it may be said that the finds from Tel Dor had an apotropaic and prophylactic purpose and were used with protective and maledictory intent by Roman army units stationed at the site.

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A16) Individual Submissions I

Susan Cohen, Montana State University, Presiding

73) Jane M. Cahill, Hebrew University of Jerusalem,
Who Owns the Copyright in the Dead Sea Scrolls?  What Courts have Said, What Legal Commentators are Saying, and Why You Need to Know

      Most—if not all—scroll scholars are aware of Qimsron v.  Shanks, the lawsuit initiated in 1992 by Israeli professor Elisha Qimron against American publisher Hershel Shanks and others for publishing without permission a reconstruction of 4QMMT.   Most scroll scholars are also aware that in 1993 Qimron prevailed before the Jerusalem District Court, that Shanks appealed the district court’s decision to Israel’s Supreme Court, and that on August 30, 2000, Israel’s Supreme Court issued an opinion resolving the case in Qimron’s favor.  Last summer the Houston Law Review contained an article by David Nimmer, a leading authority on copyright law, titled: “Copyright in the Dead Sea Scrolls: Authorship and Originality.”  A few tenacious scroll scholars have, no doubt, even read Nimmer’s 200+ page treatise along with all of its 1,000+ footnotes decrying the Israel Supreme Court’s decision as wrong  because in his estimation, “[T]hose who reconstruct manuscripts should always be denied copyright protection”  (Nimmer 2001: 83).  However, few scroll scholars seem to be aware that Nimmer’s article is not an isolated commentary, but merely one in an increasingly long line of commentaries inspired by Qimron v.  Shanks authored by legal scholars.  While the issues raised by this case have spawned a cottage industry of legal commentary, neither the lawsuit nor the issues raised by it have inspired similar commentary from the community of scroll scholars, archaeologists, and academic publishers whose research and livelihoods are most likely to be directly affected by them.  These issues include not only authorship and originality, but also fair use, access to publicly owned information, right of first publication, competition between for-profit and not-for-profit entities, and professional responsibility.  In the aftermath of Qimron v.  Shanks, the academic community should be searching for ways both to educate itself on these issues and to include them in its curricula.  

74) Morag Kersel, University of Georgia,
Archaeology’s Well Kept Secret: Managed Antiquities Markets as a Potential Solution to the Trade in Antiquities?

      There is a body of knowledge supporting an international trade in cultural property, based on the belief that excessive restrictions on export encourage the growth of a corrupting black market, damaging to objects and to information about the human past. Some scholars contend that the legitimization of the antiquities market deters looting and limits the black market. Israel law permits dealing in antiquities. The Israel Antiquities Authority issues licenses to deal in antiquities and export antiquities, in accord with conditions set in Antiquities Law and its regulations. All antiquities uncovered in excavations are, by law, the property of the State of Israel; therefore, licensed excavations are not a source of goods for antiquities dealers. The source for dealers' wares must clearly be illegal excavations (inside of Israel, and outside) as there are too many antiquities in the marketplace. In plain terms, the source of many antiquities is robbery! (Available from http://www.israntique.org.il/eng/news.html Internet accessed March 3, 2002).  This ambiguity in Israeli law is viewed as a nasty aspect to the world of archaeology. Although it is legal to buy and sell antiquities in Israel, the black market still exists. This begs the question; does the licit market act as a deterrent to looting? Would the black mar