Volume 69, no. 1
March 2006

Mapping the Assyrian Empire in Southeastern Turkey

ON THE COVER:
Cuneiform tablets recording the purchase or distribution of grain from Operation G at Ziyaret Tepe (PEF Archives, PEF/P1/86) © PEF

Tells, Empires, and Civilizations: Investigating Historical Landscapes in the Ancient Near East
by Øystein LaBianca

Mapping the Assyrian Empire in Southeastern Turkey by Timothy Matney and Ann Donkin

Tribal Power in the Ottoman Empire
by Eveline J. van der Steen

DEPARTMENTS

ARTI-FACTS

A New Incised Scapula from Tel Kinrot
by Nimrod Marom, Guy Bar-Oz and Stefan Münger

REVIEWS

Towns in Ancient Israel and the Southern Levant
(Steven M. Ortiz)

Near Eastern Archaeology: A Reader. (Robert Mullins)

Palace and Temple. A Study of Architectural and Verbal Icons
(Volkmar Fritz)

FORUM

Capturing a Beautiful Woman at Masada
(Joseph Zias and Azriel Gorski)

4 Tells, Empires, and Civilizations: Investigating Historical Landscapes in the Ancient Near East
by Øystein LaBianca

For well over a century now, the "tell" has remained at the center of archaeological research in the Ancient Near East. Our understanding today of what it takes to adequately investigate tells has advanced significantly. There exists, for example, a widely held consensus that the "best archaeological practices" must include problem oriented research design; careful attention to excavation techniques and in-field processing and documentation of finds; surface surveys that explore the site's natural and cultural surroundings; and, as far as is possible, utilization of multi-disciplinary teams of experts to assist with data collection and analysis both in the field and in the laboratory. The vast increase in types and quantities of data resulting from these new and improved field methods has heightened demand for more comprehensive interpretive techniques which can make sense out of the masses of data being produced by today's more advanced approaches. This is especially the case when it comes to projects on sites occupied for thousands of years.

12 Mapping the Assyrian Empire in Southeastern Turkey
by Timothy Matney and Ann Donkin

The Assyrian city of Ziyaret Tepe in southeastern Turkey (ca. 610 BCE) presents a case-study for two archaeogeophysical survey techniques-magnetic gradiometry and electrical resistivity. The impact that these new technologies are having on research design is discussed and, following a brief presentation of the results of five seasons of geophysical survey, a few general guidelines are presented on the use of geophysical techniques in archaeology. It is shown that geophysical survey can inform our understanding of large urban structures such as fortifications and street systems, as well as providing details on individual buildings and constructions. The constant interplay between survey and excavation is stressed throughout the article, with a discussion of ground-truthing as an aid to interpretation.

27 Tribal Power in the Ottoman Empire
by Eveline J. van der Steen

The society of the southern Levant in the later Ottoman period maintained its own tribal power structures and had its own ways of dealing with the Empire. The relationship between the heartland and hinterland of the Empire was one of coercion, sometimes cooperation, and often of conflict. The "superpower," the Ottoman Empire, was an alien force with little affiliation, cultural, ethnic or otherwise, to the Arab population. The strategies they used to control the more remote regions of the empire, such as Palestine and Transjordan, varied from a policy of "ostracizing" to exploiting the power and influence of local leaders. Two cases have been selected for this study that illustrate these opposite strategies. The first is that of the Kerak Plateau, representing a society that was virtually independent of the Empire until 1893. The second is that of Akila Agha, the self-appointed leader of the Henadi tribe, in 19th-century northern Palestine, who spent much of his life in the service of the Empire.

45 FORUM
Capturing a Beautiful Woman at Masada
by Joseph Zias and Azriel Gorski

Of the many important archaeological sites in Israel, the Palace-fortress of Masada, built by King Herod in the first century BCE, looms largest and perhaps most important in the consciousness of the country. The site draws hundreds of thousands of visitors and tourists to see the remnants of the last battle in the famous War of the Jews against the Romans (66-73 CE), which ended with the tragic mass suicide reported by the first-century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (Josephus 1959). It was not until 1963-1965 that the renowned Israeli archaeologist, the late Professor Yigael Yadin excavated the site. Since the 1990s much has been written about Yadin's interpretation of the site (Magness 1992; Ben-Yahuda 1995; Zias 2000) as well as the accuracy of Josephus reporting of events (Cohen 1982). Josephus reported that 960 Jews committed suicide; the skeletal remains of 25 found buried in a cave outside the southern wall and 3 found in the northern palace were reported by the excavators. Since Yadin and others had believed these were the human remains of the heroic last defenders of Masada, they were accorded a state funeral in 1968 with full military honors and reburied near the site. As the evidence is re-appraised, however, an entirely different the picture is emerging.