Fellowship Report: Jamie Fraser

Posted on April 20, 2020 by Jared Koller

THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF OLIVE OIL: EXCAVATING KHIRBET GHOZLAN IN JORDAN

Dr. Jamie Fraser, 2019 Harris Grant Recipient

On November 2, 2019, I drove up to a small knoll overlooking the stunning Wadi Rayyan in north Jordan, and started laying our trenches for the second field season of the Khirbet Ghozlan Excavation Project. Using funds generously awarded as a Harris Grant by ASOR, this project is asking new questions about the relationship between olive oil production and rural complexity in a period of urban recession known as the Early Bronze Age IV (EB IV, 2600-2000 BCE).

View to Khirbet Um al-Ghozlan in the Wadi Rayyan, Jordan. The monumental enclosure is visible running across the low saddle over which the site is accessed. Photo by Adam Carr.

Khirbet Um al-Ghozlan

Most archaeological surveys would classify the site of Khirbet Um al-Ghozlan (the “Ruins of the Mother of the Gazelles”) a farmstead, hamlet or village, as the site is a miniscule 0.4 ha in size. In this respect, Khirbet Ghozlan sits comfortably with our traditional understanding of the EB IV, which is described as a period of ruralization in which people abandoned large, fortified, mounded sites and dispersed into small, undefended villages.

However, Khirbet Ghozlan is remarkable for its monumental enclosure wall. Built partly as a double row of massive, megalithic slabs, this enclosure controlled access to the Ghozlan knoll. Why defend such a tiny site?

Excavations around part of the monumental enclosure wall. Note destruction by bulldozer (left). Orthophoto by Guy Hazell.

Olive oil and the EB IV

The answer probably lies in the site’s upland location. Khirbet Ghozlan is one of several EB IV enclosure sites, all located on the well-drained slopes of the Jordan Rift Valley escarpment. As these hills are well-suited to horticultural production, this project proposes that small enclosure sites served as specialized processing centers for upland tree crops such as olive (Olea europaea), and were defended to protect seasonally-produced stockpiles of high-value liquid commodities such as oil. In other words, could Khirbet Ghozlan be a 4,500 year-old olive oil factory and storehouse?

Excavating Khirbet Ghozlan

To test this model, a team from the British Museum and University of Sydney undertook excavations at Khirbet Ghozlan in March 2017 and November 2019.

Archaeologist Beau Spry excavating a broken-but-complete store jar in an EB IV storage compound. Photo by Adam Carr.

The results strongly support the olive hypothesis. Excavations uncovered a large architectural compound with several storage bins, and storage wares dominate the ceramic assemblage, including 26 partly-complete store jars and spouted decanting vats. Several long, notched Canaanean flint blades were possibly used as pruning saws, and four rock-cut olive presses were recorded nearby.

However, the most compelling data lies in the microscopic botanical remains. Using scanning electron microscopy, Dr Caroline Cartwright (Senior Research Scientist, British Museum), identified crushed olive stones and charred olive wood in the organic remains obtained through soil flotation. These data suggest that olive fruit was pressed for oil and olive wood was burned as fuel, likely stockpiled as orchard prunings.

Furthermore, the absence of other plant species such as domestic cereal grains and legumes suggests that people did not live at Khirbet Ghozlan permanently; rather, they probably visited the site seasonally to harvest and maintain their orchards. The single phase of unmodified architecture is consistent with limited occupation, and the paucity of domestic debris such as cooking pots and hearths suggests non-domestic activity.

Broken and complete Canaanean blades found during the 2019 excavation season. Photo by Adam Carr.

SEM image of a fragment of crushed olive stone (jift) by Dr Caroline Cartwright, © Trustees of the British Museum.

Modern and ancient olive mills

Removing crushed olive paste (jift) from fibrous mat at the Toubneh olive mill after the oil has been pressed. Photo by Annette Dukes.

It was particularly thrilling to dig our trenches through this ancient olive factory at the same time as farmers were picking olives in the orchards that surround the site. Olives are harvested in October-November, after the first autumn rains wash away the summer dust. The fruit is pressed in local olive mills. Locked up for most of the year, these factories come alive each autumn, when they turn the olive harvest into oil for domestic consumption or local trade.

We were lucky to accompany the Jordanian Minister for Agriculture on a visit to a traditional olive mill in the village of Toubneh in north Jordan. Although oil extraction is now mechanized, the stages of washing, crushing and pressing are unchanged. The Toubneh mill was a powerful analogy for interpreting our discoveries at Khirbet Ghozlan – two seasonal olive factories separated by 4,500 years.

Dr. Jamie Fraser is Senior Curator at the Nicholson Museum (University of Sydney), but will leave Australia to become Curator for the Ancient Levant and Anatolia at the British Museum in April 2020. His book Dolmens in the Levant was awarded the G. Ernest Wright Book Award at the 2018 ASOR Annual Meeting.

Additional links

Dr. Fraser presented a public lecture on this ASOR-funded project to ACOR in Amman on Oct 30, 2019. This lecture is available on-line at ACOR’s YouTube page here:

Olives and the apocalypse from Wendy John on Vimeo.

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Introducing ASOR’s Online Library

Posted on January 20, 2020 by Jared Koller

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[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][mk_divider thickness=”1″ margin_top=”0″][vc_wp_text]Beginning in January 2021, ASOR is pleased to announce the launch of our Online Library platform, an exclusive resource for scholars, students, and enthusiasts who want a master portal into the world of the ancient Near East and wider Mediterranean. The platform is already open to registrants of the 2020 Virtual Annual Meeting (VAM). You can also gain access to this platform by registering for the 2021 Annual Meeting in Chicago and Virtual, or by purchasing online access through June 2021. The Online Library brings together presentations, posters, and virtual museum tours from the 2020 Virtual Program, and the entire archive of Friends of ASOR’s monthly webinar series.[/vc_wp_text][mk_divider thickness=”1″ margin_top=”0″][vc_wp_text]

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Please note: if you registered for the 2020 VAM, you already have access to the Online Library platform through June 30, 2021. You can use the same login process as you did during the meeting. You will also gain access to the Online Library platform if you register for the 2021 Annual Meeting in Chicago and Virtual. If you did not register for the 2020 VAM, please either register for the 2021 Annual Meeting (to gain access for free) or follow the directions below to purchase access to all the content from the Virtual Annual Meeting and our monthly webinars.

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Non-Members: $125 | Members: $100 | Early Career Members: $75 | Student Members: $50

How to gain access: If you are an ASOR member, log into the online store. If you are new to ASOR, please click on the “New Visitor Registration” link to enter your e-mail address and chose a password for the online store. After logging in, navigate to “Buy Merchandise” in the lefthand menu. Choose the “ASOR Online Library Access” product and the appropriate fee type from the dropdown menu. Each paid registrant will receive a confirmation e-mail after paying for access. If you do not receive this e-mail (and you have checked your Spam folder), please contact us because the system did not complete your registration. Please e-mail membership@asor.org with any questions or issues with paying for access and jaredkoller@asor.org for issues with accessing the platform.

Reminder about 2021 Annual Meeting Registration: you will gain free access to the Online Library platform with your 2021 Annual Meeting registration—and you’ll have access to the 2021 content (through June 30, 2022) when it becomes available.

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Ad Hoc Climate Impact Committee Seeks Members

Posted on October 19, 2019 by Jared Koller

ASOR Forms Ad Hoc Climate Impact Committee

Nominations (including self-) sought for committee members

It has long been recognized that climate degradation in the form of air pollution, fire, and flooding poses serious threats to cultural monuments central to ASOR’s mission. The accelerating climate emergency calls for ASOR to uphold this mission by addressing the contribution of its own activities to this global problem, and the ASOR Board has engaged in conversations about this issue over the past two years. During its meeting in December 2020, the Board received a proposal from President Sharon Herbert and Executive Director Andy Vaughn that ASOR investigate the feasibility of achieving carbon neutrality for the Annual Meeting by 2025. Prior to the Board discussion, this proposal had been strongly endorsed by the Annual Meeting Program Committee. The Board did not take a vote last December, but the general sentiment was that the formation of an ad hoc committee would be the appropriate next step.

Thus, ASOR is now seeking volunteers for an Ad Hoc Climate Impact Committee to study the impact of its activities on climate change and to make recommendations to the Board of Trustees on how to mitigate these, particularly as regards our Annual Meeting. This ad hoc committee will be comprised of 6-8 ASOR members. Virginia Herrmann, who presented with Lucas Stephens a poster on “Mitigating the Climate Impact of the ASOR Annual Meeting: A First Appraisal” at our 2019 meeting in San Diego, has agreed to chair the committee along with our Executive Director, Andy Vaughn. We will ask the committee to present a report on directions to take at the Fall 2022 Board of Trustees’ meeting.

Those interested in serving on Ad Hoc Climate Impact Committee should contact the Chairs, Virginia Herrmann and Andy Vaughn. Early career members are particularly encouraged to apply. We hope to have the membership determined by Nov 10, 2021.