UNEARTHING THE PAST SINCE 1900
Gabbi Graber, 2024 Stevan B. Dana Fieldwork Scholarship Recipient
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Dominique Langis-Barsetti, 2024 Katherine Barton Platt Fieldwork Scholarship
The 2024 season of the Kerkenes Project started with an eight-week delay, as we arrived in the field in mid-June. Despite this setback, we were determined to make as much of our time abroad as we could, both for the sake of our research agenda and for the field school students who had accompanied us. As the ground of our ancient 271-hectare city was now dry and sunbaked, we had to (mostly) put aside the extensive program of electrical resistance we usually carry out every year and jump straight into excavations.
The original plan for the season involved dismantling a section of an unstable wall. Despite our best efforts to preserve it, the western wall of one of the city’s large columned halls had been crumbling away since it had first been exposed a decade ago. Unlike most walls at Kerkenes, which are composed of large facing stones holding in a core of rubble fill, this wall was part of a large room that had been built without facing stones. Originally, the stabilizing role of the missing facing stones had likely been fulfilled by wooden planks used a cladding, but with the wood now entirely gone, the rubble core was spilling out. The goal of the season’s excavations was thus to remove the rubble core down to the wall’s foundations (fig. 2). Documenting any evidence of construction techniques encountered in the process was a priority, particularly the placement and arrangement of wooden beams and posts incorporated into the structure. A small section of the same wall taken apart nearly a decade ago suggested that we might find the remains of large wooden posts at somewhat regular intervals within the fill. We were pleasantly surprised to discover that the wall’s structure was in fact much more complex. Since a portion of my doctoral research focuses on Iron Age construction techniques at the site, I was grinning much more widely than the students who had to spend several sweltering summer days carefully articulating the carbonized wooden remains. In the end, we discovered a series of half-round tie beams placed within the foundations of the wall, with pairs of posts placed atop them. Unfortunately, most of the wood had been reduced to ash by the devastating fire that destroyed the city over 2500 years ago, but some carbonized fragments are just large enough to let us hope for dendrochronological dates.
Amid one of the hottest summers on record, weeks after rains had stopped softening the soil of the central Anatolian plateau, we therefore had to come up with a plan to survey at least one 20 m by 20 m grid using electrical resistance. Although curtailed, the geophysical survey season could not be entirely cancelled since it represented an integral part of the field school. While in Türkiye, students learn about geophysical surveying, gain firsthand excavation experience, spend time with a variety of archaeological specialists, and are immersed in the life of a small central Anatolian village. With a much-shortened 2024 season, we had to come up with ways to make sure our students would still get the opportunity to learn the skills they had travelled halfway across the world to explore. This led to a rather intensive program, where lectures taking place during some of our off time replaced some of the hands-on experience that could not be accommodated. Despite the less-than-optimal conditions, students still spent two days learning geophysical survey techniques. After an intensive round of lectures, they gained practical experience through a survey of the excavation compound’s yard. In doing so, they learned about surveying in different environmental conditions, how to adapt to non-ideal ones, and what happens when equipment breaks. But surveying a small grid sandwiched between a dorm, a tractor, and a garden can only teach you so much. As the geophysical instructor, it was up to me to find a portion of the site where electrical resistance could still be carried out. We were now more than a month after the typical end of the geophysics season, at a time of the year when most of the clay-rich ground of the site is barely softer than the granite bedrock. Under those conditions, the logical solution was to survey a portion of the site that is normally too wet for electrical resistance. This meant driving around the site following the path of the ancient city’s water management system until I found a patch large enough and moist enough for a proper survey. In the spring, the different streams and reservoirs are usually too full of water to be surveyed. As we were now nearing the height of summer, much of those had dried up, revealing ground we usually could not access. To their credit, the students got through an entire grid by themselves, quickly learning the main aspects and challenges of geophysics as we collected new – and useable! – data (fig. 3).
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Christos Theodorou, 2024 Meyers/Wright Fieldwork Scholarship Recipient
Skalia is wildly interesting, with Chalcolithic tombs and signs of settlement from the Early Cypriot period (c. 2400 BCE) to the beginning of the Late Cypriot period, after which the site was abandoned (c. 1600 BCE). About two generations before abandonment, a large complex was constructed over the older habitations. This features monumental walls (including a unique ‘S’ shaped wall), a considerable courtyard, numerous pyrotechnic installations, and areas with signs of intensive production. It is this complex from the final phase of occupation where the current excavations at Skalia are focused.
My tasks at Skalia in 2022 concentrated on excavating through the collapsed material of a plaster-lined oven (one of two in our trench), defining the extent of the oven and nearby basins, and identifying the surface level. Ultimately, it was discovered that the two pyrotechnic features were actually one massive four-meter-wide oven underlying the final phase floor. I would spend the 2024 excavation season on-site within this oven: hot, covered in ash, and contented. Additionally, I underwent supervisor training and managed the log of accumulated chipped stone on site.
Work in the half-sectioned oven was relatively straightforward. The idea posited by our trench supervisor was that after the oven fell out of use, it was filled with debris during a dumping and leveling episode, and the final phase floor was constructed over the feature — placing the oven into a timeframe referred to as Early Final Phase. Amidst the infill of large stones, blocky chunks of oven material, crumbly orange and brown soil, thick layers of white lime plaster, and — ash, ash, ash — we found a bit of bronze (likely from tweezers), large chunks of really nice charcoal (a rarity on site, despite the number of pyrotechnic features. Also, significant for dating and identifying the type of fuel used in the oven), an abundance of discarded ground stone tools, and Skalia’s very first coprolite (!).
At its earliest levels, Kissonerga-Skalia will be integral in studying the changes on the island during the transition from the Chalcolithic into the Early Bronze Age. Additionally, current work in the commercial production complex that supplanted the older village settlement, investigations into its subsequent abandonment, and regional interconnectivity throughout Cyprus and abroad will bring many vexing questions to focus.
So, until next year…
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Dear ASOR friends:
In about 6 weeks, we will conclude another successful ASOR fiscal year (June 30). This year, by working together, we have made substantial progress in increasing ASOR’s capacity to fulfill our mission in the face of unexpected headwinds.
You, as an ASOR member and friend, support our solid foundation—strong publications, an engaging annual meeting, enhanced support for fieldwork, and careful stewardship of funds. Conflicts around the world continue to impact our annual meeting attendance and will affect summer fieldwork opportunities. Nevertheless, your membership and gifts advance our shared goals.
This year, 2025, marks the conclusion of one major initiative and the beginning of another.
On Saturday evening of the Annual Meeting in Boston, we will celebrate ASOR’s 125th anniversary and the successful completion of the $5 million ASOR 2025 campaign. So far, you have helped us raise $4.6 million. We’re nearly there! Your support of this fundraising initiative enables ASOR to thrive and innovate despite challenges to the humanities and threats to cultural heritage around the world. Discounted tickets for the anniversary celebration are available, and we encourage all friends, members and supporters to join us.
As the ASOR 2025 fundraising effort winds down, we have already begun another key initiative: to update our strategic plan for the years 2026 – 2030. Our President, Sharon Herbert, and President-Elect, Jane DeRose Evans, are leading a task force to consult members, develop the plan, and send it to the Board of Trustees.
As we near the end of the fiscal year (June 30), I ask you to consider an unrestricted gift to ASOR. We are currently about $40,000 short of our Annual Fund goal of $140,000. The Annual Fund allows ASOR to deliver its programs effectively. Changes to federal grants impact staff support and our cultural heritage work, so your participation is even more important this year.
If you have already contributed this fiscal year, thank you. If you haven’t yet made a gift (or if you have contributed but can make another gift to help at this challenging time), I hope you will join me in giving before June 30. I deeply appreciate your support.
Best regards,
Sheldon M. Fox
Chairman, Board of Trustees
Ofelia Tychon, 2024 Katherine Barton Platt Fieldwork Scholarship Recipient
This spring, I got a chance to be part of the excavation team for the Rural Landscapes of Iron Age Imperial Mesopotamia (RLIIM) Project, now in its third season. The project, run by Prof. Petra Creamer of Emory University, brought together international scholars from Cambridge University, J.W. Goethe University-Frankfurt am Main, Johns Hopkins University, Montana State University, University of California, Los Angeles, University College London, University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania, and Utah State University, in addition to the local professionals from the Directorate General of Antiquities and Heritage of the Kurdistan Region.
The RLIIM site is located near Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan, which is part of the area usually referred to as the ‘Assyrian Heartland’. The Neo-Assyrian Empire expanded from its heartland to reach from the Arabian Gulf to the Mediterranean, including Egypt, between the 9th and 7th centuries BCE, and is often seen primarily as an aggressively expansionist empire, fuelled by conquests and associated booty, tributes and deportations, which has driven the sort of scholarship that is produced about Assyria.
Historically, most excavations in the Iraqi Kurdistan, where the Assyrian heartland was located, have focused on major urban sites, and particularly monumental architecture, with even urban living quarters rarely excavated. While this is slowly changing, as surveys that uncover rural sites have been and still are being undertaken, excavations of small, rural Iron Age sites continue to be extremely rare, and RLIIM is proudly one of the few. RLIIM seeks to reconstruct how Imperial Assyria impacted rural landscapes and its rural populations, particularly why this site (and others like it) existed in a relatively marginal agricultural area, which populations settled in these rural areas and how they organized, as well determining the extent (or lack thereof) of continuity between the late Assyrian and post-Assyrian periods.
During the 7-week 2024 season, the RLIIM team was able to significantly expand its three existing trenches and opened up a fourth one. Trech A, where I spent most of my time during the season, houses a large mudbrick building with a courtyard. The nature of the soil in the area means that distinguishing mudbrick is a challenge and requires great concentration from the excavators (and perfect morning light!).
An important part of the RLIIM project is the analysis of the faunal and archaeobotanical remains. Numerous samples were collected and sent for analysis at the end of the season, and we eagerly await the results. As with most archaeological projects, pottery processing is an integral element of the efforts. Thousands of sherds were processed on site, and the analysis thereof is helping in creating an updated late Assyrian vs post-Assyrian pottery typology, something that is particularly helpful when analysing surface survey results, which are vital in order to understand the settlement pattern change that took place after the collapse of the Neo-Assyrian Empire.
The team did not just spend their time at the site. We were able to travel to key locations in the region on our days off, including the Neo-Assyrian period Jerwan Aqueduct, Faida Canal, Khinis reliefs and Bastora Dam sites, as well as visiting the Cambridge University’s Shanidar Cave project famous for its Neanderthal remains.
The 2024 season concluded just as the weather in Kurdistan was heating up well into the 100s, but the work continues on the analysis of the data gathered by the team. I look forward to coming back next spring armed with more knowledge acquired via this analysis.
Twitter/X @ofeliatweets
RLIIM Project: https://rliim.weebly.com/
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Currently, 152 projects are affiliated with ASOR. This includes 122 field projects and 30 publication projects. Twelve new projects have received ASOR affiliation since last summer. Read more about these new ASOR-affiliated projects below!
ASOR-affiliated projects adhere to ASOR policies, most notably the Non-Discrimination Policy, Policy on Professional Conduct, and Code of Conduct for the ASOR Annual Meeting and Other ASOR Sponsored Events. These policies affirm ASOR’s commitment to high standards for research integrity, academic mentoring and ethical professional behavior. Project Principal Investigators may apply for ASOR affiliation for their projects through the Committee for Archaeological Research and Policy (CAP). Principal Investigators of ASOR-affiliated projects are eligible to apply for ASOR Project Grants and Shepard Urgent Action Grants. Students working on ASOR-affiliated projects are eligible to apply for Scholarships for Fieldwork Participation.
Fieldwork at S’Urachi in 2017
The S’Urachi Project investigates how the Indigenous Nuragic inhabitants of Iron Age Sardinia coped with Phoenician and subsequent Carthaginian influence, trade and colonization across the first millennium BCE. Long-term excavation at nuraghe S’Urachi on the central west coast of Sardinia offers detailed insights into how Indigenous communities and local households coped with these changes and adapted innovations to their own preferences.
The S’Urachi Project operates with a renewable three-year permit of the Italian Ministry of Culture and in close coordination with its regional office (Soprintendenza archeologica) in Cagliari (Sardinia, Italy). The project works closely with the town of San Vero Milis, who hold the project’s permit and appoint the project’s co-directors, Dr. Alfonso Stiglitz (director of the local Museo Civico) and Prof. Peter van Dommelen as the academic directors (direttori scientifici). The project is committed to prompt publication and public dissemination in multiple languages. The project website is bi-lingual and hosts (under ‘reports’) both yearly annual reports in Italian and a full list of its publications since 2012; the latter are mostly in Italian and Spanish and open access.
Landscape of the Qara Dagh foothills (Iraqi Kurdistan) © CraftLand
The CraftLand project investigates resource exploitation and production networks in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, focusing on a clay-rich area between Sulaymaniyah, Chamchamal and Sangaw. Recent excavations in this area revealed large-scale pottery workshops dating to the 4th and 3rd millennia BCE. Moreover, the region has witnessed recurrent developments of intensive ceramic productions up to the present day, suggesting the presence of natural and social conditions favorable to the establishment and sustainability of a pottery-based economy.
The project adopts a bottom-up approach to the study of early economies in a “rural” region, offering a fresh perspective on local impacts of Mesopotamian urbanisation and State formation. It will reconstruct production networks and resource exploitation strategies, in order to assess patterns of landscape use that supported the operation of extensive pottery production. Craftland integrates multiple disciplinary perspectives, combining environmental, archaeological, and ethnographic studies. The research methodology includes geomorphological and geological surveys, satellite imagery, targeted field interventions (micro-surveys and test excavations), archaeometric analyses, and interviews with local potters. In addition, CraftLand contributes to cultural heritage preservation by documenting endangered artisanal traditions and fostering local engagement in the study and conservation of ancient craftsmanship.
Aerial view of Humayma. Photo by Jane Taylor
The archaeological site of Humayma is located in southern Jordan, approximately equidistant between Petra and Aqaba. Founded by the Nabataean peoples in the 1st century BCE to control communication and trade in the heartland of the Nabataean Kingdom, Humayma became home to the earliest Roman fort in the region following the kingdom’s annexation in 106 CE. The site thrived economically throughout the Roman and early Byzantine periods, as demonstrated by the presence of no less than five churches from this time. In the early Islamic period, Humayma rose to global significance as home to the Abbasid dynasty before its overthrow of the Umayyad Caliphate in the 8th century. The sustained prosperity of this site throughout its occupation demonstrates the proficiency of local inhabitants to effectively exploit their surrounding landscape and leverage the strategic location of Humayma as a nexus of regional and long-distance trade and communication.
This project represents a renewal of archaeological investigation at Humayma, which will build on the success of previous work at the site. Preliminary goals of the first three seasons will be the creation of a high-resolution map of the site and investigation of its economic development from the Nabataean to Islamic periods, particularly regarding local resource extraction and use at the site.
An overview of Syedra
What happens to people and communities when empires “fall”? The “Bioarchaeology of Syedra” project seeks to understand how the political transition from the Roman to Byzantine Empires impacted the sociobiological, cultural, and epidemiological landscape of ancient Syedra, Turkiye. A vital coastal economy in the Roman period (2nd-4th c. CE), this city transformed during the Byzantine period (11th-12th c. CE). Current excavations of the site have revealed multiple Byzantine burial grounds as well as extramural Roman tombs. Implementing methods and datasets from ancient DNA, paleopathology, and mortuary archaeology, the broader bioarchaeological research project aims to identify: 1) (dis)continuity in population structure between periods, as assessed through genetic diversity and kinship; 2) analyze transitions in cultural beliefs, as assessed spatially and materially in Roman and Byzantine period cemeteries; and 3) contextualize biological stress and resilience, as assessed through demographic and paleopathological data. Bioarchaeological fieldwork will include the excavation of Roman and Byzantine graves, processing of human skeletal remains post-excavation, and preliminary osteobiographical analyses of skeletons. The “Bioarchaeology of Syedra” is part of the larger Syedra Antik Kenti Archaeological Site, under the auspices of the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism. This excavation seeks to 1) uncover the Roman period city to better understand its place in the Roman and later Byzantine Empires; 2) increase local and international interest in archaeology and history; and 3) preserve the site for local and global cultural heritage.
An overview of eastern Nineveh
The Nineveh East Project, a collaboration between the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage (SBAH) and the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures (ISAC), University of Chicago, focuses on assessing damage, restoration, and scientific excavations at Nineveh following extensive destruction during ISIS’s occupation of Mosul (2014-2017). Efforts are centered on eastern Nineveh, which includes the city’s expansion under King Sennacherib (705-681 BCE). The project began work at the Shamash Gate in 2020 under the Joint Iraqi-Italian Expedition to Nineveh. One of the largest gates along Nineveh’s eastern wall, the Shamash Gate sustained severe damage due to tunneling by ISIS, which destabilized its structure. While the core structure of the gate remained largely intact, ISIS tunneling within the gate has led to its destabilization.
Between 2021-2024, operations that encompassed stabilization, excavation, and restoration took placed led by Dr. Timothy Harrison and field director Dr. Khaled Abu Jayyab. The primary objectives included stabilizing the gate by reinforcing and filling the tunnels, the systematic removal of debris from the 612 BCE destruction of Nineveh, and the delineation of tower chambers within the gate. Starting in 2025, work will expand across eastern Nineveh to investigate post-Sennacherib urban development while continuing restoration efforts. This new phase includes collaboration with the local municipality to develop public spaces, reinforcing Nineveh’s significance as a landmark in East Mosul. Additionally, these efforts aim to support tourism infrastructure by integrating archaeological heritage into the city’s cultural and economic future.
The Promontory Palace. Photo by Barbara Burrell
The Promontory Palace, first identified by Ehud Netzer as that of Herod the Great, is built out into the Mediterranean Sea, just west of the theater in the SE area of Caesarea Maritima. Initially, the lower palace was constructed for Herod to plan and supervise the great harbor, and the palace was extended later in his reign to provide reception space for guests at spectacles and official functions. On his death, the palace served as the official praetorium of his heirs and subsequent Roman officials for centuries. Lower Promontory Excavations in the 1970s by Netzer and Lee I. Levine in the lower area of the palace revealed a series of luxurious reception rooms and heated chambers centering on a large (35 x 18 m.) rock-cut swimming pool enclosed by a colonnade. Cuttings in the bedrock between the columns suggested to Netzer that planters had been built between the columns, offering a pluteus around the pool, as well as the effect of a garden for swimmers in the pool. The Upper Palace Excavations were undertaken by K. Gleason and B. Burrell for the University of Pennsylvania Museum (1990-1996), in collaboration with Netzer and Hebrew University.
The project is now in the final stages of publication by Burrell and Gleason for the University of Cincinnati and Cornell University, respectively, together with Lisa Kahn, co-editing the Finds Volume. Although the building was thoroughly looted over the centuries, the project is providing an exceptional insight into the transition of an official residence from Hellenistic basilaea to Roman praetorium in terms of architecture and material culture. The project has also made contributions to the environmental archaeology of maritime villas, to the study of ceramic building materials, to the corpus of defixiones (curse tablets). The publication will comprise two volumes and an open access database of the excavation’s stratigraphy and finds.
Fieldwork in the Lower City of ancient Idalion
Idalion was the first in the ancient Assyrian lists of Copper trading cities in Cyprus. Help us apply the latest digital methods to piece together the history of this fascinating and important ancient metropolis. The 2025 season of the American Expedition to Idalion will be a short season focused on removing baulks in two of the previously excavated fields not dug since Covid. There will be much orientation, and strict stratigraphic attention to aligning visible soil changes with legacy data, while employing digital recording techniques in the field using OCHRE, the University of Chicago’s platform for digital research. Associate Director Andrew Wright will oversee this aspect of the work. Associate Director Valerie Woelfel will conduct the GIS aspects of the project. All volunteers and students will be introduced to all techniques. Director Pamela Gaber will be overall excavation coordinator and presenter of Idalion’s place in history.
This excavation and survey of a large house and garden at Pompeii investigates relationships between domestic material culture, social performance, and historical change. Pompeii is central to any account of Roman daily life, but much of its archaeological record results from early excavations conducted before modern field practices. This project combines innovative archaeological and environmental field methods with a rigorous approach to legacy data, applying new detection and recording techniques while also salvaging and synthesizing information from early excavations to investigate the relationship between the “macro-scale” of ancient historical change and the “micro-scale” of daily domestic experience. Scholars have historically treated changes in household material culture as a reaction to developments that “really” took place in other spheres, such as the political or military events that dominate traditional historical narratives. However, recent research questions such assumptions, suggesting that domestic material culture wielded an agency of its own. The Casa della Regina Carolina site spans multiple periods of occupation, with at least two pre-Roman (2nd/1st century BCE) houses underlying the Roman-period standing architecture. By investigating change over time in the material conditions of life at this site, we explore relationships between domestic material culture, social performance, and historical change.
Tall al-Handaquq South Archaeological Project (HAP) is investigating the earliest cities in Jordan, dating to the Early Bronze Age (EBA, 3800–2000 BCE). As one of the larger EBA sites in the Levant, Tall al-Handaquq South (THS) offers significant insights into the earliest urban phenomenon in the Near East and Eastern Mediterranean. Our research project engages with key transformations brought on by the first cities, including how people fed, organized, and housed a rapidly growing community.
The potential of satellite imagery as a technique of archaeological site prospection, particularly in the Middle East, has been widely recognised since the beginning of the 21st century (e.g., Donoghue, 2001; Donoghue et al., 2002; Philip, Donoghue, et al., 2002; Pournelle, 2003). However, while traditional extensive desk-based survey methods have proved effective in locating the morphologically distinctive nucleated tell sites characteristic of settlement in the Bronze and Iron Ages, they have been less successful in recognising the smaller, dispersed settlements common during prehistoric and Graeco-Roman and Medieval occupation – especially in landscapes where mudbrick was the main building material and/or where topographic features have been reduced by ploughing. Many such sites can only be distinguished from background soils by differences in soil reflectance (colour, texture). While multispectral satellite imagery can reveal areas of differential reflectance, not all such features are sites, and the relationship between surface reflectance and the composition of archaeological deposits indifferent environments is poorly understood.
This project seeks to address this gap by investigating and comparing the field-observed and image-derived reflectance properties of the soils/sediments from a sample of archaeological sites, of different types, located in several geomorphological units within Jordan, thus increasing the ability of researchers to identify anthropogenic despots when reliant upon satellite imagery.
The Türkmen-Karahöyük Archaeological Project excavates a Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Hellenistic urban center in the Konya Plain, Türkiye.
Rubar Yavuz, 2024 Eric and Carol Meyers Fieldwork Scholarship Recipient
Tell Tayinat is a mound located 18 km west of Reyhanlı district in Hatay and 1.5 km east of the Orontes River. Southeastern Turkey experienced a major earthquake in 2023, which significantly impacted and damaged the Hatay province. Our excavation house was also severely damaged by the earthquake. This is why our excavation house consisted of containers and portables for the 2024 season.
Archaeology is not just about digging the soil. It is a space where human relationships are strengthened, where people come together to work towards a common research goal, and where individuals from different cultures meet. Even though this earthquake has caused major losses for people we know from the region, I still feel that we were able to reconnect, help each other while having a productive season.
The Iron Age layers have always fascinated me and have been an important focus of my thesis research. I would like to thank our excavation director for allowing me to excavate and study the Iron Age layers.
The Tell Tayinat excavation site was identified in 1933 by a team from the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, led by Robert J. Braidwood. In 1999, the mound was re-examined by a team led by Timothy P. Harrison, and excavation began in 2004. During these excavations, Early Bronze Age and Iron Age layers were identified.
During the 2024 season, we woke up at 4:00 a.m., and the vehicle departed at 4:30. Of course, these times shifted based on the sunrise. I was excavating a square in the Iron Age layers, following a stone pavement that had already been exposed in the 2022 season. From the moment it was uncovered, this stone layer indicated the extent of its damage. The surface soil extended to a depth of approximately 0.35 m. I was aware that I was conducting an excavation of surface soil, yet I was still careful not to miss any artifacts. Over the course of about a month, ceramic and basalt fragments were uncovered.
Our excavation used the locus-lot system, which meant we divided the area into square sections and excavated piece by piece. The main objective in the area I was working on was to follow a specific pavement. The most striking aspect for me was the artifacts located just above the floor. One seal, dated to the Assyrian period, was found directly on this stone pavement. After documenting the artifact, it was removed. Archaeology, in a sense, is about concealing all emotions, I managed to calm the excitement I felt inside though I was very happy that it was uncovered. After cleaning in the dig house it was confirmed to be an Assyrian seal with the image of a quadruped. There was some discussion of what animal it could be; many thought it was a lion, though some thought it was a type of composite animal. After this find, it was decided that expanding the excavation area further would be beneficial. While doing so, a bulla was found on this stone floor. This artifact was also dated to the Assyrian period.
So, this floor was either built during the Assyrian period, or it predates them, with the Assyrians having walked on it. Despite the damage in the area I was excavating, this layer belonged to the Assyrians.
A gravelly layer made of hard soil and nari was encountered in the north of the area. This layer indicated that we had transitioned to a second phase. This gravelly layer extended beneath the stone floor. After documenting two stones from the stone pavement, they were removed, and a bronze armor scale was found beneath the stone floor. The Neo-Assyrian artifacts and related late Iron Age ceramics suggest that this layer was part of the Neo-Assyrian settlement in Tayinat, which was incredibly exciting to excavated and reveal.
n conclusion, this season’s excavations were both enjoyable and tiring, but that is archaeology! I would like to express my gratitude to ASOR and Eric and Carol Meyers for providing this fellowship. Thanks to this fellowship, I was able to attend Tell Tayinat excavations, expand my research on the Iron Age, and make new friends.
For more information about the Tayinat Archaeological Field School visit here.
Rubar was born in 1995 in the province of Mersin. He completed his primary, secondary, and high school education in Mersin. In 2017, he enrolled in the Archaeology department at Van Yüzüncü Yıl University. He graduated with honors in 2021. He was accepted into a master’s program at the same university, where he is currently continuing his studies. He participated in 17 different excavations focused on the Iron Age. He has conducted research on burial traditions of the Iron Age and is writing his master’s thesis on these burial practices.
Want to help more students and early career archaeologists get into the field? Donate to the cause today by selecting “Fieldwork Scholarships” as your gift purpose!
Brady Hill, 2024 G. Ernest Wright Fieldwork Scholarship Recipient
As a budding archaeologist researching ancient Mesopotamia, saying my opportunity to excavate in Iraqi Kurdistan was a ‘big deal’ is an understatement. Indeed, after being accepted for a Masters in Archaeology at Cambridge, I contacted my to-be supervisor Dr. Steve Renette to enquire about the university’s archaeology department and my potential dissertation topic. After discussing the discovery of Parthian period (2nd century BC – 2nd/3rd century AD) remains during his summer of 2023 excavations at Kani Shaie, Dr. Renette offered me the chance to work on this material during the project’s 2024 field work season. This was an offer I could not refuse given my strong interests in Parthian period Mesopotamia, so I quickly began applying for grants to enable my participation in the Kani Shaie Archaeological Project.
Fortunately, ASOR generously awarded me the G. Ernest Wright Fieldwork Scholarship, securing my opportunity to go to Iraqi Kurdistan. Their assistance supported my living expenses on the dig, allowing me to work at the site for the entirety of the 5-week season running from late August to late September.
After 4 months of eagerly waiting for the fieldwork season to begin, my daily fantasies of visiting and working in Iraqi Kurdistan were finally brought to fruition once we exited Erbil International Airport and were greeted by the blistering heat of the region’s morning sun. It felt as if my countless hours of studying and researching had led up to this moment, and as we began strolling to the project driver’s car and I heard the Kurdish people speaking their beautiful language, it hit me that I was finally in this fascinating land.
Given Kani Shaie is located in Sulaymaniyah Province in the eastern half of Iraqi Kurdistan, we had a 3-hour drive from Erbil to the village of Bazyan where our accommodation was located. Once we arrived, we had to prepare the house for the next 5 weeks and the rest of the project team joining us over the coming days. After completing our preliminary tasks, it was time to begin excavating.
Now, despite its small size, Kani Shaie is no ordinary one or two period site but possesses a settlement history ranging from the 6th millennium BC to the Ottoman period. Therefore, the project team worked in two excavation trenches this season, one on the main settlement mound which focused upon the site’s Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age (4th and 3rd millennium BC) occupations, and one in the ‘Lower Town’ focused on Kani Shaie’s later occupations (the Hellenistic, Parthian, and Islamic periods). With my aforementioned interests, I worked in the Lower Town and was given the task of processing and recording the plethora of ceramic finds from the trench.
Our schedule was intense but manageable, digging from 5 am to half past noon 6 days a week, and doing post – excavation processing for the rest of the day. This consisted of pottery washing, drawing and photography, recording the daily small finds (glass bracelets and sherds, grinding stones, miscellaneous metal pieces, etc.), making sure the contexts sheets were up to date, and a whole plethora of other tasks carried out by the project’s team members. I was very fortunate to learn many new skills related to pottery recording and analysis thanks to the patience of Dr. Renette and our ceramics specialist Dr. Mike Lewis (University of Coimbra). This included my introduction to drawing pottery profiles by hand, a necessary task for archaeological publications. Though quite difficult for me at first, this work was eventually highly rewarding once I gained sufficiency in the skill, transforming me into a proper ‘pot nerd’ by the end of the season.
Eventually, we found something to write home about. Indeed, two linear parallel stone walls running southeast to northwest within the trench began to poke out of the ground as we dug downwards. With curiosity and great excitement, we meticulously exposed the walls, eventually revealing a substantial rectangular stone building. We had found a well-preserved pre-Islamic period level! However, there was something different about the pottery styles and shapes from the building’s associated layers, and after studying the finds in the afternoon it became apparent that this was likely not Parthian, but a Hellenistic period construction.
For those readers who are unaware, the Hellenistic period precedes the Parthian period and is characterized by the conquests of Alexander the Great between 333 BC and his death in 323 BC, and the subsequent establishment of the Seleucid Empire in Mesopotamia by one of the deceased king’s companions, Seleucus I Nicator. Along with the Parthian era, I have a great interest in Hellenistic period Mesopotamia and the Seleucid Empire, so you can imagine my excitement once we realized the building’s (rough) dating!
As typical with all field seasons, we had only a few days to excavate the structure before wrapping up the project for the year. Consequently, we were unable to fully excavate the building, but its discovery indicates a substantial Hellenistic period occupation remains to be uncovered in the coming seasons at Kani Shaie.
Outside of the excavation, we took team trips to archaeological sites and scenic areas of Sulaymaniyah Province during our days off, which for the most part was always a Friday. These included the Achaemenid rock cut tombs of Qizqapan and the beautiful Lake Dokan, the Paleolithic caves of Hazar Merd, and the Parthian period mountain fortress of Rabana-Merquly. Our visits served as an excellent way for the project team to relax and appreciate the lands in which we worked, finishing the afternoon with a wonderful Kurdish lunch consisting of a kebab, warm bread, and the fermented yogurt drink ‘dogh’. I particularly enjoyed the opportunities we had to immerse ourselves in Kurdish culture and their hospitality, learning new words through conversation and exploring their ways of living.
Beyond this being a fantastic field work and learning experience for myself, the plethora of Hellenistic and Parthian period pottery recovered from Kani Shaie this year has provided me with a dissertation topic for my ongoing studies at Cambridge. These periods are historically under-researched within Mesopotamian studies, in particular their ceramic forms and styles. Therefore, with all of this material and the discovery of the stone building, the 2024 season presents an excellent case study for Hellenistic and Parthian period archaeology in Iraqi Kurdistan. My original intention when applying for the Ernest G. Wright fieldwork scholarship was to use the material found at Kani Shaie for my dissertation research, however archaeology is always full of surprises and therefore nothing is guaranteed once the trowel hits the dirt. So, I am beyond elated to research a dataset that I myself was involved in uncovering.
In conclusion, I would like to thank Dr. Steve Renette and the Kani Shaie Archaeological Project’s co-director André Tomé (University of Coimbra) for their generosity and leadership over the course of the 2024 excavation season, as well as Dr. Mike Lewis for his insights and encouragement as I stumbled through pottery recording, and Dr. Glynnis Maynard for her excellent supervision of the Lower Town trench. I would also like to thank the Slemani Antiquities and Heritage Directorate and the devoted service of our Kurdish supervisor Zana Abdullkarim Qadir. Lastly, I must emphasize again that it is with ASOR’s generosity that I was able to participate in this excavation without worrying about financial barriers, and it is through them that I and many other emerging archaeologists have been empowered to take those precious fieldwork opportunities offered to them.
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Ethics in Archaeological Practice explores urgent topics and issues in archaeology as currently practiced in the classroom, the field, the museum, and the public sphere. While addressed primarily to archaeologists working in western Asia, the eastern Mediterranean, and North Africa, the volume raises contemporary ethical questions around race, gender, disability, climate change, and cultural heritage that are pressing and relevant to archaeology students and professionals worldwide. The fifteen contributors offer fundamental case studies and practical guidance for best practices and models of high standards of ethical practice in professional conduct. Together, they offer new approaches to advocacy and the responsible stewardship of heritage sites, collections, and the environment. These compelling and generative discussions make the case for a 21st century archaeology that is proactive and engaged with discourses addressing equity, social justice, anti-colonialism, and climate change.
Annual of ASOR, Volume 78, Series Editor William Caraher, December 2024, 208 pages (7 b/w figs & 2 tbls.). ISBN 9780897571227, $74.95.
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