ASOR is pleased to offer two types of discounted publication bundles to members who renew their membership before expiration. Sale ends January 1, 2025 and is limited to U.S.-based members only. Both bundle types will be available as add-on products on the renewal form in the member portal.
Journal Back Issues Bundle
Includes your choice of 10 back issues of Near Eastern Archaeology, Bulletin of ASOR, or Journal of Cuneiform Studies. Those who purchase this option may choose any combination of journals from the list below.
Price: $15
ASOR Book Series Bundle
Includes your choice of 2 ASOR books from the Annual of ASOR and the Archaeological Reports series. Those who purchase this option may choose any combination of 2 publications from the book list below.
Price: $25
You can browse the list of available titles below. Click on each title to view its Table of Contents.
Not sure when your membership expires? Email membership@asor.org to find out.[/vc_column_text][mk_divider][vc_column_text]
Journal Back Issues Bundle
[/vc_column_text][vc_tta_accordion][vc_tta_section title=”Bulletin of ASOR (BASOR)” tab_id=”1709311029823-b3bb26ee-6ee1″][vc_column_text]2022:
Cyprus and the Balance of Empires | Art and Archaeology from Justinian I to the Coeur de Lion (ARS 20)[/vc_column_text][/vc_tta_section][/vc_tta_accordion][mk_divider][/vc_column][vc_column border_color=”rgba(170,170,170,0.01)” width=”1/6″ css=”.vc_custom_1490571214409{margin-right: 10px !important;margin-bottom: 30px !important;border-right-width: 2px !important;border-bottom-width: 2px !important;padding-top: 30px !important;padding-right: 20px !important;padding-left: 20px !important;background-color: #ffffff !important;border-right-color: rgba(227,228,228,0.75) !important;border-bottom-color: rgba(227,228,228,0.75) !important;}”][vc_wp_posts title=”BROWSE THE NEWS ARCHIVE” number=”4″][/vc_column][vc_column border_color=”rgba(170,170,170,0.01)” width=”1/6″ css=”.vc_custom_1490225688999{margin-right: 10px !important;margin-bottom: 30px !important;border-right-width: 2px !important;border-bottom-width: 2px !important;padding-top: 30px !important;padding-right: 30px !important;padding-left: 20px !important;background-color: #ffffff !important;border-right-color: rgba(227,228,228,0.75) !important;border-bottom-color: rgba(227,228,228,0.75) !important;}”][vc_column_text]Tweets by ASOResearch [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
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Please e-mail the Membership office if you have any questions.
Pp. 64–72: “Evidence for Pastoral Nomads and Travelers in the Eastern Desert: Site 51 and Beyond at Wadi el-Hudi, Egypt,” by Kate Liszka
In the Egyptian Eastern Desert, southeast of Aswan, the Wadi el-Hudi Archaeological Expedition discovered extensive evidence of pastoral nomads living, working, and grazing animals at several archaeological sites. Site 51, newly discovered in January 2023, is a short-term domestic shelter with natural alcoves used by pastoral nomads for millennia. It includes over fifty newly discovered rock inscriptions of cows, ibexes, tally marks, and graffiti. Several grinding stones and nearly a hundred cupules demonstrate the nomads’ collection and processing of local plants while they tended their animals. Additionally, other travelers also sheltered at Site 51 throughout the millennia. This discovery adds to the increasing evidence that, in addition to being an ancient Egyptian site for the mining of amethyst and gold, Wadi el-Hudi was an important zone for pastoral nomads.
ASOR Members with online access: log into ASOR’s Online Portal here. Once logged in, click the JOURNALS tab in the top navigation bar. Tutorials for how to log in to the Online Portal as well as how to navigate to the Portal Journals page can be found here.
Pp. 74-99: “The Cemetery of Hala Sultan Tekke, Cyprus: Further Evidence of Interculturality and Burial Customs in the Late Bronze Age,” by Peter M. Fischer
This study deals with the results from the 2018–2023 fieldwork at the cemetery of Hala Sultan Tekke. The aim of the project is the safeguarding, excavation, recording, and study of tombs exposed to farming, erosion, and looting. The stratigraphy of the tombs that were used over generations represents an excellent complement to the sequence of occupation in the city. The mortuary gifts and personal belongings date mainly to the fifteenth to thirteenth centuries BCE and confirm far-reaching trade, further underlining the role of the city as a trading center in the Mediterranean economic system. The material evidence corroborates connections with societies of the Mycenaean, Minoan, Hittite, Levantine, and Egyptian spheres of culture as well as networks with regions as far away as Sardinia, the Baltic Sea, Mesopotamia, Afghanistan, and India. In addition, several find contexts provide valuable information about the complex mortuary customs of the Late Cypriot period.
ASOR Members with online access: log into ASOR’s Online Portal here. Once logged in, click the JOURNALS tab in the top navigation bar. Tutorials for how to log in to the Online Portal as well as how to navigate to the Portal Journals page can be found here.
Pp. 100-109: “As Time Goes by: Identifying the Spatiotemporal Dynamics of the Hala Sultan Tekke Coastal Area (Cyprus) by Means of Surface Surveying,” by Polte De Weirdt, Ralf Vandam, Jan Coenaerts, and Karin Nys
Contrary to the idiosyncratic “tell-type�? urban settlements that epitomize Late Bronze Age societies in the eastern Mediterranean and the Near East, a handful of major urban settlements on Cyprus, such as Hala Sultan Tekke and Maroni, embodied a completely different notion of urban engineering. Instead of dense urban city centers where numerous residents resided close to each other, these “atypical�? settlements were apparently organized with broad areas of open space between smaller occupational “clusters.�? By means of archaeological survey combined with a landscape archaeological approach, the Hala Sultan Tekke Hinterland Survey Project (HST-HASP) aims to (re)evaluate this unique type of spatial organization at the Late Bronze Age settlement at Dromolaxia-Vyzakia, as well as to reconstruct the long-term, multiperiod lifecycle of the settlement and its surrounding landscape. The project by the Vrije Universiteit Brussel aims to investigate the site’s hinterland and its relation and position within the broader Tremithos Valley region.
ASOR Members with online access: log into ASOR’s Online Portal here. Once logged in, click the JOURNALS tab in the top navigation bar. Tutorials for how to log in to the Online Portal as well as how to navigate to the Portal Journals page can be found here.
Pp. 110-120: “The Trail of Sennacherib’s Siege Camps,” by Stephen C. Compton
Images of military conquest on Sennacherib’s palace walls often featured his siege camps. By comparing the visual and textual references to these camps with the surroundings of the cities he besieged (on site and via aerial and satellite imagery, archaeological and historical data, and early maps and surveys), likely locations are proposed for Sennacherib’s royal camps. These sites are found to have all had the same name on early maps, Mudawwara, which, in Arabic in the Middle Ages, denoted the enormous tent that housed the sultan on military expeditions. (At times, this name was prefaced with Khirbet al, indicating the ancient stone ruins thereof.) Examining all occurrences of this toponym within Judah and Philistia reveals a distribution consistent with what is known of Sennacherib’s invasion route and of the cities besieged. It also resolves some long-standing questions and contributes to identifying the locations of the cities of Libnah and Nob.
ASOR Members with online access: log into ASOR’s Online Portal here. Once logged in, click the JOURNALS tab in the top navigation bar. Tutorials for how to log in to the Online Portal as well as how to navigate to the Portal Journals page can be found here.
Pp. 122-131: “Dawn and Descent: Social Network Analysis and the ASOR Family Trees,” by Diane Harris Cline, Eric H. Cline, and Rachel Hallote
The development of ancient Near Eastern archaeology, especially that of the southern Levant, is usually presented through several standard narratives. For American scholars it frequently begins with William F. Albright, who is often referred to as “the father of biblical archaeology.�? We undertook to test this narrative by surveying current scholars and using three separate metrics of social network analysis (SNA) on the resulting academic genealogies. Our preliminary results indicate that while a portion of active American archaeologists and biblicists do indeed trace their academic lineage back to Albright, an even larger portion, including Israeli archaeologists and various American Egyptologists and Assyriologists, are scholarly descendants of Albright’s academic cousins, all of whom can trace themselves back to the German Assyriologist Friedrich Delitzsch, who seems to have been the real father of the discipline, genealogically speaking. We also determined that academic lineage does not inhibit intellectual diversification.
ASOR Members with online access: log into ASOR’s Online Portal here. Once logged in, click the JOURNALS tab in the top navigation bar. Tutorials for how to log in to the Online Portal as well as how to navigate to the Portal Journals page can be found here.
Pp. 132-136: “Expanding the World of Biblical Studies to Scholars Who Are Blind: Creation and Implementation of a Coptic Braille System,” by Daniel Charles Smith and Sarah Blake LaRose
Until 2016, braille readers had little or no access to ancient languages beyond Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. Thus access to the study of ancient languages was difficult for blind students who needed braille texts. This article describes the history that led to the development of a braille system to represent the Coptic language. It also discusses the process of implementing the Coptic braille system in the translation of a textbook from print to braille and what was learned from the use of this braille system in the translation process. The information can provide guidance to other universities wishing to ensure access to ancient language texts for students who are blind and possible new directions for the study of this corpus.
ASOR Members with online access: log into ASOR’s Online Portal here. Once logged in, click the JOURNALS tab in the top navigation bar. Tutorials for how to log in to the Online Portal as well as how to navigate to the Portal Journals page can be found here.
A colossal basalt statue was uncovered through rescue excavation in downtown Amman, Jordan in 2010. Despite the statue’s Roman period find context, its form and motifs show it to be an Iron Age sculpture, and geoscientific testing indicates a regional quarry source. Comparison with an established corpus of Iron Age stone sculpture from Amman shows the Amman Theater Statue shares the distinct iconography of a series of Amman male statues portraying deities and human rulers. Broader art-historical comparisons from Egypt, the Levant, and Mesopotamia indicate that the statue dates ca. 850-825 B.C.E., that it belonged to an Ammonite royal ancestor cult, and that in that setting it portrayed a deified, deceased Ammonite king. Archaeological and epigraphic evidence accompanying those broader Near Eastern comparisons, especially those from Syro-Anatolian political capitals from Iron Age II, and archaeological evidence from Amman indicate that the Amman Theater Statue was incorporated into an architectural structure, either a building façade or monumental gate, on the Amman Citadel (Jabal al-Qal’a), along its southern ascent, or just beyond its southern slope.
With contributions by Romel Gharib and Don F. Parker.
Annual of ASOR, Volume 75, Series Editor William Caraher, December 2023, 220 pages, 15 b/w illustrations, 41 color illustrations, 6 tables. ISBN 9780897571197, $85.95.
Special Offer for ASOR Members
ASOR members (with a mailing address in the USA) can purchase a copy of AASOR 75 at the discounted price of $30.00 (65% discount + $5.00 US shipping) while supplies last. Purchases are restricted to one volume per member. We are unable to offer this discount to members without a US mailing address due to international shipping costs, but you can purchase and ship a copy through the ISD link below. Please contact programs@asor.org with any questions. Click here to purchase your discounted copy in ASOR’s online store.
ASOR ANNOUNCES REGAN BAKER AS NEW MEMBERSHIP COORDINATOR
ASOR is pleased to announce Regan Baker as ASOR’s new Membership Coordinator! Regan Baker graduated from The George Washington University with a Bachelor’s of Art in Archaeology in May 2023. In February, Regan accepted the role of Office Coordinator and has excelled in her position working with ASOR members and staff at the James F. Strange Center.
This announcement comes with news of Katherine Schmitt’s departure from ASOR as Membership Coordinator. Katherine will be leaving to travel the United States and will be replaced by Regan Baker as the new contact for all ASOR Membership inquiries on May 24, 2024.
It has been a joy to work for ASOR and Katherine would like to thank the ASOR community. She will greatly miss all of the amazing members and staff she was able to meet and work with during her past 2 years at ASOR.
As Membership Coordinator, Regan will be responsible for the growth of both the membership and Friends of ASOR programs, handling membership processing and fulfillment, supporting the Annual Meeting, and website maintenance. Regan looks forward to continuing to work with ASOR’s members and donors!
ASOR WELCOMES MONI ISLAM AS NEW OFFICE COORDINATOR
Moni Islam joined ASOR on April 29 as the new Office Coordinator. He has a Master’s of Arts in Archaeology from Durham University in the United Kingdom, as well as a Bachelor’s of Arts in Anthropology and Global Affairs from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. He has been familiar with ASOR for many years, including having won a 2021 ASOR Summer Stipend Award to work remotely on the Jezreel Expedition Publication Project where he helped organize the project’s open database, conduct research on a Palestinian village, and compile relevant photos and resources.
Moni participated in his first archaeological field school in 2019 in Jordan at Tell Dhiban, a site which was the capital of the Biblical kingdom of Moab from the Iron Age. While finishing up his undergrad at Mason, he also undertook archaeology internships at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and Fairfax County Park Authority in 2019. Moni was grateful to be selected as a 2021-22 Fulbright-UK Postgraduate scholar to study his Master’s at Durham University. At Durham, his research focused on the settlement patterns of pre-Islamic Arabia from the 3rd to 7th centuries CE, including studying sites like Mada’in Salih, Qaryat al-Faw, Dumat al-Jandal, Mleiha, and Ma’rib.
Most recently, Moni was working as an Associate Archaeologist with Chronicle Heritage in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In this role, he provided archaeological supervision on various heritage projects in Al ‘Ula and also participated in the first excavations of the historical district of Ghasibah in Diriyah, the origin of the Saudi royal family and the capital of the first Saudi dynasty from 1727 to 1818.
ASOR is pleased to welcome Moni as he begins the role of Office Coordinator where he will be responsible for assisting the office staff with all administrative tasks, website maintenance, and being the first point of contact for ASOR members. Moni looks forward to interacting with the entire ASOR community!
This announcement also comes with news of Katherine Schmitt’s departure from ASOR as Membership Coordinator. Katherine will be leaving to travel the United States and will be replaced by Regan Baker as the new contact for all ASOR Membership inquiries on May 24, 2024.
[/vc_column_text][mk_divider][vc_wp_text]Currently, 137 projects are affiliated with ASOR. This includes 108 field projects and 29 publication projects. Seven new projects have received ASOR affiliation since last summer. Read more about these new ASOR-affiliated projects below!
Paths to Urban Growth in the Nineveh Plain (PUG) explores the origins of early urbanism in Northern Iraq during the 5th and 4th millennia BC through excavations at the sites of Tepe Gawra and Tell ‘Arna/Gogjeli. Tepe Gawra has been the hallmark site for the development of complexity during the Ubaid and Late Chalcolithic periods in the ancient Near East. Past excavations at the site revealed a local development of a sophisticated infrastructure manifest in construction of temples, monumental architecture, and elaborate administrative technologies. Due to these features, Tepe Gawra has been characterized as an administrative centre atop of a regional polity. However, recent survey carried out by our team at Tepe Gawra has identified the presence of a lower town, potentially indicative of the presence of domestic occupation. Further, due to the lack of excavated sites of the same time period in the surrounding region, it is difficult to determine if the features identified at Tepe Gawra are unique, or if the features that characterize it are common at other sites in the Nineveh Plain, such as Tell ‘Arna/Gogjeli. Excavations at Tell ‘Arna/Gogjeli allow us to compare the processes occurring at the two sites, test regional assumptions on the centrality of Tepe Gawra, assess networks of interactions within the region, and build a more complete picture on the process of urban developments in northern Iraq.
A Clash of Kings — South-central Anatolian political geography between Phrygia and Assyria, Cappadocia, Turkey (Michele Massa)
Carved depiction of Great King Hartapu, who ruled in the 8th century BCE in the Konya Plain.
This three-year project aims to reconstruct the political geography of the Tabalian confederation, a group of small kingdoms in south-central Anatolia (Türkiye) that existed during the late 9th-early 7th centuries BCE squeezed in between the two major powers of the time, Phrygia and Assyria. While we have extensive written sources (including Assyrian annals and local Luwian monumental inscriptions) and significant archaeological data (excavated and surveyed settlements and forts, landscape monuments) covering this period, very little interdisciplinary research has been done to synthesize them into a coherent picture.
Our goal is to reassess this varied evidence within an integrative analytical environment where we can combine conceptual frameworks and methods stemming from history, philology, landscape archaeology and digital archaeology. We plan in particular to (a) create high-resolution 3D and RTI models of key Luwian inscriptions; which in turn (b) provide improved translations of these monuments, particularly those shedding light on relations between different Tabalian rulers; and (c) integrate textual-borne evidence with a GIS-led analysis of human and natural landscapes to sketch the diachronically changing Tabalian power networks and map them onto real-world geographies.
Çadır Höyük is located on the north central Anatolian plateau. There has been continuous occupation at Çadır for at least 6,000 years (late 6th millennium BCE to the 13th century CE). Excavations commenced in 1994, continuing to the present time. Steadman is the fourth project director, preceded by Gorny (1994-2009), McMahon (with whom she co-directed, 2010-2019), and Şerifoğlu (2020-2021). Excavations include (trenches are 10 x 10 m): ten trenches exposing the Chalcolithic occupation (lower S slope); over ten trenches dedicated to Byzantine occupation (summit); six trenches focused on Hittite/Bronze Age occupation (N and E slope); four trenches dedicated to the Iron Age (various areas); previous excavations and a few current trenches having investigated the Classical/Hellenistic periods.
We have a housing/research compound which comfortably houses 30 people. A four room-lab provides ample research area. A newly-built conservation lab is separate. We have a two-room equipment storage facility, and a three-room storage depot for archaeological materials. A guard lives at this compound year-round.
Our senior research team has been with the project for a decade or more. Each year we train undergrad/grad students, from Türkiye and elsewhere, in field and lab methods. We have a strong and inclusive publication history.
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Horvat Midras Excavation Project, Israel (Orit Peleg-Barkat, Gregg E. Gardner)
[/vc_wp_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_wp_text]This project aims to enhance our understanding of rural life in the Southern Levant by excavating Horvat Midras, Israel, the site of an ancient village with several phases of occupation over two millennia. We are especially interested in understanding the village’s social and religious character, how it changed, its daily life, and the impact of military conflicts, migration, and resettlement efforts. Located between Jerusalem and the Mediterranean coast, in the Shephelah or Judean Foothills region, Horvat Midras was inhabited by several different groups from the 4th century BCE to 16th century CE, including Idumeans, Jews, Roman polytheists, Byzantine Christians, and Muslims under the Umayyads, Mamluks, and Ottomans. Our initial surveys and excavations suggest that the site was profoundly transformed following the Roman suppression of the Second Jewish Revolt in 132-136 CE, which was followed by Roman resettlement of the village and construction projects that would have an enduring impact. This project began in 2015 with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Institute of Archaeology and since 2018 has been a joint-venture together with the University of British Columbia (Canada).[/vc_wp_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][mk_padding_divider][vc_single_image image=”96589″ img_size=”medium” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][mk_padding_divider size=”20″][vc_single_image image=”96590″ img_size=”medium” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][mk_divider][vc_wp_text]
Exploring Continuity and Transition in Southern Jordan (Jennifer Ramsay, Bjorn Anderson, Craig Harvey)
The Exploring Continuity and Transition in Southern Jordan (CTSJ) project is a multi-disciplinary group of American and Canadian collaborators that plan to conduct a survey focusing on sites previously identified as having evidence of multiperiod occupation between Petra and Humayma in southern Jordan. The main aim of this survey is to investigate these archaeological sites for signs of continuity or shifts in cultural practices over time, specifically between the Iron Age and the Nabataean period. While several sites in the region have undergone preliminary surveys noting material culture from various periods, only a few have been extensively excavated. Many of the sites identified have very limited information and no chronological verification from excavations. Therefore, our primary interest lies in enhancing our understanding of Nabataean prehistory, particularly regarding cultural activities (ritual, funerary, agriculture, engineering) during the Iron Age and their continuity or transition into the Nabataean period. There is a significance gap in our understanding of this period (approx. 539-300 BCE) in the prehistory of Jordan, which needs to be addressed. A review of published archaeological findings in the area has revealed this gap in our comprehension of this period, which has prompted new research inquiries that can only be addressed initially through a survey of specific sites in the region.
Since 1977, the University of Palermo has led research at the site of ancient Motya, an island city in western Sicily founded by Phoenician colonists in the 8th century BCE that grew into a strategic Carthaginian center. This project made several noteworthy contributions to the scholarship of the Mediterranean in its early years, including the documentation of a large pottery workshop that features kilns of Levantine tradition and the revelation of the world-renowned “Youth of Motya” statue, a mid-5th century BCE masterpiece crafted of Parian marble. After 2013, the Palermo Archaeological Mission has grown to become a multinational project with active collaborations with the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Tübingen. Current research foci at Motya include the excavation of pre-Phoenician contexts to understand Bronze Age land use and settlement, excavation of Punic monumental buildings and public spaces, excavation of the archaic necropolis coupled with bio-archaeological and genetic research, and extensive geophysical prospection, surface survey, and test excavations to understand the development of Motya’s urban structure and changes in the ethnic identities of its residents over time. These ongoing research efforts are integrated with education including a field school where students from the University of Palermo and elsewhere come together to gain experience in all facets of archaeological fieldwork.
The Sebittu Project is a long-term study of the agrarian economies and environmental impacts of imperial expansion during the Iron Age of Iraqi Kurdistan. Centered on a cluster of seven villages, hamlets, and farmsteads in the Erbil Plain, the Sebittu Project looks at Neo-Assyrian imperial economy through a “bottom-up” perspective. The Sebittu Project focuses on the collection and intepretation of paleobotanical, zooarchaeological, and environmental data from primary contexts to address broad research questions regarding models of Assyrian imperial expansion, internal organization of agrarian settlements, regional economies, paleoenvironment conditions, and human impacts on the landscape.
Death and memory are commonalities across human societies. In August, ASOR’s partner AESPAT developed and led a three-day event to clean and restore two cemeteries in the village of Nafégué in Mali. Events like this offer a powerful way for people to unite around the shared experience of loss and remembrance, to learn more about each other, and to build the relationships needed to achieve common goals.
Textile production in Mali’s Dogon Country has deep roots, but the craft is under pressure from industrial manufacture and the disruption of knowledge transfer between generations. ASOR and Association Dogon Initiatives (ADI) hosted a heritage event to raise awareness about the shared history of textile production among the inhabitants of the Dogon region and to promote its revival through wider participation in its practice. At the event, attendees learned how to process cotton and spin thread while listening to the music of a local dance group.
On April 11-13, ASOR CHI hosted a three-day symposium, Cultural Heritages Initiatives in Africa Today, which highlighted the work of local heritage professionals, academics, and civil society organizations to protect, preserve, and promote cultural heritage in North Africa and the Sahel. ASOR welcomes you to view the symposium recordings.
Sensing the Past: Sensorial Experiences in Ancient Mesopotamia
Friends of ASOR present the next webinar in the 2023-2024 season on May 9, 2024, at 3:00 pm EDT, presented by Dr. Allison Thomason.
We are all sensing people, and the basic physical structure of our sensing organs has not changed for many thousands of years. But how did ancient humans perceive and experience sensory stimuli in their environment differently than we do today? Dr. Thomason sets out to explore this topic for the ancient Mesopotamians in particular. The history of the senses and explorations of sensory experiences in the ancient world have been increasingly the focus of scholarly research. Archaeologists, art historians and textual scholars have tried to recreate past sensory environments and experiences by using evidence from images, artifacts and ancient texts of all kinds.
In this lecture, Dr. Thomason, a specialist in ancient Mesopotamian material culture, explores how ancient Mesopotamian perceptions of sensory experiences can be compared to our own modern ones, by trying to understand the way that Mesopotamians sensed their environment and material culture and what perceptions they had of certain types of objects, such as metal bowls, wooden gates, and textiles.
This webinar will be recorded and all paid registrants will be sent a link to view the recording.
Dr. Allison Thomason is Professor and Chair of the history department at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, and serves as their ancient historian. She received her PhD in Art History and Archaeology from Columbia University in 1999 and has taught at SIUE ever since. Her first book, Luxury and Legitimation: Royal Collecting in Ancient Mesopotamia (2005) is still available in print and as an e-book from Routledge Press. She has contributed numerous articles and chapters in books, lectures, and presentations on the material culture of Mesopotamia and the ancient Near East. Recent research interests include dress in the Ancient Near East and she has co-edited (with Kiersten Neumann) an extensive anthology, A Handbook of Senses in the Ancient Near East (Routledge Press 2022). Dr. Thomason is also the co-chair of ASOR’s Program Committee, which plans the Annual Meeting.
This webinar will be recorded and all paid registrants will be sent a link to view the recording.
*Please log in to the Online Portal BEFORE registering for the webinar. Once you have logged in, you will be able to register under our Events page linked above.
Please e-mail membership@asor.org with any questions or issues with registering.
All proceeds from this webinar are used to fund scholarships for members as well as increasing ASOR’s online resources, which are free to the public.
SPONSOR A WEBINAR!
Several levels of support from $50-$1,000 are available. Proceeds go towards membership scholarships and towards increasing ASOR’s virtual resources. Each sponsorship is tax-deductible and you can give your friends free registrations to a webinar! Sponsor a webinar here.
Bronze Level ($50): up to 2 guest registrations Silver Level ($100): up to 5 guest registrations Gold Level ($500): up to 20 guest registrations Platinum Level ($1,000): up to 50 guest registrations
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Friends of ASOR present the next webinar in the 2023-2024 season on April 18, 2024, at 3:00 pm EDT, presented by Dr. Aaron Burke.
The Amorites, an ancient Near Eastern group, are infamous in the Bible, where they are remembered among Canaan’s inhabitants at the time of its conquest by Israel. Yet, in Near Eastern studies the Amorite’s origins are only poorly understood. As a collective identity, they are best known for their encounters with the military establishments of Akkad and Ur in the late third millennium, and their alleged role as pastoralists par excellence. However, the shaping of this collective identity must be set against the backdrop of both Akkadian imperial intervention and the declining environmental conditions of this period in the marginal zones of the Fertile Crescent. Tracing the migration of Amorite refugees from agropastoral communities into nearby regions, mercenarism and militarism are seen to play a crucial role in the acquisition of economic and political power by Amorites between 2100 and 1900 BC. Members of this group became founders of well-known Amorite dynasties from Bahrain in the Persian Gulf to the Egyptian Delta. In the wake of the emergence of these dynasties in the early second millennium, traditional means of legitimation served to consolidate their power. Driven by a shared interest in the legitimation of their control, they patronized long-distance trade, construction projects, religious orders, the arts, warfare, fortification building, and standardizations of law. The extensive nature of these efforts have led some to refer to this as “the age of Amorites,” and it may be argued that the material effects of this contributed to the construction of an Amorite koine. This lecture explores the origins of Amorite identity, why it spread, and why it was remembered in later Near Eastern traditions.
Aaron A. Burke received his Ph.D. in Near Eastern Archaeology from The University of Chicago. He is Professor of the Archaeology of Ancient Israel and the Levant, and the Kershaw Chair of the Ancient Eastern Mediterranean Studies in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at The University of California, Los Angeles. He is also a member of UCLA’s Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, serving as its editor-in-chief since 2016.
Since 1994, he has excavated in Israel but also Egypt and Turkey, and travelled extensively throughout the Levant from Syria to Lebanon, Jordan, Cyprus, and in Greece, collaborating in field research at Jerusalem, Jaffa, and Tel Dan. He directs The Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project since 2007 and has co-edited three volumes resulting from research in Jaffa, Israel. Expanding upon this research, in 2017 he inaugurated Turning Points, an initiative aimed at exploring the context out of which ancient Israel emerged during the Early Iron Age in the southern Levant, ca. 1200–1000 B.C.
Burke’s research focuses on the social history of the Levant and Eastern Mediterranean during the Bronze and Iron Ages with a particular interest in identity transformations surrounding warfare, forced migration, and long-distance exchange. His first monograph, “Walled Up to Heaven”: The Evolution of Middle Bronze Age Fortification Strategies in the Levant, addressed warfare during a period of Amorite political hegemony. He is also author of The Amorites and the Bronze Age Near East (CUP 2021), which seeks to reconstruct a social history of the Amorites from 2500 to 1500 BC. Since 2021, he is also the series editor for Elements in the Archaeology of Ancient Israel (CUP).
This webinar will be recorded and all paid registrants will be sent a link to view the recording.
*Please log in to the Online Portal BEFORE registering for the webinar. Once you have logged in, you will be able to register under our Events page linked above.
Please e-mail membership@asor.org with any questions or issues with registering.
All proceeds from this webinar are used to fund scholarships for members as well as increasing ASOR’s online resources, which are free to the public.
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ASOR CHI proudly announces Cultural Heritage Initiatives in Africa Today, a free three-day symposium that highlights the work of local heritage professionals, academics, and civil society organizations to protect, preserve, and promote cultural heritage in North Africa and the Sahel. ASOR welcomes you to attend the symposium via Zoom from April 11–13, which will feature work in Libya (April 11), the Maghreb (April 12), and the Sahel (April 13). Each session will last from 11:00–13:00 EDT.
No registration is necessary to attend this event. Please return to this webpage on each day of the symposium to access the Zoom link.
Simultaneous translation in Arabic, English, and French will be provided.
The Imperiled Jewish Cemetery of Soliman (Tunisia) Facing Disappearance
Jamel Eddine Ben Saidane
Carthagina, Tunisia
Documenting Endangered Heritage as a Tool for Connecting Tunisian Minorities
Lassaad Dandani & Nawel Drissi
University of Manouba, Tunisia
Cemeteries of the Jewish Minority in Tunisia: Between Heritage Conception and Tourism Employment: The Finalization of an Interactive Map of Jewish Cemeteries
Jamal Maghiouzi
American Society of Overseas Research (ASOR)
Towards Heritage Preservation and Intercultural Dialogues
Abdelkarim Ouguinaz
High Atlas Foundation, Morocco
Preserving Morocco’s Tangible Heritage: Condition Assessment and Mapping Efforts by the High Atlas Foundation and the American Society of Overseas Research
Ratiba Rigalma
Ibn Zohr University, Morocco
The Suitcase Museum Experience in Morocco
Assia Sabri, Ibtissem Sabri, & Belgacem Guemri
Laboratory Douiret, Tunisia
The Amazigh Heritage within ASOR’s project in Tunisia
Safouane Tlili
Carthagina, Tunisia
Ibadi Mosques on the Tunisian island of Djerba: A Legacy on the Way to Extinction
Insecurity, Challenges and Current Perspectives about the Heritage of the Sahel
Aboutou Konate
AESPAT, Mali
Training in Documenting the Threatened Heritage of Communities in Mali
II – Roles of Cultural Associations in Preserving Heritage
Kadiatou Sow
AESPAT, Mali
Raising Community Awareness and Documenting Threatened Cultural Heritage in the Commune of Minidjan in Mali
Boureima Teme
Association Dogon Initiatives (ADI), Mali
The Efforts of the Dogon Initiatives Association for the Documentation and Preservation of the Cultural Heritage of Mali
Rahina Balarabé
Oralité Plus, Niger
Oralité Plus’ Cultural Heritage Work in Niger
Pierre Guindo
Mission Culturelle Bandiagara, Mali
Mission Culturelle of Bandiagara (Mali): Work on the Bandiagara Cliffs (Mali) in Partnership with ADI and ASOR
III – Safeguarding and Preserving Heritage through Community Action
Maki Garba
Culture, Art et Humanité (CAH), Niger
The Valorization and Revitalization of Traditional Cultures and Skills in Niger: The Case of Practical Transmission of Women Potters from Boubon
Kientega Pingdewindé Gérard
Koombi Culture, Burkina Faso
Role and Place of the Blacksmith in the Society of the Mossé in Burkina Faso
Speakers / Presenters
Dr. Mftah Alhddad is Professor of Archaeology and Ancient History at Azzaytuna University in Tarhuna, Libya. He received his doctorate in Archaeology from the University of Leicester in 2010. In 2012, he became the first director of the Libyan Department of Archaeology’s Documentation and Digitization Centre for Cultural Heritage. He has since been involved in a number of collaborative projects between DoA and foreign archaeological missions and institutions, including EAMENA, Training in Action, and Partnership for Heritage.
Awatef Bahroun is a heritage consultant and curator of the Leader Habib Bourguiba Museum. She is also a doctoral student, researching the Jewish community of Nabeul and its affect on the Jews of Cap Bon.
Rahina Balarabé, born in Niamey, Niger, Ms. Balarabé fell in love with storytelling at a very young age. In 2007, she made her storytelling debut and by 2008 had founded her theater company. She currently leads the artistic and cultural organization, Oralité plus.
Issouf Balima works with IKAM Burkina Sarl, a non-profit specializing in training in cultural entrepreneurship (Maaya), management, and cultural administration. IKAM serves as a resource center for the cultural and creative industries in Burkina Faso.
Jamel Eddine ben Saidane is a member of the Tunisian Amazigh minority. He is passionate about history and is involved in various initiatives aiming to protect, document, and promote Tunisian heritage. Jamel is a member of the Carthagina Association.
Dr. Ahmed M. A. Buzaian is a Research Associate at EAMENA, School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester, UK. He also served as a Full-time lecturer in classical archaeology at the Department of Archaeology, Benghazi University, from 1994 to 2012, including teaching courses on Roman pottery, Field archaeology and Techniques in archaeological excavations, as well as post-excavation skills. Dr. Buzaian has directed numerous field projects including excavations at the ancient city of Teucheira (modern Tocra) from 1994 to 2012, Omar al-Mukhtar University training excavations at the ancient site of Balagrae (modern al-Beida) from 2001 to 2006, and Co-director of the Anglo/Libyan excavations at Euesperides (1995-2006).
Lassaad Dandani is Assistant Professor at the Higher Institute of Heritage Professions of Tunis. He holds a PhD in Contemporary History. He researches tourism and heritage in Tunisia and the Maghreb. Author of several articles on the history of tourism in Tunisia, he recently published a book on “Automotive Tourism in Tunisia.”
Nawel Drissi, a University teaching assistant at the Faculty of Letters, Arts, and Humanities, Manouba. A PhD researcher (final year) in American Politics and International Relations. I hold a master degree in American Foreign Policy from Leicester University, UK. I am also a UNESCO peace ambassador.
Dr. Aida M. Ejroushi, an architect from Libya, obtained her doctoral degree in Land Use, Planning, Management, and Design with a specialization in historic preservation from the College of Architecture at Texas Tech University. Dr. Ejroushi’s research revolves around historic preservation planning, planning history, international planning and development, critical theory, uneven development, and Science and Technology Studies. She examines the intersection between historic preservation and urbanization.
Geoff Emberling is an archaeologist and museum curator specializing in the Middle East and North Africa. Since 2016 he has worked with a team of Sudanese and international archaeologists and conservators to engage communities in education and preservation of the UNESCO World Heritage site of “Gebel Barkal and Sites of the Napatan Region” in northern Sudan. This work has spanned a popular revolution, a military coup, and now a civil war in Sudan.
Dr. Ahmad S. M. Emrage is an associate professor at the Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Arts, University of Benghazi’s. He holds a BA and an MA in Archaeology from University of Benghazi. In 2014, he completed a PhD at the School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester, The UK.
During the 2019–20 academic year, Emrage held a Fulbright Fellowship to teach courses on Libyan cultural heritage at Oberlin College (Ohio, USA).
As ASOR’s representative for heritage activities in Libya, Dr. Emrage manages ASOR’s cultural heritage grants and activities in Libya.
Maki Garba holds a Professional Master’s degree in Cultural Heritage Management from Senghor University of Alexandria, Egypt. He is president and founder of the Culture, Art and Humanity Association (CAH). Garba works for cultural heritage on associative and public lands in Niger. Garba coordinates several projects in the fields of culture, development and social cohesion in Niger through the Cultural Diversity Portal: https://niger.spla.pro
Belgacem Guemri is a mechanical engineer and freelance photographer, who is interested in methods and techniques for documenting and preserving cultural and civilizational heritage.
Pierre Guindo was born in Nombori (Bandiagara) in Mali. He holds a Master’s degree in History-Geography from the Ecole Normale Supérieure of Bamako-Mali obtained in 1999, and a Diploma of Advanced Professional Studies (equivalent to a Master II) in Cultural Heritage Management from the Senghor University of Alexandria in Egypt obtained in 2005.
Professional therefore in the field of cultural heritage, after two years of service in the world of NGOs, he has worked and continues to work for the preservation and promotion of cultural values at the level of the Cultural Mission of Bandiagara where he is manager, holding the position of head of department since 2013.
Dr. Khaled el Haddar is Associate Professor of Archaeology at the University of Benghazi in eastern Libya. Since the Libyan revolution of 2011, he has played an instrumental role in documenting and raising awareness about the illicit trafficking of Libyan cultural property. In 2022, the Libyan Historic Cities Authority published his book, The Missing Benghazi Treasure: a Documentary Study, detailing the disappearance of the significant archaeological collection that had been housed in the National Trade Bank in Benghazi.
Aboutou Konate is a graduate with a Masters in Culture and Development from the University of Social Sciences and Management, Bamako, Mali. Currently, Mr. Konate serves as an archaeologist and instructor for the Faculty of History and Geography at the University of Social Sciences and Management, as well as an ASOR Local Coordinator Consultant in Mali as part of the Cultural Heritage Initiatives in the Sahel.
Jean-Paul KOUDOUGOU. Trained as a historian, multimedia communicator and cultural heritage management consultant, he has benefited from a series of high-level training courses in cultural heritage management. He has held several senior positions in the field of museum management and has a good knowledge of African museum policies. He is the President of the ICOM Africa Regional Alliance (ICOM-Africa) and Consultant for ASOR.
Jamal Maghiouzi was born in Dades Valley, Tinghir, Morocco. He has bachelor’s degree in English from Kaddi Ayyad University, Marrakech. He was always interested in culture and heritage. He became a field cultural coordinator at High Atlas Foundation USAID-Dakira program / Religious and Ethnic Minorities Program and at Asor HIC Program between 2021 and 2023. During these experiences, he developed his interests in ethnography, anthropology, local heritage, and inter-cultural dialogues.
Julia Nikolaus is an archaeologist specializing in North Africa, with a focus on remote sensing and heritage protection particularly in Libya, Egypt and Tunisia. Her research centers around long-term changes to archaeological sites and landscapes, which includes the exploration of more recent challenges to heritage such as urbanization, agricultural expansion and climate related impacts.
Abdelkarim Ouguinaz is a Ph.D. GIS expert with 8 years of experience in the field of GIS. He is capable of managing spatial databases and creating maps to undertake urban and rural planning projects. As a GIS engineer, he worked in various offices and NGOs and was also a freelance consultant. His duties include collecting and analyzing the data using Remote Sensing to process satellite images, creating interactive maps on online platforms, and mastering GIS software such as ArcGIS, QGIS, Google Earth Pro, and SasPlanet. Additionally, he has experience with photogrammetric processing of digital images and generating 3D spatial data for use in GIS applications and cultural heritage documentation.
Kientega Pingdewindé Gérard (aka KPG) anchors his profession as a blacksmith from Burkina Faso based on ancestral knowledge transmitted by his father. He also trained in theatrical art in Ouagadougou and established himself as a renowned storyteller, which led him to win the Silver Medal at the 2009 XVI Francophonie Games in Beirut. Transmission of intangible cultural heritage is at the heart of his vision; for this, he created in 2008 the Koombi Cultural Center in Arbollé, his native village, to train young people in the practices of storytelling, dance, and music.
Ratiba Rigalma is a professor at Ibn Zohr University, specializing in archaeology and heritage. She is a graduate of the National Institute of Archaeology and Heritage and a former department head at the Moroccan Ministry of Culture. Professor Rigalma has published several articles on archaeology and heritage and has participated in seminars at the national and international level.
Assia Sabri holds a university degree in accounting and finance. She is also a traditional jewelry maker and civil society activist.
Ibtissem Sabri is a civil society activist in Tataouine in southern Tunisia. She is also a representative on the local council of Tataouine Sud in Douiret.
Kadiatou Sow is originally from western Mali, more precisely from the Nioro region in the Sahel region. She is president of the Association of Students and Supporters for the Protection of Cultural Heritage (AESPAT). Kadiatou is passionate about culture, reading, travel and discoveries.
Boureima Teme was born in Yendouma Sogol, Dogon Country. He obtained his master’s degree in History and Archaeology in 2011 after defending his dissertation on the theme of sigui and its teachings in the area of Tôôrô. He has been working with the NGO Association Dogon Initiatives (ADI) since March 2016 in the culture section as a program manager.
Safouane Tlili is a photographer who specializes in documenting the material and intangible heritage of Tunisia, especially on the island of Djerba. He has held several art exhibitions and is a civil activist in several human rights and cultural associations.
ASOR is pleased to announce Regan Baker as ASOR’s new Membership Coordinator! Regan Baker graduated from The George Washington University with a Bachelor’s of Art in Archaeology in May 2023. In February, 
Moni Islam joined ASOR on April 29 as the new Office Coordinator. He has a Master’s of Arts in Archaeology from Durham University in the United Kingdom, as well as a Bachelor’s of Arts in Anthropology and Global Affairs from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. He has been familiar with ASOR for many years, including having won a 2021 ASOR Summer Stipend Award to work remotely on the Jezreel Expedition Publication Project where he helped organize the project’s open database, conduct research on a Palestinian village, and compile relevant photos and resources.
We are all sensing people, and the basic physical structure of our sensing organs has not changed for many thousands of years. But how did ancient humans perceive and experience sensory stimuli in their environment differently than we do today? Dr. Thomason sets out to explore this topic for the ancient Mesopotamians in particular. The history of the senses and explorations of sensory experiences in the ancient world have been increasingly the focus of scholarly research. Archaeologists, art historians and textual scholars have tried to recreate past sensory environments and experiences by using evidence from images, artifacts and ancient texts of all kinds.
In this lecture, Dr. Thomason, a specialist in ancient Mesopotamian material culture, explores how ancient Mesopotamian perceptions of sensory experiences can be compared to our own modern ones, by trying to understand the way that Mesopotamians sensed their environment and material culture and what perceptions they had of certain types of objects, such as metal bowls, wooden gates, and textiles.
