FOA Webinar: Bob Cargill on Oct. 17

FRIENDS OF ASOR WEBINARS

Jesus and Jerusalem on TV: How Do Bible Documentaries Get Made?

Friends of ASOR present the next webinar in our monthly series on October 17, at 7:30 pm EDT, featuring Prof. Robert Cargill. Have you ever wondered how TV Bible documentaries like those about Jesus and Jerusalem are developed? Who researches and writes them? How do the experts get chosen? How are the reenactments created? And who decides what makes the final cut? (And why did they skip the most important part?!)

This webinar explores how various Bible-related TV documentaries are made, and what goes into making a quality, responsible program about the popular subjects of Jesus and Jerusalem. We will also delve into how some producers sensationalize religion and the holy city (Jerusalem) in an effort to increase ratings, but at the expense of historical accuracy and education. An expert in this area, Dr. Cargill (University of Iowa), has appeared in over 4 dozen documentaries and has consulted on several major documentary series on CNN, History, and National Geographic.

Join us to get a behind-the-scenes tour of the nitty-gritty of making TV documentaries, followed by an “Ask Me Anything” question and answer period with Dr. Cargill.

Dr. Robert R. Cargill (PhD 2008 UCLA, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures) is Associate Professor of Classics and Religious Studies at the University of Iowa and Editor of the new Bible & Archaeology website. He teaches biblical studies, Second Temple Judaism, archaeology, and ancient languages including Biblical Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Syriac. His recent books include Melchizedek, King of Sodom: How Scribes Invented the Biblical Priest-King (Oxford University Press, 2019) and The Cities That Built the Bible (HarperOne, 2016).

A specialist in public biblical scholarship, you can see him regularly on CNN, History, Discovery, and National Geographic, where he contributes and consults on shows like National Geographic’s “Writing the Dead Sea Scrolls,” History’s “Jesus: His Life,” CNN’s “Finding Jesus,” History’s “Bible Secrets Revealed,” and most recently, CNN’s “Jerusalem: City of Faith and Fury.” He has excavated at Banias, Omrit, Haẓor, and most recently at Azekah with Tel Aviv University.

ASOR Sustaining Members: $0 | ASOR Members: $5 | Public: $10

To receive your ASOR member discount, log into the online store. If you are new to ASOR, please click on the “New Visitor Registration” link to register your e-mail address and choose password for our online store. Once logged in, navigate to “Meeting and Event Registration” to register for the webinar and pay the fee. Each paid registrant will receive a confirmation e-mail when you pay for the webinar. If you do not receive this e-mail, then you are not registered. Please e-mail membership@asor.org with any questions or issues with registering.

You will be e-mailed the Zoom Webinar link in the week prior to the lecture on October 17, 2021. If you do not receive the link by the close of business on the Thursday before the webinar, please e-mail membership@asor.org immediately. All webinars are recorded and all paid registrants will be sent a link to view the recording.

All proceeds from this lecture are used to fund scholarships for members impacted by COVID-19 as well as increasing ASOR’s online resources, which are free to the public.

WHY 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!

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

After you sign up for a sponsorship online or over the phone, email the names and email addresses of your guests to Felice Herman at membership@asor.org, who will send your guests a confirmation and the Zoom link before the webinar.

WANT TO SAVE $5.00 ON THE NEXT WEBINAR?

Join ASOR as a member! Click here for more details about discounts for events and other benefits of membership. Memberships start at $40 for the year as an Associate Member.

Not ready to join yet? Become a Friend of ASOR for FREE!

Click here for more details about our online resources.

 

PAST WEBINARS

You can now purchase the link to the recording of any webinar. You can also purchase the bundle packages of all webinars from the 2020-2022 seasons. Please e-mail membership@asor.org for purchase details.

To see a printable pdf of the webinar titles from the 2020-2021 season, please click here. To see a printable pdf of the webinar titles from the 2021-2022 season, please click here.

Pricing:

Members: $6.00 per recording
Non-Members: $12.00 per recording
Bundle of 2020-2021 Webinars: $75.00
Bundle of 2021-2022 Webinars: $75.00
Bundle of 2020-2022 Webinars: $125.00

2021-2022 Season

A World at War: Protecting Cultural Heritage in Times of Conflict
Patty Gerstenblith (DePaul University), Lisa Ackerman (Columbus Citizens Foundation), Andrew Cohen (Government Professional and Cultural Heritage Expert) | May 12, 2022

Preserving Cultural Heritage in Hisban and Umm al-Jimal, Jordan
Øystein LaBianca (Andrews University), Elizabeth Osinga (Umm al-Jimal Archaeological Project), Darrell Rohl (Calvin University) | April 24, 2022

Back to the Field: Recent Discoveries & Summer Plans 2022
Lorenzo d’Alfonso (ISAW), Kathryn Grossman (NC State University), James R. Strange (Samford University) | April 3, 2022

Uncovering What is Nubian Beneath the Veneer of Egyptianness: Excavating the Archives
Debora Heard (University of Chicago) | March 20, 2022

Where Are They Now?: A Preview of 2022 ASOR-Affiliated Fieldwork Projects
Michael Given (University of Glasgow), Xenia-Paula Kyriakou (Florida Gulf Coast University), Stephen Batiuk (University of Toronto), Monique Roddy (Walla Walla University), Kent Bramlett (La Sierra University), Friedbert Ninow (La Sierra University), and Michael Hoff (University of Nebraska-Lincoln) | March 8, 2022

Excavations at Tel Gezer: A Personal Story
Sam Wolff (Tel Gezer Laboratory) | February 20, 2022

Tel Rehov: A Major Bronze and Iron Age City in the Jordan Valley
Amihai Mazar (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Nava Panitz-Cohen ( Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Nota Kourou (Athens University), Naama Yahalom-Mack (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Robert Mullins (Azusa Pacific University) | February 10, 2022

The Not-So-Innocents Abroad: The Beginnings of American Biblical Archaeology
Rachel Hallote (Samford University) | January 20, 2022

Synagogues as Jesus Knew Them
James R. Strange (Samford University) | December 2, 2021

Under Jerusalem: The Buried History of the World’s Most Contested City
Andrew Lawler | November 4, 2021

Jesus and Jerusalem on TV: How Do Bible Documentaries Get Made?
Robert Cargill (University of Iowa) | October 17, 2021

Digging the Divine?: Judahite Pillar Figurines and the Archaeology of Israelite Religion
Erin Darby (University of Tennessee) | October 7, 2021

David, Solomon, and Rehoboam’s Kingdom—The Archaeological Evidence
Yosef Garfinkel (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) | September 19, 2021

From Standing Stones to Sacred Emptiness: Textual and Visual Portrayals of Israel’s God
Theodore Lewis (Johns Hopkins University) | August 29, 2021

2020-2021 Season

Making May Matter: Webinarathon to Endow Diversity
Multiple Speakers | May 21-23, 2021

Archaeogaming: Why Video Games Deserve Their Own Archaeology
Tine Rassalle (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), Shannon Martino (Morton College), Matthew Winter (University of Arizona), Michael Zimmerman (Rhode Island) | April 18, 2021

How the Bible Became a Book
William Schniedewind (UCLA) | March 21, 2021

The Mysteries of Mithras in Caesarea: Exploring the Cult’s Rites and Remains
Jane DeRose Evans (Temple University), Alexandra Ratzlaff (Brandeis University) | March 11, 2021

Archaeology and the Hidden Religious Culture of Israelite Women
Carol Meyers (Duke University) | February 21, 2021

Meet the Directors—Fundraiser to Support ASOR’s Affiliated Overseas Research Centers
Matthew J. Adams (AIAR), Pearce Paul Creasman (ACOR), Lindy Crewe (CAARI) | February 11, 2021

Early Synagogues, Jesus, and Galilee—A Jewish Perspective
Eric Meyers (Duke University) | December 13, 2020

Home Sweet Home: Ancient Israelite Households in Context
Cynthia Shafer-Elliott (William Jessup University) | October 18, 2020

Priestesses in the Days of Solomon and Ahab
Susan Ackerman (Dartmouth College) | September 13, 2020

Digging Deeper: How Archaeology Works
Eric H. Cline (The George Washington University) | August 9, 2020

Stipend Report: Shannon Burton

Stop, Collaborate and Listen!

Shannon Burton, 2021 Platt Summer Stipend Recipient


Drone shot of El-Kurru, showing both the archaeological site in the foreground and the village in the background. El-Kurru was the site of the royal pyramid cemetery of the kings and queens of ancient Kush, ca. 850-350 BCE. Image taken by Kate Rose, 2019.

Receiving a summer stipend from ASOR gave me the opportunity to work with Dr. Geoff Emberling on “Living in Nubia,” a community archaeology project centered around the Sudanese village of El-Kurru. Our project focuses on the ways in which we as archaeologists can work collaboratively with community members and Sudan as a whole to present El-Kurru and its heritage to audiences in both Arabic and English.

This work with El-Kurru village takes many forms, including a set of educational materials and worksheets for teachers that were completed earlier this year and will be workshopped in Sudanese schools this fall. Most of the work I did this summer, however, was on exhibit materials for the planned Community Heritage Center in El-Kurru. This heritage center will focus not only on the archaeological work done at El-Kurru, but also on the village’s local heritage and culture. Part of the materials I helped work through this summer were hundreds of photographs taken by El-Kurru residents. During the 2017, 2018, and 2019 seasons, the archaeological team ran a photo contest for the residents of El-Kurru, in which hundreds of photographs were submitted showcasing all aspects of life in the village. Part of our work this summer involved sorting through these photographs, choosing broader themes and categories for the exhibit, and then meeting virtually with our partners in El-Kurru, particularly our main contacts, Anwar Mahajoub and Sami Elamin, to decide which photos should be on display. These photos will be accompanied by captions written by the local photographers themselves. In addition to work on the heritage center, we also continued working on our plans for a children’s book and a short film about El-Kurru. We made significant progress this summer, and work will continue on all of these projects in the fall.

Two children at a wedding, taken by El-Kurru resident Marwa Mahajoob. One of the winning photos from the 2017 Photo Contest.

This deeply collaborative approach between archaeologists and El-Kurru residents is one of my favorite things about our project. All of the materials we are creating, from the heritage center to the children’s book, are things that the residents of El-Kurru themselves have requested, and we make sure that our local partners are consulted in every decision we make. My work with the “Living in Nubia” project has really shown me that archaeological research can and should be done in collaboration with, not just at the expense of, local communities, and this is something I will carry with me throughout the rest of my academic career.

Anwar Mahajoub (left), one of our main collaborators on the project, and Bakri Abdelmoneim, both from El-Kurru village, during filming of a short video at El-Kurru, 2019.

Shannon Burton is a recent graduate from the Classical Archaeology program at the University of Michigan. Her research interests include women in antiquity, archaeobotany, food production and cultivation practices, and community archaeology. She hopes to continue working with the “Living in Nubia” team, as well as go on her first excavation in Sudan in early 2022.

Project website link: https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/nubia/

During the summer of 2021, ASOR supported 27 undergraduate and graduate students through the Summer Stipend Program. These students undertook non-fieldwork archaeological research projects led by ASOR-affiliated project directors. They also took part in monthly cohort group meetings hosted via zoom. Read a summary of these cohort meetings here.

Stay tuned for more updates from the 2021 Summer Stipend recipients!

FOA Webinar: Erin Darby on Oct. 7

FRIENDS OF ASOR WEBINARS

Digging the Divine?: Judahite Pillar Figurines and the Archaeology of Israelite Religion

Friends of ASOR present the next webinar in our monthly series on October 7, at 7:00 pm EDT, featuring Prof. Erin Darby. In this webinar, Dr. Darby will introduce you to the enigmatic female pillar figurines from the nation of Judah in the 8th-6th centuries BCE. These small clay figurines either supporting or holding their breasts are among the most numerous ritual objects uncovered in ancient Israel. However, they are never clearly mentioned in biblical texts and they lack inscriptions or identifying symbols. As a result, they have been interpreted in many ways, including as goddesses, as implements in illicit, popular rituals, and as objects used primarily by women to aid in fertility, birth, and infant health.

We will explore questions scholars ask about these clay statues, like: “Who made them?”, “What was their function?”, and “What do they tell us about religion in ancient Israel?” By focusing on the archaeological context of figurine fragments, we will debate what role archaeological data may play in the interpretation of these important figures.

Join us for this exploration of these mysterious figurines and what they can tell us about the people of Judah. Prof. Darby will conclude her webinar with a live Q&A session.


Registrants now get 25% off of Erin Darby’s new book through Brill!

Dr. Erin Darby is an associate professor of Early Judaism in the Department of Religious Studies and the Faculty Director of Undergraduate Research and Fellowships at the University of Tennessee. Erin is an expert in the archaeology of Israelite religion, with a particular focus on figurines and other cultic objects. These are the focus of her monograph, Interpreting Judean Pillar Figurines: Gender and Empire in Apotropaic Practice (Mohr Siebeck 2014) and a forthcoming co-edited volume entitled Iron Age Terracotta Figurines from the Southern Levant in Context (Brill, fall 2021), as well as several other publications. Her research has been supported by two fellowships from the W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research (AIAR) in Jerusalem. She has also received funding to support her research at the American Center of Research (ACOR) in Amman, Jordan and the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute (CAARI), in Nicosia, Cyprus. Her most recent work has focused on figurines and other ritual objects at shrine sites in the Negev Desert of southern Israel and in southern Jordan. She is also an active field archaeologist and co-director of the ‘Ayn Gharandal Archaeological Project in the Wadi Arabah of southern Jordan.

ASOR Sustaining Members: $0 | ASOR Members: $5 | Public: $10

To receive your ASOR member discount, log into the online store. If you are new to ASOR, please click on the “New Visitor Registration” link to register your e-mail address and choose password for our online store. Once logged in, navigate to “Meeting and Event Registration” to register for the webinar and pay the fee. Each paid registrant will receive a confirmation e-mail when you pay for the webinar. If you do not receive this e-mail, then you are not registered. Please e-mail membership@asor.org with any questions or issues with registering.

You will be e-mailed the Zoom Webinar link in the week prior to the lecture on October 7, 2021 If you do not receive the link by the close of business on the Tuesday before the webinar, please e-mail membership@asor.org immediately. All webinars are recorded and all paid registrants will be sent a link to view the recording.

All proceeds from this lecture are used to fund scholarships for members impacted by COVID-19 as well as increasing ASOR’s online resources, which are free to the public.

WHY 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!

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

After you sign up for a sponsorship online or over the phone, email the names and email addresses of your guests to Felice Herman at membership@asor.org, who will send your guests a confirmation and the Zoom link before the webinar.

 

WANT TO SAVE $5.00 ON THE NEXT WEBINAR?

Join ASOR as a member! Click here for more details about discounts for events and other benefits of membership. Memberships start at $40 for the year as an Associate Member.

Not ready to join yet? Become a Friend of ASOR for FREE!

Click here for more details about our online resources.

PAST WEBINARS

You can now purchase the link to the recording of any webinar. You can also purchase the bundle packages of all webinars from the 2020-2022 seasons. Please e-mail membership@asor.org for purchase details.

To see a printable pdf of the webinar titles from the 2020-2021 season, please click here. To see a printable pdf of the webinar titles from the 2021-2022 season, please click here.

Pricing:

Members: $6.00 per recording
Non-Members: $12.00 per recording
Bundle of 2020-2021 Webinars: $75.00
Bundle of 2021-2022 Webinars: $75.00
Bundle of 2020-2022 Webinars: $125.00

2021-2022 Season

A World at War: Protecting Cultural Heritage in Times of Conflict
Patty Gerstenblith (DePaul University), Lisa Ackerman (Columbus Citizens Foundation), Andrew Cohen (Government Professional and Cultural Heritage Expert) | May 12, 2022

Preserving Cultural Heritage in Hisban and Umm al-Jimal, Jordan
Øystein LaBianca (Andrews University), Elizabeth Osinga (Umm al-Jimal Archaeological Project), Darrell Rohl (Calvin University) | April 24, 2022

Back to the Field: Recent Discoveries & Summer Plans 2022
Lorenzo d’Alfonso (ISAW), Kathryn Grossman (NC State University), James R. Strange (Samford University) | April 3, 2022

Uncovering What is Nubian Beneath the Veneer of Egyptianness: Excavating the Archives
Debora Heard (University of Chicago) | March 20, 2022

Where Are They Now?: A Preview of 2022 ASOR-Affiliated Fieldwork Projects
Michael Given (University of Glasgow), Xenia-Paula Kyriakou (Florida Gulf Coast University), Stephen Batiuk (University of Toronto), Monique Roddy (Walla Walla University), Kent Bramlett (La Sierra University), Friedbert Ninow (La Sierra University), and Michael Hoff (University of Nebraska-Lincoln) | March 8, 2022

Excavations at Tel Gezer: A Personal Story
Sam Wolff (Tel Gezer Laboratory) | February 20, 2022

Tel Rehov: A Major Bronze and Iron Age City in the Jordan Valley
Amihai Mazar (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Nava Panitz-Cohen ( Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Nota Kourou (Athens University), Naama Yahalom-Mack (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Robert Mullins (Azusa Pacific University) | February 10, 2022

The Not-So-Innocents Abroad: The Beginnings of American Biblical Archaeology
Rachel Hallote (Samford University) | January 20, 2022

Synagogues as Jesus Knew Them
James R. Strange (Samford University) | December 2, 2021

Under Jerusalem: The Buried History of the World’s Most Contested City
Andrew Lawler | November 4, 2021

Jesus and Jerusalem on TV: How Do Bible Documentaries Get Made?
Robert Cargill (University of Iowa) | October 17, 2021

Digging the Divine?: Judahite Pillar Figurines and the Archaeology of Israelite Religion
Erin Darby (University of Tennessee) | October 7, 2021

David, Solomon, and Rehoboam’s Kingdom—The Archaeological Evidence
Yosef Garfinkel (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) | September 19, 2021

From Standing Stones to Sacred Emptiness: Textual and Visual Portrayals of Israel’s God
Theodore Lewis (Johns Hopkins University) | August 29, 2021

2020-2021 Season

Making May Matter: Webinarathon to Endow Diversity
Multiple Speakers | May 21-23, 2021

Archaeogaming: Why Video Games Deserve Their Own Archaeology
Tine Rassalle (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), Shannon Martino (Morton College), Matthew Winter (University of Arizona), Michael Zimmerman (Rhode Island) | April 18, 2021

How the Bible Became a Book
William Schniedewind (UCLA) | March 21, 2021

The Mysteries of Mithras in Caesarea: Exploring the Cult’s Rites and Remains
Jane DeRose Evans (Temple University), Alexandra Ratzlaff (Brandeis University) | March 11, 2021

Archaeology and the Hidden Religious Culture of Israelite Women
Carol Meyers (Duke University) | February 21, 2021

Meet the Directors—Fundraiser to Support ASOR’s Affiliated Overseas Research Centers
Matthew J. Adams (AIAR), Pearce Paul Creasman (ACOR), Lindy Crewe (CAARI) | February 11, 2021

Early Synagogues, Jesus, and Galilee—A Jewish Perspective
Eric Meyers (Duke University) | December 13, 2020

Home Sweet Home: Ancient Israelite Households in Context
Cynthia Shafer-Elliott (William Jessup University) | October 18, 2020

Priestesses in the Days of Solomon and Ahab
Susan Ackerman (Dartmouth College) | September 13, 2020

Digging Deeper: How Archaeology Works
Eric H. Cline (The George Washington University) | August 9, 2020

FOA Webinar: Yosef Garfinkel on Sept. 19

FRIENDS OF ASOR WEBINARS

David, Solomon, and Rehoboam’s Kingdom—The Archaeological Evidence

Friends of ASOR present the next webinar in our monthly series on September 19, at 4:30 pm EDT, featuring Prof. Yosef Garfinkel. Since 2007, four sites in the Judean Shephelah were investigated: Khirbet Qeiyafa, Khirbet el-Ra‘i, Socoh, and Lachish. Khirbet Qeiyafa and Khirbet el-Ra‘i provided sweeping and cutting-edge data on the early part of the 10th century BCE, the time of King David. The fortified city of Khirbet Qeiyafa was built according to the typical Judean urban plan, a plan that is not found in any city in Philistia or the Kingdom of Israel. Public buildings and large quantities of jars with impressions on their handles indicate the existence of an administration. Two inscriptions were found, suggesting increasing knowledge of reading in this period.

A stone shrine model from Khirbet Qeiyafa provided data on royal building activities in the time of King Solomon that forces us to reconsider previous theories. The stone model is a carved box (35 cm high) and the façade is elegantly profiled, with three interlocking frames around the door and depictions of wooden beams in groups of three, that support the roof (known triglyph in classical architecture). The combination of iconographic and linguistic analysis indicates that the same two architectural components are also described in the biblical text regarding Solomon’s Palace and Solomon’s Temple.

The date for the fortification of Lachish and for it becoming the second-most important city in the kingdom of Judah after Jerusalem has been heavily debated by scholars for generations. Prior the renewed excavations from 2013 to 2017, the various scholarly opinions ranged for more than 250 years, from the early 10th to the mid-8th centuries BCE. New excavations at Lachish from 2013 to 2017 uncovered a previously unknown city wall, dated by 14C to the second half of the 10th century BCE. This date fits well with the biblical tradition in 2 Chronicles 11:9, that Lachish was fortified in the last decades of the 10th century BCE by King Rehoboam.

Join us for this deep dive into some of the most exciting new finds at sites across the biblical kingdom of Judah. Prof. Garfinkel will conclude his webinar with a live Q&A session.

Yosef Garfinkel is Yigael Yadin Professor of Archaeology of the Land of Israel at the Institute of Archaeology, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. For many years he was a prehistorian, excavating Neolithic and Chalcolithic sites, including Yiftahel, Gesher, Neolithic Ashkelon, Shaar Hagolan and Tel Tsaf. He did extensive research on prehistoric dance, including the publication of articles and a book: Dance at the Dawn of Agriculture. An article on the evolution of human dance had been published recently by Cambridge Archaeological Journal.

Since 2007, he has conducted a regional project in the Judean Shephelah, excavating in Khirbet Qeiyafa (2007-2013), Tel Lachish (2013-2017), and Khirbet al-Rai (since 2015). These sites shed new light on the early phases of the Kingdom of Judah, and indicate that state formation started as early as 1000 BC, the time of David. Prof. Garfinkel has written over 200 publications, including 35 books.

ASOR Sustaining Members: $0 | ASOR Members: $5 | Public: $10

To receive your ASOR member discount, log into the online store. If you are new to ASOR, please click on the “New Visitor Registration” link to register your e-mail address and choose password for our online store. Once logged in, navigate to “Meeting and Event Registration” to register for the webinar and pay the fee. Each paid registrant will receive a confirmation e-mail when you pay for the webinar. If you do not receive this e-mail, then you are not registered. Please e-mail membership@asor.org with any questions or issues with registering.

You will be e-mailed the Zoom Webinar link in the week prior to the lecture on September 19, 2021 If you do not receive the link by the close of business on the Tuesday before the webinar, please e-mail membership@asor.org immediately. All webinars are recorded and all paid registrants will be sent a link to view the recording.

All proceeds from this lecture are used to fund scholarships for members impacted by COVID-19 as well as increasing ASOR’s online resources, which are free to the public.

WHY 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!

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

After you sign up for a sponsorship online or over the phone, email the names and email addresses of your guests to Felice Herman at membership@asor.org, who will send your guests a confirmation and the Zoom link before the webinar.

 

WANT TO SAVE $5.00 ON THE NEXT WEBINAR?

Join ASOR as a member! Click here for more details about discounts for events and other benefits of membership. Memberships start at $40 for the year as an Associate Member.

Not ready to join yet? Become a Friend of ASOR for FREE!

Click here for more details about our online resources.

 

PAST WEBINARS

You can now purchase the link to the recording of any webinar. You can also purchase the bundle packages of all webinars from the 2020-2022 seasons. Please e-mail membership@asor.org for purchase details.

To see a printable pdf of the webinar titles from the 2020-2021 season, please click here. To see a printable pdf of the webinar titles from the 2021-2022 season, please click here.

Pricing:

Members: $6.00 per recording
Non-Members: $12.00 per recording
Bundle of 2020-2021 Webinars: $75.00
Bundle of 2021-2022 Webinars: $75.00
Bundle of 2020-2022 Webinars: $125.00

2021-2022 Season

A World at War: Protecting Cultural Heritage in Times of Conflict
Patty Gerstenblith (DePaul University), Lisa Ackerman (Columbus Citizens Foundation), Andrew Cohen (Government Professional and Cultural Heritage Expert) | May 12, 2022

Preserving Cultural Heritage in Hisban and Umm al-Jimal, Jordan
Øystein LaBianca (Andrews University), Elizabeth Osinga (Umm al-Jimal Archaeological Project), Darrell Rohl (Calvin University) | April 24, 2022

Back to the Field: Recent Discoveries & Summer Plans 2022
Lorenzo d’Alfonso (ISAW), Kathryn Grossman (NC State University), James R. Strange (Samford University) | April 3, 2022

Uncovering What is Nubian Beneath the Veneer of Egyptianness: Excavating the Archives
Debora Heard (University of Chicago) | March 20, 2022

Where Are They Now?: A Preview of 2022 ASOR-Affiliated Fieldwork Projects
Michael Given (University of Glasgow), Xenia-Paula Kyriakou (Florida Gulf Coast University), Stephen Batiuk (University of Toronto), Monique Roddy (Walla Walla University), Kent Bramlett (La Sierra University), Friedbert Ninow (La Sierra University), and Michael Hoff (University of Nebraska-Lincoln) | March 8, 2022

Excavations at Tel Gezer: A Personal Story
Sam Wolff (Tel Gezer Laboratory) | February 20, 2022

Tel Rehov: A Major Bronze and Iron Age City in the Jordan Valley
Amihai Mazar (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Nava Panitz-Cohen ( Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Nota Kourou (Athens University), Naama Yahalom-Mack (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Robert Mullins (Azusa Pacific University) | February 10, 2022

The Not-So-Innocents Abroad: The Beginnings of American Biblical Archaeology
Rachel Hallote (Samford University) | January 20, 2022

Synagogues as Jesus Knew Them
James R. Strange (Samford University) | December 2, 2021

Under Jerusalem: The Buried History of the World’s Most Contested City
Andrew Lawler | November 4, 2021

Jesus and Jerusalem on TV: How Do Bible Documentaries Get Made?
Robert Cargill (University of Iowa) | October 17, 2021

Digging the Divine?: Judahite Pillar Figurines and the Archaeology of Israelite Religion
Erin Darby (University of Tennessee) | October 7, 2021

David, Solomon, and Rehoboam’s Kingdom—The Archaeological Evidence
Yosef Garfinkel (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) | September 19, 2021

From Standing Stones to Sacred Emptiness: Textual and Visual Portrayals of Israel’s God
Theodore Lewis (Johns Hopkins University) | August 29, 2021

2020-2021 Season

Making May Matter: Webinarathon to Endow Diversity
Multiple Speakers | May 21-23, 2021

Archaeogaming: Why Video Games Deserve Their Own Archaeology
Tine Rassalle (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), Shannon Martino (Morton College), Matthew Winter (University of Arizona), Michael Zimmerman (Rhode Island) | April 18, 2021

How the Bible Became a Book
William Schniedewind (UCLA) | March 21, 2021

The Mysteries of Mithras in Caesarea: Exploring the Cult’s Rites and Remains
Jane DeRose Evans (Temple University), Alexandra Ratzlaff (Brandeis University) | March 11, 2021

Archaeology and the Hidden Religious Culture of Israelite Women
Carol Meyers (Duke University) | February 21, 2021

Meet the Directors—Fundraiser to Support ASOR’s Affiliated Overseas Research Centers
Matthew J. Adams (AIAR), Pearce Paul Creasman (ACOR), Lindy Crewe (CAARI) | February 11, 2021

Early Synagogues, Jesus, and Galilee—A Jewish Perspective
Eric Meyers (Duke University) | December 13, 2020

Home Sweet Home: Ancient Israelite Households in Context
Cynthia Shafer-Elliott (William Jessup University) | October 18, 2020

Priestesses in the Days of Solomon and Ahab
Susan Ackerman (Dartmouth College) | September 13, 2020

Digging Deeper: How Archaeology Works
Eric H. Cline (The George Washington University) | August 9, 2020

Back-To-School ASOR Book Sale

Back-To-School ASOR Book Sale

Fall Special

Back-to-school season means shopping for books, and ASOR is here to help you stock your library. ASOR members (with a mailing address in the USA) can purchase copies of recent ASOR books at the discounted price of $25.00 (ca. 70% discount + $5.00 US media mail shipping) through October 31, 2021, while supplies last. All prices listed below include US media mail shipping. Purchases are restricted to one copy of each volume per member. Due to ASOR’s licensing agreement with ISD, this offer is only available to ASOR members. We are unable to offer this discount to members without a US mailing address due to international shipping costs. Please contact programsasor.org with any questions.

Not an ASOR member? Join as an Associate Member ($40) first in order to take advantage of these great deals on books. More information on membership and its benefits can be found here.

ARS 28: All Things Cypriot. Studies on Ancient Environment, Technology, and Society in Honor of Stuart Swiny. Edited by Zuzana Chovanec and Walter Crist. Original price $79.95. Sale price $25.00 (includes US media mail shipping)

Click here to purchase ARS 28 in ASOR’s online store.

ARS 27: Caesarea Maritima: Excavations in the Old City 1989-2003. Volume 1: The Temple Platform (Area TP), Neighboring Quarters (Area TPS and Z), and the Inner Harbor Quays (Area I): Hellenistic Evidence, King Herods Harbor Temple, Intermediate Occupation, and the Octagonal Harbor Church. Edited by Kenneth G. Holum. Original price $89.95. Sale price $25.00 (includes US media mail shipping).

Click here to purchase ARS 27 in ASOR’s online store.

ARS 26: The Archaeological Survey of the Desert Roads between Berenike and the Nile Valley. Expeditions by the University of Michigan and the University of Delaware to the Eastern Desert of Egypt, 1987-2015. Edited by Steven E. Sidebotham and Jennifer E. Gates-Foster. Original price $84.95. Sale price $25.00 (includes US media mail shipping).

Click here to purchase ARS 26 in ASOR’s online store.

AASOR 74: The Excavations of ‘Iraq al-Amir, Volume II. Edited by Nancy L. Lapp, with contributions by Michael S. Zimmerman, Daniel Ulvoczky, Nicholas Hudson, Adam Hartman, and Nancy L. Lapp. Original price $84.95. Sale price $25.00 (includes US media mail shipping).

Click here to purchase AASOR 74 in ASOR’s online store.

Table of Contents for NEA 84.3 (2021)

Table of Contents for Near Eastern Archaeology 84.3 (September 2021)

 

You can receive NEA (and other ASOR publications) through an ASOR Membership. Please e-mail the Membership office if you have any questions.

Pp. 172–181: “An Early Bronze Age Incense Burner from Dahwa (DH1), Northern al-Batinah, Oman,” by Nasser Said Al-Jahwari and Khaled Ahmed Douglas

The Early Bronze Age in the Oman Peninsula is marked by two local cultures: Hafit (ca. 3400–2500 BCE), which is notable for thousands of burials (cairns and beehives) spread over large areas in northern Oman and the lack of settlement remains; and Umm an-Nar (2500–2000 BCE) marked by the first permanent settlements, intensive exploitation of copper, and international trade, mainly with Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley (Potts 1990a: 102–6; 1993: 423–27; Cleuziou 2003; Al-Jahwari 2009, 2013). Five Early Bronze Age sites (DH1, DH5, DH6, DH7, and DH8) have been found in the Dahwa region clustered within an area not longer than 1.7 km. They are distributed on both sides of Wadi al-Sukhun and in the bottom of the wadi itself (Al-Jahwari et al. 2018: 29–30).The location of the sites in the Dahwa region were chosen carefully for several reasons. Primary among these were the water sources: the Dahwa region is located where two major wadis converge. Copper resources were another factor. Also important was the presence of a trade route: Dahwa is a key region connecting the coastal plain to the inland region, such as Hili, Yanqul, and Dhank.

 

ASOR Members with online access: navigate to the token link email sent to you (search for “token link” in inbox) before attempting to read this article. Once you have activated your member token, click here to access the above article on The University of Chicago Press Journals’ website.

Pp. 182–191: “Two Great Households of Old Babylonian Ur,” by Elizabeth Stone, Adelheid Otto, Dominique Charpin, Berthold Einwag, and Paul Zimansky

Visitors to the ruins of Ur venturing into the residential area south of the ziggurat and royal cemetery are confronted with a reconstructed “House of Abraham” (fig. 1), named after the city’s most famous putative resident. It is not clear who decided that this particular structure was the ancestral home of the patriarch, but it was certainly not Sir Leonard Woolley, who closed his celebrated excavations here in 1934. While he was convinced that this city was indeed the Ur of the Chaldees of the Bible—a claim that has not gone unchallenged—and even wrote a book postulating that the Old Babylonian houses here shed light on the origins of Yahwistic religion (Woolley 1936), he doubted that archaeology could ever link Abraham to a specific artifact or building. The massive brick structure one sees today was actually erected only two decades ago to promote tourism in anticipation of a papal visit that was delayed until March 2021. It was built on the ruins of half a dozen individual houses that Woolley had excavated in the area he called AH, generally following their ground plans but connecting the units with doorways to create a single edifice many times larger than any private residence of the early second millennium BCE (fig. 2). If the idea of naming this new creation after Abraham was to promote tourism, it has been a success: Among the thousands who visit Ur every spring, some even come to pray in these rooms, ignoring all warnings that the association with the family of Abraham is suspect.

 

ASOR Members with online access: navigate to the token link email sent to you (search for “token link” in inbox) before attempting to read this article. Once you have activated your member token, click here to access the above article on The University of Chicago Press Journals’ website.

Pp. 192–199: “Grisly Trophies: Severed Hands and the Egyptian Military Reward System,” by Danielle Candelora

All visitors to the massive New Kingdom (ca. 1550–1069 BCE)1 temples in Thebes (modern Luxor; see fig. 1) are bombarded with images of the king smiting foreign enemies, expanding his imperial borders, and overseeing the spoils of war. The texts and reliefs tell us that this booty generally includes livestock, goods, weapons, and prisoners of war, but the grisliest element by far is the enormous mounds of severed hands being piled and counted before the seated king (fig. 2). Eighteenth Dynasty (ca. 1450 BCE) private tomb autobiographies of soldiers indicate that warriors would have presented these trophies as a record of their kills and were rewarded with the so-called gold of valor in a public ceremony (fig. 3).2 Indeed, we even have tomb reliefs and statues of individuals commemorating their receipt of this award. Yet this military custom seems to have appeared fully realized in Egypt during Ahmose’s war with the Hyksos, with few clues as to its origin (Candelora 2019c; Matić 2019: 41–42; Abdalla 2005; Stefanović 2003; Lorton 1974: 57–68). Beyond that, no archaeological evidence of this practice had been found—that is, until 2011 when the excavations at Tell el-Dab‘a uncovered four pits containing the remains of sixteen severed right hands just outside a Hyksos palace.

 

ASOR Members with online access: navigate to the token link email sent to you search for “token link” in inbox) before attempting to read this article. Once you have activated your member token, click here to access the above article on The University of Chicago Press Journals’ website.

Pp. 200–204: “The Bronze Mouse of Maresha,” by Ian Stern

Maresha was the main city in Idumea during the Hellenistic period. It is located in the Judean lowlands at the intersection of the lateral road from Hebron to Gaza and on the longitudinal road from Beersheba to the Ayalon Plain and then to Jerusalem or Jaffa (fig. 1). The city consisted of an upper city (the tel) and a lower city that surrounded it (fig. 2). Excavations over the past 30 years (Kloner 2003; Stern 2014, 2019) have shown that it was inhabited from the Iron Age through the end of the Hellenistic period with a terminus ante quem dated to ca. 107 BCE.

 

ASOR Members with online access: navigate to the token link email sent to you (search for “token link” in inbox) before attempting to read this article. Once you have activated your member token, click here to access the above article on The University of Chicago Press Journals’ website.

Pp. 206–215: “Pomegranate or Poppy What Lies between the Cornucopias on Hasmonaean Coins?,” by David M. Jacobson and David B. Hendin

The Hasmonaean rulers struck coins, exclusively in bronze, beginning with John Hyrcanus I (135–104 BCE; Hendin 2020). Their most common denomination was a coin with a diameter averaging 15 mm and close to 2 g in weight, which is widely identified with the prutah (PRWṬH) of rabbinic literature (Jacobson 2014: 141). In accordance with a strict interpretation of the Second Commandment, which was then the norm, Hasmonaean coins avoid human images (Hendin 2007–2008: 79–82). In place of a ruler portrait, usually found on east Greek coins of that period, there is a Paleo-Hebrew inscription naming the governing authority, the high priest and governing council (ḤBR), enclosed in an olive wreath alluding to their authority (Hendin 2007–2008: 85–86); see figure 1. The reverse of this coin displays a motif consisting of a splayed pair of cornucopias filled with agricultural produce astride a fruit or seedpod on a straight stalk. Filled cornucopias are commonplace on Hellenistic and Roman coins and their symbolic meaning was understood throughout the classical world as indicating fecundity and well-being. Accordingly, cornucopia motifs are rooted in classical Greek rather than Jewish tradition. Specifically, the cornucopia alludes to the horn of Amaltheia, the she-goat wet nurse of Zeus in Greek mythology, a symbol of prosperity and abundance generally associated with “good fortune” (agathê tychê; Jacobson 2013a: 139). It is worth noting that the coins of the Seleucid king Alexander II Zabinas, featuring a splayed and intertwined pair of filled cornucopias (SC II, nos. 2235, 2237), were struck in 125–122 BCE, at about the time that the comparable Hasmonaean motif made its debut.

 

ASOR Members with online access: navigate to the token link email sent to you (search for “token link” in inbox) before attempting to read this article. Once you have activated your member token, click here to access the above article on The University of Chicago Press Journals’ website.

Pp. 216–229: “Eau de Cleopatra: Mendesian Perfume and Tell Timai,” by Robert J. Littman, Jay Silverstein, Dora Goldsmith, Sean Coughlin, and Hamedy Mashaly

Cleopatra VII, the last of the Ptolemaic rulers of Egypt, reveled in perfume (Plutarch, Life of Marcus Antonius 26.2). She even used it in her seduction of the Roman general Marc Antony. Sailing up the river Cydnus to meet him, she reclined in a canopy spangled with gold, adorned like Venus in a painting. Boys dressed as cupids fanned her and wondrous scents from incense offerings wafted along the riverbanks. Not long after her death in August 30 BCE, a book circulated under her name called Cleopatra’s Cosmetic, full of recipes for fragrant oils and cleansers (Totelin 2017: 114–18).

 

ASOR Members with online access: navigate to the token link email sent to you (search for “token link” in inbox)  before attempting to read this article. Once you have activated your member token, click here to access the above article on The University of Chicago Press Journals’ website.

Pp. 230–237: “A Roman Bronze Bull from the Floor of the Mashhad Pool in Sepphoris in the Galilee,” by Adi Erlich, Tsvika Tsuk, Iosi Bordowicz, and Dror Ben-Yosef

Sepphoris, located in the heart of Lower Galilee, was a main urban center in the Roman period. It is first mentioned by Flavius Josephus (Ant. 13.338) as a Jewish-Hasmonean town, and was later taken over by Herod the Great. During the Great Revolt, Sepphoris eventually took a pro-Roman side and received the name Eirenopolis, city of peace, as appears on its coins (Josephus, J.W. 3.30), and later in the second century it was renamed Diocaesarea (Strange 2015: 22–23). Throughout the Roman period Sepphoris was populated by Jews; it was the home of Jewish sages and of Rabbi Judah, the patriarch who compiled the Mishnah. Alongside the Jewish community of the city there was also a Roman-pagan population, as can be inferred from a Roman temple in the center of the city and a Roman-style mansion with a Dionysiac mosaic on the top of the hill (Weiss 2010, 2015). Furthermore, rabbinic sources attest to a Roman castra inhabited by gentiles in the city (Miller 1984: 31–45). The end of the Roman period in Sepphoris was marked by rapid Christianization of the city, which reached its peak in the fifth century CE; the Roman phase ended with a severe earthquake in 363 that damaged its buildings.

 

ASOR Members with online access: navigate to the token link email sent to you (search for “token link” in inbox)  before attempting to read this article. Once you have activated your member token, click here to access the above article on The University of Chicago Press Journals’ website.

Pp. 238–245: “Corals in the Desert: Recent Discoveries of Red Sea Corals in Byzantine and Early Islamic Sites in the Negev Desert,” by Guy Bar-Oz, Yotam Tepper, and Roee Shafir

Corals have been commercially exploited for many centuries all over the world (Jiménez and Orejas 2017). Traditionally, they have been regarded as mystical objects and hybrid organisms. Their skeletons have commonly been used as remedies and as amulets or jewelry, and they have represented an exotic and valuable resource throughout human history. In the Greco-Roman literature a number of classical authors, such as Aristotle (fourth century BCE, History of Animals 5.16; Ogle 1882) and Pliny (first century CE), referred to the natural history of corals and classified them as enigmatic creatures. Since corals are animals that lack locomotion or perception, Theophrastus also classified them as hybrids of plants and stones (On Stones 53:38; Caley and Richards 1956).

 

ASOR Members with online access: navigate to the token link email sent to you (search for “token link” in inbox)  before attempting to read this article. Once you have activated your member token, click here to access the above article on The University of Chicago Press Journals’ website.

ANNUAL MEETING SCHEDULES 2021

ANNUAL MEETING SCHEDULES

ASOR’s 2021 Annual Meeting will have both in-person and virtual components. The in-person component will take place in downtown Chicago from November 17-20 at the Hilton Chicago. The virtual component will take place online, December 9-12 with an opening Plenary Panel Discussion on Wednesday, December 8.

In-Person Schedule (Chicago, November 17-20)

*Covid Vaccination Requirement to Attend In-Person/Chicago component

The in-person component will begin on Wednesday, November 17th. The ASOR registration desks will be open from 12:00-8:30pm and the Exhibit Hall opens at 4:00pm CST. Dr. Morag Kersel will give the Plenary Address at 7:00pm. Academic sessions are held on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 8:20am to 6:25pm CST. View all of the sessions, workshops, business meetings, and special events taking place in Chicago at the links below. Please check back often for schedule updates.

 

Virtual Schedule (Online, December 9–12, 10AM – 4:30PM EST daily)

Visit ASOR’s Virtual Meeting Platform for important virtual presentation information.

The virtual component of ASOR’s 2021 Annual Meeting will take place online December 9-12 with virtual members’ meeting and an opening Plenary Panel Discussion on Wednesday, December 8, starting at 1PM EST. The recorded content, including paper and poster presentations, will be available to registered attendees beginning at the end of November.

Please note that (with the exception of workshops), paper presentations will not be given live or played back during online sessions. Please view the prerecorded presentations before attending the online sessions. Presentations will be uploaded to the online schedule to be viewed  “on demand” as they are received.

The full virtual schedule that includes paper, workshop, and poster listings will be posted soon. Attendees will be able to log-in to ASOR’s Virtual Platform and add sessions/workshops to their digital calendar.

Please check this page often for the latest Annual Meeting updates.

 

*Please e-mail Arlene Press at meetings@asor.org with any questions or concerns.

Ancient Nubia Educational Resources

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ANCIENT NUBIA EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES

[/vc_column_text][mk_divider][vc_wp_text]ASOR partnered with Archaeology in the Community (AITC), a local D.C.-based organization specializing in archaeological education, to produce a series of educational videos and lesson plans on Ancient Nubia. The videos are designed for 6th grade teachers to use in fulfillment of Social Studies, Civics, and Geography requirements. Funding for this project was provided by all of the donors to ASOR’s Diversity Initiatives Endowment and the Argosy Foundation.

The Resources

Ancient Nubia Videos

The videos feature interviews with scholars who study Ancient Nubia: Dr. Solange Ashby (Egyptology-Nubiology), Debora Heard (Archaeology), Jenail Marshall (Bioarchaeology), and Dr. Shayla Monroe (Zooarchaeology). They were produced by Sydney A. Pickens, Ali Bavugamenshi, and Dr. Alexandra Jones. Music was provided by 2 Nice Guys Music Production (Teddy Burgh and Teddy Thompson).

The first video introduces Ancient Nubia, its history, geography, and environment. The scholars discuss Nubian religion and cultural traditions such as burial practices, attire, and cattle pastoralism. The first video also covers interactions between Kerma, the first Kingdom of Kush, and Ancient Egypt.[/vc_wp_text][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]The second video beings with the second Kushite Kingdom at Napata and discusses a period of renaissance and revival of Egyptian customs and religion. The video covers royal cemeteries, pyramids, and burial customs as well as the role of the queen mother. It concludes with the final Kushite Kingdom of Meroe, including Meroitic writing systems, local religious traditions and animal deities, and powerful queens.

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Ancient Nubia Curriculum: Lesson Plans and Activities

The lesson plans and activities, created by AITC’s Sydney A. Pickens, meet social sciences requirements for Geography, Economics, Civics, and Historical Thinking and Inquiry. As a bonus, they also cover Cultural Identity and Expression. Activity sheets can be printed out and distributed to students. The Curriculum also includes a teacher kit with guidelines and answer keys for the various activities.

AITC-ASOR Ancient Nubia Curriculum 

Ancient Nubia Video Activity Sheets

Part One:

  • Time, Space, and Geography
  • Cultural Traditions
  • Kerma

Part Two:

  • Napata
  • Meroe

Video activity sheets include map quests, fill-in-the-blank sheets, word finds, diagram labelling, and word scrambles.

Learning to Look: Artifact Observation and Analysis. Curartorial Responsibilities.

  • 33 Questions to Ask an Artifact
  • Loan Acquisition Pitch
  • Artifact Label Writing
  • Exhibition Tours

The Remix: Cultural Continuity, Change, and Comparison.

  • Pyramids
  • Shawabtis
  • Coffins & Sarcophagi
  • Ritual Smiting Scene

Who Tells Your Story: Primary Source Analysis and Uncovering Source Bias.

  • Kamose’s Second Stela at Karnak
  • Strabo’s Geography
  • Meroë Head/Head of Augustus
  • Kawa V: Taharqa’s Donation Stela
  • Temple of Apedemak at Naqa
  • Senworset III: The Semna Stela
  • Acts of the Apostles VII: 26-39, KJV
  • The Baptism of Chamberlain and Queen Candace of Ethiopia

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The Process

Part 1: Research and Development

The team began by asking how to make a resource that will be useful for the greatest number of teachers. We wanted our Ancient Nubia resources to be easy to use for teachers and fit well within the requirements of what they need to teach. This involved a detailed examination of common core teaching standards across the U.S. Based on what we found, we chose to focus on educational resource for the 6th grade level.

It was important to the team to feature black scholars who study Ancient Nubia, so that students viewing the video could identify and see themselves in the scholars. We worked with members of the William Leo Hansberry Society as well as ASOR members to find our scholar partners for the videos.[/vc_wp_text][mk_divider][vc_wp_text]

Part 2: Filming and Editing

Solange Ashby and Debora Heard joined members of AITC’s team to film in July of 2021 at the James F. Strange Center in Alexandria, VA. Additional footage was shot by offsite by scholars in LA and Chicago and all editing was handled by AITC’s production team. All photos are courtesy of Dr. Alexandra Jones.[/vc_wp_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”76097″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” css=”.vc_custom_1661274765133{padding-right: 10px !important;padding-bottom: 10px !important;}”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”76098″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” css=”.vc_custom_1661450210742{padding-right: 10px !important;padding-bottom: 10px !important;}”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][mk_padding_divider][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”76100″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” css=”.vc_custom_1661274967407{padding-right: 10px !important;padding-bottom: 10px !important;}”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”76101″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” css=”.vc_custom_1661274982636{padding-right: 10px !important;padding-bottom: 10px !important;}”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][mk_padding_divider][mk_divider][vc_wp_text]

Part 3: What’s Next? Future Directions and Plans for More Resources

These videos and the accompanying lesson plans are freely-available on ASOR’s website in the Online Resources section and on AITC’s website. The videos are also available on both ASOR’s and AITC’s YouTube channels. Help us spread the word to teachers and educators you know and inspire others to create educational resources such as these![/vc_wp_text][mk_divider][/vc_column][vc_column border_color=”rgba(170,170,170,0.01)” width=”1/6″ css=”.vc_custom_1496684098866{margin-right: 5px !important;margin-bottom: 20px !important;border-right-width: 2px !important;border-bottom-width: 2px !important;padding-top: 30px !important;padding-right: 10px !important;padding-left: 10px !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_1496684008271{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_column_text] [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Seger Grant Report: Tell Umm el-Marra, Syria

Seger Grant Report: Tell Umm el-Marra, Syria

Aerial view of Tell Umm el-Marra.

With funds from the Joe D. Seger Excavation Grant, several hundred line drawing illustrations were prepared for the final report on the Early Bronze Age (third millennium BCE) excavations at Tell Umm el-Marra, Syria.  The excavation project was sponsored by the Johns Hopkins University and the University of Amsterdam.

Umm el-Marra was probably the site of ancient Tuba, capital of a kingdom in the Jabbul plain between Aleppo and the Euphrates valley in northern Syria.  In the Early Bronze Age occupation, the earliest at the site, the excavations exposed a complex with ten monumental elite tombs.  These included well-preserved mausoleums with luxury artifacts of gold, silver, and lapis lazuli.  Also of particular interest were installations containing the skeletons of equids and other animals, indicative of sacrificial rituals and interments accompanying the main tombs.  It is likely that the equids were the donkey x onager hybrids referred to as kungas in Early Bronze Age texts, highly valued and associated with royalty.  The Umm el-Marra equids constitute the first archaeological attestation of these special animals. Given these results, the Umm el-Marra necropolis provides a highly unusual and large body of information on ancient Syrian elite mortuary practices and beliefs, including ancestor veneration and animal sacrifice.

Tomb 1, Skeletons B and C.

Among the illustrations produced with the assistance of the Seger Grant were architectural plans of the tombs (see Chapter 2 fig. 75), the equid installations (see Chapter 2 fig. 89), and architecture outside the tomb area (see Chapter 2 fig. 201).  Plates of pottery drawings were produced for each Early Bronze occupation phase (see Chapter 3 fig. 2) and for pottery from the tombs (see Chapter 3 fig. 36).  Further, drawings of non-ceramic finds were produced (see Chapter 4 fig. 179 and fig. 221).

Plan of Tomb 4. Chapter 2, Fig. 75.
Equid Installation. Chapter 2, Fig. 89.
Period VI ceramics. Chapter 3, Fig. 2.
Tomb 4, upper layer ceramics. Chapter 3, Fig. 36.
Chapter 4, Fig. 221.
Chapter 4, Fig. 179.

The manuscript of the book, preliminarily titled Animals, Ancestors and Ritual in Early Bronze Age Syria: An Elite Mortuary Complex from Umm el-Marra, was accepted for publication, pending revisions, by Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press, UCLA, in December 2021.

The Umm el-Marra project is grateful to the Joe D. Seger Excavation Grant and ASOR for the assistance provided.

-Glenn Schwartz, Johns Hopkins University

Table of Contents for JCS 73 (2021)

Table of Contents for Journal of Cuneiform Studies 73 (2021)

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Pp. 3–8: “A Sargonic Learner’s Tablet with an Invocation of the Goddess Nisaba,” by Hanan A. Al-esawee and Abdulmukrem M. Alezzi

This paper derives from the study of confiscated texts in the Iraq Museum. Here we publish an Umma tablet with the accession number IM 205090, a square school text with three columns on one side and a single one on the other that lists the distribution of very large quantities of silver to various people; it concludes with an invocation to the goddess Nisaba by the learner, who describes himself as an apprentice scribe.

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Pp. 9–70: “In Search of Dugurasu,” by Maria Giovanna Biga and Piotr Steinkeller

The identity of the toponym Dugurasu, which is mentioned some fifty times in the ED IIIb documentation from Ebla, is a highly contested issue. While M. G. Biga had proposed an identification with Egypt, A. Archi then argued that Dugurasu was situated in northwestern Iran. This study offers a systematic examination of all the attestations of Dugurasu, focusing on the types of materials traded between Dugurasu and Ebla. It also considers evidence bearing on Ebla’s commercial partner named DUlu. Characteristically, Ebla and DUlu exchanged the same types of goods as those traded between Ebla and Dugurasu. Our investigation strongly suggests that Dugurasu is either Egypt itself or some place in Palestine that served as an intermediary in exchanges between Egypt and Ebla, while DUlu denotes either Byblos or one of its immediate neighbors.

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Pp. 71–87: “By Order of the King: Ammi-Ditana’s Letter on the Provision of Fodder Barley for the Sheep and Oxen of the Nakkamtum,” by Caroline Janssen

Di 1353 is a letter by King Ammi-ditana of Babylon to the chief lamentation priest of Annunītum. It contains a simple instruction to provide fodder for the oxen and the sheep of a temple storehouse, the nakkamtum. One wonders though what this direct intervention meant on a pragmatic level. The king does not explain himself. But this question can be approached from different angles. What do we know so far about the relation between the palace and the nakkamtum? Does this letter fit into a pattern of royal letter writing? Can we benefit from the fact that we have an archival context for this letter?

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Pp. 89-102: “HS 200B: A Bridal Gift (Tuppu Bibli) from the First Sealand Dynasty,” by Jacob Jan de Ridder

An unusual tablet from the Hilprecht-Sammlung in Jena describes the biblu, “bridewealth,” paid for a girl at her betrothal. Paleographic features and onomastic arguments suggest that the text may be dated to the late Sealand I period, with similarities to documents from the reigns of the Kings Pešgaldarameš and Ayadaragalama. A first edition is offered together with a brief introduction detailing its legal context and historical setting.

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Pp. 103-119: “A New Reading of the Middle Elamite Text Shun I 9,” by Jalil Bakhtiari

There are four complete or almost complete unprovenanced bricks and twenty-one brick fragments from the site of Toll-e Bard-e Karegar in Khuzestan belonging to the only Elamite inscription mentioning the god Kamul. All of them represent exemplars of the one and the same text (ShuN I 9), written in the name of the Elamite king Shutruk-Nahhunte I (ca. 1190–1155 BCE). The text describes a temple that the king had rebuilt and dedicated to the god Kamul. In this article, a new reading and translation of the last sentence of the text that is divided into four sections and compared with parallels in Old and Middle-Elamite texts, is suggested. In addition, the brick fragments TBK 16 and 28 are reread and classified and TBK 89, 114, 122, and 127 are published.

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Pp. 121-134: “Elamite War Chariots and Military Equipment At Ancient Kabnak (ca. 1400 bce),” by Javier Álvarez-Mon and Yasmina Wicks

After entering the second millennium BCE as a military superpower, Elam faded into historical obscurity upon its withdrawal from the broader Near Eastern political scene in 1763 BCE and only reemerged much later as a major player with a sequence of incursions in Mesopotamia beginning in the thirteenth century and culminating in the 1155 BCE fall of the Kassites. During the intervening centuries, neither written nor archaeological sources offer clear signs that Elamite territory had come under the authority of any foreign power. Here the authors propose that a reexamination of evidence from the ancient settlement of Kabnak (modern Haft Tepe), approximately seventeen kilometers southeast of the Elamite lowland capital of Susa, discloses a mid-fifteenth to mid-fourteenth century BCE state-controlled arsenal of war chariots and weaponry that may hold a key to comprehending Elam’s apparent continued resistance to outside forces and its rise as a military superpower in the thirteenth century.

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Pp. 135-178: “Keeping Alive Dead Knowledge: Middle Assyrian Glass Recipes in the Yale Babylonian Collection,” by Shiyanthi Thavapalan

Although they describe Bronze Age technologies and techniques, the Akkadian glassmaking texts are primarily known through later copies from Ashurbanipal’s libraries. The first portion of this paper provides editions of three fragments of previously unknown glass texts from the Middle Assyrian period and examines how and why they came to be written down. The second portion discusses metaphors concerning kinship and bodily experience that explain the relationship between the glassmaker in Mesopotamia, his tools, and his creative process. It is argued here that only by embracing the entire context of the craft process—this includes the behaviors chosen during manufacture as well as the allusions made to social relationships through language, performance, and materials—can we begin to appreciate how knowledge about technologies was transmitted.

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Pp. 179-191: “Inscribed Bullae Found during Excavations on the Northern Slope of Ayanis Fortress in 2015 and a New Urartian Building Name, ÉTamali,” by Kenan Işık, Oğuz Aras, and Ayşegül Akın Aras

The 2014 season of excavations at the Ayanis Fortress of the Urartian Kingdom, located on the eastern shore of Lake Van, revealed a trash layer on the northern slope of the fortress that contained densely packed animal bone remains as well as several inscribed bullae. During the excavations carried out in the same area in 2015 four more inscribed bullae were recovered in the northern fortification wall. This article provides information on the 2015 excavations of the outer side of the northern fortifications and trash layer at Ayanis, with a first edition of the new bullae. These short inscriptions mention the names of people, cities, countries, and professions, as is common in such Urartian bullae. The inscription on a newly discovered bulla mentioning a construction named tamali is important as it informs us about a new building unit whose function is unknown at present.

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Pp. 193-209: “Ancient Mesopotamian Divinatory Series from the British Museum: New Texts and Joins,” by Nicla De Zorzi

This paper contains editions of three previously unpublished omen texts and one commentary text from the collections of the British Museum. BM 36165 and BM 34999 are Late Babylonian manuscripts of Šumma ālu tablet 1 while K 6260 is a join to Šumma izbu tablet 4. BM 47684+ is part of a large Late Babylonian four-column tablet containing a new commentary on physiognomic omens. The edition of these tablets is accompanied by an extensive commentary that discusses the placement of the tablets within the divinatory series, as well as orthographic and interpretative issues.

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Pp. 211-245: “Minor Archives from First-Millennium BCE Babylonia, Part II: The Balīḫû Archive,” by Ludovica Cecilia and Johannes Hackl

The article presents editions of all known texts belonging to the archive of the Sipparean prebendary Marduk-bēlšunu, son of Nabû-balāssu-iqbi, that is, the Balīḫû archive. It is the second part of a series of articles that aims to make available the so-called satellite archives of the Ṣāḫiṭ-ginê A archive (“Marduk-rēmanni archive”) and related and unrelated smaller archives from Sippar, all dating to the long sixth century BCE.

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