Dogs have been faithful human companions for millennia. New finds from a once lush region of eastern Jordan help fill in the picture of how the relationship developed. Read More[/vc_column_text][mk_divider thickness=”1″ margin_top=”10″][vc_column_text]
Olives are among the most characteristic Mediterranean crops. Examining fossil pollen has yielded new insights on how they spread across the Mediterranean. Read More[/vc_column_text][mk_divider thickness=”1″ margin_top=”10″][vc_column_text]
The alphabet is probably the most important information technology ever invented. But why did it take a millennium to spread unevenly around the ancient Near East? Read More[/vc_column_text][mk_divider thickness=”1″ margin_top=”10″][vc_column_text]
The problem of water isn’t just making sure there is enough, but also getting rid of it. Ancient Egyptians addressed the problem with surprisingly modern techniques. Read More[/vc_column_text][mk_divider thickness=”1″ margin_top=”10″][vc_column_text]
There were many kinds of fragrances and flavors available in the second millennium BCE. But the recent finding of vanilla residues at Megiddo takes the idea of exotic to a whole new level. Read More[/vc_column_text][mk_divider thickness=”1″ margin_top=”10″][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row]
100% scholarships available—due to COVID-19, and thanks to ASOR’s generous members, anyone with a need may request a full or partial scholarship for virtual meeting registrations. E-mail asor2020@asor.org with requests. We are committed to meeting 100% of requests. Please purchase your membership BEFORE registering for this event to ensure that you receive the discounted member rate.
Did you previously register for the Boston meeting?
Transfer your registration—choose one of the following two options:
Do nothing and your registration will be transferred: Your previously paid fee will be applied to the virtual meeting registration. The difference (if any) between the two rates will help ASOR cover our increased costs of the virtual conference and for scholarships.
Request a credit to your ASOR account for any overage: E-mail asor2020@asor.org by August 25, 2020
Credits can be used for any future ASOR purchase
Alternatively, you can request a refund check* for the difference
Cancellation / Refund: If you do not wish to participate in the Virtual Annual Meeting, we ask that you cancel by choosing one of these three options. Please send your request to asor2020@asor.org by August 25, 2020.
You may request a refund check*
You may request a credit to your ASOR account (future memberships, meetings, etc.)
You may designate the registration fee as a donation towards scholarships
We are waiving the usual administrative fees on registrations made prior to June 30. *Please include your mailing address when requesting a refund by check
Refund Policy
ASOR is waiving the usual administrative fees on refund requests for registrations that were made for the in-person meeting. Requests for in-person meeting refunds must be submitted to asor2020@asor.org by August 25, 2020. For Virtual Meeting Registrations, a $25 administrative fee will be assessed per registration. Requests for virtual meeting refunds (registrations made after July 22nd) must be submitted to asor2020@asor.org by November 5, 2020. ASOR will process refund requests as promptly as we can.[/vc_column_text][mk_divider divider_color=”rgba(255,255,255,0.01)” thickness=”10″ margin_top=”5″ margin_bottom=”5″][/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_text]
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
Pp. 200-209: “Milk Libations for Osiris: Nubian Piety at Philae,” by Solange Ashby
During the Roman period, the temples of Philae became a favorite place of pilgrimage for people throughout the Greco-Roman world. Pilgrims came to pray before Isis and her brother-husband Osiris who was buried on the adjacent island of Biga, also known by its Greek name Abaton. Many of these pilgrims left reminders of their pious visits in the form of prayer inscriptions, called proskynemata, which were engraved on the stone walls of the temple complex at Philae. Philae’s numerous temples are located on an island near the first cataract of the Nile, the traditional border between Egypt and Nubia. The Main Temple of Philae, dedicated to the goddess Isis, is oriented toward the south whence come the island’s most consistent visitors: the Nubians. Recovered building blocks and a bark shrine dedicated to Amun indicate that the Kushite king Taharqa was active at Philae during his twenty-six-year reign (690–664 BCE). The last inscriptions of Blemmye priests who traveled to Philae from elsewhere in Nubia were inscribed in 456 CE. Thus, Nubians were active in temple ritual at Philae and the other Egyptian temples of Lower Nubia for a period of more than one thousand years.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text responsive_align=”left”]ASOR Members with online access: navigate to the token link email sent to you 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.[/vc_column_text][mk_divider][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″ css=”.vc_custom_1570041002103{padding-right: 10px !important;}”][mk_image src=”http://www.asor.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/NEA82.4-2.jpg” image_width=”200″ image_height=”500″ crop=”false” hover=”false”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]
Pp. 210-215: “Material Evidence of the Early Christian Occupation in the Great Temple of Amun-Ra at Karnak,” by Benjamin Durand
Since 2008, the sector of the Temple of Ptah at Karnak has been subject to an epigraphic, architectural, and archaeological survey (fig. 1). It offers a tremendous opportunity for a diachronic study of the history of occupation in the domain of Amun (Thiers and Zignani 2013). Remains found by Guillaume Charloux in 2015 allow for a closer look at the first occupation of the sector dating back to the Middle Kingdom (Charloux 2017). Likewise, surface structures abandoned at the end of the fourth or middle of the fifth century CE (David 2013, 2017) provide a unique opportunity to gather information about this less-studied period of the area. While in-depth excavation has allowed for a limited peek at the earlier occupation, the surface remains have been cleared and documented in a much more extensive way despite being subjected to long-term human and climatic interference. As a result, all Byzantine remains were excavated as part of the multidisciplinary program conducted in the sector of the Temple of Ptah. The broad extent of the excavation allows for a comprehensive picture, meaning not only a better understanding of the spatial organization of the structures, but also of their function (at least for some of them). Furthermore, the examination of the objects discovered has allowed for the study of the local community and its culture.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text responsive_align=”left”]ASOR Members with online access: navigate to the token link email sent to you 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.[/vc_column_text][mk_divider][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″ css=”.vc_custom_1570041002103{padding-right: 10px !important;}”][mk_image src=”http://www.asor.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/NEA82.4-3.jpg” image_width=”200″ image_height=”500″ crop=”false” hover=”false”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]
Pp. 216-225: “Bygone Fish: Rediscovering the Red-Sea Parrotfish as a Delicacy of Byzantine Negev Cuisine,” by Gil Gambash, Guy Bar-Oz, Efraim Lev, and Uri Jeremias
In the ancient world, the presence of exotic fish in locations distant from the sea would have signified their importance as luxury foods for social elites. Of special interest in this respect is the Red Sea parrotfish (scarus Sp.), which, while consumed regularly around the Red Sea basin, would have been considered an exotic fish when found at great distances from its point of origin. Recent archaeological excavations in the Negev Desert of the southern Levant have yielded surprising and unprecedented quantities of parrotfish remains, found in the landfills of Byzantine sites located some 200 km from the Red Sea (Tepper et al. 2018; Bar-Oz et al. 2019). These sites (Elusa, Soubeita, Oboda, and Nessana), which date from the fourth through seventh centuries CE, are located along the main system of ancient trade routes that connected the Arabian Peninsula and the Red Sea with the Mediterranean region and Europe (fig. 1). The remains recovered from these sites testify to the historical importance of this fish in Byzantine society and economy, as well as to the development of sophisticated trade networks, which facilitated the supply of Red Sea fish to distant inland locations.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text responsive_align=”left”]ASOR Members with online access: navigate to the token link email sent to you 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.[/vc_column_text][mk_divider][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″ css=”.vc_custom_1570041002103{padding-right: 10px !important;}”][mk_image src=”http://www.asor.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/NEA.jpg” image_width=”200″ image_height=”500″ crop=”false” hover=”false”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]Pp. 226-235: “Rescuing the Paleolithic Heritage of Hawraman, Kurdistan, Iranian Zagros,” by Fereidoun Biglari and Sonia Shidrange
The last two decades have seen a significant development in the field of rescue archaeology in Iran due to the increasing legal protection of archaeological sites in areas that are threatened by rapid urban and rural development. The construction of numerous dams, used for irrigation, hydropower, and other purposes in different parts of the country forced the Iranian Center for Archaeological Research (ICAR) to take action and organize rescue projects. Except for a few projects in the Khuzestan and Fars regions (Wright 1979; Tsuneki and Zeidi 2008), these rescue projects have been focused mainly on excavation of mound sites, which is not surprising given that they are the most common site type in the alluvial plains of Iran. As a result, archaeological salvage projects have predominantly contributed information on late prehistoric and historic periods. The construction of Darian Dam on the Sirwan River in the Central Western Zagros, where archaeological deposits are better preserved in cave and rockshelter contexts, have allowed us to explore such sheltered sites in the framework of a dam salvage project.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text responsive_align=”left”]ASOR Members with online access: navigate to the token link email sent to you 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.[/vc_column_text][mk_divider][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″ css=”.vc_custom_1570041002103{padding-right: 10px !important;}”][mk_image src=”http://www.asor.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/NEA82.4-5.jpg” image_width=”200″ image_height=”500″ crop=”false” hover=”false”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]
Pp. 236-247: “Hala Sultan Tekke, Cyprus: A Late Bronze Age Trade Metropolis,” by Peter M. Fischer
The ancient city of Hala Sultan Tekke, which flourished in the Late Bronze Age, that is, from approximately 1650 to 1150 BCE, is situated on the southeastern coast of Cyprus west-southwest of the Larnaca Salt Lake near Larnaca Airport (fig. 1). Today’s salt lake, which is isolated from the open sea, was a protected bay of the Mediterranean in the Late Bronze Age and thus provided convenient anchorage—the basis for trade and the wealth of the city. The city is named after the nearby famous mosque, which has its roots in the seventh century CE. The mosque was built in the area where, according to a local tradition, Umm Haram, a relative or nurse of the prophet Mohammed, died.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text responsive_align=”left”]ASOR Members with online access: navigate to the token link email sent to you 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.[/vc_column_text][mk_divider][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″ css=”.vc_custom_1570041002103{padding-right: 10px !important;}”][mk_image src=”http://www.asor.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/NEA82.4-6.jpg” image_width=”200″ image_height=”500″ crop=”false” hover=”false”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]
Pp. 248-255: “Papyrus and the Pharaoh’s Treasure: An Ecological Perspective,” by John Gaudet
Many factors have been cited to explain how and why Egypt developed so quickly in ancient times. The Nile water, the annual inundation with its life-nourishing sediment, the warm climate, and a system of natural barriers to invasion all helped. Other hydraulic civilizations had some or all of these resources, but a unique resource stood out in Egypt. As it happened, that nation was the only one among early hydraulic civilizations in which the giant aquatic sedge papyrus (figs. 1–2) grew and prospered.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text responsive_align=”left”]ASOR Members with online access: navigate to the token link email sent to you 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.[/vc_column_text][/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]Tweets by ASOResearch [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
Pp. 1–15: “An Analog from the Prehistoric Bronze Age Site of Alambra Mouttes (Cyprus) for Adornments on the Enigmatic Vounous Bowl,” by Andrew Sneddon
The “Vounous Bowl” (ca. 2025–1850 b.c.e.) is a prehistoric Bronze Age vessel from the cemetery at Bellapais Vounous on the northern coast of Cyprus, modeled to depict what is commonly interpreted as people engaged in ritual activities in front of a shrine. The vessel has long intrigued archaeologists working in Cyprus, partly because unambiguous evidence for religious structures and paraphernalia has eluded them in the archaeological record. However, excavations at the Early–Middle Bronze Age site of Alambra in central Cyprus have yielded an artifact that closely resembles the finials placed atop the “throne” depicted in the Vounous Bowl. Its find context—in a room within a domestic structure that also contained a human burial—supports those interpretations of the Vounous Bowl that emphasize its sacred dimensions and its possible connections with the mortuary domain.
ASOR Members with online access: navigate to the token link email sent to you 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. 17-32: “Observations on the Stratigraphic Attribution of the Early Bronze Age Pillared Building in Area D at Tel ʿErani, Israel,” by Marcin Czarnowicz and Eliot Braun
Tel ʿErani is a large Early Bronze Age site within the municipal bounds of modern Qiryat Gat, Israel, at the northeastern edge of the Negev, adjacent to the Judean Shephelah (piedmont). It includes a high mound and several lower terraces, ca. 25 ha in area. The site gained notoriety when an imported potsherd bearing an Egyptian royal symbol (a serekh) incised with the hieroglyph of an early ruler, Narmer, was found in Excavation Area D. Large-scale exposure there in the 1950s and 1960s, under the direction of Shmuel Yeivin, unearthed a rather lengthy and complicated stratigraphic sequence that has prompted numerous attempts at correlating its Early Bronze Age strata with Dynasty 0 and the early 1st Dynasty in Egypt. Yeivin’s cursorily published results illustrate only partial and rudimentary plans of the Early Bronze Age strata in Area D, most of which lack elevations. One exceptionally large building boasting seven substantial mudbrick pillars has attracted researchers’ attention, as it likely had a public function. This essay, based on Yeivin’s original, unpublished plans that include elevations, as well as information derived from recent excavations in Area D, offers a detailed reconstruction of the plan of that building, which suggests its likely chrono-stratigraphic ascription to late phases of the Early Bronze I. It further notes its importance for understanding the relationship between Egypt and the southern Levant in this late prehistoric period, and especially the place of Tel ʿErani as one of a growing number of sites in the southern Levant known to yield definitive evidence for the onset of its earliest complex, hierarchical societies in the first centuries of the 4th millennium b.c.e.
ASOR Members with online access: navigate to the token link email sent to you 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. 33-69: “Reconsidering Coastal Archaeological Sites in Late Bronze Age Cyprus: Tochni-Lakkia and the South-Central Coastscape,” by Georgia M. Andreou, Artemis Georgiou, Thomas M. Urban, Kevin D. Fisher, Sturt W. Manning, and David A. Sewell
The Cypriot Late Bronze Age (referred to as Late Cypriot and LBA, 1680/1650–1100 b.c.e.) has attracted particular attention due to textual and material evidence that suggests engagement with the international maritime trade networks of the eastern Mediterranean. A longstanding scholarly preoccupation with interregional trade has encouraged the development of theoretical models that aim to reconstruct the economy of the island and generally view Late Cypriot coastal sites as gateway communities channeling copper to the eastern Mediterranean. Studies have also highlighted the local and regional significance of these communities and have shed light on their complex economic networks. In this paper, we use data from coastal Tochni-Lakkia, an actively eroding site located near two major Late Bronze Age centers (Kalavasos-Ayios Dhimitrios and the Maroni Complex) to add nuance to smaller-scale regional interaction networks along the south-central coast of the island. To do that, we engage evidence from trial excavations and archaeological and geophysical surveys at Tochni-Lakkia in the form of a preliminary report with theoretical approaches that highlight the potential for and role of regional maritime networks and the concept of coastscape.
ASOR Members with online access: navigate to the token link email sent to you 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. 71-87: “Wood Economy in Early Roman Period Jerusalem,” by Helena Roth, Yuval Gadot, and Dafna Langgut
In this study we present the identification of several Early Roman (63 b.c.e.–70 c.e.) charred wood assemblages, collected from the “Lower City” of Jerusalem. The results outline elements in Jerusalem’s nearby woody vegetation, characterized by a mosaic of native Mediterranean maquis-forest species and olive orchards, and possibly pine and cypress stands. The arboreal surrounding of Jerusalem supplied the city with pruned olive branches and other types of agricultural refuse to serve as firewood. Local conifers (pines and cypress) as well as imported conifers (cedar of Lebanon), were used for construction purposes. The results further highlight important issues such as social status and importation of wood. The occurrence of prestigious imported tree species within the charcoal assemblage of the Lower City (e.g., cedar, boxwood) indicates the presence of wealthy residences, standing in contrast to prior assumptions that suggest a low social status for the inhabitants within this area.
ASOR Members with online access: navigate to the token link email sent to you 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. 89-110: “The Metal Assemblage from Early Iron Age IIA Khirbet Qeiyafa and Its Implications for the Inception of Iron Production and Use,” Alla Rabinovich, Naama Yahalom-Mack, Yosef Garfinkel, Saar Ganor, and Michael G. Hasel
A large metal assemblage was uncovered at the late 11th–early 10th century b.c.e. fortified town of Khirbet Qeiyafa. At this early date, iron was already used rather extensively for utilitarian purposes at the site, though bronze was not yet restricted to decorative use. The metal assemblage from Khirbet Qeiyafa, therefore, provides a rare glimpse into the transition from bronze to iron at the beginning of Iron Age II. This article presents the typology and spatial distribution of the finds, followed by a discussion of their possible cultural and social implications.
ASOR Members with online access: navigate to the token link email sent to you 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. 111-142: “The Pottery of Tel Esur, a Rural Canaanite Late Bronze Age Site on the Via Maris,” by Golan Shalvi, Shay Bar, Shlomo Shoval, and Ayelet Gilboa
Tel Esur is identifiable with D-f-tj (Djefty), mentioned by Thutmose III in his description of his march to Megiddo through the ʿAruna Pass. Recent excavations provide the first unequivocal indication that the site was inhabited during the Late Bronze Age as a farm/hamlet, perhaps also a waystation. The main architectural feature is a large partially-excavated structure, whose contents—mainly pottery—were well preserved by a destruction level. We propose that the destruction assemblage dates around the mid-14th century b.c.e. and that the structure was built around 1400 b.c.e., thus somewhat later than Thutmose III’s famed first campaign. Since pottery of this period is known primarily from large/central sites, Tel Esur offers an exceptional glimpse into a 14th century b.c.e. assemblage from the rural Canaanite domain. Currently, it is also the only small site excavated along the ʿAruna Pass between Megiddo and the Sharon, inter alia offering insights about this stretch of the Via Maris during the Late Bronze Age. This is the first synthesis of Tel Esur during this period. We focus on typo-chronology, and on the main characteristics of the ceramic assemblage, including unique phenomena such as storage in Cypriot-Style pithoi and Egyptianizing pottery in a rural setting.
ASOR Members with online access: navigate to the token link email sent to you 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. 143-209: “‘A Mid-6th-Century B.C.E. Deposit from Gordion in Central Anatolia: Evidence for Feasting and the Persian Destruction,” by Elspeth R. M. Dusinberre, Kathleen M. Lynch, and Mary M. Voigt
A coherent deposit of dumped debris, excavated at Gordion in 1950 and the 1990s, was apparently formed during the cleanup following the Achaemenid Persian attack on the city, ca. 540 b.c.e. It offers a first glimpse of life at Gordion during the mid-6th century (end of the Middle Phrygian period, Yassıhöyük Stratigraphic Sequence 5A). Greek imports provide a relatively firm date for the deposit and allow a chronologically specific snapshot of locally produced fine, household, and coarse wares. Vessels made of traditional Phrygian black-polished ware were used primarily for drinking. Lydian influence at the site is seen in the large number of burnished gray stemmed vessels, although the size of Gordion’s stemmed dishes and the way in which they were used apparently differ from the Lydian capital, Sardis. Bowls come in a variety of wares, shapes, and sizes, while large jars and jugs are primarily gray-slipped household wares, with some imports. Puzzling is a large terracotta object with pseudomorph appliqués suggesting metal attachments, which may have been a niche for a household cult. This initial presentation of the pottery from the mid-6th-century dump provides insight into multiple concerns and behaviors of Gordion’s inhabitants just before the Achaemenid Persian Empire.
ASOR Members with online access: navigate to the token link email sent to you 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. 211-241: “A Persian Period Bulla from Tel Qedesh, Israel, and Its Implications for Relations between Tyre and Nippur,” by Baruch Brandl, Xiaoli Ouyang, Andrea M. Berlin, Sharon C. Herbert, and Anastasia Shapiro
In the 1999 season of excavation at Tel Qedesh, in northern Israel, a small, perfectly intact stamped bulla dating to the Persian period was found. The bulla originally sealed a papyrus document. Thanks to its excellent preservation, it is possible to identify a series of key aspects of the object: the motif and type of seal used to stamp it, the way the bulla was created, and even the way in which the original document was folded and tied. These details allow us to identify the probable origin and date of the seal and contextualize its associated bulla within the site of Qedesh. This evidence, in conjunction with information from the late 5th century b.c.e. Murašû archive in Nippur, allows us to suggest that the seal’s user may have been a person with Tyrian ties—perhaps a member of the Tyrian diaspora—who acquired his seal in Nippur and traveled to Qedesh where he used it to seal a document.
ASOR Members with online access: navigate to the token link email sent to you 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. 243-259: “The Idrimi Statue Inscription in its Late Bronze Age Scribal Context,” by Kathryn McConaughy Medill
The Idrimi Statue Inscription from Alalakh (modern Tell Atchana) has added immeasurably to our understanding of Late Bronze Age Syria since it was published by Sidney Smith in 1949. However, it is notorious for its non-standard Akkadian grammar and paleography. While recent studies have explained individual problems in the inscription, a systematic framework for the verbal system has been lacking. Following a suggestion from Manfred Dietrich and Oswald Loretz (1981), I examine three types of non-standard verb forms in the inscription and argue that these are best understood as reflexes of a scribal code similar (but not identical) to the Canaano-Akkadian code of the Taanach and Amarna Letters. These non-standard verb forms are limited to the first part of the inscription while standard Akkadian verbs appear in the second part of the inscription, suggesting that the scribe was switching between orthographic codes in order to achieve his rhetorical goals. I end by considering some of the questions raised by the inclusion of the Idrimi inscription’s code in the orthographic and linguistic repertoire of Syro-Palestinian scribes.
ASOR Members with online access: navigate to the token link email sent to you 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. 261-312: “Urban Built Environments in Early 1st Millennium b.c.e. Syro-Anatolia: Results of the Tayinat Archaeological Project, 2004–2016,” by James F. Osborne, Timothy P. Harrison, Stephen Batiuk, Lynn Welton, J. P. Dessel, Elif Denel, and Özge Demirci
The archaeological site of Tell Tayinat in the province of Hatay in southern Turkey was the principal regional center in the Amuq Plain and North Orontes Valley during the Early Bronze and Iron Ages. This paper focuses on the latest known period of occupation at Tayinat, which during the Iron Age was the Syro-Anatolian city of Kunulua. In 2004, following a 67-year hiatus, the University of Toronto’s Tayinat Archaeological Project (TAP) resumed excavations at the site. Here we present the preliminary results of TAP’s investigations of the Iron Age II and III settlement, including the topography of the 1st millennium settlement, super- and sub-structural remains associated with Building II (a temple first discovered in the 1930s), a second, newly discovered temple (Building XVI), part of a large Assyrian-style courtyard building, and the remains of additional monumental architecture on the Iron Age citadel. The terminal phases of these structures date to the Iron Age III period, or the late 8th and 7th century occupation of Kunulua following the Assyrian conquest in 738 b.c.e., and collectively point to the transformation of Kunulua’s royal citadel into a Neo-Assyrian provincial administrative center, a pattern witnessed at contemporary sites elsewhere in southeastern Anatolia and northern Syria.
ASOR Members with online access: navigate to the token link email sent to you 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.
[/vc_column_text][mk_divider][vc_column_text]
ASOR Members with online access: navigate to the token link email sent to you before attempting to read this issue. Once you have activated your member token, click here to access the the entire issue, including book reviews, on The University of Chicago Press Journals’ website.
Stevan B. Dana Fieldwork Participation Scholarships
ASOR plans to award eight Dana Fieldwork Participation Scholarships of $2,000 each during 2027.
ASOR’s Stevan B. Dana Scholarships support participation in excavations at the site of Hazor and other excavations in Israel. Six scholarships are designated individuals to participate in excavations at Hazor: we currently anticipate three for the excavations in the Lower City directed by Dr. Shlomit Bechar and three for the Selz Foundation Hazor Excavations in Memory of Yigael Yadin. The remaining scholarships are designated for digs in Israel. If no excavation take place at Hazor in 2027, all of the anticipated eight scholarships will go to participants at other digs in Israel. Applicants who wish to receive one of the scholarships reserved for Hazor must also apply directly for participation in either of the Hazor excavations. The Hazor directors will make the final selections for the Dana Scholarships designated for Hazor, and the directors will notify ASOR.
Applicants must apply for participation with the individual project and for the scholarship (see below).
Applicants need not be ASOR members to apply for a Dana Scholarship, but the successful applicants will need to join ASOR before funds can be awarded.
*if you are applying for a scholarship at Hazor, please specify whether you will be participating in the Haifa University excavations of the Lower City OR the Selz Foundation Hazor Excavations.
2022 Selz Foundation Excavations at Hazor participants.
Hazor, the largest biblical-era site in Israel, covered in the second millennium BCE an area of some 200 acres. The Canaanite city consisted of both an Upper and a Lower city, and its population is estimated to have been about 10,000-15,000 people. Its strategic location, controlling one of the major routes between Egypt and Syria and Mesopotamia, contributed to it being the largest city in the entire region.
Hazor is mentioned in various written documents throughout the second millennium BCE, including the Egyptian Execration Texts, Cuneiform records from the Mari Archive, Annals of the Pharaohs of the New Kingdom and the Amarna Archive from the time of Akhenaten.
The destruction of Canaanite Hazor, referred to it as the ‘head of all those kingdoms’ (Joshua 11:10), is described as part of the Israelite conquest of Canaan. The Israelite rebuilding and fortification of the city is attributed to King Solomon (1Kings 9:15), following which the city developed as a major administrative center of the northern kingdom of Israel in the 9th and the 8th centuries BCE. The Israelite city was eventually destroyed by the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III (2 Kings 15:29), never to regain its former status and wealth. Hazor was excavated in the 1950s and 60s by a team from the Hebrew University, led by Prof. Yigael Yadin. Excavations at Hazor were renewed in 1990 (named the Selz Foundation Hazor Excavations in Memory of Yigael Yadin) by Prof. Amnon Ben-Tor and continue to the present day. Extensive architectural remains were uncovered at Hazor during the last 30 seasons of excavations. These include Israelite fortifications, administrative and domestic buildings, and impressive Canaanite palatial structures and temples. A wealth of small finds, including several cuneiform tablets, statues and figurines, jewellery and weapons were also found.
Eligibility
Successful applicants for the Dana Scholarships must join ASOR or be enrolled as students at an ASOR-member school (see list of Institutional Members) for funds to be distributed. Membership is not required at the time of application for the Dana Scholarships only. Applicants from underrepresented groups may request a membership waiver in order to apply. Applicants are encouraged to use the Uniform Fieldwork Scholarships Application to apply for all of the named and unnamed Fieldwork Participation Scholarships. Some of the named grants are designated for particular excavations (e.g., Hazor or Tell el-Hesi), for particular groups (e.g., veterans), and for particular countries (e.g., Israel or Jordan). Please check the appropriate boxes on the Uniform Application so that you can be considered for as many different scholarships sources as possible. In order to be eligible, applicants are required to participate in an ASOR-affiliated excavation (see list).
Upon completion of the field season, a report of 250-350 words and three appropriate photos (500 dpi resolution or higher) on site must be submitted to the ASOR office by September 1, 2027. This report will also be shared with the Hazor staff for inclusion on the project website. Scholarship recipients also agree to send several thank you letters to the primary donor (Stevan B. Dana). Reports and photos should be sent via email, with “Dana scholarship report” in the subject line. More information will be available after the recipients have been notified.
Scholarship recipients will be required to sign a waiver indicating that ASOR is not responsible for any injuries they might sustain during their time at the excavation in which they participate. They will also be required to sign a release of rights to ASOR for the inclusion of their report and photographs in one of ASOR’s publications. This award may only be used for allowable direct expenses. Indirect and/or overhead expenses are not permitted.
Disclaimer: If archaeological excavations are significantly disrupted or canceled in 2027, ASOR may, at its sole discretion, decide not to offer fieldwork scholarships. Fieldwork scholarships cannot be deferred; applicants may reapply either for fieldwork funding in 2028 or for non-fieldwork summer stipends if ASOR offers such stipends in 2027.
Materials must be RECEIVED by end of day on the following dates. All materials must be submitted online via the appropriate web form on the ASOR website unless otherwise noted.
Notification by ASOR office of accepted or rejected new Member-Organized Sessions and new Workshop Sessions.
January 15, 2020
Call for Papers and Posters to post, and Online Abstract Management System to open for submissions.
February 15, 2020
First Deadline to submit Abstracts via the online submission system, and deadline for presenters to complete meeting registration and ASOR membership requirements.
February 15 – March 1, 2020
Two-week grace period to submit paper proposals. Paper proposals received following February 15 are subject to an administrative fee of $25. This fee does NOT apply to those submissions that were solicited by session chairs after Feb. 15.
March 26, 2020
Deadline for Session Chairs to submit online Acceptance/Rejection of paper proposals (round 1 of reviews).
April 25, 2020
Session chairs must submit Program and Abstract documents for their session/workshop to the ASOR Office.
May 15, 2020
Notification by ASOR office of paper acceptance or rejection decisions to be sent by e-mail to the individual who submitted the proposal.
UPDATE:
September 1
Deadline for abstract submissions for the Poster Session.
UPDATE:
October 30, 2020
Deadline to change your affiliation or make minor corrections to your abstract
Also the deadline to upload your pre-recorded paper presentation to ASOR’s Virtual Annual Meeting site.
November 2, 2020
Deadline for Poster Presenters to upload a PDF of their poster to ASOR’s Virtual Annual Meeting site.
We all know what Jesus looked like, with long hair, a beard, and long robes. But what if that image is a Byzantine era mash-up of Zeus and a Greek philosopher? Unraveling what Jesus really looked like yields a very different picture. Read More[/vc_column_text][mk_divider thickness=”1″ margin_top=”10″][vc_column_text]
In antiquity, as today, ambassadors were the representatives of their states in foreign lands. But whose interests did ambassadors who traveled from small states to terrifying empires really represent? Read More[/vc_column_text][mk_divider thickness=”1″ margin_top=”10″][vc_column_text]
Iron Age statues are rare in the Southern Levant. So why are there so many examples from Amman, and are they of kings or gods? Read More[/vc_column_text][mk_divider thickness=”1″ margin_top=”10″][vc_column_text]
Museum labels describe objects but only tell part of their stories. Just how did ancient Near Eastern artifacts move to Britain and beyond? Read More[/vc_column_text][mk_divider thickness=”1″ margin_top=”10″][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row]
PROVISIONAL CODE OF CONDUCT FOR THE ASOR ANNUAL MEETING AND OTHER ASOR SPONSORED EVENTS
November 2019
I. Introduction
Conduct that laid out the basic principles ASOR members are expected to follow in their professional activities. Subsequently ASOR adopted the Code of Conduct for Fieldwork Projects. While these documents address most professional activities, they do not provide specific guidance for behavior at the ASOR Annual Meeting. While this silence may have been predicated on the assumption that the aforementioned policies should suffice, events at other professional conferences in 2018 and 2019, including the promulgation of codes of conduct for such events, suggested to the ASOR Board that the organization should follow these other professional organizations such as SCS, SAA, and the European Association of Archaeologists and adopt a policy on conduct at the ASOR Annual Meeting or other ASOR sponsored events.
II. Statement on Harassment
The annual meeting and other ASOR sponsored events provide opportunities for ASOR members to engage in the active exchange of ideas both within and outside formal sessions and to interact and network with colleagues. This policy does not seek to limit the subjects of inquiry or in any way to constrain robust debate and dialogue. Participants in the annual meeting must feel free to explore the ideas that are raised in and out of the formal sessions. At the same time this activity should always occur within an atmosphere of mutual respect, recognizing the diversity of ASOR membership and of those who participate in the conference. Attendees, participants, speakers, volunteers, exhibitors and vendors (hereinafter attendees) at any ASOR-sponsored event, including online venues and official or unofficial social events occurring at ASOR-sponsored meetings, are entitled to expect an atmosphere that is free from any kind of disrespect and are expected to adhere to the provisions of this code irrespective of whether they are members of ASOR.
To that end, ASOR will not tolerate harassment in any form. The policies referenced above, as well as ASOR’s non-discrimination policy, emphasize the organization’s commitment to a professional environment in which the dignity of every individual is recognized and valued and individuals are not subjected to discrimination based on categories such as gender, which includes real or perceived gender identity, religion, age, race, disability, and sexual orientation and adds the other federally-protected categories of familial status (i.e., marital and parental situation, including pregnancy), color, and national origin.
This means that harassment, intimidation, and bullying of any kind have no place at the ASOR Annual Meeting. For purposes of this policy harassment includes, but is not limited to, sexual harassment such as unwelcome sexual advances, or other verbal or physical contact of a sexual nature. Harassment also pertains to activities/behaviors such as stalking, queer/trans bullying, or hostility or abuse based on age, disability, religion, race or ethnicity. Such conduct is harmful, disrespectful, and unprofessional. Attendees at the Annual Meeting shall not engage in harassment, bullying, or intimidation of other attendees whether in person or online or through other forms of media, such as unwanted photography/recording whether in or outside a session, or through sustained disruption of talks or other events, and their attendance at the meeting is an express acceptance of the obligation to follow the directives of this policy. Attendees should be mindful that they are bound by the codes of conduct at their own institutions and. as applicable, the provisions of Title IX, and that this policy reinforces those codes.
In the event that an ASOR attendee experiences or witnesses harassment, bullying, or intimidation at the meeting that is inconsistent with the values articulated in ASOR’s Policy on Professional Conduct, the attendee should contact ASOR’s Executive Director or other member of the Executive Committee and is encouraged to make a report in writing to them immediately or as soon as is practicable. The Executive Committee will work together to look into the reported behavior, to contact the person who has reported the behavior, and, if warranted, to contact the person about whom the complaint has been made. ASOR may take further and immediate action at the annual meeting, such as removal of an individual from the meeting without providing any refund of registration or membership fees, if complaints are made onsite and such a response is deemed necessary. ASOR may, if circumstances warrant it, bar the individual from attending one or more subsequent meetings or revoke the individual’s membership in ASOR depending on the severity of the matter. ASOR may also exclude from the Annual Meeting or other ASOR sponsored events any individual censured by his or her home institution for harassment of any kind as described above.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column border_color=”rgba(170,170,170,0.01)” width=”1/6″ css=”.vc_custom_1490572579069{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_text]
Posters are listed alphabetically by the presenter’s last name.
CHAIR: Jennifer Ramsay (The College at Brockport, State University of New York)
Aaron Greener (W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research), Matthew J. Adams (W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research), and Conn Herriott (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem), “A Bowl of Bulls: EB IVessel with Bovine Symbolism from Tel Megiddo East”
The EB I (ca. 3300–3000 B.C.E.) site of Tel Megiddo East—situated in the heart of the Jezreel Valley in northern Israel—was excavated by the Jezreel Valley Regional Project from 2010–2013. A unique large platter with three interior protrusions, resembling bull horns, was found at the site, along with fragments of additional similar vessels. The restoration of this vessel led to the discernment of previously unidentified pottery stumps which were discovered at contemporaneous sites such as Qiryat Ata and Yaqush.
In this poster we present the vessel and analyze the relationship between the bovine motif and the vessel’s physical and social context. Bull symbolism and cult were popular during the EB I in the southern Levant and beyond. For example, cattle are the most commonly represented animals in the zoomorphic figurine repertoire. Within the general body of cattle symbolism, a particular emphasis on heads and horns is apparent. It is possible that horns were distinctive visual shorthand for complete crania, whole animals, or particular ceremonies.
The EB I settlement at Tel Megiddo East and the temples on Tel Megiddo provide new evidence for significant developments in monumental architecture, centralized planning, and remarkable control of resources that presage the “urban” societies of the EB II/III. In such a context, utilitarian objects of symbolic importance may have been fashioned by craft specialists who functioned under the auspices of the temple.
Donovan Adams (University of Nevada, Reno) and Marin Pilloud (University of Nevada, Reno), “Investigating Kinship of Early Neolithic Communities in Anatolia”
The social organization of early Neolithic communities is not well understood. The Neolithization process was comprised not only of an adoption of new subsistence and technological strategies, but also of changes in social structure and the demographic composition of Anatolian populations. Previous research has indicated increased fluidity in how people organized themselves, with mortuary treatment of individuals being based along social, rather than biological, ties (Pilloud and Larsen, 2011). The present research serves to investigate how four communities dating from the Early to the Late Neolithic period in central and northwestern Anatolia were organized. These samples offer an opportunity to assess kinship construction throughout the Neolithic and the Anatolian peninsula. Dental morphological and metric data on permanent dentition were collected on samples from Çatalhöyük, Aşıklı Höyük, Boncuklu, and Barcın Höyük. Gower’s coefficient of similarity was used to analyze phenotypic similarities between individuals as this technique accommodates both types of data. Results indicate a changing relationship with biological affinity over time as the process of Neolithization progressed.
Rami Arav (University of Nebraska Omaha) and Ann Haverkost (University of Nebraska Omaha), “A New Iconic Stele and High Place at Bethsaida”
The 2019 season at Bethsaida focused on exposing more of the Area A Stratum VI city gate complex, dating to the 11th to the 10th centuries B.C.E., where a new iconic stele and high place were discovered. The iconic stele and high place were located on the corner of what was probably the southeast tower of the courtyard “between the two gates.” Made of basalt, the stele is reminiscent of the one found at Bethsaida in 1997, only smaller and in a more rudimentary form and gives us an idea of how the image of the god evolved during the Iron Age.
It is the sixth and oldest stele ever found of this image and the second at Bethsaida. Three stelae were found in southern Syria and one in Gaziantep in southern Turkey. The icon has been identified as the moon-god of Haran, but, according to some scholars, it has similarities to storm god Haddad of Damascus. The moon god was the focus of a major cult for the Aramaeans, and it seems that the Arameans of the Kingdom of Geshur and Bethsaida, its capital city, followed the Arameans to the north and the Chaldean dynasty of Babylon. This major find adds further evidence for the ancient site’s links to the north. It clearly shows that, despite the differences and gaps in occupation between Stratum VI and V (ca. 850 B.C.E.–732 B.C.E.), the population of Bethsaida still remained the same.
Jaime Bennett (La Sierra University), “Conservation Process of Loom Weights Found at Khirbat al-Balu‘a”
Loom weights were found during the 2017 season at Khirbat al-Balu‘a and during the 2019 season as well within a casemate room in an Iron Age phase of the fortification wall. Typological and comparative study of the loom weights from Khirbat al-Balu‘a will reveal information about the textiles produced which, given the context of the loom weights in the casemate room, may indicate specific economic activity. The poster will show the conservation process of these loom weights both in the field in situ this summer and in the lab as well from the 2017 season.
Katherine Burge (University of Pennsylvania) and Petra Creamer (University of Pennsylvania), “Modeling Mud Brick Construction Practices at Kurd Qaburstan”
Kurd Qaburstan is a 109 ha urban site in northern Mesopotamia, southwest of Erbil in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, currently excavated under the direction of Professor Glenn Schwartz of Johns Hopkins University. It has tentatively been identified as ancient Qabra, a large kingdom known from textual sources from the first half of the second millennium B.C.E. The 2017 excavation season revealed a Middle Bronze Age monumental building on the central mound, the collapse layers of which contained a number of painted Halaf-ware sherds, suggesting that the bricks were made on or near Halaf occupation somewhere in the vicinity of the site.
Our study uses GIS applications to model potential brickmaking locations around Kurd Qaburstan, by setting up a series of conditions for what a brick-making site requires based on ethnographic examples (e.g., water source, surface area, obstructed river bank). We cross-reference these results with Halaf-period sites mapped by the Erbil Plain Archaeological Survey (directed by Jason Ur of Harvard University). Using cost-path analysis to determine efficiency of transport from these locations to the central mound, we identify probable brick making sites used in this monumental building project. In addition, we calculate rates of labor for every step of the construction process. In examining and modeling mud brick building practices at the site, we aim to shed light on some of the organizational mechanisms related to the overall process of urbanization in Middle Bronze Age northern Mesopotamia and consider some of the underlying socioeconomic realities that are otherwise difficult to perceive.
Scott Coleman (University of Calgary), “The Multifaceted Evolution of Byzantine Çadır Höyük’s Socio-Economic Environment: A Case Study of the Numismatic Evidence”
Historically, Byzantine studies have focused on urban centers, overlooking the remote rural villages and towns of central Anatolia. Though modern scholarship has shifted its focus and recognized the importance of such secluded settlements, evidence clarifying how rural agrarian life operated in Byzantine central Anatolia continues to be limited. The Byzantine settlement at Çadır Höyük, located in central Anatolia, Turkey, is the focus for this case study. The objective of this study is to present and discuss the extensive numismatic evidence which helps explain Çadır Höyük’s economic status and function during the Byzantine period. The discipline of numismatics continues to be a specialized field of study that often isolates coins from their depositional contexts for an independent analysis. The utilization of coins for dating archaeological contexts oversimplifies their relationships with other material remains. For Çadır Höyük, the relationships between numismatic and physical evidence not only demonstrate a continual occupation period from the mid-fourth century to the end of the eleventh century but also suggest the settlement’s ever-evolving utility over the centuries. An interdisciplinary approach allows for a deeper understanding of the relationships between the numismatic evidence and other material remains recovered at Çadır Höyük. This methodology presents scholars with the opportunity to further elaborate on the social relationships that existed both within the settlement and externally. The study’s conclusions will demonstrate the multifaceted and changing economic environment and social relationships as the populations changed at Çadır Höyük.
Christopher Davey (Australian Institute of Archaeology; University of Melbourne), Luis Siddall (Australian Institute of Archaeology), Carla Raymond (Macquarie University), and Joseph Bevitt (Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization), “Hidden Text: Imaging and Reading an Ancient Tablet Encased in an Envelope”
A tablet from Nimrud, which is encased in an inscribed clay envelope IA5.074 (ND 3430; Postgate 1976), was imaged at the Australian Synchrotron Imaging Medical Beamline. This confirmed that there was a cuneiform tablet inside the envelope, the text of which could be read. The poster provides the details of the imaging, describes the tomography, offers a reading of the enclosed tablet, and comments on the variation between the text on the envelope and that on the tablet and the significance of this for Assyrian contract law.
Victoria Doran (Queen’s University), “A Study of Christian Symbolism at the Site of Humayma, Jordan”
This project focuses on the documentation and analysis of Christian symbols found throughout the archaeological site of Humayma—a town in southern Jordan that transitioned from a Nabataean caravan stop and Roman military fort into a prominent Christian settlement during the Byzantine period. Overall, the aim of this study is to contextualize the presence of Christianity within the multi-cultural framework of Humayma, and to highlight the role of symbolism in Christianity, as a means of protection, identification, and communication between diverse peoples, the environment, and the supernatural. As part of this poster, I consider symbols from two different areas of Humayma; the Eastern Cascading Plateau of the Jebel Qalkha and Field D128, an area west of the Roman military fort. First, I suggest that a petroglyph carved into the Eastern Cascading Plateau is a monogram of Saint Michael the archangel. This is a particularly significant finding, because the Plateau, an area with a long history of Nabataean, Roman, and Islamic use, has never before been associated with Christianity. Next, I demonstrate that D128 may contain a Christian cemetery and/or church, based on the high concentration of Christian symbols found on spolia in that particular field.
Jacob Finegan (University of Central Florida) and Tiffany Earley-Spadoni (University of Central Florida), “The Rise and Fall of Urartu: Observations on the Temporal and Spatial Distribution of Inscriptions from the Corpus dei Testi Urartei ”
Tracing the expansion, decline, and ultimate demise of Urartu (ca. 900–700 B.C.E.) is critical to understanding the dynamics of that ancient state as well as its relationship to the Neo-Assyrian empire. Previous scholarship sought to define Urartian borders by using the distribution of pottery or metalwork as proxy indicators of presence. However, these techniques utilize gross chronological markers which flatten key historical developments as well as prompt legitimate debates about the material correlation of sovereignty. Instead, the described research seeks to understand the extent of Urartu—a network empire—using in-situ rock-cut inscriptions as a proxy. Due to the inscriptions’ association with individual rulers, we argue that the CTU (Corpus dei Testi Urartei) data allow Urartu to be examined on a finer timescale. The project complements contemporary scholarship which views Urartu as a network empire: a non-territorial polity that is centered around fortified nodes of influence. The findings, furthermore, challenge the plausibility of defining “borders” in certain ancient Near Eastern states like Urartu.
Catherine Foster (U.S. Department of State), “Protecting and Preserving Archaeological Sites and Objects through International Agreements”
In 1983, the United States became a State Party to the Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property (UNESCO 1970). Since that time, implementing legislation has allowed the United States to enter into bilateral cultural property agreements with 18 countries including some in North Africa and the eastern Mediterranean. These agreements promote stability, economic development, and good governance in other countries, while denying critical financing to terrorist organizations and other criminal networks that engage in illicit trade. Not only have these agreements helped to staunch the pillage and trafficking of cultural property by establishing U.S. import restrictions, they have provided a framework by which countries—through governments and cultural institutions including universities and museums—collaborate on activities of mutual interest. These include archaeological excavations, exhibition and research loans, educational training and professionalization, and preservation of archaeological and historical sites. Despite these positive and impactful outcomes, these binding international agreements are unknown to or a source of confusion for many scholars. This poster will explain clearly how agreements are forged and maintained, and how they can support best practices for the benefit of all stakeholders.
Katharina Frankson (University of British Columbia), “Engaging Gardens: A Visual and Spatial Analysis of the Gardens at Herod’s Third Palace”
Herod the Great’s Third Palace at Jericho was one of his most elaborate palaces. My research examines how Herod and his architect used the design of the palace to control a guest’s experience and encourage certain activities within and around the palace’s green spaces. This palace complex contains two interior gardens housed within peristyle courtyards as well as the largest exterior garden of those associated with any of his palaces. I use a visual and spatial analysis of these gardens to examine how physically and visually accessible they were to their owner and his guests. My work takes into consideration the specific context of each garden in order to understand how it was meant to be experienced. I investigate how the design of the palace controls the way visitors and occupants engaged with these gardens.
My analysis indicates that each of the three gardens has a different relationship with its surroundings and that each is meant to be interacted with in multiple ways from various vantage points. I explore their unique features and placement within the palace, to investigate how they complement and encourage specific palace activities. By contextualizing the role of the gardens within the palace complex, I am able to emphasize the range of possible activities that took place around the gardens and highlight their importance to Herod. This poster represents a portion of my larger MA thesis which looks at how this palace facilitates social interaction through its design and decoration.
Amanda Gaggioli (Stanford University), “Earthquake Destruction at Antiochia ad Cragum and Blaudos in Western Turkey: A Perspective from Soil Micromorphology”
The subfield of archaeoseismology uses archaeological data to establish deeper time perspectives on the relationships between sociocultural development and recurring earthquake hazards. Previous studies in the eastern Mediterranean have focused on architectural remains and their destruction types in order to identify and interpret past earthquake events and their sociocultural consequences. Since not all architectural destruction types can be conclusively attributed to earthquakes, this project advocates for an interdisciplinary approach that analyzes sediments together with architectural remains in archaeoseismic excavations. I demonstrate the advantages of using the geoarchaeological method of soil micromorphology in two archaeoseismic cases in western Turkey: the Roman site of Antiochia ad Cragum and Byzantine site of Blaundos. Seismic activity has an impact on soil formation, and techniques in soil micromorphology have the potential to aid in establishing temporal and spatial linkages between observed material destruction and earthquake events. My project analyzes evidence for seismic activity in soils from the stratigraphic levels associated with the foundations of damaged structures. Evidence for past earthquakes in soil formation includes various types of liquid escape microfeatures and soft-sediment microstructures. The presence of seismically induced soil features in the stratigraphy at level with building destruction provides more conclusive evidence for the association between earthquakes and remains of building destruction. This project advances the use of soil micromorphology for studies of seismic phenomena at archaeological sites and contributes to more sophisticated understandings of the relationship between human communities and seismic environments in the ancient eastern Mediterranean.
Caroline Gerkis (Independent Scholar), “Fluidity of Ptolemaic Funerary Architecture”
The concept of the final resting place is manifested in funerary architecture, an important belief that resonated throughout all ancient cultures. Upon the death of Alexander the Great, his Successors (the Diadochi) fought one another to possess his body, to use it as a symbol of legitimacy to control his empire. The man who successfully accomplished this was Ptolemy Lagides—who seized Egypt soon after his death in 323 B.C.E.—by hijacking Alexander’s corpse, which was taken to Egypt and eventually interred in the Sema (the royal mausoleum) at Alexandria. Consequently, Ptolemy I Soter reigned as the first Ptolemaic king (305–4 B.C.E.) over this ancient Pharaonic land until the death of Cleopatra VII (30 B.C.E.), illustrating the power of funerary architecture and its significance both as a cultural tradition and as an expression of this originative society.
This poster displays the distinctive architectural identity that was created and associated with the Ptolemaic dynasty and how it is demonstrative of their fluidity as rulers of this ancient land. The amalgamation of Ptolemaic funerary structures that integrated local cultures with Macedonian traditions, ranging from innovative tombs built at Alexandria and hybrid-structures at the Tuna el-Gebel necropolis, to acclimating local customs, such as mud brick tombs at the Assasif cemetery on the Theban necropolis, exhibits the sovereignty of the Ptolemies.
Madaline Harris-Schober (University of Melbourne and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München), Gemma Lee (University of Melbourne), Lily Nash (University of Melbourne), and Thomas Keep (University of Melbourne), “Positive Organizational Psychology in Archaeological Field Work: A Preliminary Approach”
The past ten years have seen a rise in positive organizational psychology in a variety of workplaces, most prominently schools and large corporations. The study of positive psychology and positive organizational psychology is the science of positive subjective experience, individual traits, and positive institutions (Donaldson 2011). We believe the application of these new approaches to archaeological field schools and/or fieldwork programs would increase staff and student fulfillment and overall individual and group flourishing while lowering negativity that can be caused by high-intensity fieldwork environments. Historically, archaeology is an “old world” profession and institution analogous with travel and hard physical labor. The archaeological dig is a unique form of institution and workplace which requires a universal set of guidelines to help those in leadership positions apply positive organizational techniques. While ASOR’s CAP (Committee on Archaeological Research and Policy) guidelines exist, they tend to focus on gender-based violence/harassment and how to deal with situations once they have occurred. The aim of this research is to expand on issues brought to light during the 2018 ASOR session, “Talking About: How to Make Fieldwork Safe from Gender-Based Violence, Harassment, and Discrimination” from a ground-up approach, utilizing new positive organizational psychological and behavioral methods which have proven beneficial in large organizations, such as ACR (Active Constructive Responding), autonomy supportive leadership, and PPIs (Positive Psychology Interventions). Moreover, we aim to implement an archaeologically specific study in order to promote and encourage positive excavation environments that foster group and individual flourishing rather than guidelines for damage control.
Hidemasa Hashimoto (Tenri University), Hidetoshi Tsumoto (Ancient Orient Museum, Tokyo) and Hisao Kuwabara (Tenri University), “Chemical Composition of Bronze Artifacts from Tel Rekhesh”
Tel Rekhesh is an archaeological site located in Lower Galilee, Israel. Its ancient name is suspected to have been Anaharath, according to the provenance study of Amarna Letters. As a result of several seasons of excavations by Japanese-Israeli excavation team, it has been elucidated that settlement of the site has a long, continuous history from the Early Bronze Age to the Roman period (except the Hellenistic period).
In this poster, the authors present unpublished results of XRF (X-ray fluorescence) analysis conducted on the bronze artifacts unearthed during the 2006–2010 excavations. Thirteen bronze items, from the Late Bronze Age to the Roman period), were analyzed in total. The results of XRF analysis of the bronze objects revealed that some items, such as a chisel, stunning bolt, bronze pin, and bronze pin head do not include lead (Pb) among their components. The authors suggest the possibility that the absence of lead in certain bronze objects is the result of the intentional choice of metal workers, rather than time differences of items or a historical development. The reason for this choice might relate to manufacturing techniques used or the characteristics of end products. For example, the absence of lead in a chisel could be understood from the necessity of hardness as a metal tool used for engraving or cutting. In order to verify the suggestion by the authors, published data on the chemical composition of bronze artifacts from other sites are also examined.
Blair Heidkamp (The University of Texas at Austin) and Yorke Rowan (University of Chicago), “A Spatial Analysis of Ground Stone Tools from W80 at Wisad Pools, Jordan”
One of the study areas for the Eastern Badia Archaeological Project is Wisad Pools, located in the Black Desert of the panhandle of eastern Jordan. The pools, which fill with the annual rains, are surrounded by hundreds of stone-built structures, presumably from the Late Neolithic. Excavation of one structure, W80, revealed complex stratigraphy with occupational deposits spanning 1000 years. Throughout the intermittent periods of use, a pattern became apparent in which most hand stones were deposited up against the interior walls of the structure. The particular positioning of these tools implies that the placement was in fact intentional, possibly while the structure was occupied and during periods of abandonment. Previous interpretations of the area have argued that the structures at Wisad Pools were occupied seasonally to take advantage of gazelle herd migrations (Rollefson et al. 2014, 2018; Rowan et al. 2017). Securing the ground stone tool’s position indicates an intent to return to the same region and the same structures again. By investigating the spatial distribution of the various ground stone tools found at W80 we hope to gain further insight on the cyclical process of humans interacting with the region.
Ian Hill (Heritage and Archaeological Research Practice), “Archaeological Field Schools in a Changing World: Exploring a New Model for Training”
With over a decade of funding cuts in the UK, particularly real-term funding cuts to the arts, culture, and environment, coupled with a shift from government funding to higher university tuition fees, traditionally funded archaeological research excavations may become a thing of the past. Archaeological field schools and volunteer-driven community outreach projects are becoming more prevalent than ever before. But do their standards, outputs, and research questions compare to traditional research excavations and commercially or developer-funded archaeological works?
Using the case study of Kissonerga-Skalia in Cyprus, this poster will explore the project’s move from a university-run field school to an international field school operated by two not-for-profit organizations. The poster will examine the advantages and disadvantages of field schools principally aimed at university students, early career archaeologists, and archaeological enthusiasts. These advantages and disadvantages will be compared to traditional research excavations run by a university or museum, and developer-funded archaeological excavations run by a commercial archaeological contractor.
This poster will also develop ideas and approaches in how to run a successful field school that can provide a suitable balance between appropriate training for students, achievable research aims and targets, and the impact on the local area both economically and culturally.
Julian Hirsch (Oberlin College), “The Oberlin Near East Study Collection (ONESC): Revitalizing an Archaeological Collection through Student Collaboration”
Housed in Oberlin College’s Religion department, the Oberlin Near East Study Collection encompasses a wide variety of archaeological material from the southern Levant. Collected from the 1930s–1980s, the roughly 650 artifacts cover a vast time span from the Epipaleolithic to the Modern period. As a teaching collection within Oberlin’s School of Theology and later in the College’s Department of Religion, professors of biblical studies used the objects to vivify biblical texts for generations of students. Starting in the 1980s, the collection fell into disuse. In Spring 2018, a student-led initiative was founded to digitize and revitalize this collection. This initiative has seen great success with numerous student volunteers contributing their time to record hundreds of artifacts. Participants have gained important skills in object photography, curation, and both archival and archaeological research. Our work has led to an improvement in the collection’s storage environment, laid the groundwork for its digitization, and has led to its increased use in class and club programming.
Matthew Howland (University of California, San Diego), Brady Liss (University of California, San Diego), and Mohammed Najjar (University of California, San Diego), “Archaeological Storytelling and Community Engagement via Story Maps”
Archaeology is 1) a fundamentally spatial field, 2) well-adapted to tell stories about the past and the people who lived in it, and 3) a field that often requires the development of close collaboration with the present-day inhabitants of regions around the world. As such, any given archaeological project should be uniquely suited to tell the stories of the past in four dimensions: the three dimensions of space, along with a fourth dimension of time that narrates the past and brings it into the present. The StoryMaps application, produced by ESRI, is a free service that allows for the generation of multimedia stories that visualize the kind of spatial data that archaeological projects regularly produce. While the app has potential as a scientific dissemination platform, it is perhaps best suited for narrating a story that explains past societies in a way that is not only comprehensible but also entertaining to the general public. Good archaeological practice in the 21st century would also suggest that this kind of public storytelling be aimed at engaging not only academics and their social circles but also the communities whose cultural heritage is the basis of the stories being told. To that end, this poster presents a StoryMap application telling the story of Iron Age copper production and social complexity in Faynan, Jordan, with the objective of sharing the story with the public in general but more specifically with the local communities of Faynan via installation of the StoryMap in Arabic into the newly-established Faynan Museum.
Stuart Ibrahim (University of Melbourne), “And He Took the Fortified Cities of Judah”: Third Intermediate Period/Iron Age I–II Raphia and Egypt’s Response to the Changed Political Spectrum in the Levant”
Since 2017, I have analyzed the Bubastis Portal (a Third Intermediate Period Egyptian temple relief at Karnak) and the history of the New Kingdom Egyptian sites in the southern Levant/North Sinai border region, using an in-depth timeline to provide an alternative perspective. This analysis addresses what became of these sites (in relation to the contemporaneous political situation), in order to provide more insight regarding how things changed in the Sinai/Levantine region before Assyria emerged.
Despite the limited textual and archaeological evidence, the Medinet Habu battle relief and Papyrus Harris I (dating to the reigns of Ramesses III and IV in Dynasty 20) show that the Ways of Horus fortress chain (along the North Sinai coast, ending at Gaza) lasted until after Ramesses IV. Papyrus Golenischeff (Dynasty 21) and the archaeological evidence in the Eastern Nile Delta and southern Levant, though, confirm that two to four sites in the former region survived, while other groups resettled those in the latter (including Rafa) which were not abandoned.
After consolidating his power, the first Libyan king of Egypt (Dynasty 22), Shoshenq I, captured the remaining Ways of Horus sites (including Rafa). He then launched a three-pronged attack in the region of Israel, Judah, the Transjordan, and even the Negev (based on my analysis of the Bubastis Portal) to impose vassalage on the region. This briefly revived the Egyptian empire but also paved the way for later superpowers.
Sanae Ito (Sophia University), “A Network Analysis of the Chief Scribe and the Palace Scribe in the Assyrian Empire”
The chief scribe and the palace scribe were the most important palace officials in the Assyrian Empire. Their duties included not only scribal work such as preparing royal inscriptions and writing royal letters, but also maintaining the royal archives and consulting scholarly literature. They occupied a crucial role as a secretary or an adviser of the Assyrian king. However, much uncertainty still exists about their relationship with other scribes, scholars, and palace officials. Thus, this poster examines their social network and seeks to explain how the chief scribe and the palace scribe carried out their work with or without the cooperation of other people. The research data in this poster are drawn from the texts published in State Archives of Assyria. The study offers some important insights into the duties, authorities, origins, and rivalry of the chief scribe and the palace scribe.
Yiliang Li (University of Haifa) and Michal Artzy (University of Haifa), “Rethinking the Significance of East African Coasts in the Medieval Indian Ocean Maritime Trade System: An Archaeological Perspective”
The East African coast, known as the Swahili Coast, flourished along with the increasing maritime commercial contacts in the western Indian Ocean in the 9th–15th centuries before the coming of the Portuguese. The aim of this paper is to assess the status of the Swahili Coast in context by exploring the distribution of archaeological remains including ceramics, glass beads, and architecture.
Distinct imported commodities uncovered from the sites on the East African coast and islands, such as Chinese ceramics and Indian wound glass beads, imply that the Swahili Coast was involved in the frequently commercial interactions in the western Indian Ocean. Contacts are indicated by the distribution of East African plain wares from the littoral sites in the Arabian Peninsula as well. Nevertheless, timber and stone architecture, especially medieval mosques, developed from the mid-eighth century, while Islamic activities occurred on the East African coast.
Based on the quantitative and identifying study of archaeological data, it is assumed that East Africa coastal sites developed in the context of increasing Indian Ocean maritime trade from the ninth century onward, and that this activity was principally promoted by the merchant communities from the Islamic world. Lastly, the Swahili Coast was not the appendage of the monsoon trade network, but a significant bartering segment in the system.
Brady Liss (University of California, San Diego), Matthew Howland (University of California, San Diego), Anthony T. Tamberino (University of California, San Diego), Scott McAvoy (University of California, San Diego), and Thomas Levy (University of California, San Diego), “Everything Old is New Again: Using Archived Photography to 3D Model Previous Excavations in Faynan, Jordan”
Archaeological research has recently embraced 3D modeling of sites/excavations using digital photogrammetry, but using photography to generally document excavations is a longstanding practice. While these excavation photos were not previously intended for photogrammetry, the rigorous digital photography strategies used by modern excavations afford an opportunity to potentially repurpose these archival data for 3D modeling. Moreover, these photos can return an excavation to its original state, before any damages of time. This poster explores the possibility based on archival photographs from excavations at Khirbat en-Nahas (KEN), an Iron Age copper smelting center in Faynan, Jordan. KEN was excavated by the Edom Lowlands Regional Archaeology Project between 2002 and 2009, and one excavation area, a large probe into a slag mound (Area M), has since collapsed. Due to its depth (ca. 6.5 m), the edges of the sounding eroded, filling the excavation and partially destroying the stratigraphic sections. However, the excavation was thoroughly photographed at its completion, providing a dataset to digitally reconstruct the area. Moreover, by combining the model of the slag mound with a new site-wide model of KEN created in 2014, the Area M excavation could be situated within the larger context of the site in 3D for the first time. This poster presents the methods and results of this process along with one method for sharing these data using virtual reality. In doing so, it provides a case study of combining new and archived photography to produce 3D models for the preservation and dissemination of archaeological sites/excavations.
Leilani Lucas (College of Southern Nevada; University of Nevada, Las Vegas), “Shifting Harvests: Archaeobotanical Contributions to Our Understanding of the Cypriot Chalcolithic–Bronze Age Transition”
Current archaeobotanical research in Cyprus demonstrates a deviation from the mainland trajectory highlighting a prolonged period of mixed-subsistence economy of small-scale intensive garden cultivation and hunting to one that is reliant on crop-agriculture and intensive livestock herding. There is evidence for the spread of intensive mixed farming regimes from the mainland Levant by the end of the ninth millennium B.C.; however, Cyprus appears to pull back from this by the Late Neolithic. The data presented here argue for more flexible subsistence practices during the Neolithic and Chalcolithic with a shifting of strategies only in the Bronze Age. This paper summarizes the available archaeobotanical evidence from the Cypriot Chalcolithic–Bronze Age transition, and together with new data from Kissonerga-Skalia the rise of the Cypriot Bronze Age economy is explored.
Thomas E. Levy (University of California, San Diego) and Mohammad Najjar (University of California, San Diego), “At-Risk World Heritage and the Digital Humanities—Recent Destruction at Khirbat en-Nahas, Jordan”
Cultural resources, like natural resources, are finite. Every country has cultural resources that reflect local history and prehistory and are vital both economically for tourism and socially as a foundation of cultural identity. This material cultural record is part of world heritage, something recognized by UNESCO since 1972 (http://whc.unesco.org). As archaeological and historical sites occur in relatively restricted areas, they are a limited resource that should be cared for, curated, and preserved for local, national, and international communities. Unfortunately, over the past seven years, more than any other region on the planet, archaeological heritage sites in the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East have suffered destruction at an alarming rate. Political instability, war, extreme ideologies, economic downturns, development, and other factors have led to the wanton destruction of heritage sites. The recent University of California Office of the President Catalyst grant (+ $1 million) enabled four UC Campuses to collaborate on using the methodology of cyber-archaeology (data capture, curation, analyses, and dissemination) to help address issues concerning the destruction of archaeological sites in this region. Here we discuss the recent (July 2019) destruction at Khirbat en-Nahas located within the protected Dana Biosphere Reserve of the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature in Jordan, and how cyberarchaeology has recorded the site, created virtual reality models for the public, and contributes to monitoring damage at the site.
Susan Penacho (ASOR Cultural Heritage Initiatives), “A Systematic Survey of Looting Pits at Khirbet al-Balu‘a, Jordan”
The site of Balu‘a has been and continues to be disturbed by looters over the course of many years. These disturbances fall into two categories: deep looting pits often dug along visible architectural features, and small shallow pits possibly dug after the use of a metal detector. During the 2019 season, a systematic GPS survey was undertaken to map identified disturbed areas within the Iron Age city walls. The survey’s goal was to create a baseline of previous looting in order to monitor new disturbances. A total of 201 disturbances were noted: 113 looting pits and 88 metal detector pits. These are described based on relative size ranging from extra-small to extra-large. Looting is an ongoing problem as we witnessed first-hand, with two looting events taking place overnight during the excavation season. This brazen looting of the site while excavations were ongoing illustrates the gravity of this issue. By monitoring both past and present looting, the project team aims to highlight the scale of the ongoing problem and brainstorm ways to combat future looting events at Balu‘a.
Steven Porson (University of North Carolina at Charlotte), Patricia Fall (University of North Carolian at Charlotte), and Steve Falconer (University of North Carolina at Charlotte), “Early to Middle Bronze Age Paleoecological Analysis of Urban Collapse in the Southern Levant”
Our study involves an archaeobotanical and stable isotope analysis of seeds from ancient cultivated crops to test hypotheses for the collapse of Early to Middle Bronze Age cities in the Middle East. Preliminary analysis of seeds excavated from Early and Middle Bronze Age settlements in Jordan (ca. 2500–1600 cal B.C.) show signs of relatively decreased water availability correlating with increased temperatures during the latter stages of the Early Bronze Age collapse and improved conditions during the Middle Bronze Age urban redevelopment. Isotope results also seem to indicate the potential for a two-stage punctuated aridification event during EB IV abandonment. More detailed dissertation analysis will test the specific hypothesis that there were two periods of diminished environmental conditions at the end of the EB III and middle of the EB IV by incorporating new sites and proxies for a more thorough investigation of Near Eastern sites.
Alexandra Ratzlaff (Brandeis University), Erin Brantmayer (The University of Texas at Austin), Ian Roy (Brandeis University), Tim Herbert (Brandeis University) and Helen Wong (University of Cambridge), “New Approaches in Digital Imaging”
Through a partnership between Brandeis University and the Autodesk Boston Technology Center, the Brandeis Ancient Insights/Modern Innovations Team aims to create new technological approaches in digital imaging through the development of equipment and more specialized methodologies, using practical applications in the lab and field environments. Current in situ and artifact digital imaging allows for too much variation in data collection during the process of photogrammetry. One approach to this problem was to engineer and fabricate a Single Camera Automated Photogrammetry Platform to collect measured datasets at specified angles to reduce the processing error in modeling. The SCAPP BETA version incorporates a horizontal circular track in cut aluminum with two opposing carriages (3D printed in PLA filament and carbon fiber) that supports an arch with another carriage attached as a camera rig. The camera can then be adjusted at any vertical angle and the number of photos set to be collected on the horizontal plane. Adjustments in the vertical and horizontal planes allow for optimal data collection. The data sets collected with the SCAPP are run through multiple processing platforms. The advantage of this approach is that it provides modeling through programs designed for various specific needs such as lab-based applications vs. adaptability for the field. By processing in these different platforms, we can maximize the best methods approach in rendering 3D models. Our ASOR poster will highlight the advantages of the AIMI team’s partnership with Autodesk as well as results of the SCAPP BETA testing.
Jackson T. Reece (University of California, San Diego), Anthony T. Tamberino (University of California, San Diego), Assaf Yasur-Landau (University of Haifa), and Thomas E. Levy (University of California, San Diego), “Roman Piscinae and Sea Level Reconstruction in the Southern Levant: Reexamining a Rock-Cut Installation at Tel Dor, Israel Using Aerial Photography and Ground-Level Photogrammetry”
Roman fish ponds, or piscinae, have experienced a resurgence in recent publications on Mediterranean coastal archaeology, especially in Roman Italy and the central Mediterranean, as these installations can be useful proxies for estimating historical local sea levels. However, this renewed interest has highlighted a paucity of data on the common forms and uses of Roman aquaculture installations in the eastern Mediterranean, limiting our ability to conduct similar studies in the region. Rock-cut installations at Tel Dor, located on the southern Levantine coast (modern-day Israel), exhibits many of the characteristics common to Roman piscinae complexes and can provide a case-study for comparing piscinae along the eastern Mediterranean coast with more extensively documented piscinae in the central and western regions. The present study uses aerial photography and ground-level Structure from Motion (SfM) photogrammetry to document and visualize the Tel Dor piscinae in 3D and to situate the complex in its spatial context with the sea and immediately adjacent architectural features. A georeferenced orthomosaic and a digital elevation model (DEM) were created to precisely measure the dimensions of the structure for an accurate top plan and to analyze the circulation of water through the system. This project expands our knowledge of Roman coastal architecture in the eastern Mediterranean and improves our ability to reconstruct local sea levels in the southern Levant by identifying useful architectural proxies like piscinae that can supplement existing sedimentological and oceanographic datasets.
Gilad Shtienberg (University of California, San Diego), Richard Norris (University of California, San Diego), Assaf Yassur-Landau (University of Haifa), Dafna Langgut (Tel Aviv University), Tammy Rittenour (Utah State University), Michael Lazar (University of Haifa), Katrina Cantu (University of California, San Diego), and Thomas E. Levy (University of California, San Diego), “The Kabara Marsh: An Opportunity to Unravel the Mystery of Holocene Natural and Anthropogenic Induced Environmental Change from the Carmel Coast, Israel”
The Holocene (ca. 12,000 BP–present) is characterized by ongoing environmental changes that have shaped the landscape leading to its present-day morphology. The overarching objective of this research is to investigate the complex human-environmental interactions while also gaining a unique prospective of social vulnerability to climate and environmental change along the coast of Israel over the Holocene. This investigation will be achieved by assessment of geochemical indicators, floral remains, and micromorphological markers that are found in the sedimentary profile. The Kabara marsh, located along Israel’s Carmel coast (full of habitation in both prehistoric and historic periods), consists of organic rich silty-clay sediments that were deposited continuously throughout the Holocene and thus possesses high potential for unravelling the mystery of the past. So far existing datasets have been collected and integrated into a single homogenous geospatial database. Building upon the understanding gained from a geospatially based ground model, four ca. 16 m-long boreholes were extracted from selected locations in a recent coring expedition that was conducted in the Kabara marshland. The cores consist of distinct cycles of gray clay and black peat that overlie a brown-red palaeosol. These sedimentological cycles presumably correspond to the wetter climates of the early to mid-Holocene while the palaeosol is associated with the Late Glacial Maximum (ca. 25,000 BP). Over the upcoming months the core sediments will be assessed through petro-sedimentological-biological analyses and linked with radiometric dating. Based on these new data, the environmental changes that occurred in the south eastern part of the Mediterranean and human impact will be better understood for the Holocene.
Joanna S. Smith (University of Pennsylvania; The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art), Helena Wylde Swiny (Harvard University; Kyrenia Ship Project), and Susan Womer Katzev (Kyrenia Ship Project), “A Cypriot Votive Ship Relief at The Ringling Museum of Art”
This poster centers on a Cypriot limestone votive relief fragment depicting a ship which is in the collections of The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art (RMA) (SN28.1887). Its construction details compare with the Kyrenia Ship, a merchant ship built ca. 315–310 that sank in the early third century B.C.E. This relief sculpture adds to our understanding of Cypriot knowledge of ship construction and the votive significance of maritime imagery on Cyprus in the Hellenistic period. Luigi Palma di Cesnola unearthed the object that is said to be from a temple at Golgoi. Of the Golgoi sanctuary’s early Hellenistic period relief sculptures, a few represent nautical subjects such as boats and dolphins. Among these, the RMA fragment (17.4 cm in height) is the only representation of a large seafaring vessel. It depicts the starboard stern. A helmsman sits and holds the tiller connected with the quarter rudder. The carver had nearly correct knowledge of ship construction, from the rudder’s blade and stock (loom), to its box-like guard, to the railing and stanchions. The ship may be a war ship because the carver shows the ship’s planks (strakes) curving high up behind the helmsman. Although ship imagery at an inland sanctuary may seem surprising, the god Apollo, named in many of Golgoi’s votive inscriptions, was known in his guise as a dolphin for the safe passage of sailors. Possibly the relief references someone’s experience in a naval battle, as at Salamis in 306 B.C.E.
Ariel Solis (Andrews University) and Rhonda Root (Andrews University), “Using BIM (Building Information Modeling) to Visualize and Share Archaeological Data at Tall Hisban, Jordan”
Today, the field of archaeology is seeking to expand beyond the traditional sharing of information through printed books and archaeological publications, to be more relevant by using various new technologies, such as 3D visualization, Building Information Modeling (BIM), and interactive media. We seek to continue to advance research that is being done in these areas. At Tall Hisban, Jordan (the first Madaba Plains Project archaeological site), many of these technologies are being used. However, the main objective of this project is to create a digital three-dimensional model of the tell (the entire site), showing the historical order of civilizations, how buildings were used in the past, and how they evolved over centuries. In order to accomplish this, the methodology will include fine art, photogrammetry, BIM, and GIS interacting together. This multi-disciplinary approach will integrate through collaboration of archaeologists, artists, architects, computer engineers, surveyors, and the local community. This is the first time that BIM is being used at Tell Hisban, to model the buildings, host the archaeological data, and illustrate the different historical time periods of the site. In this approach all this information will initially be contained within BIM, which will interact with other platforms, such as GIS and SQL. In addition, users will be able to interact with this information using virtual reality and augmented reality environments, which will expand to new audiences. The poster will contain a preliminary progress report on the findings from 2019.
Lucas S. Stephens (Environmental Law and Policy Center) and Virginia R. Herrmann (University of Tübingen), “Mitigating the Climate Impact of the ASOR Annual Meeting: A First Appraisal”
Emissions from transportation are a major cause of climate change, and routine conference travel leads academics to have an outsized carbon footprint. ASOR, as the host of an annual, international conference with over 1,300 attendees, must join other organizations in reckoning with its own contribution to this urgent and growing global problem. A further ethical consideration is that climate change has a more severe impact on the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern countries studied by ASOR than on many members’ home nations. This poster estimates the total carbon emissions of travel to the ASOR Annual Meeting, proposes several strategies to mitigate emissions, and models the effectiveness of each strategy. Recommendations include: 1) changes to the host city selection process to prioritize accessibility and reduce travel distance; 2) introduction and promotion of teleconferencing options; and 3) development of a behavioral incentives program to encourage sustainable travel modes. These strategies would carry the co-benefits of increasing opportunities for participants with disabilities, childcare obligations, difficulties acquiring visas to the U.S., or less financial support for conference travel, and thus are likely to raise overall attendance.
Jade d’Alpoim Guedes (University of California, San Diego), Katrina Cantu (University of California, San Diego), Clara Dawson (University of California, San Diego), Ariana Garvin (University of California, San Diego), Brandon Gay (University of California, San Diego), Isabel Hermsmeyer (University of California, San Diego), Matthew Howland (University of California, San Diego), Xiyuan Huang (University of California, San Diego), Shelby Jones-Cervantes (University of California, San Diego), Bridget Lawrence (University of California, San Diego), Brady Liss (University of California, San Diego), Sunyoung Park (University of California, San Diego), Eric Rodriguez (University of California, San Diego), Julianna Santillan-Goode (University of California, San Diego), Luke Stroth (University of California, San Diego), Anthony T. Tamberino (University of California, San Diego), Fabian Toro-Uribe (University of California, San Diego), Isabell Villasana (University of California, San Diego), Zhen Yu (University of California, San Diego), and Thomas E. Levy (University of California, San Diego), “Analysis of the Paleobotanical Collection from Khirbat al-Jariya, an Early Copper Production Site in the Faynan, Jordan”
Archaeobotanical analysis has only rarely focused on industrial sites, yet the ways in which workers at these sites engaged in food provisioning and consumption may hold important lessons for understanding ancient patterns of trade and social organization. We present the results of an archaeobotanical analysis carried out at the copper production site of Khirbat al-Jariya (12th–10th centuries B.C.) in the arid Fanyan region, Jordan. A wide variety of plant remains has been unearthed at the site (such as grapes, wheat and barley) that may not have been locally grown and that may highlight trade routes to coastal areas, trade routes which have been already revealed through the analysis of copper ingots that traveled over 300 km away to the coast near Neve Yam in Israel.
Berk Suleyman (Hunter College), “A Trip to Agade: Esarhaddon’s Journey”
The location of Agade, capital of the Akkadian realm, has eluded the academic community for decades. Many factors have complicated the search and identification of Agade, such as the lack of research done in the land of Akkad in recent years. Prominent theories regarding the location of this lost city indicate that it must have been positioned around the confluence of the Tigris and Diyala rivers, near modern-day Baghdad. In a letter, an emissary of the Neo-Assyrian king Esarhaddon named Mar-Ishtar attests that Esarhaddon was in Nineveh on the 15th, and then entered Agade on the night of the 20th in the same month. This study aims to map this journey and create a possible itinerary of this excursion that may offer new insights on the location of the lost capital. Known Neo-Assyrian settlements will be mapped which may have served as pit stops for the king and his entourage, and data from the Diyala Valley survey conducted by Robert McCormick Adams in the late 1950s that depict relict water courses from the Neo-Assyrian period will be incorporated and cross-checked with CORONA imagery to draw clearer continuations of these tributaries. The study will also include natural variables such as Tigris waterflow data, along with calculations from early archaeologists who used river transport in the region. All of this data will be transferred into ArcGIS for least-cost path and other spatial analyses to calculate which areas would have took Esarhaddon five days to travel to, illuminating the issue regarding Agade’s location.
Katherine Titus (University of New Hampshire), Amy Michael (University of New Hampshire), and Jack Biggs (Michigan State University), “Preserving the Past for a More Ethical Future: Photogrammetry and Re-Analysis of a Bioarchaeological Sample from Çadır Höyük in Central Turkey”
Many ethical issues arise when studying human remains, and the field of bioarchaeology has been fraught with ethical concerns for decades. Modern bioarchaeologists combat these concerns with the aid of modern technologies while concurrently rectifying the wrongs of their predecessors, as researchers are now more accountable through heightened awareness, education, and new legislation. One relatively new technology gaining popularity in this field is multi-image photogrammetry, which creates an accurate three-dimensional facsimile of surfaces and objects. Bioarchaeologists are now implementing this technology as an important research tool, but also as a means of promoting cultural heritage preservation. Using a sample collection from the Çadır Höyük site in central Anatolia, this study focuses on the digital preservation of juvenile and adult skeletal material dating between the Chalcolithic and middle Byzantine periods. The implementation of photogrammetry to the Çadır Höyük Archaeological Project collections during the 2019 field season generated a digital repository that can be accessed from anywhere. In addition to photogrammetric methods, the skeletal remains of an adult Byzantine woman were re-analyzed using updated bioarchaeological methods. The original interpretation of this burial was found to be inaccurate, thereby justifying the need for continuous interpretation of data contingent on new and improved methodologies. While exploratory, this research highlighted the importance of digital preservation of human remains and the application of current bioarchaeological methods at Çadır Höyük.
Charles Wilson (The University of Chicago), “Room-Use Analysis of the Iron Age IIB Residential Quarter Houses at Gezer”
This poster presents the architecture and associated artifact assemblages from a number of residential-quarter houses at Tel Gezer, Israel dating to the mid-eighth century B.C.E. The domestic quarter was exposed by two archaeological expeditions: the first led by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Jerusalem (HUC) in their Field VII from 1972–1973; and the second by Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (SWBTS) in their Field West from 2006–2017. HUC revealed parts of six buildings, most of them small houses (ca. 40–50 m2) and three of which appear to be of the well-known four-room house type. With the publication of the pottery and artifact classes from Field VII now complete, it is possible to identify room assemblages, and, from there, suggest tentative room functions. Adjacent in Field West, SWBTS uncovered a large (124 m2) four-room house, distinguished from the smaller houses not only in terms of size, but also in considerations of orientation, quality of construction, avoidance of shared walls, and proximity to the city’s public space. Together, the artifact assemblages, activity areas, and architectural alterations from these houses raise the possibilities of economic activities occurring and extended families being situated across more than one dwelling unit.[/vc_column_text][/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_text]
Our Early Neolithic Canine Companions
The Alphabet: The First Thousand Years
modeled to depict what is commonly interpreted as people engaged in ritual activities in front of a shrine. The vessel has long intrigued archaeologists working in Cyprus, partly because unambiguous evidence for religious structures and paraphernalia has eluded them in the archaeological record. However, excavations at the Early–Middle Bronze Age site of Alambra in central Cyprus have yielded an artifact that closely resembles the finials placed atop the “throne” depicted in the Vounous Bowl. Its find context—in a room within a domestic structure that also contained a human burial—supports those interpretations of the Vounous Bowl that emphasize its sacred dimensions and its possible connections with the mortuary domain.
It includes a high mound and several lower terraces, ca. 25 ha in area. The site gained notoriety when an imported potsherd bearing an Egyptian royal symbol (a serekh) incised with the hieroglyph of an early ruler, Narmer, was found in Excavation Area D. Large-scale exposure there in the 1950s and 1960s, under the direction of Shmuel Yeivin, unearthed a rather lengthy and complicated stratigraphic sequence that has prompted numerous attempts at correlating its Early Bronze Age strata with Dynasty 0 and the early 1st Dynasty in Egypt. Yeivin’s cursorily published results illustrate only partial and rudimentary plans of the Early Bronze Age strata in Area D, most of which lack elevations. One exceptionally large building boasting seven substantial mudbrick pillars has attracted researchers’ attention, as it likely had a public function. This essay, based on Yeivin’s original, unpublished plans that include elevations, as well as information derived from recent excavations in Area D, offers a detailed reconstruction of the plan of that building, which suggests its likely chrono-stratigraphic ascription to late phases of the Early Bronze I. It further notes its importance for understanding the relationship between Egypt and the southern Levant in this late prehistoric period, and especially the place of Tel ʿErani as one of a growing number of sites in the southern Levant known to yield definitive evidence for the onset of its earliest complex, hierarchical societies in the first centuries of the 4th millennium b.c.e.
engagement with the international maritime trade networks of the eastern Mediterranean. A longstanding scholarly preoccupation with interregional trade has encouraged the development of theoretical models that aim to reconstruct the economy of the island and generally view Late Cypriot coastal sites as gateway communities channeling copper to the eastern Mediterranean. Studies have also highlighted the local and regional significance of these communities and have shed light on their complex economic networks. In this paper, we use data from coastal Tochni-Lakkia, an actively eroding site located near two major Late Bronze Age centers (Kalavasos-Ayios Dhimitrios and the Maroni Complex) to add nuance to smaller-scale regional interaction networks along the south-central coast of the island. To do that, we engage evidence from trial excavations and archaeological and geophysical surveys at Tochni-Lakkia in the form of a preliminary report with theoretical approaches that highlight the potential for and role of regional maritime networks and the concept of coastscape.
The results outline elements in Jerusalem’s nearby woody vegetation, characterized by a mosaic of native Mediterranean maquis-forest species and olive orchards, and possibly pine and cypress stands. The arboreal surrounding of Jerusalem supplied the city with pruned olive branches and other types of agricultural refuse to serve as firewood. Local conifers (pines and cypress) as well as imported conifers (cedar of Lebanon), were used for construction purposes. The results further highlight important issues such as social status and importation of wood. The occurrence of prestigious imported tree species within the charcoal assemblage of the Lower City (e.g., cedar, boxwood) indicates the presence of wealthy residences, standing in contrast to prior assumptions that suggest a low social status for the inhabitants within this area.
At this early date, iron was already used rather extensively for utilitarian purposes at the site, though bronze was not yet restricted to decorative use. The metal assemblage from Khirbet Qeiyafa, therefore, provides a rare glimpse into the transition from bronze to iron at the beginning of Iron Age II. This article presents the typology and spatial distribution of the finds, followed by a discussion of their possible cultural and social implications.
Recent excavations provide the first unequivocal indication that the site was inhabited during the Late Bronze Age as a farm/hamlet, perhaps also a waystation. The main architectural feature is a large partially-excavated structure, whose contents—mainly pottery—were well preserved by a destruction level. We propose that the destruction assemblage dates around the mid-14th century b.c.e. and that the structure was built around 1400 b.c.e., thus somewhat later than Thutmose III’s famed first campaign. Since pottery of this period is known primarily from large/central sites, Tel Esur offers an exceptional glimpse into a 14th century b.c.e. assemblage from the rural Canaanite domain. Currently, it is also the only small site excavated along the ʿAruna Pass between Megiddo and the Sharon, inter alia offering insights about this stretch of the Via Maris during the Late Bronze Age. This is the first synthesis of Tel Esur during this period. We focus on typo-chronology, and on the main characteristics of the ceramic assemblage, including unique phenomena such as storage in Cypriot-Style pithoi and Egyptianizing pottery in a rural setting.
It offers a first glimpse of life at Gordion during the mid-6th century (end of the Middle Phrygian period, Yassıhöyük Stratigraphic Sequence 5A). Greek imports provide a relatively firm date for the deposit and allow a chronologically specific snapshot of locally produced fine, household, and coarse wares. Vessels made of traditional Phrygian black-polished ware were used primarily for drinking. Lydian influence at the site is seen in the large number of burnished gray stemmed vessels, although the size of Gordion’s stemmed dishes and the way in which they were used apparently differ from the Lydian capital, Sardis. Bowls come in a variety of wares, shapes, and sizes, while large jars and jugs are primarily gray-slipped household wares, with some imports. Puzzling is a large terracotta object with pseudomorph appliqués suggesting metal attachments, which may have been a niche for a household cult. This initial presentation of the pottery from the mid-6th-century dump provides insight into multiple concerns and behaviors of Gordion’s inhabitants just before the Achaemenid Persian Empire.
The bulla originally sealed a papyrus document. Thanks to its excellent preservation, it is possible to identify a series of key aspects of the object: the motif and type of seal used to stamp it, the way the bulla was created, and even the way in which the original document was folded and tied. These details allow us to identify the probable origin and date of the seal and contextualize its associated bulla within the site of Qedesh. This evidence, in conjunction with information from the late 5th century b.c.e. Murašû archive in Nippur, allows us to suggest that the seal’s user may have been a person with Tyrian ties—perhaps a member of the Tyrian diaspora—who acquired his seal in Nippur and traveled to Qedesh where he used it to seal a document.
This paper focuses on the latest known period of occupation at Tayinat, which during the Iron Age was the Syro-Anatolian city of Kunulua. In 2004, following a 67-year hiatus, the University of Toronto’s Tayinat Archaeological Project (TAP) resumed excavations at the site. Here we present the preliminary results of TAP’s investigations of the Iron Age II and III settlement, including the topography of the 1st millennium settlement, super- and sub-structural remains associated with Building II (a temple first discovered in the 1930s), a second, newly discovered temple (Building XVI), part of a large Assyrian-style courtyard building, and the remains of additional monumental architecture on the Iron Age citadel. The terminal phases of these structures date to the Iron Age III period, or the late 8th and 7th century occupation of Kunulua following the Assyrian conquest in 738 b.c.e., and collectively point to the transformation of Kunulua’s royal citadel into a Neo-Assyrian provincial administrative center, a pattern witnessed at contemporary sites elsewhere in southeastern Anatolia and northern Syria.
