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FOA Webinar: Amanda Hope Haley

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FRIENDS OF ASOR WEBINARS

Beyond Edutainment: Reclaiming Archaeology in a Clickbait World

Friends of ASOR present the next webinar of the 2025-2026 season on January 7, 2026, at 7:00 pm EST, presented by Amanda Hope Haley. This webinar will be free and open to the public. Registration through Zoom (with a valid email address) is required. This webinar will be recorded and all registrants will be sent a recording link in the days following the webinar.

We all remember a time when the History Channel was about history, documentaries bored us with facts and black-and-white footage, and everyone knew Indiana Jones, Daniel Jackson, and River Song were swashbuckling adventurers (not serious scientists). When did the lines between fiction and fact blur? Did it start when thorough public history education was reduced to merely one year during middle school, when the Socratic method gave way to teaching-to-the-test? Although many of us are still fascinated by our ancestors and the empires they built and destroyed, the field of archaeology is shrinking when we need more access to the lessons of the past, not less.

Both researchers and readers must understand the problem before us: troll farms are creating and multiplying fake content that crowd out real news, profit-trained algorithms are pushing what we learn, and AI is making falsehood harder to detect.

Even if archaeologists were well funded and better resourced, they could not compete with the truly fake news pushed by entertainment companies and “adventurers,” whom we might call pseudoarchaeologists. Social media’s lack of conscience and sensationalists’ focus on fame and wealth make the fight with slow science and thoughtful debate an unfair one. Through publications such as ASOR’s ANE Today and BAS’s Biblical Archaeology Review, scholars have shared their findings with the public in less-technical language for many years. However, as reading rates drop among students and adults, authors are now competing with filmmakers for eyeballs, hearts, and minds. Increases in forgeries and thefts make us all wonder what is real.

The quest to recover our ancient history is not yet lost to Skynet. But it is going to take all of us—the real archaeologists in the field and the curious readers behind their screens—to reinvigorate real exploration.

Amanda Hope Haley has a bachelor of arts in Religious Studies from Rhodes College and a master of theological studies in Hebrew Scripture and Interpretation from Harvard University. She entered the publishing industry in 2005, first contributing to The Voice Bible as a translator, commentary writer, and editor. She then began working with popular nonfiction titles as a content editor, theological reviewer, and ghostwriter before her first book was published by Thomas Nelson in 2014. Amanda’s most recent book, Stones Still Speak: How Biblical Archaeology Illuminates the Stories You Thought You Knew, was released by Revell in September and encourages readers to distinguish between popular traditions and historical facts. Between writing manuscripts, she podcasts as The Red-Haired Archaeologist® and introduces sound archaeological insights to readers overwhelmed and misdirected by cinematic or culturally inherited images of the ancient world.

SUPPORT THE WEBINAR PROGRAM!

Friends of ASOR is pleased to announce that the first webinars of the 2025-2026 season will once again be free and open to the public with a goal to raise $10,000 so that the entire webinar season will be free. Will you support this outreach effort with a tax-deductible contribution? All donors/sponsors with gifts of $100 or more will be recognized in subsequent webinars. Make your gift today and select “webinars” from the dropdown menu.

Designate your gift for “Webinars” in the drop-down menu.

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ASOR CHI – Lebanon Updates

LEBANON UPDATES

Workshop participants alongside Regional Director Dr. Tania Zaven and other members of the local DGA team at Byblos during on-site training (Credit: U.S. Embassy Beirut).

ASOR Hosts Antiquities Trafficking Documentation Workshop in Lebanon

December 18, 2025

ASOR hosted an Antiquities Trafficking Documentation workshop in Beirut, Lebanon on December 8-12, 2025, with the generous support of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut. This workshop brought together members of the Lebanese Directorate-General of Antiquities (DGA) and the Syrian Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums (DGAM), as well as representatives from U.S. Embassy Beirut, the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, the FBI Art Crime Team, and Homeland Security Investigations to discuss current conditions and challenges in Lebanon and Syria, the DGA and DGAM’s priorities in the fight against antiquities trafficking, and ways for all participants to work together to achieve them.

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Table of Contents for BASOR 394 (November 2025)

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Table of Contents for Bulletin of ASOR 394 (November 2025)

You can receive BASOR(and other ASOR publications) through an ASOR Membership.
Please e-mail the Membership office if you have any questions.
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Pp. 1-24: “Boulos el-ʿAraj: A Palestinian Quaker Archaeologist of the British Mandate Era (1926–1936),” by Jeffrey R. Zorn

Until recently, the work of Middle Easterners on archaeological projects in Palestine, and southwestern Asia and Egypt more broadly, during the period of colonialist control between the World Wars (1918–1939) has largely gone unnoticed, undocumented, and uncelebrated. However, over the last decade scholars have begun to take a long overdue interest in this subject, resulting in the appearance of an increasing number of publications addressing archaeology’s colonialist past. Egyptians, working both in Egypt itself and on projects in the Levant, have received the most attention so far. However, more work is now appearing on the roles of Palestinians during this turbulent time. This article documents and contextualizes the career of Boulos el-ʿAraj, a young Palestinian man active in British Mandate-era archaeology from ca. 1926–1936. Despite the number of excavations on which he worked, and his reputation at the time, he remains a mostly unknown figure, often going unmentioned in even recent articles dealing with Palestinian archaeologists of that era (for example, Abu Alsaud 2022, 2024), which makes documenting his career especially important.

ASOR Members with online access: log into ASOR’s Online Portal here. Once logged in, click the JOURNALS tab in the top navigation bar. Tutorials for how to log in to the Online Portal as well as how to navigate to the Portal Journals page can be found here.
BASOR-394-article-2-bannerPp. 25-42: “Unveiling the Obscure: Exploring the Function and Meaning of Levantine Shrine Models through an Ethnoarchaeological Lens,” by Itamar Weissbein

This article examines pottery vessels commonly referred to as “shrine models” or “portable shrines,” which were found throughout the Bronze and Iron Age Levant. While these vessels are often recognized for their significant religious importance, their exact functions and meanings remain unclear to modern scholars. This study aims to offer new insights into these questions by drawing on ethnoarchaeological parallels from India, suggesting that these vessels may have served as symbolic dwellings for the spirits of deities or the deceased and offering insights into potential associated religious rituals.

ASOR Members with online access: log into ASOR’s Online Portal here. Once logged in, click the JOURNALS tab in the top navigation bar. Tutorials for how to log in to the Online Portal as well as how to navigate to the Portal Journals page can be found here.
BASOR-394-article-3-bannerPp. 43-71: “Paleoenvironment and Fruit Tree Horticulture at Early Bronze Age Tel Bet Yerah: Evidence from Charcoal Remains,” by Eshel Mor, Raphael Greenberg, and Dafna Langgut

This article presents the first detailed examination of a charred wood assemblage from Early Bronze Age I–III Tel Bet Yerah (ca. 3700–2500 B.C.E.). The wood-anatomy identification of the charcoal remains aims to reconstruct the nearby natural and horticultural arboreal environment as well as the long-term human-environment relations at the site and beyond it. The assemblage provides evidence for substantial fruit-tree horticulture, mainly of olive and fig. In addition, there is evidence for exploitation of a well-developed Mediterranean woodland in the site’s vicinity, as well as of a riparian habitat. The assemblage also includes taxa rarely encountered in the regional archaeobotanical record, such as pomegranate. The transition from village to urban settlement in the Early Bronze II (ca. 3100–2850 B.C.E.) shows changes in the charred wood assemblage that parallel economic, cultural, and environmental changes evidenced in the settlement layout and other findings. Evolving cultural-economic interactions between local and “Khirbet Kerak” populations during the first part of the Early Bronze III (ca. 2850–2700 B.C.E.) are also indicated. The study also offers a general land-use scheme for the site, based on the data that emerged from this research combined with the results of other relevant paleoenvironmental and archaeobotanical studies.

ASOR Members with online access: log into ASOR’s Online Portal here. Once logged in, click the JOURNALS tab in the top navigation bar. Tutorials for how to log in to the Online Portal as well as how to navigate to the Portal Journals page can be found here.
BASOR-394-article-4-bannerPp. 73-99: “Reassessing the Levantine Tradition of Early Bronze III Bone Tubes: The View from Tell el-Hesi,” by Geoffrey Ludvik, Kara Larson, and Jeffrey A. Blakely

Incised bone tubes are an important class of artifacts associated with the 3rd millennium B.C.E. throughout the Near East and eastern Mediterranean. Typically made of ovicaprine or cattle long bones and decorated with a series of incised motifs, bone tubes are a rare find in Early Bronze (EB) elite burial and settlement contexts. New work at Tell el-Hesi, Israel, has shown that a specialized bone tube workshop was present at the site, operating only during the southern Levantine EB IIIA (2800–2700 B.C.E.). This article provides a reassessment of the Levantine tradition of bone tube manufacture and design based on the existence of the Tell el-Hesi workshop. The authors provide a detailed description of the workshop’s stratigraphic context, review its chaîne opératoire, and, using the established baseline of morphometric variation characterizing its workshop style/tradition, compare bone tubes produced elsewhere to this known production center. It is thereby demonstrated that a subset of bone tubes from other sites in the Near East share morphometric proportions, motif sequences, styles, and techniques with Tell el-Hesi. The authors interpret these artifacts as products of the Hesi workshop, providing a chronological anchor for their contexts and evidence for a bone tube exchange operating during the EB IIIA period.

ASOR Members with online access: log into ASOR’s Online Portal here. Once logged in, click the JOURNALS tab in the top navigation bar. Tutorials for how to log in to the Online Portal as well as how to navigate to the Portal Journals page can be found here.
BASOR-394-article-5-bannerPp. 101-121: “Empires, Local Traditions, and the Spread of Knowledge: A Case Study in Water Management in Early Islamic Palestine,” by Azriel Yechezkel, Gideon Avni, Bethany Walker, Meir Rotter, Yoav Negev, and Yuval Gadot

Qanat technology, most likely originating on the Iranian Plateau or in the Arabian Peninsula around the 2nd millennium B.C.E., diffused in a wave-like pattern across Eurasia over various periods throughout history, reaching the southern Levant as late as the 8th century C.E. This unique water extraction technology is based on the diversion of water from underground aquifers over great distances through man-made subterranean tunnels. It is particularly efficient in alluvium soil in arid to hyper-arid regions. This study presents a unique example of a qanat-like system found in the Judean Hills of Israel, an area characterized by a different water management tradition, based on the use of natural springs and the modification of their sources through artificial tunneling. This article argues that the knowledge and use of qanat technology in the Mediterranean area of the Judean Hills bear evidence for a top-down attempt to introduce new water management technology in the Early Islamic period. The construction of this qanat-like underground system was intended to increase the resilience of the new road network of Early Islamic Palestine, particularly the road connecting Jerusalem and Ramla.

ASOR Members with online access: log into ASOR’s Online Portal here. Once logged in, click the JOURNALS tab in the top navigation bar. Tutorials for how to log in to the Online Portal as well as how to navigate to the Portal Journals page can be found here.
BASOR-394-article-6-bannerPp. 123-145: “The “Last” Canaanean Blades: Some Insights from the Early Bronze IV Site of Khirbet Um al-Ghozlan in Jordan,” by Francesca Manclossi and James Fraser

A new study of materials recovered from the British Museum excavations at Khirbet Um al-Ghozlan in Jordan offers new insights into the production and use of Canaanean blades during the Early Bronze Age IV (EB IV) period in the southern Levant. The specialized purpose of the site, which was probably occupied seasonally for the annual production and temporary storage of olive oil, presents a unique window to observe changes in the Canaanean blade system in the 3rd millennium B.C. The assemblage suggests a significant continuity in Canaanean blade production and circulation despite the abandonment of the region’s proto-urban centers and the reconfiguration of economic, political, and social systems that defined the period of ruralization that followed. These blades, produced by a small number of flint specialists, were easily acquirable, never completely exploited, rarely recycled as ad hoc tools, and probably used for activities other than cereal harvesting. The examples at Khirbet Um al-Ghozlan suggest that some EB IV communities had a versatile tool kit, adaptable to other roles than as curved and composite sickles, which enabled them to exploit different environmental zones between the Jordan Valley floor and the uplands of the adjacent escarpment above.

ASOR Members with online access: log into ASOR’s Online Portal here. Once logged in, click the JOURNALS tab in the top navigation bar. Tutorials for how to log in to the Online Portal as well as how to navigate to the Portal Journals page can be found here.
BASOR-394-article-7-bannerPp. 147-160: “Motifs of Drought in Ugaritic Narratives,” by František Válek

This paper discusses the motifs of drought as they appear in Ugaritic narratives, namely the Baʿlu Cycle, Epic of ʾAqhatu, and Epic of Kirtu. It argues that the recurring character of these motifs can indicate that the author(s) of these compositions could have reacted to the environmental changes emerging at the end of the Late Bronze Age. Apart from discussing the relevant passages of these texts, the paper sets them within the broader cultural, political, and environmental milieu of the Late Bronze Age world. It is argued that while the author(s) might have also been inspired by existing literary lore (such as Atraḫasīs or Hittite myths of disappearing deities), the climate change, droughts, and consequent food shortages underscore the social relevance of recounting such stories. The Ugaritic narratives are discussed in the perspective of the theory of social myths, directing our attention to the social relevance of myths and the intentions of social actors. In this case, the social significance might have been in the pondering of a variety of cosmological meanings and causes in order to address the challenges and boost the social and political resilience of the Kingdom of Ugarit.

ASOR Members with online access: log into ASOR’s Online Portal here. Once logged in, click the JOURNALS tab in the top navigation bar. Tutorials for how to log in to the Online Portal as well as how to navigate to the Portal Journals page can be found here.

BASOR-394-article-8-bannerPp. 161-196: “Magic in the Levant: On Some Late Antique Amuletic Plaque-Pendants,” by Alexandra Uscatescu and Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser

The recent translation of an inscribed magical amulet with an Aramaic text found in the macellum of Gerasa (Jerash, Jordan) presents new evidence on magical practices at the end of Late Antiquity and allows for the re-assessment of a particular group of bronze amulets made in the Syrian-Palestinian region. This analysis offers a thorough review of our knowledge about the whole group of amuletic plaque-pendants, especially regarding the syncretic aspects of this craft. Therefore, the following paper proposes to adjust the definition of this group’s features to a new typology.

ASOR Members with online access: log into ASOR’s Online Portal here. Once logged in, click the JOURNALS tab in the top navigation bar. Tutorials for how to log in to the Online Portal as well as how to navigate to the Portal Journals page can be found here.

BASOR-394-article-9-bannerPp. 197-219: “The Site of Gird Qalachogan, Iraqi Kurdistan: Salvage Excavations and Survey,” by Petra M. Creamer, Kyra Kaercher, Glynnis Maynard, Nader Babakr, Jason Ur, Rafeeq Bradosti, Khalil Barzinjy, and Timothy Matney

Gird Qalachogan is a mounded settlement in Iraqi Kurdistan located just north of Erbil’s city limits. It was primarily occupied in the Middle and Late Bronze Age, reaching a size of around 14 ha. Recent damage inflicted on the site by local construction projects has put its preservation in a dire situation, with parts of the mound being carved away by backhoe cuts. Salvage excavations were carried out in 2022 with the intent of defining and identifying features revealed in cuts on the western edge of the mound. A survey of the site and surface collections were also carried out to form a comprehensive understanding of Qalachogan’s extent and occupation periods. This article presents the results of both investigations, concluding that the site was likely once an important Bronze Age center in the 2nd millennium B.C.E. with non-sequential phases of occupation into Islamic periods. Notable finds include a monumental building and vaulted tomb dating to the Middle Bronze Age and an in-situ cremation burial potentially belonging to the Late Bronze Age.

ASOR Members with online access: log into ASOR’s Online Portal here. Once logged in, click the JOURNALS tab in the top navigation bar. Tutorials for how to log in to the Online Portal as well as how to navigate to the Portal Journals page can be found here.

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2025 Annual Meeting Recap

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ASOR 2025 Annual Meeting Recap

Boston and Hybrid | November 19-22

ASOR held its hybrid Annual Meeting last month, November 19-22, at the Hilton Boston Park Plaza and online. More than 1,100 people were registered for the meeting, with approximately 950 attending in Boston.

The hybrid format of the meeting offered a way for attendees in Boston and online to share their research on an international platform. There were more than 600 paper, poster, and workshop presentations given on the academic program. ASOR’s Annual Meeting Mobile App (powered by Guidebook) provided means for in-person and virtual attendees to connect and to build personalized schedules.

If you attended the 2025 Annual Meeting in Boston or online, please complete the 2025 Annual Meeting Evaluation to provide valuable feedback that will be considered as we plan for 2026 and beyond.

Read on for a summary of the 2025 Annual Meeting, including features from the academic program, the business schedule, special events, and the 2025 ASOR Honors & Awards.

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The 2025 hybrid Annual Meeting opened on Wednesday, November 19, with the Plenary Address by Dr. Timothy P. Harrison (Director of the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures (ISAC) and Professor of Near Eastern Archaeology at the University of Chicago) titled, The Middle East Cultural Heritage Crisis and Why It Matters. The presentation generated a lot of discussion and enthusiasm, which continued throughout the evening at the Welcome Reception. View the Opening Remarks from ASOR’s Executive Director and President, as well as the Plenary Address by Dr. Timothy P. Harrison here.

The sessions, workshops, and posters on the academic program took place Thursday through Saturday, November 20-22. There were over 125 sessions and workshops with presenters representing 30 countries. The Poster Session featured more than 40 projects shared in Boston, as well as a virtual poster gallery. Online attendees could join sessions and workshops via Zoom from the 2025 ASOR Online Schedule. This was a valuable resource, not only for those who are unable to travel, but also for local registrants who had to be on campus or at their office during portions of the meeting that they would have otherwise missed. Session and workshop organizers were supported by ASOR assistants who were trained to facilitate the hybrid logistics of the meeting.

The recorded content of the Annual Meeting is being edited and will be available to registered attendees via the ASOR Online Portal / 2025 Online Schedule through July of 2026. Registration includes access to past Annual Meeting content in the ASOR Online Library. Register for the 2026 ASOR Annual Meeting or purchase access to the ASOR Online Library in the ASOR Online Portal for continued access.[/vc_wp_text][vc_single_image image=”106924″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][mk_padding_divider][vc_wp_text]

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In addition to the academic program, attendees in Boston enjoyed several special events at the Hilton Boston Park Plaza, as well as extracurricular programs organized by members, and complimentary access to the Museum of Fine Arts with an ASOR name badge. Events at the Hilton Boston Park Plaza included the Early Career Scholars brown-bag lunch panel, Roundtable Discussions, and the Exhibit Raffle. Receptions were hosted during the event by ASOR, the Madaba Plains Regional Project, and the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute (CAARI). Before the meeting, attendees had the option to attend a seal carving workshop organized by Pinar Durgun, a workshop at the Harvard Art Museums organized by Jennifer Thum on building visitors’ museum literacy, and a tour of Little Syria with members of the ASOR GIV Committee.

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The Exhibit Hall at the Hilton Boston Park Plaza included publishers, book sellers, universities, and booths by 2025 Annual Meeting sponsors, University of Chicago Press (Platinum Sponsor), Eisenbrauns / Penn State University Press (Platinum Sponsor), and ISD (Platinum Sponsor). Attendees browsed the exhibits on the centrally located Mezzanine foyer between sessions and during sponsored coffee breaks.

After the Annual Meeting, nearly 300 people stayed to celebrate ASOR’s 125th Anniversary with a festive evening of dining, live music, member-curated playlists, and ASOR-themed activities.

ASOR would like to thank everyone who participated and contributed to the success of the 2025 Annual Meeting. Please enjoy some of the memorable moments captured in the photo album below, and we hope you will continue to enjoy the recorded content from the meeting through June 2026.

Please mark your calendars for ASOR’s 2026 Annual Meeting at the Hilton Chicago and online, November 18–21. Registration is open! The Call for Member-Organized Session & Workshop proposals will be open from December 15, 2025, to January 15, 2026.

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2025 ASOR Annual Meeting Photo Album

Thank you to ASOR member, Bruno Soltic, for all of the photos taken during the 2025 Annual Meeting!

ASOR 2025 Annual Meeting Album

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Board of Trustees Election Results

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2025 ASOR BOARD OF TRUSTEES ELECTION RESULTS

Thank you to all the ASOR members who voted in this year’s Board of Trustees election!

The Board of Trustees sets the direction for ASOR and provides oversight for our organization. Among other responsibilities, members of the Board agree to attend two meetings each year, to participate thoughtfully in the governance process, and to contribute financially to ASOR. All ASOR members are eligible to vote in the Member-elected Trustee Election, while only Institutional Representatives of the 55 ASOR-member schools may vote in the Institutionally-elected Trustee Election.

Yorke Rowan and Ido Koch will serve 3-year terms as Member-elected Trustees.

Kathryn Grossman and Michael Hasel will serve 3-year terms as Institutionally-elected Trustees.

Read more about the newly-elected and reelected Trustees below.

 
Yorke Rowan

Yorke Rowan is an anthropological archaeologist and Research Professor at the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures (formerly the Oriental Institute) at the University of Chicago. He focuses on later prehistory (Late Neolithic, Chalcolithic, and Early Bronze), with thematic research interests in death, prehistoric ritual performance, and material objects mediating these human actions. He is a Fulbright Scholar to Jordan and a NEH Fellow at the W.F. Albright Institute for Archaeological Research in Jerusalem and the American Center of Research in Amman. His most recent publications include The Social Archaeology of the Levant: From Prehistory to Present (2019, Cambridge Press, co-edited with A. Yasur-Landau and E. Cline), “Desert Kites: Neolithic Infrastructure in the Margins” in Infrastructure in Archaeological Discourse: Framing Society in the Past (2024, Routledge, co-authored with A. C. Hill) and “The Black Desert Drone Survey: New Perspectives on an Ancient Landscape” in the journal Remote Sensing (2022) with A.C. Hill. He co-directs the NSF funded Kites in Context and Eastern Badia Archaeological Projects, two projects in the Black Desert of Jordan.

Mission Statement: Since the 1990s, ASOR has been fundamental to my development as a professional scholar and field archaeologist. The first grant I received for field research was an ASOR travel scholarship, and the first national professional paper I delivered was at ASOR in New Orleans. I have a long dedication to the success of ASOR, serving on the editorial boards of Bulletin of the American Schools of Overseas Research and Near Eastern Archaeology, co-chairing the Program Committee after for two previous terms on the committee, serving on the Honors and Awards Committee, and the Committee on Archaeological Policy. In addition, I co-chaired and co-organized various sessions such as the standing session “Prehistoric Archaeology” (2015, 2019-2021) and the member organized “Archaeology of Religion and Ritual” (2005-2006). My involvement with ASOR is complemented by extensive engagement with communities on the ground in different countries, emphasizing my commitment to creating more collaborative opportunities with colleagues based abroad.

The organization has grown tremendously since I joined as a graduate student, with a welcome expansion to include a broader range of topics, geographic regions, and chronological periods. This growth is not limited to scholarly interests but includes increased worldwide accessibility through a hybrid meeting format. I believe it is important to sustain and build on this positive trend to build membership, engage with members at different career stages, and seek to find new collaborative partnerships that will only strengthen ASOR. As ASOR faces new challenges like complicated funding realities, regional civil unrest, and climate change, the organization must mount new initiatives and endeavors to respond to member needs. As a member of ASOR’s Board of Trustees, my goal will be to promote its mission to disseminate knowledge of western Asia and Mediterranean ancient societies, and to make that scholarship more accessible to the public. Finding creative ways to promote our research, particularly those of our research partners, to a variety of audiences is a challenge that will strengthen our organization and continue to interest future generations of students, the public, and scholars.

 
Ido Koch

Ido Koch is Associate Professor in the Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures at Tel Aviv University. A field archaeologist of the southern Levant, his research explores interregional connectivity, colonial encounters, visual language, craft, and material religion. He is the author of several monographs, dozens of articles, and co-editor of ten volumes. Koch co-directs the Tel Hadid Archaeological Project, the renewed excavations at Tel Qasile, and the final publication of the Tel Arad excavations—all of which place strong emphasis on innovative documentation strategies, community outreach, and the dissemination of archaeological knowledge to diverse audiences. He is co-PI of several collaborative ventures, including the historical–archaeological study of the depopulated Palestinian village of al-Haditha (one of the few academic archaeological projects addressing the recent past of Israel/Palestine), and the Stamp Seals from the Southern Levant Project together with its comprehensive open-access online companion database. Koch also serves as Editor-in-Chief of Tel Aviv: Journal of the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University and sits on several international editorial boards. Through his research and teaching, he integrates advanced digital tools with inclusive, community-based approaches, engaging both Jewish and Arab students, to help build inclusive and forward-looking connections between academic, archaeological, and wider communities in the study of the southern Levant.

Mission Statement: I have been a member of ASOR since 2009, have attended nearly all annual meetings since then, and have interacted with scores of ASOR members of all ages and backgrounds. ASOR has been my professional cradle and the place where I learned to appreciate the value of an international network, a value I hope my students will inherit.

As a scholar based in the Middle East, I believe ASOR must strengthen the representation of voices from the regions it studies. The societies who live in the lands whose pasts we uncover deserve a place in shaping how that past is researched, understood, and represented. As an Israeli archaeologist working on the remote and recent past of the southern Levant, I am acutely aware of the region’s diversity and complexity. Based on my experience, ASOR and its sister institutions (such as the W.F. Albright Institute) are uniquely positioned to foster dialogue between Israeli and Palestinian scholars, a dialogue urgently needed now more than ever. I see my role as a bridge: between ASOR and local scholarly and cultural communities, and between those communities themselves. In times of deepening divisions, we must hold fast to both our professional and human ties. In my fieldwork and collaborations, I strive to create spaces where Jewish and Arab students, alongside colleagues from different backgrounds and perspectives, can work together toward shared understanding. Archaeology can and should serve as a medium of dialogue, and as a reminder of our intertwined pasts and shared humanity.

Drawing on my experience directing and co-directing field projects, I recognize the need for ASOR to advance ethical, inclusive, and community-oriented archaeology. I propose developing a collaboratively produced “fieldwork toolkit,” drawing on the collective knowledge of ASOR-affiliated projects. This toolkit would guide projects that prioritize community engagement, the dissemination of results to local institutions, and accessible digital platforms for sharing data. Through such initiatives, I hope to help ASOR lead by example—making archaeology both academically rigorous and socially meaningful.

 
Kathryn Grossman

Kathryn Grossman is Assistant Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at North Carolina State University. She is an archaeologist with expertise in the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age cultures of Cyprus and Mesopotamia and a methodological specialty in zooarchaeology. She is Director of the ASOR-affiliated Makounta-Voules Archaeological Project (Cyprus), as well as zooarchaeologist for the Kani Shaie Archaeological Project (Iraqi Kurdistan), the Wadi el-Hudi Expedition (Egypt), and the Petra North Ridge Project (Jordan). She is currently co-editing, with Jesse Casana and Eric Jensen, the final report on the excavations at Tell Qarqur, Syria.

Mission Statement: I have been involved with ASOR for seventeen years. I began attending and presenting at the annual meeting as a graduate student, and my engagement has deepened over time. I served on the Committee on Archaeological Policy for two terms, and during that time I also chaired the CAP Fellowships Subcommittee. In 2018, I presented the work of the Fellowships Subcommittee at that year’s Legacy Dinner, and in 2023 I received an ASOR Service award for my work on the CAP Fellowships Subcommittee. I chair the Archaeology of Syria sessions at the Annual Meeting, am a member of the Damascus Committee, a member of the Executive committee, the chair of the Trustees Nominations Committee, and I serve as the institutional representative for ASOR at North Carolina State University. In my time as an ASOR member, I have watched the organization grow dramatically in its geographic scope and evolve to meet the demands of 21st-century scholarship. In serving as an Institutionally-elected member on the ASOR Board of Trustees, I look forward to helping ASOR move forward with the issues that loom before us, including increasing our outreach to diverse audiences at home and abroad, and promoting the preservation of tangible and intangible cultural heritage.

 
Michael Hasel

Michael G. Hasel is Director of the Institute of Archaeology and Lynn H. Wood Archaeological Museum at Southern Adventist University, where he also serves as Professor of Near Eastern Studies and Archaeology since 1998.

Hasel has participated and served in administrative capacities on eleven different excavations in the Middle East, including Gezer, Ashkelon, Dor, Miqne-Ekron, Masada, and Hazor, in Israel; Idalion, Cyprus; and Jalul in Jordan. He has directed excavations and surveys at Khirbet Qeiyafa and Socoh and currently is co-director of The Fourth Expedition to Lachish. As curator of the Lynn H. Wood Archaeological Museum, Hasel was responsible for planning and displaying art and objects from the ancient Near East in a state-of-the-art exhibit entitled “Vessels in Time: A Journey into the Biblical World” and several temporary exhibits including “Peace and War: The Assyrian Conquest of Lachish” (2023-2025) and “The Ivory Comb: Lice and Literacy at Lachish” (2025).

Hasel, an ASOR member since 1989, has chaired several ASOR sessions and served on the Agenda Committee. He held the Samuel H. Kress Fellowship at the W. F. Albright Institute for Archaeological Research (AIAR) in 1995-96 and a Fulbright at the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute (CAARI) in 2005 and the NEH Fellowship at the Albright Institute in 2025-26. He is also a fellow of the Institute for Biblical Research and Tyndale House, Cambridge.

Hasel joined the ASOR Board in January 2014.

Mission Statement: Over the past 36 years of my involvement with ASOR, I have watched ASOR grow into a strong society representing a wide variety of interests and research foci in the ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean worlds. During that same period, I have been actively involved in excavations in Israel, Jordan, and Cyprus while also engaged in Egyptological research. As an excavator I am interested in encouraging the archaeological interplay between text and material culture. This integration has been one of the historic strengths of ASOR and I believe it remains vital as ASOR continues to position itself as an important and relevant voice to a large segment of North America. As a museum director part of my vision is to make our field relevant for future generations through popularizing archaeological discoveries and making it accessible to a larger segment of society. This would include encouraging young scholars who are searching for direction and belonging to get involved in ASOR while fostering connections in the regions it serves. To accomplish these goals, I would welcome the opportunity to continue to support and serve as a member of the Board of Trustees for another term.

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FOA Webinar: Michael Hundley

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FRIENDS OF ASOR WEBINARS

What is a God? The Bible and the Ancient Near East

Friends of ASOR present the next webinar of the 2025-2026 season on December 17, 2025, at 7:00 pm EST, presented by Dr. Michael Hundley. This webinar will be free and open to the public. Registration through Zoom (with a valid email address) is required. This webinar will be recorded and all registrants will be sent a recording link in the days following the webinar.

What is a god? While the question is simple enough, our answer often depends on our cultural context, and we tend to expect other cultures to have the same ideas we do. We also project our modern ideas backward onto ancient texts, overlooking native classifications in the process. However, rather than being a fixed category, the definition of a “god” is culturally conditioned. With an assist from the Cognitive Science of Religion, this presentation attempts to reconstruct ancient perceptions of gods in the Ancient Near East and the Bible. It draws from and expands upon Dr. Hundley’s four-part series in Ancient Near East Today, as well as his previous and current book projects.

We begin by surveying the various beings who may qualify as gods in the Bible and the wider Ancient Near East, including Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Levant, and Hittite Anatolia. With the data in place, we consider the qualities that all deities share. While gods come in all shapes and sizes, all possess power and agency. To make the divine world more comprehensible, we then sort the divine sphere into categories: high gods (e.g., Egyptian Amun, Mesopotamian Marduk and Assur, Ugaritic El, and biblical YHWH), major gods, minor gods, and peripheral gods. High gods rule, and in the case of Amun, Marduk, Assur, and YHWH, possess a complement of divine powers, like a one-stop shop. Major gods often are specialists (e.g., weather, sun, moon), whereas minor gods serve the high and major gods. Peripheral gods include deified natural phenomena like rivers and mountains, monsters and demons, foreign gods, as well as seemingly inanimate objects like beds and doorposts. Although all gods possess humanlike agency, those closer to the top tend to be the most humanlike internally, making them immediately more understandable and relatable. By contrast, peripheral gods tend to be less humanlike and, as such, more menacing.

The presentation will conclude with a look at the monotheistic redefinition of the god category. Although multiple superhuman beings remain, only one qualifies as a god in the Abrahamic religions (although Christianity divides this god into three persons). Over time Christian tradition reclassifies other erstwhile gods as either good and rebellious angels, thereby dividing the divine world into Team God and Team Satan.

Dr. Michael Hundley (B.A. Amherst College; Ph.D. University of Cambridge) is Assistant Professor of Teaching at the University of Memphis. He works at the intersection of human and divine in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and the Ancient Near East and has published multiple books and articles, including Keeping Heaven on Earth: Safeguarding the Divine Presence in the Priestly Tabernacle (2011), Gods in Dwellings: Temples and Divine Presence in the Ancient Near East (2013), and Yahweh among the Gods: The Divine in Genesis, Exodus, and the Ancient Near East (2022). He is currently finishing Ancient Gods and Monsters: The Bible, the Ancient Near East, and Beyond and is beginning Temples and Divine Presence in the Bible and Ancient Near East for the Cambridge Elements series. Future projects include a comparison of temples and divine presence in the Bible, Ancient Near East, and Hinduism and an exploration of gendering gods.

SUPPORT THE WEBINAR PROGRAM!

Friends of ASOR is pleased to announce that the first webinars of the 2025-2026 season will once again be free and open to the public with a goal to raise $10,000 so that the entire webinar season will be free. Will you support this outreach effort with a tax-deductible contribution? All donors/sponsors with gifts of $100 or more will be recognized in subsequent webinars. Make your gift today and select “webinars” from the dropdown menu.

Designate your gift for “Webinars” in the drop-down menu.

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Table of Contents for Maarav 29.1-2 (2025)

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Table of Contents for Maarav 29.1-2 (2025)

Maarav.29.2025.cover
You can receive Maarav(and other ASOR publications) through an ASOR Membership.
Please e-mail the Membership office if you have any questions.

Pp. 1-25: ““The Anger of the Queen Has Gone Forth”: Ilimilku’s Warning to Urtenu in a Ugaritic Piggyback Letter (RS 94.2406 [KTU3 2.88])” by Heath D. Dewrell

The present essay begins with a reexamination of a “piggyback” letter from Late Bronze Ugarit, RS 94.2406 (KTU3 2.88), offering a fresh edition of this letter from an unnamed queen of Ugarit to Urtenu that contains a second letter from a certain Ilimilku to the same appended to the end. The edition presented here notes a previously unacknowledged difficulty that, once recognized and accounted for, serves to reveal a degree of tension between the queen of Ugarit and Ilimilku, her scribe. Once properly understood, it becomes clear that Ilimilku’s piggyback letter at the very least recontextualizes the queen’s letter and may well even go so far as to contradict the queen’s instructions outright. The second portion of the essay embarks on a comparison with other analogous piggyback letters from the Late Bronze age, written in both Akkadian and Hittite, to reveal that Ilimilku’s piggyback letter is hardly unique in these regards and that it was not especially uncommon for scribes to append their own letters to those of their patrons, apparently without the latter’s knowledge, often with the goal of advancing the scribes’ own interests and agendas.

ASOR Members with online access: log into ASOR’s Online Portal here. Once logged in, click the JOURNALS tab in the top navigation bar. From here you may select which journal you would like to read. If you have online access, you will see your selected journal’s current issue Table of Contents. Click on the “Current Issue” button and you will then be redirected to the University of Chicago Press’s (UCP) platform to immediately start reading any issue of your choice. Tutorials for how to log in to the Online Portal as well as how to navigate to the Portal Journals page can be found here.

Pp. 27-119: “‘The Rise of “National” Scripts in the Iron Age II: A Proposal” by Nathaniel E. Greene and Jeremy M. Hutton

Northwest Semitic paleographic data has inspired a consensus that several “national” scripts had become well-established by the Iron IIB. Many treat these scripts as expressions of self-contained identity. Moreover, they are often framed in ways that gloss over aspects of scribal training. Questions remain, however, regarding the behavioral processes that affected such developments. To account for these processes, we propose a “franchise” model of scribal training: a few centers produced scribal lineages that, once established, operated semi-independently. While some scribes may have been held “on retainer,” most likely hired themselves out on a localized “freelance” system. The selection of national scripts was thus inadvertent and not motivated by exertions of “national” identity. Royal courts of the Iron Age IIB unintentionally adopted “micro-features” of the alphabetic script that had been formalized in the scribal lineage(s) prestigious enough to enjoy employment in major centers. Rather than serving as a distinctive marker of national consciousness imposed from the top-down, the development of “national scripts” was the natural effect of local patronage and “elite emulation” of micro-features by more peripheral scribes. The nationalization of scripts was therefore incidental to the emergent national consciousness and driven by individual scribes and the training regimens connecting them.

ASOR Members with online access: log into ASOR’s Online Portal here. Once logged in, click the JOURNALS tab in the top navigation bar. From here you may select which journal you would like to read. If you have online access, you will see your selected journal’s current issue Table of Contents. Click on the “Current Issue” button and you will then be redirected to the University of Chicago Press’s (UCP) platform to immediately start reading any issue of your choice. Tutorials for how to log in to the Online Portal as well as how to navigate to the Portal Journals page can be found here.

Pp. 121-178: “Conflate Readings and the Lamentations Textual Tradition” by F. W. Dobbs-Allsopp

One dimension of Lamentations’s textual tradition, namely, its propensity for conflate readings, provides the chief focus of inquiry in this essay. As I work to collect, elucidate, and clarify these conflate readings, other dimensions of these poems’ extant and reconstructable textualities come into view, viz. their rough chronology, prevalence of variability and multiformity. The phenomenon of conflate readings is well known to textual scholars of the Bible. The presenting peculiarity in Lamentations is the breakage in form to no apparent end that the preservation of such readings inevitably entails. Given how integral form is to this poetry’s operative poetics, such deformations require explanation. The solution posed posits shifts over time in the literary values that guided scribal practice when it came to the collecting and recording of variant readings. The resulting view of Lamentations’s literary history is far richer, more complex, and truer to scribal realia than that usually presumed by students of these poems.

ASOR Members with online access: log into ASOR’s Online Portal here. Once logged in, click the JOURNALS tab in the top navigation bar. From here you may select which journal you would like to read. If you have online access, you will see your selected journal’s current issue Table of Contents. Click on the “Current Issue” button and you will then be redirected to the University of Chicago Press’s (UCP) platform to immediately start reading any issue of your choice. Tutorials for how to log in to the Online Portal as well as how to navigate to the Portal Journals page can be found here.

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Silent Auction at ASOR’s 125th Anniversary Celebration

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Silent Auction at ASOR’s 125th Anniversary Celebration

[/vc_column_text][mk_divider][vc_column_text]ASOR is gearing up for our 125th Anniversary Celebration at this year’s Annual Meeting in Boston on Saturday, November 22nd, and we can’t wait to see you there! A silent auction will be held as part of the festivities, and this is your chance to make a unique contribution to this very special milestone.

All proceeds from the silent auction will go towards Membership and Annual Meeting Scholarships. ASOR has already awarded over $15,000 in scholarship funds this year and we need your help to make sure we can continue to support those members of our ASOR community with financial need.

Not able to make it to the celebration Boston this November? ASOR will be hosting the auction on-line through December 31, so that you can still bid on these one-of-a-kind items and experiences.

Auction items can include:

  • Autographed books
  • A virtual lecture
  • Private lunch or dinner
  • VIP tour of a site
  • Special access to or a personal tour of a museum
  • Artwork
  • Hands-on or virtual training in a particular skill or method
  • Translation services
  • Editorial services
  • Or anything you can think of!

Do you have a great idea for an auction item? Fill out this brief Google form to make your mark on the festivities.

 

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FOA Webinar: Igor Kreimerman, Mike Freikman, and Rachel Hallote

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FRIENDS OF ASOR WEBINARS

American Archaeology through the Lens of Albright’s Work at Tell Beit Mirsim, and Beyond

Friends of ASOR (in partnership with the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research) present the next webinar of the 2025-2026 season on November 12, 2025, at 12:00 pm EST, with panelists Igor Kreimerman, Michael Freikman, and Rachel Hallote. This webinar will be free and open to the public. Registration through Zoom (with a valid email address) is required. This webinar will be recorded and all registrants will be sent a recording link in the days following the webinar.

Presentation 1: “Tell Beit Mirsim in Perspective: Revisiting Albright’s excavations in Light of Renewed Work” with Igor Kreimerman

Albright’s excavations at Tell Beit Mirsim marked a turning point in the development of Biblical Archaeology, establishing the site as a key type-site for the discipline. The innovative methods applied in both excavation and publication resonated for decades and provided the foundation for Albright’s wide-ranging synthetic studies. Over time, however, many of his conclusions and theories have been challenged and re-evaluated. The renewed excavations at Tell Beit Mirsim invite a fresh assessment of Albright’s work, comparing his insights with new evidence from the field. This presentation will reconsider the validity of his reports in light of modern scholarship and reflect on the enduring impact of his excavations.

Dr. Igor Kreimerman is a Senior Lecturer in Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He directs the Selz Foundation Hazor Excavations in Memory of Yigael Yadin and serves as scientific advisor to the Renewed Excavations at Tell Beit Mirsim. His research focuses on the social and economic structures of Bronze and Iron Age Levantine societies, as well as on human-induced site formation processes, particularly those related to construction and destruction.

Presentation 2: “Going Where No One has gone Before: A Peek Into the Intricacies of Albright’s Expedition at Tell Beit Mirsim” with Michael Freikman

The excavation of this little-known tell became groundbreaking in the history of biblical archaeology. As one of the earliest American expeditions in the Near East, Albright drew on his wide learning and field experience, effectively turning Tell Beit Mirsim into an open-air laboratory and, in many respects, helping to shape biblical archaeology as we know it today. We will highlight key aspects of his experience at the site—the team’s methodology, day-to-day life in the field, and Albright’s relationships with his team and local population—together forming the enduring legacy of one of the foremost forefathers of modern archaeology.

Dr. Michael Friekman holds a Ph.d in Archaeology at Hebrew Univeristy in Jerusalem. He has studied the megalithic architecture in the Ancient Near East, excavated at Rujm el Hiri, and participated at the excavation and publication of Kh. Qeyiafa, Sha’ar Hagolan, and Tel Tsaf. He presently directs the renewed excavation of Tell Beit Mirsim.

Presentation 3: “Tell Beit Mirsim in Context: The American Archaeological Presence in Ottoman and Mandatory Palestine Before and After Albright” with Rachel Hallote

This talk will put W. F. Albright’s Tell Beit Mirsim excavations into the historical context of archaeological work that had previously been done in Ottoman controlled Palestine. The arrival of Albright at the American Schools of Oriental Studies in Jerusalem immediately after World War I marks the beginnings the a real American presence in archaeology that had not been acknowledged previously. Although the Americans did not dominate the field, the Tell Beit Mirsim excavations came to be known for its concentration on ceramic and stratigraphic methodologies, and continued to influence the discipline in later decades.

Rachel Hallote is Professor of History at Purchase College SUNY. Her research involves British and American archaeologists who excavated in Ottoman-controlled Palestine in the 19th century. She has worked at numerous archaeological sites in Israel, including Tell Miqne and Megiddo. Her publications include Bible, Map, and Spade: The American Exploration Society, Frederick Jones Bliss, and the Forgotten Story of Early American Biblical Archaeology and the co-authored volume, The Photographs of the American Palestine Exploration Society as well as many articles about archaeology and the history of the discipline. She currently co-hosts an archaeology podcast called This Week in the Ancient Near East.

SUPPORT THE WEBINAR PROGRAM!

Friends of ASOR is pleased to announce that the first webinars of the 2025-2026 season will once again be free and open to the public with a goal to raise $10,000 so that the entire webinar season will be free. Will you support this outreach effort with a tax-deductible contribution? All donors/sponsors with gifts of $100 or more will be recognized in subsequent webinars. Help ensure these webinars stay free and available to all by donating today!

Designate your gift for “Webinars” in the drop-down menu.

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New BASOR Editors Announced

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Ammonite Iron Age Tower in Jordan

NEW BULLETIN OF ASOR (BASOR) EDITORIAL TEAM ANNOUNCED

ASOR welcomes Jason Ur as a new interim co-editor of TheBulletin of the American Society of Overseas Research (BASOR). This co-editor appointment was unanimously approved by the Executive Committee on recommendation from the Committee on Publications. Ur will serve an interim term, ending December 31, 2026, alongside one of the current co-editors, Marwan Kilani. The Committee on Publications thanks the three outgoing editors, Susan Cohen, Jana Mynářová, and Regine Pruzsinszky, for their dedication, professionalism, and service.

Jason Ur is Stephen Phillips Professor of Archaeology and Ethnology in the Department of Anthropology at Harvard University. He specializes in early urbanism, landscape archaeology, and remote sensing. He was trained in Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania (BA 1994) and in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago (PhD 2004). He has directed field surveys in Syria, Iraq, Turkey, and Iran. He is the author of Urbanism and Cultural Landscapes in Northeastern Syria: The Tell Hamoukar Survey, 1999-2001 (2010). Since 2012, he has directed the Erbil Plain Archaeological Survey, an archaeological survey in the Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq. In 2014, he was the plenary speaker at the 2014 ASOR Annual Meeting with his talk, “The Renaissance of Archaeology in Iraq and its Kurdistan Region.”

Marwan Kilani is an Egyptologist and linguist working on cultural and linguistic interactions between Egypt and the Levant. He has a strong interest in methodological questions, and in digital humanities and computational methods applied to the study of the ancient world. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Basel and has served as BASOR co-editor since January 1, 2021.

Those interested in publishing in BASOR should continue to submit manuscripts through the online submission system.

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