Residential Burial and Social Memory in the Middle Bronze Age Levant

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Residential Burial and Social Memory in the Middle Bronze Age Levant

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Available until December 7, 2018[/vc_column_text][mk_divider][vc_column_text]Near Eastern Archaeology, September 2018, “Residential Burial and Social Memory in the Middle Bronze Age Levant” by Melissa S. Cradic (Badè Museum of Biblical Archaeology)

Disposal of the dead within occupied buildings of the Middle Bronze Age Levant, or intramural burial, offered inhabitants a way of closely interacting with the physical remains of the deceased. Residential burials provided permanent spatial connections between the living and the dead and served as loci of social memory for the intergenerational household. Drawing on archaeological evidence from Tel Megiddo, this article presents a model for residential burial and social memory focusing on the diversity of body disposal methods. Burials inside the settlement varied significantly in terms of type and architecture, body disposal methods, and grave goods. In several cases, burials were reopened periodically to reposition corpses while others were never disturbed. The author argues that the high degree of diversity within this mortuary corpus relates to differential social roles of the deceased after burial, and that mourners’ close encounters with deceased bodies transformed the status of the dead in a complex and protracted sequence of funerary rituals.

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ASOR Election Results (2018)

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ASOR ELECTION RESULTS (2018)

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]ASOR announced the newly elected trustees at the 2018 ASOR Annual Meeting in Denver.

There were three openings for Member-elected Trustees (one opening for a 2-year term, and two openings for 3-year terms), and two, three-year openings for Institutionally-elected Trustees. All ASOR members were eligible to vote in the Member-elected Trustee Election, while only Institutional Representatives of the 72 ASOR-member schools voted in the Institutionally-elected Trustee Election.

ASOR conducted the elections by online ballot.

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Membership-elected Trustees

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Emily Miller Bonney

Emily Miller Bonney is a professor of Liberal Studies at California State University Fullerton, where she currently serves as Interim Dean of the Pollak University Library.  She received her PhD in Greek and Roman art and archaeology from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University and her JD from the University of California at Los Angeles.  Her research focuses on Bronze Age Crete, and specifically on the application of extended mind and material agency theories to the relationship between the archaeological record and social/political/economic change.  She also examines the ways in which the specific disciplinary frameworks affect the conclusions scholars reach.  Among her publications is the co-edited volume Incomplete Archaeologies: Assembling Knowledge in the Past and Present.  Her recent work re-examines the mortuary evidence for social organization transitions in the Early Bronze Age on Crete, particularly the circular stone tombs, and for cross-crafting in pottery and other media.

Mission Statement: When I returned to the Academy in 1999 after 15 years in the world of law school and legal practice, a colleague suggested I attend an ASOR meeting, and I remain forever grateful for that recommendation.  Like many people I found my vision of my profession changed through contact with ASOR members and activities, and I look forward to the opportunity to serve and give back to the organization as a Board member.  If elected I would work to ensure that ASOR can continue its support of scholarly activity in the field, in research, and in the classroom.  In particular I would encourage continued expansion into all levels of education as well as in the network of municipal libraries and other public fora with an eye to elevating everyone’s awareness of our shared cultural heritage.  The organization has been importantly active in supporting younger scholars’ development and maintenance of professional networks and more recently has begun to provide opportunities to explore careers outside the academy, both efforts to which I am deeply committed.  I also would hope to see ASOR maintain and grow its role as an intermediary between the realms of scholarship and the wider public in its publications and in an array of outreach activities.  To that end I would want to find ways we could continue to expand membership not just among scholars working in the Near East and the Western Mediterranean, but among those interested in understanding antiquity more broadly defined – in Europe, Asia and the Americas.  Finally I would encourage increasing ASOR’s advocacy for the preservation of the peoples and cultures we study.  We all have a stake in deepening our understanding of the civilizations that preceded our own.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″ css=”.vc_custom_1503684320408{padding-right: 15px !important;}”][mk_image src=”http://www.asor.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/evans.jpg” image_width=”150″ image_height=”250″ hover=”false”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]

Jane DeRose Evans

Jane DeRose Evans is an archaeologist who works in any area that was conquered by the Romans: she has conducted field work in France, England, Greece, Israel, Jordan, and especially Turkey. She has written reports on the coins from the excavations of the synagogue at Sardis, Bir Madkhour, Tell er Ras, Gordion and Sardis.  She is the author of books on the excavation coins of Sardis (Coins from the Excavations at Sardis: Their Archaeological and Economic Contexts, Harvard 2018), and Caesarea Maritima (The JECM Excavation Reports v.6, The Coins and the Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine Economy of Palestine, ASOR 2006) and political propaganda (The Art of Persuasion, Michigan 1992). She was editor and contributor to The JECM Excavation Reports v.2: the Mithraeum at Caesarea Maritima (ASOR 2017).  She is preparing a volume on the portico of Area C in Caesarea Maritima.  Currently, she serves as Chair of Art History at Tyler School of Art, Temple University.

Mission statement: ASOR has been an important part of my scholarly life since graduate school, as a place to find out about excavations and new ways of thinking about the cultural history of the southern Levant and Anatolia. More recently, I served on the committee to write the policies on ethics, been an active member with the women of ASOR, and part of the cultural heritage committee. I have been proud to see ASOR move to a stable financial footing, and tackle important questions of cultural heritage and ethical responses to threats to the region’s archaeological heritage.  The organization is entering a new phase, with the movement of the offices, and its relationship to AAR/SBL in flux. I hope to be part of the transition time, as we retain our valuable mission to bring a greater understanding of our past to a wider audience.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″ css=”.vc_custom_1503684320408{padding-right: 15px !important;}”][mk_image src=”http://www.asor.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Welch-Headshot-150-x-250.jpg” image_width=”150″ image_height=”250″ hover=”false”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]

Eric Welch

Eric Welch received his PhD in History and Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies from the Pennsylvania State University in 2015. Following three years as Visiting Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Kansas, he joined the University of Kentucky as a founding lecturer in the Lewis Honors College. As a Senior Lecturer, he teaches across the honors curriculum, including honors courses in Hebrew Bible, History, and Archaeology. Eric has been with the Tell es-Safi/Gath Excavation Project since 2006, where he directs the excavation of a 9th century BCE olive oil production facility. His work at Tell es-Safi has been supported by ASOR’s Heritage Excavation Grant, the Sean William Dever Fellowship, and was presented at the ASOR Annual Meeting with the assistance of the Foundation for Biblical Archaeology Scholarship.

Eric has been an active member of ASOR since 2008 in both scholarship and service. He is a member of the ASOR Early Career Scholars committee and currently serves as co-chair of the committee. He also serves on the ASOR ad hoc committee for the location of the Annual Meeting and is the chair of the ASOR program unit, Archaeology of the Near East: Bronze and Iron Ages.

Mission Statement: My goal in serving ASOR is to represent the voice of early career scholars. As the landscape of employment changes, I intend to be an advocate for our undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate members as they seek out personal and professional fulfillment. ASOR has always been comprised of specialists who hold jobs outside of traditional tenure track university positions. I want to continue make ASOR a place that embraces career diversity and empowers early career scholars to be active members in ASOR whether their position is academic, peri-academic, or in an industry completely unrelated to the academy.

To do this, I have taken the lead on a mentorship initiative as a part of my work on the Early Career Scholars Committee. My vision is that our early career scholars would have opportunities for mentorship and professional development that reflect the realities of our collective career diversity. As a member of the Board of Trustees, I will be better positioned to communicate the necessity of this initiative to the wider membership body, along with an improved ability to facilitate these mentorship opportunities. It is my hope that efforts like this will contribute to the value of ASOR membership whether one seeks employment in the academy or beyond.

As an early career scholar, I recognize the important role the Annual Meeting plays in my own professional development. A significant portion of our members are the only Near Eastern scholars in their place of work, so the November meeting provides a crucial opportunity to interact with other scholars of the ancient Near East. With a significant portion of our membership having little to no access to professional development funds, it is imperative that the Annual Meeting remain financially feasible for all members. At the same time, I am committed to ensuring that the Annual Meeting is financially viable for ASOR. As a member of the Board of Trustees, I look forward to helping the Annual Meeting continue to benefit the membership of ASOR without becoming a financial liability for our organization.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text responsive_align=”left”]

Institutionally-elected Trustees

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Lynn Swartz Dodd

Lynn Swartz Dodd is Associate Professor of the Practice of Religion at the University of Southern California Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. There, she has served as the Director of the Interdisciplinary Archaeology Undergraduate Major and the Director of Undergraduate Studies in Religion. She was also designated a USC Dornsife Distinguished Faculty Fellow.

Dodd’s research centers on archaeology and politics, and the ways that beliefs about the world and resources figure in social change. As Curator of USC’s Archaeology Research Center, she is also engaged in material studies, excavation publication projects, and new imaging techniques in archaeological research and conservation. She directs the Tell al-Judaidah Publication Project (Turkey) and Native American Sacred Landscapes Project (California); co-directed the Kenan Tepe Excavations (Tigris River, Turkey); and was field director of the Amuq Valley Research Project Survey (Turkey). Dodd is in addition the co-organizer of the Israeli Palestinian Archaeology Working Group.

Dodd has served ASOR in many capacities: for example, as a member of the Publications Committee and of the Committee on Archaeological Research and Policy (and as Chair of that committee’s Fellowships Subcommittee), and member of the Near Eastern Archaeology Editorial Board. She was the Chair of the Ad Hoc Ethics Working Group that authored the Policy on Professional Conduct adopted by the ASOR Board in April 2015. She has been ASOR Secretary since January 1, 2013.

In November 2015, she received the ASOR Membership Service Award.

Mission Statement: During my term serving as Secretary of the Board of Trustees and Chair of the Ad Hoc Ethics Working Group, I came to understand the critical importance of ASOR members’ perspectives about professional responsibility in all areas of research, publication, and teaching. I support ASOR’s on-going efforts to specify best practices that support safety and respect for all participants in every environment.

I applaud ASOR’s recent decision to open all benefits of membership, including scholarships, to all members regardless of their home location.  As an Institutional Representative to the ASOR Board of Trustees, I will work to increase the visible, reciprocal benefits both for Institutional members and for ASOR. Also, I will contribute to reimagining institutional membership in ways that enable diverse forms of support for ASOR and its members worldwide.  I will encourage ASOR to pursue initiatives that support relevance, diversity, and expanded professional opportunities for ASOR members, including new partnerships with non-profits and other organizations. I affirm ASOR’s tangible efforts to support heritage preservation, documentation and rebuilding in the regions where ASOR members work as reflections of our broad vision of scholarly responsibility and relevance.  I will continue to support ASOR personally, and will seek to identify others who will support ASOR, both financially and in other ways, so that additional resources can be offered to members who participate in research into, and public understanding of, the history and cultures of the Near East and wider Mediterranean, from the earliest times.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″ css=”.vc_custom_1503684320408{padding-right: 15px !important;}”][mk_image src=”http://www.asor.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wright.jpg” image_width=”150″ image_height=”250″ hover=”false”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]

J. Edward Wright

Wright is Professor of Hebrew Bible and Early Judaism and Director of The Arizona Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Arizona. Wright’s area of expertise is early Jewish history and religion with particular interest in early Jewish apocryphal texts — texts that shed light on the non-traditional aspects of early Jewish thought and culture, allowing for a more accurate depiction of the rich diversity of early Judaism.

Wright is also a member of the Board of Advisors of the Museum of Biblical Archaeology, a new national public museum that will be devoted to the history, culture, and people of the land of the Bible. In addition, he serves as a co-editor of “The Bible and Interpretation” website, and he is a past President of the Society of Biblical Literature, Pacific Coast Region.

Within ASOR, Wright was the guest editor of a special issue of Near Eastern Archaeology — “The House that Albright Built” (NEA 65/1). He has served as an ASOR Trustee since 2006, and he also served two terms as President of the W. F. Albright Institute for Archaeological Research (AIAR), from 2006-2012. He remains an Honorary Trustee of the Albright. Currently, Wright serves as the Chair of the ASOR Board’s Development Committee. In November 2012, Wright received ASOR’s W. F. Albright Service Award, which honors an individual who has shown special support or made outstanding service contributions to one of the overseas centers, ACOR, AIAR, CAARI, or to one of the overseas committees – the Baghdad Committee and the Damascus Committee.


Mission Statement
: As a trustee I will support ASOR’s mission to support and promote archaeological excavation, scholarly research, student training, and the dissemination of information about the cultures and history of the Near East. As the current chair of the development committee, I am especially interested in promoting development efforts that strive to raise funds to support ASOR’s mission-driven endeavors, and that naturally includes the effort to established our new headquarters in the DC area.

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Fellowship Report: John Huggins

PATCHY PLASTER AND HIDDEN POTS: MY EXPERIENCE AT HUQOQ, ISRAEL (SUMMER 2018)

John Huggins, 2018 Eric and Carol Meyers Excavation Fellowship Recipient

The generosity of Carol and Eric Meyers allowed me to return to Huqoq, Israel for a second season in the summer of 2018. My first season as a field school student in 2017 introduced me to the methods, specialties, and processes of what happens on an archaeological dig. Every day except Saturday we would wake up at 4AM, walk to the site, and begin digging at 5AM all the students would take turns providing a lavish mid-morning field breakfast to the team, then continue working. I became acquainted with archaeological terms that would help me in the excavations, such as: stratigraphy, balk, potsherd, sandbag and bucket chain. On Saturdays we would take trips to archaeological sites in the area, and this year we took a few extra days to journey to Petra. The welcoming environment and exciting nature of the site itself, workers and staff, and overall experience made it a very easy place to want to return.

The site of Huqoq sits in the northern region of the Galilee about three miles from the sea’s edge, where there was a modern Ottoman village called Yakuk. Occupied during the Hellenistic, Early Roman, Abbasid, Fatimid, and Mamluk periods, the area reached the height of its prosperity in the Late Roman and Byzantine periods. In 2011, excavations began at Huqoq to carefully excavate through the later occupation periods to reach the ancient village and define the chronology of its synagogue, which since 2012 has received much attention due to the very unique images uncovered on its mosaic floor. However, the mosaics are not the only focus of the project. Much of the ongoing excavation is working through the modern era down into the period of the ancient synagogue’s construction.

I returned for the 2018 season working in the same square in which I had worked the previous season – area 3000 SW. This area is south of the ancient synagogue, where I continued excavating through the remains of the modern village and the periods of occupation preceding it. After cleaning the area of the accumulation from the past year, the defining features of the area were well visible. The area was defined by collapse and ash pits with bits of plastered floors and partition walls peeking out sporadically. Evidence from previous years’ excavations pulled out many pieces of tabun installations across the ash filled area. My square in particular, however, did not have well defined ash pits, but rather very patchy remnants of a layering of plaster floors. The collapse of the structures above the surface in this area effectively destroyed most of the top layer of the plaster, and the limestone in the soil made it hard to tell whether it was plaster, stone, or something in between. Removal of this first surface showed another layer of patchy plaster that seemed to have no discernible area, then another, then another. Identifying, tracing, and clarifying the spans of plaster was a very time consuming process- at some points incredibly frustrating. Ultimately, the multiple layers of plaster here and the pottery recovered in association with them provided us with data for the sub-phasing of the occupation in this period, and although occasionally grueling, this area taught me much about analyzing stratigraphy and seeing the relations among elements visible in the soil.

Under these first few centimeters excavated, we soon came down on a layer of loose fill, which continued down in almost the entire square for nearly a meter. It seemed as if the fill would never end, as the excavation of this feature of the square took nearly two weeks. Within the fill, pieces of tabun similar to the ones found throughout the area were present, as well as other datable material to provide this construction with a good date range. Bordering this region of fill in the square a large rim peaked out almost completely in-tact, beneath what was before a collection of very large collapse. We had no idea what it was; some people speculated that it was a cistern, others an in-tact tabun. Within the fill a few centimeters away from this rim, fist sized stones were the most common sized stones, however there were several rather large stones in line that appeared as we reached the bottom of the fill on its western edge. Once the fill was completely taken away, these large stones continued, and quickly we found a line of ashlar stones that revealed a very surprising find hidden inside! Wedged between two rows of blocks- and surrounded by a ring of fist sized stones, the unidentified rim turned out to be a large storage vessel. The most fascinating aspect of this vessel was not the quality of the find itself but rather its very intentional and peculiar context. The vessel was wedged so tightly into this niche that I had to use a ladle and a set of tablespoons and teaspoons to excavate it. This vessel is a true mystery at this point, because areas surrounding it seem to have not been in any interaction with the vessel.

This particular find prompted questions and inquiries that led me to join an excavation in the first place: what is this? why is it here? who put it here? More importantly, what can this tell us of the inhabitants and how they lived and interacted with their environment? This shows just how fascinating and puzzling an excavation can be and how accurate and precise documentation are necessary for the preservation of history and culture. Again, it would not be possible for me to have this experience without the generosity of Carol and Eric Meyers and their wish to allow students to see first-hand what an excavation is.

John Huggins is in his final year of undergraduate study at Austin College in Sherman, Texas. He is a Classics major. Currently, he is applying for master’s and PhD programs for Classical Archaeology.

Want to help more students and young archaeologists like John get into the field? Donate to the cause today by selecting “Excavation Scholarships” as your gift purpose!

ASOR and Its Members in the News

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NEWS@ASOR E-NEWSLETTER

ANCIENT NEAR EAST TODAY E-NEWSLETTER

PAST ASOR NEWS, MONTH BY MONTH

FY18 HONOR ROLL OF DONORS

ASOR ANNUAL MEETING

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ASOR AND ITS MEMBERS IN THE NEWS

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Be sure to check out these recent mentions of ASOR in the news!

Newly revealed 5th century mosaics a kaleidoscope of Jewish and secular imagery – The Times of Israel

Looted artifacts are making their way home to Turkey – BG Independent News

‘Oriental’ archaeology society reconsiders its name – Nature (International Journal of Science)

A Bronze Age tomb in Israel reveals the earliest known use of vanilla – ScienceNews

An exploding meteor may have wiped out ancient Dead Sea communities – Science News

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The Future of the Annual Meeting: When and Where to Meet?

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NEWS@ASOR E-NEWSLETTER

ANCIENT NEAR EAST TODAY E-NEWSLETTER

PAST ASOR NEWS, MONTH BY MONTH

FY18 HONOR ROLL OF DONORS

ASOR ANNUAL MEETING

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THE FUTURE OF THE ANNUAL MEETING: WHEN AND WHERE TO MEET?

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]We now face uncertainty about when and where the ASOR Annual Meeting will be held in the future. Why is this and what needs to be done? It is YOUR meeting we need YOUR input…. Again.

As many ASOR members know, we decided during our 2007 meeting that the best time and place for the ASOR meeting was just prior to the SBL meeting and in the same city. However, as the combined SBL-AAR meeting has grown and swallowed up prime hotel space, we have been pushed increasingly to the outskirts of the cities where we meet. This is an issue at this year’s Denver meeting and will be again as we look to book a venue for 2021, when there will essentially be no room for us downtown in San Antonio, the SBL-AAR venue.

 

We started this conversation in late 2016. At that time, we elicited input through an initial survey and at a membership meeting. The results of the survey were posted and are here summarized.

1) Responses: about 270 folks viewed the survey (actually went to the link) and between 220-236 responded (depending on the question);

2) Demographics: half of respondents had been members for 10 years or less and about 2/3 attend the Annual Meeting most or every year; 32% of respondents were SBL members and 40% of these responded that they regularly attend SBL;

3) 25% of respondents said they prefer to meet with SBL, while 33% preferred to not meet with SBL (42% were in the middle)

4) Most (31%) on a 1 to 5 scale preferred to stay with the Nov. Wed-Sat timeframe, even if we do not meet in conjunction with SBL; the rest of the responses were: 4 = 25%, 3 = 27%, 2 = 14%, 1 (strongly favor changing the Nov. Wed.-Sat. timeframe) = 3%.

5) For most, a change in the November date (59%) or days of the week (71%) would make NO difference to their attendance.

6) Although most (64%) were in the middle regarding meeting with another organization, the most popular organization to meet with was AIA (71%).

 

At the meeting and by email, additional input centered around

1) the date – a fall date and thus a spring deadline is difficult for papers involving field work, while spring was noted as already set for attending other organizations;

2) the focus of ASOR as an organization – the historical connection to “Bible” was noted as both important and unimportant;

3) the venue – having transportation readily available, and eateries and “entertainments” close at hand;

4) the cost – making two/multiple trips to national meetings per year was costly.

 

This input gave us a good start in our discussions, but then in March 2017, we got our eviction notice from Boston University (where our headquarters had been for many years) and the process of relocation side-tracked the discussion about the Annual Meeting. This delay proved to be less problematic than it could have been – we were able to contract for both San Diego in 2019 and Boston in 2020 (at the same hotel as our record breaking 2017 meeting). The urgent pressure was relieved. But now it is time to decide, both about our meeting in 2021 and for the years beyond.

As before, it must be understood that the Board is empowered to make this decision – and intends to do so at its Spring 2019 meeting. Thus, it is now time to provide the input necessary to create a decision that is in the best interests of the membership. The Ad Hoc Committee on the Annual Meeting was formed to do just that – provide a recommendation to the Board. This Committee seeks your input through several methods.

First, on Thursday of this year’s Annual Meeting, from 12:45-2:00, an all-member discussion will be held at the annual Early Career Scholars’ Panel. Open to all, this will allow members to present their views and discuss the issues and options with the larger membership. Please note: because we want to give everyone a chance to be heard, there will be a time limit for initial statements of 3 minutes. A record will be kept of these comments and conversations so that the Ad Hoc Committee may have this input moving forward.

A second method for giving input will be through the second membership survey, to be posted in January 2019. Yes, this one will allow for “comments” as well as “multiple choice.”

A third input mechanism is more informal: conversations or emails with an Ad Hoc Committee member. As before, the Chair of this Committee is Gary Arbino – GaryArbino@gs.edu.

Please note that SBL meetings through 2031 will ONLY be held at the following five cities: San Diego, Boston, San Antonio, Denver, and Washington DC.

By way of helping to structure the discussion here are the basic options for our Annual Meeting moving forward:

(1) ALL years: Stay with SBL in terms of city and dates and bend over backwards to figure out the best possible way to make it work.

A) meeting as close as feasible to SBL (Denver Tech park, resorts outside San Antonio);
B) meet in the same city but finish the ASOR meeting before SBL meeting begins- so there is minimal overlap of hotel space (ASOR would meet Tues.-Fri).

(2) ALL years: Split from SBL in terms of city, but NOT in terms of dates – ASOR meets either

A) far from the SBL city (making a long ‘triangle’ trip for double attendees), or
B) “close enough” (for a shorter ‘triangle’ trip; e.g. SBL at San Antonio, ASOR at Austin).

(3) ALTERNATING years:

In years that are MANAGEABLE (Boston, San Diego, Washington) – Stay with SBL in terms of city and dates;

AND

In years where the SBL city is UNAVAILABLE (Denver, San Antonio) – Split from SBL in terms of city, but NOT in terms of dates; either

A) Far from SBL; or
B) “Close Enough” to SBL

(4) ALL years: Split from SBL altogether in terms of city and dates.

NOTE: splitting in terms of dates opens other aspects of the discussion –
when and if we meet with any other organization.

 

ASOR needs and values your input. Please come to the Meeting and make your opinions known.

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Fellowship Report: Harpreet Birdi

JORDAN: ARCHAEOLOGY BEYOND DIGGING

Harpreet Birdi, 2018 MacAllister Excavation Fellowship Recipient


The author at the Rockefeller Museum.

I would like to begin by thanking ASOR and P.E. MacAllister for selecting me as the recipient of the MacAllister Excavation Fellowship. I must also thank all ASOR fellowship donors that helped me participate in an archaeological project. My journey to Jordan would not have been possible without the support of this fellowship. I am grateful for being given the opportunity to travel to Jordan for the second time to participate in the Town of Nebo Archaeological Project. I would also like to thank my professor, Dr Debra Foran, for inviting me to participate in the project again and assisting me with my directed study.

During this season of the project, I stayed in the city of Madaba where I worked alongside fellow students, graduates and PhD scholars from whom I learned a lot about pottery, faunal remains and remote sensing technology from. I was given the opportunity to complete a directed study which focuses on the community engagement and outreach program for our project. We called this the The Khirbet al-Mukhayyat Community Based


Town of Nebo Archaeological Project site at Khirbet-al Mukhayyat

Archaeological Program (KMCBAP). I spent a lot of my time conducting research, reaching out to locals and developing a plan for implementing community engagement within the Town of Nebo Archaeological Project. One of the primary focuses for this project was to determine the effectiveness of social media and developing a plan for maintaining public engagement. This project was inspired by methodologies of community-based programs from North America and Jordan. One of these projects from Jordan was the Madaba Plains Projects. Thanks to Dr Foran, I had the opportunity to attend the 50th anniversary conference of the Madaba Plains Project and visit the site of Tel-Hisban where I witnessed the community engagement for myself. I learned a lot about community engagement from this project and it was very inspiring to see the type of results and engagement we could bring to our own archaeological project.


Amman Citadel

To improve public and community engagement, I began by improving and updating all the websites and social media pages of our project. Additionally, I was constantly posting photographs and feeds about the 2018 season and the individual research projects that some students were conducting. The results were incredible because we gained the most amount of activity on our web pages than we ever have before! This helped us gain feedback about why our web pages were unpopular and what we were doing wrong. The social media platform is definitely a great place for archaeological projects to establish a relationship with the public and contemporary world. The importance of public archaeology and community engagement is often overlooked when it should be given more attention. To my surprise, many locals living in Madaba were unaware about our archaeological project, however, they all knew about the site and its history. Many people I spoke to were very intrigued about the site and wanted to visit or learn more about our archaeological project. I realized how ineffective our web pages were if locals were unaware of our project. After this season’s effort for increasing the popularity of the web pages, I hope we can soon begin to see a change and an improvement in community engagement.


The author with a goat herd.

Aside from working all day, I also had the chance to travel around Jordan to visit other archaeological sites and enjoy the natural landscapes of Jordan. My fellow colleges and I visited many sites including the Burnt Palace, Martyrs Church, Amman Citadel, Jerash, Umm ar-Rassas, Mount Nebo Memorial Site of Moses and the Dead Sea. We also took a trip to Israel for a few days where we stayed in Jerusalem. We visited the Temple Mount with the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa Mosque, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Western Wall, Rockefeller Museum and Israel Museum. Additionally, my birthday happened to be while I was in Jordan which we celebrated at a restaurant inside a 65 million years old cave! It was a very interesting experience and we all had a great night. All the travelling and sightseeing really made all the hard work worth it!

This season was a great learning experience for me and I gained so much knowledge about the different types of research projects archaeologists conduct outside the field. I had a great time meeting new people from our project, other archaeological projects in Jordan and from countless countries across the globe. It was great to be able to return to Jordan again and I would once again like to extend my gratitude to ASOR and P.E. MacAllister for giving me this wonderful opportunity.

Links for the Town of Nebo Archaeological Project:

Website: http://www.townofneboproject.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/townofneboarchaeologicalproject/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/neboarchaeology

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/townofnebo/

 

Harpreet Birdi is a recent graduate from Wilfrid Laurier University who just completed her undergraduate degree in Archaeology and Heritage Studies with a subfield in Osteology and Ancient Mediterranean Studies. This is her second trip to Jordan where she participated in the Town of Nebo Archaeological Project. Harpreet currently lives in Ontario, Canada where she works as an archaeological field technician.

Want to help more students and young archaeologists like Harpreet get into the field? Donate to the cause today by selecting “Excavation Scholarships” as your gift purpose!

Archaeology of Iran at ASOR

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NEWS@ASOR E-NEWSLETTER

ANCIENT NEAR EAST TODAY E-NEWSLETTER

PAST ASOR NEWS, MONTH BY MONTH

FY18 HONOR ROLL OF DONORS

ASOR ANNUAL MEETING

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ARCHAEOLOGY OF IRAN AT ASOR

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Written by ASOR session co-chairs: Holly Pittman (University of Pennsylvania) and Mehrnoush Soroush (Harvard University)

Over the past several years, ASOR has received the generous support of the American Institute of Iranian Studies (AIIrS) to sponsor the visas of Iranian scholars and to underwrite their participation in the ASOR Annual Meeting. The Archaeology of Iran session is one of ASOR’s permanent standing sessions. It is an important venue for facilitating scholarly exchange and building collaboration between Iranian and American archaeologists.

The ancient heritage of Iran is well known and has been investigated since the middle of the eighteenth century. For many decades in the twentieth century, Iran was the locus of some of the most exciting archaeological engagement for American scholars. Following the revolution in 1979, archaeological work by non-Iranian scholars was greatly reduced in the country, beginning again, with ebb and flow, around 2000. The re-opening of the country to foreign, especially western scholars, was part of a broader change in the Iranian Cultural Heritage Organization, to train a new generation of Iranian archaeologists and to use these talents in new institutional structures devoted to research and preservation of cultural heritage. Since then many young Iranian archaeologists have completed their graduate degrees, especially at the University of Tehran, as well as in Europe and in the United States, and are actively undertaking systematic archeological research in universities or in the wide spread cultural heritage network supported by the central government.

The Archaeology of Iran papers cover all aspects of the science from Paleolithic through the Islamic period. The session usually consists of ten to twelve papers allocated over two sections. Ideally, the sessions are built around a core of Iranian nationals who are actively engaged in field research in the country. In addition, American and European nationals also contribute, some reporting on field work, others focusing on the study of heritage collections, or on the reanalysis of published material.

Securing visas for Iranian scholars is a difficult and prolonged undertaking for the scholars as well as for ASOR and AIIrS. Support from AIIrS includes reimbursement for visa applications, travel and lodging expenses, as well as a contribution to cover ASOR participation fees. The outcome of this process is affected by political environment and is more favorable in some years than others. The program was most successful in 2015, when the five Iranian applicants received visas and attended the meeting.

This year, we are again grateful to AIIrS, and especially to the unflagging support of Dr. Erica Ehrenberg, the Executive Director of the organization, for facilitating the application of five Iranian scholars who submitted papers selected by the organizing chairs. Two scholars, Dr. Mostafa Dehpahlavan and Mr. Hossein Moradi, will present their research in Denver. With permission from ASOR’s Program Committee, the other three scholars will give prerecorded or read presentations. These colleagues are all active field archaeologists and educators or cultural heritage specialists. We look forward to hearing about their ongoing research, addressing a variety of topics including:

Mostafa Dehpahlavan (University of Tehran), Mehrdad Malekzadeh (Iranian Center for Archaeological Research), and Zabih Allah Chaharrahi (Independent Researcher), “Archaeological Survey of Part of the Great Khorasan Road, the So-Called Pataq Defile or the Median Gate”

Hossein Moradi (Independent Researcher), “Site-Size Hierarchy in the Bampur Valley during the Chalcolithic Period: A New Approach for Understanding Complexity in Iranian Baluchistan”

Nasir Eskandari (University of Jiroft), “The Jiroft Archaeological Project 2017: Excavation at the Site of Varamin, Jiroft Plain, Southeastern Iran”

Hamed Vahdati Nasab (Tarbiat Modares University) and Abbas Moghaddam (Iranian Center for Archaeological Research), “Death and Violence During the Fifth-Fourth Millennia B.C., Khuzestan Plain, Southwestern Iran: Tol-e Chega Sofla Cemetery”

Mohammad Esmaeil Esmaeili Jelodar (University of Tehran) and Mohammad Mortezaei (Iranian Center for Archaeological Research), “Certain Evidence of Glazed Ceramic Manufacturing in Jorjan: An Overview of the Results from the Seventh Season”[/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] [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]