FRIENDS OF ASOR WEBINARS
Life and Death along the Nile: Insights from the Bioarchaeology of Nubia Expedition
Friends of ASOR present the next webinar in our monthly series on September 29, 2022, at 6:00 pm EDT, featuring Prof. Brenda J. Baker and moderated by Prof. Geoff Emberling. The Bioarchaeology of Nubia Expedition (BONE) project area encompasses nearly 100 square meters on the north bank of the Nile River between the fourth and fifth cataracts in northern Sudan. More than 200 sites from the Earlier (more than 250,000 years ago) Stone Age through the Christian period (c. 550-1400 CE) have been documented. Sites include areas of habitation, rock art and gongs, a fort, and cemeteries. Excavated cemeteries consist of clusters of Kerma period graves (c. 2500-1500 BCE) and a large late Meroitic to Christian period cemetery (used c. 200-1400 CE) with burials of more than 100 individuals.
Recent research includes evaluation of evidence that graves were often re-entered within memory of a personâs death to retrieve heirlooms rather than looted without regard for the deceased. Inclusion of imported grave goods reveals integration into far-flung trade networks through time and biogeochemical analyses of tooth enamel show that people during the Kerma period were highly mobile. Spatial and social organization of cemeteries, and distinct characteristics marked during life (e.g., purposeful removal of teeth) or death (e.g., burial with particular items) illuminate aspects of ancient Nubian identity and mortuary behavior.
Join Dr. Baker as she examines the individuals buried in these cemeteries to reveal little known aspects of the lived experiences of the past people who inhabited this area of ancient Sudan. Please be aware that images of human remains will be shown during this lecture. The webinar will conclude with a live Q&A session moderated by Prof. Geoff Emberling (University of Michigan).
Brenda J. Baker is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Curator of Nubian Collections in the Center for Bioarchaeological Research, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, at Arizona State University. She is Director of the ASU Bioarchaeology of Nubia Expedition (BONE), conducting fieldwork in a project area west of Abu Hamed, Sudan. As a bioarchaeologist, her research integrates archaeology and biological anthropology to investigate the lifeways of past people, their funerary practices, and evidence of disease they experienced. She has worked extensively in the U.S. and at Abydos, Egypt. She is also the bioarchaeologist for Princeton Universityâs project in Polis, Cyprus, where she is analyzing remains of people who were interred in and around two Late Antique to medieval basilicas. Dr. Baker is a founding co-editor of Bioarchaeology International and serves on the advisory board of the American-Sudanese Archaeological Research Center (AmSARC). She is a co-organizer (with Geoff Emberling) of the ASOR/AmSARC workshop, âReintegrating Africa in the Ancient World.â
This webinar will be recorded and all paid registrants will be sent a link to view the recording.
ASOR Sustaining Members: $0 | ASOR Members: $6 | Public: $12
Season Pass: ASOR Sustaining Members: $0 | ASOR Members: $75 | Public: $150
Buy one here!
To receive your ASOR member discount, log into the online store. If you are new to ASOR, please click on the âNew Visitor Registrationâ link to register your e-mail address and choose a password for our online store. Once logged in, navigate to âMeeting and Event Registrationâ to register for the webinar and pay the fee. Each paid registrant will receive a confirmation e-mail when you pay for the webinar. If you do not receive this e-mail, then you are not registered. Please e-mail membership@asor.org with any questions or issues with registering.
You will be e-mailed the Zoom Webinar link in the week prior to the lecture on September 29, 2022. If you do not receive the link by the close of business on the Tuesday before the webinar, please e-mail membership@asor.org immediately. This webinar will be recorded and all paid registrants will be sent a link to view the recording.
All proceeds from this webinar are used to fund scholarships for members as well as increasing ASORâs online resources, which are free to the public.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
READY FOR A WEBINAR SEASON PASS?
Buy a season pass for all the webinars* of the 2022-2023 FOA Webinar Season! 1) You will automatically receive the Zoom link for each webinar so no need to register each time. 2) You will also receive the recording of each webinar automatically after the event.
If you have missed webinars earlier in the season and still want to buy the pass, you will receive the links to the recordings of the webinars you missed in your automatic confirmation email after you buy the pass.
*Special symposiums may be excluded from the season pass price.
No more registering for a year if you buy your pass today!
Pricing:
Members: $75.00
Non-Members: $150.00
ASOR Sustaining Members: $0 (automatic registration for each webinar)
Not a member yet? Click here to join as a member and receive the 50% off a season pass!
Â
Log into our online store to purchase the season pass for 2022-2023. If you are new to ASOR and do not have a record in our store yet, click here to register. After you login, navigate to the left to âMeeting and Event Registration.â Please e-mail membership@asor.org if you have any questions or issues.
WHY SPONSOR A WEBINAR?
Several levels of support from $50-$1,000 are available. Proceeds go towards membership scholarships and towards increasing ASORâs virtual resources. Each sponsorship is tax-deductible and you can give your friends free registrations to a webinar!
Bronze Level ($50): up to 2 guest registrations
Silver Level ($100): up to 5 guest registrations
Gold Level ($500): up to 20 guest registrations
Platinum Level ($1,000): up to 50 guest registrations
After you sign up for a sponsorship online or over the phone, email the names and email addresses of your guests to Felice Herman at membership@asor.org, who will send your guests a confirmation and the Zoom link before the webinar.
WANT TO SAVE $6.00 ON THE NEXT WEBINAR?
Join ASOR as a member! Click here for more details about discounts for events and other benefits of membership. Memberships start at $40 for the year as an Associate Member.
Not ready to join yet? Become a Friend of ASOR for FREE!
PAST WEBINARS
You can now purchase the link to the recording of any webinar. You can also purchase the bundle packages of all webinars from the 2020-2022 seasons. Please e-mail membership@asor.org for purchase details.
To see a printable pdf of the webinar titles from the 2020-2021 season, please click here. To see a printable pdf of the webinar titles from the 2021-2022 season, please click here.
Pricing:
Members: $6.00 per recording
Non-Members: $12.00 per recording
Bundle of 2020-2021 Webinars: $75.00
Bundle of 2021-2022 Webinars: $75.00
Bundle of 2020-2022 Webinars: $125.00
2021-2022 Season
A World at War: Protecting Cultural Heritage in Times of Conflict
Patty Gerstenblith (DePaul University), Lisa Ackerman (Columbus Citizens Foundation), Andrew Cohen (Government Professional and Cultural Heritage Expert) | May 12, 2022
Preserving Cultural Heritage in Hisban and Umm al-Jimal, Jordan
Ăystein LaBianca (Andrews University), Elizabeth Osinga (Umm al-Jimal Archaeological Project), Darrell Rohl (Calvin University) | April 24, 2022
Back to the Field: Recent Discoveries & Summer Plans 2022
Lorenzo dâAlfonso (ISAW), Kathryn Grossman (NC State University), James R. Strange (Samford University) | April 3, 2022
Uncovering What is Nubian Beneath the Veneer of Egyptianness: Excavating the Archives
Debora Heard (University of Chicago) | March 20, 2022
Where Are They Now?: A Preview of 2022 ASOR-Affiliated Fieldwork Projects
Michael Given (University of Glasgow), Xenia-Paula Kyriakou (Florida Gulf Coast University), Stephen Batiuk (University of Toronto), Monique Roddy (Walla Walla University), Kent Bramlett (La Sierra University), Friedbert Ninow (La Sierra University), and Michael Hoff (University of Nebraska-Lincoln) | March 8, 2022
Excavations at Tel Gezer: A Personal Story
Sam Wolff (Tel Gezer Laboratory) | February 20, 2022
Tel Rehov: A Major Bronze and Iron Age City in the Jordan Valley
Amihai Mazar (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Nava Panitz-Cohen ( Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Nota Kourou (Athens University), Naama Yahalom-Mack (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Robert Mullins (Azusa Pacific University) | February 10, 2022
The Not-So-Innocents Abroad: The Beginnings of American Biblical Archaeology
Rachel Hallote (Samford University) | January 20, 2022
Synagogues as Jesus Knew Them
James R. Strange (Samford University) | December 2, 2021
Under Jerusalem: The Buried History of the Worldâs Most Contested City
Andrew Lawler | November 4, 2021
Jesus and Jerusalem on TV: How Do Bible Documentaries Get Made?
Robert Cargill (University of Iowa) | October 17, 2021
Digging the Divine?: Judahite Pillar Figurines and the Archaeology of Israelite Religion
Erin Darby (University of Tennessee) | October 7, 2021
David, Solomon, and Rehoboamâs KingdomâThe Archaeological Evidence
Yosef Garfinkel (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) | September 19, 2021
From Standing Stones to Sacred Emptiness: Textual and Visual Portrayals of Israelâs God
Theodore Lewis (Johns Hopkins University) | August 29, 2021
2020-2021 Season
Making May Matter: Webinarathon to Endow Diversity
Multiple Speakers | May 21-23, 2021
Archaeogaming: Why Video Games Deserve Their Own Archaeology
Tine Rassalle (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), Shannon Martino (Morton College), Matthew Winter (University of Arizona), Michael Zimmerman (Rhode Island) | April 18, 2021
How the Bible Became a Book
William Schniedewind (UCLA) | March 21, 2021
The Mysteries of Mithras in Caesarea: Exploring the Cultâs Rites and Remains
Jane DeRose Evans (Temple University), Alexandra Ratzlaff (Brandeis University) | March 11, 2021
Archaeology and the Hidden Religious Culture of Israelite Women
Carol Meyers (Duke University) | February 21, 2021
Meet the DirectorsâFundraiser to Support ASORâs Affiliated Overseas Research Centers
Matthew J. Adams (AIAR), Pearce Paul Creasman (ACOR), Lindy Crewe (CAARI) | February 11, 2021
Early Synagogues, Jesus, and GalileeâA Jewish Perspective
Eric Meyers (Duke University) | December 13, 2020
Home Sweet Home: Ancient Israelite Households in Context
Cynthia Shafer-Elliott (William Jessup University) | October 18, 2020
Priestesses in the Days of Solomon and Ahab
Susan Ackerman (Dartmouth College) | September 13, 2020
Digging Deeper: How Archaeology Works
Eric H. Cline (The George Washington University) | August 9, 2020
Dr. Kathlyn (Kara) Cooney is a professor of Egyptology at UCLA and Chair of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures. Specializing in social history, gender studies, and economies in the ancient world, she received her Ph.D. in Egyptology from Johns Hopkins University. In 2005, she was co-curator of Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Cooney produced a comÂparative archaeology television series, entitled Out of Egypt, which aired in 2009 on the Discovery Channel and is available online.
Dr. Elizabeth R. Macaulay is an Associate Professor in the Liberal Studies, Middle Eastern and Digital Humanities Programs at the Graduate Center, CUNY, where she also serves as the Executive Officer in M.A. in Liberal Studies. She is a past Trustee of ASOR and a current Trustee of the Archaeological Institute of America and is the Museum Reviews Editor at the American Journal of Archaeology. She is the author or editor of six books, including Bayt Farhi and the Sephardic Palaces of Ottoman Damascus in the Late 18th and 19th Centuries (AASOR/ Manar al-Athar, 2018) and Antiquity in Gotham: The Ancient Architecture of New York City (Fordham, 2021).
Patty Gerstenblith is a Distinguished Research Professor of Law at DePaul University and director of its Center for Art, Museum and Cultural Heritage Law. She was appointed by President Obama to serve as Chair of the Presidentâs Cultural Property Advisory Committee in the US Department of State on which had previously served as a Public Representative under President Clinton. Since 2020, she has served as President of the Board of Directors of the US Committee of the Blue Shield and Chair of the Blue Shield International Working Group on Illegal Trafficking of Cultural Objects. She was founding president of the Lawyersâ Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation and editor of the International Journal of Cultural Property and is currently a Research Associate of the Cultural Heritage Center at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. The fourth edition of her casebook, Art, Cultural Heritage and the Law, was published in 2019. Gerstenblith lectures and publishes widely on the subjects of protection of cultural heritage during armed conflict and the international market in cultural objects. Gerstenblith received her AB from Bryn Mawr College, PhD in art history and anthropology from Harvard University, and JD from Northwestern University.
Lisa Ackerman is the Executive Director of the Columbus Citizens Foundation, a non-profit organization in New York City committed to fostering an appreciation of Italian-American heritage and achievement through a broad range of philanthropic and cultural activities. Previously, Ackerman served as the Interim Chief Executive Officer, Executive Vice President, and Chief Operating Officer of the World Monuments Fund, an organization founded in 1965 that has assisted in the conservation and development of long-term stewardship strategies at more than 600 sites in 100 countries, and as Executive Vice President of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. At WMF, where she worked from 2007 to 2019, Ackerman developed multiple international collaborative projects in conservation. In addition to general supervision over approximately 60 projects in 40 countries, she is the senior project manager for activities in Cambodia, Iraq, Libya, Thailand, and Tunisia.
Andrew Cohen is currently a government professional using his experience with the legislative process, congressional oversight, and executive-legislative branch relations to advise the Internal Revenue Service on Congressional affairs. In 2020-21, he was a Brookings Fellow at the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Prior to that, he worked for over a decade advising the U.S. Department of State on international cultural heritage protection and preservation policy, and representing the United States government in bilateral, multilateral, and intergovernmental fora as an expert on cultural heritage. In 2018-2019, as Executive Director of the Cultural Property Advisory Committee at the State Department, Cohen managed the simultaneous negotiation, signing, and implementation of more than 20 cultural property agreements between the United States and partner countries around the world, including most of the countries in the Near East and wider Mediterranean world. Dr. Cohen holds a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Archaeology and M.A. in Classical Archaeology from Bryn Mawr College.
Jane DeRose Evans is Professor and Chair of Art History at Temple University. She specializes in the archaeology of the Roman provinces and especially in ancient numismatics. She is a Fellow of the American Numismatic Society and a member of the Royal Numismatic Society. After excavating for many years in France, she is now project numismatist for the Harvard/Cornell Excavations in Sardis and the George Washington University excavations at Bir Madhkur (Jordan). Recently, she brought to publication The Mithraeum at Caesarea Maritima (ASOR Press.  Evans has been a member of ASOR for many years, and she currently serves on the Cultural Heritage Committee and has testified on behalf of the Memoranda of Understanding that allow intercepting illegally obtained antiquities from Cyprus and Egypt at the US border. Evans served on the ASOR Board from 2011-2013 and then rejoined the Board again in January 2016. She is currently serving as the Chair of the Trustee Nominations Committee and as the Chair of the Cultural Heritage Committee.
Ăystein LaBianca is a Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Associate Director of the Institute of Archaeology at Andrews University. He is the Senior Director of the Hisban Cultural Heritage Project, a community archaeology project centered at Tall Hisban in Jordan. He holds a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology and archaeology from Brandeis University. LaBiancaâs research in Jordan began with studies of long-term human-animal-environment interactions as evidenced by changes over time in animal bone assemblages and related finds uncovered by his excavations and surveys at Tall Hisban. He has also been a leader in introducing community archaeology approaches to archaeological projects in Jordan. He is a long-time member of the boards of trustees of ASOR and ACOR in Amman, Jordan.
Elizabeth Osinga is currently working full-time as a co-director of the Umm al-Jimal Archaeological Project (UJAP). A former student of the late UJAP director Bert de Vries, she has worked with the project since 2012 and her graduate work focused on a socio-economic approach to ceramic analysis at the site (University of Southampton, MA, PhD). When not involved in excavations, grant writing, or other essential projects, she is immersed in Umm al-Jimalâs archive, analyzing the backlog of excavation reports and materials in preparation for long-overdue publication.
Darrell Rohl  is an Assistant Professor of Archaeology, History, and Digital Humanities at Calvin University and is a co-director of the Umm al-Jimal Archaeological Project. A graduate of Andrews University (BSc) and Durham University (MA, PhD), his research has primarily focused on Roman and Late Antique periods in England, Scotland, and Jordan, as well as the application of place theories in archaeological and heritage contexts. He has co-directed excavations with Dr. Elizabeth Osinga at the Hisban North Church (2018) and Umm al-Jimal (2019), and has further fieldwork and research experience in the UK, USA, and Italy.
Lorenzo dâAlfonso is a Professor of Archaeology and History of ancient Western Asia at ISAW-NYU and Associate Professor of Archaeology of ancient Western Asia at Pavia University. He has published several books and papers on the history and archaeology of Anatolia and Syria, focusing on the Late Bronze and Iron Ages. His most recent publication is the volume Borders in Archaeology: Anatolia and the South Caucasus Ca. 3500-500 BCE (Peeters 2021) co-edited with K. Rubinson, which was published three months ago. Dr. dâAlfonso has excavated at different sites in Italy, Syria, and has directed an archaeological survey in south Cappadocia, Turkey from 2006-2009, before starting the excavations at NiÄde Kınık HöyĂŒk in 2011.
Kathryn Grossman is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at North Carolina State University. She is an archaeologist and zooarchaeologist with expertise in the complex societies of the Near East and eastern Mediterranean. She earned her BA in Archaeology from Tufts University and her PhD in Near Eastern Art and Archaeology from the University of Chicago. Her current research focuses on resistance to state-making, the biographies of early cities, and human-animal relationships in early complex societies. She directs the Makounta-Voules Archaeological Project in Cyprus and has been a senior staff member on archaeological projects in Syria, Cyprus, Egypt, and Iraq. This summer, in addition to directing excavations at Makounta-Voules-Mersinoudia in Cyprus, she will spend two months as a CAORC fellow at the American Center of Research in Jordan, where she will be analyzing animal bones from Petra.
James R. Strange has directed the Shikhin Excavation project since 2012, with Motti Aviam, Tom McCollough, and David Fiensy (2012) as Associate Directors. Dr. Strange is the Charles Jackson Granade and Elizabeth Donald Granade Professor in New Testament at Samford University. With David Fiensy, he is co-editor of the two-volume set Galilee in the Late Second Temple and Mishnaic Periods (Fortress, 2014 and 2015). His book, One Problem After Another: An Introduction to Archaeology, the Gospels, and First Century Roman Galilee is scheduled to come out in 2022.
Debora Heard is a Ph.D. Candidate in Anthropology specializing in the archaeology and history of ancient Nubia at the University of Chicago where she has also studied the history and language of ancient Kemet. She situates her research at the intersection of anthropology, archaeology, Egyptology, Nubian Studies, African Studies, and Africana Studies. Her dissertation research engages in a regional and temporal analysis of the inscriptions and iconography of the Upper Nubian Kushite temples dedicated to the gods Amun and Apedemak.