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[/vc_column_text][mk_image src=”http://www.asortest.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/social-fb-icon4.jpg” image_width=”42″ image_height=”42″ hover=”false” custom_url=”https://www.facebook.com/ASOResearch/” margin_bottom=”0″][mk_image src=”http://www.asortest.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/social-tw-icon4.jpg” image_width=”42″ image_height=”42″ hover=”false” custom_url=”https://twitter.com/ASOResearch?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor” margin_bottom=”0″][mk_image src=”http://www.asortest.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/social-in-icon4.jpg” image_width=”42″ image_height=”42″ hover=”false” custom_url=”https://www.linkedin.com/company/american-schools-of-oriental-research” margin_bottom=”0″][mk_image src=”http://www.asortest.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/social-ml-icon_7.jpg” image_width=”42″ image_height=”42″ hover=”false” custom_url=”mailto:asor@bu.edu” margin_bottom=”0″][mk_image src=”http://www.asortest.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/blog-icon3.jpg” image_width=”42″ image_height=”42″ hover=”false” custom_url=”http://asorblog.org/” margin_bottom=”0″][/vc_column][vc_column border_color=”rgba(255,255,255,0.01)” width=”1/6″ css=”.vc_custom_1496683923840{margin-right: 20px !important;border-left-width: 2px !important;padding-right: 20px !important;padding-left: 20px !important;border-left-color: #99422f !important;}”][mk_divider divider_color=”rgba(255,255,255,0.01)” thickness=”1″ margin_top=”3″ margin_bottom=”3″][vc_column_text] [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column border_color=”rgba(170,170,170,0.01)” width=”1/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1487276122024{margin-right: 10px !important;margin-bottom: 30px !important;border-right-width: 2px !important;border-bottom-width: 2px !important;padding-top: 30px !important;padding-right: 30px !important;padding-left: 20px !important;background-color: #ffffff !important;border-right-color: rgba(227,228,228,0.75) !important;border-bottom-color: rgba(227,228,228,0.75) !important;}”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″ css=”.vc_custom_1570040186774{padding-right: 10px !important;}”][mk_image src=”http://www.asor.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/NEA_82_3jpg.jpg” image_width=”148″ image_height=”200″ crop=”false” hover=”false”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]Table of Contents for Near Eastern Archaeology 82.3 (September 2019)
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner css=”.vc_custom_1570040186774{padding-right: 10px !important;}”][vc_column_text]You can receive NEA (and other ASOR publications) through an ASOR Membership. Please e-mail the Membership office if you have any questions.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][mk_divider][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″ css=”.vc_custom_1570041002103{padding-right: 10px !important;}”][mk_image src=”http://www.asor.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/fg11_200x500.jpg” image_width=”200″ image_height=”500″ crop=”false” hover=”false”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]Pp. 132-139: “Exile and Return of the First Temple Vessels: Competing Postexilic Perspectives and Claims of Continuity,” by Debra Scoggins Ballentine
Jerusalem’s destruction and the Babylonian exile were catalysts for the composition and redaction of much Judean literature. Authors wrestled with disruption of cultus and the uncertainty of returnees having to sort out their place—both physical spaces and abstract social places—back in Jerusalem and Judah. Stories about the temple vessels feature competing claims about their fate: that they were dismantled or left intact during the exile; that they were stored in a Babylonian temple or used as Babylonian wine goblets; that they were returned to Jerusalem with divine protection; and even that they were temporarily displaced once back in Jerusalem. These varied fates reflect competition between groups and individuals—both historical figures and literary characters—such as Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah. Postexilic authors employed stories about the vessels to privilege particular forms of ritual, endorse select groups and ideologies, and undercut alternative positions.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text responsive_align=”left”]ASOR Members with online access: navigate to the token link email sent to you before attempting to read this article. Once you have activated your member token, click here to access the above article on The University of Chicago Press Journals’ website.[/vc_column_text][mk_divider][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″ css=”.vc_custom_1570041002103{padding-right: 10px !important;}”][mk_image src=”http://www.asor.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/fg7_200x500.jpg” image_width=”200″ image_height=”500″ crop=”false” hover=”false”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]
Pp. 140-147: “Another Temple, Another Vessel: Josephus, the Arch of Titus, and Roman Triumphal Propaganda,” by Nathaniel DesRosiers
In 71 CE, the year after the destruction of the second Jerusalem temple, the victorious emperor Vespasian and his son Titus, commander of the Judean
campaign, celebrated their success with a victory triumph through the streets of Rome. Josephus provides a full account of the event in The Jewish War 7.123–58, lingering in particular on his description of the spoils of the Temple as they were paraded through the streets. He states: “The spoils were piled in heaps, but prominent above all were the spoils from the temple in Jerusalem, these included a golden table many talents in weight and a lampstand likewise made of gold” (JW 7.148).[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text responsive_align=”left”]ASOR Members with online access: navigate to the token link email sent to you before attempting to read this article. Once you have activated your member token, click here to access the above article on The University of Chicago Press Journals’ website.[/vc_column_text][mk_divider][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″ css=”.vc_custom_1570041002103{padding-right: 10px !important;}”][mk_image src=”http://www.asor.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/fg8_200x500.jpg” image_width=”200″ image_height=”500″ crop=”false” hover=”false”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]
Pp. 148-155: “When Yosa Meshita Took the Temple Menorah: A Rabbinic Legend,” by Steven Fine
The rabbis of late antiquity were well aware that after the destruction of the Second Temple the most precious “sacred vessels” had been taken to Rome. Classical rabbinic literature records numerous legends of the destruction including discussions of the fate of the sacred vessels, including “a golden menorah.” At times preserving distant memories of the war, these stories are most significant for the ways that later generations lived with and interpreted the continuing meaning of this national trauma. In this essay I will employ anthropological/folklore approaches better to understand rabbinic texts. That is, I examine the human characters who wrote, performed, heard, and read these traditions in late antiquity (Hasan-Rokem 2003; Fine in press). I focus on the authorship and reception of rabbinic tradition by late antique audiences by undertaking a “thick description” of a story preserved in Genesis Rabbah, a collection of homiletical midrashim assembled in the Galilee near the turn of the fifth century CE. I focus on the treason of a certain Yosa Meshita, suggesting contexts in which this tale “lived,” situating it within the world in which it was authored, performed, and achieved its literary form.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text responsive_align=”left”]ASOR Members with online access: navigate to the token link email sent to you before attempting to read this article. Once you have activated your member token, click here to access the above article on The University of Chicago Press Journals’ website.[/vc_column_text][mk_divider][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″ css=”.vc_custom_1570041002103{padding-right: 10px !important;}”][mk_image src=”http://www.asor.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/fg1_200x500.jpg” image_width=”200″ image_height=”500″ crop=”false” hover=”false”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]Pp. 156-163: “Facing the Holy Ark, in Words and in Images,” by Steven D. FraadeThe ark of the covenant was central to the plan of the Jerusalem Temple and the wilderness tabernacle before it, as the vessel was located in the structures’ holiest, innermost domain. Despite its importance, the ark of the covenant was invisible to virtually all Israelites. Even while the ark was being assembled, disassembled, and transported in the wilderness, the Levitical Kohathites were instructed to shield it from view, including their own (Num 4:5–20). One of the chief obligations of Aaron and his descendants was to deny access to anyone else, including the Levites, to the Holy of Holies, which housed the ark alone, or risk death (Num 18:1–7, 22–23).
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text responsive_align=”left”]ASOR Members with online access: navigate to the token link email sent to you before attempting to read this article. Once you have activated your member token, click here to access the above article on The University of Chicago Press Journals’ website.[/vc_column_text][mk_divider][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″ css=”.vc_custom_1570041002103{padding-right: 10px !important;}”][mk_image src=”http://www.asor.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/fg9_200x500.jpg” image_width=”200″ image_height=”500″ crop=”false” hover=”false”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]Pp. 164-171: “When Is a Menorah Not Just a Menorah? Rethinking Menorah Graffiti in Jewish Mortuary Contexts,” by Karen B. Stern
Hundreds of representations of menorahs have been uncovered from across the ancient world, throughout Egypt, Asia Minor, the Black Sea, Malta, North Africa, Europe, Arabia, Judaea, Palaestina, and Syria. Studied intently by historians, these depictions testify to the symbol’s historical importance, longevity, and myriad uses in antiquity. Many scholars have speculated that the menorahs evoke messianic ideas or those of resurrection; others argue that they signify divine presence or the cosmos at large. Recurring representations of menorahs in modern Jewish religious contexts, in all cases, have assured that the menorah remains the most recognizable of all the temple vessels to modern audiences.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text responsive_align=”left”]ASOR Members with online access: navigate to the token link email sent to you before attempting to read this article. Once you have activated your member token, click here to access the above article on The University of Chicago Press Journals’ website.[/vc_column_text][mk_divider][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″ css=”.vc_custom_1570041002103{padding-right: 10px !important;}”][mk_image src=”http://www.asor.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/fg5_200x500.jpg” image_width=”200″ image_height=”500″ crop=”false” hover=”false”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]Pp. 172-178: “Remembering the Destruction(s) of the Temple at the Museum of the Bible,” by Cavan Concannon
Tucked away on the fifth floor of the Museum of the Bible (MOTB) in Washington, DC is a worn stone, weighing roughly a ton. Unlike most museum exhibits, this one invites visitors to touch its rough surface. The stone would be unremarkable but for what it was made to support: the terrace of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. The stone is on loan to the MOTB as part of an exhibit called “The People of the Land: History and Archaeology of Ancient Israel” by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). It once formed part of the Western Wall, the massive terrace that supported Herod the Great’s expansion of the Second Temple complex. As visitors touch this piece of the “temple,” they accept the MOTB’s invitation to a pilgrimage experience. As one evangelical news site put it, “It’s an opportunity to get a glimpse of the Holy Land without visiting the Middle East” (Stahl and Mitchell 2017).
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text responsive_align=”left”]ASOR Members with online access: navigate to the token link email sent to you before attempting to read this article. Once you have activated your member token, click here to access the above article on The University of Chicago Press Journals’ website.[/vc_column_text][mk_divider][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″ css=”.vc_custom_1570041002103{padding-right: 10px !important;}”][mk_image src=”http://www.asor.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/fg10_200x500.jpg” image_width=”200″ image_height=”500″ crop=”false” hover=”false”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]Pp. 179-185: (Exhibit Review) “The World Between Empires, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,” by Stephanie Lynn Budin
This past March I had the grand opportunity to visit this exhibit curated by Blair Fowlkes-Childs and Michael Seymour, which ran from March through June 2019. The intent of the exhibit was twofold. On the one hand it provided a survey of the various cities, states, and societies that populated the Middle East between the great empires of Rome to the west and Parthia to the east (thus the title of the exhibit), ranging in date from the first century BCE to the mid-third century ce. Of particular interest was how these communities situated between dominant and domineering cultures formed their own identities through the mixture of indigenous and imported traditions, and how these identities were expressed. Thus the placard welcoming visitors to the exhibit reads: Following a journey along ancient trade routes across the Middle East, the exhibition explores how local life and culture were shaped by diverse cities and communities, and how identities were expressed through art.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text responsive_align=”left”]ASOR Members with online access: navigate to the token link email sent to you before attempting to read this article. Once you have activated your member token, click here to access the above article on The University of Chicago Press Journals’ website.[/vc_column_text][mk_divider][vc_column_text responsive_align=”left”]Pp. 186-189: “Third Workshop on Gender, Methodology, and the Ancient Near East: Enhancing Networking and Consolidating an Initiative,” by Katrien De Graef, Agnès Garcia-Ventura, Anne Goddeeris, and Saana Svärd
ASOR Members with online access: navigate to the token link email sent to you before attempting to read this article. Once you have activated your member token, click here to access the above report on The University of Chicago Press Journals’ website.
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art purchased by the Met’s trustees from Luigi Palma di Cesnola in two lots, one in 1872 and another in 1876. The two collections amounted to around twenty thousand objects, all finds Cesnola had acquired while serving as US Consul on the island from 1865–1876. After the acquisition of the second collection, Cesnola left Cyprus to become the first director of the Metropolitan Museum, a position he held until his death in 1904. New Yorkers in the 1870s were most intriguing by the works of limestone sculptures from the sanctuary at Golgoi. In the 1880s these objects would become embroiled in a scandal because of the claim that Cesnola had performed intentionally misleading restorations, but before that disgrace and through much of the 1870s, New Yorkers were processing the arrival of an enormous volume of ancient Cypriot objects in a relatively short amount of time.
activities in the Middle Kingdom necropolis of Deir el-Bahari and Asasif. The site had previously been excavated under the auspices of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, initiated by Herbert Eustis Winlock in 1912 with survey activities followed by excavations from 1921–1922 until 1928 (Arnold 1996: 59). Winlock’s excavations had been preceded by Howard Carter’s in 1910–1911 (Morales et al. 2016: 258). The current excavations began in 2015, and have continued annually through 2018 (Morales et al. 2016, 2017, and 2018) under the auspices of the Universidad de Alcalá (Madrid, Spain), with a fifth season scheduled for October 2019.
material. Sommerville (1829–1904) was an affluent Philadelphia businessman who devoted his later life (and funds) to world travel and the collection of antiquities in Europe, Turkey, Syria, Egypt, and North Africa as well as China, Japan, India, Burma, and Thailand. He published memoirs of his travels and catalogues and discussions of the gems and seals. His collection, originally exhibited in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (1888–1891), was placed in the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania (1891) and remained there upon his bequest (see Berges 2002: 11–19). Although Sommerville’s memoir Sands of Sahara (1901) describes some of his North African travels, there is no reference to his acquisition of the Punic artifacts.
in the southern Levant thanks to four archaeological expeditions that have thoroughly excavated the mound and rapidly published the results of their digs (Ussishkin 2018). All expeditions unearthed hoards of different types from the Late Bronze and Iron Ages (Hall 2016). This new hoard was unearthed in a destruction debris, securely dated to the Early Iron Age I, ca. 1070 BCE (local Level H-11, which equals University of Chicago’s Stratum VIIA). During this period, part of a building (remnants of two rooms and an inner courtyard surrounded by three large open courtyards) was found in this area (figs. 1–2; Finkelstein et al. 2017: 267–69). The building is positioned only about 30 m from Canaanite Palace 2041 of the city of Stratum VIIA. This article offers a preliminary publication of the hoard; a full report will soon be published in the Megiddo VI volume (Arie forthcoming a).
were found in several burials dating to the Roman period. Depositing funerary offerings was a common practice in the Roman era. Roughly a third of the excavated Eastern Cemetery (fig. 2, n=24) contained grave goods (Eisenberg-Degen 2017). Taking into account that some pilfering and plundering most likely took place, this figure is consistent with percentages noted in other Roman-period burials (Findlater et al. 2013: 69–80; Winter 2015: 82–87).
(for whom it is the second-holiest site), Jews, Christians, and Muslims. The total area of Joseph’s Shrine is 661 m² and it is located in Block 5, parcel 10, according to early Islamic Immovable Property Records from the Department of Al Awqaf Al Islamyah (Jordanian Islamic Endowments), Nablus (fig. 2). Originally situated on an agricultural plain, it is now surrounded by buildings, due to expansion of housing and schools in central Balata.
The items produced at the workshop, which are now known by the name of the site, are dated to around 300 
quantitative and archaeometric analyses, we assess and compare modifications in vessel repertoires, production techniques, and material sources across both sites to understand the nature and chronology of these changes. Similar technological developments are observed at Qizlar Qalʾeh and Merv, and are examined with regard to a potential Hellenistic reception in the ceramic material. Variations in the chronological distribution of innovations and assemblage composition help us to elucidate the neighborhood relations between eastern Iran and western Central Asia at this time. Our comparisons point toward a common cultural environment for both sites especially during the Early Parthian period, which is demonstrated in the many analogies of manufacturing techniques and vessel shapes. At the same time, we see different continuing local traditions, highlighting the flexible mode in which ceramic repertoires are adapted to the changing requirements under Hellenistic rule.
iconographic, and historical aspects of the seal impressions.
scarabs found in the southern Levant is provided, with a typological analysis and a tentative dating and origin of these pieces.
ca. 60,000-item plant collection from the recently exposed Late Bronze Age IIA palace at Tel Beth-Shemesh. Room L1505 in the palace—apparently a pantry due to its contents of foodstuffs and vessels for food preparation and consumption—contained eight deposits of carbonized crop plants. Deposits of almost pure grains and very low numbers of weed seeds were found, indicating that these stored food plants were ready to be used in food preparation. Of special interest is the presence of a sizeable amount of two rare pulses in Levantine archaeobotany—fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum) and Cyprus vetch (Lathyrus ochrus)—only found in two other Bronze Age royal contexts: Tutankhamun’s tomb in Egypt and the Late Minoan II Unexplored Mansion in Knossos. Thus, in addition to attesting to the agricultural practices and culinary preferences of a Canaanite ruling court during the Amarna Age, this botanical assemblage also hints at prestigious royal gift exchanges of exotic food plants.
begun in the Early Bronze Age (EB) I, which ended in a severe conflagration. Apparently rebuilt at the beginning of EB II, the village remained a small site and technically non-urban throughout the period. Destroyed at the end of EB II, it was renewed in EB III, coinciding with the arrival of people bearing the Khirbet Kerak Ware ceramic tradition. This preliminary report includes new observations following recent studies of Tel Yaqush finds, including a new sequence of 14C dates from EB I to III (published in detail elsewhere). The excavation results summarized here reveal the unique role Tel Yaqush played during the shift to urbanism, and its contribution to our understanding of Early Bronze Age village society in the central Jordan Valley.
amounts of these were adorned, and their decorations typically conform to a few canonized conventions. A small amount of the decorated Late Chalcolithic basalt bowls are further incised with unconventional, unique designs on their exteriors. These elaborately decorated basalt bowls stand in sharp contrast to the conventionally decorated ones, thus signifying their different roles. This article discusses their geographic distributions, frequencies, and characteristics, and offers further suggestions as to their position within the Late Chalcolithic symbolic and prestige item systems. The analysis reveals regional patterns—the elaborately decorated basalt bowls are constrained to south of the Yarkon River—suggesting that the function and symbolic value of these bowls were probably geographically restricted. Their limited distribution underlines the exclusivity of these elaborately decorated bowls during the Late Chalcolithic period.
a monumental structure dated to the 14th century b.c.e. with unusual architectural features that could be either the residence of a high-ranking family or an administrative building. During the 13th century b.c.e., this building was replaced by a new structure containing a metalsmith’s workshop, inspired by Egyptian 19th Dynasty techniques, while later building phases belong to the final stages of the Late Bronze Age. No destruction layers were found, and the Late Bronze Age city was rebuilt and continued to thrive throughout the Iron Age I. Five Late Bronze Age plaque figurines, some of particular interest, are also described. An appendix discusses a rare funerary scarab of an Egyptian high official found in the 14th-century b.c.e. edifice.
investigated over the last 40 years. In recent excavation campaigns, new evidence of the earliest phases of the city (500–50 b.c.e.) has been discovered, including the sherd treated here, among other inscribed pottery in Greek and Brāhmī.
and sealed. This act was evident in the breakage of the altar’s horns and the placement of a latrine in the holy of holies. The available data suggests that the desecration of the shrine should be associated with Hezekiah’s cultic reform (2 Kgs 18:4).
The Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (BASOR) is a leader among peer-reviewed academic journals of the ancient Near East. For nearly a century, since 1919 when William F. Albright originally founded it as the Bulletin of the American School of Oriental Research in Jerusalem, BASOR has served as a highly respected interdisciplinary English-language forum for scholars worldwide in subject areas such as archaeology, art, anthropology, archaeometry, bioarchaeology, archaeozoology, biblical studies, history, literature, philology, geography, and epigraphy. The journal contains articles written by leading scholars and acknowledged experts in the ancient world that cover a geographical region from Israel and Canaan to ancient Anatolia, Mesopotamia, Cyprus, and Egypt and a chronological range from the Paleolithic period through Islamic times. The journal appears bi-annually, in May and November.
Marta Ostovich began working at ASOR in March 2018, as an Office Assistant. Starting July 1, she assumed a new role as Manager of Programs. Marta will be relocating to Alexandria later in September, and she will work with ASOR Executive Director Andy Vaughn with the transition from Boston to ASOR’s new home and with hiring and training of new staff members. Her duties as Manager of Programs include assisting with fellowships, donor relations, membership fulfillment, planning and support for the Annual Meeting, and website maintenance.
University’s archaeological field school at Torre d’en Galmes. In addition to lecturing and assisting with the field school curriculum, she was responsible for supervising both excavation and laboratory work at the site, which was occupied from the Iron Age through Medieval periods. One of the most noteworthy finds was an in-tact kitchen from the Medieval Muslim (13th century) occupation of the site-the first of its kind on the island. Marta assisted with designing an exhibition of the finds from this kitchen for the local museum. She has also been part of archaeological excavations in Italy and Greece and traveled to Montenegro and Vietnam for cultural heritage work. She continues to be interested in the relationship between cultural tourism and archaeological sites.
