NEW ASOR-AFFILIATED PROJECTS: MAY 2022
ASOR-affiliated projects adhere to 17吃瓜policies, most notably the听Non-Discrimination Policy,听Policy on Professional Conduct, and听Code of Conduct for the 17吃瓜Annual Meeting and Other 17吃瓜Sponsored Events. These policies affirm ASOR鈥檚 commitment to high standards for research integrity, academic mentoring and ethical professional behavior. Project Principal Investigators may听apply for 17吃瓜affiliation听for their projects through the听Committee for Archaeological Research and Policy (CAP). 听Principal Investigators of ASOR-affiliated projects are eligible to apply for听17吃瓜Project Grants听补苍诲听Shepard Urgent Action Grants. Students working on ASOR-affiliated projects are eligible to apply听for听Scholarships for Fieldwork Participation.
Currently,听98 projects are affiliated with ASOR. This includes 71 field projects and 27 publication projects. Nine field projects (seven new projects and two project renewals) have received 17吃瓜affiliation so far in 2022. Read more about these new ASOR-affiliated projects below!
New ASOR-Affiliated Projects
Birsama Exploration Project, Israel (Alexandra Ratzlaff and听Tali Erickson-Gini)
Birsama (Be鈥檈r Shema) is situated in the northwest quadrant of the northern Negev, approximately 21 km southeast of Gaza and 25 km northwest of Be鈥檈r Sheva. Interest in the site focuses on the presence of a Late Roman fort and associated structures, including the Byzantine church of St. Stephen, a Roman road, pottery kilns and a potential听vicus听(civilian camp adjacent to the fort). The site appears in the Notitia Dignitatum, distinguished as 鈥楤irsama鈥�, a provincial military base for the garrison of the Equites Thamudeni Illyriciani. The aim of this project is two-fold 1.) Exploration of the fort and its environs to elucidate new information on this important military and administrative site in relation to the larger late Roman army network in the Negev, 2.) test new digital imaging and modeling methodologies and equipment at the site. The initial 2022 summer season will be an intensive terrestrial and aerial survey of the site to provide key information on the topography and extent of the site. A minimum of five successive excavation field seasons will be carried out beginning in the summer of 2023, followed but a study season for publication preparation. Technological testing of new equipment and methodologies in digital imaging will also form a core component to the recording and exploration of the site. The Brandeis Techne Group, a research team based out of the Autodesk Boston Technology Center, plans to test applications such as multi-drone imaging and use of the Boston Dynamics 鈥淪pot the Robot Dog鈥� at the site for terrestrial survey imaging.
, Iraq (Rocco Palermo)
Gird-I Matrab: picture of the main mound
The Gird-I Matrab Archaeological Project (gMAP) investigates the daily life of a small rural settlement in Northern Iraq, its economy, and the impact of climate transformation on the site and its inhabitants from the age of Assyrians to the heirs of Alexander the Great. Gird-I Matrab (鈥渢he dusty mound鈥� in Kurdish) is located in the plain of Erbil, in North Iraq. It was already known by Iraqi archaeologists in the 1970s, but only systematically surveyed by the Erbil Plain Archaeological Survey team in 2012 and 2020. The site consists of a group of five low mounds orbiting around a central 鈥� slightly higher 鈥� one. Geophysical survey carried out in October 2020 have revealed a large and architecturally complex building, whose spatial extent and architectural features indicate a potential administrative function, most likely dated to the last centuries of the 1st millennium BC.
Visit of local representetives with Project Director Dr. Rocco Palermo
While the buried remains have not been physically uncovered yet, the presence of such an articulated building on a relatively small site in North Mesopotamia, might directly provide new dimensions to our understanding of the rural communities of the region in the Hellenistic and following periods.
gMAP plans to investigate the site through and integrated, multi-scalar approach that combines traditional techniques with the use of state-of-the-art technology and scientific analyses.
, Israel (Michael Eisenberg and Arleta Kowalewska)
Hippos Excavations Project is one of the main continuously running Classical archaeology research expeditions in Israel. Since the year 2000 our international team has excavated the site of Hippos (Sussita) and its environs. Hippos is located upon Mt. Sussita just east of the Sea of Galilee, overlooking the lake and Eastern Galilee.
Hippos鈥� remains present a continuous sequence from its foundation as Antiochia Hippos in the Hellenistic period (2nd cent. BCE) until the devastating earthquake at 749 CE at the end of the Umayyad rule. As the regional polis and one of the Decapolis it reached its peak during the Roman period. At least seven churches were built in the city during the Byzantine period when it was the see of a bishop.
, Jordan (Chad Hill and Yorke Rowan)
Chad Hill and Yorke Rowan.
This project investigates the social and economic role of ancient animal hunting traps known as 鈥渄esert听kites鈥� during a time of dramatic changing land use, human migrations, and shifting economies. Located听in a hyper-arid, basaltic desert, these structures were built as mass-kill traps for ungulates in the later听prehistory of the region.
Aerial view of a kite taken by a drone. Photo credit: Chad Hill.
Each chain includes dozens to hundreds of individual traps, spanning tens of听kilometers, linked by intricate wall networks that functioned to create one enormous system. These听represent a remarkable ancient infrastructural investment in labor, significant social organization, and听the ability to generate subsistence surpluses in a marginal environment. This new study of desert kites,听in context, focuses on the economy of this desert infrastructure and the social organization of largescale听prey-manipulation strategies, to offer new insight into subsistence adaptations in marginal听environments. The results from this research have the potential to transform knowledge of human听responses and adaptations to arid environments in prehistory.
,听Torre d鈥檈n Galm茅s,听Spain (Alexander Smith, Amalia P茅rez-Juez, and Paul Goldberg)
MAP team.
The Menorca Archaeological Project (MAP) is an interdisciplinary group of Spanish and American听collaborators that currently focuses on the diachronic investigation of the site of Torre d鈥檈n Galm茅s on听the Balearic Island of Menorca. Torre d鈥檈n Galm茅s is one of the largest prehistoric sites on the Balearic听Islands, having received international attention from archaeologists for decades. The site鈥檚 importance is听due both its size and temporal scope. Within the remains of Torre d鈥檈n Galm茅s, one can see on display听the early indigenous inhabitants of the island, the impressive remains of the Talayotic culture from the听island鈥檚 Iron Age, and evidence of Carthaginian and Roman interactions well into the first centuries C.E.
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Torre d鈥檈n Galmes, aerial view of SpU 9. Photo credit: Alexander Smith.
Long after the site was abandoned during the third or fourth centuries C.E., Torre d鈥檈n Galm茅s was听settled once more by Islamic communities that made the island their home during the medieval period.听In 1287 C.E., the Islamic settlers were forced to leave the island by King Alfonso III of Aragon, and the听rapid depopulation saw the abandonment of sites across the island. Torre d鈥檈n Galm茅s never again saw听significant occupation. What remains then is an incredible window into medieval Islamic life in this rural听part of Menorca, with dozens of structures preserved, exhibiting the daily life of this group. MAP is听dedicated to the archaeological study of the complex history of Torre d鈥檈n Galm茅s, in particular the听Islamic medieval remains that have been largely overlooked on the site.
ASOR-Affiliated Project Renewals
,听Israel (Mark Letteney, Matthew J. Adams, Yotam Tepper, and Susan Cohen)
Legio is the site of the sprawling base of the Roman VIth Ferrata Legion. Established during the reign of the Emperor Hadrian (117鈥�138 A.D.), the base controlled imperial roads, with direct access to the Galilee and inland valleys of northern Palestine鈥攊mportant centers of the local, occasionally uproarious, Jewish population. Excavations so far have demonstrated clear ties to major political and cultural events in the formative years of Rabbinic Judaism and Christianity and have provided an incredible new window into the Roman military occupation of the eastern provinces.
,听Turkey (Tim Harrison and Elif Denel)
Tell Tayinat from above: Photo by Murat Akar, courtesy of the Tayinat Archaeological Project.
The Tayinat Archaeological Project (TAP) is investigating the archaeological history of the Bronze and Iron Age site of Tell Tayinat, which served as the capital of a succession of small territorial states centered in the Amuq Plain in the North Orontes Valley, Turkey. During the Iron Age, Tayinat was called Kunulua, royal city of the Neo-Hittite Kingdom of Palistin/Patina/Unqi, and Kinalia during the Neo-Assyrian imperial period.
17吃瓜 Alexis: she moved from her home state of Alabama to San Diego in 2019 after working as a teacher for seven years in private schools in the United States and international schools in Ghana, Macau, and Saudi Arabia. Alexis received a Bachelor of Science in Education from the University of South Alabama in 2010 and a Master of Science in Education from Spring Hill College in 2012. In May 2021, Alexis received a Master of Arts in International Higher Education from Boston College. Alexis鈥� research interests center around the internationalization of higher education in American society and economics of human capital theory. Through her experiences as an expatriate, Alexis developed a passion for helping international students navigate the waters of higher education. Alexis is a member of the听听and Women on Course San Diego.听
Christine is a fifth-year university student double majoring in Archaeology and Heritage Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University. She has always been interested in archaeology since she was a kid and has gotten the opportunity to pursue her studies in this topic. Christine has developed a particular interest in bio-archaeology and looks forward to advancing her research in this field.
ASOR鈥檚 Annual March Madness Challenge is back! This year we are 鈥渇illing鈥� a different need: supporting the ongoing cost and maintenance of . This incredible resource has been an 17吃瓜publication since 2016. The LCP is an open, interactive website focused on ceramics produced in the Levant from the Neolithic era through the Ottoman period. Thanks to the generosity of three 17吃瓜donors, we have received a $5,000 challenge gift that can be fully earned by raising another $5,000 for a total of $10,000 to keep the LCP running. All gifts will support the ongoing maintenance and hosting of the Levantine Ceramics Project (LCP)鈥� an 17吃瓜open-access publication.
The LCP, an 17吃瓜open-access publication and research project, is a sustainable research tool designed to pull the study of archaeological ceramics into the 21st century.
Jane is a PhD candidate in the Integrative Anthropological Sciences Program at the University of Central Florida. Her research interests are diet and mobility, status, and identity, using isotope analysis and geospatial analysis. Her temporal geographical focus is the Ancient Near East and Medieval West Europe.
The Honors and Awards Committee seeks nominations to serve on the Frank Moore Cross Book Award sub-committee. 17吃瓜invites nominations, including self-nominations, from 17吃瓜members who are interested in being considered by the committee for this opening. Committee members will serve a three-year term with the possibility of two consecutive terms. Nominees must fill out the by February 28, 2022.听The Honors and Awards Committee takes responsibility for determining the awardees for the three book awards, the field archaeology award, the 鈥渂est poster鈥� award, and the multiple membership service awards that 17吃瓜gives annually; conducting the awards ceremony during the Members鈥� Meeting at the 17吃瓜Annual Meeting; and听discussing and advising the 17吃瓜Board of Trustees about ASOR鈥檚 awards, including recommending to the Board the creation of new awards as deemed appropriate.