Archaeological Reports Series 31: Humayma Excavation Project, 3
Humayma Excavation Project, 3: The Roman Fort
ed. by听John Peter Oleson
Authors:听 John Peter Oleson, Erik De Bruijn, M. Barbara Reeves, Andrew N. Sherwood, Craig A. Harvey, Yvonne Gerber, and Milorad Nikolic with contributions from Gregory S. Baker, Emily Deeb, Lindsay Holman, Janet Jones, Derek Klapecki, Kelsey Koon, Jennifer Ramsay, Tiffany Rawlings, and David S. Reese.
This two-volume set of the third publication in the Humayma Excavation Project presents the most thorough excavation report and analysis of a Roman frontier fort yet published. Humayma, ancient Hawar or Hawara, began life as a small Nabataean settlement in the Hisma desert of Southern Jordan, 80 km south of Petra. Soon after the Roman conquest of the Nabataean kingdom in 106 CE, the town was incorporated into the new Provincia Arabia听as Hauarra, and a fort was built on the slope above the original settlement. Hauarra flourished through the Byzantine period and in the late seventh century was purchased by the Abbasid family, which built an elaborately frescoed manor house and mosque. Henceforth known as al-Humayma, the town withered away after the Abbasids moved to Iraq in 749 and led the revolt against the Umayyad caliphate.
Oleson began excavation in the fort with a small probe in 1987, followed by 10 seasons of extensive excavation and geophysical survey between 1993 and 2005, and a follow-up campaign by Reeves in 2012. The excavations provided important new information about the process of the Trajanic conquest of the Nabataean kingdom, the development of Roman military fortification design, the organization of the southern portion of the听Provincia Arabia听and adjacent frontier of the empire, and relations between Nabataean town dwellers and their Roman occupiers from the second through the fifth centuries.听
17吃瓜Archaeological Reports, Volume 31, Series Editor Jennie Ebeling, December 2024, 2 volumes, 1080 pages (468 b/w figs, 16 tbls & 24 col pls.), ISBN 9780897571241, $169.95.
Special Offer for 17吃瓜Members
17吃瓜members (with a mailing address in the USA) can purchase the 2-volume set of ARS 31 at the discounted price of $60.00 (70% discount + $10.00 US media mail shipping)while supplies last.听Purchases are restricted to one volume per member. We are unable to offer this discount to members without a US mailing address due to international shipping costs, but you can purchase and ship a copy through the ISD link below. Please contact programs@asor.org with any questions.
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The piedmont of northern Iraq鈥檚 Zagros Mountains has long fascinated scholars due to its remarkable archaeological potential and favorable conditions for ancient human settlement. Pioneering research by D. Garrod in 1928 and R.J. Braidwood in 1947 uncovered traces of the last hunther-gatherer societies and among the earliest evidence of sedentism and food production strategies in southwest Asia, through the excavation of sites of great importance, including Palegawra, Zarzi Cave, and Charmo.
Given the historical background, I was deeply excited when Prof. S. Renette invited me to join his team to study the chipped stone assemblages from previous excavation seasons in Kani Shaie (Sulaymaniyah, Kurdistan Region of Iraq). Since 2012, the Kani Shaie Archaeological Project (KSAP) has been investigating the well-preserved archaeological sequence at the homonymous mound which spans from the Late Neolithic (ca. 7000 BCE) to the Early Islamic (ca. 1200 CE). The ultimate goal is to understand the ancient inhabitants鈥� lifestyles, mobility, and sociocultural connections with both the Mesopotamian plain and mountains of this vast and diverse area across millennia. The current stage of this interdisciplinary research focuses on the 4th and 3rd millennia BCE, which were transformative periods distinguished by the establishment of social inequality, bureaucracy, monumental architecture, complex settlement patterns, long-distance trade and exchange, and ultimately the rise of the first urban societies.
The survey team while standing on the right bank of the Lesser Zab River.
With the generous support of the P.E. MacAllister Fieldwork Scholarship, I was finally able to engage in an archaeological project in the Sulaymaniyah Region for the first time, although having long worked in the macro-region. One of the most enriching aspects of working within the KSAP team was the chance to interact with a diverse and open-minded group composed by both experienced and young researchers. Through these interactions, I was able to exchange knowledge, ideas, and perspectives. Additionally, amidst the exciting discoveries and intensive work, I had the pleasure of forming new friendships.
An example of intermontane rocky landscape cut by a river.
Recording observations on the collected geological samples and drawing sketch profiles of the geological formations
interested by the sampling.
The first part of my work took place at the expedition house and was focused on the analysis of the chipped stone collections from key periods, including Ubaid, Late Chalcolithic, and Early Bronze Age. I conducted a technological analysis of the artifacts, addressing crucial questions: how the artifacts were produced? What techniques and methods were used? Which raw materials were chosen? Do we observe significant changes in these practices throughout different settlement phases?
Thanks to the Fieldwork Scholarship, the completion of the second phase of the intended work was also made possible. A small team was assembled for the purpose of conducting extensive surveys aimed at comprehending, for the first time, the regional availability of raw materials suitable for crafting stone tools. During a four-day survey, our team 鈥� consisting of an expert archaeologist from the Directorate of Antiquities of Sulaymaniyah and a driver 鈥� explored a diverse and fascinating landscape: this included the Bazyan plain with its alluvial and rocky hills, steep mountainsides with narrow valleys carved by small rivers, and limestone walls with many caves and rock shelters. Significant stretches of the two major river courses, the Lesser Zab and Tanjero River, potential sources of raw materials, were also explored. This stage resulted in the identification of multiple candidate geosites, which were then systematically sampled. The most significant sampled raw material was chert, a siliceous sedimentary rock extensively available on earth and selected since early prehistory to produce stone tools due to its very good fracture qualities.
Sampling fluvial-transported chert pebbles along the ancient terraces of the Tanjero River. In the background it is
possible to note the hilly morphology of the Tanjero Formation, from which the river erodes and transports part of the
fragments.
Our field prospections preliminary results are exciting since we encountered many distinct varieties of chert, well mirroring the variability observed at the archaeological site of Kani Shaie. Future studies using scientific methods (e.g., macroscopic, petrographic, and geochemical analyses) will compare selected archaeological artifacts and geological samples to identify sources or procurement areas exploited by the prehistoric communities settled at Kani Shaie. As a result, I hope that my beneficial collaboration with the KSAP team will continue over time and contribute to their broader research questions. Another long-term goal is to create an open-access repository of these findings and welcome participation and inputs from colleagues and scholars interested in prehistoric lithic raw material procurement in the region.
For more information about the Kani Shaie Archaeological Project (KSAP) visit听.
Work in the KSAP expedition house: field data are stored in a database and the geological samples are cleaned,
counted, labelled and packed.
Daniele Moscone is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Archaeology and ROOTS Cluster of Excellence (CAU Kiel), where he focuses on the prehistory of southwest Asia, in particular the Zagros Mountains. Previously a postdoctoral fellow at the Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (ANAMED) of Ko莽 University, he earned his PhD at Sapienza University of Rome, specializing on chipped stone artifacts and raw material analyses. You can find Daniele Moscone on Bluesky @mosdann.bsky.social
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While working on the Bra膷 Island Project on a beautiful island in Croatia, the team got to excavate our hillfort site, Gradina Rat. At the same time, we were learning about what was being excavated during the project because of our work in the lab to identify and document the artifacts being uncovered.
Our last drive to site featuring a rainbow perfectly over Gradina Rat where we were excavating.
Although a large part of archaeology is the excavation, understanding what was happening in the past at a site comes from identifying and analyzing the artifacts and doing additional research in the lab. My role this season was the lab assistant, so I was able to spend some days out on site, but a majority of my time was spent helping Dr. Sarah James in the lab working directly with the ceramic assemblage.
The excavation crew at site after our morning excavations. I am on the far right.
There were four main tasks that I helped to complete throughout the season to keep everything running smoothly and figure out what was happening within each context of finds.
The first part of the lab work was pottery washing.
The ceramic assemblage from one context all laid out to dry after being
washed.
Everyone who participated in the project helped with washing the ceramic finds so that any designs and colors could be more easily seen once the dirt was scrubbed away and so the artifacts remained clean. We washed the pottery that was brought down from the site every day鈥攗nless it was raining so badly that we couldn鈥檛 be outside鈥攕o that we could keep up with all the finds that were excavated.
The next step in lab work was artifact reading where we would record as much precursory information about the artifacts as possible. We recorded each artifact into the database alongside their context numbers to give a sense for the assemblage throughout the contexts. For the ceramic sherds, the team would partner with Dr. James and Dr. Barbari膷 to record the identifiable sherds from each context and give them a preliminary vessel shape and date range. I would also take counts and weights of the three main categories of ceramic vessels: table, cooking, and coarse ware. Knowing the types of ceramics being used on site was helpful for recognizing that this was not a domestic settlement and that something far more interesting was happening at this site.
After the ceramic pieces were read into the database, the pieces that required more research to identify or that could give new information about the assemblage were catalogued. A lot of my time in the lab was spent cataloguing pottery sherds. One goal we achieved for this season was to finish cataloguing the artifacts discovered in previous seasons and to work through as many sherds from this season as possible. Cataloguing included taking the dimension and weight of each sherd and describing the texture of the surface, the strength of the firing technique, the interior color and inclusions of the clay (also known as the fabric of a vessel), and any exterior decorations. After detailing the specific piece, I would research comparable shapes and decorations from other authors to help verify the classification of the shape, origins, and date of the original vessel. With this information, we were able to get a clearer sense of the activities and uses of the ceramics at Gradina Rat and how the people living on Bra膷 were connecting with traders from other countries.
Two joining sherds of Italian Matt Painted Imported Ware from the 4th to 6th c. BCE.
The last piece of lab work was photographing some of the especially important finds to have clear photos of special artifacts, the ranges of imported vessels, and the common local vessels. Having these photos will allow other scholars to work with the artifacts found at this site and will aid in visually accompanying any research written about this site. Our set up was simple yet effective. I only occasionally had to carefully hide clay supports to help get certain angles of the pieces.
Lab work in action to photograph one of the ceramic sherds.
At the very end of the day, we would all gather down at the beach to watch the sunset after everyone finished their afternoon tasks, and sometimes we鈥檇 jump into the magical waters of the Adriatic and theorize about what exactly the ancient people were doing up on that hill.
Swimming at sunset after a hard day鈥檚 work in the field and in the lab.
Claire Hook just graduated with a Masters of Classical Art and Archaeology from the University of Colorado Boulder. Her research interests are in the responses and treatment of child mortality in Ancient Greece, and the ceramic assemblages that accompany them.听
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2024 Collections Fellowship Report: The Land Behind Aleppo: Urban Life and State Formation in Bronze Age Syria
Holly Winter, University of Sydney
Thanks to an听17吃瓜Study of Collections Fellowship, I was able to spend a week in Boston at the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East (HMANE), studying the 17吃瓜Syrian Survey material. The focus of the research trip was to study the ceramic assemblage collected as part of the 1970s 17吃瓜Syrian Survey (ASS) project by the late James Sauer. This research forms part of a larger project, the 鈥楲and Behind Aleppo鈥� (LBA) project, which aims to investigate the Bronze Age history of Aleppo, specifically during the time of the powerful Middle Bronze Age (MBA) kingdom of Yamkhad (Aleppo). It employs legacy ceramic assemblages collected by James Sauer, as part of his 17吃瓜Syrian Survey. This will be combined with the late John Matthers鈥� River Qoueiq survey project materials, now housed at the Institute of Archaeology at University College London. The 鈥楲and Behind Aleppo鈥� project aims to investigate Aleppo鈥檚 Bronze Age history through a ceramic proxy study of the central city鈥檚 changing pattern of relationships with its hinterland settlements over the course of the Bronze and Iron Ages, aiming to bracket the period of greatest prominence (the MBA: 2000-1500 BCE) and evaluating the changing fortunes of Aleppo down the ages. As fieldwork in the region of Aleppo in the near future is unlikely, this research is a necessary precursor and eventual supplement to any future work on the central site and its region.
The Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East building.
Analysing ceramics from a number of sites in the hinterland regions of Aleppo will aim to chart the development and changing pattern of interaction between the various settlements within the polity of Yamkhad over time. Key to this study is tracking the expansion and contraction of the central state鈥檚 economic 鈥榝ootprint鈥�. A multi-proxy analytical programme using a combination of typological approaches and scientific techniques, drawn from geochemistry, petrography, and materials science, will target select ceramic forms, chosen because they potentially inform on different aspects of contact. These well-established methods can illuminate the production and distribution of storage/transport jars associated with bulk commodity transactions such as those involving grain and oil for trade/taxation, fine tablewares for elite consumption/emulation studies, and cooking/food preparation forms indicative of local production. Together these enable us to examine and hopefully contrast what is locally, sub-regionally, and centrally produced. The resulting data informs on trade, administration, and systems of production and distribution. The 鈥榬each鈥� of the central site, and thus arguably its politico-economic power projection, will be assessed over time. The ultimate aim is to chart the ebb and flow of influence/power, and whether this is primarily elite-interaction driven, or staple-economic in form.
Holly sampling a selection of sherds from the ASS project.
The numerous boxes of ceramics from the 17吃瓜Syrian Survey (ASS) sites were made available for this study thanks to Dr. Adam Aja, Chief Curator at the HMANE. The 17吃瓜Syrian Survey was conducted by James Sauer from 1977-79, and studied 83 sites across Syria. The collection is large and multi-period in scope, now stored in 24 boxes in the HMANE. Only sites with materials from the Bronze and Iron Ages were studied as part of this research project. The aim during this visit to the HMANE was to gather ceramics from the Aleppo Sector of the ASS collection, as time was limited. In total, I was able to sample 11 sites in three days, focussing on sites closest to Aleppo. Before sampling, each site assemblage was reviewed, and then a selection of sherds were chosen for sampling. The choice of which sherds to sample was based on a pre-established typology, although size of sherd and appropriateness for sampling were considerations. Each sherd was given a project number (LBA#), described and sketched before sampling. It was then photographed with site identifiers and a second time on both obverse and reverse surfaces, and occasionally the profile. Approximately a half cm size was snipped from the sherd at a location that would not impact future drawing of the sherd (mostly from the shortest profile side). A total of 175 sherds were sampled during this visit to the HMANE, and it is hoped that petrography and neutron-activation analysis will be able to be conducted on these samples in the near future.
Fragment of a Middle Bronze Age tall narrow-necked jar from the site of Atareb, sampled as LBA118.
The ASS material will offer insights into the social and economic history of a region where little is currently known, in the hope that results pertaining to the pre-eminent MBA kingdom of Yamkhad can be generalized across the Levant, and perhaps further afield. It also exploits an important legacy database that has been unstudied for nearly 50 years, giving promise of shedding light on one of the main drivers of Syrian urban life in the MBA and beyond鈥揂leppo.
2024 Seger Grant Report: Paths to Urban Growth in the Nineveh Plain: Survey at Tell 鈥楢rna
Khaled Abu Jayyab, University of Toronto
The Paths to Urban Growth in the Nineveh Plain project (PUG) established in 2023 aims to understand proto-urban developments and population aggregation that took place in northern Iraq during late prehistory. The efforts of this project include exploring past assumptions about trajectories towards complexity through targeted excavations at Tepe Gawra and Tell 鈥楢rna, and carrying out a regional survey in collaboration with our partners at the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage (SBAH).
Work at Tell 鈥楢rna, facilitated in part by the generous contribution of听, allowed for a team from the University of Toronto led by Khaled Abu Jayyab in collaboration with the Mosul office of the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage (SBAH) to carry out a systematic survey of Tell 鈥楢rna located in the eastern Mosul Suburb of Gogjeli (Fig. 1).
Figure 1: Location of Tell Arna on the eastern edge of the city of Mosul, northern Iraq.
Survey work at the site proved to be an important step towards establishing an accurate periodization of the site and streamlining our approach to future excavations, protection, and conservation work at Tell 鈥楢rna.
Our methodological approach consisted of combining remote sensing data with field walking in order to obtain a complete picture of the cultural and physical surroundings of the site. Prior to our work in the field, we explored the landscape around the site using satellite imagery (Corona, Hexagon, and Landsat) to document any changes that took place at the site between the late 1960鈥檚 and present day. In the field, we carried out a UAV (drone) survey of the site in order to obtain a high-resolution digital elevation model (DEM) and render a 3D model of the site and its surroundings (Fig. 2).
Figure 2: Orthophoto of Tell 鈥楢rna (left), DEM and contour map of the site (right).
This was an important initial step that aimed to create an accurate plan of the site and to document its present condition, and assess any possible future conservation threats. Our second step was to establish a 20脳20 m collection grid around the site as a guide for systematic surface collection that allowed us to explore the distribution of materials from each period as a proxy for settlement extent (Fig. 3).
Figure 3: Survey collection units at Tell 鈥楢rna.
The survey work had two important aspects to it. First, from the overall scientific questions PUG has been trying to address, Tell 鈥楢rna produced an occupation sequence that complements that of our other site Tepe Gawra. Whereas the earliest occupation at Tepe Gawra seems to begin from the late Halaf period (5500 BC), occupation at Tell 鈥楢rna dates back as early as the Neolithic Hassuna period (6200-6000 BC) and continues into the Late Chalcolithic 2 (LC2) period (4200-3900 BC). Similar to what we see at Tepe Gawra (see Abu Jayyab et al. 2024), growth and expansion of Tell 鈥楢rna takes place during the LC2 where the settlement appears to have doubled in size (Fig. 4). This suggest that nucleation and the formation of aggregated settlements was not unique to Tepe Gawra, but was taking place across the Nineveh Plain, albeit at different scales. Through future excavations we can begin to address the actual scale of aggregation at these sites and how said aggregation may have engendered structural transformations at them.
Figure 4: distribution of materials (red squares) and estimated site size during the different periods of occupation of Tell 鈥楢rna.
While the mission was primarily meant to be a reconnaissance mission for determining future scientific excavation plans, a second more significant aspect of our documentation has led the PUG team to rethink its priorities. Tell 鈥楢rna falls in the area of Gogjeli which historically has been an area of open farmland and pasture. With the expansion of the city of Mosul over the past two decades the area here has been slowly engulfed by the city (Fig. 5).
Figure 5: Satellite imagery showing the stages of urban expansion in Gogjeli.
This process has accelerated since with the takeover of the city by ISIS and the subsequent state of disorder and population displacement. Today, as a result, Tell 鈥楢rna is located in an ever expanding slum where we see the intersection of farmland, factories, and illegal housing encroaching on the site (Fig. 6). Ironically, the project set out to explore the origins of urbanism in the Nineveh Plain and now we can observe rapid urban expansion in real time and its consequences, especially with regards to its impact on cultural heritage.
Figure 6: Digitized urban elements impacting the site of Tell 鈥楢rna.
Slums could be defined as 鈥渁n overcrowded residential urban area characterized by below standard housing, poor basic services and squalor鈥� (Habitat for Humanity). The conditions around Tell 鈥楢rna fit that definition as the housing is not part of a zoning plan by the municipality where with the absence of services such as drainage and electricity (electricity is provided through private generators鈥揳 common business in Iraq due to the poor infrastructure). While construction of new illegal houses seemed to have stopped, the existing ones are increasingly being choked by industrial buildings and massive storage hangars, with more being built every day (Fig. 7). All these construction activities have been systematically damaging the site, bit by bit. The damage includes bulldozing portions of the site and exposing archaeological remains (Figs. 7-8), cutting a sewage canal through the site (Fig. 8), and increased dumping of household refuse on the site (Fig. 8).
Figure 7: An industrial hangar being constructed during our survey in October and November of 2024.
Figure 8: Photos from Tell 鈥楢rna documenting part of the damage at the site including bulldozing of the southwest corner of the site, refuse discard on the site, and cutting a sewage drain through the site.
On a more positive note, participation of two University of Toronto students in the work at Tell 鈥楢rna has opened up new opportunities for them to refine their skills in archaeological survey, material analysis, and leadership. Moreover, we also nurtured deeper collaborations with local stakeholders and members of the local SBAH office in Mosul, through collaboration on field work and opening up conversations with the local community.
Most significantly, work at Tell 鈥楢rna has shaped our future approach and allowed us to develop a tailored approach to the site in upcoming seasons. While this work started as an exploratory expedition, it has transformed into one that aims to address the threats to the cultural heritage as a point of departure.
Parallel to understanding trajectories towards complexity in the Nineveh Plain, we are developing an approach that preserves the site initially by constructing a fence that prevents the urban push onto the site. Of course, this is not enough as we see that cultural heritage should not alienate the local inhabitants, but on the contrary should, in our opinion, generate a sense of ownership and pride. Accordingly, we see the potential of weaving the site into the fabric of this emergent community of Gogjeli by establishing a park, around the site that includes walkways, educational signs, benches, playground, and a mini-football field to accommodate the local inhabitants of the neighborhood. Through these steps we aim to provide the local inhabitants with a sense of ownership of the space without creating the alienating impact that usually surrounds cultural heritage projects (see Isakhan and Meskell 2019). By converting the area into a usable and functional space for the inhabitants we hope that it would become a place that has value for them and one that they respect and take care of. We also hope it becomes a place that may stimulate their curiosity and one which they can engage with intellectually.
Figure 9: Members of the Tell 'Arna survey project Khaled Abu Jayyab, Clemens Reichel and Rasha Alendari at the Shamash Gate, Nineveh.
References cited
Abu Jayyab, K. Schwartz, I. Al-Hussainy, A. Batiuk, S. Glasser, A. & Hadi H. 2024 鈥淭he Tepe Gawra Lower Town Survey 2022, Iraq.鈥� Bulletin of the American School of Overseas Research, Bulletin of the American Society for Overseas Research, B17吃瓜vol. 392: 55-82.
Habitat for Humanity Urbanisation and the Rise of Slum Housing:听
Isakhan, B. and Meskell, L. 2019 鈥淯NESCO鈥檚 Project to 鈥楻evive the Spirit of Mosul鈥�: Iraqi and Syrian Opinion on Heritage Reconstruction After the Islamic State.鈥澨�International Journal of Heritage Studies:听1-16.
Luke Poutre, 2024 Charles Steinmetz Fellowship Recipient听
It is 2:45 A.M. and a cascade of phone alarms begins to sound throughout the dig house. Members of the team get up from their floor mats and quickly prepare for the day. For those of us on the Geophysics team, this means that all of our cumbersome equipment must be staged in front of the house to be loaded onto the bus that takes us to the dig site. We find time to eat a handful of nuts or a banana before loading begins, and by 3:45 the bus is en route to Kurd Qaburstan. It is still dark as we drive to the site, and we see the fires from oil refineries lighting up the horizon as we drive along the highway to the village of Yedi Kizlar, the modern village where our project is located. Before we leave the outskirts of the city of Erbil, the bus stops at a bakery where we pick up a bag of Samoon bread, one of the most important components of our on-site meal which we referred to as 鈥榮econd breakfast鈥�. After making the half-hour drive from our house in Erbil to Kurd Qaburstan, we finally arrive just before sunrise and meet up with our Kurdish dig team.
The geophysics team with the magnetometer. Andy Creekmore (L) and Nicole Temple (R).
At this point, the excavation team breaks off to their trenches while the members of the geophysics team begin setting up our equipment. This process involved putting together a SENSYS Multi-Channel Carrier Type F pushcart with MAGNETO MXV4 magnetometer system and setting up hectare or half hectare grids using GPS and tape measures throughout the center and periphery of the site. This piece of equipment is comprised of a GRP frame, a mounted EMLID GPS system, nine individual sensors set 0.25m apart, and a processing unit. The pushcart is used to take magnetometry readings of an area so as to gain an understanding of the potential architecture and economic activities of that location (i.e. ceramic or baked brick kilns). Once the equipment is set up, one of the members of the team straps on the battery-pack and begins collecting data. This is done by pushing the cart in straight lines back-and-forth within the pre-marked hectare, guided by other members of the team holding flags at each end of the grid. The terrain, however, made this process a bit more difficult. The site itself is located on a modern farm, with the main tell falling within the barley fields and one of our chief focuses of excavation being within the tomato patch. As such, the soil was rife with plow-furrows which were baked solid by the 116 掳F heat, resulting in a tremendous effort not only to push the cart, but also to keep it straight. The resulting data consists of magnetometer readings that we process to compile into a two-dimensional map or magnetogram that can be viewed and interpreted by the entire team.
Luke operating the magnetometer.
The citadel archway.
Daoud, a Syrian archaeologist who is part of the team.
Luke Poutre is a current student working towards his Masters degree in Near Eastern Archaeology at La Sierra University. Prior to his entrance into the field, Luke served in the U.S. Army before working in civil litigation and tort law. He hopes to continue his involvement with projects in the Near East, and eventually pursue a doctoral degree in archaeology.
Luke with Didar, a Kurdish member of the team.
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2024 Dana Grant Report: Study of Cultivation Strategies at Khirbet Beit Loya
Bethany Walker, University of Bonn
The site of Khirbet Beit Loya is located in the central lowlands of Israel. In the middle of this multiperiod site sits the medieval Islamic village: it occupies the summit of a low hill that offers view of Ashkelon and the Mediterranean coast, Gaza, and the Hebron hills. The extensive village ruins one sees today dates to the Mamluk era, having been suddenly abandoned sometime in the 15th century CE. With the funding provided by the Dana Grant for Israel, we are documenting cultivation strategies and soil enrichment practices from the nearby terraced fields (which are dated by OSL), and comparing them to crop processing and consumption practices in the village. The soil samples were taken from floors and middens of houses, a subterranean stable, and relic agricultural terraces and sent to three laboratories in the U.S. and Europe.
The macrobotanical work has been done by Dr. Kathleen Forste, a postdoctoral scholar at Brown University. Thirty flotation samples were collected in the field by the excavation team, and exported for analysis at Brown University. The first stage of analysis focused on the seeds, fruits, and plant parts. The crops identified are bread/hard wheat, barley, fava bean, along with barley rachis pieces (chaff), and a suite of seeds from wild plants that grow along hillsides and steppe areas (Bromus听sp., 听bromegrass;听Trifolium听sp., clover) and others that typically grow as field weeds (Lolium听cf.听temulentum,听darnel;听Onobrychus听sp., sainfoin). The presence of crop seeds, cereal chaff, and agricultural weed seeds suggests local cultivation and processing/cleaning of annual cereals and pulses. Notably absent from this assemblage are fruits such as olive, grape, and date, which were common staples in the past, just like today.
Excavation area showing crushed pottery in place. Photo credit Bethany Walker.
Subterranean stable in Field U. Photo credit Oren Gutfield.
The terraced landscape of Khirbet Beit Loya. Photo credit Bethany Walker.
Outside of the domestic contexts, a comparison was made of the stable and terraces to determine whether the manure from animals raised at the site was used to fertilize the terraced fields (and which animal dung was preferred.) While this lab work is still underway, important preliminary patterns have emerged.
Nine such samples were processed by Dr. Ramona M枚rchen (University of Bonn) for plant phosphate and nitrate analysis: six from the stable and three from a nearby agricultural terrace. The stable, unsurprisingly, produced the highest levels of plant-available phosphorus: up to ten times higher than in the terraced fields. Moreover, traces of animal dung (mainly from herbivores) were recovered from the stable floor and pits. The terraced fields, on the other hand, did not produce such markers of enrichment, indicating that they were likely farmed without the use of organic fertilizer.
The same nine samples were also subjected to dung spherulite, phytolith, plant isotope analysis, in order to study the siliceous and non-siliceous microremains. Samples were also analyzed by FTIR spectroscopy to determine their gross mineralogical composition. This work is being done by Prof. Rosa Maria Albert, of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). The mineralogical composition of the samples shows a high content of calcite, associated with siliceous minerals such as clay, quartz and opal. Phosphates have also been identified in some of the samples. In terms of microremains composition, the results show a high concentration of plant material, as evidence by the large presence of phytoliths, but also of water or very wet conditions, as indicated by the large amount of aqueous microreremains.
17吃瓜mourns the passing of long-time member and trustee, Carolyn Midkiff Strange. Below is an excerpt from Carolyn鈥檚 obituary.听
Lillian Carolyn Midkiff was the youngest of four children, born on April 16, 1937, in Midland, Texas, to Naomi (n茅e Mabry) and Tyson Midkiff. She spent her childhood in Midland, Rankin, and Kerrville, graduating from Kerrville鈥檚 Tivy High School in 1955. She especially enjoyed weekends on the family ranch with her father as a young girl, where she helped with the animals and swam with her cousins in the water tanks fed by windmill-operated pumps. Midkiff family reunions attended by seemingly hundreds of cousins were events that鈥攜ears later鈥擟arolyn, her husband, and children would greatly enjoy.
Carolyn attended one year at Hardin Simmons University, then transferred to Rice University in Houston, graduating with a B.A. in English in 1960. She met the love of her life, Jimmy Francis (Jim) Strange, at Rice, and, after some fitful starts, the two dated, became engaged, and married in Rankin on August 19, 1960.
Carolyn鈥檚 and Jim鈥檚 eldest children, Mary Elizabeth and James Riley, were born in Kerrville, while Jim taught at Shriner Institute and Carolyn taught high school geometry, her very favorite subject. The family then moved to New Haven, Connecticut, and on to various towns in New Jersey as Jim did graduate work. In these early years Carolyn worked at Esso Research and taught at a Montessori kindergarten. Katherine Alexandra and Joanna Carissa were born after the family moved to Tampa, Florida in 1972.
Andy Vaughn, 17吃瓜Executive Director
Carolyn used to describe herself merely as someone who read a book and decided to do something. She sometimes joked that she should stop reading books.
Well, I can tell you that I read books too, but I don鈥檛 change the world after I read a book. Carolyn did.
One example is Ibram X. Kendi鈥檚 book,听How to be an Antiracist.听A key point in this book was that antiracists must make structural change鈥攁nd Carolyn did just that, and she inspired everyone else to do the same. She was not a person to scream, make demands, or protest. She acted and she inspired others to act.
As one speaker at her memorial service put it, instead of being 鈥淎ll hat and no cattle,鈥� Carolyn was 鈥淎ll cattle and no hat.鈥� Indeed, Carolyn was a woman of action鈥攁nd that was contagious.
So how did Carolyn make structural change in 17吃瓜that will live on? I鈥檒l share just a partial list of things that Carolyn did of which many 17吃瓜members may not be aware because she did them without fanfare or asking for recognition. She desired action, progress, and change and not praise:
Meagan Shirley and Carolyn Strange
stuffing tote bags at the
2019 Annual Meeting.
BIPOC Endowment:听Carolyn made a challenge gift to establish an endowment in 17吃瓜for black and indigenous students to participate in excavations. 17吃瓜currently awards about $100,000 per year in fieldwork participation scholarships (50 scholarships of $2,000 each). Carolyn wanted to ensure that 17吃瓜would enable the participation of black and indigenous students on digs, so she made a $100,000 challenge gift to encourage the wider 17吃瓜community to create an endowment to fund annual awards of at least five (5) scholarships at the $2,000 level. That endowment now has a market value of $292,000. Thus, 17吃瓜will continue to fund at least five dig scholarships听plus听five (5) travel scholarships to the Annual Meeting for black and indigenous students.
Strange / Midkiff Families Endowment:听Carolyn and Jim Strange made a challenge gift to establish one of ASOR鈥檚 first endowments for dig scholarships for any 17吃瓜member. Not only has this fund grown to almost $260,000, but its establishment also encouraged other members to make challenge gifts for named endowments to support fieldwork participation scholarships, excavation grants, and member research fellowships.
ASOR鈥檚 permanent home in Old Town Alexandria鈥攚hat is now named the听James F. Strange Center.听In 2016 when 17吃瓜was evicted from its free office space at Boston University, Carolyn quietly (yet forcefully) told the 17吃瓜Development Committee that we couldn鈥檛 fail, and we couldn鈥檛 set our sights too low. She argued that 17吃瓜must be bold. She made an extraordinary challenge gift of $750,000 so that 17吃瓜could buy an office building in Alexandria, Virginia听and听create a board-designated endowment to ensure that we had funds to continue the operations of the physical space. Once more, Carolyn鈥檚 leadership inspired others. 17吃瓜purchased our office home, paid off the mortgage, and created a board-designated building endowment that now has a market value of $485,000 (just $15,000 short of our goal). As noted above, this structural change permits 17吃瓜to continue being a flagship organization in archaeology, history, and cultural heritage by operating out of the Washington, DC area without paying rent.
Creating video and training resources for fieldwork safety and cultural competency training.Because 17吃瓜now awards more than $250,000 annually in dig scholarships, excavation grants, and membership research fellowships, Carolyn had the vision that 17吃瓜should also create structural change by increasing cultural competency and awareness by requiring fellowship recipients and project directors to view and read resources that were created ASOR鈥檚 DEI committee and other volunteer partners (including听Archaeology in the Community听and听Society of Black Archaeologists). These resources are still being created with money donated by Carolyn, and their impact will be another way that her legacy lives on.
Initiating volunteer participation at the 17吃瓜Annual Meeting and emboldening committees to do their work. Carolyn liked to work behind the scenes. A prime example was her arrival at the Annual Meeting on Monday so that she could assist the 17吃瓜staff with setup. Like her work on excavation projects, Carolyn was at home behind the scenes, and all of the 17吃瓜staff considered her 鈥渙ne of us.鈥� Similarly, Carolyn was inspirational for the DEI Committee and the Membership Committees (see the remembrance by the DEI Committee Co-Chairs). She quietly insisted that committees had to be positive and couldn鈥檛 aim low. It was difficult, if not impossible, to tell Carolyn 鈥渘o鈥� or that it couldn鈥檛 be done.
Mary Elizabeth Strange Endowment and renovations of the first floor of the Strange Center:听Carolyn made a gift of $200,000 to renovate the first floor of the Strange Center so that 17吃瓜can host heritage educational events in Old Town Alexandria. She also made a $800,000 pledge for an endowment that will distribute about $40,000 annually for programs to bring cultural property protection of the cultures from the Middle East and North Africa to the Strange Center. This endowment will be critical in changing how 17吃瓜views itself as partnering with local community members from the countries where we work. The diaspora members, who now live in the United State, will partner with 17吃瓜to protect heritage at risk both in the U.S. and in the countries of origin. This is another initiative that will make institutional change in ASOR, and it was near to Carolyn鈥檚 heart in part because of her two of her grandchildren (Mary Elizabeth鈥檚 adopted sons) are from Ethiopia and Thailand.
听
Carolyn was an 17吃瓜member almost her entire adult life. She was a trustee since 2018. She worked behind the scenes, and was a counselor, friend, and prayer warrior. Saying that Carolyn was a friend to many is an understatement. She made time to talk to so many in her 17吃瓜family. For me, this was also personal. When I was going through a hard time this past year, we spoke at least weekly. I knew that she prayed for me daily, and she sent encouraging texts multiple times a week. I鈥檓 certain that I鈥檓 not the only one who experienced this type of love and support. She cannot be replaced in ASOR, nor in our world. Yet, her love and her projects will live on because she did indeed create structural change in ASOR, in her church, in her community, and in her family and friends. May her memory be a blessing.
B.W. Ruffner, Honorary 17吃瓜Trustee
It鈥檚 a little awkward for a volunteer archaeologist to be honoring someone like Carolyn, but I guess she was a volunteer too. The difference is that my contribution to the discipline is trivial compared to hers. Putting these thoughts on paper has given me an opportunity to remember her unassuming intelligence, her quiet service to 17吃瓜and her family, and how much fun she was to be around.
I have seen only a fraction of Carolyn鈥檚 gifts to us. We met briefly at Sepphoris in 1994, then shared some meals at a kibbutz somewhere in Galilee when Jim was documenting some artifacts that were stored in a container there. 听That was when I discovered how much fun she was to be around. A review of ASOR鈥檚 remembrances after Jim鈥檚 passing and of Carolyn鈥檚 recollections of her time with Vivian Bull at various digs over the years make it clear that she was an invaluable presence on Jim鈥檚 excavations, and gave her children their 听first experience with archaeology.
We got more acquainted over the years at 17吃瓜annual meetings. I always hoped to be at her table for Legacy Dinners. She usually arrived early so she could help the staff get set up and organized and was always available to 鈥渂ack up鈥� when the staff was needed elsewhere. 听She was a problem solver. A review of her obituary makes it clear that her gifts to the world, both in time and resources, extended far beyond us.听 She clearly was committed to her church and to racial justice.听 For the University of South Florida, she supported a chair in Racial Justice, the Department of Religious Studies and the UCF Botanical Gardens.
I got a more complete view of her intelligence, her quiet thoughtful effective unassuming personality 鈥撎� and her sense of humor 听鈥� at Shikhin. By this time I wasn鈥檛 useful with a gufah and wheelbarrow so I slept late and went to the field with her when she served 鈥漵econd breakfast.鈥� My task was to deal with fever, diarrhea, nausea, dehydration and minor trauma. She took care of everything else.听 If a tool or some unexpected supply was needed, she went looking for some way to solve the problem. 听She knew who was sick, and who was homesick.听 She knew where the volunteers could shop and dealt with financial or travel problems. She was an effective grandmother to them all.
Carolyn and other trustees
at a reception at the
James F. Strange Center in 2024
She kept things organized at the hotel. If there were problems with meals or facilities she resolved them. 听She made sure things were set up for pottery reading and helped James register data and arrange lectures. I feel sure she helped James arrange our weekend tours too.听 I suspect that what I saw was just a fraction of her contributions to Jim鈥檚 digs over the years.
She and I were a 鈥渟enior generation鈥� on the team.听 We had time to share thoughts on the challenges of getting older, and the joys of being grandparents. We talked about our travels over the years, and the values and challenges of our religious denominations and our spiritual lives.
My last time with her was a painful reminder of her quiet self-effacing personality. When she collapsed at an 17吃瓜Board dinner in May at Alexandria, she lay on the floor with us crowded around and said 鈥淕et back to your dinner.听 I will be fine.听 I鈥檝e done this before.听 Just leave me here on the floor鈥�.听 After several hours and IV fluids in the emergency room she recovered and returned to the hotel.听 I have second guessed myself 鈥� and the emergency room 鈥� wondering if we missed some clues to the eminent disaster.听 If she had any early symptoms, she probably ignored them.听 I鈥檓 sure she told the ER 鈥淚 don鈥檛 really need to be here.鈥�
Susan Ackerman, 17吃瓜Past President
Carolyn Midkiff Strange was an inspiration and brought a surge of passionate energy to every part of 17吃瓜she touched. There was nothing that she thought 17吃瓜could not do, or at least could not do better, if we threw out hearts and souls into it鈥攁nd she used her huge heart and generous soul to lead by example. When we were evicted from our long-time office space at Boston University in 2017, she made the lead gift that we needed to buy a building that would become ASOR鈥檚 permanent home, and she inspired the rest of us to raise the funds to cover the rest of the purchase price, even when there were many (myself included) thought it could not be done. Indeed, I will never forget the aftermath of one Development Committee meeting, when the building funding looked grim, and Carolyn (short, sweet, diminutive Carolyn!) took me by the shoulders, shook me, and said, graciously but forcefully, 鈥淲e can do this.鈥� Well,听she听did, and the James F. Strange Center in Alexandria, VA鈥� named in honor of her late husband and life partner, Jim听听Strange鈥攊s a lasting tribute to her grit and determination.听
And she didn鈥檛 stop. She inspired our diversity, inclusion, and equity work, especially when the need became urgent in 2020, once again through her determination that 鈥渨e can do this鈥� and through her commitment to put her money where her heart and soul demanded: and so she established an endowment to fund excavation scholarships for BIPOC students and gave contributions to support other diversity initiatives. Her fund-raising passion also led her to be an enthusiastic member of the 17吃瓜Development Committee and a moving force when it came to raising monies from others, especially donations to 鈥�17吃瓜2025 鈥� Strengthening our Foundation | Expanding Horizons 鈥� A Call to Action,鈥� an initiative celebrating our 125th year as an organization.
Most recently, Carolyn has donated funding to establish the Mary Elizabeth Strange Endowment for Diaspora Heritage Educational Programming. Moreover, in 2014, Jim and Carolyn Strange jointly established ASOR鈥檚 Strange and Midkiff Familes Excavation Fellowships, designated to support the participation of 17吃瓜members as volunteers or staff on excavation projects. The fund has now awarded 24 excavation fellowships, with a total of $46,500 disbursed to grantees.
Carolyn and Jim, each members of 17吃瓜for over fifty years, each members of the 17吃瓜Board of Trustees, and each generous donors, are testaments to what is best in ASOR鈥攁nd an inspiration to us all.
Teddy Burgh, chair of the Membership and Outreach Committee and 17吃瓜Trustee
My time with Carolyn goes far beyond obligatory cliches and customary superlatives. We didn鈥檛 spend a lot of one-on-one time together, but our brief conversations and interactions are memorable. It wasn鈥檛 that she said anything profound. There were no remarkable quotes. What resonated with me was Carolyn鈥檚 passion and sincerity. Both were palpable. After some of my previous experiences and interactions at 17吃瓜conferences, as well as with various people on excavations, I am extremely sensitive when it comes to trust and sincerity. Many people know what to say and how to say it to present a specific persona or image. Yet, their true feelings can be just the opposite. When I met Carolyn, I will admit that I was guarded and cautious. However, I began to realize that she was for real. Her actions echoed her words. What was also impressive was Carolyn鈥檚 desire to learn and see change in the organization. She was extremely candid about what she didn鈥檛 understand and wanted to comprehend other points of view. She was open to having difficult conversations. Carolyn not only listened, but she heard what was being said and worked to bring about overdue changes in the organization.
Debora Heard, member of the DEI Committee and the William Leo Hansberry Society
Carolyn Strange was not only a highly-valued member of the DEI Committee, she modeled the self-journey each of us should be undertaking to make this world a better place for all of us.听听She demonstrated that one could learn what one could not comprehend.听听In the wake of the protests over the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, Carolyn found that she could not comprehend the racism, discrimination, privilege, social injustice, and inequality that the protesters were claiming was embedded in US society, but she wanted to know.听听She was open to learning what she did not understand.听听She would tell anyone who would listen that reading Ibram X. Kendi鈥檚 How to Be an Antiracist opened her eyes and changed her life.听听Yet, one book could not teach her all that was to know, so every month at our DEI meetings, she would show us what new book she was reading dealing with topics like the perpetuation of racism within the church, social inequality, and systemic forms of racism and discrimination.听听Carolyn also understood that knowledge alone does not produce change.听听She took that next step that many neglect.听听She asked, 鈥淲hat can I do?鈥� and she spent the rest of her life committed to ways to answer that question.
Carolyn hosted a reception for听
members of the William Leo听
Hansberry Society at the听
Annual Meeting in Chicago in 2023.
The first part of her action plan was education.听听While Carolyn always downplayed her role in archaeology, often saying, 鈥淚鈥檓 not a scholar,鈥� her modesty did not extend to giving her opinion.听听In fact, one of Carolyn鈥檚 best qualities was her direct, straightforwardness; she was a 鈥渢ruth teller.鈥�听听As a result, exposing others to the belief-shattering knowledge that she was acquiring was not always easy for her listeners to receive, so she bought books to give in the hopes that the recipients would receive a similar revelation and join her in the work of changing minds and, more importantly, changing society, which leads to the second part of her action plan which was 鈥渁ction.鈥�
Carolyn believed that it was a responsibility as a person, and also as a Christian, to DO all that she could to effect positive change for all people.听听As a member of ASOR鈥檚 Board of Trustees and DEI Committee, she actively worked to 17吃瓜toward greater diversity and inclusivity in its values, its membership, and its impact on the research and disciplines under its purview.听听She also funded initiatives that would help 17吃瓜begin its own journey of transformation and evolution.
Carolyn Strange was a person who gave her whole heart to what she believed, and she truly believed in diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, fairness, and justice.听听The DEI Committee will sorely miss her, but her contributions to the committee and on ASOR, at large, are a part of her legacy that must be continued.听听As long as we continue in the work to which she dedicated the last years of her life and as long as we commit ourselves to our own uncomfortable journeys of seeking to understand the lived lives of people of different backgrounds than ourselves and doing the work to improve the lives for all of humanity in whatever small way that we can, we will keep Carolyn Strange and her legacy alive.
Kate Larson and Julia Troche, co-chairs of ASOR鈥檚 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee.
Carolyn and her son,
James R. Strange at the
2021 Annual Meeting.
Among Carolyn鈥檚 many legacies to 17吃瓜is her unwavering commitment to building a more inclusive and equitable field of archaeology and study of the ancient world. She pushed herself and others to confront uncomfortable histories through self-education and intentional reflection. She also didn鈥檛 hesitate to step forward as a lead donor on numerous diversity initiatives, among them听听that have enabled 13 black, indigenous, and people of color to participate in archaeological excavations since 2022. This sort of financial and institutional support helps ensure those from a wider range of backgrounds, lived experiences, and perspectives can continue to broaden and invigorate our field.
Carolyn was an inaugural member of ASOR鈥檚 DEI Committee when it was established as a standing committee by the Board of Trustees in 2021. She provided moral accountability and clarity to the committee from day one, entering all conversations with humility and grace. Her encouragement, calm but strong presence, unwavering support of the work of the committee, and commitment to inclusion permeated our work. She never hesitated to recommend a book, share her own journey, and embrace humility. She is missed profoundly.
Eric and Carol Meyers, 17吃瓜Trustees
Carolyn Strange was a dear friend over the course of more than fifty years. From the early 1970鈥檚 to the early 1980鈥檚, she and her family sank deep roots with the听Meyerses in the Upper Galilee, and later in the Lower Galilee at Sepphoris near Nazareth.
Jim and Carolyn Strange at Sepphoris.
Carolyn never took the label of being a Galilean lightly: it was her heritage and one that fueled her dedication to inclusivity, tolerance, and commitment to those in need. In recent years she especially devoted time and attention to 17吃瓜and the Albright where she had spent so many 听years. Her efforts and contributions have enabled both to prosper and grow in a time of great challenge for the Middle East.
In many ways these past years she has enjoyed new friends and new ties that have bound her to the lives of all sorts of individuals, not only to us Galileans but to 17吃瓜and AIAR types from all over the US and globe. And she won their hearts through her charm and straightforward talk.
She has left a legacy, and we all celebrate it.听 She will always 听be in our hearts and memories.
Yehi shema mevorekhet, may her name be for a blessing,
17吃瓜is excited to announce the appointment of the new editor of听Near Eastern Archaeology (NEA)鈥擟hristina Tsouparopoulou. Christina started her term in January 2025. The new editor succeeded the previous editor, Stephanie Budin, who held the position of听NEA听editor from 2018-2024. 17吃瓜appreciates the tremendous amount of work that Stephanie has put in over the past six years and acknowledges her unwavering dedication to the journal.
The editor was nominated by the听NEA听Editorial Search Committee after an extensive public search process. The nomination was unanimously endorsed by ASOR鈥檚 Publications Committee, and the editor was unanimously approved by the 17吃瓜Board of Trustees.听NEA听editors are appointed for a three-year term, with the possibility of being re-appointed for a second term. Her initial term will run from 2025鈥�2027.
Christina Tsouparopoulou听(Institute of Archaeology, UKSW) is an Assistant Professor at Cardinal Stefan Wyszy艅ski University in Warsaw and an Honorary Fellow at Durham University working on Near Eastern popular religious practices, identities, cylinder seals, human-animal/environment relations, and digital humanities. She received her PhD from the University of Cambridge with a thesis on Ancient Near Eastern cylinder seals and sealing practice, and has held teaching and research positions at (among others) Heidelberg, Durham, and Cambridge.
Christina is thrilled to join听Near Eastern Archaeology听as its new editor. She is passionate about advancing research on the ancient Near East and Eastern Mediterranean. As the new editor of听Near Eastern Archaeology, she looks forward to working closely with early-career researchers and drawing on her experience in public engagement, including documentary projects like Discovery鈥檚听Ancient Armageddon听and听Lands of the Bible, to make the journal more accessible and engaging, opening up the fascinating world of the ancient Near East to both specialists and a wider audience, while upholding its scholarly excellence.
Archaeological discoveries continually enrich our understanding of the people, culture, history, and literature of the Middle East. The heritage of its peoples 鈥� from urban civilization to the Bible 鈥� both inspires and fascinates.听Near Eastern Archaeology听brings to life the ancient world from Mesopotamia to the wider Mediterranean with vibrant images and authoritative analyses.听NEA听(ISSN 1094-2076) is published four times each year (quarterly): March, June, September, and December.
All manuscripts submitted to听Near Eastern Archaeology听are subject to a peer review by independent scholars. All articles are sent to two external specialists in the field who are asked to evaluate the manuscripts for their academic quality. The time assigned for the review is normally 30 days; the peer-review process and (if required) the resubmission of revised manuscripts is handled through听NEA鈥檚 Editorial Management system.听NEA鈥檚 Editorial Board assists the editor in the peer-review process, e.g., through the recommendation of external reviewers, acceptance decisions, and the revision of manuscripts. All articles must be submitted via听NEA鈥榮听. Questions, comments, or suggestions for the new editor? You can now contact them at听nea-editor@asor.org.
Sarah Jarmer Scott was elected as ASOR鈥檚 next Secretary by the Board of Trustees during the Annual Meeting in November 2024. Sarah will serve a three-year term as Secretary until December 31, 2027. Below is her vision statement for ASOR:
17吃瓜has been a foundationally important organization for me, and I know it has been for others. It would be an honor to give back by serving on the Board, and in doing so I would hope to support and grow its programming and membership. Not only has it provided academic, intellectual, and networking opportunities for my work, it has also provided a community for pedagogical support. My area of scholarship is fundamentally interdisciplinary, while also being inter-regional. As a specialist in Mesopotamian glyptic and visual culture, I engage in dialogue with art historians, archaeologists, philologists, anthropologists, and museum professionals. My own experience in presenting papers and chairing sessions has opened paths for research and publications, as it has for others. The networking and social component 鈥� particularly through the annual meetings 鈥� has also been important in my own growth and confidence as a scholar. The diversity of attendees and members, as well as the commitment to social justice in the many disciplines represented by ASOR, is an essential component of the organization, and one that is key to its success.
As one of many members who teach at a small college where I am the only person in my area of specialty, 17吃瓜is an important community, as it provides a venue to talk to like-minded researchers and teachers, collaborate, and bring back ideas. While my main role at Wagner is as professor of Art History (where I teach Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Greek, and Islamic Art, Museum Studies, as well as writing seminars), I have also served as Dean and directed a number of grants. Having seen some of the challenges facing higher ed, and sought to empower colleagues and students to find success in their work, I know that organizations like 17吃瓜are essential in bringing deep knowledge and resources to such endeavors; I see opportunity in deeper collaborations between and amongst ASOR, its membership, and higher education institutions and museums.
My experience with 17吃瓜(conference attendee, presenter, session chair, and utilizer of multiple 17吃瓜resources and publications) has given me insight and knowledge of the organization and will serve to make me an excellent Secretary. I鈥檇 also like to call attention to my 20 years of experience on the board of the local Staten Island AIA chapter. I am proud of the work I did with them and the amazing programming I developed for that community (lectures, trips, archaeology fairs).
In the years ahead I know 17吃瓜will face many challenges. Surely the organization will rise to those challenges. Continued and emphatic devotion to development of scholarship, diversity, social justice, community-based collaboration, and creative partnership development will enable 17吃瓜to succeed and thrive. I look forward to serving the Board of ASOR.
17吃瓜would also like to welcome three new trustees to the Class of 2027:
Andrea Berlin (Institutionally-Elected Trustee) Helen Dixon (Membership-Elected Trustee) Emily Hammer (Membership-Elected Trustee)
