Category Archives: 17吃瓜News

Dana Grant Report: Bra膷 Island, Croatia

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听厂贬础搁贰

[/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:info@asor.org” 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://asor.org/blog” 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_widget_sidebar sidebar_id=”ca-sidebar-39801″][/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_column_text responsive_align=”left”]

2024 Dana Grant Report: Bra膷 Island, Croatia

Sarah James, University of 听Colorado, Boulder听[/vc_column_text][mk_divider][vc_wp_text]This season of the Bra膷 Island Project was incredibly fruitful and went well beyond our expectations based on last year鈥檚 excavations. We excavated on the site of Gradina Rat for five weeks from May 27 to June 28. The team consisted of myself, animal bone specialist Eden Franz, field directors Hannah Hungerford and Andrew Rivadeneira, and 10 graduate student volunteers. Three of these students, Tanner Frick, Claire Hook, and Louis Mainwaring Foster were generously supported by 17吃瓜fieldwork grants.[/vc_wp_text][vc_single_image image=”99916″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” onclick=”img_link_large” img_link_target=”_blank” css=”.vc_custom_1729107103420{padding-right: 10px !important;}”][mk_padding_divider][vc_wp_text]We excavated this season in three areas: on the southern slope, adjacent to the 2023 trench, and at the northeastern corner of the plateau. Our goal this season was to gain more evidence to talk about the Late Bronze and Iron Ages at this site. Thanks to our previous seasons鈥� work, we knew how the natural bedrock impacted depositional processes at the site. For instance, we placed a 5x7m trench on the southern slope closer to the plateau than in 2022 and because we had learned that the bedrock dropped creating large pockets of undisturbed erosional fills. For this trench, we were able not only to unearth deep deposits that were radiocarbon dated to the 5th century BCE, but also locate a stretch of the original circuit wall of the hillfort(tentatively dated to the 10thc. BCE). This is an incredible discovery! Although hillforts are relatively common in the Dalmatian islands, archaeological evidence for their construction and use is definitely not. Local authorities immediately recognized its value and are working to conserve this 4m section of wall for future visitors to the site. The other two trenches on the site yielded more evidence of Bronze and Iron Age activities[/vc_wp_text][vc_single_image image=”99917″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” onclick=”img_link_large” img_link_target=”_blank” css=”.vc_custom_1729107153841{padding-right: 10px !important;}”][mk_padding_divider][vc_wp_text]Artifacts from the deposits above this terrace wall produced a truly remarkable range of imported Italian and Greek pottery dating from the 9th c. BCE to 1st c. CE, which suggests that this site has the longest occupational period of any hillfort in Dalmatia. It was therefore a busy season in the lab, assisted by Claire Hook, as we documented and catalogued hundreds of fragments of imported pottery. The local Bronze and Iron Age ceramics are being studied by Dr. Vedran Barbari膰 (University of Split)[/vc_wp_text][vc_single_image image=”99918″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” onclick=”img_link_large” img_link_target=”_blank” css=”.vc_custom_1729107269444{padding-right: 10px !important;}”][mk_padding_divider][vc_single_image image=”99919″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” css=”.vc_custom_1729107312088{padding-right: 10px !important;}”][mk_padding_divider][vc_wp_text]

We began presenting the results of these excavations in August 2024 at the annual meeting of the EAA (European Association of Archaeologists) and will spend part of next season preparing preliminary reports about the site. This grant will be warmly thanked as a supporter of this research which assisted with travel expenses and the analysis of C14 samples.

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Fieldwork Report: Sophie Vo

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Geophysics in the Erbil Plain

Sophie Vo,听2023 Eric and Carol Meyers Fellowship Recipient
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Thank you to 17吃瓜and Dr. Eric Meyers and Dr. Carol Meyers for allowing me this opportunity to participate in my first excavation! Without the Fellowship, I would not have been able to excavate in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.


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Fig. 1: Qach Rresh at sunrise. The slight outline of the mountains are visible in the distance. Photo courtesy of Sophie Vo.

My mornings started at 3:30 am鈥擨 would wake up an hour before we departed to pack lunch for the team鈥檚 second breakfast or drink coffee and slowly transition into consciousness. At 4:30am, we would pile into our driver Bapir鈥檚 van. As the sun rose, we drove east from Ankawa, the Christian district of Erbil. Typically, we arrived at our site, Qach Rresh, at 5:30am. The sun was poking through the clouds and the air was still cool. Qach Rresh, located 14 km south of Erbil and 2 km north of Trpa Spiyan, is a site which is estimated to date to the 7th-4th centuries BCE (Iron Age II and III). This includes the height of the Assyrian Empire and its subsequent collapse, including periods during which the Erbil Plain might have been under Neo-Babylonian or Median control in the 6th century and Achaemenid Persian control thereafter. Later, the administrative buildings at Qach Rresh were apparently used as trash dumping grounds after the fall of the Assyrian Empire, giving us a huge amount of data about the 6th-4th centuries that is otherwise rare on the Erbil Plain.


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Fig. 2: Image of the Emlid R2 GPS system

Upon arriving at Qach Rresh, I would help Glynnis, the project registrar, set up the Emlid R2 GPS system and lay lines for magnetometry. Magnetometry is an archaeological survey method that measures the Earth鈥檚 geomagnetic field at the nanotesla (nT) level with two sensors spaced 1 meter apart. Archaeology does not solely involve digging and excavating on site. We would excavate in the mornings and perform data analysis, ceramic cataloging, and zooarchaeological analysis in the afternoons.

To record points in X-Y space, Glynnis and I set up the Emlid R2 GPS system, one of two Reach R2 systems (Figure 2). This allowed us to measure points with sub 2cm accuracy. The base RS2 sits stationary while the rover RS2 is moved to mark points. We marked points using this rover so that we could lay transect ropes every two meters for the magnetometer machine reading spaced every 50 cm (Figure 3). Figure 3 demonstrates the typical set up for surveying Qach Rresh using magnetometry.


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Fig. 3: Example of the magnetometry survey setup, with transect ropes set up every two meters for machine readings spaced every 50cm.

Afterward, Dr. Creamer showed me how to conduct magnetometry by carrying the Bartington 601-2 Gradiometer suspended from our backpack straps ~20cm from the ground surface. The left and right vertical sensors needed to be held parallel to each other and perpendicular to the ground. Transects were laid out at intervals of 2m in 20x20m squares (with machine readings at every 50cm),with corner stakes laid in by GPS (Emlid Reach R2). The machine took eight measurements at a pace of one meter per second walking speed. By the end of the day, we were all walking at a cadence of one meter per second and measuring distances by counting our steps. Each square took roughly 15-20 minutes to survey with the Bartington. On average, 5,600m2 (or, roughly half a hectare) was surveyed with the Bartington per day. In the lab, geophysics results were analyzed with the open source computer applicationArchaeoFusion. Magnetometry of the site revealed important features of the rural administrative center of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, such as an animal pen and other potential buildings for future field seasons.

One of my favorite aspects of the听听project was the ability to get my feet wet in the various sub-specialties of archaeology. I worked with Laurel Poolman, a zooarchaeology student, who taught me how to analyze and identify unearthed animal remains from our site. I also was able to work with the Kurdish workers, Hallo and Tayib, who taught me how to quickly and efficiently dig trenches. It was extremely valuable learning numerous archaeological methods, from learning the basics鈥攍ike writing lot numbers鈥攖o interpreting animal remains and discussing magnetometer readings. As my first excavation, I gained valuable archaeology and professional experience both in and out of the field. I was also afforded the opportunity to explore my research interests and make lifelong friends on the project. I am extremely grateful to have met everyone in Kurdistan and I can鈥檛 wait to return next season!

Figure 4: The location of Qach Rresh on the Erbil Plain.

Sophie Vo recently graduated Emory University in May 2023 with a BS in Biology and a BA in Ancient Mediterranean Studies. Having never excavated before, she was eager to learn about the animal remains on the site and learn alongside the project鈥檚 zooarchaeologist. Afterward, Sophie continued to explore her interest in archaeology at the Brooklyn Museum in Egyptian, Classical, and Near Eastern Art. There, she utilized her excavation experience to research and examine Egyptian archaeology reports for the objects housed in the collection

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Want to learn more? Visit听听or ASOR鈥檚听听and听听to hear about Sophie Vo鈥檚 field experience!

Want to help more students and early career archaeologists get into the field? Donate to the cause today by selecting 鈥淪tudent Support鈥� as your gift purpose!

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ASOR’s Response to October 7 Events

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ASOR鈥橲 RESPONSE TO OCTOBER 7 EVENTS

ASOR, the American Society for Overseas Research, condemns in the strongest possible terms Hamas鈥� vicious massacre of more than a thousand innocent non-combatant Israelis on Saturday, October 7, 2023.

17吃瓜is an organization that fosters a community of scholars across borders. Our mission is to initiate, encourage, and support research into, and public understanding of, the history and cultures of the Near East and wider Mediterranean world. 17吃瓜is apolitical and has no religious affiliation. 17吃瓜has a large and diverse membership that does not speak with one voice about world politics.

We believe strongly that recent attacks by Hamas on Israeli civilians are not politics, but evil acts of terrorism. We agree and reaffirm with the President of the United States that Israel has the right and duty to protect its citizens. We also concur with a recent statement by President Biden that 鈥渢he extreme elements of Hamas don鈥檛 represent all the Palestinian people.鈥�

We grieve deeply with our Israeli colleagues. We also recognize that there is great suffering in Gaza and among the Palestinian people. We are deeply concerned for the well-being of civilians on all sides of the crisis. It is our hope that all of us will recognize and respect our common humanity.

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2023 Nominees for 17吃瓜Board Elections

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2023 NOMINEES FOR 17吃瓜BOARD ELECTIONS

The ASOR听Trustee Nominations Committee has selected seven highly qualified members to stand for election for four open positions on the Board of Trustees. The Board sets the direction for 17吃瓜and provides oversight for our organization. Among other responsibilities, members of the Board agree to attend two meetings each year, to participate thoughtfully in the governance process, and to contribute financially to ASOR.

There are five candidates running for two openings as Member-elected Trustees for 3-year terms (Theodore Burgh, Patricia Fall, Emily Hammer, Melissa Bailey Kutner, and Kiersten Neumann). There are two candidates for two openings as Institutionally-elected Trustees for 3-year terms听(Eric Cline and Jason Ur).听 All 17吃瓜members are eligible to vote in the Member-elected Trustee Election, while only Institutional Representatives of the 60 ASOR-member schools may vote in the Institutionally-elected Trustee Election.

17吃瓜will conduct the elections by online ballot, and all members and Institutional Representatives will receive the appropriate ballot(s) via email on or around October 10, 2023. We will send out two reminders, and all ballots must be completed by听12:00 PM Eastern Time on Monday, November 13. If you have difficulties completing the online ballot (once they are distributed), please contact Marta Ostovich at听programs@asor.org.

Nominees for Membership-elected Trustees
(two to be elected)

Theodore Burgh
Theodore Burgh

Theodore Burgh is Professor and Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religion at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. He holds his degrees from the University of Arizona (M.A./Ph.D.), Howard University (M.A.), and Hampton University (B.A.). His research interests are the archaeology of ancient Israel and the Near East, the Hebrew Bible, archaeomusicology (the study of ancient music culture), the reconstruction of Syro-Palestinian and Near Eastern music culture and cataloging musical artifacts, utilization analysis of Syro-Palestinian sacred and secular space, and ethnomusicology.

Mission Statement:听I have been an active 17吃瓜member since 1996 and a part of the membership committee for nearly 20 years. I now serve as Chair of this incredible group. As a trustee, I will continue to bring commitment and experience. Building on existing success, 17吃瓜can expand its services to the Academy generally and to members specifically. For example, as a result of the pandemic, we have demonstrated that we can work and thrive virtually. We should continue these efforts to develop virtual archaeology as a sustained part of our organization. Moreover, we should continue implementing technology (e.g, live streaming, recorded Zoom lectures and papers). The popularity and inclusiveness of Zoom lectures displays the desire and need for this approach in the 21st century. These kinds of venues share the fabulous work of our field with new people and those who previously had little to no access to these invaluable sources. Lastly, I would like to see continued energy with the membership and outreach committee. Efforts with the Friends of 17吃瓜will be essential to maintaining the organization鈥檚 future membership and developing inclusivity.

Patricia Fall
Patricia Fall

Patricia Fall听is a Professor in the Department of Geography & Earth Sciences at the University of North Carolina Charlotte (UNCC). Prior to her appointment at UNCC, she held positions as Professor of Geography at Arizona State University and Charles La Trobe Professor of Geography at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia.听Pat is an archaeologist and paleoecologist whose research explores human impacts on ancient environments, the influences of climate change on early agrarian societies, and modeling of human-environmental interactions. She has conducted NSF-funded research in the Mediterranean Basin, South Pacific and Caribbean. Pat has directed ASOR-affiliated excavations at Bronze Age Tell el-Hayyat, Tell Abu en-Ni鈥榓j, and Zahrat adh-Dhra鈥� 1, Jordan and Politiko-Troullia, Cyprus. These projects elucidate social and past environmental dynamics underlying the rise of Bronze Age urbanism and document ecological impacts triggered by initial human colonization of islands. She currently directs a collaborative study of climate change and the agricultural responses it engendered around 4500-3500 years ago, stretching from the Levant to Cyprus, Sicily, and Sardinia. Pat has published 4 books and over 90 articles detailing the results of her research.

Mission Statement:听I am committed to providing enhanced opportunities for students and scholars to engage in wide-ranging field, lab, and literary research regarding the ancient world. My participation in 17吃瓜has been an important aspect of my entire research career in the greater Mediterranean. I have served on the Committee on Archaeological Research and Policy (CAP) for the last six years, on the Shepard Urgent Action Grant Committee for four years, on CAP鈥檚 Fellowship Committee for five years, and contributed to the development of CAP鈥檚 Policy on Professional Conduct. For the last two years, I have chaired the Fellowship Committee, which has overseen the application and award process for ASOR鈥檚 Student Fieldwork Scholarships (about 250 applicants in the past two years) and Project Research Grants (about 50 applications in the past two years). These programs have expanded in numbers and diversity of applicants, numbers and funding for scholarships and grants, range of research topics, and geographic breadth. I currently chair the ACOR NEH Fellowship Committee, and have served previously on six NSF grant proposal review panels. As a member of the 17吃瓜Board, I look forward to further expansion of ASOR鈥檚 support for increasingly diverse student and professional contributions to the exploration of our human heritage.

Emily Hammer

Emily Hammer is Assistant Professor of Archaeology and Digital Humanities at the University of Pennsylvania. She is an anthropological archaeologist interested in the development of urbanism and the history of mobile pastoralism in greater Mesopotamia, including the highland peripheries of the north and the alluvial plains of the south. She has surveyed and excavated in Iraq, Azerbaijan, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. Professionally she is known for her technical expertise in spatial analysis and both quantitative and visual analysis of remote sensing imagery, especially newly-declassified sources of archival imagery (including imagery from U-2 spy planes and Hexagon spy satellites). As a participant in the global collaborative project 鈥淟andCover6K,鈥� she works with other historians and archaeologists to reconstruct land use over the last 6000 years across southwest Asia for inclusion in models of long-term climate and anthropogenic land cover change. Emily holds a PhD in Anthropology from Harvard University (2012) and a BA both in Mathematics and Classical & Near Eastern Archaeology from Bryn Mawr College (2006).

Mission Statement:听17吃瓜has been central to my professional life from the beginning of graduate school continuing until today. I value the knowledge that I gain and the networks that I build at each annual meeting. In recent years I have contributed to the life of the organization through service on several standing committees, the Committee on Archaeological Research and Policy (CAP, two terms, including a term on the Fellowships Committee) and the Cultural Heritage Committee. I have further had the opportunity to participate in shaping ASOR鈥檚 evolving current directions through service on the Ad Hoc Committee on ASOR鈥檚 Name and the Ad Hoc Committee for ASOR鈥檚 Code of Conduct for Fieldwork Projects. Additionally, I co-chaired the 鈥淟andscapes of Settlement in the Ancient Near East鈥� annual meeting session each year from 2015-2022.

17吃瓜has grown tremendously in the 17 years that I have been a member, and I have been excited to witness it expand to include both a more diverse group of members and scholarship concerned with a broader geographic area. To sustain and capitalize on this growth, 17吃瓜must continue to adapt to meet the sometimes-disparate needs of members pursuing various goals at different career stages, especially as members face ever-changing classroom and research funding environments. As a primarily North American-based organization, we must do more to encourage and support truly equal collaborative partnerships with our local colleagues abroad. We must continue to confront the colonialist legacies of our disciplines, recruit diverse students to our fields, and find creative ways to communicate our research to a broader audience.

Melissa Bailey Kutner

Melissa Bailey Kutner is Assistant Professor in the department of Ancient Studies at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Her research focuses on the late Byzantine economy of Jordan and on the Roman economy more broadly, including issues of standardization and cognitive approaches to value. She has excavated at a variety of sites in Jordan since 2008, and since 2017 has acted as a co-director of the Dhiban Excavation and Development Project. This project investigates long-term occupation at the site of Dhiban in west-central Jordan: how such occupation has waxed and waned in relation to broader regional and political developments and how inhabitants of the site reused and repurposed architecture and features of the landscape. Dr. Kutner focuses especially on the late Byzantine prosperity of the site and its early Islamic transition. She also served as chair of the Archaeology of the Byzantine Near East session at 17吃瓜for six years and has served on the 17吃瓜Board of Trustees for three years.

Mission Statement: Throughout my career as an archaeologist, 17吃瓜has played a central role in supporting my own and my colleagues鈥� research. In my time on the Board of Trustees so far, I have been excited to see 17吃瓜increase accessibility with its hybrid meeting format, work to address its carbon footprint, and tackle a range of other issues related to access and sustainability. I look forward to seeing 17吃瓜continue to grow in ways that increase its diversity, vibrancy, and relevance. I am interested in spreading awareness of dangers to heritage in ways that also forefront the needs of local communities, and that see archaeological heritage as inextricably linked to human needs and not in opposition to them. I also hope to promote best practices in field schools, including ongoing reflection on teaching methods, curricula, and inclusive policies, and to encourage more diversity among field school participants. Finally, as a new-ish parent of young children, issues of accessibility for parents and caregivers at conferences and in the field is also a growing concern of mine.

Kiersten Neumann
Kiersten Neumann

Kiersten Neumann specializes in the art and archaeology of West Asia, with a focus on Assyrian and Achaemenid material culture. She is Curator of the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures Museum (ISAC Museum [formerly Oriental Institute Museum]), Research Associate at ISAC, and Lecturer in the Department of Art History at the University of Chicago. In addition to co-editing听The Routledge Handbook of the Senses in the Ancient Near East听(2022), she has published numerous articles on sensory experience, ritualized practice, and visual culture, as well as on museum practice, collecting histories, and provenance research. At the ISAC Museum, she has curated such exhibitions as 鈥淛oseph Lindon Smith: The Persepolis Paintings鈥� (2022), 鈥淢aking Sense of Marbles: Roman Sculpture at the OI鈥� (2022鈥�2023), and 鈥淎rtifacts Also Die鈥� (2023), in addition to the museum鈥檚 permanent galleries as part of a complete renovation (2019). She has conducted fieldwork in Turkey (Tell Tayinat) and Greece (Athenian Agora), and collaborates on international museum, art, and cultural heritage projects and exhibitions.听Originally from Vancouver, Canada, she received her B.A. and M.A. from the University of British Columbia and her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, during which time she also worked at the Bad猫 Museum of Biblical Archaeology in Berkeley, ultimately as Associate Curator and Interim Director.

Mission Statement:听17吃瓜has a unique way of inspiring me to continually increase my service to the organization鈥攖hanks to not only the rigorous scholarship and interdisciplinarity but also the widespread collegiality. As a long-time participant in annual meetings as a presenter and session chair (since 2008) and member of both the Program Committee (since 2019; Co-chair since 2022)鈥攚hich I currently represent on the Chairs Coordinating Council鈥攁nd the Ad Hoc Committee on ASOR鈥檚 Name (2020), I鈥檝e witnessed the heartening growth of ASOR鈥檚 membership and the thoughtful governance of the members of the Board of Trustees that has made this possible. I would bring to the Board experience from work in both academic and museum spheres; service on grant-awarding, advisory, and acquisitions committees; participation in local and international cultural heritage and community engagement initiatives; mentoring and advising students; and efforts in development, finance, marketing, and public relations.

As a Board Member, I would advocate for, first, increased recognition of museums and associated cultural institutions (and the professionals who bring these spaces to life)鈥攁nd related public education and outreach鈥攁s an integral branch of 17吃瓜and finding ways of expressing this in its programs, projects, and support initiatives. Second would be expanding accessibility, diversity, equity, and ethical standards across the organization. The steps 17吃瓜has made in this respect are strong: the impassioned work of such committees as Early Career Scholars; Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; Initiative on the Status of Women; and Contested Territories, for example, has and continues to help 17吃瓜evolve in pivotal ways, yet we can do more鈥攆or example, we could expand mentoring opportunities for students, increase support for underrepresented groups, and update with more regularity current procedures and guidelines. Third, I would love to bring to the Board my experience working with cultural heritage and diaspora communities and artists, finding ways to expand our partnership and collaboration opportunities with people intimately connected with the regions, histories, and cultures that are at the core of ASOR鈥檚 efforts.

Nominees for Institutionally-elected Trustees
(two to be elected):

Eric H. Cline

Eric H. Cline is Professor of Classics and Anthropology, the former Chair of the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, and the current Director of the Capitol Archaeological Institute at George Washington University, in Washington DC. A National Geographic Explorer, NEH Public Scholar, Getty Scholar, and Fulbright Scholar with degrees from Dartmouth, Yale, and the University of Pennsylvania, he is an active field archaeologist with more than 30 seasons of excavation and survey experience in Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Cyprus, Greece, Crete, and the United States, including ten seasons at Megiddo (1994-2014), where he served as co-director before retiring from the project in 2014,听and another ten seasons at Tel Kabri, where he currently serves as Co-Director with Assaf Yasur-Landau. He is the author or editor of twenty books and nearly one hundred articles; translations of his books have appeared in nineteen different languages. He has also received the 17吃瓜Service Award (twice), the G. Ernest Wright Publication Award, the Nancy Lapp 鈥淏est Popular Book on Archaeology鈥� Award (twice), and was the Keynote Speaker in 2019.

Mission Statement:听If memory serves, I have been a member of 17吃瓜for almost 40 years. I first joined as a graduate student in 1984 and have attended the annual meeting almost every year since. I have gone from being the youngest in the room to being one of the oldest and have served in a variety of capacities over the years, including as co-editor of听BASOR; an elected member of the Board of Trustees; and a member (and sometimes Chair or VP) of COP, CAP, CAMP, the Program Committee, the Nominations Committee, the Development Committee, and the Executive Committee, among others. As a result, over the years I have had a ring-side seat and have watched 17吃瓜grow ever larger since its long-ago split with AAR and SBL, stretching to cover new areas, both geographically and chronologically, and becoming a fully functioning powerful entity in its own right. I am proud of what has been accomplished, through thick and thin, trials and tribulations, over the years, and look forward to once again helping to serve ASOR鈥檚 best interests as a member of the Board of Trustees and to assisting the next generations of scholars achieve continued success in the coming years.

Jason Ur

Jason Ur is Stephen Phillips Professor of Archaeology and Ethnology in the Department of Anthropology at Harvard University. He specializes in early urbanism, landscape archaeology, and remote sensing, particularly the use of declassified US intelligence imagery. He was trained in Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania (BA 1994) and in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago (PhD 2004). He has directed field surveys in Syria, Iraq, Turkey, and Iran. He is the author of听Urbanism and Cultural Landscapes in Northeastern Syria: The Tell Hamoukar Survey, 1999-2001听(2010). Since 2012, he has directed the CAP-affiliated听, an archaeological survey in the Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq. He is also preparing a history of Mesopotamian cities.

Ur joined 17吃瓜as a student member in the late 1990s.听 He held the 17吃瓜Mesopotamian Fellowship in 2000-2001 and served on the Committee on Mesopotamian Civilization from 2009-2013. He was the plenary speaker at the 2014 17吃瓜annual meeting. He organized and chaired the Settlement and Society in the Ancient Near East session from 2008-2010. The Archaeology of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq session, which he founded and chaired from 2017-2019, has now been accepted as a Standing Session.

Mission Statement:听As a member of ASOR鈥檚 Board of Trustees, I will promote its mission to create and disseminate knowledge of the history and culture of the societies of the Near East, past and present. I intend to champion a geographically-inclusive 17吃瓜that involves broader areas of West Asia beyond ASOR鈥檚 traditional areas of strength, and a comparative anthropological perspective to complement its culture-historical emphases. I鈥檓 particularly interested to amplify new voices in ASOR: those of our research partners in the Middle East, and those of the next generation of scholars in our graduate and undergraduate classrooms. Finally, I hope to advocate for digital methods of research and outreach, with the goal of making 17吃瓜members鈥� scholarship more accessible to our colleagues, to the public, and to future generations.

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New Early Career Scholars Resources

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NEW RESOURCES FOR EARLY CAREER SCHOLARS

17吃瓜is pleased to offer a growing library of online video resources aimed at our early career members. These videos will cover a range of topics such as the job market, teaching, publishing, and tutorials on using digital resources. Videos are created by early career scholars who are experts in their field and have direct experience with the topics they鈥檙e discussing.

Many students will earn their PhDs from an R1 university, but jobs at those institutions are rare and highly competitive. Did you know that many Ancient Near Eastern scholars have been successful at securing tenure-track jobs at non-R1 universities and colleges? Dr. Julia Troche created the video 鈥淣avigating the 鈥淚n Between鈥�: Identifying a Career Trajectory in Academia for the Early Career Scholar鈥� to demystify the different types of institutions that offer teaching and research positions, and crucially, how to read their job ads and frame yourself to be a competitive candidate for those positions. In 鈥淎pplying for a Community College Position鈥�, Prof. Stacy Davidson gives meaningful advice and honest information about the pros and cons of working at Community Colleges, and the types of opportunities available at such institutions.

Finally, in the first round of videos in the digital library, we also have a practical tutorial on using ArcGIS StoryMaps by Dr. Matthew Howland. This tutorial is useful for those thinking about publishing their fieldwork data digitally or it can be used as a fantastic teaching resource to train both students and instructors on the step-by-step process of creating a StoryMaps presentation.

We hope you enjoy these resources! Our library of resources is ever growing, so keep an eye out for future videos in this series, and we warmly welcome your suggestions for useful topics as we grow this library of resources.

Check out the videos below or find them in our听听on our YouTube channel.

Professor Julia Troche

Dr. Julia Troche is and Egyptologist and Associate Professor of History at Missouri State University, in Springfield, MO.听She is committed to advocating for students, early career scholars, and contingent faculty, and fostering inclusive spaces for learning about the ancient world.听In 2022 she was awarded her university鈥檚 highest teaching award followed by the Missouri Governor鈥檚 Award for Education Excellence. Julia鈥檚 areas of instruction and research include social history, religion, archaeology, and reception studies of antiquity.听She co-founded both the American Research Center in Egypt, Missouri Chapter (where she serves as a second term vice president) and the annual Missouri Egyptological Symposium. She also sits on the Board of Governors for the American Research Center in Egypt. Her first book, 鈥淒eath, Power and Apotheosis in Ancient Egypt: The Old and Middle Kingdoms,鈥� was published with Cornell University Press in 2021. Julia听received her PhD from Brown University鈥檚 Department of听in Egyptology & Assyriology听in 2015, and her BA in History from UCLA in 2008.

Professor Stacy Davidson

Professor Stacy Davidson has designed and taught over 30 credit and non-credit courses on ancient Egypt, North Africa, the ancient Mediterranean, ancient Southwest Asia, and ancient languages. She is the founder and Team Lead of the Egyptology State of the Field project () and is a Mellon/ACLS Community College Faculty Fellow听for her project听We Are For Egypt. Professor Davidson has been awarded a Lieberman Teaching Excellence Award and College Scholar award from her college as well as a national NISOD Excellence Award. You can find out more about her at听.

Professor Matthew Howland

Matthew D. Howland is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Director of the Geospatial Archaeology Laboratory at Wichita State University. Prof. Howland holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of California San Diego. His research focuses on the application of 3D and spatial techniques, including remote sensing, to understand the development of social complexity through fieldwork in the Eastern Mediterranean, Georgia, and Kansas. Prof. Howland鈥檚 research also involves the use of digital datasets for interactive, community-engaged storytelling on web-based platforms such as ArcGIS StoryMaps and Sketchfab.

Click here to explore more Early Career Scholars resources compiled by ASOR鈥檚 ECS Committee.

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Harris Grant Report: Khirbat al-Mukhayyat, Jordan

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Excavations at Khirbet al Mukhayyat in Jordan

2023 Harris Grant Report: Khirbat al-Mukhayyat, Jordan

A generous grant from ASOR鈥攖he Charles Harris Project Grant鈥攈elped support the 2023 excavation season of the Khirbat al-Mukhayyat Archaeological Project (KMAP), directed by Debra Foran. Mukhayyat (or the ancient town of Nebo) is located approximately 9 km northwest of the city of Madaba in Jordan.

Recording Hellenistic period walls in Field A

Excavations at Mukhayyat this season focussed on the southern end of the site (Fields A and B), specifically on a plateau inside the major Iron Age fortification wall identified in previous seasons. Our goals for this season were to clarify several remaining questions related to the Hellenistic and Iron Age fortification system and to identify clear, stratified contexts that would reveal the nature and sequence of occupation in this area. In particular, excavations sought to clarify the length of the occupation during the early first millennium BCE and to ground-truth hypotheses derived from the analysis of survey material from the early 2000s. The excavations succeeded in the identification of architecture and contexts from the Iron Age and in the unexpected discovery of architecture and installations from the Hellenistic period. These results have created a strong foundation for continued excavation in this area.

Field school students clearing the ground for excavation
Fields of Excavation at Khirbat al-Mukhayyat
Excavations in Fields A and B, looking west toward the Jordan Valley.

Concomitant with these goals, the survey component of KMAP succeeded in mapping and conducting limited surface collections at two nearby sites: Khirbat al-Fayha and 鈥楢yun adh-Dhib. This survey sought to document the Iron Age and Early Bronze Age remains found there and to better understand the region surrounding Mukhayyat during these periods. Similarly, the grant from 17吃瓜helped to support specialist research on subsets of the larger project. In previous seasons, salvage excavations conducted at the behest of the Department of Antiquities recovered human remains from several mortuary contexts under threat and, in 2023, an inventory and preliminary analysis were completed. Lastly, as a part of the development of a Community Based Archaeology Program, a portion of the excavation team recorded past and ongoing illicit collecting episodes (鈥渓ooting鈥�), considering the motivations for such activity in order to better understand how sites might be protected in the future.

The KMAP team at the end of the season

The KMAP team is grateful for the support of 17吃瓜and looks forward to building on this research in future seasons.

Andrew Danielson, Field Director of the Khirbat al-Mukhayyat Archaeological
Project (University of British Columbia)

Debra Foran, Director of the Khirbat al-Mukhayyat Archaeological Project
(Wilfrid Laurier University)

With the collaboration of:

Mashour Fshaikat (Department of Antiquities of Jordan, Madaba Directorate), Gregory Braun (University of Toronto), Rose Campbell (University of California, Los Angeles), Grant Ginson (Trent University), V臎ra Dole啪谩lkov谩 (Central Bohemian Archaeological Heritage Institute), Jennifer Botica (North Island College), Heidi Fessler (Loyola Marymount University)

听

Learn more about the Khirbat al-Mukhayyat Archaeological Project on their听听or their听!

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ARS 30: Tel Kedesh I

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NEW ARCHAEOLOGICAL REPORTS PUBLICATION

University of Michigan and University of Minnesota Excavations at Tel Kedesh I: The Hellenistic Archive and its Sealings

by Sharon C. Herbert

This is the first volume in a projected series of final reports on the 1997-2012 University of Michigan/University of Minnesota excavations at Tel Kedesh, located in the Upper Galilee of modern Israel and the hinterland of ancient Tyre. It presents the 2nd century BCE Hellenistic archive and the 2000+ sealings found there. The Kedesh archive complex was situated within a large, multipurposed administrative building, first constructed under Persian rule in the late 6th century BCE and then modified under Ptolemaic and Seleucid rule in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE. The sealings in the archive date to the final Seleucid phase of occupation in the first half of the 2nd century BCE. The first part of the volume situates the Kedesh archive within the context of excavated Hellenistic archives from Carthage in the west to Selucia-on-the-Tigris in the east and reflects on the varieties of archives, clienteles, and sealing practices so far known from the Hellenistic world. The second part presents an annotated illustrated catalog of the images and iconography of the 1,733 readable impressions found on the sealings. The subject matter of the 1,293 seal rings that produced the impressions was for the most part Greek.

With contributions by Donald T. Ariel, Andrea M. Berlin, Paul Lesperance, and Anastasia Shapiro.

17吃瓜Archaeological Reports, Volume 30, September 2023, 584 pages, 285 b/w figures, 106 b/w plates, 978-0-89757-118-0, $99.95.

Special Offer for 17吃瓜Members

17吃瓜members (with a mailing address in the USA) can purchase a copy of ARS 30 at the discounted price of听$40.00听(ca. 65% discount off the list price + $6.00 US media mail shipping) through November 30, 2023, while supplies last. 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听programs@asor.org听with any questions.听

Available from ISD 鈥� Distributor of Scholarly Books

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Fieldwork Report: Megan Nishida

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Kites in Context and Khirbat Iskandar 2023: Two Projects, Both Alike in Dignity

Megan Nishida, 2023听Strange-Midkiff Fieldwork Scholarship Recipient

This year, thanks to the Strange-Midkiff Fieldwork Scholarship awarded by ASOR, I was able to participate in two projects in Jordan, Kites in Context and Khirbat Iskandar. This was my first field season in Jordan, so I was thankful to be able to experience two unique projects, in different landscapes and contexts, each with important contributions to the story of the human experience in Jordan.

Photo 1: The intensity of the sun shining down onto the archaeological landscape in the black desert meant the group took a break at lunch time to escape the worst of the heat. Photo by Megan Nishida.
Photo 1: The intensity of the sun shining down onto the archaeological landscape in the black desert meant the group took a break at lunch time to escape the worst of the heat. Photo by Megan Nishida.

Kites in Contexts saw our team of nine drive five hours into the eastern desert 鈥� the badia 鈥� to investigate Neolithic hunting traps known as kites and the structures and landscapes associated with them. Before I left for Kites in Context, I had believed I would experience four weeks of beating sun, fierce winds, ancient landscapes, and relaxed camaraderie (Photo 1). Within the first two weeks, our camaraderie was fierce, cemented not because of the heat, but because of the unexpected rainstorm and subsequent flood that laid waste to our camp and our route out of the desert (Photo 2). Our camp鈥檚 location at the bottom of a catchment basin meant the two days of rain all eventually flowed into the wadi, or river, near where we made camp.

Although tumultuous, the weather did not dampen our spirits and our work continued after a couple days of drying out. All told, the team excavated two cells of a kite and two structures in the vicinity of the kite. It took a while to train my eye to understand the story written in the layers of stratigraphy we pulled back (Photo 3). Generations of communities inhabiting this landscape have continuously altered the landscape, each moving basalt stones to suit their needs for shelter or to control animals, in the process obfuscating the remnants of the more ancient past. It was a valuable experience in an archaeological context and landscape completely new to me. I am thankful to have had this absolutely unforgettable experience and to have forged such close bonds with the team.

Photo 2: The flood that followed after over two inches of rain fell in the desert meant we had to quickly, but successfully, evacuate the kitchen tent before our food stores were ruined. Photo by Dr. Chad Hill, Kites in Context.
Photo 2: The flood that followed after over two inches of rain fell in the desert meant we had to quickly, but successfully, evacuate the kitchen tent before our food stores were ruined. Photo by Dr. Chad Hill, Kites in Context.
Photo 3: The vagaries of time and preservation mean that the only thing left of the Neolithic communities who originally created these structures are the large stones they moved into place. Photo by Megan Nishida.
Photo 3: The vagaries of time and preservation mean that the only thing left of the Neolithic communities who originally created these structures are the large stones they moved into place. Photo by Megan Nishida.

After Kites in Context concluded, I joined another team working at Khirbat Iskandar. Khirbat Iskandar is an Early Bronze Age III/IV tell site, notable for the continuity of urban identity into the EB IV, at a time when other communities were abandoning their urban centers. Unlike previous field seasons focused on the tell site, the goal of this season was to better understand the use of the landscape around the site, including around the large hill, Umm el-Idham, to the north of the site (Photo 4).

Photo 4: The first megalithic feature was excavated on the west side of Umm el-Idham and although we had to wake up early to beat the heat, we were treated to a beautiful sunrise everyday when we got to site.
Photo 4: The first megalithic feature was excavated on the west side of Umm el-Idham and although we had to wake up early to beat the heat, we were treated to a beautiful sunrise everyday when we got to site.

Over the course of this work, I helped conduct excavations at three megalithic features and record archaeological features identified through a pedestrian survey of Umm el-Idham (Photo 5). When not out in the field, the team worked to keep on top of the thousands of artifacts we identified and collected. As someone with a background in primarily North American archaeology, I was daunted at first by wholly different archaeological world I found myself in. However, I was lucky to be amongst a supportive team of experienced project directors, field supervisors, and fellow excavators, who were more than happy to share their hard-earned wisdom and insights into the archaeology of the Early Bronze Age. I am extremely thankful for the crash course in pottery 鈥� I gained valuable experience in identifying pottery typology and chronology and in drawing objects and pottery profiles.

Both projects were unique and rewarding experiences. I am thankful for the opportunity to have worked in Jordan and been able to get to know the country, its people, and its archaeology. I know what I learned on these projects will be extremely beneficial as I build a regional and chronological framework for my dissertation research on the EBA site of Bab adh-Dhra鈥�. A most sincere thank you to Carolyn Midkiff Strange, ASOR, Drs. Yorke Rowan, Chad Hill, Suzanne Richard, Jesse Long, and Marta d鈥橝ndrea for allowing me to have an unforgettable summer participating on the Kites in Context and Khirbat Iskandar projects.

Photo 5: One of the new techniques I was able to learn this field season was how to operate a dumpy level and total station. Photo by Natalia Handziuk.
Photo 5: One of the new techniques I was able to learn this field season was how to operate a dumpy level and total station. Photo by Natalia Handziuk.

Megan Nishida is currently a second year PhD student at the University of Notre Dame. Her PhD research focuses on the mortuary practices at the Early Bronze Age site of the Bab adh-Dhra鈥�.

Want to help more students and early career archaeologists get into the field? Donate to the cause today by selecting 鈥淪tudent Support鈥� as your gift purpose!

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In Memoriam: Younis Ali al Kawash

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IN MEMORIAM: YOUNIS ALI AL KAWASH (1977-2023)

With deep regret, we share the news that Younis al Kawash, a long-time contributor to ASOR鈥檚 projects in Libya, was killed along with his family during the recent flooding of storm Daniel. Born and raised in the city of Derna, situated on the eastern coast between Benghazi and Tobruk, Younis studied archaeology at the local university and became the director of the local office of the Libyan Department of Antiquities, where he served from 2005-2015.

During this period, he participated in site documentation training workshops run by the American Archaeological Mission to Libya at the UNESCO World Heritage site of Cyrene and eventually helped lead similar courses in Leptis Magna and the Jebel Nafusa. As 17吃瓜expanded its Cultural Heritage Initiatives to Libya in 2017, Younis and his colleagues in the Derna office assisted in the documentation and reporting on damage to local cultural heritage sites.

According to Salah Sadullah, Museums Director for Eastern Libya, when Derna was seized by ISIS forces in 2014, armed extremist soldiers searched the local Department of Antiquities office. Younis was asked if he had any antiquities, and he deflected the question, saying that there had been some basic ethnographic collections and Islamic tomb stones once stored at the office, but that they had already been sent to the storerooms of Cyrene for safekeeping. In fact, Younis had secretly removed the entire collection of Roman antiquities from the office, which doubled as a local museum, and hidden them in hole he dug in the floor of his brother鈥檚 home goods store located on the ground floor of the apartment building shared by the Kawash family. After the city was liberated from ISIS, the entire collection was recovered intact.

Younis, pictured here on during a survey of the coast near Leptis Magna, contributed to many field surveys in both eastern and western Libya.
Younis, pictured here on during a survey of the coast near Leptis Magna, contributed to many field surveys in both eastern and western Libya.

鈥淚n the eyes of the entire archaeological community in Libya, Younis is considered a hero for his actions during this difficult period,鈥� reflected Dr. Ahmad Emrage, ASOR鈥檚 representative in eastern Libya. While his actions are emblematic of a broader community of dedicated civil servants who work to protect Libyan cultural heritage every day, he and his family went above and beyond to protect the rich history of Derna at a time of mortal threat.

Younis and Salah Sadullah with a portion of the archaeological collection hidden in the home of the Al Kawash family while the city was occupied by ISIS and returned safely to the Department of Antiquities in 2018. (DoA Shahat)
Younis and Salah Sadullah with a portion of the archaeological collection hidden in the home of the Al Kawash family while the city was occupied by ISIS and returned safely to the Department of Antiquities in 2018. (DoA Shahat)

In recognition of his exceptional service, Younis was promoted in 2018 to the position of the Director of the Office of Archaeological Protection for the entire eastern region of Libya. In this capacity, he helped with many public outreach activities, and facilitated the safe return of approximately 1,800 objects to the Department of Antiquities from ordinary citizens. Salah Sadullah fondly remembers working alongside Younis during this period: 鈥淗e was energetic, he loved his work, and he was always what we would call a gentleman. He participated in many training workshops and he was always seeking new tools to make our work easier. He would even spend his own money to get something like a drone, and then Younis would become a go-to guy for drone documentation.鈥�

Younis was also a welcome addition to any field team. Dr. Emrage shared his recollection of fieldwork with Younis: 鈥淗e was always a pleasure to work with on a survey because he was such a friendly guy. In 2021, he contributed to the survey that 17吃瓜sponsored in the area surrounding the UNESCO World Heritage site of Cyrene with the support of the Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation. He was also very dedicated to his family. While most of the team stayed in a rented house, Younis would drive home to Derna every night and then wake up early the next morning to drive back to our survey area. He would always be the first one on site, and the first one to greet us in the morning.鈥�

Younis (far left), seen here during ASOR's AFCP project in 2021, also made regular contributions to heritage outreach efforts in eastern Libya.
Younis (far left), seen here during ASOR's AFCP project in 2021, also made regular contributions to heritage outreach efforts in eastern Libya.

According to Dr. Ahmed Hossein, former Chairman of the Department of Antiquities of the Provisional Government of Abdullah al-Thinni. 鈥淵ounis was one of the most talented and dedicated members of our staff. What can I say? May God have mercy on him and his family.鈥�

On the night of September 10, he was on the rooftop of his apartment building live streaming images from Wadi Derna, where the floods already threatened to wash out a nearby bridge. The rains had subsided and members of the neighborhood on both sides of the wadi had come outside to witness the torrent flowing through the riverbed. Sometime in the following hours, two dams upstream of Derna failed and a monstrous wave washed through the city, killing Younis, his family and thousands of others.

17吃瓜shares its profound condolences with the remaining members of the Al Kawash family, and all our friends and colleagues in Libya who have suffered from this disaster. We will continue the heritage protection work that Younis held so dear, but we recognize that this work will only be more difficult without him.

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2023 FOA Seminar in Raleigh-Durham

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听厂贬础搁贰

[/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:info@asor.org” 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://asor.org/blog” 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_widget_sidebar sidebar_id=”ca-sidebar-39801″][/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_wp_text]

2023 FRIENDS OF 17吃瓜SEMINAR

October 20-22, Raleigh-Durham, NC

Register today for 鈥淎rchaeology in the Mediterranean and Ancient Near East: Recent Discoveries and Retrospectives鈥� a Friends of 17吃瓜Weekend Seminar in Raleigh-Durham, NC at the Sheraton Imperial Hotel Raleigh-Durham Airport at Research Triangle Park.

Join us in Raleigh this October for a weekend full of interactive lectures, or register for a One-Day pass! Registration for the entire weekend includes admission to an intimate dinner discussion on Friday evening, presentations all-day Saturday, a special dinner and plenary panel discussion on ASOR’s Cultural Heritage Initiates, and presentations on Sunday morning. There will be ample opportunities to engage informally with speakers and panelists. Registration for the entire weekend includes access to a discount on hotel room rates (cut-off date is September 29), dinner on 10/20, lunch on 10/21, and dinner on 10/21.

This FOA Seminar will include presentations from Eric Meyers, Carol Meyers, Jennie Ebeling, Kate Grossman, Tate Paulette, and Jack Sasson. Sharon Herbert and Andrew Vaughn will participate as panelists.[/vc_wp_text][vc_single_image image=”89693″ img_size=”300×400″ alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” img_link_target=”_blank” css=”.vc_custom_1692208204439{padding-right: 10px !important;}” link=”https://members.asor.org/integratedEvents/home/2023-FRIENDS-OF-ASOR-SEMINAR”][mk_padding_divider][vc_wp_text]

Pricing

(Full weekend seminar with all events included is $185, individual events priced below)[/vc_wp_text][mk_table]

Friday Oct. 20 Saturday Oct. 21 Sunday Oct. 22
Dinner and a private conversation with the seminar’s academic speakers: $75 One-day Registration (includes 4 presentations, lunch, and dinner): $80 One-day Registration: $35
Saturday night dinner: $75
*Free for the first 30 local registrants
Full Weekend Registration ($185) All of the above included All of the above included All of the above included

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Presentation Schedule

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FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/6″][vc_column_text]Dinner

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”5/6″][vc_column_text]Private conversation with the seminar’s academic speakers
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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 21

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/6″][vc_column_text]Morning[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”5/6″][vc_column_text]Naboth’s Vineyard in Context: Excavating an Iron Age Winery at Jezreel
Jennie Ebeling

The beverage described most frequently in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, wine played a major role in the diet, economy, religion, and culture of ancient Israel. A well-preserved winery complex excavated at Jezreel in Israel’s Galilee offers insights into the technology of wine production during the Iron Age (ca. 1200-586 BCE) and provides context for the dramatic story of Naboth’s vineyard in 1 Kings 21.

Food, Gender, and Power in Israelite Households
Carol Meyers

Nothing is more fundamental to human existence than food, and in traditional societies like ancient Israel, growing crops and raising animals and then transforming them into edible form occupied a significant part of the daily life of most people. The latter step鈥搕he production of edible products, that is, food颅颅鈥搘as largely the task of women in biblical antiquity. This presentation will look at some of the archaeological materials that women used in making food. Then it will go a step further and look at the social, religious, and other aspects of women鈥檚 food-production tasks. In so doing, it will reveal otherwise unnoticed aspects, such as personal and social power, of women鈥檚 lives in Israelite households.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]Lunch[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/6″][vc_column_text]Afternoon[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”5/6″][vc_column_text]Tales the Animals Tell: Zooarchaeology and the Multispecies Communities of the Ancient Near East
Kate Grossman

The cities, towns, and countryside of the Near East were populated not just by humans, but also by the animals that lived, worked, and died alongside them. While we tend to think of animals primarily as a source of food and labor, new approaches to the study of human-animal interactions are foregrounding the ways that animals influenced human action and contributed to social life in the ancient world. Drawing on 15+ years of studying animal bones from archaeological sites in Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, and Cyprus, I will show how the zooarchaeological record provides surprising new insights into the multispecies communities of the ancient Near East.

Beer and Brewing in Ancient Mesopotamia
Tate Paulette

In ancient Mesopotamia, beer was produced on a massive scale and was consumed on a daily basis by people across the socio-economic spectrum. Beer was a gift from the gods, a marker of civilization, a dietary staple, a social lubricant, a ritual necessity, and a reason for celebration. It was consumed at feasts, festivals, and ritual ceremonies, but also at home, on the job, and in neighborhood taverns. It was produced by brewers working for the powerful palace and temple institutions and also by local tavern keepers and homebrewers. This lecture explores the archaeological, artistic, and written evidence for beer and brewing in Mesopotamia, as well as recent efforts to recreate Mesopotamian beer.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/6″][vc_column_text]Dinner
Plenary Panel[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”5/6″][vc_column_text]Cultural Heritage in the Age of Conflict: 17吃瓜in North Africa
Andrew Vaughn, Sharon Herbert, Carol Meyers, Eric Meyers, Jack Sasson[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 22

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/6″][vc_column_text]Morning[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”5/6″][vc_column_text]Of Tombstones and Atlantis: Searching for a Lost Past in Tunis and Djerba
Jack Sasson

In Tunis and Djerba, Jack M. Sasson, a retired (UNC and Vanderbilt) Assyriologist and Biblical scholar, had glimpses of remnant communities that parallel those of his native Syria and Lebanon, alas now as submerged as Atlantis. In this informal talk, he will reflect on his personal experience of that world as evoked by his visit: Arab in culture, Jewish in religion, and French in outlook. Sasson will also report on a striking difference among those communities in their biographic use of tombstones.

Jesus in Galilee: An Archaeological Perspective
Eric Meyers

Recent archaeological discoveries in Galilee have shown beyond any shadow of a doubt that the region was overwhelmingly Jewish in the time of Jesus. There are only a handful of sites that may be identified as gentile or non-Jewish. In addition, the identification of many early synagogues from this period has allowed us to better understand that the multiple references in Josephus and the New Testament are to actually purpose-built structures, chief among them being Magdala. Together with the many stones vessels and ritual baths found, we may today conclude that most of these Jewish sites, which date to the early Roman period, indicate that Jews were practicing purity laws based on the Torah. Also, with little to no Greek attested in the epigraphic finds from this time, therefore, a much more nuanced and accurate picture of Jewish Galilee may be drawn in the most recent quest for the historical Jesus.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][mk_padding_divider][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_single_image image=”91975″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” img_link_target=”_blank” css=”.vc_custom_1695302848266{padding-right: 10px !important;}” link=”https://members.asor.org/integratedEvents/home/2023-FRIENDS-OF-ASOR-SEMINAR”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][mk_padding_divider][vc_wp_text]Questions about registration? Please contact membership@asor.org or call 703-789-9230.[/vc_wp_text][mk_padding_divider][/vc_column][vc_column border_color=”rgba(170,170,170,0.01)” width=”1/6″ css=”.vc_custom_1496684098866{margin-right: 5px !important;margin-bottom: 20px !important;border-right-width: 2px !important;border-bottom-width: 2px !important;padding-top: 30px !important;padding-right: 10px !important;padding-left: 10px !important;background-color: #ffffff !important;border-right-color: rgba(227,228,228,0.75) !important;border-bottom-color: rgba(227,228,228,0.75) !important;}”][vc_wp_posts title=”BROWSE THE NEWS ARCHIVE” number=”4″][/vc_column][vc_column border_color=”rgba(170,170,170,0.01)” width=”1/6″ css=”.vc_custom_1496684008271{margin-right: 10px !important;margin-bottom: 30px !important;border-right-width: 2px !important;border-bottom-width: 2px !important;padding-top: 30px !important;padding-right: 20px !important;padding-left: 20px !important;background-color: #ffffff !important;border-right-color: rgba(227,228,228,0.75) !important;border-bottom-color: rgba(227,228,228,0.75) !important;}”][vc_column_text] [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]