Category Archives: 17吃瓜News

Call for Publications Committee Nominations

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Call for Publications Committee Nominations

听seeks new members to serve renewable, three-year terms (January 2022-December 2024). All 17吃瓜members are welcome to apply, though the committee is particularly interested in new members who have experience working in publishing. The committee is currently chaired by Kevin McGeough. The 17吃瓜Bylaws state, 鈥渢he Publications Committee shall appoint an editorial board for each 17吃瓜publication. The Publications Committee also shall make recommendations to the Executive Committee and the Board regarding matters pertaining to 17吃瓜publications.鈥� The committee makes recommendations regarding ASOR鈥檚 journals (ANE Today,听BASOR,听JCS,听and听NEA) and 17吃瓜books (AASOR听补苍诲听ASOR-ARS). The committee also makes recommendations regarding the Levantine Ceramics Project (LCP). Committee member responsibilities include attending committee meetings and recommending actions to the Chairs Coordinating Council.

Interested individuals should contact听Kevin McGeough via email. All Committee members must be Individual Members of ASOR.

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17吃瓜Annual Fund Appeal

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17吃瓜Annual Fund Appeal

December 14, 2021

Dear Fellow 17吃瓜Member,

Please consider a gift to 17吃瓜before the end of 2021. Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have expanded our programs and outreach. You, our members, have volunteered and contributed in so many ways to keep 17吃瓜moving forward and carrying out our mission. Thank you.

Here is a highlight of some accomplishments achieved during the pandemic (2020鈥�2021):

  • 1100 Annual Meeting participants from 38 countries and 6 continents:听Participants in the in-person and virtual components. More than 400 presentations available in the online library.
  • 559 Scholarships: 270 membership and 289 Annual Meeting scholarships = more than $55,000.
  • 26 FOA Webinars:听Launched in August 2020, Friends of 17吃瓜(FOA) has hosted 26 webinars (including a 鈥渨ebinarathon鈥�) and raised almost $36,500 for scholarships and DEI.
  • 27 Summer Stipends:听Summer research funds, including six for BIPOC students.
  • 4 Major Cultural Heritage Grants:听Thanks to Department of State and anonymous funding, 17吃瓜expanded our work in North Africa to Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco.
  • More than $270,000 for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion:听More than 220 members established a $200,000 endowment to support BIPOC scholarships. We also invested $70,000 in special projects and scholarships, including videos to help recruit high school students to archaeology.
  • 3 Journals and 2 Book Series:听17吃瓜continues to carry out our mission of disseminating research through our established publications.
  • More than 750 photos and maps:听We added hundreds of images to the 17吃瓜Photo Collection so that our members can confidently use them for teaching and research.
  • We will award more than $200,000 in 2022:听50 dig participation scholarships; 7 grants to dig directors / projects; $20,000+ in heritage mitigation grants; $10,000+ in research grants for members; and $18,000 for Mesopotamian research.
  • Continuation of membership and Annual Meeting scholarships in 2022: We want to continue to support the involvement in 17吃瓜for all members with a financial need.

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Thus, our request鈥攁ll the above is made possible because of gifts and endowments. We ask that you join us in a year-end gift or pledge to support our organization so that we can continue to give back to our members in even more ways than listed here.

Warm regards,

Andrew G. Vaughn, Executive Director 听 听 听 听 听 听 Lynn Swartz Dodd, Chair, 17吃瓜Development

Click here for a printable donation form.听

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Stipend Report: Lilly Hickox

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Casting Light on Humayma鈥檚 Roman Town

Lilly Hickox, 2021 Eric and Carol Meyers Summer Stipend Recipient


Hickox studying the lamps of Humayma鈥檚听vicus. (photo courtesy of M. Schwenteck)

Humayma, located in the northwest corner of Jordan鈥檚 Hisma desert, is a site with a long history of permanent settlement with Nabataean, Roman, Byzantine, and early Islamic periods. Excavations at the Roman town (vicus) have been carried out since the 1990s under the direction of Dr. J.P. Oleson from 1991 to 2005 and Dr. M. Barbara Reeves from 2008 to present.

This summer, I researched the ceramic oil lamps and fragments from the听vicus听at Humayma remotely. The听vicus听emerged concurrently with the nearby Roman Fort, shortly after the conquest of the Nabataean Kingdom in 106 CE by Emperor Trajan. This research was made possible through ASOR鈥檚 Summer Stipend program and funding supported by the Eric and Carol Meyers Scholarship Fund.

The question driving my research was sparked by the findings from my 2020 undergraduate thesis project,听Shedding Light on an Ancient Past: The Analysis of Ceramic Oil Lamps from the Roman Fort at Humayma.听During this project,听I identified a paucity of Roman-style lamps at the Roman Fort, while Nabataean and South Jordan lamps were prevalent. In order to understand why this was happening at the Fort and how the absence of Roman identity in the lamps relates to the activity of the overall settlement, I specifically looked at the corpus from the听vicus听this summer.

Map of Humayma. (adapted from Reeves 2019, 117 fig 2)

The methodology of this project involved visually examining photographs of lamps, lamp fragments, and mixed pottery fragments. Looking at attributes of shape, discus, shoulder pattern, nozzle, and filling hole, allowed me to identify and catalogue the lamps. These photographs and artefact descriptions were provided by Humayma鈥檚 excavators from the 1996, 1998, 2000, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2010, and 2012 field seasons. Neither a comprehensive catalogue nor analysis of the lamps had been carried out until now. This summer, I identified fourteen complete lamps and over 170 lamp fragments.

A sample of pottery from area E128. Can you spot a lamp fragment? (photo provided by Dr. M. Barbara Reeves, director of the Humayma Excavation Project)

A Nabataean rosette lamp, one of the most prolific types at the听vicus. (photo provided by Dr. M. Barbara Reeves, director of the Humayma Excavation Project)

In this project, I investigated the ceramic oil lamps from three different areas of the听vicus. The first area (E077) contained first century CE Nabataean structures that were built over by a bath-house in the Roman period. The Nabataean rosette lamp, dating to the first century CE, likely corresponds to the phase preceding the early second century destruction. Many early Byzantine lamps and some late Roman lamps signify the later occupation of the area.

The second area (E128), a Nabataean or Roman mudbrick structure, contained a majority of Nabataean-style lamps. This structure, made of eclectic materials, was built between the late first century and the middle of the second century. Remarkably, a figural lamp and a boot-shaped lamp were identified in this location, which are both rare for the corpus of the听vicus. The boot-shape lamp may align with the later function of the structure in which the area was used as pottery dump until the sixth century CE.


A Roman discus lamp with a gladiatorial combat scene. (photo provided by Dr. M. Barbara Reeves, director of the Humayma Excavation Project)

The final area that I examined was E125, an area possessing a Nabataean-Roman shrine, and various domestic structures, such as a Roman听insula. This area yielded the greatest number of lamp fragments, the vast majority being the Nabataean rosette lamp, while fewer were Roman in style. At least three figural lamps were identified, including a symplegma and gladiatorial combat scene. Overall, the lamps from the听vicus听show a strong parallel with those from Petra.

While this project did not constitute typical field work, it nevertheless presented its own unique challenges. For instance, I relied only on photographic media that was sometimes supplemented by artifact descriptions in order to make an assessment.


Lamp fragments from the E125 shrine. (photo provided by Dr. M. Barbara Reeves, director of the Humayma Excavation Project)

This project contributed to the understanding of the civilian activity at Humayma and may be used to help develop stratigraphic phasing for these areas in the听vicus. My next steps will be to look more closely at several anomalous items in the corpus and their parallels. I presented a critical analysis of my findings, considering the corpus from the Fort, at the virtual component of ASOR鈥檚 Annual General Meeting in December 2021 ().

I would like to personally thank Dr. Reeves for her ongoing support, supervision, and expertise, as well as the Humayma Excavation team for their work, Carol and Eric Meyers for making this possible, and M. Schwenteck for assisting me in translations.

Lilly Hickox is an MA student of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology at the University of British Columbia. She has been researching the ceramic oil lamps from various locations at Humayma since 2020.

References:

Reeves, M. B. 2019. 鈥淭he Nabataean and Roman Towns at al-岣mayma: an Urban Design Perspective.鈥澨�Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan听13: 115-127.

During the summer of 2021, 17吃瓜supported 27 undergraduate and graduate students through the听Summer Stipend Program. These students undertook non-fieldwork archaeological research projects led by ASOR-affiliated project directors. They also took part in monthly cohort group meetings hosted via zoom.听Read a summary of听these cohort meetings here.

Stay tuned for more updates from the 2021 Summer Stipend recipients!

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17吃瓜Annual Year-End Appeal Letter

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Year-End Appeal Letter From ASOR鈥檚 President

December 5, 2022

Dear 17吃瓜Members and Friends,

I am writing today to ask you to听听to 17吃瓜before the end of the year. 17吃瓜is leaving 2022 with a larger membership and wider reach than ever before. Our outreach efforts in cultural heritage and education continue to expand both in the U.S. and abroad. We just completed a resoundingly successful Annual Meeting in Boston, where many of you presented your fieldwork and other research in stimulating papers, posters, and workshops attended by nearly 900 participants. Members came from around the world, many for the first time thanks to travel fellowships made possible by members鈥� generous donations and State Department Embassy grants. 17吃瓜now has over 100 affiliated fieldwork and publication projects in 18 countries, and our prestigious听Archaeological Report Series听is producing its 30th volume in as many years. Your gifts funded scholarships, fellowships, and grants for many of these programs. You enabled 17吃瓜to award more than $222,000 in 2022.

In recent years, 17吃瓜has been forging new partnerships in our ever changing 21st century world to broaden our investigations of the ancient world, our collective human past, and cultural heritage. We are now reaching new and underserved audiences in efforts to make ASOR鈥檚 work more accessible. These efforts range from simultaneous translation of papers to ambitious educational projects fostering community involvement from the people and scholars in the areas in which we work (see the call for such activities by Iraqi archaeologist Jaafar Jotheri in the most recent issue of our Friends of 17吃瓜Newsletter,听The Ancient Near East Today X, No. 12). Meanwhile, your support helps 17吃瓜increase benefits to our original constituencies of biblical specialists and experts in Semitic languages and literatures. In 2023, you will see 17吃瓜add听Maarav: A Journal for the Study of the Northwest Semitic Languages and Literatures听as our fourth journal.听Maarav听will be available for no additional charge to all 17吃瓜members above the Associate level.

17吃瓜is an organization that strives to unite people and transcend ethnic, racial, and religious boundaries. We have made great strides in many areas, and with your continued help we can do much more. The secret to vibrant non-profit growth is a virtuous circle of work and support. The generous funding from you, our donors, enables 17吃瓜to accomplish so much as an organization, but also to award member scholarships and grants for even more external research. The products of this work in turn attract more members and donors to produce and fund even more pioneering efforts. Please help to keep that circle unbroken.听

Best wishes for a safe and happy holiday season,

Sharon Herbert
17吃瓜President

Click here for a printable donation form.听

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Call for Nominations: DEI Committee

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Call for DEI Committee Nominations

At its November 21, 2021, meeting, the 17吃瓜Board of Trustees established a standing committee to work on fostering Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in our organization. The Board appointed Erin Darby of the University of Tennessee as the chair of the newly formed DEI Committee. This committee grew out of DEI Task Force established by President Sharon Herbert in the fall of 2020, and several members of that Task Force will serve on the Committee. We are now seeking volunteers and nominations for additional members of the Committee. Its responsibilities as envisioned by the Board are described briefly in section 5.21 of ASOR鈥檚 by-laws as advising 17吃瓜leaders 鈥渞egarding initiatives 17吃瓜might undertake either individually or jointly with other bodies to reach out to and include diverse communities in 17吃瓜activities in meaningful and sustainable ways. In North America, these communities include, but are not limited to, BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and other underserved groups. Overseas, 17吃瓜will focus on serving its international membership and working with local archaeological communities to promote public engagement in 17吃瓜activities.鈥� Further information on ASOR鈥檚 DEI initiatives can be found in section 3 of the 2021-2025 Strategic Plan. Once its full membership is determined, the DEI Committee will work on an expanded charge. Nominations and applications should be sent to听Erin Darby听补苍诲听Marta Ostovich.

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2021 17吃瓜Honors & Awards

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2021 17吃瓜HONORS & AWARDS

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Each year at the Annual Meeting, 17吃瓜recognizes individuals who have performed outstanding service for the organization, those who have published exceptional academic work, and those who made significant contributions to our field. The following award recipients were honored at the 2021 Annual Meeting in Chicago and during the Members鈥� Meeting on December 8th as part of the Virtual Annual Meeting. Awards were presented by Lynn Welton, Chair of ASOR鈥檚听Honors and Awards Committee.

The W. F. Albright Award. This award honors an individual who has shown special support or made outstanding service contributions to one of the overseas centers, ACOR, AIAR, CAARI, or to one of the overseas committees 鈥� the Baghdad Committee and the Damascus Committee. This award is given when such an individual is identified.

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ACOR:听Awarded to听脴ystein LaBianca, Trustee, Representative to 17吃瓜Board of Trustees, ACOR.

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AIAR: Awarded to听Susan Cohen, Trustee, Chair of Fellowship Committee, AIAR

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CAARI: Awarded posthumously to听F. Bryan Wilkins, former President of the Board of Trustees, CAARI.

The Charles U. Harris Service Award. This award is given in recognition of long term and/or special service as an 17吃瓜officer or Trustee (one award is given annually).

Awarded to听Sheila Bishop, President, The Foundation for Biblical Archaeology.

The P. E. MacAllister Field Archaeology Award. This award honors an archaeologist who, during his/her career, has made outstanding contributions to ancient Near Eastern and eastern Mediterranean archaeology (one award is given annually).

Awarded to听Andrea Berlin, James R. Wiseman Chair in Classical Archaeology, Professor of Archaeology and Religion, Boston University.

17吃瓜Membership Service Award. This award recognizes individuals who have made special contributions on behalf of the 17吃瓜membership, through committee, editorial, or office services.

Awarded to听Hanan Charaf,听Assistant听Professor, Department of Art and Archaeology, Lebanese University; former editor of the听Archaeological Report Series

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Awarded to听Kate Grossman, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, North Carolina State University; outgoing Chair of the CAP Fellowship Subcommittee

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Awarded to听Heather McKee, former 17吃瓜Treasurer

The G. Ernest Wright Award. This award is given to the editor/author of the most substantial volume(s) dealing with archaeological material, excavation reports and material culture from the ancient Near East and eastern Mediterranean. This work must be the result of original research published within the past two years (one award is given annually).

Awarded to听Allison Mickel,听Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Lehigh University University, for听Why Those Who Shovel Are Silent: A History of Local听Archaeological Knowledge and Labor,听University Press of Colorado.

The Frank Moore Cross Award.听This award is presented to the author/editor of the most substantial volume(s) related to the history and/or religion of the ancient Near East and Eastern Mediterranean. Primary consideration will be given to historical, epigraphic, textual, and comparative literary studies; or to works that advance and/or evaluate new methodological approaches to the literary record(s). This work must be the result of original research published during the past two years (one award is given annually).

Awarded to听Geoffrey Khan, Regius Professor of Hebrew, University of Cambridge, for听The Tiberian Pronunciation Tradition of Biblical Hebrew, Open Book Publishers.

The Nancy Lapp Popular Book Award. This award is presented to the author/editor of a book published in the last two years that offers a new synthesis of archaeological or textual evidence intended to reach an audience of scholars as well as students and the broader public (one award is given annually).

Awarded to听Max Price,听Principal Lecturer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for听Evolution of a Taboo: Pigs and People in the Ancient Near East, Oxford University Press.

The Joy Ungerleider Poster Award. This award is conferred upon the author(s) of the poster presenting the results of a study about ancient Near Eastern societies in a clear, legible fashion using original graphic content. Subject matter may be based in archaeological sciences, history, anthropology, epigraphy, ethnography, heritage or other scholarly approaches to understanding ancient people in the areas covered by 17吃瓜(one award is given annually).

Awarded to听Emily L. Simons, University of Melbourne, for the poster: 鈥�.鈥�

Student Paper Award. This award is conferred upon the author(s) of a paper presented during the Annual Meeting that conveys the results of a study about ancient Near Eastern and wider Mediterranean societies in a clear, understandable and convincing fashion. The first author and presenter of the paper must be a registered student at the time of presentation in order to be eligible for consideration for this award.

Awarded to听Gretchen Emma Zoeller, University of Pittsburgh, for the paper 鈥淎 Paleopathological Investigation of Amputation in Ancient Nubia.鈥�

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Geraty Grant Report

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Doing unto others as we would have others do unto ourselves: A Report on ASOR鈥檚 Lawrence T. Geraty Endowment for Community Archaeology

An inconvenient truth about most archaeological excavations is that more often than not, they do serious damage to the landscape and scenery in the areas where they work. In their wake, archaeological expeditions leave not only wall-sections of houses, barnyards, streets and fortifications, but also unsafe and unsightly excavation trenches and scatters of stones and spolia. This raises the question: Do organizers and sponsors of archaeological excavations have a duty to restore the landscape and scenery they impact with their excavations?

Summit of Tall Hisban. APAAME_20191024_DS-0007. (Photographer: Dana Salameen, courtesy of APAAME)

Back in the day, under the old expeditionary model, the default answer to this question鈥攁s it was rarely asked鈥搘as no. Under this, now obsolete orientalist mindset, the excavator鈥檚 duty was to dig and record well and publish results in peer-reviewed venues in a timely manner. This is where her responsibility ended. How things were left in the field was not a concern as the prevailing assumption was that responsibility for maintenance and preservation of abandoned sites was in the hands of local authorities[1]. After all, in many cases, funds were collected by local permitting authorities ostensibly for precisely this purpose. Such funds, collected at the end of each excavation season, are not a sustainable solution to long-term maintenance of archaeological sites (especially minor sites not associated to ticket-generated income).

As the previous century came to an end, a prominent casualty of this situation was Tall Hisban, located in Jordan along the road linking Amman and Madaba and widely assumed to be biblical Heshbon [2]. Visitors to the site would have found an ascent to its summit to be a most arduous undertaking, as it required stepping warily through clusters of camel shock, tumbled stones and spolia of all shapes and sizes. For all but the most persistent, an ascent to its summit was not an appealing prospect.

A major reason why a team from Andrews University decided to return to work at Tall Hisban in 1996 under my leadership was to find a remedy for this situation. By then, the site had been abandoned for over two decades, the original Heshbon Expedition having ran its course from 1968 to 1976. A second reason was my desire to deepen understanding of already well documented long-term cycles of food system intensification and abatement at the site. A third reason was a consensus among the original Heshbon Expedition leaders that the site鈥檚 Islamic archaeology and history deserved to be re-visited with someone on-board with state-of-the-art qualifications for the task at hand. To this end, Bethany Walker was recruited to join our team, and her studies and publications since have proven to be ground-breaking on many levels where Islamic archaeology in Jordan and beyond is concerned. I would note, for example, her editorship of the Oxford Handbook of Islamic Archaeology and a new Journal of Islamic Archaeology (Equinox Publishing).

Group photograph from 2018 field season at Tall Hisban including international team (20 different nationalities) and local workmen.

In the course of over two decades of the second phase of excavations at Tall Hisban鈥攏ow renamed the Hisban Cultural Heritage Project鈥揳 new vision and model of archaeological fieldwork crystallized that today is becoming standard archaeological practice in Jordan and beyond, namely community archaeology. What led to this model emerging in our particular case were three factors: first, the already mentioned situation of neglect at the site; second, a long tradition of ethnographic inquiries in the local community; and last but not least, the friendships and sentiments of mutual trust and understanding already fostered during the original Heshbon Expedition that could be built on as our team returned.

The goal of community archaeology at Tall Hisban since its onset in 1996 has been to partner with the local community in transforming the site and the town into a place of pride and economic opportunity for its residents even as it also would develop into a destination for visitors from elsewhere in Jordan and beyond. Construction of footpaths and viewing platforms was begun in 1997, followed in subsequent seasons with over three dozen in-situ exhibits, each accompanied by explanatory signage. Partners in these endeavors included workmen and their families from the village, the office of the local mayor and his staff; and personnel from the local and national headquarters of the Department of Antiquities.

From the left to the right, Mansour Sheehan (Tall Hisban Cultural Association), Saoud Albarari (Tall Hisban Cultural Association), Amer Awawdeh (Tall Hisban Tourist Development Project), 脴ystein LaBianca (Andrews University), Maria Trogolo (USAID-SCHEP), Anna Kim and Noel Harris (Andrews University interns).
One of the signs painted by Amer Awawdeh, local school teacher.

Sela鈥檚 founders with 脴ystein LaBianca. From left to right, Eman Abdassalam, Maria Elena Ronza, Ahmad Almousah, 脴ystein LaBianca, Shaker Alfuqara and Bassam Alfaqeer.

Maria Elena Ronza, a young archaeology student from Italy who joined our team in 2001, has been particularly responsible for the success of these undertakings. Having taken up residence in Jordan, she was in a good position to follow up on projects that could not be completed during our short field season. A good example is her work with local stakeholders to establish the Hisban Cultural Association as an official non-governmental organization, thus giving agency to local entrepreneurs from Hisban to develop Hisban into a touristic destination. Elena was subsequently hired by ACOR to assist with the Temple of the Winged Lion project [3]听 to which she brought the community archaeology experience acquired at Hisban. She has since gone on to incubate together with Ahmad Almousah two all-Jordanian organizations aimed at building local capacity to benefit from protecting nearby cultural heritage sites. They are () and ().

Ahmad Almousah at work in Hisban applying lime mortar.

The Lawrence T. Geraty Community Archaeology Endowment was launched in 2020, in cooperation with the American Society of Overseas Research (ASOR) as a fitting capstone to almost three decades of community outreach by our project. The purpose of this endowment is to support innovation and experimentation by archaeology teams such as ours to build toward sustainable local solutions for preserving and caring for archaeological sites. At the present writing, the fund stands at about $110,000, which has allowed a first distribution of interest earned to occur [4]. That first award was used this summer to leverage funds from antiquities authorities in Jordan to undertake a site-wide cleaning operation that has resulted in the site itself and all of its primary exhibits, signage and paths looking better than I have ever found on my many returns to Jordan. As important was discovering Yasmeen Al Ajarmah, an archaeology graduate from University of Jordan, who led this entire operation and whom I could offer a part-time job as a team-leader for site maintenance operations on an on-goingh basis. She, and a team of three local workmen, will also be assisted by Al Raqeem for Logistics and Training in working with the local community to develop various micro-enterprise activities that can generate income not only to pay for their own salaries, but also for other community entrepreneurs.

Among the micro-enterprises already underway that also generate funds to support protection of the site are a women鈥檚 cooperative providing locally made meals for our excavation teams, tour groups and other visitors; a program of educational activities for local school children that includes sale of a children鈥檚 book about Hisban in Arabic. Efforts are also underway to provide visitors with an on-line guided tour of the site which will include announcements of various micro-enterprises and an invitation to donate toward maintenance of the site.

Sela implemented 4 archaeological themed days with hands-on activities for children thanks to support of the Geraty Fund and in cooperation with Princess Basma Center in Hisban.
Book reading at Princess Basma Center in Hisban. In preparation for the launch of a children book about Hisban, the writer, Rasha Dababneh, standing in the middle wearing a mask, hosted a book reading for the children from the community. Children were invited to suggest ideas for the forthcoming children鈥檚 book.
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the project, Princess Basma Center in Hisban organized an on-site bazaar so women from the local community could showcase and sell their products.
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Hisban digs, school children and their teachers visited the site and participated in hands-on archaeology-themed activities.

Stanley Beikmann, a professor landscape design from Andrews University who served as a faculty member on our project, shared a vision of a botanical garden at Hisban with me some years ago. The Al Raqeem team, Yasmeen Ajarmah and her co-workers are helping this vision to be realized. Such a place includes well-tended and signed exhibits, interpretive paths and platforms, and places for groups of visitors to gather for purposes of orientation and education. An aspirational addition to this vision is a visitor center complete with rest-room facilities, a small shop/cafe, a physical model of the site and a small theatre for screening a short film about the site in different languages.[5]

Welcome event in the amphitheater at the entrance to Hisban.

My answer to the question posed about archaeologists鈥� responsibility at the beginning of this article is: We can no longer avoid responsibility for how sites are left once our fieldwork is ended. The community archaeology model developed at Hisban is obviously not appropriate for all excavations, but for larger projects involving multi-period tell sites, I believe our experience and approach has relevance 听. For smaller projects involving only a few trenches or probes, the responsible solution is to simply fill in the excavated areas at the conclusion of the project. The days of the old expeditionary model are over. As archaeologists, we have a responsibility to do unto others as we would have others do unto ourselves.

-脴ystein LaBianca, Andrews University

Women's Association Tent Bazaar.
Speech by H.R.H. Prince Raad bin Zeid at the Hisban 50th Anniversary event.

[1] For local communities abandoned excavation sites often leave unanswered questions and expectations: Does this mean the team will be back to 鈥榣ook after鈥� their site? Does leaving it open mean they can expect tourism? Furthermore, abandoned sites mean no 鈥榗losure鈥� for communities and are often unsatisfactory from their point of view 鈥� ugly scars in their landscapes which fill with trash and slowly decay, potentially souring positive relationships established with dig teams originally.
[2] For the record, it should be noted that when the first phase of excavation was finished in 1976, the expedition leadership did not altogether neglect the concerns addressed here. Larry Geraty, then director of the project, and Bert de Vries, project architect, teamed up to prepare a plan for visitors to the site, including viewing platforms along the path that circled the site, etc. Detailed maps and plans were left at the Department of Antiquities along with the portion of the dig fees that were to go to the implementation of the plan. What did not happen was the sort of follow-up with the local community and with the department that became an integral part of the second phase of work at the site.
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[4] Seed funding for the endowment was provided by Ronald and Sheila Geraty. Andrews University and La Sierra University each contributed $10,000. Other major contributors ($1000+) to the endowment fund include Lawrence and Gillian Geraty, Oystein and Asta LaBianca, Carolyn Waldron, Joy Fehr, Doug and Carmen Clark, Susan Ackerman, Tim Harrison and Andy Vaughn. by selecting 鈥淕eraty Endowment Fund鈥� from the drop-down menu in the link.
[5] See for example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2kUMkjmRF8\
[6] For more about the Hisban Community Archaeology model, see

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Digging Up Data Workshops

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Digging Up Data Workshop Series

Organized by 听and ASOR鈥檚 Early Career Scholars Committee, the听Digging Up Data听Workshop Series听aims to introduce 17吃瓜members to data literacy and how to work with the archaeological data. Moderated by Tiffany Earley-Spadoni (ASOR鈥檚 Early Career Scholars Committee) and Leigh Anne Lieberman (Open Context), these听workshops are free, but registration is required.听

For those who were unable to attend the first two workshops, recordings are available on听.

  • What is data literacy and why is it important for archaeologists to be data literate? Participants in this workshop will examine these questions and learn about some useful tools and resources to help them hone these important skills.

  • How do we find, produce, curate, and analyze data? What sorts of questions can we ask of our data, and where can we go for data support? In this workshop, participants will consider the fundamentals of archaeological data analysis.

  • How do we share data-driven narratives of our research with diverse, public audiences? Participants in this workshop will think critically about the role of public scholarship in our discipline and begin to develop a plan for their own public-facing projects.

Digging Up Data at 17吃瓜2022

More to come on a proposed session for the 2022 Annual Meeting.

Digital data retrieval with tablets at Tall al-'Umayri, Jordan (photo credit Jillian Logee in D. Clark and K. Bramlett, "Tall al-Umayri" 17吃瓜Blog 2012).
Assistant Registrar Susan Allison enters data on recently registered objects from the Oriental Institute鈥檚 collections directly into the new Integrated Database (photo by Anna Ressman in S. Branting, J. Green, and S. Foy "Digging through Data at the Oriental Institute" ANE Today 2013.)
The team from Ghadames, Libya trains on the digitization system developed by the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (T. Bariun and W. Raynolds, "Digitizing Manuscripts of the Trans-Saharan Trade" 2020).
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Nominees for 17吃瓜Board Elections

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2021 Nominees for 17吃瓜Board Elections

The ASOR听Trustee Nominations Committee has selected four 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 two candidates running for two openings as Member-elected Trustees for 3-year terms (Margaret Cohen and Jane DeRose Evans). There are two candidates for two openings as Institutionally-elected Trustees for 3-year terms (Erin Darby and Lynn Swartz Dodd). All candidates are running unopposed. 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 October 20, 2021. We will send out two reminders, and all ballots must be completed by听12:00 PM Eastern Time on Friday, November 12. 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)

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Margaret Cohen

Margaret Cohen鈥檚 academic training is in Hebrew Bible, and her archaeological training comes from more than twenty years of excavations in Israel, Jordan, and Egypt. She is now wrapping up nearly eight years living on the campus of The Albright Institute in Jerusalem where, in pre-COVID times, she was an active participant in the local scholarly community exchange. Prior to her time in Jerusalem, Margaret taught in both large research and small liberal arts settings and has a deep appreciation for and interest in the many forms of the student experience. Her current research focuses on foodways, how food power was wielded in the biblical world, and how some modern-day food movements are informed by ancient texts and practices.

Mission Statement:听As we continue to experience uncertainty and change on a global scale, both steadiness and agility are required for 17吃瓜to flourish, to contribute its expertise to the discipline, and to promote its relevancy both in academic and non-academic communities. This may mean altering old models that can feel comfortable, but are not necessarily as productive as they once were, such as imagining future possibilities for scholarly meetings, developing new kinds of venues for publication and exchange of ideas, and embracing innovative programs appearing elsewhere in academia: small, virtual workshops; opportunities reserved for non-TT scholars; social and educational opportunities for members of the general public; the use of virtual tools to connect with future scholars, such as high-school seniors thinking about college or college students considering majors. Driven by its membership, 17吃瓜must constantly adapt to the, at times, divergent needs of those members. Those working to make their mark, those navigating life within their academic positions as well as outside the workplace, and those with hard-won experience that can better the journey for others, all must succeed for the organization to succeed. I am honored to be asked to stand for election to the dedicated group already doing this work, striving to make future-17吃瓜meaningful for us all.

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Jane DeRose Evans

Jane DeRose Evans is Professor and Chair of Art History at Temple University. She specializes in the archaeology of the Roman provinces and especially in ancient numismatics. She is a Fellow of the American Numismatic Society and a member of the Royal Numismatic Society.听After excavating for many years in France, she is now project numismatist for the Harvard/Cornell Excavations in Sardis and the George Washington University excavations at Bir Madhkur (Jordan). Recently, she brought to publication听The Mithraeum at Caesarea Maritima听(17吃瓜Press) and is completing the final publication on the U-Shaped Building at Caesarea.

Mission Statement:听17吃瓜has been an important part of my scholarly life since graduate school, as a place to find out about excavations and new ways of thinking about the cultural history of the southern Levant and Anatolia. More recently, I have been an active member with the women of ASOR, Chair of the Cultural Heritage Committee, and member of the Executive Committee. I am proud to see 17吃瓜tackle important questions of cultural heritage and ethical responses to threats to the region鈥檚 archaeological heritage, as well as undertaking initiatives to extend our diversity and equity footprint. We must retain our valuable mission to bring a greater understanding of our past to a wider audience while we continue to focus our attention on the ethical issues that arise as we seek partnerships with diverse audiences here in North America and overseas.

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

听
Erin Darby

Erin Darby is an associate professor of Religious Studies at the University of Tennessee and the UT Faculty Director of Undergraduate Research and Fellowships. She is an expert in the Hebrew Bible, archaeology, and ancient Near Eastern history and literature. At the University of Tennessee, she is one of the founding members of the Partnership for the Academic Study of Early Judaism, the Knoxville ArabFest cultural festival, the UT Archaeology Day outreach event, and the Tennessee Initiative for Middle East Studies. She leads the Department of Religious Studies diversity action committee, coordinates religious diversity professional development opportunities on the UT campus, and is the outgoing chair of the Chancellor鈥檚 Council for Diversity and Inclusion. Darby is also the co-director of the ASOR-affiliated 鈥楢yn Gharandal Archaeological Project in southern Jordan, where she is excavating a Nabataean-Islamic period site and leading the UT Dig Jordan study abroad program.

Mission Statement:听I have been an active 17吃瓜member since 2008 and have had the privilege of serving in a variety of ways. I was the co-chair of the Junior Scholars Committee (now 鈥楨arly Career Scholars鈥�) for seven years, overseeing its transition to a standing committee and representing the committee on the Chairs Coordinating Council. In this capacity, I also collaborated with the Ethics Working Group and the Initiative on the Status of Women. I have served as the program chair for the Archaeology of the Near East: Bronze and Iron Ages and as co-chair for a number of member-organized sessions. Most recently, I served on the 17吃瓜Ad Hoc Committee for the Location of the Annual Meeting and have served as the chair of the 17吃瓜Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Taskforce. I was honored to receive an 17吃瓜Membership Service Award in 2017. I have been the 17吃瓜institutional representative for the University of Tennessee since encouraging the university to join 17吃瓜in 2014.

Serving on the Board of Trustees is a way for me to demonstrate my gratitude for how central 17吃瓜has been in my professional life and in the lives of my students. My work with 17吃瓜and with university administration has impressed upon me the importance of supporting 17吃瓜in this time of transition in higher education. Alongside all of our current initiatives, I am particularly interested in thinking creatively about the value we bring to institutional members, ways we can articulate that value to institutions, and how we can maximize our connection to students in their classrooms and through ASOR-affiliated field schools. The challenges that are affecting higher education will certainly have an impact on scholarly societies like ASOR, but I believe that the type of learning encouraged through our programs is unique in the field of higher education and has the potential to yield new development initiatives.

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Lynn Swartz Dodd

Lynn Swartz Dodd is Associate Professor of the Practice of Religion at the University of Southern California Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. There, she has served as the Director of the Interdisciplinary Archaeology Undergraduate Major and the Director of Undergraduate Studies in Religion. She was also designated a USC Dornsife Distinguished Faculty Fellow.

Dodd鈥檚 research centers on archaeology and politics and ancient innovation and social change, particularly the ways that beliefs about the world figure in social change. As Curator of USC鈥檚 Archaeology Research Center, she is also engaged in technical material studies, excavation publication projects, and research involving the use of lasers and new imaging techniques in archaeological research and conservation. She is a staff member of the Amuq Valley Research Project Survey (Turkey), the Kenan Tepe Excavations (Tigris River, Turkey), and the Tell al-Judaidah Publication Project (Turkey), as well as the Native American Sacred Landscapes Project (California). Dodd is in addition the co-organizer of the Israeli Palestinian Archaeology Working Group.

Mission Statement:听During my term serving as Secretary of the Board of Trustees and Chair of the Ad Hoc Ethics Working Group, I came to understand the critical importance of 17吃瓜members鈥� perspectives about professional responsibility in all areas of research, publication, and teaching. I support ASOR鈥檚 on-going efforts to specify best practices that support safety and respect for all participants in every environment.

I applaud ASOR鈥檚 recent decision to open all benefits of membership, including scholarships, to all members regardless of their home location. As an Institutional Representative to the 17吃瓜Board of Trustees, I will work to increase the visible, reciprocal benefits both for institutional members and for ASOR. Also, I will contribute to reimagining institutional membership in ways that enable diverse forms of support for 17吃瓜and its members worldwide. I will encourage 17吃瓜to pursue initiatives that support relevance, diversity, and expanded professional opportunities for 17吃瓜members, including new partnerships with non-profits and other organizations. I affirm ASOR鈥檚 tangible efforts to support heritage preservation, documentation and rebuilding in the regions where 17吃瓜members work as reflections of our broad vision of scholarly responsibility and relevance. I will continue to support 17吃瓜personally, and as Chair of the Development Committee, am working to identify others who will support ASOR, both financially and in other ways, so that additional resources can be offered to members who participate in research into, and public understanding of, the history and cultures of the Near East and wider Mediterranean, from the earliest times.

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Stipend Report: Loren Clark

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7000 Miles Away: Geoarchaeology and Landscape Research in the Middle of a Pandemic

Loren Clark, 听2021 Eric & Carol Meyers Summer Stipend Recipient

It has been no small feat, as all of us in archaeology know, to continue archaeological research and collaboration during the COVID-19 pandemic. With the aim of keeping everyone safe and healthy, most fieldwork and travel has come to a halt. For those of us who work outside of our home countries, it has been even more difficult to plan for the future of our research. For those of us conducting research as part of the UC San Diego and the University of Haifa collaboration, this has meant shifting our focus to the archive of sediment cores that were shipped to our lab in San Diego from the other half of our team in Haifa.听In-field collection and meetings became Zoom calls, and planning sessions were discussed with maps on a shared screen. The 10hr time difference had our breakfast coffees in San Diego shared with Israeli dinner. Through the hard work of our directors and each team member, we were able to continue a portion of the research that we were conducting pre-pandemic.

Fellow graduate researcher on this core, Kendall Mahoney, works in the lab amid COVID safety protocols to collect samples for Carbon-14 dating and stable isotope analysis.

These sediment cores contain a high-resolution dataset of depositional processes and environmental change along the Carmel Coast during the Holocene. The specific core that was funded through this stipend is located in the northern part of the Kebara marsh in NW Israel. The analysis of the core in 2020 allowed for preliminary conclusions to be made about cycles of drying and wetting throughout the life of the wetland. Laminations of organic-rich layers juxtaposed against paleosol and sandy layers are present throughout the core, which have allowed us to posit questions related to regional and local climate change.

Core sections were sampled and labeled to be washed and sorted for various analyses.


Once washed and sieved, samples are picked and separated under a microscope to identify the makeup of each coarse fraction.

The goal this summer was to isolate specific proxies that serve as indicators of climate, environmental, and landscape change for the area between the Carmel Ridge and the coast. Specifically, we decided to focus on pyrite as it can be an indicator of changing salinity in waterlogged areas. Understanding the environmental change in the area is crucial in tracking the wetland as a resource for communities from the Neolithic 鈥� Iron Age. The Carmel Coast is known for the intense concentration of archaeological sites from various periods of prehistory, and the data that we have compiled will only add to the ever-growing picture of life along this critical landscape. The data from this project is still being analyzed by multiple researchers, including myself, and will be presented at the听17吃瓜2021 Virtual Annual Meeting听in December. It has been an honor to work under this funding from 17吃瓜to continue our research in this remote world. As safe travel opens up for international research, we plan to continue adding to and analyzing the existing datasets along the Carmel Coast.

Loren Clark is a 3rd year PhD student at the University of California, San Diego in the Levantine Archaeology Lab, directed by Dr. Thomas Levy. She is also a scientific diver for the Scripps Center for Marine Archaeology which focuses on submerged archaeology in the Eastern Mediterranean.

To keep up with this project (and many more) being conducted through the collaboration between UCSD and the University of Haifa and being funded by the Koret Foundation, please see our Facebook page:听

During the summer of 2021, 17吃瓜supported 27 undergraduate and graduate students through the听Summer Stipend Program. These students undertook non-fieldwork archaeological research projects led by ASOR-affiliated project directors. They also took part in monthly cohort group meetings hosted via zoom.听Read a summary of听these cohort meetings here.

Stay tuned for more updates from the 2021 Summer Stipend recipients!

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