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2026 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

2026 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

The Executive Committee of the 17吃瓜Board of Trustees acts on behalf of the Board to manage the business and affairs of 17吃瓜between the regular Board meetings is composed of the Board Chair, Vice Chair(s) of the Board (if any), President, Past President, President Elect, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary, Chair of the Development Committee, and two (2) or three (3) other Trustees.

Sheldon Fox

Chair of the Board
(until December 31, 2028)

Sheldon Fox graduated from Duke University in 1981 with an undergraduate degree in Management Science/Accounting. While at Duke, he worked with Carol and Eric Meyers at Nabratein.

Fox joined KPMG (formerly Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co.) in Raleigh in early 1982 and was admitted as a tax partner in 1993. During his 16 + year career at KPMG he served publicly-traded financial services corporations, privately-owned businesses in several industries, and high net worth individuals.

From 1998 until 2003, Fox was chief financial officer of CCB Financial in Durham and its successor by merger, NCF Financial in Memphis. He and his family returned to Raleigh in 2004.

In 2004, Fox joined KDI Capital Partners (formerly Maynard Capital Partners) and became a member of the firm in 2007. He served in varying roles, including portfolio manager, Chief Operating Officer, and financial planner through 2021.

Since January 2022, Fox has continued his financial planning focus with Curi Capital, a Raleigh, NC Registered Investment Adviser, that acquired the assets of KDI鈥檚 advisory business. Fox currently serves as Partner and Senior Wealth Advisor at Curi Capital, serving families and individual clients primarily in the Southeast.

Sheldon has been married to his wife, Debbie for over 40 years. They have two sons and five grandchildren. He is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER鈩�.

Fox has been very active in the community in the Triangle and has served on several nonprofit boards.

Fox previously served as an 17吃瓜trustee for nine years (2007-2015), and as treasurer for two terms (2007-2012). He took on the role of Board Chair in January 2023.

Jane DeRose Evans

President
(until December 31, 2028)

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 The Mithraeum at Caesarea Maritima (17吃瓜Press) and is completing the final publication on the U-Shaped Building at Caesarea.

Evans has been a member of 17吃瓜for many years, and from 2010-2015, she served on the Ad Hoc Ethics Working Group that authored the Policy on Professional Conduct adopted by the 17吃瓜Board in April 2015. She served as Chair of the Cultural Heritage Committee and has testified on behalf of the Memoranda of Understanding that allow intercepting illegally obtained antiquities from Cyprus and Egypt at the US border.

Evans served on the 17吃瓜Board from 2011-2013 and then rejoined the Board again in January 2016. She has also served as the Chair of the Trustee Nominations Committee. Evans became President in January 2026.

Sharon Herbert

Past President
(until December 31, 2026)

Sharon Herbert is the Charles K. Williams II Distinguished University Professor of Classical Archaeology Emerita and Research Associate at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology at the University of Michigan. Formerly, she served as the chair of the Department of Classical Studies and Director of the Interdepartmental Program in Classical Art and Archaeology at Michigan, where she has enjoyed a听remarkable career as a field archaeologist, teacher, and academic听administrator since she joined the Michigan faculty in 1973. She is also the former Curator of Greek and Hellenistic Collections and Director Emerita (1997-2013) of the University of Michigan鈥檚 Kelsey Museum.

Herbert鈥檚 research specialties include Hellenistic Egypt and the Near East and ancient ceramics. She is best known for her contributions to the archaeology of Israel, as director of the Tel Anafa excavations from 1978 to 1981 and as co-director of the Tel Kedesh excavations from 1997 to 2012. She has also conducted archaeological fieldwork in Greece, Italy, and Egypt.

Before assuming her position as ASOR’s President on January 1, 2020, Herbert served as 17吃瓜Vice President from 2013-2019. Herbert also served as the President of the W. F. Albright Institute for Archaeological Research (AIAR) from 2013-2018. In November 2017, Herbert received ASOR鈥檚 W. F. Albright Service Award, in recognition of her work on behalf of the Albright. In 2025, she received the Richard J. Scheuer Medal for her service as 17吃瓜President (2020-2025).

Andrew G. Vaughn

Executive Director
(until June 30, 2028)

Andrew G. (Andy) Vaughn became ASOR鈥檚 Interim Executive Director on January 1, 2007, and he was appointed Executive Director on July 1, 2007. Prior to this appointment, Vaughn taught at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, MN. There, from 1997鈥�2007, he was Assistant Professor and later Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible. He also served as Chair of Department of Religion. His teaching and research interests include听cultural heritage,听history, archaeology, Semitic languages, and Israelite religion.听听He is a past recipient of the Mitchell Dahood Prize for Biblical Scholarship, and he was a Fulbright Fellow at Tel Aviv University from 1993鈥�94.

Prior to taking up his position as Executive Director of ASOR, Vaughn served on ASOR鈥檚 Publications Committee from 2001鈥�2006, and he was elected as Chair of the Publications Committee in 2005. As Chair, he served on the 17吃瓜Board and Executive Committee from 2005鈥�2006, and he was on the 17吃瓜Management Committee from 2006鈥�2007. He was editor of the joint ASOR/SBL Archaeology and Biblical Studies Book Series from 2001鈥�2007. He has also served as Vice President of the Upper Midwest Region of the Society of Biblical Literature (2006-2007) and on the SBL Development Committee (2004鈥�2007).

Kevin McGeough

Vice President
(until December 31, 2028)

Kevin McGeough is Professor of Archaeology and Co-Chair of the Department of Geography & Environment at the University of Lethbridge, where he holds a Board of Governor鈥檚 Research Chair in Archaeological Theory and Reception. Formerly the chair of ASOR鈥檚 Committee on Publications and Vice President of 17吃瓜Canada, he was also the editor of ASOR鈥檚 Archaeological Report Series and the Annual of ASOR. Having excavated in Israel, Turkey, Jordan, Egypt, and Canada, McGeough is currently a co-director of the ULethbridge excavations at Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump UNESCO World Heritage Site and the ULethbridge excavations at Busayra, Jordan. McGeough has written extensively on economic issues at the Late Bronze Age site of Ugarit, including two books, Exchange Relationships at Ugarit and Ugaritic Economic Tablets: Text, Translations, and Notes. More recently, McGeough has concentrated on the reception history of the Near East. He is the author of a three-volume series on the history of the field, The Ancient Near East in the Nineteenth Century. 听Representations of Antiquity in Film: From Griffith to Grindhouse is a study of the ancient world in cinema, and his upcoming Representations of Archaeology in Film: X, Never, Ever, Marks is the Spot analyzes the treatment of the profession of ancient studies in film. McGeough鈥檚 most recent book, Readers of the Lost Ark: Imagining the Ark of the Covenant from Ancient Times to the Present, is intended for non-specialist audiences.

McGeough became Vice President in 2026.

Sarah Jarmer Scott

Secretary
(until December 31, 2027)

Sarah J. Scott (Ph. D. History of Art, University of Pennsylvania) is Professor of Art History and Director of the Arts Administration Program at Wagner College. A small “practical Liberal Arts” institution, Wagner provides a Liberal Arts undergraduate education coupled with majors and professional programs that prepares students for global citizenship. Sarah teaches in and develops programming for various interdisciplinary curricula and student support initiatives. She has also served as the President for the Archaeology Society of Staten Island, Chair of Wagner鈥檚 Faculty Personnel Committee, and is the incumbent Chair of the Academic Policy Committee. Sarah鈥檚 passion for her field, interdisciplinary collaboration, and a curiosity about humans鈥� connections to objects are what fuel her dedication to teaching and higher education. She has enjoyed working with Wagner students through a challenging academic curriculum and guiding them in the application of their academics to real-world experience and problem solving.

Trained not only as an Art Historian but also as an Archaeologist, Sarah鈥檚 research bridges these disciplines as she investigates the relationships between art, writing, and material experience in pre- and early literate Mesopotamia and the Aegean. Her scholarship has focused on both small objects such as cylinder seals (Seals and Sealing in the Ancient World: Case Studies from the Near East, Egypt, the Aegean, and South Asia, Cambridge University Press, 2018), as well as monumental architecture and narrative (鈥淚magining Architectural Space: Methodological Approaches for Assyrian Palaces,鈥� in How Do We Want the Past to Be? On Methods and Instruments of Visualizing the Ancient Reality, Gorgias Press, 2016). Her current publication project is a co-edited volume, The Routledge Companion to Seals and Seal Studies in Antiquity. She has also worked on projects for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Anderson Galleries (SUNY Buffalo).

Scott joined the 17吃瓜Board in January 2025.

Emily Miller Bonney

Treasurer
(until December 31, 2026)

Emily Miller Bonney is a professor of Liberal Studies at California State University Fullerton, where she currently serves as Dean of the Pollak University Library.听She has also served as Interim Assistant Vice President for Academic Human Resources. Her research focuses on Bronze Age Crete and specifically on the application of extended mind and material agency theories to the relationship between the archaeological record and social/political/economic change.听In addition, she examines the ways in which the specific disciplinary frameworks affect the conclusions scholars reach.听Her recent work re-examines the mortuary evidence for social organization transitions in the Early Bronze Age on Crete, particularly the circular stone tombs, and for cross-crafting in pottery and other media.

Bonney began attending 17吃瓜meetings in 1999, after fifteen years in the world of law school and legal practice. Since 2016, she has served as the session chair of “Career Options for 17吃瓜Members: The Academy and Beyond.” She served as Chair of the ad hoc committee charged with developing a Code of Conduct for the 17吃瓜Annual Meeting and is currently serves as a Chair of the Board’s Finance Committee. She received the 17吃瓜Membership Service Award in November 2020.

Bonney joined the 17吃瓜Board in January 2019.

Kathryn Grossman

(until December 31, 2028)

Kathryn Grossman is Assistant Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at North Carolina State University. She is an archaeologist with expertise in the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age cultures of Cyprus and Mesopotamia and a methodological specialty in zooarchaeology. She is Director of the ASOR-affiliated Makounta-Voules Archaeological Project, as well as zooarchaeologist for the Kani Shaie Archaeological Project (Iraqi Kurdistan), the Wadi el-Hudi Expedition (Egypt), the Petra North Ridge Project (Jordan), and the Temple of the Winged Lions Cultural Resource Management Project (Jordan). She is currently co-editing, with Jesse Casana and Eric Jensen, the final report on the excavations at Tell Qarqur, Syria.

Grossman has been a member of ASOR’s Committee on Archaeological Research and Policy and served as Chair of the Fellowship Committee (2016-2021). She received ASOR’s Membership Service Award in 2021 in recognition of her work on the Fellowship Committee.

Eric M. Meyers

(until December 31, 2027)

Eric Meyers is the Bernice and Morton Lerner Emeritus Professor in Judaic Studies and Archaeology in the Department of Religious Studies of Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, Duke University. He served as Director of the Graduate Program in Religion at Duke from 1979-1985 and as Associate Director in 2000-2001. He became Director again in academic year 2001-2002, a position he held until 2007.

Meyers’s research interests include the Bible, Jewish history, and archaeology. Meyers has directed digs in Israel for forty years, including the Meiron Excavation Project, whose work included excavations of the nearby synagogues of Gush 岣lav and Nabatrein, and the Sepphoris Regional Project.

Within ASOR, Meyers held the position of First Vice-President for Publications from 1982-1990, and from 1982-1992 he served as the editor of Biblical Archaeologist (BA). He served as well the associate editor of the Bulletin of ASOR (BASOR) from 1976-1993. Most notably, Meyers served as ASOR鈥檚 President from January 1, 1990, through July 1, 1996, and then again from May 2006 through December 2008.

In 2009, Meyers became Project Director of a major two-and-a-half year grant for archiving the history of American archaeology in the Middle East through ASOR. In addition, from 1975-1976, he served as Director of the W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research (AIAR) in Jerusalem. Today, he is an Honorary Trustee of the Albright. He also currently serves as a member of the 17吃瓜Board’s Development Committee.

In 1997, Meyers received ASOR鈥檚 G. Ernest Wright Publication Award, which 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. A decade later, in November 2007, he received ASOR鈥檚 most prestigious award, the Richard J. Scheuer Medal, for lifetime achievement and professional service. The Eric and Carol Meyers Excavation Fellowships, established in 2014, also honor his long-standing service to ASOR.

Kiersten Neumann

(until December 31, 2026)

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 (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. 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. 听Neumann serves as co-chair of ASOR’s Program Committee and as chair of the Development Committee.

Neumann joined the 17吃瓜Board in January 2024 and the Executive Committee in January 2025.

Jason Ur

(until December 31, 2026)

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 Urbanism and Cultural Landscapes in Northeastern Syria: The Tell Hamoukar Survey, 1999-2001 (2010). Since 2012, he has directed the CAP-affiliated , 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.

Ur joined the 17吃瓜Board in January 2021 and the Executive Committee in January 2025.

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2026 CHAIRS COORDINATING COUNCIL (CCC)

2026 CHAIRS COORDINATING COUNCIL (CCC)

The Chairs Coordinating Council takes responsibility for听(a) monitoring the activities of ASOR鈥檚 eight other standing committees, by receiving monthly reports about the committees鈥� discussions and business;听(b) discussing and coordinating programs and policies that cut across the purview of two or more of the CCC鈥檚 constituent committees (e.g., policies regarding ethical issues or professional standards) and also adjudicating, if need be, between competing claims regarding jurisdiction or resource allocation among the CCC鈥檚 constituent committees; (c) annually receiving, from the Program Committee, recommendations regarding the plenary speaker for the 17吃瓜Annual Meeting and then recommending to the 17吃瓜President the name of an individual to invite; 补苍诲听(d) transmitting, through its chair (the 17吃瓜Vice-President) reports regarding the work of the CCC, and its constituent committees, to the Board of Trustees, at the Board鈥檚 biannual meetings. Chairs of committees are expected to attend, in person, the CCC meeting
at the Annual Meeting or designate a committee to serve as interim
chair.

  • Kevin McGeough, 17吃瓜Vice President and Chair
  • Jane DeRose Evans, 17吃瓜President
  • Susan Ackerman, Co-Chair of the Honors and Awards Committee
  • Georgia Andreou, Chair of the Committee on Archaeological Research and Policy
  • Debra Foran, Co-Chair of the Program Committee
  • Eric Kansa, Co-Chair of the Publications Committee
  • Sarah Kansa, Co-Chair of the Publications Committee
  • Katherine Larson, Co-Chair of the Committee on Growth, Innovation, and Visibility
  • Laura Mazow, Chair of the Membership and Outreach Committee
  • Kiersten Neumann, Co-Chair of the Program Committee
  • Luiza Osorio G Silva, Co-Chair of the Early Career Scholars Committee
  • Rocco Palermo, Co-Chair of the Honors and Awards Committee
  • Avary Taylor, Co-Chair of the Early Career Scholars Committee
  • Julia Troche, Co-Chair of the Committee on Growth, Innovation, and Visibility
  • Andy Vaughn, 17吃瓜Executive Director (ex officio, non-voting)
  • Frederick Winter, Chair of the Cultural Heritage Committee

Directors of the Overseas Research Centers

  • Jamie Fraser (AIAR)
  • Lindy Crewe (CAARI)

Chairs Nominations Committee

  • Kevin McGeough, Chair
  • Debra Foran
  • Frederick Winter

Past Chairs Coordinating Council Members

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Table of Contents for Near Eastern Archaeology 88.4 (2025)

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Table of Contents for Near Eastern Archaeology 88.4 (December 2025)

You can receive (and other ) through an .
Please e-mail听the Membership office if you have any questions.

Pp. 260鈥�271: “Burial Practices of the Bronze Age: An Archaeological Study of the Deh Dumen Cemetery in Southern Zagros, Iran” by Reza Naseri and Morteza Khanipour

Recent rescue excavations at the Deh Dumen cemetery near the Khersan III Dam in the southern Zagros identified 20 graves. This study, based on the first excavation season, sheds light on burial practices and cultural connections of local people in the Bronze Age. Likely within Elamite territory, the cemetery includes stone and jar graves for different social groups. The excavations yielded nearly 145 artifacts, including pottery, metal, and stones. The presence of imported items, such as lapis lazuli from Central Asia and metal artifacts from the Indus Valley, indicates extensive trade relations and cultural contacts with southeastern and northeastern Iran. These findings suggest that the Zagros region had access to a trade route connecting East and West and maintained strong connections with other Elamite communities during the Bronze Age. PLEASE NOTE: This article contains images of human skeletal remains.

17吃瓜Members with online access: log into ASOR鈥檚 Online Portal . Once logged in, click the JOURNALS tab in the top navigation bar. Tutorials for how to log in to the Online Portal as well as how to navigate to the Portal Journals page can be found here.听

Pp. 272-281: “Time Capsules: Evidence for Foundation and Abandonment Practices at Middle Bronze Age Erimi, Cyprus” by Luca Bombardieri and Marialucia Amadio

This article focuses on the analysis of settlement building and abandonment activities and their impact on the formation of community ideologies and ideas. Specifically, the evidence of social practices will be discussed for Prehistoric Cyprus, taking the example of the Middle Bronze Age community at Erimi in South coastal Cyprus. Through the discussion of specific evidence recovered from the workshop complex and domestic areas at this site, we aim to explore the possible connection of construction and abandonment activities with ritualized practices performed by the community to ensure and sustain long-term social cohesion and construct social memory and communal identity.

17吃瓜Members with online access: log into ASOR鈥檚 Online Portal . Once logged in, click the JOURNALS tab in the top navigation bar. Tutorials for how to log in to the Online Portal as well as how to navigate to the Portal Journals page can be found here.

Pp. 282-291: 鈥溎�b B膩d Rock-cut Tomb: Tracking Post-Achaemenid Burial Customs in Qir-o Karzin, Southern Pars, Iran” by Parsa Ghasemi, Leila Ghasemi, Alireza Mehrabi, and Aziz Rezaei

This article examines a newly discovered rock-cut tomb in 膧b B膩d village, Qir-o Karzin county, Iran. The tomb features a simple design with a single chamber and a burial cavity, or cist. Its facade is constructed with three overlapping rectangular registers in a stepped arrangement, devoid of decoration or relief. This reflects architectural continuity from Achaemenid rock tombs (550鈥�330 BCE). Based on current survey evidence, it is highly probable that the construction of this tomb dates to the post-Achaemenid period (330 BCE鈥�224 CE) and likely belonged to a high-ranking local ruler or noble of Pars under the Parthian Empire.

17吃瓜Members with online access: log into ASOR鈥檚 Online Portal . Once logged in, click the JOURNALS tab in the top navigation bar. Tutorials for how to log in to the Online Portal as well as how to navigate to the Portal Journals page can be found here.听

Pp. 292-303: “First Observations on the Excavations in the Terrace Area of Uluk枚y Cave, Mardin/T眉rkiye” by Erg眉l Koda艧, E艧ref Erbil, Charlotte Labedan Koda艧, and Mehmet 艦an

The emergence of sedentary societies in southeastern Anatolia has been the focus of numerous studies in recent years, particularly those concentrating on Early Neolithic mound settlements located along the riverbanks of the Euphrates Basin and the Tigris Valley. However, research on the Late Epipaleolithic communities in this region remains limited. Currently, our knowledge of the early phase of the transition to sedentary lifestyle in southeastern Anatolia is based on information gathered from only five archaeological sites, most of which are situated along the Tigris: K枚rtik Tepe, 脟emka H枚y眉k, Boncuklu Tarla, Biris Mezarl谋臒谋, and S枚臒眉t Tarlas谋. Recently, the excavation of Ulukoy Cave in 2023 and 2024, located in the Mardin Range, led to the discovery of Epipaleolithic architectural features and lithic tools in its terrace. This article presents our initial observations from this archaeological site.

17吃瓜Members with online access: log into ASOR鈥檚 Online Portal . Once logged in, click the JOURNALS tab in the top navigation bar. Tutorials for how to log in to the Online Portal as well as how to navigate to the Portal Journals page can be found here.听

Pp. 304-312: “Potential Use of the Small-Eyed Needle from Late Pre-Pottery Neolithic Ba士ja in Jordan” by Bellal Abuhelaleh, Hans G. K. Gebel, Carmela Vaccaro, and Ursula Thun Hohenstein

The Pre-Pottery Neolithic sites in Jordan represent important stages in the evolution of human social structures in the Middle East. These sites reveal a remarkably complex social differentiation, as well as cultural and technological advances that paved the way for stratified socioeconomic structures in the Transjordanian Highlands. One important Late Pre-Pottery Neolithic site is Ba士ja (ca. 7200鈥�6800 BCE). Dr. Hans K. Gebel and his team from the Free University of Berlin first excavated Ba士ja in 1984. Excavations resumed in 1997 and continue today. This article examines a particular bone tool: a very thin, cylindrical eyed needle, recovered in the lowermost layer of Ba士ja stratigraphy. The object is notable for its dimensional smallness. In order to gather more information about its possible production technique and use, the researchers conducted a scientific experiment to produce a replica similar to the original Ba士ja eyed needle.

17吃瓜Members with online access: log into ASOR鈥檚 Online Portal . Once logged in, click the JOURNALS tab in the top navigation bar. Tutorials for how to log in to the Online Portal as well as how to navigate to the Portal Journals page can be found here.听

Pp. 314-323: “Recent Progress in Deciphering Proto-Elamite” by M. Willis Monroe, Kathryn Kelley, Logan Born, and Anoop Sarkar

Within about a century of the earliest inventions of writing in southern Iraq and Egypt at the end of the fourth millennium BCE, a third writing system was invented in southwestern Iran. This writing is called proto-Elamite, and it has remained undeciphered, even though a large number of tablets (now over 1,700) have been available for study since the early twentieth century. The name proto-Elamite is a conventional label, not meant to imply a known language, that was coined by V. Scheil. Proto- Elamite is a distinct corpus from the much later Linear Elamite writing system. With increasing digital documentation of this corpus, new avenues of research have opened, and over the past five years an interdisciplinary team of researchers has been making insights by combining traditional knowledge of the corpus with techniques developed in computational linguistics.

17吃瓜Members with online access: log into ASOR鈥檚 Online Portal . Once logged in, click the JOURNALS tab in the top navigation bar. Tutorials for how to log in to the Online Portal as well as how to navigate to the Portal Journals page can be found here.听

Pp. 324-337: “Insights into Shogha-Taimuran Pottery: Exploring Making Centers and Cultural Significance” by Habib Emadi and Ali Aarab

The Shogha-Taimuran period refers to the second half of the second millennium BCE in the Kur River Basin of southwestern Iran, characterized by two visually distinct yet contemporaneous pottery types. To elucidate the causes of these distinctions, Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) and X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) were conducted on the samples. Previous researchers posited Tol-e Darwazeh as the production center for Shogha-Taimuran pottery. However, this study reveals that Tol-e Taimuran also served as a production center, indicating different origins for some Taimuran pottery types and reflecting two distinct pottery traditions in the mid-second millennium BCE (Middle Elam). Analyses of Taimuran pottery, alongside other site findings, indicate connections with other areas, positioning Tol-e Taimuran as a potential main center for Shogha-Taimuran culture following the abandonment of Tol-e Malyan.

17吃瓜Members with online access: log into ASOR鈥檚 Online Portal . Once logged in, click the JOURNALS tab in the top navigation bar. Tutorials for how to log in to the Online Portal as well as how to navigate to the Portal Journals page can be found here.听

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Honors and Awards Committee Seeks New Members

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Honors and Awards Committee Seeks New Members

罢丑别听Honors and Awards Committeeseeks nominations to serve on the G. Ernest Wright Book Award sub-committee. 17吃瓜invites nominations, including self-nominations, from 17吃瓜members who are interested in being considered by the committee for these openings. Committee members will serve a three-year term with the possibility of two consecutive terms. Nominees must fill out the听 by January 30, 2026. The Honors and Awards Committee takes responsibility for determining the awardees for the three book awards, the field archaeology award, the 鈥渂est poster鈥� and 鈥渂est student paper鈥� awards, and the multiple membership service awards that 17吃瓜gives annually; conducting the awards ceremony during the Members鈥� Meeting at the 17吃瓜Annual Meeting; and discussing and advising the 17吃瓜Board of Trustees about ASOR鈥檚 awards, including recommending to the Board the creation of new awards as deemed appropriate.

Three candidates are sought for the G. Ernest Wright Award sub-committee. This award is given to the author/editor 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.) Candidates may also serve on the Joy Ungerleider Poster or Student Paper Award sub-committees.

Preference will be given to candidates who complement the research specialities of the existing committee members.

In order to receive full consideration by the committee the听 must be submitted by noon EST on January 30, 2026. For questions and concerns, please contact Moni Islam (info@asor.org).

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FOA Webinar: Amanda Hope Haley

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FRIENDS OF 17吃瓜WEBINARS

Beyond Edutainment: Reclaiming Archaeology in a Clickbait World

Friends of 17吃瓜present the next webinar of the 2025-2026 season on January 7, 2026, at 7:00 pm EST, presented by Amanda Hope Haley. This webinar will be free and open to the public. Registration through Zoom (with a valid email address) is required. This webinar will be recorded and all registrants will be sent a recording link in the days following the webinar.

We all remember a time when the History Channel was about history, documentaries bored us with facts and black-and-white footage, and everyone knew Indiana Jones, Daniel Jackson, and River Song were swashbuckling adventurers (not serious scientists). When did the lines between fiction and fact blur? Did it start when thorough public history education was reduced to merely one year during middle school, when the Socratic method gave way to teaching-to-the-test? Although many of us are still fascinated by our ancestors and the empires they built and destroyed, the field of archaeology is shrinking when we need more access to the lessons of the past, not less.

Both researchers and readers must understand the problem before us: troll farms are creating and multiplying fake content that crowd out real news, profit-trained algorithms are pushing what we learn, and AI is making falsehood harder to detect.

Even if archaeologists were well funded and better resourced, they could not compete with the truly fake news pushed by entertainment companies and 鈥渁dventurers,鈥� whom we might call pseudoarchaeologists. Social media鈥檚 lack of conscience and sensationalists鈥� focus on fame and wealth make the fight with slow science and thoughtful debate an unfair one. Through publications such as ASOR鈥檚 and BAS鈥檚 Biblical Archaeology Review, scholars have shared their findings with the public in less-technical language for many years. However, as reading rates drop among students and adults, authors are now competing with filmmakers for eyeballs, hearts, and minds. Increases in forgeries and thefts make us all wonder what is real.

The quest to recover our ancient history is not yet lost to Skynet. But it is going to take all of us鈥攖he real archaeologists in the field and the curious readers behind their screens鈥攖o reinvigorate real exploration.

Amanda Hope Haley has a bachelor of arts in Religious Studies from Rhodes College and a master of theological studies in Hebrew Scripture and Interpretation from Harvard University. She entered the publishing industry in 2005, first contributing to The Voice Bible as a translator, commentary writer, and editor. She then began working with popular nonfiction titles as a content editor, theological reviewer, and ghostwriter before her first book was published by Thomas Nelson in 2014. Amanda鈥檚 most recent book, Stones Still Speak: How Biblical Archaeology Illuminates the Stories You Thought You Knew, was released by Revell in September and encourages readers to distinguish between popular traditions and historical facts. Between writing manuscripts, she podcasts as The Red-Haired Archaeologist庐 and introduces sound archaeological insights to readers overwhelmed and misdirected by cinematic or culturally inherited images of the ancient world.

SUPPORT THE WEBINAR PROGRAM!

Friends of 17吃瓜is pleased to announce that the first webinars of the 2025-2026 season will once again be free and open to the public with a goal to raise $10,000 so that the entire webinar season will be free. Will you support this outreach effort with a tax-deductible contribution? All donors/sponsors with gifts of $100 or more will be recognized in subsequent webinars. Make your gift today and select 鈥渨ebinars鈥� from the dropdown menu.

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17吃瓜CHI – Lebanon Updates

LEBANON UPDATES

Workshop participants alongside Regional Director Dr. Tania Zaven and other members of the local DGA team at Byblos during on-site training (Credit: U.S. Embassy Beirut).

17吃瓜Hosts Antiquities Trafficking Documentation Workshop in Lebanon

December 18, 2025

17吃瓜hosted an Antiquities Trafficking Documentation workshop in Beirut, Lebanon on December 8-12, 2025, with the generous support of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut. This workshop brought together members of the Lebanese Directorate-General of Antiquities (DGA) and the Syrian Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums (DGAM), as well as representatives from U.S. Embassy Beirut, the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, the FBI Art Crime Team, and Homeland Security Investigations to discuss current conditions and challenges in Lebanon and Syria, the DGA and DGAM鈥檚 priorities in the fight against antiquities trafficking, and ways for all participants to work together to achieve them.

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Table of Contents for BASOR 394 (November 2025)

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Table of Contents for Bulletin of ASOR 394 (November 2025)

You can receive BASOR(and other 17吃瓜publications) through an 17吃瓜Membership.
Please e-mail听the Membership office if you have any questions.
Pp. 1-24: 鈥淏oulos el-士Araj: A Palestinian Quaker Archaeologist of the British Mandate Era (1926鈥�1936),鈥� by Jeffrey R. Zorn

Until recently, the work of Middle Easterners on archaeological projects in Palestine, and southwestern Asia and Egypt more broadly, during the period of colonialist control between the World Wars (1918鈥�1939) has largely gone unnoticed, undocumented, and uncelebrated. However, over the last decade scholars have begun to take a long overdue interest in this subject, resulting in the appearance of an increasing number of publications addressing archaeology鈥檚 colonialist past. Egyptians, working both in Egypt itself and on projects in the Levant, have received the most attention so far. However, more work is now appearing on the roles of Palestinians during this turbulent time. This article documents and contextualizes the career of Boulos el-士Araj, a young Palestinian man active in British Mandate-era archaeology from ca. 1926鈥�1936. Despite the number of excavations on which he worked, and his reputation at the time, he remains a mostly unknown figure, often going unmentioned in even recent articles dealing with Palestinian archaeologists of that era (for example, Abu Alsaud 2022, 2024), which makes documenting his career especially important.

17吃瓜Members with online access: log into ASOR鈥檚 Online Portal听. Once logged in, click the JOURNALS tab in the top navigation bar. Tutorials for how to log in to the Online Portal as well as how to navigate to the Portal Journals page can be found听here.
Pp. 25-42: 鈥淯nveiling the Obscure: Exploring the Function and Meaning of Levantine Shrine Models through an Ethnoarchaeological Lens,鈥� by Itamar Weissbein

This article examines pottery vessels commonly referred to as 鈥渟hrine models鈥� or 鈥減ortable shrines,鈥� which were found throughout the Bronze and Iron Age Levant. While these vessels are often recognized for their significant religious importance, their exact functions and meanings remain unclear to modern scholars. This study aims to offer new insights into these questions by drawing on ethnoarchaeological parallels from India, suggesting that these vessels may have served as symbolic dwellings for the spirits of deities or the deceased and offering insights into potential associated religious rituals.

17吃瓜Members with online access: log into ASOR鈥檚 Online Portal听. Once logged in, click the JOURNALS tab in the top navigation bar. Tutorials for how to log in to the Online Portal as well as how to navigate to the Portal Journals page can be found听here.
Pp. 43-71: 鈥淧aleoenvironment and Fruit Tree Horticulture at Early Bronze Age Tel Bet Yerah: Evidence from Charcoal Remains,鈥� by听Eshel Mor, Raphael Greenberg, and Dafna Langgut

This article presents the first detailed examination of a charred wood assemblage from Early Bronze Age I鈥揑II Tel Bet Yerah (ca. 3700鈥�2500 B.C.E.). The wood-anatomy identification of the charcoal remains aims to reconstruct the nearby natural and horticultural arboreal environment as well as the long-term human-environment relations at the site and beyond it. The assemblage provides evidence for substantial fruit-tree horticulture, mainly of olive and fig. In addition, there is evidence for exploitation of a well-developed Mediterranean woodland in the site鈥檚 vicinity, as well as of a riparian habitat. The assemblage also includes taxa rarely encountered in the regional archaeobotanical record, such as pomegranate. The transition from village to urban settlement in the Early Bronze II (ca. 3100鈥�2850 B.C.E.) shows changes in the charred wood assemblage that parallel economic, cultural, and environmental changes evidenced in the settlement layout and other findings. Evolving cultural-economic interactions between local and 鈥淜hirbet Kerak鈥� populations during the first part of the Early Bronze III (ca. 2850鈥�2700 B.C.E.) are also indicated. The study also offers a general land-use scheme for the site, based on the data that emerged from this research combined with the results of other relevant paleoenvironmental and archaeobotanical studies.

17吃瓜Members with online access: log into ASOR鈥檚 Online Portal听. Once logged in, click the JOURNALS tab in the top navigation bar. Tutorials for how to log in to the Online Portal as well as how to navigate to the Portal Journals page can be found听here.
Pp. 73-99: 鈥淩eassessing the Levantine Tradition of Early Bronze III Bone Tubes: The View from Tell el-Hesi,鈥� by Geoffrey Ludvik, Kara Larson, and Jeffrey A. Blakely

Incised bone tubes are an important class of artifacts associated with the 3rd millennium B.C.E. throughout the Near East and eastern Mediterranean. Typically made of ovicaprine or cattle long bones and decorated with a series of incised motifs, bone tubes are a rare find in Early Bronze (EB) elite burial and settlement contexts. New work at Tell el-Hesi, Israel, has shown that a specialized bone tube workshop was present at the site, operating only during the southern Levantine EB IIIA (2800鈥�2700 B.C.E.). This article provides a reassessment of the Levantine tradition of bone tube manufacture and design based on the existence of the Tell el-Hesi workshop. The authors provide a detailed description of the workshop鈥檚 stratigraphic context, review its cha卯ne op茅ratoire, and, using the established baseline of morphometric variation characterizing its workshop style/tradition, compare bone tubes produced elsewhere to this known production center. It is thereby demonstrated that a subset of bone tubes from other sites in the Near East share morphometric proportions, motif sequences, styles, and techniques with Tell el-Hesi. The authors interpret these artifacts as products of the Hesi workshop, providing a chronological anchor for their contexts and evidence for a bone tube exchange operating during the EB IIIA period.

17吃瓜Members with online access: log into ASOR鈥檚 Online Portal听. Once logged in, click the JOURNALS tab in the top navigation bar. Tutorials for how to log in to the Online Portal as well as how to navigate to the Portal Journals page can be found听here.
Pp. 101-121: 鈥淓mpires, Local Traditions, and the Spread of Knowledge: A Case Study in Water Management in Early Islamic Palestine,鈥� by Azriel Yechezkel, Gideon Avni, Bethany Walker, Meir Rotter, Yoav Negev, and Yuval Gadot

Qanat technology, most likely originating on the Iranian Plateau or in the Arabian Peninsula around the 2nd millennium B.C.E., diffused in a wave-like pattern across Eurasia over various periods throughout history, reaching the southern Levant as late as the 8th century C.E. This unique water extraction technology is based on the diversion of water from underground aquifers over great distances through man-made subterranean tunnels. It is particularly efficient in alluvium soil in arid to hyper-arid regions. This study presents a unique example of a qanat-like system found in the Judean Hills of Israel, an area characterized by a different water management tradition, based on the use of natural springs and the modification of their sources through artificial tunneling. This article argues that the knowledge and use of qanat technology in the Mediterranean area of the Judean Hills bear evidence for a top-down attempt to introduce new water management technology in the Early Islamic period. The construction of this qanat-like underground system was intended to increase the resilience of the new road network of Early Islamic Palestine, particularly the road connecting Jerusalem and Ramla.

17吃瓜Members with online access: log into ASOR鈥檚 Online Portal听. Once logged in, click the JOURNALS tab in the top navigation bar. Tutorials for how to log in to the Online Portal as well as how to navigate to the Portal Journals page can be found听here.
Pp. 123-145: 鈥淭he 鈥淟ast鈥� Canaanean Blades: Some Insights from the Early Bronze IV Site of Khirbet Um al-Ghozlan in Jordan,鈥� by Francesca Manclossi and James Fraser

A new study of materials recovered from the British Museum excavations at Khirbet Um al-Ghozlan in Jordan offers new insights into the production and use of Canaanean blades during the Early Bronze Age IV (EB IV) period in the southern Levant. The specialized purpose of the site, which was probably occupied seasonally for the annual production and temporary storage of olive oil, presents a unique window to observe changes in the Canaanean blade system in the 3rd millennium B.C. The assemblage suggests a significant continuity in Canaanean blade production and circulation despite the abandonment of the region鈥檚 proto-urban centers and the reconfiguration of economic, political, and social systems that defined the period of ruralization that followed. These blades, produced by a small number of flint specialists, were easily acquirable, never completely exploited, rarely recycled as ad hoc tools, and probably used for activities other than cereal harvesting. The examples at Khirbet Um al-Ghozlan suggest that some EB IV communities had a versatile tool kit, adaptable to other roles than as curved and composite sickles, which enabled them to exploit different environmental zones between the Jordan Valley floor and the uplands of the adjacent escarpment above.

17吃瓜Members with online access: log into ASOR鈥檚 Online Portal听. Once logged in, click the JOURNALS tab in the top navigation bar. Tutorials for how to log in to the Online Portal as well as how to navigate to the Portal Journals page can be found听here.
Pp. 147-160: 鈥�Motifs of Drought in Ugaritic Narratives,鈥� by Franti拧ek V谩lek

This paper discusses the motifs of drought as they appear in Ugaritic narratives, namely the Ba士lu Cycle, Epic of 示Aqhatu, and Epic of Kirtu. It argues that the recurring character of these motifs can indicate that the author(s) of these compositions could have reacted to the environmental changes emerging at the end of the Late Bronze Age. Apart from discussing the relevant passages of these texts, the paper sets them within the broader cultural, political, and environmental milieu of the Late Bronze Age world. It is argued that while the author(s) might have also been inspired by existing literary lore (such as Atra岣玜s墨s or Hittite myths of disappearing deities), the climate change, droughts, and consequent food shortages underscore the social relevance of recounting such stories. The Ugaritic narratives are discussed in the perspective of the theory of social myths, directing our attention to the social relevance of myths and the intentions of social actors. In this case, the social significance might have been in the pondering of a variety of cosmological meanings and causes in order to address the challenges and boost the social and political resilience of the Kingdom of Ugarit.

17吃瓜Members with online access: log into ASOR鈥檚 Online Portal听. Once logged in, click the JOURNALS tab in the top navigation bar. Tutorials for how to log in to the Online Portal as well as how to navigate to the Portal Journals page can be found听here.

Pp. 161-196: 鈥淢agic in the Levant: On Some Late Antique Amuletic Plaque-Pendants,鈥� by Alexandra Uscatescu and Alexander Bar-Magen Numhauser

The recent translation of an inscribed magical amulet with an Aramaic text found in the macellum of Gerasa (Jerash, Jordan) presents new evidence on magical practices at the end of Late Antiquity and allows for the re-assessment of a particular group of bronze amulets made in the Syrian-Palestinian region. This analysis offers a thorough review of our knowledge about the whole group of amuletic plaque-pendants, especially regarding the syncretic aspects of this craft. Therefore, the following paper proposes to adjust the definition of this group鈥檚 features to a new typology.

17吃瓜Members with online access: log into ASOR鈥檚 Online Portal听. Once logged in, click the JOURNALS tab in the top navigation bar. Tutorials for how to log in to the Online Portal as well as how to navigate to the Portal Journals page can be found听here.

Pp. 197-219: 鈥淭he Site of Gird Qalachogan, Iraqi Kurdistan: Salvage Excavations and Survey,鈥� by Petra M. Creamer, Kyra Kaercher, Glynnis Maynard, Nader Babakr, Jason Ur, Rafeeq Bradosti, Khalil Barzinjy, and Timothy Matney

Gird Qalachogan is a mounded settlement in Iraqi Kurdistan located just north of Erbil鈥檚 city limits. It was primarily occupied in the Middle and Late Bronze Age, reaching a size of around 14 ha. Recent damage inflicted on the site by local construction projects has put its preservation in a dire situation, with parts of the mound being carved away by backhoe cuts. Salvage excavations were carried out in 2022 with the intent of defining and identifying features revealed in cuts on the western edge of the mound. A survey of the site and surface collections were also carried out to form a comprehensive understanding of Qalachogan鈥檚 extent and occupation periods. This article presents the results of both investigations, concluding that the site was likely once an important Bronze Age center in the 2nd millennium B.C.E. with non-sequential phases of occupation into Islamic periods. Notable finds include a monumental building and vaulted tomb dating to the Middle Bronze Age and an in-situ cremation burial potentially belonging to the Late Bronze Age.

17吃瓜Members with online access: log into ASOR鈥檚 Online Portal听. Once logged in, click the JOURNALS tab in the top navigation bar. Tutorials for how to log in to the Online Portal as well as how to navigate to the Portal Journals page can be found听here.

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2025 Annual Meeting Recap

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17吃瓜2025 Annual Meeting Recap

Boston and Hybrid | November 19-22

17吃瓜held its hybrid Annual Meeting last month, November 19-22, at the Hilton Boston Park Plaza and online. More than 1,100 people were registered for the meeting, with approximately 950 attending in Boston.

The hybrid format of the meeting offered a way for attendees in Boston and online to share their research on an international platform. There were more than 600 paper, poster, and workshop presentations given on the academic program. ASOR’s Annual Meeting Mobile App (powered by Guidebook) provided means for in-person and virtual attendees to connect and to build personalized schedules.

If you attended the 2025 Annual Meeting in Boston or online, please complete the to provide valuable feedback that will be considered as we plan for 2026 and beyond.

Read on for a summary of the 2025 Annual Meeting, including features from the academic program, the business schedule, special events, and the 2025 17吃瓜Honors & Awards.

Not for use without permission.

The 2025 hybrid Annual Meeting opened on Wednesday, November 19, with the Plenary Address by Dr. Timothy P. Harrison (Director of the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures (ISAC) and Professor of Near Eastern Archaeology at the University of Chicago) titled, The Middle East Cultural Heritage Crisis and Why It Matters. The presentation generated a lot of discussion and enthusiasm, which continued throughout the evening at the Welcome Reception. View the Opening Remarks from ASOR’s Executive Director and President, as well as the Plenary Address by Dr. Timothy P. Harrison .

The sessions, workshops, and posters on the academic program took place Thursday through Saturday, November 20-22. There were over 125 sessions and workshops with presenters representing 30 countries. The Poster Session featured more than 40 projects shared in Boston, as well as a virtual poster gallery. Online attendees could join sessions and workshops via Zoom from the . This was a valuable resource, not only for those who are unable to travel, but also for local registrants who had to be on campus or at their office during portions of the meeting that they would have otherwise missed. Session and workshop organizers were supported by 17吃瓜assistants who were trained to facilitate the hybrid logistics of the meeting.

The recorded content of the Annual Meeting is being edited and will be available to registered attendees via the / through July of 2026. Registration includes access to past Annual Meeting content in the 17吃瓜Online Library. Register for the 2026 17吃瓜Annual Meeting or purchase access to the 17吃瓜Online Library in the 17吃瓜Online Portal for continued access.[/vc_wp_text][vc_single_image image=”106924″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][mk_padding_divider][vc_wp_text]

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In addition to the academic program, attendees in Boston enjoyed several special events at the Hilton Boston Park Plaza, as well as extracurricular programs organized by members, and complimentary access to the Museum of Fine Arts with an 17吃瓜name badge. Events at the Hilton Boston Park Plaza included the Early Career Scholars brown-bag lunch panel, Roundtable Discussions, and the Exhibit Raffle. Receptions were hosted during the event by ASOR, the Madaba Plains Regional Project, and the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute (CAARI). Before the meeting, attendees had the option to attend a seal carving workshop organized by Pinar Durgun, a workshop at the Harvard Art Museums organized by Jennifer Thum on building visitors’ museum literacy, and a tour of Little Syria with members of the 17吃瓜GIV Committee.

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The Exhibit Hall at the Hilton Boston Park Plaza included publishers, book sellers, universities, and booths by 2025 Annual Meeting sponsors, University of Chicago Press (Platinum Sponsor), Eisenbrauns / Penn State University Press (Platinum Sponsor), and ISD (Platinum Sponsor). Attendees browsed the exhibits on the centrally located Mezzanine foyer between sessions and during sponsored coffee breaks.

After the Annual Meeting, nearly 300 people stayed to celebrate ASOR’s 125th Anniversary with a festive evening of dining, live music, member-curated playlists, and ASOR-themed activities.

17吃瓜would like to thank everyone who participated and contributed to the success of the 2025 Annual Meeting. Please enjoy some of the memorable moments captured in the photo album below, and we hope you will continue to enjoy the recorded content from the meeting through June 2026.

Please mark your calendars for ASOR鈥檚 2026 Annual Meeting at the Hilton Chicago and online, November 18鈥�21. Registration is open! The Call for Member-Organized Session & Workshop proposals will be open from December 15, 2025, to January 15, 2026.

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Thank you to 17吃瓜member, Bruno Soltic, for all of the photos taken during the 2025 Annual Meeting!

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Board of Trustees Election Results

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2025 17吃瓜BOARD OF TRUSTEES ELECTION RESULTS

Thank you to all the 17吃瓜members who voted in this year鈥檚 Board of Trustees election!

The Board of Trustees 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. All 17吃瓜members are eligible to vote in the Member-elected Trustee Election, while only Institutional Representatives of the 55 ASOR-member schools may vote in the Institutionally-elected Trustee Election.

Yorke Rowan and Ido Koch will serve 3-year terms as Member-elected Trustees.

Kathryn Grossman 补苍诲听Michael Hasel will serve 3-year terms as Institutionally-elected Trustees.

Read more about the newly-elected and reelected Trustees below.

听
Yorke Rowan

Yorke Rowan is an anthropological archaeologist and Research Professor at the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures (formerly the Oriental Institute) at the University of Chicago. He focuses on later prehistory (Late Neolithic, Chalcolithic, and Early Bronze), with thematic research interests in death, prehistoric ritual performance, and material objects mediating these human actions. He is a Fulbright Scholar to Jordan and a NEH Fellow at the W.F. Albright Institute for Archaeological Research in Jerusalem and the American Center of Research in Amman. His most recent publications include听The Social Archaeology of the Levant: From Prehistory to Present听(2019, Cambridge Press, co-edited with A. Yasur-Landau and E. Cline), 鈥淒esert Kites: Neolithic Infrastructure in the Margins鈥� in听Infrastructure in Archaeological Discourse: Framing Society in the Past听(2024, Routledge, co-authored with A. C. Hill) and 鈥淭he Black Desert Drone Survey: New Perspectives on an Ancient Landscape鈥� in the journal听Remote Sensing听(2022) with A.C. Hill. He co-directs the NSF funded听Kites in Context听补苍诲听Eastern Badia Archaeological Projects, two projects in the Black Desert of Jordan.

Mission Statement:听Since the 1990s, 17吃瓜has been fundamental to my development as a professional scholar and field archaeologist. The first grant I received for field research was an 17吃瓜travel scholarship, and the first national professional paper I delivered was at 17吃瓜in New Orleans. I have a long dedication to the success of ASOR, serving on the editorial boards of听Bulletin of the American Schools of Overseas Research听补苍诲听Near Eastern Archaeology, co-chairing the Program Committee after for two previous terms on the committee, serving on the Honors and Awards Committee, and the Committee on Archaeological Policy. In addition, I co-chaired and co-organized various sessions such as the standing session 鈥淧rehistoric Archaeology鈥� (2015, 2019-2021) and the member organized 鈥淎rchaeology of Religion and Ritual鈥� (2005-2006). My involvement with 17吃瓜is complemented by extensive engagement with communities on the ground in different countries, emphasizing my commitment to creating more collaborative opportunities with colleagues based abroad.

The organization has grown tremendously since I joined as a graduate student, with a welcome expansion to include a broader range of topics, geographic regions, and chronological periods. This growth is not limited to scholarly interests but includes increased worldwide accessibility through a hybrid meeting format. I believe it is important to sustain and build on this positive trend to build membership, engage with members at different career stages, and seek to find new collaborative partnerships that will only strengthen ASOR. As 17吃瓜faces new challenges like complicated funding realities, regional civil unrest, and climate change, the organization must mount new initiatives and endeavors to respond to member needs. As a member of ASOR鈥檚 Board of Trustees, my goal will be to promote its mission to disseminate knowledge of western Asia and Mediterranean ancient societies, and to make that scholarship more accessible to the public. Finding creative ways to promote our research, particularly those of our research partners, to a variety of audiences is a challenge that will strengthen our organization and continue to interest future generations of students, the public, and scholars.

听
Ido Koch

Ido Koch is Associate Professor in the Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures at Tel Aviv University. A field archaeologist of the southern Levant, his research explores interregional connectivity, colonial encounters, visual language, craft, and material religion. He is the author of several monographs, dozens of articles, and co-editor of ten volumes. Koch co-directs the Tel Hadid Archaeological Project, the renewed excavations at Tel Qasile, and the final publication of the Tel Arad excavations鈥攁ll of which place strong emphasis on innovative documentation strategies, community outreach, and the dissemination of archaeological knowledge to diverse audiences. He is co-PI of several collaborative ventures, including the historical鈥揳rchaeological study of the depopulated Palestinian village of al-Haditha (one of the few academic archaeological projects addressing the recent past of Israel/Palestine), and the Stamp Seals from the Southern Levant听Project together with its comprehensive open-access online companion database. Koch also serves as Editor-in-Chief of听Tel Aviv: Journal of the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University听and sits on several international editorial boards. Through his research and teaching, he integrates advanced digital tools with inclusive, community-based approaches, engaging both Jewish and Arab students, to help build inclusive and forward-looking connections between academic, archaeological, and wider communities in the study of the southern Levant.

Mission Statement:听I have been a member of 17吃瓜since 2009, have attended nearly all annual meetings since then, and have interacted with scores of 17吃瓜members of all ages and backgrounds. 17吃瓜has been my professional cradle and the place where I learned to appreciate the value of an international network, a value I hope my students will inherit.

As a scholar based in the Middle East, I believe 17吃瓜must strengthen the representation of voices from the regions it studies. The societies who live in the lands whose pasts we uncover deserve a place in shaping how that past is researched, understood, and represented. As an Israeli archaeologist working on the remote and recent past of the southern Levant, I am acutely aware of the region鈥檚 diversity and complexity. Based on my experience, 17吃瓜and its sister institutions (such as the W.F. Albright Institute) are uniquely positioned to foster dialogue between Israeli and Palestinian scholars, a dialogue urgently needed now more than ever. I see my role as a bridge: between 17吃瓜and local scholarly and cultural communities, and between those communities themselves. In times of deepening divisions, we must hold fast to both our professional and human ties. In my fieldwork and collaborations, I strive to create spaces where Jewish and Arab students, alongside colleagues from different backgrounds and perspectives, can work together toward shared understanding. Archaeology can and should serve as a medium of dialogue, and as a reminder of our intertwined pasts and shared humanity.

Drawing on my experience directing and co-directing field projects, I recognize the need for 17吃瓜to advance ethical, inclusive, and community-oriented archaeology. I propose developing a collaboratively produced 鈥渇ieldwork toolkit,鈥� drawing on the collective knowledge of ASOR-affiliated projects. This toolkit would guide projects that prioritize community engagement, the dissemination of results to local institutions, and accessible digital platforms for sharing data. Through such initiatives, I hope to help 17吃瓜lead by example鈥攎aking archaeology both academically rigorous and socially meaningful.

听
Kathryn Grossman

Kathryn Grossman is Assistant Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at North Carolina State University. She is an archaeologist with expertise in the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age cultures of Cyprus and Mesopotamia and a methodological specialty in zooarchaeology. She is Director of the ASOR-affiliated Makounta-Voules Archaeological Project (Cyprus), as well as zooarchaeologist for the Kani Shaie Archaeological Project (Iraqi Kurdistan), the Wadi el-Hudi Expedition (Egypt), and the Petra North Ridge Project (Jordan). She is currently co-editing, with Jesse Casana and Eric Jensen, the final report on the excavations at Tell Qarqur, Syria.

Mission Statement:听I have been involved with 17吃瓜for seventeen years. I began attending and presenting at the annual meeting as a graduate student, and my engagement has deepened over time. I served on the Committee on Archaeological Policy for two terms, and during that time I also chaired the CAP Fellowships Subcommittee. In 2018, I presented the work of the Fellowships Subcommittee at that year鈥檚 Legacy Dinner, and in 2023 I received an 17吃瓜Service award for my work on the CAP Fellowships Subcommittee. I chair the Archaeology of Syria sessions at the Annual Meeting, am a member of the Damascus Committee, a member of the Executive committee, the chair of the Trustees Nominations Committee, and I serve as the institutional representative for 17吃瓜at North Carolina State University. In my time as an 17吃瓜member, I have watched the organization grow dramatically in its geographic scope and evolve to meet the demands of 21st-century scholarship. In serving as an Institutionally-elected member on the 17吃瓜Board of Trustees, I look forward to helping 17吃瓜move forward with the issues that loom before us, including increasing our outreach to diverse audiences at home and abroad, and promoting the preservation of tangible and intangible cultural heritage.

听
Michael Hasel

Michael G. Hasel is Director of the Institute of Archaeology and Lynn H. Wood Archaeological Museum at Southern Adventist University, where he also serves as Professor of Near Eastern Studies and Archaeology since 1998.

Hasel has participated and served in administrative capacities on eleven different excavations in the Middle East, including Gezer, Ashkelon, Dor, Miqne-Ekron, Masada, and Hazor, in Israel; Idalion, Cyprus; and Jalul in Jordan. He has directed excavations and surveys at Khirbet Qeiyafa and Socoh and currently is co-director of The Fourth Expedition to Lachish. As curator of the Lynn H. Wood Archaeological Museum, Hasel was responsible for planning and displaying art and objects from the ancient Near East in a state-of-the-art exhibit entitled 鈥淰essels in Time: A Journey into the Biblical World鈥� and several temporary exhibits including 鈥淧eace and War: The Assyrian Conquest of Lachish鈥� (2023-2025) and 鈥淭he Ivory Comb: Lice and Literacy at Lachish鈥� (2025).

Hasel, an 17吃瓜member since 1989, has chaired several 17吃瓜sessions and served on the Agenda Committee. He held the Samuel H. Kress Fellowship at the W. F. Albright Institute for Archaeological Research (AIAR) in 1995-96 and a Fulbright at the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute (CAARI) in 2005 and the NEH Fellowship at the Albright Institute in 2025-26. He is also a fellow of the Institute for Biblical Research and Tyndale House, Cambridge.

Hasel joined the 17吃瓜Board in January 2014.

Mission Statement:听Over the past 36 years of my involvement with ASOR, I听have watched 17吃瓜grow into a strong society representing a wide variety of interests and research foci in the ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean worlds. During that same period, I have been actively involved in excavations in Israel, Jordan, and Cyprus while also engaged in Egyptological research.听As an excavator I am interested in encouraging the archaeological interplay between text and material culture.听This integration has been one of the historic strengths of 17吃瓜and I believe it remains vital as 17吃瓜continues to position itself as听an important and relevant voice to a large segment听of听North America.听As a museum director part of my vision is to make our field relevant for future generations听through popularizing archaeological discoveries and making it accessible to a larger segment of society. This would include encouraging听young听scholars听who are听searching for direction and belonging听to get involved in听ASOR听while fostering connections听in听the regions it serves.听To accomplish these goals, I听would听welcome the opportunity听to continue to support and serve as a member of the Board of Trustees听for another term.

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FOA Webinar: Michael Hundley

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FRIENDS OF 17吃瓜WEBINARS

What is a God? The Bible and the Ancient Near East

Friends of 17吃瓜present the next webinar of the 2025-2026 season on December 17, 2025, at 7:00 pm EST, presented by Dr. Michael Hundley. This webinar will be free and open to the public. Registration through Zoom (with a valid email address) is required. This webinar will be recorded and all registrants will be sent a recording link in the days following the webinar.

What is a god? While the question is simple enough, our answer often depends on our cultural context, and we tend to expect other cultures to have the same ideas we do. We also project our modern ideas backward onto ancient texts, overlooking native classifications in the process. However, rather than being a fixed category, the definition of a 鈥済od鈥� is culturally conditioned. With an assist from the Cognitive Science of Religion, this presentation attempts to reconstruct ancient perceptions of gods in the Ancient Near East and the Bible. It draws from and expands upon Dr. Hundley鈥檚 , as well as his previous and current book projects.

We begin by surveying the various beings who may qualify as gods in the Bible and the wider Ancient Near East, including Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Levant, and Hittite Anatolia. With the data in place, we consider the qualities that all deities share. While gods come in all shapes and sizes, all possess power and agency. To make the divine world more comprehensible, we then sort the divine sphere into categories: high gods (e.g., Egyptian Amun, Mesopotamian Marduk and Assur, Ugaritic El, and biblical YHWH), major gods, minor gods, and peripheral gods. High gods rule, and in the case of Amun, Marduk, Assur, and YHWH, possess a complement of divine powers, like a one-stop shop. Major gods often are specialists (e.g., weather, sun, moon), whereas minor gods serve the high and major gods. Peripheral gods include deified natural phenomena like rivers and mountains, monsters and demons, foreign gods, as well as seemingly inanimate objects like beds and doorposts. Although all gods possess humanlike agency, those closer to the top tend to be the most humanlike internally, making them immediately more understandable and relatable. By contrast, peripheral gods tend to be less humanlike and, as such, more menacing.

The presentation will conclude with a look at the monotheistic redefinition of the god category. Although multiple superhuman beings remain, only one qualifies as a god in the Abrahamic religions (although Christianity divides this god into three persons). Over time Christian tradition reclassifies other erstwhile gods as either good and rebellious angels, thereby dividing the divine world into Team God and Team Satan.

Dr. Michael Hundley (B.A. Amherst College; Ph.D. University of Cambridge) is Assistant Professor of Teaching at the University of Memphis. He works at the intersection of human and divine in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and the Ancient Near East and has published multiple books and articles, including Keeping Heaven on Earth: Safeguarding the Divine Presence in the Priestly Tabernacle (2011), Gods in Dwellings: Temples and Divine Presence in the Ancient Near East (2013), and Yahweh among the Gods: The Divine in Genesis, Exodus, and the Ancient Near East (2022). He is currently finishing Ancient Gods and Monsters: The Bible, the Ancient Near East, and Beyond and is beginning Temples and Divine Presence in the Bible and Ancient Near East for the Cambridge Elements series. Future projects include a comparison of temples and divine presence in the Bible, Ancient Near East, and Hinduism and an exploration of gendering gods.

SUPPORT THE WEBINAR PROGRAM!

Friends of 17吃瓜is pleased to announce that the first webinars of the 2025-2026 season will once again be free and open to the public with a goal to raise $10,000 so that the entire webinar season will be free. Will you support this outreach effort with a tax-deductible contribution? All donors/sponsors with gifts of $100 or more will be recognized in subsequent webinars. Make your gift today and select 鈥渨ebinars鈥� from the dropdown menu.

Designate your gift for 鈥淲ebinars鈥� in the drop-down menu.

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