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Fall 2001Volume 51, Number 3

Word has reached many in theASOR family of the deathof Charles Upchurch Harris

on Sunday, September 16, 2001 at therich age of 87 years. He died at his homein Delaplane, Virginia, where he and hiswife Janet had lived together until herdeath in January 2000. Charles was atrue “amateur,” and lover of all thatASOR is and does. He represented alarge and significant group in ASOR,persons of religious faith with deepinterest in the history and culture of theeastern Mediterranean and southwestAsia, and profound willingness to fosterresearch as part of their faithcommitment. Educated at Wake ForestCollege (B.A., 1935), he did histheological studies at Virginia EpiscopalSeminary and Union Seminary in NewYork. Both Wake Forest and Virginianamed him to honorary doctorates inlater years. He joined the ASOR circleduring his years as Dean of Seabury-Western Theological Seminary from1957-1972, and made it one of his mostprominent interests as he carried the titleof Dean Emeritus. From 1975 to 1982he was President and Trustee of theEpiscopal School of Theology in the

IN MEMORIAMCHARLES UPCHURCH HARRIS

1995, and served as President of CAARIin 1979, resuming that post from 1985to 1991. He worked for the well-beingof all overseas research centers astreasurer of the Council on AmericanOverseas Research Institutes from 1985to 1996. It would be difficult to name afigure who has served more faithfullyand without fanfare in all of ASOR’s 100years of work. Meanwhile, he was atower in the Episcopal Church, bearingthe salutation of Very Reverend withmodesty, grace and humor; he served ininnumerable ecclesiastical capacities aswell as contributing to scholarship in theSociety of Biblical Literature, theAmerican Theological Society, andnotably as President of the EditorialBoard of the Anglican TheologicalReview from 1968 to 1985. The firstscripture reading at his memorial serviceat Emmanuel Episcopal Church inDelaplane on September 22 was themighty charge in Micah 6:6–8,beginning “What does the Lord requireof you?” Charles Upchurch Harris stroveto live that charge and to connect it tothe life of the mind as well as the life ofthe spirit.

Ted Campbell

Claremont, CA, cluster of highereducation institutions. Dr. Harrishelped to launch the JointArchaeological Expedition to Tell el-Hesi in 1971, as co-director and mentorto a young staff; he stayed with theproject until 1977. Meanwhile heexpanded his interest in ASOR byjoining the Board of Trustees in 1976and, with Janet, became one of its mostgenerous supporters. He was HonoraryChairman of the Board from 1992 to

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The American Schools of Oriental Researchis a nonprofit, scientific and educational

organization founded in 1900.

P. E. MacAllisterChairman of the Board

Joe D. SegerPresident

R. Thomas SchaubVice President

James StrangeSecretary

Albert Leonard, Jr.Chair, Committee on Publications

David McCreeryChair, Committee on Archaeological Policy

Douglas ClarkChair, Committee on Annual Meeting

Rudolph H. DornemannExecutive Director

Billie Jean CollinsDirector of Publications

ASOR656 Beacon Street, 5th floor

Boston, MA 02215-2010Tel. (617) 353-6570Fax. (617) 353-6575

E-mail: asor@bu.edu

The ASOR Newsletter

Billie Jean Collins, EditorChris Madell, Assistant Editor

Suite 330, 825 Houston Mill RoadAtlanta, GA 30329Tel. (404) 727-8989Fax. (404) 727-4719

e-mail: asorpubs@asor.org

The ASOR Newsletter (ISSN 0361-6029)is published quarterly by the American

Schools of Oriental Research

Copyright 2001 byThe American Schools of Oriental Research

www.asor.org

ASOR 2001 Strategic Initiatives Retreat

CONTENTS

ASOR News

3

CAP Tour 2001

4

Albright 2000–2001 Fellows’ Reports

5

Archaeology World

17

ASOR Contributors 2001

18

Conference Calendar

19

The Emory Conference Center in Atlanta,GA was the scene of the 2001 ASORStrategic Initiatives Retreat held fromFriday evening to Sunday morning, Sep-tember 7–9. A group of 60 individuals,widely representative of the ASOR leader-ship and member constituency, participatedin the sessions. The intent of the retreat wasnot to focus on the immediate problems andconcerns of the organization, but to project aview of ASOR three to five or more yearsout; to assess and discuss the longer rangeprospect for the organization’s growth andservice; and to engage new perspectives andbold visions that might serve to help ASORset its priorities for the decade ahead: Inshort, to help ASOR to “get a fix” on theopportunities and challenges that lie astrideits path forward.

The retreat program was very successfulwith lively discussions and exchange ofideas. ASOR members are invited to viewthe remarks made at the opening session ofthe retreat by the Board Chairman and thePresident along with the “Pace Setter”

comments by members of a special panelgroup by accessing ASOR’s web site atwww.asor.org/retreat1.htm. This will helpset the stage for, and encourage, acontinuing dialogue among members viathe asor-l. Please address comments onthese matters to: “Strategic InitiativesGroup Discussion.” Additional reportupdates will also be noted on the asor-l andposted on the ASOR web site. Yourinvolvement in this dialogue is warmlyencouraged.

Joe Seger, ASOR President

New This Fall in theASOR Books Series

Desire, Discord and Death: Approachesto Ancient Near Eastern MythNeal Walls

“A feast of erudition and insight!”- Laurie L. Patton, Associate Professor of

Early Indian Religions and Chair,Department of Religion, EmoryUniversity.

ISBN: 0-89757-055-3viii + 212 pagesOctober 2001$29.95 (paper); $59.95 (cloth)

Archaeology and the Religions ofCanaan and IsraelBeth Alpert Nakhai

ISBN: 0-89757-057-Xxii + 264 pagesOctober 2001$29.95 (paper)

Studies in the Archaeology of Israel andNeighboring Lands in Memory ofDouglas L. EsseSamuel Wolff, editor

ISBN: 0-89757-032-4xviii + 704, 184 figures, 23 plates, 46 tablesDecember 2001$100.00 (paper)

ALSO AVAILABE FROM ASOR PUBLICATIONS:The Iron Age Cultic Structure from theExcavations at Tell Taanek (1963–1968)Frank S. Frick

ISBN: 0-89757-050-2viii + 352 pagesSeptember 2001$29.95 (paper)

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N E W SA S O RANNUAL MEETING

BOOK DISPLAY

The book exhibit for 2001 promises to bethe largest ever, with more than thirty pub-lishers represented. ASOR has publishedfour books since last November, The Greekand Latin Inscriptions of CaesareaMaritima,edited by Clayton Lehmann andKen Holum, volume 55 of the Annual ofASOR, Ancient Naukratis Part II, The Ex-cavations at Kom Hadid by Al Leonard,Archaeology and the Religions of Canaanand Israel by Beth Alpert Nakhai and De-sire Discord and Death by Neal Walls. Inaddition, a number of books written or ed-ited by other ASOR members will beavailable.These include Social World of theHebrew Prophets and numerous other booksby Victor Matthews, Ancient Egyptians andtheir Neighbours by Marian Broida, Life inBiblical Israel by Philip King and LawrenceStager, Eric Cline’s The Battles of Armaged-don (available at the David Brown table),Archaeology and Society in the 21st Cen-tury: the Dead Sea Scrolls and Other CaseStudies edited by Ernest Frerichs and NeilAsher Silberman, Ancient Ammonites andModern Arabs: 5000 Years in the MadabaPlains of Jordan edited by Gloria Londonand Douglas Clark, and Untold Stories; TheBible and Ugaritic Studies in the TwentiethCentury by Mark Smith. Except as notedabove these may all be purchased or orderedfrom the ASOR combined display. In addi-tion, Continuum Publishers will have avail-able The Land that I will Show You: Essayson the History and Archaeology of the An-cient Near East in Honor of J. MaxwellMiller edited by Patrick Graham and An-drew Dearman, and for the first time thepublications of ACOR will be displayed byASOR. A full list of exhibitors is shown at left.

Please visit the ASOR web sitewww.asor.org/AM/programbk.htm for themost current information on the AnnualMeeting, including changes to the aca-demic and business meeting schedule. Yourregistration packet for the annual meetingwill contain a pocket program with finalthe final schedule and room assignments.

ASOR’S WEBSITE

Our website at www.asor.org contains a wealth of information on all aspects of ASOR’sactivities. It is frequently accessed, with over 8,500 hits in the month of August from some1500 visitors around the world. The site is continually updated with news on the AnnualMeeting and Publications information, and also includes features such as a list of ourBoard and Committee members, and our policy on preservation and protection of archaeo-logical resources. A site map has recently been posted to help you find your way aroundthe site.

Some of the new features introduced this spring and summer are:• online membership renewals via credit card payment on our secure server.• a news page for up-to-date information on results of the ASOR Retreat and other ASOR

events and initiatives, to keep you updated between Newsletters.• a list of past Honors and Awards recipients.If you have any comments or suggestions please contact the following:Publications pages—Chris Madell, ASOR Publications office, cmadell@bu.edu or 404-

727-8989.Outreach pages—Carolyn D. Rivers, Outreach committee, rivers@adelphia.net or 610-

543-5079.All other pages—Britt Hartenberger, ASOR Boston office, asor@bu.edu or 617-353-

6570.Plans are underway to add a web page of contacts for the Press, since we often receive

phone calls from producers of TV documentaries and radio shows seeking experts to giveopinions on particular eras or current debates. We are looking for volunteers who wouldbe willing to share their expertise with a producer or researcher. Volunteering your opin-ions could lead to significant publicity for you and your institution. If you would like to beincluded in a list of “ASOR press contacts” please contact Britt Hartenberger at the Bostonoffice (asor@bu.edu).

List of Exhibitors • ASOR 2001, Boulder CO

ASOR Publications

Brill Academic Publishers

Continuum

Available at the The David Brown Book Company table:Israel Museum, Routledge, University of Michigan, British Archaeological Reports, von Zabern,

Austrian Academy of Sciences, British Museum, CDL, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research,Council for British Research in the Levant, British Institute of Archaeology in Ankara, British School in Iraq

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

Eisenbrauns

Available at The Scholar's Choice table:University of California, Cambridge University, University of Chicago, Duke University,

Encounter Books, University of Illinois, Independent Publishing Group, Oxford University,Princeton University, University of Wisconsin, Yale University

Shangri-La Publications

The Society of Biblical Literature

The Virtual Bible

Available at the Combined Display:ACOR, Israel Exploration Society, Hendrickson Publishers , Westminster John Knox,

The University Museum (Penn), Biblical Archaeology Society

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This year’s Committee on Archaeological Policy (CAP) Tour tookplace June 3–24, 2001. The travel party consisted of CAP ChairMcCreery and CAP members Rudy Dornemann and B.W. Ruffner.Along the way, CAP members Bert DeVries, Burton MacDonald,and Gary Rollefson also joined the group for site visits and consul-tations. During the three-week trip, the group visited some fortyarchaeological sites in Cyprus, Israel, Jordan and Syria. In additionto the site visits, we also met with Department of Antiquities offi-cials, the overseas institute directors, and numerous project direc-tors. Rather than detailing all of the sites visited and people met,this report will focus on the overall impressions of the trip.

The overseas institutes (CAARI, AIAR and ACOR) are flourish-ing under the capable leadership of Robert Merrillees, Sy Gitin,and Pierre Bikai respectively. Of all the many projects and pro-grams ASOR has initiated over the past one hundred years, surelythe establishment and nurturing of these institutes is among its great-est accomplishments. The library facilities of each institute areamong the best in the respective countries and draw together a widearray of local, regional and international scholars and students.While there is no substitute for visiting an archaeological site to seewhat is happening in the field, if one really wants to understand thefiner points of an excavation or get an overview of what is happen-ing in the country, there is no better way to do it than to spend timein the lobby, garden, or verandahs of CAARI, AIAR and ACOR,chatting with the institute directors, staff, visiting scholars, andproject directors.

Discussions with Department of Antiquities officials, the insti-tute directors, project directors and other scholars drove home the

point that promotingpublications andconservation mea-sures are high oneveryone’s list of pri-orities. The cleartrend is towards lessexcavation, withmore time, effort andfinancial resourcesexpended on expedi-tious publication ofexcavation and sur-vey results, site pres-ervation, and publicpresentation of ar-chaeological sites.This is a trend thatCAP has supportedin the past and will

continue to promote, while at the same time encouraging the initia-tion of new field projects and proposals to publish the results ofolder excavation. There continues of course to be a pressing needfor new survey and salvage projects throughout the Middle East asmodern development projects continue to grow at a rapid rate. Po-litical tensions impacted a number of field projects this summer,especially in Israel and the West Bank. The 8th International Con-ference on the History and Archaeology of Jordan held in Sydneyin mid-July, caused some projects in Jordan to delay, curtail or post-pone their field seasons, but all-in-all, there were still numerousfield projects, study seasons, and individual scholars working inthe area throughout the summer.

The annual CAP tour provides a rare opportunity to observe anddiscuss the most recent developments in the field with the projectdirectors. It also provides a chance to discuss with Department ofAntiquities officials and the institute directors the challenges, op-portunities and priorities that concern them most. The most diffi-cult problem in setting up the tour is juggling the schedule in orderto catch the maximum number of projects in the field, while at thesame time coordinating the schedules of those wishing to partici-pate in the tour. During the summer of 2002, a concerted effort willbe made to accommodate a larger travel contingent, which shouldlead to even more valuable site visits and discussions throughoutthe trip. Projector directors who are interested in joining the tourfor one or more segments, should contact CAP Chair McCreery.We are always looking for ideas and suggestion that will enhancethe effectiveness of the CAP tour and other CAP activities.

David W. McCreeryCAP Chair

l–r: Larry Herr, B. W. Ruffner and Rudy Dornemann at Umeira(reconstructed four-room House). TOP RIGHT: Ron Tappy directingthe excavation at Tel Zayit/Khirbet Zeitah el-Kharab, Israel.

PUBLICATION, CONSERVATION SEEN AS TOP PRIORITIES AS THE ASORCOMMITTEE ON ARCHAEOLOGICAL POLICY TOURS ANCIENT SITES

ASOR NeASOR NeASOR NeASOR NeASOR Newsletter 51/3 • Fwsletter 51/3 • Fwsletter 51/3 • Fwsletter 51/3 • Fwsletter 51/3 • Fall 2001all 2001all 2001all 2001all 2001

W. F. Albright

Institute of

Archaeological

Research

2000—2001

Fellows Reports

Susan Sheridan

John Kampen

Benjamin Saidel

Edward Maher

Karen Britt

Peter van Alfen

Susan Cohen

Michael Homan

Louise Hitchcock

Jonathan Lawrence

Miroslav Barta

Mariusz Burdajewicz

Josef Hudec

Petr Skrdla

Anthropological Analysis of the HumanRemains from Khirbet Qumran:

The French Collection

Susan Guise SheridanUniversity of Notre Dame

Annual Professor

Analysis of the human remains fromKhirbet Qumran was conducted with an eyetowards building a bio-cultural model of lifeat the site—synthesizing the cultural record(archaeology and texts) with the biologicalarchive housed in the bones of the residentsthemselves. There has long been a call inthe literature for this information and thosedata are now available after more than a 40year wait.

Between 1953 and 1956 Prof. RolandDeVaux, OP, exhumed human remains fromthe graveyard at Qumran. Shortly thereafterthey disappeared, not to emerge again untilportions of the collection were revealed in1999 in Germany, Paris, and Jerusalem.Recent re-discovery of the remains has per-mitted a suite of analyses not possible bythe original excavation team in the 1950s.Numerous techniques for preserving anddating bone, determining age and sex, aswell as measures for assessing dietary in-take, daily activity patterns, and genetic re-latedness have flourished in the years sincethe remains were first uncovered. Thus, theongoing analysis of the Qumran collectionwill systematically study patterns of diet, dis-ease, daily life, and demography.

Chemical Analysis: To place the remainsin a temporal context, several attempts weremade to date the bones using a variety ofchemical methods. Radiocarbon content wastested at two independent laboratories us-ing accelerator mass spectroscopy (AMS),yielding negative results. Bone samples inthis collection were denatured beyond cur-rent radiometric capabilities. Samples of cof-fin wood were likewise analyzed; however,the material was so impregnated with paraf-

fin that the carbon in the wood’s cellulosewas indistinguishable from the carbon in thewax preservative.

To determine the actual collagen contentof the bones, stable isotope analysis of thecarbon and nitrogen content was conducted.None of the individuals in the French collec-tion demonstrated evidence of preservedprotein. Thus, given current radiometric ca-pabilities, even submission of substantiallylarger samples would not likely yield accu-rate C14 results.

One additional dating method remains tobe completed. The samples will be analyzedfor fluoride content to determine a relativedate. While this will not place the bones inan absolute chronological context, it will helpdetermine whether the individuals date toapproximately the same time period. Thiscould have significant bearing on recentclaims that individuals buried in an East/Westorientation are recent (perhaps Bedouin) in-trusions.

Biological Findings: The remains understudy represent a portion of the originalDeVaux collection, including individuals fromtombs 3–8, 10–13, 15–19, A, and B. For themajority of the interments, the crania andpelves were the skeletal areas exhumed.Even when we have evidence that the en-tire skeleton was preserved in situ, thesewere usually the only segments removed.Thus, the biological data will not permit theconstruction of a detailed biocultural model;nevertheless, information was collected withan eye towards such synthesis with the hopethat comparison to regional correlates andperhaps future excavation at the site will oneday permit a more holistic analysis. Whiletoo small to determine overall patterns forthe community, this collection does revealinformation about individual life histories.

Demography — Since the time of Kurthand Vallois’ original demographic analysesin the1950s, many refinements and additionsto age and sex determination methods havebeen made. By employing aspects of bonegrowth, dental development and attrition, andchanges in the morphology of the pelvis, wewere able to add several new age estimatesto the original list. Reanalysis of the Frenchcollection demonstrates the presence of onesubadult (15–16 years), two older individu-als (50–60+ years), with the remainder of thecollection dying in their mid-1930s thru late1940s.

Based on metric and non-metric featuresof the skull, pelvis and long bones(whenavailable), several new sex determi-nations were made for the French collection.Allindividuals in the French collection wereclassified as male, except the woman in tomb A.

Stature – Long bone lengths were used toestimate stature. Only one person of eachsex from the French collection could be

5

added to the overall reconstruction forQumran. When combined with the Germanestimates, the average stature for males was167.5±3.4 cm andfor females, 156.2±3.5cm.

This is of little interest outside basic de-scriptive analysis, unless viewed from a re-gional perspective. When statistically com-pared to regional correlates, the individualsfrom Qumran are not remarkable in bodybuild. They fit well within the parameters ofvalues reported for the Dead Sea region.

Paleopathology — Regarding health, sev-eral indicators of disease stress leave tracesonthe bones. Overall trends in the Frenchcollection include arthritis of the neck (forthose with preserved cervical vertebrae),dental enamel defects indicative of childhoodillness, notable calculous (tartar) buildup onthe teeth, and benign birth defects. Toothwear is within the norms of a desert-adaptedgroup, and the incidence of dental caries isindicative of diet high in carbohydrates. Thereis no evidence of cancerous, inflammatory,or traumatic disease in the preserved re-mains. However, trends noted in this surveymust be viewed with caution, as only por-tions of each skeleton are represented.

Genetic Affinity: Non-metric traits embodya large and diverse group of skeletal anddental features that are not measured, ratherscored for presence/absence or degree ofexpression. They range in expression fromabnormalities of bone fusion, to variations intooth form, to bony exostoses, to extra fac-ets for articulation. There appears to be ahigh correlation of these traits among relatedindividuals, thus they are often used to as-sess the genetic composition of archaeologi-cal collection.

In general, the results indicate relativelyclose relationships between the FrenchQumran collection and samples from theNear East. However, the small sample sizewarrants considerable caution in the appli-cation of these results.

Conclusions: There has long been a callin the literature for accurate osteologicalanalysis of the Qumran remains, hence theimpetus for the current study. Although se-vere limitations on sample size, preservation,and representative skeletal elements ham-pered our ability to create a meaningfulbiocultural model, considerable informationwas indeed gleaned from the French collec-tion of Qumran remains. Continued analysisof the current collection (both the French andGerman components), comparison to re-gional and temporal contemporaries, andperhaps eventual expansion of the samplesize, may one day permit the construction ofa biocultural framework to enhance our un-derstanding of this desert community locatedon the shores of the Dead Sea.

Coherence Amidst Diversity in theQumran Wisdom Texts

John KampenBluffton College

NEH Fellow

The title of this article reflects the resultsof the four months of research at the AlbrightInstitute completing an initial reading of thewisdom texts from the Qumran corpus andbeginning to write a volume that will includea translation and commentary on the frag-ments of all of the significant compositions.This volume, to be published by Eerdmans,will also include an introduction to this cor-pus. While reading through these texts, I waslooking for connections within this body ofliterature, with other Qumran literature, withother Jewish literature from the SecondTemple period and with other wisdom litera-ture. In order to produce a commentary Ineeded to develop some perspective aboutthis body of literature that would prove con-vincing at least to me and account for what Iwas finding in the texts. My proposal for thefellowship had listed the title as “DiverseWisdom Texts from Qumran,” rather similarto the survey article on the same subject Ihad published in the The Dead Sea ScrollsAfter Fifty Years volume from Brill a year ago.I emerged from the four months of researchwith a defensible hypothesis to provide afoundation for the volume, as well as part ofthe translation and commentary completed.

It is necessary to remind readers that themajority of this material is very new to eventhe majority of Qumran scholars. Prior to1991, very few of us were aware of theamount of wisdom material available in thefragments from Cave 4. Of all the texts to beincluded in this commentary, only two of thesmaller texts were published earlier and they

were in DJD 5, the volume of Cave 4 frag-ments already published by John Allegro in1968. There was a desperate need for a newedition of those two texts and I plan to pub-lish a reworked version of 4Q184, the so-called Wiles of the Wicked Woman, basedon the work done during this four month pe-riod. Access to the Rockefeller Museum per-mitted an examination of the original frag-ment, in addition to ongoing work with themicrofiche and digitized images now avail-able.

A decade or less of research on a newcorpus of literature means that its study isstill in its infancy. The fragmentary nature ofthe material has necessitated that almost allof the research energy has been directed to-ward initial transcription and reconstructionof the texts. A literary and historical analysishas barely begun. A number of surprising fea-tures of this literature require explanation.The extensive fragments of 4QInstruction(formerly called Sapiential A) at Qumranbetray no evidence of any purity and legallanguage but place wisdom in aneschatological context. The remnants of4QMysteries suggest a similar tendency.Theories for the ideological and sociologicaldevelopment of the Essene movement inrelationship to the Qumran site have usuallyseen purity and Torah as rather central fea-tures in that history. The apparent wide-spread use of 4QInstruction (at least sevencopies makes it one of the most amply at-tested non-biblical compositions in theQumran corpus) amplifies the importance ofthe significance and use of these wisdomdocuments in the broader movement repre-sented by the Qumran finds. This literaturesuggests evidence of a new trajectory of wis-dom literature in Second Temple Judaism.

Tribes and States in theSouthern Levant

Benjamin SaidelIndependent Researcher

NEH Fellow

The aim of my research has been the studyof the settlement patterns of the Bedouin,who lived in the Negev during the BritishMandate period, 1918–1948. I was drawn tothis subject because of the scarcity ofethnoarchaeological studies of Bedouincampsites. That is to say, in comparison toethnoarchaeological studies focusing onhunter-gatherers, there is relatively little in-formation on Bedouin tent camps. Further-more, the existing ethnoarchaeological litera-ture on Bedouin campsites is problematic,because it is directly influenced by the cre-

AIAR Fellows’ Reports 2000–2001 6 ASOR Newsletter 51/3 (Fall 2001)

ation of modern nation states. For example,large groups of Bedouin are no longer ableto migrate between the Negev and Sinai, orfor that matter between the Negev and Jor-danian plateau. By studying the Mandate pe-riod, one has a glimpse of Bedouin life priorto the sedentarization of these people. A goalof my research is use this information formodeling the relationships between tribesand states in antiquity.

My methodology uses multiple types ofdata in order to present a richly textured pic-ture of the socio-economic organization ofthe Bedouin between 1918-1948. The dataare drawn from ethnographies, travelogues,and archival information in the form of colo-nial documents. Historical and ethnographicsources provide evidence for estimating themovements and boundaries of the Bedouintribes in the Negev and Sinai in the mid 19th

century. This information serves as the baseline for ascertaining changing patterns in thesize and location of various Bedouin tribes.

My research has provided substantivedata on the spatial organization of Bedouincampsites. By combining various forms ofarchival information, it is possible to deter-mine the size, location, and proximity to wa-ter sources of Bedouin tent camps for vari-ous tribes in the Negev. Moreover, I haveobserved variations in the size and layout ofcampsites that are adjacent to contemporarytowns and villages. At this stage the resultsof my research are preliminary, however, Iwill present a paper on this material at the67th Annual meeting of the Society for Ameri-can Archaeology at Denver Colorado (April2002).

The data derived from my research at theAlbright will provide the basis for presentinga broader range of information that can be

integrated with existing ethnographies. Forexample, Emmanuel Marx’s classic ethnog-raphy of the Negev Bedouin is based on datafollowing the 1948 War of Independence,when the majority of the tribes that lived inthis region fled to Jordan. My research willprovide a broader picture of the range ofsettlement patterns used by the Bedouinprior to the 1948 War of Independence.

This study also has implications for ar-chaeological research concerning interac-tions between complex societies and mobilepastoralists in historical and possibly in proto-historical periods. The settlement patterns ofthe Bedouin during the Mandate period mayprovide the basis for generating explanativemodels of tribe and state relations that canbe tested by archaeological surveys. Thelocation of Bedouin tent camps with thosefrom earlier periods might suggest that mo-bile pastoralists were drawn to certain loca-tions of the Negev and Sinai for wage labor.Specifically, if the tent camps are situated inareas with poor soils and pasture, then thesesites may have been located in areas wherethe Bedouin were engaged in wage labor.

Philistia and its aggressive march toward anew order involving international exchangeand commerce. Excavations of the 7th cen-tury BCE strata at Ekron have uncovered fouractivity zones and each area yielded a sig-nificant number of animal bones. These ac-tivity areas include a storage area, an indus-trial zone, a residential area that may haveserved as the priestly quarters, and a largesanctuary within Temple Complex 650. Giventhe importance of the comparative method,fauna from other contemporaneous 7th cen-tury areas of the site were also studied, allof which are recognized as distinct units of aspecified activity.

The results of my analysis have shown thatovicaprines (sheep and goats) and cattlemake up 97.8% of the Temple Complex 650assemblage, which is more abundant thananywhere else on the tell. Such a limitedrange in species agrees with the predictedfaunal spectrum associated with cultic areasdue to the limited nature of events occurringwithin a temple. Restricted species rangesmay reflect sacrificial laws regarding the kindof animal that was deemed appropriate forritual slaughter. Ovicaprines and cattle arethe most dominant animals in all areas ofthe site, but do not dominate the assemblageto the same degree that is observed fromTemple Complex 650.

Although the main spectrum of animalsdoes not include many other species, culticassemblages are expected to include exoticspecies to emphasize the special nature ofthe sacrifice. Accentuating the unique eventsassociated with temple function is demon-strated by a lion bone and a worked hippo-potamus tooth. Lion bones are relatively rarefrom archaeological sites in the region, butare known from Iron Age deposits at Ekron,Tel Dan, and Jaffa. Lion remains have alsobeen associated with the Early Bronze Agesacred compound at Megiddo. The caninetooth from a large hippopotamus was etchedwith decorative circular incisions on either

Food for the Gods: The Identification ofSacrificial Faunal Assemblages in the

Ancient Near East – Tel Miqne-Ekron, ACase Study

Edward F. MaherUniversity of Illinois at Chicago

George A. Barton Fellow

This project focuses on the study of ani-mal bones as one type of temple offering.The aim is to identify attributes of a faunalassemblage that may suggest whether or notanimal exploitation was a function associatedwith secular need or an element of sacrifi-cial rite.

A project of this nature must be conductedon data from a site with well-defined con-temporaneous activity areas, one of whichmust be a sanctuary or temple reserved forcultic activity. The site should also be onethat was occupied in an historical period. Inaddition, a significant number of animalbones should be associated with each ac-tivity area, thereby providing the basis for anyzooarchaeological study. The site of TelMiqne-Ekron seemed especially suited forthe project.

In the 9th and 8th centuries BCE, Ekronwas a semi-independent fortified town, but itwas not until the 7th century BCE that thecity expanded to 30 hectares and enjoyedgreat commercial success as a Neo-Assyrianvassal city-state. Neo-Assyrian texts dem-onstrate the relationship of Assyria with

ASOR Newsletter 51/3 (Fall 2001) 7 AIAR Fellows’ Reports 2000–2001

side and was also hollowed. The tooth hadthe same outer diameter as the upper partof an Egyptian statuette that was also foundin Temple Complex 650 at Ekron and mayrepresent the bottom part (torso) of thisanthropomorhic artifact. There were not anyadditional hippopotamus bones identified,thus the animal is only represented by asingle culturally modified tooth. Exotic spe-cies were not known from any other activityarea of the 7th century.

If the animal remains associated withTemple Complex 650 represent sacrificialvictims, then the fact that there were no ele-ments exhibiting signs of pathology fromanywhere within Temple Complex 650 isnoteworthy. Food for the gods would needto be perfect, without blemish. It would fol-low that animals sick with disease or veryold individuals would not be selected for sac-rifice. Bones outside Temple Complex 650did not show any evidence of pathology ei-ther, suggesting that the faunal assemblagefound outside of Temple Complex 650 wasoriginally associated with temple function.However, it should be noted that while someinfectious agents can modify an animal’sskeleton, there are many diseases that can-not be detected via skeletal analysis. The in-dustrial areas at Ekron show the largest num-ber of bones bearing extraneous osseousdevelopment, but they may be due to eitherthe presence of a pathogen or possibly re-flect the wear and tear that is endured by amammalian skeleton during a lifetime of haul-ing and pulling heavy loads.

Analysis of the bones also revealed an ap-parent age-related bias in the animals thatwere selected for ritual slaughter. Epiphysealfusion rates, dental attrition, and dental erup-tion sequences all indicate that there werefar more juvenile animals found withinTemple Complex 650 than at any other areaof Ekron. The presence of young animalsconfirms the lack of pathologies detectedwithin the temple, as they may not have livedlong enough to contract a skeletal alteringdisease. The preference for young malesmay have been even more biased in antiq-uity than has been detected archaeologically,as limb bones of immature animals are lessdense than an adult’s and are more easilydestroyed due to taphonomic loss. Thus thejuvenile remains of long bones that arepresent in this assemblage should only beconsidered as a percentage of the younganimals that were actually for temple function.

There were far more taxonomically identi-fiable burnt bones in Temple Complex 650than at any other area of the site. The natu-ral temptation to interpret this as overwhelm-ing evidence for the use of burnt offerings

must be resisted as one must view the as-semblage in light of the historical events in-volving Philistia, and Ekron at the end of the7th century. At this point it is unclear whetherthe burning was a result of cultural practicesrelating to ritual activity or whether thesebones were burnt as a result of the confla-gration Ekron suffered at the hands of theNeo-Babylonian ruler Nebuchadnezzar in604 BCE.

The issue of animal sacrifice knows nochronological, geographic, or cultural limita-tions, and the identification of such assem-blages has far-reaching implications. How-ever, before we can anthropologically under-stand and interpret the practice of ancientanimal sacrifice, a method must be devisedby which archaeologists are able to identifysacrificial faunal assemblages. In order torecognize sacrificial animal remains, it isimperative that one be able to state howsacrifaunal assemblages differ from otherfaunal assemblages. The research carriedout on the 7th century faunal material fromEkron can greatly contribute to the detec-tion of ritual animal slaughter in the archaeo-logical record.

Mosaics in Early Byzantine Churchesof Palestine: Innovation or Replication

Karen C. Britt,Indiana University, Bloomington

Samuel H. Kress Fellow

In the field of Byzantine art and literature,it is frequently assumed that the capital ofthe Empire, Constantinople, served as themodel and set the standards for the othercities of the Empire. As a result, the artisticdevelopments and achievements of the vari-ous regions within the Empire are viewed asa reflection of innovations and creative move-

ments that originated in Constantinople de-spite the frequent lack of physical evidencein the capital. In the not so distant past, thesame hypothesis pervaded the scholarshipof the Roman Empire. However, scholarshave now successfully challenged the longheld notion that the provinces of the RomanEmpire were influenced solely by the devel-opments in Rome and incapable of artisticinnovation. A similar change in approach hasonly recently begun to occur in Byzantinestudies. My doctoral research seeks to dis-cover the nature of the relationship in artis-tic trends of the center of the Empire withthe periphery provinces. The method bywhich I will accomplish this uses ByzantinePalestine as the provincial “test case” andthe mosaics found in Byzantine churches inthis province as the artistic medium.

The period of the Byzantine Empire ex-tends from Constantine I’s foundation of anew capital, Constantinople, on the site ofthe ancient city known as Byzantium in 324CE to the sack of Constantinople by the Ot-toman Turks in 1453. However, the periodduring which Palestine was a part of theByzantine Empire is considerably shorter:from 324 CE until the Arab conquest of theregion in 638. This period is characterizedby intervals of intensive church building.While the construction of churches slowedafter the Arab conquest, recent excavationsand studies have begun to change the per-ception of this liminal period as one of se-vere decline for Christianity. Thus the scopeof my dissertation is limited to four centuries(fourth through seventh) with some later ex-ceptions. The comparisons made with ar-tistic trends in Constantinople and other im-perial centers are necessarily limited to thesame period of time, that is, the Early Byz-antine period. It is also necessary to com-pare the mosaics in Palestine with those inneighboring regions.

The choice of medium, mosaic, is madebased upon its great popularity throughoutthe Empire during the Byzantine period.Mosaics made of stone, glass, and preciousmetals were a common form of wall and floordecoration. The evidence for floor mosaicsin Byzantine Palestine is plentiful while moreexpensive and less durable wall mosaicswere rare.

My tenure at the Albright Institute providedan opportunity to make significant progressin several areas of my dissertation research.I was able to begin the systematic documen-tation and recording of mosaics in situ, inarchaeological parks and museums, andfrom excavation reports with the goal of com-piling a corpus of mosaics in churches in Is-rael. This corpus, in addition to the one com-piled and meticulously updated by PadreMichele Piccirillo of the mosaics in Jordan,forms the basis for my evaluation of the na-

AIAR Fellows’ Reports 2000–2001 8 ASOR Newsletter 51/3 (Fall 2001)

ture of the relationship in ecclesiastical ar-tistic trends of imperial centers with the prov-ince of Palestine. The compilation of such acorpus became necessary due to the lack ofconsistency in the collection of data in thedocumentation of mosaics. Such inconsis-tencies make the analysis and comparisonof mosaic pavements difficult. Thus it wasimportant to view first hand as many of themosaics as possible. Admittedly, this taskhas been difficult this year as there are a fairnumber of sites in the West Bank and Gazafor which I will be forced to rely upon thepublished reports.

Consideration of the mosaics in ByzantinePalestine as a group has begun to yieldpromising answers to questions central to thedetermination of the center/periphery rela-tionship. These questions concern the iden-tification of common themes, subject mat-ter, and decorative patterns in churches andwhether the iconographical compositionscorrespond with the liturgical practices of thefaithful in the architectural space. Anotherfruitful line of inquiry has been the questionof the role played by mosaics in the decora-tion of the Church. Preliminary researchbased upon an examination of the writingsof the Early Church Fathers and scripturalexegesis for possible insight into how mo-saics were viewed or interpreted indicatesthat mosaics should not be considered purelydecorative and devoid of symbolic meaningbut rather could be interpreted in layers ofmeaning dependant upon the level of edu-cation, both actual and spiritual. The ques-tion of the size and number of mosaic work-shops is hotly contested. Some scholarsargue for the operation of small workshopsat the local level in various regions withinByzantine Palestine while others have ar-gued that one large center is responsible forthe production of mosaic pavements. Ex-aminations of iconography, artistic style, andthe practical logistics involved in laying mo-saic pavements would seem to favor thetheory for the operation of local mosaic work-shops. The answers to questions concern-ing the origin and training of the mosaicistsand their specific workshop practices havenot yet emerged. Examination of donor por-traits on a small number of pavements aswell as the more common mosaic inscrip-tions commemorating the donor has pro-vided valuable information concerning thegeneral patterns of patronage.

At this stage of my research, it is impos-sible to draw any broad conclusions aboutthe nature of the center/periphery relation-ship. This final assessment will be madeduring the next academic year when I willhave the opportunity to analyze the compara-tive material from Turkey, Greece, Cyprus,and North Africa.

The Modes and Mechanisms ofPersian Period Aegean-Levantine

Trade: Commodities

Peter van AlfenUniversity of Texas at Austin

Samuel H. Kress JointAthens-Jerusalem Fellow

With all the interest shown in recent yearsto Persian period studies in the Eastern Medi-terranean, trade between the Persian FifthSatrapy (roughly the Levantine coastal re-gions west of the Euphrates and includingCyprus) and the Aegean still is in need of acomprehensive treatment. Conceived assuch, my initial dissertation outline soughtto deal with a broad range of trade relatedtopics like commodities, taxation, port facili-ties, and trade routes. But, as my researchinto these topics both in Athens and Jerusa-lem developed this year, it became increas-ingly clear that nearly every one of these top-ics could fill a single volume individually.Glad to have found such a wealth of infor-mation, I have scaled back my dissertationto address only the commodities found inPersian period east-west trade. Later vol-umes of this on-going study will cover fur-ther topics. Aside from a simple discussionof commodities, however, this study will alsoaddress what I’ve termed the “ideology ofimports,” that is the social meaning and sig-nificance that made some of these itemsdesirable imports; in other words, the searchfor commodity whim and fashion. In somecases what made an item desirable mightsimply have been that it was exotic, from adistant land. In some cases too the socialfactors surrounding an item may have beenfar more complicated. And, too, where theevidence lends itself to such a discussion,issues of trade volume, quantification, andvalue will be addressed as well.

Desiring to make this study cross-culturalas well as cross-disciplinary, I have produceda list of commodities by culling textualsources and archaeological reports, both of

which are quite rich and varied. The Greekliterary output during this period was volu-minous, as was the Nachleben of this litera-ture in the form of later Greek and Latin com-pilations, commentaries and encyclopaedias.For this and other textual material simplyreading as much as possible has generallybeen my approach for finding stray commodi-ties and trade related discussions. But, oncethe name of an item has been found, com-puter search programs such as Pandora,which contains the entire Greek and Latincorpus, have been useful for locating item inother texts as well. While not as voluminousas the Greek material, there are contempo-raneous sections of the Hebrew Bible thatare equally as important, as is the wealth ofcommentary found in the Talmud. To thesesources add the various corpora of 6th -4thc. BC Phoenician, Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek,Lycian, Carian, and Cypro-syllabic inscrip-tions, ostraca, and graffiti, Greek and Ara-maic papyri, and even a number of contem-poraneous Babylonian documents. For thearchaeological material there is an equalabundance, included within which are hun-dreds of archaeological sites, coins, weightsand the nearly 40 reported shipwrecks of thisperiod, some excavated, most not.

The result of this commodity search is alist of well over 200 individual items, rangingfrom date honey to marble anthropomorphicsarcophagi. These commodities fall undermore general rubrics of, for example, food-stuffs, spices/perfumes/drugs, dyestuffs, pig-ments, stones/gems, metals (includingcoins), wood and wood products, manufac-tured items (including metal and ceramicwares, textiles, glass products, etc.), live-stock and slaves. For some of these itemsI’ve found so far only a single reference, tex-tual or archaeological, others are consideredhighly probable by inference. But, for thebulk of the items there is enough evidenceto consider them either items of regular trade,or occurring in trade with a fair degree ofregularity. Some of these commodities aren’tmuch of a surprise, and are what we’ve cometo expect from other periods, like for instancethe bulk of the spices and incense cominginto the Aegean from the East. Others, per-haps, are more unexpected, like the rangeof chemicals and pigments. Also, as part ofthe initial discussion of these items, each ofthe individual commodities will have to bedealt with in a similar fashion: this meansboth correlating an ancient term with a mod-ern scientific term, in the case of organic andmineral items, and determining the commodi-ties ultimate origin and use. For some com-modities, like the mineral realgar, for ex-ample, this can be a complex process. Theterm for realgar in Greek is disputed, as isthe source, and at the same time textual andarchaeological evidence suggests that it

ASOR Newsletter 51/3 (Fall 2001) 9 AIAR Fellows’ Reports 2000–2001

The Relationship of Middle BronzeAge IIA Canaan to Middle

Kingdom Egypt

Susan L. Cohen, Harvard UniversityEducational and Cultural Affairs

(ECA) Fellow

The primary goal of my research as oneof this year’s ECA Fellows at the Albright In-stitute has been to prepare my dissertation,entitled Canaanites, Chronology, and Con-nections: the Relationship of Middle BronzeAge IIA Canaan to Middle Kingdom Egypt,for publication as volume 5 in the Studies inthe History and Archaeology of the Levantseries of the Harvard Semitic Museum. Myresearch has focused on the resurgence ofurbanism in Canaan in the early part of thesecond millennium BCE, with particular at-tention to how the phenomenon of urban-ization may be charted temporally through-out Canaan, and ways in which this devel-opment was affected by and related to con-temporary developments in Twelfth DynastyEgypt. I have also examined the nature ofthe Canaanite-Egyptian relationship as it pro-gressed throughout the MB IIA period andevolved in response to developments in bothEgypt and Canaan.

It has become apparent that settlementfirst appeared in Canaan along the coast andin the north or the region, and progressedsteadily southwards and inland during thecourse of the MB IIA. The available data in-dicate that settlement developed in dendriticpatterns – elongated economic systems de-signed to facilitate the movements of goods,

served both as a pigment in painting and alsoas an ingredient in some medicines.

At this stage in the project certain trendsare beginning to become apparent, which willrequire further thought and investigation. Forexample, although fairly basic raw materialsappear in the commodity list, without ques-tion the greater portion of the items aremanufactured goods, in fact what might beconsidered luxury goods. Why is this? Ofparticular importance are patterns whichhave implications for the grain, wine and oiltrade. Always desperate to exploit newsources of grain to feed its population, Clas-sical Athens imported large quantities of grainfrom all over the Mediterranean—except itseems from the Levant. And, while therewere regions in both the Aegean and in thePhoenician homeland famous for their winesand olive oils, there seems to have been littleexchange of these goods, at least nothingcommensurate to the scale of the internalAegean and Levantine wine and oil trade.To date, the number of (reported) Persianperiod Aegean wine and oil amphoras foundin the Levant is less than a thousand—littlemore than the capacity of one medium-sizedship. At the same time, barely a dozenLevantine amphoras are reported from theAegean. Despite the paucity of Levantineamphoras in the Aegean, however, it wouldseem that the commodities coming from theEast generally outnumber those from theAegean. At this point I am not willing to sayif this represents as yet incomplete research,a trade deficit, or if balance was achieved involume or value. But we should also keepin mind that concepts like trade deficit andbalance may be wholly anachronistic. Theseissues of trade volume and the market valueof individual commodities are problems thatmust be worked out separately, preferablywith close attention paid to chronologicalchanges and developments.

Also of note is the fact that some of thesecommodities, purple dye and dyed textiles,for example, went both ways. In many dis-cussions of ancient trade there often is anassumption that items imported into a city orregion are only those that the region lacks,due to a deficiency in natural resources, in-dustry, or skills. This assumption has causeda few commentators to raise their eyebrowsand question the validity of passages, forexample, that mention Aegean purple beingshipped to Phoenicia, a region acutely fa-mously for its own purples. But this assump-tion obviously was no more valid in antiquitythan it is today, as many modern trade analo-gies could show. Exchange in this case hasas much to do with social issues and per-sonal choice, like status, as it does with eco-nomics, quality, and marketing. For a pe-riod of time in Classical Athens, for example,you were nobody unless you had a couch

made in Miletus, despite the fact that therewere ivory in-laid couches produced in town.Thus it wouldn’t really matter if commoditieswere locally available, since those comingfrom overseas might be better, cheaper, ormore chic.

The range and sheer numbers of com-modities I’ve located to date are far beyondwhat I had expected to find and point to agreater degree of contact and exchange dur-ing the various phases of the Persian pe-riod, including the period immediately follow-ing the Great Persian Wars in 490 and 480BC, than previously thought. Despite devel-oping prejudice against the “Barbarian” fol-lowing the Persian Wars, the Greeks seemto have been only too happy to continue toimport barbarian goods. Without the surviv-ing texts to tell us as much, we can’t say ifthe inhabitants of the eastern Mediterraneanhad a similar chauvinism, but they too, thePhoenicians in particular, had a well devel-oped penchant for things Greek. The tradewas unquestionably brisk.

resources, and communications from the hin-terlands towards the large port sites, whichwere themselves located in such a way asto participate in the international world of theeastern Mediterranean. In such an organi-zational schema, the primary site of the sys-tem – in this case the port cities – is locatedat one end of the elongated network, whilethe sites stretching back along the systemdecrease in size and complexity the fartherthey are located from the primary node. Thispattern also indicates an externally orientedeconomy and suggests that some of the ini-tial impetus for Canaanite growth during theMB IIA came from the reestablishment of in-ternational commerce in the eastern Medi-terranean.

In addition, Canaanite relations with MiddleKingdom Egypt during this period of settle-ment and re-development have proved them-selves to be considerably more complex thanpreviously acknowledged. The Egyptiantreatment of Canaan was very flexible, rang-ing from magical to military, and seems tohave adapted to meet the changing situa-tion in Canaan itself. The Egyptian view ofCanaan and Canaanites can be traced as itdeveloped throughout the MB IIA, using bothtextual and pictorial evidence to examine theEgyptian perception of the peoples to theirnorth. In the early years of the Middle King-dom, evidence indicates that Egypt essen-tially ignored the undeveloped region to itsnorth, a view which gradually changed overtime during the middle and later reigns of theMiddle Kingdom pharaohs to reflect an in-creased Egyptian awareness of the region,as Canaan itself evinced increased organi-zation and significance. By the end of theMB IIA, coinciding with the decline of theTwelfth Dynasty, Canaan had almostachieved the level of urban development andsophistication of the later MB IIB/C era thatwould eventually lead to the Hyksos incur-sions into the Egyptian Delta and the rise oftheir rule in that region.

l–r Susan L. Cohen, Michael M. Homanand Louise A. Hitchcock.

AIAR Fellows’ Reports 2000–2001 10 ASOR Newsletter 51/3 (Fall 2001)

n addition, although the MB IIA Canaanitematerial culture very clearly has antecedentsin the northern Levant, the political and eco-nomic impetus for its revival may have comefrom Egyptian activity. As the Twelfth Dynastyconsolidated internally, and increased inpower, accompanied by a growing Egyptianpresence in the eastern Mediterranean andan increase in Egyptian contact with the cit-ies of the northern Levant, such as Byblos,the region in between the two areas, i.e.Canaan, would have been affected to somedegree. Thus, the intensified economic ac-tivities in the eastern Mediterranean wouldhave had the attendant result of helping tostimulate Canaanite re-urbanization, growth,and expansion, influencing the developmentof the settlement patterns just noted.

My future research will focus now in twodifferent areas of MB IIA Canaanite history. Iwould like to examine the MB IIA ceramictypology more closely, in an attempt to un-derstand Canaanite settlement on a regionallevel, and to analyze differences in site de-velopment as expressed through the ceramicassemblage. Fortified sites must have de-veloped differently from unfortified sites, forexample, and some of these differences maybe reflected in the ceramic assemblages. Inaddition, for comparative purposes, my otherresearch will focus on examining MiddleKingdom Egypt’s relations with other regions,with the expectation that this may help toexplain Egypt’s activities vis-á-vis Canaan inthe second millennium BCE and thus helpto clarify the position of Canaan in thebroader context of the ancient eastern Medi-terranean world.

“What Shall We Drink?”A Study of Biblical Beverages

Michael M. Homan,Xavier University of Louisiana

United States Information Agency JuniorResearch Fellow

It would be difficult to overestimatealcohol’s role in the ancient Near East. AsPliny the Elder noted concerning itsproduction and consumption, “There is nodepartment of humanity’s life on which morelabor is spent” (Natural History 14.28).Alcohol was a dietary staple, a frequentlyprescribed medicine, a status indicator, arendered barter, as well as a social lubricant.Its production drove civilization, its tradebrought wealth to merchants and empires,and its consumption warmed the hearts ofhumans and gods. It impacted all aspects oflife, including birth, death, marriage, war,religion, and everyday existence.

My fellowship year at the Albright Institute

was spent researching the production,storage, trade, consumption, and socialramifications of alcohol in the Hebrew Bibleagainst its ancient Near Eastern background.While the overall scope of my study was notlimited to alcoholic beverages and includedwater, milk, fruit-juices and blood, primarily Ifocused on barley beer and grape-wine,though I also investigated in detail otheralcoholic drinks in which additional cereals,fruits, and bee-honey provided the primaryfermentable sugars.

The main aspect of my study was textualin nature. I explored all existent referencesto drinking in the Hebrew Bible and surveyedthe corpus of ancient Near Eastern andClassical literature. This involved theidentification of terms related to alcohol. Forexample, the biblical word åekar is one ofthe most important ingredients in the Israelitecult. A hin (6 liters) of åekar was libated toYahweh twice daily (Numbers 28:7–10) andit was consumed at sacrificial meals(Deuteronomy 14:26). Yet, the identity of thisliquid was lost following the Babylonian exilein the 6th century BCE. Thus, in the Talmudand other rabbinic works, the meaning ofåekar is confused, and it is argued to be bothbeer (Pesahim 3a) and wine (NumbersRabbah 10.8). Similarly, the identity of biblical_ekar is debated today, best seen by the factthat the Jewish Publication Society’stranslation of the Bible uses 10 differentterms to translate this one Hebrew word.Scholars currently debate whether åekar wasgrape wine, date wine, or beer. My researchhas shown that the latter is the most likelycandidate, and this will be published in aforthcoming article.

My study examined the social impact ofalcohol in the ancient world. This ranged fromlegal issues surrounding irresponsibledrinking to the social responsibility of childrento look after inebriated parents. I alsoinvestigated the symbolism of variousbeverages, such as wine’s equation withblood, and beer as a metaphor for civilization.

In addition to textual studies, my projectresearched ancient Near Eastern materialcultures better to understand the roleoccupied by alcohol. I explored varioustechnological innovations, such as theevolution of grape presses, as well as potteryforms (e.g., the Philistine “beer jug” and theEgyptian “flower pot”). I have also begun toimplement residue analysis into my project.

My study of alcohol in antiquity wasenhanced through an examination of ancientNear Eastern iconography. A variety of seals,statues, and engravings provide pictorialinsight into the means of beverageproduction and consumption.

The final portion of my research involvedexperimental archaeology. During my tenure

I grew barley in the Albright garden, and fromthis I made a variety of beers resemblingthose consumed in antiquity. While somescholars have argued that it was humanity’sthirst for beer, rather than a hunger for bread,that motivated Neolithic humans todomesticate cereals 8,000 years ago, Ibelieve my study has show that ancient beerwas an acquired taste.

Daedalos in the East:Exploring Interconnections in Aegean

and Levantine Architecture

Louise A. Hitchcock,University of California, Los Angeles

Educational and Cultural Affairs(ECA) Fellow

My goal during my tenure as an Educa-tional and Cultural Affairs Fellow at theAlbright Institute, was to explore the relation-ships between the architecture of the Aegean(Crete and the Mycenaean world) and theLevant (Canaanite, Philistine, and early Is-raelite) from the Middle Bronze Age throughthe Early Iron Age. It became clear as myresearch has developed, however, that it wasnecessary to modify the original frameworkof my study in several ways. After spendinga year conducting a similar study of Cypriotarchitecture prior to coming to the Albright, itbecame readily apparent that Cyprus alsoplayed a major role as a mediator in under-standing these relationships, particularly atthe time of the Late Bronze Age/Early IronAge transition. For example, a number offeatures, that characterize Cypriot culture,but are absent in Aegean culture, turn up inPhilistine contexts. These include incised oxscapulae, bronze stands, and particular clayrecipes combined with the imprecise trans-mission of Aegean architectural forms suchas the megaron or hall. Regional variationand/or errors in oral transmission, however,may also account for variability in the execu-tion of architectural forms.

In addition, my original proposal stemmedfrom an interest in studying Aegean influ-ences in the Levant. It became evident as Iproceeded that I needed to acknowledge in-fluences and interconnections going in bothdirections, as well as general affinities in abroader east Mediterranean cultural spherewhen it was not possible to assign an originfor particular features or practices. Theseaffinities and interconnections might be cat-egorized as formal (i.e. ground plan), tech-nical (construction technique), or functionalsimilarities (i.e. use of altars), or some com-bination of all three.

Finally, it also became apparent that a his-torical approach to the study of cultural in-

ASOR Newsletter 51/3 (Fall 2001) 11 AIAR Fellows’ Reports 2000–2001

terconnections required an acknow-ledgement of multiple and varying types ofcontact appropriate to varying social andpolitical circumstances and upheavals.These circumstances and upheavals in theAegean and Cyprus include the emergenceand later augmentation of monumental ar-chitecture on Crete, the eruption of Thera inthe late 17th c. BCE, the destruction of theMinoan “palaces” and “palatial villas” in themid-15th c. BCE, the destruction ofMycenaean Knossos either in the late 14thor early 13th c. BCE, the emergence of theMycenaean citadels and of monumental ar-chitecture in Cyprus in the 13th c. BCE, andthe destruction of both the Mycenaean Pal-aces and the monumental administrativestructures on Cyprus at the end of the 13thcentury BCE.

Each of these developments could havecreated different occasions for the transmis-sion of architectural forms. One such situa-tion may have been the adoption or imita-tion of particular concepts or features suchas monumentality, ashlar masonry, or par-ticular symbolic forms such as standingstones (baetyls or massebot) for purposesof prestige. Such imitations in a regional stylemight have resulted from trade contacts andhelp to explain the sudden appearance ofmonumental buildings on Crete at the be-ginning of the second millennium. Anotheroccasion for the transmission of architecturalfeatures, might be the transfer of skilled work-ers in the form of diplomatic or elite gift ex-change, which may serve to explain the ap-pearance of Aegean style frescoes in theLevant as at Tell Kabri.

Small groups of skilled workers that be-came refugees in the multiple disasters oc-curring in the Aegean throughout the sec-ond millennium may have sought out newpatronage for their expertise in Cyprus andthe Levant. The new architectural forms theyintroduced might have served to enhance thestatus of local officials while creating an oc-casion for cultural transformation of the lo-cal population. Other affinities showing dif-ferent regional manifestations, such as bullcult and sacred economy might simply haveemerged from common core beliefs basedon common subsistence practices such assettled agriculture and livestock raising, andcommon technologies such as metallurgy,maritime trade, and the mass production ofpottery.

‘Living Water’ Investigating theDevelopment of Jewish Ritual Bathing

and Christian Baptism

Jonathan Lawrence,University of Notre Dame

Educational and Cultural (ECA) Fellow

During the third to fifth centuries CE, someearly Christian baptismal fonts resembleJewish miqva’ot, or ritual baths, both in rect-angular shape and construction as steppedand plastered installations built into theground. In the sixth century CE, the prac-tices diverge and these similarities disap-pear. To a certain extent, this relation can beexplained by the origins of Christianity withinJudaism. However, the persistence of thissimilarity is surprising since the two commu-nities quickly grew apart. My project has twogoals which grow out of these observations.

First, I will examine the chronology andgeographical distribution of the structuresused for Christian baptism and Jewish ritualbathing to determine the extent of their simi-larity. Second, I plan to use this data to illu-minate Jewish-Christian relations during thistime period, seeking to determine the causesfor the divergence between the two practicesin the sixth century CE. My dissertation willconcentrate on the textual basis for ritualbathing, but I hope to continue this researchfollowing graduation.

As I am still in the beginning phases of myresearch, I will focus my remarks on the firstgoal. The main distinctions between differ-ent kinds of miqva’ot relate to the presenceor absence of a separate unstepped reser-voir attached to the stepped miqveh, and thepresence of a divided steps or a second en-trance to allow users to exit without walkingon the same steps with which they entered.Although most miqva’ot are dated to the timebefore the destruction of the JerusalemTemple in 70 CE, the few texts from this timewhich discuss ritual immersion do not men-tion the use of any specific structures. Incontrast, there are many fewer miqva’ot fromthe Rabbinic periods, but there are several

texts which explicitly discuss details of theconstruction and use of miqva’ot.

Baptismal fonts, on the other hand, appearin a variety of different forms, differing inshape, size, and position above or below theground. The earliest known baptismal font,found at Dura Europas, is a rectangular struc-ture dated to the mid-third century CE. Overthe next several centuries, other shapeswere introduced: circular, octagonal, hexago-nal, cross-shaped, and quadrilobed. Severalissues still need to be examined: the rela-tion of specific styles to economic status, thedevelopment of ritual immersion as part ofreligious initiation, and the development ofinfant baptism.

An initial examination of the distribution ofearly miqva’ot and baptismal fonts suggeststhat rectangular fonts persisted longest inareas of strong Jewish influence, while theywere replaced by fonts imitating Greco-Ro-man baths, burials, and even some built inpagan temples in areas where Greco-Romaninfluences were stronger. The question thatremains then is why did the rectangular formdisappear from Jewish areas in the sixthcentury. Perhaps the Christian communitywas trying to distinguish itself from the prac-tices of the Jewish community, but that re-mains to be seen.

The Interactions of Egypt, Sinai andSouthern Palestine During the Late

Old and the Middle Kingdom(EB IV–MB II A)

Miroslav Bárta, Czech Institute ofEgyptology, Charles University, Prague

Andrew W. Mellon Fellow

The subject of my research is the interac-tions of Egypt and Canaan during the lateOld and the Middle Kingdom periods, roughlycorresponding with the EB IV and MB IIAperiods in Canaan. The primary objective hasbeen to review the current state of research

AIAR Fellows’ Reports 2000–2001 12 ASOR Newsletter 51/3 (Fall 2001)

and publication of this subject from theEgyptological point of view. The mutual con-tacts between Egypt and Canaan found itsexpression in the following main spheres: ar-chitecture, material culture, written and pic-torial sources and the arts.

Already during the EB I period at the endof the Fourth and the start of the Third mil-lennium BCE, a significant degree of con-tacts was attained between Egypt andCanaan. The exploration of Sinai in the 80sof the last century has shown that local popu-lations maintained trade contacts with Egypt.The cemetery sites of nawamis such asGebel Gunna provides sufficient evidence forthis phenomenon.

The study of the settlements in southwest-ern Canaan has shown that at the beginningof the third millennium there were at leastseven sites with an explicitly attested Egyp-tian presence. At least five of these cases,Tell Erani, Tell Malkhata Nahal Tillah, EnBesor and Tell el-Sakkan had Egyptiansettlements. It is estimated that these colo-nies lasted no longer than 100 years (reignsof Hor Aha–Andzjib), and that they werefounded within a relatively short period oftime, if not at the same time.

The locally based Egyptian populationequaled several hundred inhabitants, and itssubsistence was based on agricultural prod-ucts such as honey, wine, bitumen, oil andvarious resins. These products, de facto, alsorepresent the chief components of the Egyp-tian imports. The Canaanite imports in Egyptduring this period are concentrated mainlyin the Delta sites. Nevertheless, a large con-centration of luxury vessels was found in thepredynastic cemetery at Abydos in UpperEgypt, where, for instance, in tomb Uj therewere about 700 vessels with wine residues.During the First Dynasty, it is above all theso-called Abydos Ware that was popular astomb equipment, as is attested fromSaqqara, Tarkhan, Lahun and Abydos.

It seems logical to view these sites as anatural extension of the Egyptian settlementalong the northern Sinai coast, that is, thelater so-called Ways of Horus. The reasonsfor the disappearance of Egyptian settle-ments from southern Canaan during the sec-ond half of the First Dynasty seem to be aresponse to the appearance of intensive ur-banism. It is perhaps not without interest tonote that the withdrawal of the Egyptian set-tlers from southern Canaan following the EBI period was only compensated later byEgyptian dominance in Sinai, when after thisperiod, Arad EB II settlements (frequentlyassociated with copper ore procurement) dis-appear. It is probably not by chance that thefirst explicit attestations of the Egyptian pres-ence in Sinai, Wadi Maghara, date to theearly Third Dynasty, to the reigns of Djoserand Sekhemkhet when the monumental

achitecture in stone—a clear mark of the in-creasing power and wealth of the Egyptianrule—emerges.

The present evidence seems to show thatduring most of the following Old Kingdomperiod, which equals EB III, there was mini-mal contact and the Egyptians themselveslimited their activity to the protection of theEastern border and the Ways of Horus, whichprovided access to vital natural resources insouthern Sinai. The protection of the east-ern border was occasionally combined withpreventive military encroachments into thesouth. It is not without interest that most ofthe reports of military campaigns and thescenes of destruction of towns are dated tothe late Fifth and the early Sixth Dynasty. Itis generally held that already during this pe-riod, Egypt was losing some of her powerand dominance. These military campaignsmay, therefore, paradoxically indicate grow-ing instability within the state and its increas-ing weakness.

Following the collapse of the Old Kingdomduring the 22d century BCE, there were cor-respondingly significant changes in thesettlement area of southern Canaan. Duringthis period we can observe the virtually com-plete disappearance of cities and largesettled areas in northern and Central Pales-tine. The 1996 study of EB IV sites by M.Haiman has indicated that there might havebeen a relatively intensive copper trade be-tween Egypt and south Canaan undertakenby the Asiatic population precisely during thisperiod. These sites densely covered the areaextending from the southwest of the DeadSea westwards to the Nile Delta along theline of the northern Sinai sea shore. It is pos-sible that the EB IV fortified cities such asKhirbet Iskander, Iktanu, Bab el-Dhra, Aroer,Tell el-Hayat, Ader, Tell Umm Hammad mayhave organized the whole copper caravantrade, and the copper may have originatedin the Wadi Feinan.

With the beginning of the Middle Kingdomof Egypt at the start of the 20th century BCE,the nature of contacts changes again. Therecent study by E. Czerny shows that therewere already early Middle Kingdom “Asiatic”artefacts in Tell el-Dabba attesting to the be-havioral interface with a probable trade-likepattern with the Canaanite and Sinai nomadsduring this time. The initial settlement (Stra-tum F/1) of the Canaanites in Tell el-Dabbagoes back to the late Twelfth Dynasty, to thereign of Senusret III. It is interesting thatabout 50% of the male burials containedweapons, a clear indication that these set-tlers were soldiers in the military service ofthe Egyptian king. Clearly, they were also en-gaged in other activities, such as participa-tion in expeditions to Sinai organized pre-sumably from Tell el-Dabba.

The studies of D. Arnold of the Middle

Kingdom pottery from the pyramid necropolisat Lisht have also shown that imports ofCanaanite pottery to Egypt first occurred onlyduring the second half of the Middle King-dom, starting with the reigns of Senusret IIIand Amenemhet III. All this seems to sup-port the so-called Middle Chronology whichfinds its support also in the historical situa-tion, placing the beginning of the MB IIA inthe reign of Senusret III (1878–1843 BCE).

From the reign of Senusret III, that is, withthe start of MB IIA at the beginning of the19th century BCE, one can observe featuresconnected with increasing urbanism inCanaan. The evidence compiled by S.Cohen shows that there were 131 sites inCanaan with attested MB II levels, and thatmost of these sites were not fortified prior tothe middle phase of MB IIA. Many of thesesettlements and cemeteries in Canaan pro-vided numerous Egyptian finds. The olderviews explaining their presence in Canaanincluded those claiming that there was in-tensive trade with Egypt, and that Egypt at-tempted to establish new colonies in the re-gion. More recent studies show that it is morelikely that the Middle Kingdom rulers re-sumed the standing minimalist Old Kingdompolicy of fortresses and occasional preven-tive strikes.

Given the results of J. Weinstein’s and D.Ben-Tor’s investigations, it seems almostcertain that most of the Egyptian objects pen-etrated Canaan during the late MK and thepost MK period and that, hypothetically, themediators responsible for the export of theseobjects were the increasing Asiatic settle-ments in the Eastern Delta such as the oneexcavated in Tell el-Dabba. The spectrum ofthese finds is very limited: most of the ob-jects consist of scarabs, faience and stonevessels, pottery, combs, statues and carne-lian beads. In this connection it is interestingto note Weinstein’s statement that during theMiddle Kingdom, when Egypt was strong,there are almost no indications of contacts,whereas following the collapse of MiddleKingdom, the connections gain pace again.

It is important to note that whereas dur-ing the reign of Senusret I, Canaan is de-scribed as a land of beduin, Amenemhet IIconsiders it important in his Annals to men-tion that he subjugated two fortresses inCanaan (given the booty listed, quite smallones), and that the last military campaigndates to the reign of Senusret III, probablyagainst Sekhem. As urbanism developedduring the latter half of MB IIA, and reachedits peak in the 17th century BCE in southernCanaan in a power formation centering onSharuhen/Tell Ajjul, one gets the impressionthat as soon as there were numerous citystates, the Egyptians were no longer willingto take their chances venturing into Canaan.They preferred, at least so it seems, to re-

ASOR Newsletter 51/3 (Fall 2001) 13 AIAR Fellows’ Reports 2000–2001

Typology of the Pottery fromKhirbet Qumran

(French Excavations 1953–1956)

Mariusz Burdajewicz,National Museum, Warsaw, Poland

Andrew W. Mellon Fellow

The goal of my research during the three-month Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship at theAlbright Institute of Archaeological Researchin Jerusalem was to work out a general ty-pological scheme of the large pottery assem-blages discovered at Khirbet Qumran. Dur-ing the excavations, directed by Roland deVaux o.p., of the Ecole Biblique etArchologique FranÁaise in Jerusalem, twomain periods of occupation were distin-guished at the site: the first one dating fromthe Iron Age, and the second one pertainingto the late Hellenistic-early Roman times.Considering this long occupational gap be-tween the two main periods of the Qumransettlement, my typology has been dividedinto two separate sections, one of whichdeals with the Iron Age pottery, and anotherwith the Late Hellenistic–Early Roman ma-terial.

The typology of the Iron Age pottery isbased on 270 diagnostic fragments (selectedfrom the total amount of ca. 360 sherds),which were found in several loci of the latersettlement. Since the Iron Age settlement atKh. Qumran lacks internal stratigraphy, theIron Age pottery from the site has been ar-ranged by types: jars, jars/jugs, decanters,

new and re-establish borders in Nubia asSenusret III did or to intensify trade withByblos and focus on expeditions to Sinai –from the reign of Amenemhet III at least 49inscriptions are known from Serabit el-Khadim. Indeed, it is striking that from thereigns of the wealthiest pharaohs, no truemilitary campaigns against the Asiatics areknown.

cooking pots, kraters, bowls, plates andlamps. Although the amount of pottery is toosmall to allow serious statistical analysis, itis noteworthy that almost a half of the as-semblage consists of small and medium sizebowls with a folded rim. The best parallelsfor the Iron Age assemblage from Kh.Qumran come from the sites situated alongthe shore of the Dead Sea, especially fromTel Goren (Stratum V) in the oasis of En Gedi,as well as from the other Iron Age II siteswithin the Kingdom of Judah. The compara-tive material permits one to date the potteryfrom Qumran to the Iron Age II, as has al-ready been suggested by R. de Vaux. Whilesome sherds can be dated as early as theend the 8th century, the majority clearly be-longs to the 7th century, and probably comesfrom the latest phase of the Iron Age settle-ment, that is, from the end of the 7th and thebeginning of the 6th century BCE.

As regards the analysis of the late Helle-nistic and early Roman pottery, including4,369 examples, de Vaux’s excavations pro-vided a stratagraphic structure which allowsfor a more sophisticated analysis than for theIron Age materials. As a result, it was pos-sible to formulate a more soundly based ty-pological classification, which should providea basis for understanding the character ofthe site, its economic life, trade connectionsand the lifestyle of its inhabitants. Also, thespatial distribution of the pottery should tellus more about activities carried out in vari-ous parts of the site.

Accepting such an approach, the potteryassemblage has been divided into sixgroups, according to the function of specificvessels: A) auxiliares (pottery items not di-rectly connected with food preparation/serv-ing/consumption, like lamps, stoppers,stands, lids, water pipes); B) personal vases(unguentaria, ointment pots, juglets, minia-ture vessels); C) table vessels (for individualeating and drinking); D) kitchen/table utilityvessels (for serving and/or for food prepara-tion); E) cooking pots; F) storage and trans-port jars. In each group, basic forms/shapesand variants were distinguished. Each ex-ample was then assigned a number reflect-ing its proper place, (according to the stateof preservation), within the overall typologi-cal system. The result was a pottery database including 3,922 diagnostic sherds, notcounting the 447 examples of body sherds,handles and bases, which form the basis forvarious statistical analyses. Even though afull statistical evaulation will only becomepossible when the pottery material will beassigned to one of specific phases of theQumran ocupation, nevertheless even now,while approaching the pottery material aspertaining to a single period, specifically, thelate Hellenistic-early Roman times, somegeneral observations can be made.

The ratio of particular groups is as follows(see chart below): Group A: 11.8 %; GroupB: 3.7 %; Group C: 53.2 %; Group D: 12.9�%;Group E: 8 %, Group F: 9.6 %. In Group A,(which is treated separately from Groups B-C), the prevailing types are: lamps (39%),lids (20), supports (10.7%) and stoppers(6.5%). In Group B, the most popular type isthe small juglet which was used probably asa balsam container. It constitutes 73 %, whilethe typical unguentaria constitutes only 14�%.A striking feature is the extremely high ratioof Group C (60.3%), which consist of plates(4.5%), dishes (23.5%), bowls (59.4%) andgoblets (11.2%). Even if we exclude from theaccount 1,020 vessels of Group C (of thetotal 2042), which were found in Locus 89,the ratio of Group C remains very high, thatis, 44%. The following question emerges:Why these hundreds of table vessels des-tined for individual eating and drinking accu-mulated in a small site like Kh. Qumran? Thequestion becomes even more intriguing, ifwe accept the hypothesis of J.-B. Humbert,Revue Biblique 1994, p. 175f.) that the num-ber of inhabitants of Kh. Qumran was alwaysvery small (10-15 persons). As regardsGroup D, the most popular types are jars(33%) and different kinds of jugs (24.2%).Other vessels are large serving dishes andbowls (8%), small craters (4.1%), flasks(6.5%) and some minor forms. Among thecooking vessels are closed forms, like globu-lar or carinated cooking pots (45%). Rela-tively numerous are also cooking jugs(14.7%). On the other hand, open forms, likecasseroles, are relatively rare (5%). Not evenone example of a pan has been found. InGroup F, bag-shaped jars with rounded orpointed bases predominate (61.8%) over jarswith base ring (37%). Among these twoforms, the most popular are: inverted ovoidjars (42%) and cylindrical jars (36%), knownalso as manuscript jars. There is also an-other aspect to my pottery research, the com-parative study. Preliminary research has al-ready demonstrated that pottery fromQumran reveals many parallels with potteryassemblages from sites like Herodion,Jerusalem, Jericho, Macheront and Ain ez-Zara/Callirrhoe. Some forms, however, seemto be characteristic, or even unique to Kh.Qumran. All these aspects need detailedstudy, which will be carried out when I returnto Poland.

AIAR Fellows’ Reports 2000–2001 14 ASOR Newsletter 51/3 (Fall 2001)

Scarabs and Scaraboids inSlovak Collections

Jozef Hudec,Slovak Academy of Sciences, Slovakia

Andrew W. Mellon Fellow

During the two-month period of myfellowship at the Albright Institute, I had anopportunity to meet many specialists fromvarious fields. The exchange of ideas andopinions with these specialists greatlycontributed to advancing my research onscarabs and scaraboids. In addition tocontacts at the Albright Institute, which willhopefully be lasting, I have profited fromdiscussions with Daphna Ben-Tor of theIsrael Museum and Baruch Brandl of theIsrael Antiquities Authority, who assisted mein establishing the chronology of scarabs inmy research project. They also provided mewith offprints and useful citations from otherspecialized literature and recommendedother colleagues from abroad with whom Icould discuss my research topic.

During the award period, I focused on thestudy of 64 Egyptian scarabs and scaraboidsand was able to incorporate parallels into mycommentary on each scarab, withconclusions on chronology. By the end of myfellowship period, I had completed myresearch on 38 scarabs and 26 scaraboids.

I am convinced that I have madesubstantial progress in my research. Duringthe work, I have decided to include into thecatalogue in preparation other scarabs andscaraboids, which were previously publishedin my Slovak Ph.D. thesis. I intend to publisha catalogue of about 107 pieces. Besideswork on the scarabs, I finished a contributionto the Proceedings of the 8th InternationalCongress of Egyptologists in Cairo (“TheDiscovery of Stone Sculpture Fragmentsfrom the 18th-19th Dynasty”), prepared apresentation during a field trip to Tell el-Jemmeh and spoke at the Albright on theworkshop topic: “Scarabs and Scaraboidsfrom Slovak Collections.”

Before my research at the Albright, I wasan “Egypocentrist,” but the acquaintance withlocal archaeological academic communityraised the question of how much of theSlovak collection of scarabs and scaraboidsis really of Egyptian origin? I have to beaware of this fact and consider it in my furtherresearch and publication of Aegyptiaca.

Comparison of Near Eastern andMoravian Early Upper Paleolithic

Knapping Technologies

Petr Skrdla, Institute of Archaeology ofthe Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic

Andrew W. Mellon Fellow

On the basis of current nuclear and mo-lecular biological studies, the emergence ofanatomically modern humans occurredsome 100,000-200,000 years ago, probablyin Sub-Saharan Africa. According to theStringer’s “Out of Africa” or “replacementmodel” hypothesis, these populations havemigrated through the Sinai Peninsula, theLevant, the Balkans, and some 35,000-45,000 years ago reached the Central Eu-rope.

In the terminal Middle Paleolithic, i.e. some50,000 years ago, both Neanderthals andanatomically modern humans have beendocumented at sites in the Levant, wherethey shared the same material culture – theMousterian.

The Early Upper Paleolithic represents aperiod when archaic populations (Neander-thals) were replaced by anatomically mod-ern ones (Homo sapiens sapiens). In thearchaeological record, the Upper Paleolithicreplaces the Middle Paleolithic. Because ofa lack of fossil finds, it is only possible tostudy this shift on the basis of material cul-ture, specifically using stone tool typologiesand knapping technology. In 1975, AnthonyMarks discovered the site of Boker Tachtit inthe central Negev. In their pioneering work,Marks and Phillip Volkman, have appliedrefitting –reconstruction using the final coreelements back toward the original unmodi-

fied block of raw material. They documentedthat Boker Tachtit sequence represents atechnological shift from the Middle to UpperPaleolithic.

During the last five years, the author hasrefitted and studied Bohunician knappingtechnology using a very large collection ofartifacts from the site of Stránská skála,Moravia. This work has allowed an under-standing of Bohunician technology in greaterdepth. In general, the Bohunician reductionstrategy (or technology) can be describedand defined as a mixture of Levallois andUpper Paleolithic (UP) reduction principles.The cores were shaped as in the classic UPmethod (with a frontal crest), two opposedreduction platforms were prepared, and inthe first step of the core reduction, a crestedblade followed by a series of blades reducedfrom both opposed platforms were producedin order to achieve a triangular shape for thefront face of the core. In the second step, aseries of Levallois points with fine prepara-tion (faceting) of the striking platform wasproduced (from the same direction). The re-sulting wide frontal face of the core was nar-rowed by several blade removals and an-other series of Levallois points was pro-duced. The process defined by these twosteps continued until the raw material wasexhausted.

The author, together with Ji?i Svoboda,have shown in their preliminary work thatthere is a high degree of similarity betweenthe Bohunician technology and the previ-ously reconstructed EUP knapping technol-ogy from the site of Boker Tachtit, Israel car-ried out by Marks and Volkman.

Refitted cores from Stránská skála andBoker Tachtit were analyzed using the samemethod – the Chaine opératoire approach.The core reduction was separated into sev-eral phases, including the preparation stage,production stage, and residual core aban-donment. These phases were studied stepby step and each artifact removed was docu-mented in core cross-section. This allowsan understanding the core reduction strat-egy and the place of Levallois points in thereduction process.

Now, the above-mentioned detailed com-parison of knapping technologies fromStránská skála and Boker Tachtit (stored inJerusalem, Israeli Antiquities Authority,Romema) has confirmed the similarity be-tween these collections. The highest degreeof similarity was documented between Layer2 from Boker Tachtit and Stránská skála,while Layer 4 from Boker Tachtit representsa local development without any influenceon European assemblages.

Generally, it is possible to conclude thatthe transfer of technology from the Levantto Moravia is documented from some 40-45,000 years ago, during a period most prob-

ASOR Newsletter 51/3 (Fall 2001) 15 AIAR Fellows’ Reports 2000–2001

ably connected with the first migrations ofearly anatomically modern humans into Eu-rope in this same direction. There is no othersimilarity documented in archaeological ma-

terial between the Near East and CentralEurope at around 40,000 B.P. In other words,if the “Out of Africa” hypothesis is true, the

W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research Appointees, Residents and Staff2000–2001

Back Row: left to right: AJAR Director Seymour Gitin, Miqne Architect J. Rosenberg, AJAR Assistant to theDirector Helena Flusfeder, AJAR Staff Hisham M’ffareh, Research Fellows Jamal Bargouth, Khader Salameh,Post-Doctoral Fellow Sandra Scham, Research Fellow Elaine Myers, Post-doctoral Fellow Shimon Gibson, ResearchFellows Azriel Gorski, Baruch Brandl, AJAR Staff Ashraf Hanna.

Middle Row: left to right: AJAR Staff Lubti Mussa, Administrative Consultant Munira Said, Research FellowStephen J. Pfann, AJAR Vice-President John Spencer, Post-Doctoral Fellow Anna de Vincenz, Samuel H. KressJoint Athens-Jerusalem Fellow Peter G. van Alfen, Miqne Researchers Tanya McCullough and Garth Gilmour,AJAR Librarian Sarah Sussman, Senior Fellow Marwan Abu Khalaf, Miqne Staff Ginny Ben-Ari and Moshe Ben-Ari,AJAR Staff Faiz Khalaf.

Front Row: left to right: AJAR Staff Nawal Ibtisam Rsheid, AJAR Staff Nuha Khalil Ibrahim, Educational andCultural Affairs Fellow Susan Cohen, Senior Fellow Hanswulf Bloedhorn, Therese Fitzpatrick-Homan and Gilgamesh(Max) Homan, Educational and Cultural Affairs Fellow Michael Mathias Homan and Kalypso Homan, AnnualProfessor Susan Guise Sheridan, National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow Benjamin Saidel, Educational andCultural Affairs Fellow Louise Hitchcock, Andrew W. Mellon Fellow Miroslav Barta, AJAR Institute ManagerNadia Bandak, Senior Fellow Samuel Wolff, Miqne cartographer Marina Zeltzer.

Emiran-Bohunician technology transfer is aleading candidate to provide support for thisthesis using material culture.

AIAR Fellows’ Reports 2000–2001 16 ASOR Newsletter 51/3 (Fall 2001)

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W O R L DA R C H A E O L O G Y

ACLS Fellowships

ASOR Members are eligible (ASOR is aconstitutent society) and are encouraged toapply for fellowships of the American Coun-cil of Learned Societies. The ACLS website,www.acls.org, has a full description of theprograms. Perspective applicants can requestbrochures or an application form in hard copy,or print one or even complete applciationsonline. Special attention should be given tothe Frederick Burkhardt Residential Fellow-ships for Recently Tenured Scholars and a newprogram this year, The Charles A. RyskampResearch Fellowships, which support advancedassistant professors (tenure track professorswho have completed review for reappointmentbut not yet been reviewed for tenure). ACLSwill award up to 15 of the Ryskamp Fellow-ships each with a stipend of $60,000 plusresearch and travel funds. The address ofACLS is 228 East 45th Street, NY, NY 10017-3398

R. Thomas SchaubASOR delegate to ACLS

Position Available

Art Historian, Columbia University, ArtHistory and Archaeology of the Ancient NearEast.

The Department of Art History andArchaeology at Columbia Universityannounces the continuation of its search inancient Near Eastern art and archaeology (thePorada Chair) at the rank of AssistantProfessor. Candidates are expected todemonstrate strength in art historical methods,have field experience and an interest inarchaeological excavation, and be competentin the ancient languages, as required byresearch. Please send letter of interest,curriculum vitæ, including e-mail address, andthree letters of reference to Professors RichardBrilliant and Robin Middleton, co-chairs ofthe Ancient Near Eastern Search Committee,Department of Art History and Archaeology,Columbia University, Mail Code 5517, 1190Amsterdam Avenue, New York, New York,10027. Application screening will beginJanuary 15, 2002 with the objective anappointment in place for the 2002/3 academicyear. Columbia University is an EqualOpportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.Minorities and women are encouraged toapply.

Exhibits

Syria, Land of CivilizationsFernbank Museum of Natural History, 767

Clifton Road NE, Atlanta, GA 30307-12221.404.929.6300. www.fernbank.edu/museum

Uncover some of the world’s oldest cultures.Syria features nearly 400 original artifactsincluding jewelry, sculptures, manuscripts,grave markers and architectural components.Mesopotamia, the Mari palace, legendaryQueen Zenobia and her oasis city of Palmyra,Damascus, Aleppo, sumptuous ByzantineSyria, the Crusades and the great Islamicdynasties are among the topics explored in thisspecial exhibition.

The Artists of the Pharaohs: Deir el-Medina and the Valley of the Kings

19 April–15 July, 2002, Louvre Museum,Paris. www.louvre.fr

The special exhibit will be accompanied bya colloquium “Life in Egypt at the Time ofthe New Kingdom Pharaohs.”

The W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Researchis pleased to announce the third annual

Trude Dothan Lectureship in Ancient Near Eastern Studiessponsored by the Albright Institute with the support of the Dorot Foundation

Professor Ian Hodder of Stanford Universitywill give three presentations

Theory and Practice in Archaeologyunder the auspices of Al-Quds University, Tuesday, March 5th at 4:00 p.m.

at the Ambassador Hotel, Nablus Road, Sheikh Jarrah

Recent Excavations at atal H y kWednesday, March 6th at 5:00 p.m. at the Hebrew University,

School for Overseas Students, Slater Auditorium, Mount Scopus

Towards a Hybrid Archaeology: Blurred Genres at atal H y kThursday, March 7th at 4:00 p.m. at the

W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research, 26 Salah ed-Din Street *each lecture will be followed by a reception

*because of limited space at the Albright Institute, kindly RSVP for this lectureTel: 02-628-8956, Fax: 02-626-4424, e-mail: director@albright.org.il

AIYS Fellowships

The American Institute for Yemeni Studies(AIYS) is offer pre- and post-doctoralfellowships to scholars in all fields of thehumanities, social sciences and from fields inthe sciences such as paleontology and botany.Annual deadline for the receipt of fellowshipapplications is December 31. For details aboutspecific programs, eligibility, and applicationrequirements, see the AIYS web site atwww.aiys.org/fellowships or contact Dr. MariaEllis, Executive Director, American Institutefor Yemeni Studies, PO Box 311, Ardmore,PA 19003-0311. 610.896.5412; fax610.896.9049. Email: mellis@sas.upenn.edu

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Other Contributors

Irene AfalonisRandy Akers

Ronald R. AtkinsWalter AufrechtMiriam BalmuthEugene L. Balter

Neal BierlingGilbert R. Bischoff

Sheila BishopOded Borowski

Nancy H. BroederRobin Brown

Robert and Vivian BullSara Callaway

CAARILinda Clougherty

Dan and Catherine ColeLillian W. Craig

Sidnie White CrawfordFrank M. Cross

Bert and Sally DeVriesErick R. EgertsonAllan C. Emery III

Raymond C. EwingAda Feyerick

Harold ForsheyDavid Noel FreedmanLawrence T. Geraty

Seymour GitinLois Glock

Victor R. GoldMilton and Claire Gottlieb

Elliot GreenbergRobert and Jane W. Grutz

Sami A. HabayebJames HargroveHolland Hendrix

Ken HolumDavid Ilan

Patricia JobeArtemis Joukowsky

Howard and Janet KeeMarjorie B. KiewitThomas H. Laity

Eric LappHugh and Marjorie Lehman

Gloria LondonJesse C. Long, Jr.

Miami University, OhioBarbara M. Miley

Robert MillerAndrew M. T. MooreKaren Nemet-Nejat

David G. NorrisKevin O ConnellBetty Y. O DellJohn Oleson

Andrew OliverJoon Surh ParkJane Peterson

Pittsburgh Theological SeminaryWalt Rast

Peter RichardsonMartha Risser

Joseph and Carolyn RiversMartin A. Rizack

Sharon SammonsSandra Scham

Marian Scheuer SofaerTammi SchneiderEileen Schuller

Donald C. SeeleyLee Seeman

Nancy SerwintHershel Shanks

Leila SharafRobert and Beverly Shumaker

Leo SiegelJohn SpencerOlin J. Storvick

Carolyn and Jim StrangeJean Sulzberger

Mr. and Mrs. Norman TaylerEdward Thomas

Gus W. Van BeekJane Waldbaum

Joseph WeinsteinBryan Wilkins

Keeley and Ed WrightStephen Wyrick

Harold S. and Julianne Zimmerman

Benefactors ($10,000 or more)John Camp

Catholic Biblical AssociationDorot FoundationCharles U. HarrisP.E. MacAllister

Richard J. and Joan G. ScheuerS.H. and Helen R. Scheuer Family

Foundation

Friends ($1,000 or more)Cobb Institute of Archaeology

Nan FrederickCrawford H. Greenewalt, Jr.

Norma and Reuben KershawGeorge M. Landes

Lindstrom Foundation for ArchaeologicalResearch

George E. MendenhallEric and Carol Meyers

Thomas and Alice PickeringDavid Rosenstein

R. Thomas SchaubCharles Schwab Corporation

MatchingGifts ProgramJoe D. Seger

Lydie T. Shufro

ASORGratefully Acknowledges

its Contributorsfor the 2001 Fiscal Year

Sponsors ($500 or more)Andrea Berlin

Ernest S. FrerichsPhilip J. King

flystein LaBiancaJodi MagnessDale W. Manor

David McCreeryStuart Swiny

Randall Younker

Patrons ($5,000 or more)Jeffrey A. Blakely

Ed GilbertEugene M. and Emily Grant Family

FoundationAustin Ritterspach

B.W. RuffnerIngrid E. Wood

Sustainors ($250 or more)

Laird Barber

Oded Borowski

Henry Christensen, III

Douglas Clark

Peggy Duly

Paul E. Fitzpatrick

Patty Gerstenblith

Tim and Susan Harrison

Ann Killebrew

Martin Meyerson

William A. Patterson

C. Faith Richardson

John Spencer

Gerald L. Vincent

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November 2–3, 2001The Toronto Conference on Editorial Problems. University College,University of Toronto. This Conference will address the transmissionand editing of texts from the ancient Near East and Greco-Roman an-tiquity that are preserved in fragmentary form. Contact: AlexanderJones, Graduate Coordinator and Associate Chair, Department of Clas-sics, University of Toronto, 97 St George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 2E8Canada. tel. (416) 978-0483. fax (416) 978-7307. www.chass.utoronto.ca/papyri/cep. Email: papyriw@chass.utoronto.ca

November 3–6, 2001Anthropology, Archaeology and Heritage in the Balkans andAnatolia. Sponsored by the University of Wales Centre for the Studyof South Eastern Europe and supported also by the British Academy.To be held at the University of Wales Gregynog. Contact:DShankland1@yahoo.co.uk.

November 14–17, 2001The American Schools of Oriental Research Annual Meeting will takeplace at the Omni Interlocken Hotel, in Broomfield, Colorado. Con-tact: ASOR, 656 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02215-2010; tel.: 617-353-6570; email: asor@bu.edu; web: www.asor.org/AM/am.htm.

November 21–23 2001Nimrud. A three day international conference to be held at the BritishMuseum. Contact: Tel: +44(0)20 7323 8657. Fax +44(0)20 7323 8489,Department of the Ancient Near East, The British Museum, LondonWC1B 3DG. www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk.

November 23–24, 2001The International Table Ronde in Istanbul (Turkey) on “TheNeolithic of Central Anatolia, internal developments and externalrelations during the 9th–6th millennia cal BC“ will take place inAnkara. Contact: email: frederic.gerard@isbank.net.tr; web:www.chez.com/canew.

November 26–30, 2001Materials Research Society, Boston, MA. The meeting will highlightcurrent trends and progress in the swiftly evolving world of MaterialsScience and include the session “Materials Issues in Art and Archaeol-ogy VI.” Contact: 506 Keystone Drive, Warrendale, PA 15086-7573.Email: info@mrs.org. Tel: 724 779-3003; fax: 724 779-8313. Web:www.mrs.org/meetings/fall2001/

January 3–6, 2002Archaeological Institute of America 103rd Annual Meeting, will takeplace in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Contact: Jennifer Moen, tel. 617-353-9361; email aiamtg@bu.edu; web: www.archaeological.org/Annual_Meeting/

March 8–10, 2002The 2002 meeting of the Southeastern Commission for the Study ofReligion (SECSOR) will be held in Atlanta, GA at the Marriott Cen-tury Center. Contact: Herbert Burhenn, Department of Philosophy andReligion, Dept 2753, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, 615McCallie Avenue, Chattanooga, TN 37403-2598.

March 11–16, 2002Eurasian Steppes in Prehistory and Middle Ages. The conference willbe held in Saint Petersburg at the Institute of the History of MaterialCulture Russian Academy of Science (Dvortsovaya naberezhnaya, 18)

C A L E N D A RC O N F E R E N C Eand at the State Hermitage. Contact: M. N. Pshenitsyna, Secretary, In-stitute of the History of Material Culture,, Dvortsovaya naberezhnaya,18, Saint-Petersburg, 191186, Russia. E-mail: admin@archeo.ru. tel.: +7(812) 312-14-84; fax: +7 (812) 311-62-71.

March 20–24, 2002Society for American Archaeology. The SAA 67th Annual Meetingwill take place at the Adam’s Mark Hotel in Denver, Colorado. Con-tact: email: meetings@saa.org. web: www.saa.org.

March 22–25, 2002American Oriental Society Annual Meeting. J.W. Marriott, Houston,TX. Contact: www.umich.edu/~aos/.

April 5–6, 2002Talking Texts: Speaker and Addressee in the Ancient World. RutgersUniversity. Abstract deadline: September 30, 2001. Contact: ClassicsGraduate Student Association, c/o Department of Classics, RutgersUniversity, 131 George Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901. Web:classics.rutgers.edu/grad_conference.html

April 15–19, 2002The Third International Congress on the Archaeology of the An-cient Near East (3 ICAANE). Sponsored by Université de Paris 1-Panthon Sorbonne, the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique(UMR 7041) and the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Études (IVe section).Purpose: To promote cooperation and information exchange betweenarchaeologists working in the ancient Near East, from the eastern Medi-terranean to Iran and from Anatolia to Arabia, and from prehistorictimes to Alexander the Great. Contact: Victoria de Caste, Secretariat,web: www.3icaane.univ-parisl.fr; email: 3icaane@mae.u-paris10.fr.

July 1–4, 200248e Rencontre Assyriologique International - International Congressof Assyriology and Near Eastern Archaeology. Theme: Ethnicity inAncient Mesopotamia. Sponsored by Leiden University, Departmentof Assyriology and Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten.

September 1–6, 2002History of Medicine. Istanbul, Turkey. Contact: Prof. Dr. Nil SARI,Email: nilsa@turk.net or OR nilasari@istanbul.edu.tr.

December 14–16, 20021st International Conference on Late Roman Coarse Wares, Cook-ing Wares and Amphorae in the Mediterranean: Archaeology andArchaeometry. University of Barcelona. Contact: www.ub.cs/preist/noticies.htm. Tel. +34-93 440 92 00 ext. 3192. Fax: +31-93 449 85 10.Email: eraub@trivium.gh.ub.es

April 26–28, 20022nd MIT Conference on Technology, Archaeology, and the Deep Sea.Deadline for abstracts: November 1, 2001. Contact: web.mit.edu/sts/deeparch.

April 3–6, 2003Egypt and Cyprus in Antiquity. Nicosia, Cyprus. Sponsored by theCyprus American Archaeological Research Institute (CAARI), and theArchaeological Research Unit (ARU) of the Department of Historyand Archaeology of the University of Cyprus. Contact: Mrs. VassilikiDemetriou; email: vasiliki@ucy.ac.cy; tel. (357-2) 674658/674702; fax.(357-2) 674101. Archaeological Research Unit (ARU), University ofCyprus, P.O.Box 20537, CY-1678 Nicosia, Cyprus.

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