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Cynthia Rufo is archiving more than a century of archaeological records and photos. Photo by Vernon Doucette.
BU Today (Boston University) is announcing that ASOR (The American Schools of Oriental Research) is opening its archaeological archive in Boston to the public.
Included in its collections are diaries of archaeologists; rare photos of various excavations, including Qumran in the West Bank, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered; and miscellanea, like a reproduction of an 1873 sultan’s permit for a dig in Palestine.
Be sure to make use of the archive when you are in the Boston area.
The American Schools of Oriental Research archive is open to the public, by appointment, at its headquarters, 656 Beacon St., Monday through Friday between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Access is free. Those interested should contact archivist Cynthia Rufo at 617-358-4428 or at asorarch@bu.edu. A description of the collections can be found here.
ASOR is pleased to announce that BASOR 358 (May 2010) has now been posted online at Atypon Link. This issue (and 3+ years of back issues) is available to BASOR online subscribers and members who have chosen an online subscription as part of their membership.
You may access the table of contents for free here (members and subscribers will have complete access):
http://www.atypon-link.com/ASOR/toc/basor/358/may+2010
The issue contains articles by Bradley J. Parker and Jason R. Kennedy, Jonathan S. Greer, Marcus Rautman, and Jodi Magness.
As a reminder, the last 3+ years of ASOR journals are available to ASOR members who have chosen an online subscription on Atypon Link. For details on ASOR membership and how to get access to BASOR, JCS, and NEA, please see the following URL:
http://www.asor.org/updates/atypon-online.html
Strategic plan adopted by ASOR board.
It is with great pleasure we announce that on April 24, 2010, the ASOR board of trustees unanimously adopted the “Strategic Plan as a blueprint to move ASOR forward.” A considerable amount of work has been done by the Strategic Planning Task Force that was chaired by ASOR President Tim Harrison. We thank President Harrison and the rest of the committee (Susan Ackerman, Jimmy Hardin, Morag Kersel, Sten LaBianca, P. E. MacAllister, and Carol Meyers) for their efforts and excellent work. To review ASOR’s Strategic Planning documents, please click here.
The Strategic Plan sets forth a blueprint for ASOR to move forward, but it intentionally did not resolve many implementation issues. The next step will be for President Tim Harrison to appoint an “Implementation Task Force” that will be charged with bringing specific recommendations for implementing the goals set forth in the Strategic Plan to the board of trustees. Updates on the progress of this committee will be posted online and in upcoming ASOR Newsletters.
Please contact Tim Harrison with any questions or comments on the Strategic Plan and with recommendations for the implementation stage. This is an exciting time for ASOR and we look forward to collaborating with our members in the years to come.
Posted by ASOR’s executive director: Andrew G. Vaughn
Near Eastern Archaeology 73.1
ASOR is pleased to announce that NEA 73.1 (March 2010) has now been posted online at Atypon Link.
The issue contains a feature article by A. Burke and K. Lords as well as articles S. Savage, A. Al-Shorman, C. Luckey, and K. Rask.
You may access the table of contents here:
http://www.atypon-link.com/ASOR/toc/nea/73/1
As a reminder, the last 3+ years of ASOR journals are available to ASOR members on Atypon Link. For details, please see the following URL:
http://www.asor.org/updates/atypon-online.html
New Orleans is the birthplace of the cocktail, and ASOR members know much about hepastocapy. So when you need a break from meetings and papers, here are a few famous places within walking distance to kill a few brain cells.
- Get a sazerac at the newly reopened Sazerac Bar at the Roosevelt Hotel (123 Baronne Street, 504-648-1200).
- Get a Pimm’s cup at the Napoleon House (500 Chartres Street, 504-524-9752).
- Take a spin with a Vieux Carre cocktail at the Carousel Bar at the Hotel Monteleon (214 Rue Royale, 866-338-4684).
- Try a rum based drink at Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop, the oldest bar in America. Then come back to the meeting and talk like a pirate (941 Bourbon Street, 504-522-9377).
- Get a a mint julep, or better yet, a Davenportini, while listening to Jeremy Davenport at the Ritz-Carlton on Thursday from 5:30-9PM or Friday/Saturday from 9PM on (921 Canal Street, 504-524-1331)
- Get an absinthe frappe at Tujagues’s saloon (823 Decatur, 504-525-8676).
- Conjure the ghosts of Frank Sinatra, Jean Lafitte, and Mark Twain with a ramos gin fizz at the Old Absinthe House (240 Bourbon Street, 504-523-3181).
- They have over 100 types of martinis at the Bombay Club (830 Conti Street, 504-586-0972).
- Join the other tourists by the fire fountain for a hurricane at Pat O’Briens (718 St Peter).
- There are several cocktail walking tours. The Original Cocktail Tour is a good one. So is the Southern Comfort Walking Cocktail Tour. The Museum of the American Cocktail is at the Riverwalk Mall which is also near out hotel (504-569-0405).
Posted by Michael Homan
On Wednesday, November 18th, from 9:00 AM – 2:00 PM, members of the American Schools of Oriental Research will be volunteering at Holt Cemetery in Mid-City New Orleans.
Graves at Holt Cemetery on a rainy day in Mid-City New Orleans.
We will be working with
Save Our Cemeteries to record the current condition of Holt Cemetery. This includes surveying individual graves and their markers, along with taking photos in order to establish a record of the current state of the cemetery. The data we collect will then be compared to photos taken prior to the 2005 levee failures and can serve for future restoration work.
R.I.P. A.B. Hyman
Unlike other cemeteries in New Orleans where the dead are housed in above ground vaults, the remains of the deceased at Holt Cemetery are buried below ground. The graves are often marked with simple markers, such as writing on bricks or pieces of wood.
This “potter’s field” cemetery was established in 1879 as a place of interment for the city’s impoverished, and it is named after Dr. Joseph Holt, who was a member of the New Orleans board of health.
Buddy Bolden Grave Marker
Perhaps the biggest mystery surrounding Holt Cemetery involves the location of it’s most famous burial: jazz pioneer Buddy Bolden, credited by many as the individual most responsible for this great American invention. Bolden was buried in plot C-623, though records of the location of C-623 have long been lost.
Thus far 14 members of ASOR have signed up, and if you are interested in joining us please email Kelley Bazydlo. (Note: you do not need to be a member of ASOR to volunteer).
You can see more photographs of Holt Cemetery taken today in this Flickr set. Also, if your hotel is already booked for check in on November 18th, ASOR members who are interested in volunteering are more than welcome to stay at my house the night of November 17th. I’m located within walking distance from Holt Cemetery and the street car line which will take you to the Astor Crowne hotel in plenty of time for the opening session. Write to me here.
Contributed by Jaime Ullinger, Ohio State University
Dental anthropology is a vital part of bioarchaeology, which is the study of human remains in archaeological contexts. Dental enamel (the hard, white outer covering of the tooth) is the hardest material in the human body, and teeth are often preserved even when bones are not. Not only are they durable, but they are also a treasure trove of information. Using teeth, we can reconstruct age-at-death, diet, health, and ancestry. This information greatly increases our knowledge of people and society in ancient times.
Teeth are particularly useful in identifying the age at which subadults died. Teeth are very stable in evolutionary terms, and therefore erupt in a consistent pattern at predictable ages. Even in adulthood, relative age can be estimated by examining the amount of wear on teeth. Dental wear occurs as we chew our food, slowly removing that hard outer enamel.
Upper right maxilla from Byzantine St. Stephen's (Jerusalem) showing little dental wear and moderate/heavy calculus (photo courtesy of Sue Sheridan).
Examining patterns of dental wear can also indicate the types of food people were eating. Foragers tend to have a lot of wear at a young age, while later agriculturalists have less wear. Although farmers do not wear away their enamel, they eat soft, carbohydrate-rich foods that promote bacterial growth. These bacteria destroy enamel, resulting in cavities. Prehistorically, cavities could be quite dangerous. If bacteria erode enamel all the way to the interior of the tooth, an infectious abscess can form at the tip of the tooth root. This infection could ultimately result in the death of the individual.
Tartar builds up on teeth over time, eventually calcifying if not removed. This photo from Byzantine St. Stephen’s (a monastery in Jerusalem dating from 438-614 AD) illustrates an upper jaw that has a good deal of calculus on the teeth. Interestingly, this group of individuals had fairly low levels of calculus and dental caries (cavities) although they are a very urban group that should be consuming a fairly soft diet.
Teeth also reflect general health, particularly in childhood. Enamel is very expensive for the body to generate. If a child is stressed, such as during weaning, when food is scarce, or after contracting a serious disease, the body may stop producing enamel for some time. This results in small furrows on the teeth called hypoplastic defects. The exact position of the defect can tell us what age the child was when the stress occurred.
Teeth also hold clues to ancestry. By examining certain features on the tooth’s surface, we can estimate how closely two (or more) groups are related. These features may include having extra cusps on the teeth, fewer cusps, or extra roots. For example, I have an additional cusp on my first upper molars – it sits on the tongue side of my tooth and is called a “Carabelli’s cusp”. Mine is quite large, and can be seen on the first molars of everyone in my family!
Some of the most interesting dental finds are teeth that have been intentionally modified by their owner during his or her life. Yes, people in prehistory chipped away at their teeth, filed them into points, incised cross-hatched lines on their surfaces, and inserted precious stones into drilled holes on their front teeth. Lest we think this practice barbaric, it would be wise to remember that we subject our own adolescents to painful practices, such as breaking their palates, filing their teeth, and slowly changing their bony tooth sockets by placing pressure on their jaws with braces – all in the name of “beauty”.
This is a quick introduction to what teeth can tell us. They are one of the most informative parts of the human body, and are incredibly well preserved archaeologically. They provide insight into numerous issues archaeologists and historians are concerned with, including diet changes, general stress, how closely groups were related, and markers of social identity. So in the end, the question is – can you handle the tooth?
