DIGGING UP ABEL-BETH-MAACAH
By: Rimon Armaly Heritage Fellowship Recipient In theseason, I participated in a dig at Abel-Beth-Maacah. I am currently a second-year archaeology student at Trinity International University. The program at Trinity requires the participation of students in a dig somewhere in the Middle East. From among the various options, I chose Abel-Beth-Maacah in […]
Ad-Deir Plateau Archaeological Survey
By: Daniel King Heritage Fellowship Recipient This past May, I participated in an archaeological survey of the Ad-Deir Plateau in Petra Archaeological Park, Jordan with the help of a Heritage Fellowship from the American Schools of Oriental Research. In conjunction with the Jordanian Department of Antiquities and the onsite team directed by Dr. Cynthia […]
2013 Expedition to Khirbat Iskandar and its Environs
By: Cassandra Parsons Heritage Fellowship Recipient Normally, my response to the typical back-to-school or September-time question—the dreaded “How was your summer?”— is rather boring. Usually, summers are hot, and I typically work in a local pizza shop almost every day. That wasn’t the case this year, thanks in part to a Heritage Fellowship that […]
The Value of Bricks
By: M. Barbara Reeves Harris Grant recipient Bricks don’t get a lot of respect as artifacts. Perhaps it’s because they’re so ubiquitous on many archaeological sites. Or perhaps it’s because their form, composition, and function seem so very obvious to everyone. After all, human beings the world over have been making bricks—baked and unbaked—in […]
Archaeology Weekly Roundup! 9-20-13
If you missed anything from the ASOR facebook or twitter pages this week, don’t worry. We’ve rounded up some of this week’s archaeology news into one convenient post. If we missed any major archaeological stories from this week, feel free to let us know in the comment section! Significance of Megalithic Monuments in Atlantic Europe? An archaeologists analysis on […]
Theoretical Archaeology Group (TAG) Newsletter
TURKEY, JUNE 2013 — Theoretical Archaeology Group Meetings, which were initiated in UK in 1979, have been carried out in many countries since then. In, autumn Fahri Dikkaya (Bilkent University) and Çiler Çilingiroğlu (Ege University) initiated TAG-Turkey and assembled the Turkish group for Theoretical Archaeology. Regarding the practice of theoretical archaeological methods worldwide, the major aim […]
Excavating Village Life in Roman-Period Galilee
Alex Ramos, University of Pennsylvania, Platt Fellowship Recipient This summer, I was able to join the Samford University-led excavations of Shikhin, thanks in no small part to the ASOR fellowship that helped fund my stay. I was invited to come on as an area supervisor, in charge of the excavation and meticulous recording of two […]
Current Issues in Israelite Religion
By: Richard S. Hess The archaeology of Israelite religions continues to evoke new evidence and approaches. Recent reassessments raise the question of monotheism in pre-exilic Israel. Put another way, did anyone believe in a single deity before the fall of Jerusalem in 587/6 BCE? The traditional critical view has been that Josiah instituted a (Deuteronomistic) […]
Breaking Ground at Tel Abel Beth Maacah—Why Dig at the Gateway to the Arameans
By: Robert Mullins and Nava Panitz-Cohen Abel Beth Maacah is an imposing 35-acre mound controlling one of the most strategic passes in northern Israel and has the honor of being the northernmost site in Israel (running neck-and-neck with nearby Tel Dan, but winning by a nostril). It was also ancient Israel’s northern gateway to the […]
Digging through Data at the Oriental Institute
By: Scott Branting, Jack Green, and Foy Scalf Think back to the time when you last visited a library and flicked through a card catalog to find a book. Card catalogs were made obsolete by computer databases in the 1980s, and were followed by online access to libraries’ collections. In […]
Tel Hazor Ninth and Eighth Centuries B.C.E. Photo Gallery
Photo Gallery: Here’s a gallery of all the images that appear in Near Eastern Archaeology 76.2 for Hazor in the ninth and eighth centuries B.C.E. Smaller versions of some of the images also appear in the article “Hazor in the Ninth and Eighth Centuries B.C.E.” on the ASOR Blog / ANE Today which you can read […]
200 Years of Tourism in the Holy Lands – From Mark Twain to the Digital Age
By: Uzi Baram, Professor of Anthropology at the New College of Florida Heritage Tourism’s Roots in the Grand Tour Heritage contends with nature as the fastest growing parts of the world’s largest industry, tourism. Heritage tourism involves visits, usually leisurely and purposefully enjoyable, to a historically or culturally significant locale. Archaeological sites are particularly attractive for […]
2013 Platt Fellowship: A Summer at Hippos Sussita
Matt Winter, Platt Fellowship Recipient My initial introduction to the site of Hippos Sussita, near Kibbutz Ein Gev in Israel, was one which left me feeling a sense of the grandeur this ancient city must have had. One of the member cities of the Decopolis, a region of ten major cities in what is today Israel, Jordan and Syria. […]
ASORtv: How the Grants Help
When ASOR Director Andy Vaughn traveled to Israel and Jordan in, he met up with recipients of the Platt and Heritage Fellowships. He asked them three questions… What is the most exciting thing to happen on a dig? How has this grant helped you? What is the strangest and/or toughest thing to happen on a dig? In this […]
Jefferson Travels: Kibbutz Ruhama
By: Jeff Porter, Heritage Fellowship Recipient Among the bustling crowd-the ruby-eyed transients who resemble prisoners more than travelers, gang of three-foot pigeons carelessly strutting while complaining about the filthy bathrooms, and intermittent track meets by world-class sprinters with luggage in tow-there is not much to distract you in Terminal C. So, my eleven hour layover in […]
Archaeology Weekly Roundup! 8-30-2013
If you missed anything from the ASOR facebook or twitter pages this week, don’t worry. We’ve rounded up some of this week’s archaeology news into one convenient post. If we missed any major archaeological stories from this week, feel free to let us know in the comment section! Starting us off this week - ASORTV talked to past fellowship […]
The “Earthquake House” in Cyprus
Erin Daughters, Tandy Institute for Archaeology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Platt Fellowship Recipient Every day at Kourion, Cyprus, thousands of tourists arrive to see the beautiful mosaics, monumental buildings, baths, and theatre. My little sliver of Kourion, located to the southeast of the major architecture, is less visited. We have a few groups come […]
Pottery and the Petra Garden and Pool Complex (PGPC) Excavation
By: Sarah Wenner Heritage Fellowship Recipient This summer was one of the busiest and most exciting I have ever had, thanks in large part to Heritage Fellowship I received through ASOR, and one which showed me the diversity of sites in the Wadi Musa area. My first project was an excavation of the Petra […]
ASORtv: Excitement on a Dig
When ASOR Director Andy Vaughn traveled to Israel and Jordan in, he met up with recipients of the Platt and Heritage Fellowships. He asked them three questions… What is the most exciting thing to happen on a dig? How has this grant helped you? What is the strangest and/or toughest thing to happen on […]