Australian Institute of Archaeology - Studying the Ancient Near East

March 2011 No 20

SUBSCRIBE NOW
All you have to do is send us an email containing your contact details. That's it!

Highlights

Professor Tim Harrison’s visit and 2011 Petrie Lecture
Finkelstein revised dating
Bill Dever coming to Australia April 2012

Professor Tim Harrison’s visit and 2011 Petrie Lecture

Dr Timothy P. Harrison is Professor of Near Eastern Archaeology in the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto and President of the American Schools of Oriental Research. He is coming to Australia as a guest of the Near Eastern Archaeology Foundation of Sydney and is coming to Melbourne as a guest of the Australian Institute of Archaeology.

Tim Harrison has been Professor of Near Eastern Archaeology at the University of Toronto since 1997. Prior to his appointment at Toronto, he was a research associate at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, where he began working on the Megiddo Stratum VI Publication Project. He earned his Ph.D in Near Eastern Archaeology from the University of Chicago in 1995, completing a dissertation on the Early Bronze Age in the highlands of Central Jordan. He has directed excavations at the Bronze and Iron Age site of Tell Madaba, in Jordan, and currently is directing the Tayinat Archaeological Project excavations on the Plain of Antioch in southeastern Turkey. These projects form part of a wider, interregional research effort that seeks to shed light on the early development of urban life and stateordered society amidst the diverse cultures that have given shape to the eastern Mediterranean world. In addition to his own projects, Dr Harrison has parti cipated in numerous other excavations and fi eld expeditions in Israel, Jordan and Turkey. In 2007, he was elected President of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR).

Professor Harrison’s Melbourne Program

Wednesday 11 May
12:15 pm, Australian Insti tute of Archaeology, La Trobe University History Seminar
The Battle for Armageddon: David, Solomon and the Early Israelite Monarchy as Viewed from Megiddo

6:30 pm, Melbourne University, Petrie Lecture, AIA Classics Association of Victoria
Taita and the ‘Land of Palisti n’: Recent Discoveries at Tell Tayinat and Vicinity

Thursday 12 May
11:00 am, Melbourne University, Archaeology and Classics Seminar
The Khirbet Kerak Phenomenon: Migration, Cultural Diffusion or Social Differentiation?

3:00 pm, La Trobe University, Martin Theatre
Lifting the Veil on a ‘Dark Age’: Sea Peoples and Neo-Hittites in the Plain of Antioch

Saturday 14 May
2:00 pm, Australian Institute of Archaeology
The ‘Land of Mēdeba’ and Iron Age Moab

4:00 pm, Australian Institute of Archaeology
Temples, Tablets and Assyrian Imperialism at Tayinat on the Orontes

Buried History
Buried History Volume 46 (2010) is being prepared and will soon be published.

Unrest in Egypt
The news from Egypt is not good. When the unrest commenced archaeologists reported break-ins to a number of archaeological stores. For example Prof. Miroslav Bárta from Cairo:

A number of sites including in Giza, Abusir and Saqqara were also targeted by gangs of thieves.
According to the latest news, almost all the archeological objects in Saqqara were forced open,
including the famous tombs of high-ranking dignitaries situated next to the Step Pyramid of Djoser,
which dates back to 2700 BC.
(http://www.ceskapozice.cz/en/news/foreignaffairs/czech-egyptologist-ancient-egyptian-sitesdamaged-during-unrest)

Many archaeological teams working in Egypt were also disrupted. Dr Gerry Scott (ARCE) also reported from Cairo that a number of archaeology teams are choosing to leave, including those at the Dakhleh Oasis and at the Temple of Mut in Luxor. ... There is antiquities damage at the Giza Pyramids. Mark Lehner and his team are currently working there.

“I’ve heard that the team lost some equipment and that there was some damage to the anti quiti es but I do not know the extent of that at this point,” he said.
He also does not know what exactly was damaged. The Egyptian army is now guarding the pyramids and access has been restricted. Lehner’s team has halted
their work for the time being.

(http://www.unreportedheritagenews.com/2011/01/damage-reported-at-giza-pyramids.html)

These reports would appear to indicate opportunistic activity. Lately it appears that the thieves may not just be locals looking for gold, but more organised internati onal groups as occurred in Iraq. While there is much more material spread around Egypt than there was about Iraq, it is hoped that things do not deteriorate to that extent. There is no invading army and the legal framework of the country is not under attack as it was in Iraq. However the army is now less inclined to guard facilities and there is an increasing amount of looting. Dr Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s chief antiquities official, can no long proclaim confidently that antiquities are being protected and so he has resigned. He says that he resigned over three main issues

1. During the earlier protests, Egyptian youths and the police protected the museums and monuments. Only the Egyptian Museum in Cairo was broken into and, thank God, all the important objects inside it were safe and only a few things were lost or broken. Magazines were looted, but after initially appearing to get back to normal, the situation has recently become worse and there are many reports of thefts and illegal excavation.

2. Since the revolution, many people have conti nued to protest over other things, such as against me over jobs and salaries. Unfortunately, it is not possible to provide everything that everyone is asking for. In the Ministry of State for Antiquities, we need money to protect sites and to restore buildings and objects too. We need the money brought in by tourists who visit our sites and museums to fund these things and, at the moment, there are no tourists.

3. Crooks in the Ministry and at the University of Cairo have started to attack me personally. I cannot stand this!

Sad News: Bishop John Wilson

We were saddened by the death of one of the Institute’s board members, Bishop John Wilson on 22 January from cancer.

John joined the Council of the Australian Institute of Archaeology in 1998, giving it much needed stability after a few difficult years. The situati on called for new approaches and it was John who grasped the strategic issues and gave support to new directions. He was enthusiastic about the Institute’s move to La Trobe University, seeing it as having potential similar to that of Tyndale House, and he contributed practically to the Institute’s library. His scholarship led him to see the value of the link with the University and his practical approach to biblical exegesis led him to appreciate the importance of careful historical and archaeological research. His gentle manner, astute assessments, perceptive strategies and gravitas will help guide the Institute for some years to come.

John’s duties as Vicar-General and then, after retirement, his illness, limited the time that he could spend at the Institute. In spite of debilitati ng chemotherapy, John continued to write and fulfil his role on many committ ees and boards. He was a director of Acorn Press and author of a number of books, the last entitled Christi anity alongside Islam (Melbourne: Acorn Press, 2010). Until two years ago John attended the annual meetings of the Society of Biblical Literature where he would catch up with fellow students from Duke and Yale, and indulge his interest in the latest scholarly publications.

More Sad News: Professor Anson Rainey

It was with great sadness that we learnt of Professor Anson Rainey’s death on 19 February after a brief battle with pancreatic cancer. Anson was associated with the Australian Institute of Archaeology in the late 1970s and in 2002 gave the Institute’s annual lecture, the Petrie Oration, entitled The Tell el-Amarna Letters: 100 Years after Flinders Petrie; we were in the process of arranging another visit by him to Australia. Anson was a most significant scholar in West Semitic and neighbouring languages and an authority on the historical geography of Palestine. In spite of his eminence he was always approachable, his presence at conferences added greatly to the discussion and dialogue, and his publications are a constant source of important information and ideas.

When he was in Australia in 2002 I developed a valuable friendship with him which transcended our political differences. Over a plate of hummus one day he confided that he had not long turned seventy and that he was giving his last ten years a ‘real go’ at research and publication. This he did and more, and apart from the invaluable results of his studies, his commitment and endeavour were an inspiration.

Even More Sad News: Donny George

News has just arrived that Dr. Donny George Youkhanna passed away upon his arrival at Toronto airport on 13 March. He was 60 years old. Donny was an Assyrian Christian and always hoped to visit the Assyrian community in Australia. As Director of the Iraq Museum he became well known for his valliant attempts to protect its contents during the American led invasion in 2003.

ASOR and SBL Annual Meetings

>The Director attended the Annual Meetings of the American Schools of Oriental Research and Society of Biblical Literature conferences recently in Atlanta where he gave a paper on the recent evidence in the Eastern Mediterranean for pot-bellows. Dr Michael Theophilos, who has recently joined the Insti tute Council, also gave a paper at the Society of Biblical Literature on a papyrus fragment he is publishing.

There were a few signiﬁcant sessions at the conferences.

One evening was devoted to the project entitled Reconstructing Ancient (Biblical) Israel: The Exact and Life Sciences Perspective. This is funded by the European Research Council with a grant of three million Euros and was awarded to Israel Finkelstein of the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University (Principal Investigator) and Steve Weiner of the Kimmel Center for Archaeological Science at the Weizmann Institute of Science (Co Investi gator). The project is planned for ﬁve years and work began on 1 February 2009.

The project has ten scientiﬁc programs to research the time, genesis, life, mind and identity of ancient Israel. The pretext of the project is that the biblical text is unreliable and so a scientiﬁc analysis of archaeological evidence is the only way to tackle the issue. While this is a true 1970s methodology, the careful application of scientiﬁc processes will certainly improve our knowledge of the Iron Age in a small area of the ancient Near East. The project does not appear to have a website and no signiﬁ cant results were reported in Atlanta. There was a realisati on that for results to be signiﬁ cant, careful and slow digging techniques would be needed.

Another evening was devoted to recent excavations and research in Jerusalem. Contributors to this session included Garth Gilmour, Gershon Galil, Avraham Faust and Amihai Mazar. Kenyon's fndings, the stepped stone structure and recent excavations were discussed at some length. Faust and Mazar agreed that the stepped stone structure was Iron I and that it probably supported a Jebusite fort.

Other Israeli archaeologists have rejected the idea of a united monarchy because it appears that Jerusalem was not very large during the early tenth century BC. There is, however, a growing realisation that capital cities do not need to be large. It was pointed out that until the Civil War, Washington was quite small. The most recent excavations have been conducted to the north of Kenyon’s trenches and results will be interesting. Because of the sensational nature of any excavations it will be hard to get a good idea of the situation through the press.

Another session was devoted to Khirbet Qeiyafa. There were reports on the last four seasons of excavations. Preliminary radiocarbon dates put the fortress into Iron Age I, about 1000 BC; the date is still a matter of disagreement. Gershon Galil oﬀered a reasonable translation of the ostracon assuming the language to be early Hebrew. Some commentators said that it is not Hebrew, but Anson Rainey, who was sitti ng next to me at the time, insisted that it is. Scholars such as Finkelstein have argued that the people in the area during Iron Age I were tent dwellers. Khirbet Qeiyafa, however, is a sophisticated architectural structure and appears to have only one function – military. The fact that the date of this single-period site is sti ll so disputed after four seasons is symptomatic of the deep problems in Israeli archaeology.

Two sessions honoured Professor David Ussishkin. The second of these concluded with Israel Finkelstein making critical comments about the Khirbet Qeiyafa excavation, going so far as to accuse the excavators of being incompetent. The Finkelstein hypothesis is rather inﬂexible and it seems cannot accommodate new information. When it is necessary to discredit new evidence one gets the feeling that the wheels are falling oﬀ the argument. The militant atmosphere in this session led one non-archaeological observer to call it cult-like. Passions run high in Israel, and the Tel Aviv–Jerusalem rivalry still seems to run very deep.

A session was given in honour of Bruce Zuckerman who was founder of the West Semitic Research Project.Bruce has been responsible for a signiﬁ cant improvement in the imaging of ancient artefacts. Another session was devoted to the publicati on some hitherto unknown pieces of the Dead Sea Scrolls now at Azusa Paciﬁc University. Images of these fragments by Bruce Zukerman’s group assisted greatly in their translation. The Institute is now seeking assistance from Bruce’s group at the University of Southern California in relation to imaging.

Deborah Cantrell gave a fascinating paper on horses in ancient Israel; her book on the subjuect, The Horsemen of Israel: Horses and Chariotry in Monarchic Israel, is soon to be published by Eisenbrauns.

Although almost every book in the Hebrew Bible mentions horses and chariots, their importance in ancient Israel is mentioned only in passing, if at all, by historians and biblical scholars. The reason for this current senti ment is tied primarily to the academic controversy of the past 50 years over whether the 17 tripartite-pillared buildings excavated at Megiddo in the early 20th century were, in fact, stables. However we know from Assyrian texts that ancient Israel was endowed with a large army of chariots.

As a rider, competitor, trainer, breeder and importer of horses, Cantrell appreciates the importance of horses in ancient warfare, something largely forgotten. Her paper proposed that ancient Israel was geographically arranged around a ‘chariot express’, and that the chambers of the tripartite gates at cities such as Megiddo and Gezer were ideal for corralling horses while they were harnessed and unharnessed.

Israel Finkelstein revises his dating

Two afternoon sessions at the Society of Biblical Literature Meeting were devoted to Archaeology and Text, and in particular to the dati ng problems associated with the transition from Iron Age I to Iron Age II. In these sessions Ayelet Gilboa spoke on Tel Dor, Amihai Mazar on Tel Rehov, Aren Maeir on Tell es-Saﬁ, Israel Finkelstein on Megiddo, and David Ussishkin on Jezreel.

During his presentation, Israel Finkelstein revised his dating, and stated that he was now dati ng the transition from Iron Age I to IIA to about 950 BC. This was momentous. Based on their experiences in the Philistine areas and sites such as Lachish, Ussishkin and Finkelstein have been dating the start of Iron Age II to 920–900 BC and they, and many others, have used this dating to argue that David and Solomon did not exist. Archaeologists working elsewhere in the southern Levant have found the comparati vely short period of Iron Age II problematic because it was diﬃcult to compress their Iron Age II levels into it. While they mounted archaeological arguments to support an earlier start to Iron Age II they were normally accused of being ‘biblically biased’.

Now that Finkelstein is digging at Megiddo, where there is a signiﬁcant depth of Iron Age II material, he realises that the period was longer and that an earlier date for the start of Iron Age II is necessary. There are numerous books writt en by Finkelstein arguing that there was no United Monarchy because Iron Age II began long aft er the time it was supposed to have existed. Unfortunately these books will conti nue to have inﬂuence for decades to come, although the core argument is no longer accepted. The change does not mean that the United Monarchy did exist; it simply removes one of the hypothesised impediments. It was interesting that in the presentations the only person to regularly refer to biblical texts was Finkelstein: for him, disproving the Old Testament appears to be a hobby-horse. Much of the scholarly world has been ﬁxated on Finkelstein conveying his hypotheses as facts. It will be interesting to see if it now takes a less dogmatic stance.

Sadly, the only Israeli archaeologists in these sessions to present archaeology as a way of understanding ancient lives were Aren Maeir and to some extent Amihai Mazar. The others were caught up with the historical imperati ves.

Bill Dever

Professor Bill Dever and his partner Pam Gaber have agreed to visit Australia in April 2012 as guests of the Australian Institute of Archaeology. More details will be provided later in the year. Bill has been a leading thinker in debates about Biblical Archaeology.

Archaeology and the Bible

The distance education course and a series of lectures on Archaeology and the Bible were completed last year. It is likely that the distance educati on course will run again in second semester.

Howard Carter’s Notes

Howard Carter’s notes made in preparation of the ﬁ nal publication of the tomb of Tutankhamun can now be seen on the website of the Griﬃ th Insti tute. Go to htt p://www.griﬃ th.ox.ac.uk/gri/2.html

An Interesting Lecture

A fascinating lecture on the Anti kythera Mechanism can be watched at htt p://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=rxNg-tXPPWc The lecture also describes many of the more recent imaging processes available to archaeologists.

Lectures by Dr Tom Davis

Dr Thomas Davis, the Director of Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute, gave a series of fascinating lectures in Melbourne, Sydney and Armidale last year. The following are summaries of those lectures.

St Paul on Cyprus

Dr Davis delivered this paper as the 2010 Australian Institute of Archaeology Petrie Oration. He argued that until Paul reached Cyprus he had spent his life as a Christian in a Hellenised Jewish mercantile environment, and as a preacher of the good news, had been singularly unsuccessful. Because of connections with Salamis, Barnabas’ home town, the two travelled to Cyprus. Recent archaeological work on Cyprus has allowed a much bett er understanding of the context of Paul’s visit. First-century Cyprus was a complex multi cultural entity looking both east and west, and it is these internal cultural divisions of the province that explain the change of Saul, the apostle to the Jews, to Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles (Acts 13). The western part of the island, which included Paphos, had a western focus and Roman culture. The encounter with Elymas the sorcerer and his subsequent blindness reﬂect local mythology. The success of his meeting with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, led Paul to spend the rest of his life in the Gentile world, where his message was more successful than it had hitherto been. This paper should be published this year in a volume edited by Jim Hoffmeier.

Cyprus in the Fourth Century

Using his excavations at Kourion as a guide, Tom traced the development of Christian Cypriot identity in the fourth century and the decline of pagan worship. The series of earthquakes that devastated Cyprus during the fourth century destroyed pagan temples that were not rebuilt. Christian beliefs seemed to be better able to deal with the tragedies. This paper will be published in the next issue of Buried History.

Excavating the Sand Dwellers

The lecture featured an extraordinary piece of archaeological excavation. Adjacent to the remains of a New Kingdom fort at Tell el-Borg in north-west Sinai, Tom excavated the remains of a contemporary Late Bronze Age Bedouin encampment. The period was conﬁrmed by radiocarbon dating. The ground was sand and the discoloured sand of the encampment quickly disappeared after being exposed to the atmosphere. However, Tom’s Bedouin workmen recognised the nature of some of the features uncovered. It may be the ﬁ rst time that a nomadic sand encampment of this antiquity has been investi gated archaeologically. This work will be included in the publication of Tell el-Borg which is in press.

The Rise and Fall of Biblical Archaeology

Dr Davis began by drawing attention to Professor Sayce’s Preface to Schliemann’s Troja (1883). Sayce contrasts the ‘shifting sand’ of historical speculation compared to the greater certainty oﬀered by scientiﬁc archaeology. Tom then traced the development of archaeological technique and approach from W.F.

Albright to the present. Albright developed a pottery typology for Palestine as a scientiﬁ c dating tool and for him this was reality – realia. Tom referred to the Classical tendency to excavate public space and C.S. Fisher’s view that archaeology was the excavation of a series of architectural phases. He maintained that Melvin Kyle, Albright’s ﬁnancier and assistant, used archaeology as a defence of the Bible unti l he died in 1933. Albright by contrast aimed to make the Old Testament understandable. In particular Tom discussed the journey of G. Ernest Wright, who developed a theology in the 1950s with his book The God Who Acts, but who was unable to maintain that theological position when he dug at Shechem in the 1960s. Archaeology did not provide the certain att estation to the acts of God that he had expected. He died in 1974 with his faith intact and with a more ﬂexible view of what archaeology can oﬀ er. William Dever was another American student who adopted the Albright focus on pottery, but he also understood the importance of stratigraphy. Dever regarded Biblical Archaeology as an ‘armchair acti vity’ and adopted the name Syro-Palestinian archaeology instead. Dever is linked to the ‘New Archaeology’, although Tom believes that Dever, who was his research advisor at the University of Arizona, does not follow the process as it was intended. The core of the presentation was the mantra ‘The failure of the model is not the failure of the source’. His concluding remarks presented a post-processual archaeological position – archaeology as text, dialogue with an archaeological site, respect for idiosyncrasies, avoiding temprocentrism and acknowledgement of limited excavated data.

An Amateur’s Dream: George McFadden and the Excavation of Kourion, Cyprus

The major archaeological site of Kourion, Cyprus, was excavated as a result of a American’s dream to become an archaeologist. George McFadden’s amateur status was both positive and negative for Kourion and Cypriot archaeology. He excavated Kourion in a very traditional method, but was ’post-colonial’ in his desire to keep Cyprus’ archaeological heritage on the island. His premature death by drowning left a mixed legacy. He promoted regional awareness of archaeology, supported the work of Cypriot scholars, championed the retention of the mosaics in situ against the University Museum’s wishes and was a beloved ﬁgure in the village of Episkopi. His negative legacy was an almost complete failure to publish the results of his excavation.

Current Cypriot Archaeology

Cypriot Archaeology is dynamic and vibrant. More than 20 sites are being worked on, with evidence of habitation from 10,000 BC to the Ott oman period. The lecture reported the latest discoveries from these sites, focusing on the last 2 years. Rapid development of the Island until the global economic downturn stretched rescue archaeological resources.

Pottery Technology Seminars

Prof Ian Edwards conducting a pottery seminar at the Institute in August 2010.

The seminar series focussed on the technology of ancient pottery and included a session where participants were able to make their own pots.

Di’s trip

The following is a report from Dianne Fitzpatrick about her 2010 trip to Syria and Turkey as part of her research. Di is the Collections Manager at the Institute and is completing doctoral studies at Melbourne University.

My project is part of the joint Syrian-Australian Archaeological Research Project, which involves developing an artefact repository in north-east Syria to safely house artefact collections salvaged from the Tishreen Dam project. The project was insti gated in 2004 by Dr Andrew Jamieson from the Centre for Classics and Archaeology at Melbourne with Dr Youssef Kanjou from the Aleppo Museum. Because Melbourne University has a tradition of research in the Near East since the 1980s, at sites like El Qitar, Tell Ahmar (ancient Til Barsip) and Jebel Khalid (a Hellenistic site on the Euphrates), it was possible to include them as case studies for my research. I have also included Çatalhöyük, located on the central Anatolian plain in Turkey, as my third case study.

We (my husband and I) arrived in Damascus two days before the main Jebel Khalid party on 19 April, which allowed time for a brief look at down-town Damascus. We made our way to the ‘Sultan Hotel’ and settled in to await the arrival of the rest of the team. Only days before, on 14 April, the volcanic eruptions at Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland had begun. It caused enormous disruption to air travel and delayed the arrival of the Acting Director, Dr Heather Jackson, who had been visiti ng relatives in the UK.

Heading into the Syrian summer, the temperature for the first few days was in the high twenties. It quickly rose to the high thirties, and by the end of May it often exceeded 40 degrees. Students from Melbourne University have the chance to dig at Jebel Khalid in Northern Syria usually in April/May for a four-week season. We dug for six hours in the mornings from 6.00 am to 12 noon. We would have a three-hour break for lunch and a sleep and then process pottery usually until 5.00–6.00 pm, sometimes 7.00 pm. The physical digging was done by local Arab villagers with whom we developed great relationships. We lived in the village of Abu Qalqal and drove back and forth to the site every day. We left Abu Qalqal every Thursday afternoon and headed to Aleppo for a scrub-down in a Hammam followed by traditional Aleppan food in roof-top cafés while smelling fragrant jasmine on balmy nights.

We left Jebel Khalid at the end of May to work at Tell Ahmar, a long-term salvage site on the banks of the Euphrates, for most of June. This project was formerly a University of Melbourne site, but is now being excavated by the University of Liege, Belgium, although still directed by Professor Guy Bunnens. Our accommodation was on-site in small mud-brick rooms which by day provided respite from the heat, but by night were very warm. Some of our nightly visitors included mosquitoes, lizards, spiders, birds and scorpions! Our task was to consolidate our ‘significance model’ pottery which was excavated by Andrew Jamieson from 1988–1999. The material will be used to develop criteria for determining research potential when we return to the site this year. Over the years it had been separated and stored in several diff erent locations. It had suffered the eff ects of being exposed to damp conditions, and much of the material needed to be re-bagged and re-packed. The material was then transported to a potenti al long-term repository, Qala’at Nejam, which is a twelfth-century Crusader castle on the banks of the Euphrates in Syria, approximately 50 kilometres south of the Turkish border.

The final part of the fieldwork was conducted at Çatalhöyük, a project directed by Professor Ian Hodder of Stanford University. Excavation and research is scheduled in cycles at this site. I was there during a research cycle, which allowed time to liaise with the project co-ordinators and archaeological specialists. It was amazing to see and hear in excess of 30 archaeological specialists getti ng the most out of their data by discussing their fi ndings together in daily seminars. Before returning to Australia I had time for a quick visit to Lebanon to investi gate the National Museum and the American University Museum which are both excellent and worth a visit.

Contact

The newsletter is prepared by:-
Christopher Davey, Director, The Australian Institute of Archaeology,
La Trobe University, Victoria 3086
E-mail: director@aiarch.org.au
Website: www.aiarch.org.au
Telephone: 9455 2882
Mobile: 0421 595 966

Looking for a previous edition of our newsletter? Please contact us at director@aiarch.org.au