"A Land of Milk and Honey": the excavation and scientific research of the unique apiary at Tel Rehov, Israel

A Public Seminar to be given by

Professor Amihai Mazar
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Amihai Mazar is one of Israel’s pre-eminent archaeologists. He held the Eleazar Sukenik Chair in the Archaeology of Israel at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem from 1994 until his retirement in 2010. His special area of research is the archaeology of the Levant in the Bronze and Iron Ages, and he received the Israel Prize for Archaeology in 2009.

He is in Australia as the 2011 Anthony McNicol Visiting Lecturer at Sydney University.

Tel Rehov, the largest site in the Jordan Valley, features Iron Age housing units, the world’s first known apiary, and evidence for trade and foreign contacts that link Rehov to all the great centres of the Biblical world. The lecture will describe the scientific analysis of the apiary and comment on the implications for 10th century chronology in the southern Levant.

Professor Mazar has directed archaeological excavations at a number of sites in Israel that include:

• Tel Qasile
• Timnah (Tel Batash) - from 1977–1989
• Bet She'an - from 1989–1996
• Rehov (Tel Rehov) - from 1997 onwards (ongoing)

Mazar is a widely-recognised author in the field of Biblical Archaeology, his Archaeology of the Land of the Bible is a standard text in many universities worldwide.

Mazar is married with three children and resides in Jerusalem. He is the nephew of Benjamin Mazar, one of the first generation of pioneering Israeli archaeologists after Independence, and cousin to fellow archaeologist Eilat Mazar.

Saturday 17 September 2011
3:00 - 5:00pm at the
Australian Institute of Archaeology, Terrace Way, Macleod.

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Professor Timothy P. Harrison
Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto

Dr. Timothy P. Harrison is Professor of Near Eastern Archaeology in the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto; a position he filled in 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 south-eastern Turkey. These projects form part of a wider, interregional research effort that seeks to shed light on the early development of urban life and state-ordered society amidst the diverse cultures that have given shape to the eastern Mediterranean world. In addition to his own projects, Dr. Harrison has participated in numerous other excavations and field expeditions in Israel, Jordan and Turkey. In 2007, he was elected President of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR).

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on Wednesday 11 May 2011,  12:15pm

The Battle for Armageddon: David, Solomon and the Early Israelite Monarchy as Viewed from Megiddo

The onset of the Iron Age (ca. 1150-950 BCE) brought dramatic changes to the cultural and social landscape of the Biblical World. Corresponding to the period of the Judges, this era witnessed a veritable explosion of small agricultural villages in the highland interior, while the coastal lowlands experienced an ‘urban imposition’, precipitated in large part by migrating Sea Peoples, including the Philistines of biblical fame. The result of these disparate settlement processes was the creation of a mosaic of culturally distinct communities, each vying for supremacy in an increasingly competitive world. Strategically situated at the entrance to a key pass, ancient Megiddo, the Armageddon of biblical Revelation, has long figured prominently in debates about this formative period, out of which emerged the Israelite Monarchy of David and Solomon. Yet, until relatively recently very little was actually known about the Megiddo of this period, a reality that has strongly influenced scholarly interpretations. Rediscovered records of large-scale excavations conducted at the site in the 1920s and 1930s, together with renewed excavations, now offer a rare and expansive glimpse of town life during this tumultuous era. This lecture will review these important archaeological remains, and explore their potential to contribute to the ongoing study of this formative phase in the history of ancient Israel.

and on Saturday 14 May 2011, 2:00- 5.15pm

The ' Land of Mēdeba' and Iron Age Moab

Textual sources suggest that the Mādabā Plain region of Central Jordan, the Mishor of the Bible, experienced widespread land use and settlement during the early stages of the Iron Age (ca. 1200-900 BCE), and witnessed the emergence of mature nation-states, most notably the kingdoms of Ammon and Moab. Syntheses of the archaeological record, however, have generally characterized it as a period of limited settlement, marked by loosely confederated alliances and kinship networks; flourishing urban development and political centralization occurred only much later, during the era of Assyrian and Babylonian hegemony. Yet, until recently, this prevailing view has suffered from a lack of carefully excavated cultural sequences, or ‘local histories’, at key sites occupied during this period. The results of recent excavations at Tall Mādabā, the principal Iron Age settlement in the region, are starting to fill this gap. First mentioned in the so called ‘taunt song’ of its northern neighbour Heshbon (cf. Nu. 21: 27-30), Mādabā clearly had emerged as an important regional centre well before the mid-ninth century BCE, and Mesha’s famous acknowledgment that much of the central highland plateau belonged to ‘the Land of Mēdeba’. This lecture will review the results of the ongoing Tall Mādabā Archaeological Project investigations, and explore their implications for current understandings of the historical development of Iron Age Moab.

Temples, Tablets and Assyrian Imperialism at Tayinat on the Orontes

It is generally recognized that an important shift occurred in Assyrian imperial policy during the reign of Tiglath-pileser III (745-727 BCE). Excavations at Tell Tayinat, located on the Plain of Antioch in southeast Turkey, have uncovered the remains of a Late Assyrian settlement, including an Assyrian governor’s residence and, most recently, a temple and a cache of cuneiform tablets dating to this period. Historical sources attest that Tayinat was destroyed by Tiglath-pileser III in 738 BCE, and then transformed into an Assyrian provincial capital equipped with its own governor and imperial administration. The Tayinat excavations thus offer a rare opportunity to examine the physical dimensions of one of history’s earliest and most successful experiments in imperialism. This lecture will present the latest discoveries of the Tayinat Archaeological Project from this period. They reveal a carefully crafted visual landscape that both manifested and reinforced the ideology of the Assyrian imperial project.

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Contact:
Christopher Davey
Mob: 0421 595 966

The Lecture:
The University of Toronto excavations at Tell Tayinat, on the Plain of Antioch, have begun to uncover the remains of an extensive settlement from the Early Iron Age (ca. 1200-900 BCE) . The emerging archaeological picture points to the rise of a powerful regional kingdom associated with ‘the Land of Palistin’, comprised of an intriguing amalgam of Aegean, Anatolian (Luwian) and Bronze Age West Syrian cultural traditions. This lecture will review the results of the ongoing Tayinat Archaeological Project investigations, and the historical insights they have provided to date.

Tim Harrison is a professor in Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto in Canada, and President of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR).

This public lecture is made possible by the Australian Institute of Archaeology and the Classical Association of victoria

Wednesday 11 May 2011
6:30 pm (Tea and Coffee available beforehand)

Prince Phillip Theatre,
Architecture Building,
University of Melbourne

Admission Free

Enquiries:to June McBeth
8344 5142
jmcbeth@unimelb.edu.au
http://shaps.unimelb.edu.au

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Archaeology and the Bible

This is an opportunity to hear the lectures prepared by the Australian Institute of Archaeology that are being delivered remotely by Ridley College for tertiary students.

The subject traces the history of archaeology from the start of excavations at Herculaneum in 1713 to the recent development of post-processual archaeology and explores the way this endeavour has influenced the study of the Bible. It describes the significant archaeological investigators, their background, work and contribution to archaeological practice and methodology. The circumstances of all major biblical archaeological discoveries are also dealt with. The lecture program is organised thematically and chronologically over twelve weeks.

Presenter: Christopher Davey, Director of the Australian Institute of Archaeology

Place and Time: Australian Institute of Archaeology, Building EC 11, Terrace Way, MacLeod ( Melways 873-4)
8pm on Mondays as per the Program

Program:

Lectures are free to members and volunteers of the Australian Institute of Archaeology.

For others there is a charge of $5 per lecture.

Contact:
Christopher Davey
Mob: 0421 595 966

The Lecture: Recent archaeological work on Cyprus allows a much better understanding of the context of the St Paul’s visit underscoring the cultural accuracy of the Acts account. A clearer picture of first century Cyprus is emerging, as a complex multi-cultural entity looking both east and west. These internal cultural divisions of the province explain the change of Saul, the apostle to the Jews to Paul the apostle to the Gentiles.

Thomas W. Davis is the director of the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute in Nicosia, Cyprus. Dr. Davis has an extensive experience in archaeological excavation in Cyprus, Jordan, Egypt, and in the United States, where he has substantial archaeological experience in cultural resource management. He is the author of Shifting Sands: The Rise and Fall of Biblical Archaeology (Oxford, 2004), as well as numerous essays and articles that concern archaeology and biblical studies. Dr. Davis earned his Ph.D. in Oriental Studies—Syro-Palestinian Archaeology, at the University of Arizona, under the direction of William G. Dever. He also earned his M.A. at Arizona, with a minor in Biblical Studies, and the B.A. from Wheaton College in Illinois.

Friday 27 August 2010
7:30 for 8:00 pm (Tea and Coffee available beforehand)

Australian Institute of Archaeology
Building EC 11, La Trobe University
Terrace Way, MacLeod ( Melways 873-4)

Admission Free

Inquiries:- Christopher Davey 0421 595 966

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Dr. Davis is the Director of the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute. The Seminar will trace the history of the Albright/Wright Biblical Archaeology paradigm and suggest a new way forward out of the current maximalist/minimalist impasse.

Saturday 28 August 2010
2:00 to 4:00 pm

Australian Institute of Archaeology
Building EC 11, La Trobe University
Terrace Way, MacLeod ( Melways 873-4)

Admission Free

Inquiries:- Christopher Davey 0421 595 966

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Thomas W. Davis’ other lectures in Australia:-

Dr Winter is Principal of the Queensland Theological College and the Director of the Institute for Early Christianity in the Graeco-Roman World. He is also a Senior Research Fellow of Macquarie University, a member of British Epigraphic Society and the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas.

Formerly he was a Fellow of St Edmund's College, University of Cambridge, where he remains a visiting scholar, and he was also the Warden of Tyndale House for 20 years. He has visited Corinth annually over the past 15 years with doctoral students and research fellows.

Friday 7 August 2009
8:00pm

Australian Institute of Archaeology
Building EC 11, La Trobe University
Terrace Way, MacLeod
Melways 475

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