Jordan Conference in Washington, Paul J. Ray, Jr.
Wolff Lecture, Carrie Rhodes
Barkay Lecture, Owen Chesnuthttps://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/iaham-news/1032/thumbnail.jp

Chesnut, Owen

Ray, Paul J., Jr.

Rhodes, Carrie

English

Andrews University

Andrews University Digital Commons @ Andrews University The Institute of Archaeology & the Horn Archaeological Museum Newsletter The Institute of Archaeology & the Horn Archaeological Museum Fall 2007 The Institute of Archaeology & Siegfried H. Horn Museum Newsletter Volume 28.4 Paul J. Ray Jr. Carrie Rhodes Owen Chesnut Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/iaham-news Table of ContentsPageJordan ConferenceWolff LectureBarkay LectureRandom SurveyINSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGYHORN ARCHAEOLOGICALMUSEUMNEWSLETTERPaul J. Ray, Jr. EditorConstance E. Gane Assoc. EditorRandall W. Younker Assoc. EditorDarrell J. Rohl Asst. EditorThe Newsletter is published four times ayear by the Institute of Archaeology,Andrews University. Annual subscriptionprice is $7.50. Museum membership,subscription, and editorial correspon-dence should be addressed to the HornArchaeological Museum, Institute ofArchaeology, Andrews University,Berrien Springs, MI 49104-0990,Telephone 269-471-3273, Fax 269-471-3619, e-mail hornmusm@andrews.edu.Volume  28.4Fall 2007ISSN 1095-2837Jordan Conference in WashingtonThe Triennial International Conference of the History and Archaeology of Jordan, under thepatronage of HM King Abdullah II, was held in Washington DC from May 23-28, 2007. The con-ference was the tenth in a series since its inception by HRH Prince al-Hassan Bin Talal in 1980.The venue at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University was anideal setting for the conference whose theme was “Crossing Jordan,” which focused on the manypeoples and cultures who have crossed Jordan throughout its history. The event also generated apreconference book of American contributions entitled Crossing Jordan: North AmericanContributions to the Archaeology of Jordan, edited by Thomas Levy, P. M. Michèle Daviau,Randall W. Younker, and May Shaer, published by Equinox. The opening ceremony  featured a speech by HRH Princess Sumaya Bint al-Hassan, whoreflected on the ongoing commitment of the royal family to archaeological research in Jordan aswell as how the results of that research are presented to the general public.The participants of the conference presented 140 papers which reflected the crossing ofJordan. Papers presented by current and former Madaba Plains personal included: TheorizingContact Zones and Crossroads: Civilizations, Empires and Deep Time Social Order of theLevantine Countries (Øystein  LaBianca); Geopolitical Context of 19th Dynasty Egyptian The White House. 1234(con’d. on p. 2)newsletter 28.4.color.qxp  3/17/2008  1:13 PM  Page 1Activity in Transjordan (Kent Bramlett);Athenodarus of Tarsus and Petra: TheDate and Circumstance of His Visit(David Graf); Preserving Jordan’sCultural Heritage Digitally throughETANA (Douglas Clark); CremationPractices in the Levant: CandlestickStands in Situ (Adeib Abu-Shmais);Between the Cults of Syria and Arabia:Pagan Traces at Umm el-Jimal (Bert deVries); Emergence of Madaba as aRegional Center in the Early Iron Age(Timothy Harrison); Nabataeans,Hasmonaeans, Herodians in vAtrauz,Dhiban, and Madaba (Chang-Ho Ji);Imperial Transitions and Peasant Societyin Middle and Late Islamic Jordan(Bethany Walker); The Contribution ofAndrews University to JordanianArchaeology (Randall Younker); TheFoundation of Aila: A Nabataean Port onthe Red Sea (Thomas Parker); The AqabaCastle Project: New Excavation Facts(Reem Shqour); Inhabited Vine andMould-made Lamps in Late Byzantineand Early Islamic Periods (MichèleDaviau); The Iron I Period Across Jordan(Larry Herr); Who Peopled the MadabaPlains in the Iron Age? (Lawrence Geraty);The Druze Experience at Umm al-Jimal:the History and Archaeology of the Early20th-century Settlement (Robin Brown);and Feasts in Late Second MillenniumB.C.E. at Tall al-vUmayri (Gloria London).Receptions were held at the JordanEmbassy and the Smithsonian Museumhosted by HRH Ambassador Zeid Ra'adal-Hussein and Dr. Fawwaz al-Khraysheh,the Director of the Department ofAntiquities of Jordan. (Paul J. Ray, Jr)Wolff LectureDr. Sam Wolff, of the IsraelAntiquities Authority and editor of thejournal Atiqot, presented a lecture entitled“Tel Megadim: A Multi-period Site on theCarmel Coast, Israel” on January 17,2007 at Andrews University.  Tel Megadim (Tel Sear), located onthe Carmel Coast of Israel, is 35 ha insize, and is cut by both a highway and arailroad.  The site was first surveyed byRon Gophrad who identified pottery fromthe Early Bronze Age, Early Bronze AgeIV, Middle Bronze Age, and Persian peri-ods.  Three seasons of excavations tookplace at Megadim by Magen Broshi from1967-69, at which time the Persian strataand some Byzantine period material wererevealed on top of the mound.  Dr. Wolff began excavating atMegadim in 1994. He opened up a 185 mlong by 8 m wide strip along the railroadand also made a cut across the site,revealing the occupational history.  The earliest material, includingceramic and stone vessel fragments, wasfrom the Chalcolithic period. The largestsettlement at the site dates to EarlyBronze Age 1B (3000-2800 BC).Architectural remains of curvilinear, rec-tangular, and round-corner buildings werefound. The curvilinear building was filledwith bow-rimmed pithoi. The contents ofthe jars have been dated to the 29th centu-ry BC on the basis of C14 dating.   The next phase is the Early BronzeAge IV.  This is a period that is not well-represented on tells. However, at Megadimthere is evidence of occupation in the formof pottery and bones on top of which awall was built. A pottery kiln that was cutby a Middle Bronze IIA pit, was alsofound. Its closest parallel, found at Tel el-Farah, dated to the Early Bronze Age II.From the Middle Bronze Age, circu-lar structures, walls, a silo, and tombshave been revealed.  The tomb remainsare very impressive and date to all phases(MB II A, B and C) of the period.  Therewere 3 large multiburial tombs, 11 mason-ry tombs, and 5 jar burials. In one of thelarge tombs, which had a corbeled roof,an alabastra, dipper juglets and Cypriotjugs were found. The individual burialsdate to MB IIA. Levantine painted wares,with parallels to the north, were alsofound in these tombs.The Late Bronze Age finds includewalls and a flagstone floor along with 160pieces of Cypriot pottery, indicating tradeand exchange in this region. The Iron Ageis not represented at Megadim.  The Persian period was uncovered inmany rooms during Broshi’s excavation.Wolff found more rooms, a kurkar stonealtar (with parallels at Tel Dor), tabuns,horse-and rider-figurines, mortaria, andbasket-handle amphorae.  There is alsoCorinthian pottery, which is unique inIsrael. The ceramic finds, mostly ampho-rae, include Attic ware, Carthagian, NorthAegean, Chian, Samian, Milesian (EastGreek bowls), South Aegean, CentralIonian, and Cypriot wares.  Most of theamphorae were found in the same generalarea, though none of the typicalPalestinian forms such as the basket-han-dled amphorae or twisted-handled jarswere found.  One of the things that helped Dr.Wolff put these finds into context was theAiqar Papyrus which dates to 5th centu-ry BC.  The papyrus describes trade com-ing from Ionia to Elephantine in Egypt.  The main export was natron, which wasused for making medicines, manufactur-ing glass, and leaching textiles.  A similarsituation might have brought wares fromthese regions to Megadim.Post-Persian-period structures includea circular  installation that cuts somePersian-period walls. It has been suggest-ed on the basis of parallel structuresSam Wolff.newsletter 28.4.color.qxp  3/17/2008  1:13 PM  Page 2that it is a lime-kiln, but there is no lime-stone at Megadim.The Byzantine-period finds discov-ered earlier by Broshi include large pavedareas, pottery, coins and glass.  Theredoes not appear to be anything distinctlyfrom the Roman period at Megadim.Broshi connected this site with a 4th-cen-tury AD account by the Bordeaux Pilgrim,who mentions a horse-trading station 9Roman miles south of Shiqmona, which islocated in modern Haifa. (Carrie Rhodes)  Barkay LectureOn February 12, 2007 Dr. GabrielBarkay, professor at Tel Aviv and HebrewUniversities and director of the TempleMount Sifting Project, presented a lectureentitled “Artifacts from the TempleMount” for the Horn Museum LectureSeries.Dr. Barkay presented a detailedoverview of the history of the TempleMount.  Jewish tradition says that theTemple Mount was created first and thenthe world around it.  The site is the loca-tion of Abraham’s attempt to sacrifice hisson Isaac, and is called a mountain in thearea of Moriah.  King Solomon later builtthe temple on Mt. Moriah.  When Mt.Zion is mentioned it is referring to theTemple Mount, though it no longer is amountain following the building efforts ofHerod the Great, who doubled the area ofthe Temple Mount by cutting off the topof the mount and walling it in, creating aflat artificial platform.   The Canaanites were the first to makethe Temple Mount holy in worshipingtheir god Shalem (or Shulam) on top.This name is mentioned several times inthe OT as the name of the city Salem,which would later become Jerusalem.David conquered the city of Jebus andpurchased the threshing floor of Araunah,the Jebusite, in order to build an altar. Hisson Solomon built the temple on this site,which remained for 400 years.  The sec-ond temple was built by the returneesfrom the Babylon captivity, in 515 BC.The third temple was built by Herod. It isusually called the second temple becausethere was no gap in the sacrificial admin-istration on the site.  Titus destroyed thetemple in AD 70 while quelling theJewish revolt, which began in AD 66.The Romans built a temple to Zeus on thelocation of the former Jewish temple.During this time Jews would gather oncea year to wail for the destruction of thetemple at the perforated rock, which isnow covered by the Dome of the Rock.During the Byzantine period the site wasleft in ruins, and the Church of the HolySepulcher became the site favored byChristians.  Most scholars believe thatthere was no activity on the TempleMount at this time; however, the TempleMount Sifting Project has found a lot ofevidence of occupation from this period,leading Barkay to suggest that historybooks need to be rewritten on this matter.In the year 638 Jerusalem  was con-quered by Omar and the army of theProphet Mohammed.  There were severalJews in the army who told Omar of thesignificance of the Temple Mount.  Omarbuilt a wooden mosque on the site, but itwasn’t until the late 7th century that anUmayyad caliph who was not in controlof any of the holy sites of Islam (Meccaor Medina) made the Temple Mount aholy site.  Literature praising Jerusalemwas printed, and in 691 Abdu-Malek builtthe Dome of the Rock and his son builtthe El-Aqsa Mosque.  The name ofJerusalem doesn’t appear in the Quran atall, but tradition connects the night jour-ney of the prophet from the “nearmosque” to the “far mosque” (el-Aqsa) asbeing in Jerusalem, where the prophetascended into heaven.  The Dome of theRock was built as a shrine, replacing theJewish temple, not as a mosque, though itwas later turned into one.  Only since the16th century has the western (Wailing)Wall become the most venerated site bythe Jews.  Since the Mamluk period nobuildings have been added to the TempleMount.  This has been the status quo on thesite until the 20th century.  Major changestook place in the 1990s due to a change inpolicy, which led the Waqf (the IslamicTemple Mount authority) to  build a newmosque in Solomon’s Stables.  There arealso over 50 ancient subterranean open-ings (cisterns, tunnels, storage areas) andmany of these were penetrated by the dig-ging of the Waqf.  Most of the debris (400truck loads) was discarded in the KidronValley.  Barkay says this is an archaeolog-ical crime of global proportions.  One ofDr. Barkay’s students showed him a col-lection of sherds he had collected fromthe dump site that extended from the 1stTemple through the Islamic periods.  Thisdiscovery convinced Barkay that it wasworth sifting through the material. A teamof approximately 100 volunteers a dayhas been wet-sifting the dirt and debrissince 2004.  This is the first time that allthe debris from a site is being fully sifted.More than 1,500 ancient coins from thePersian period through modern times(including Hasmonean, Roman,Byzantine, Crusader, and Islamic) havebeen found along with hundreds of piecesof jewelry, objects of war such as arrow-heads, spearheads, and blades, and manyother unique finds. (Owen Chesnut)       Gabriel Barkay.newsletter 28.4.color.qxp  3/17/2008  1:13 PM  Page 3Scepter of Emperor Found:Italian archaeologist ClementinaPanella, who has been excavating inthe Roman Forum for 20 years,recently discovered a scepter whichbelonged to Emperor Maxentius,who ruled from AD 306-312. Hedrowned in the Tiber River duringthe battle on the Milvian bridgeagainst  Constantine, who attributedhis victory to divine interventionand converted to Christianity.Maxentius’s supporters are thoughtto have hidden the scepter after hisdefeat. It was found wrapped in silkand linen in a wooden box with battle standards and lance heads.Canal Found at Aswan:An ancient filled-in canal has recently been found at the Aswan granite quarries, in Egypt,which was once used to float large stone monuments to the Nile River. Almost all obelisks,including those at the Luxor and Karnak Temples, were originally hewn in the Aswan area.2,700-year-old Fabric Found:A funerary urn containing ashes, human bones, driedpomegranates and a 2,700-year-old piece of fabric hasbeen found in Argos, Greece. The corroding oxides ofthe copper urn have evidently killed the microbes thatwould have normally destroyed the fabric.Herod’s Quarry Found:A quarry that provided KingHerod with the stones torenovate the Temple hasbeen located in a Jerusalemsuburb. In terms of theprocess it was found thatchannels were first hewnaround each side of a block,then using a hammer thestone cutters inserted a rowof cleaving stakes in thebottom part until a fissurewas created and the stonedetached. A complete cleav-ing stake, which had beenforgotten by the ancientquarrymen, was found at thesite. Coins and  pottery vessels date the quarry  tothe first century AD.To discover more about archaeology, theInstitute, and the Museum, contact us at:VOX: 269-471-3273FAX: 269-471-3619E-mail: hornmusm@andrews.eduor visit our Web site at:www.andrews.edu/archaeologyThe Institute of ARCHAEOLOGYSiegfried H. Horn MuseumAndrews University, Berrien Springs, MI 49104-0990Address Service RequestedNon-profit OrganizationU.S. Postage  PAIDPermit No. 5Berrien Springs, MI 49103World’s Oldest Inscription?Archaeologists have discovered what they believe to be theworld’s most ancient inscription in the Iranian city of Jiroft, nearHalil Roud. The inscription was discovered in a palace dating tothe third millennium BC. It was carved on a baked mud-brick. Thescript, which consists of geometric shapes, has not yet been deciphered. The Elamite language, which also comes from thissame region, may have developed from it.  newsletter 28.4.color.qxp  3/17/2008  1:13 PM  Page 4

The Institute of Archaeology & Siegfried H. Horn Museum Newsletter Volume 28.4

https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1032&context=iaham-news

The Institute of Archaeology & Siegfried H. Horn Museum Newsletter Volume 28.4

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Andrews University