Tall al-\u27Umayri 2008, Larry G. Herr and Douglas R. Clark
Vaughn Lecture, Owen Chesnut
Egypt Tour, Constance E. Gane
NEH Summer Institute for School Teachers
Random Surveyhttps://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/iaham-news/1036/thumbnail.jp

Chesnut, Owen

Clark, Douglas R.

Gane, Constance E.

Herr, Larry G.

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 2008 The Institute of Archaeology & Siegfried H. Horn Museum Newsletter Volume 29.4 Larry G. Herr Douglas R. Clark Owen Chesnut Constance E. Gane Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/iaham-news Table of ContentsPageTall al-vUmayri 2008Vaughn lectureEgypt TourNEH Summer InstituteRandom SurveyINSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGYHORN ARCHAEOLOGICALMUSEUMNEWSLETTERPaul J. Ray, Jr. EditorConstance E. Gane Assoc. EditorRandall W. Younker Assoc. EditorOwen Chesnut 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 29.4 Fall 2008ISSN 1095-2837Tall al-vUmayri  2008Archaeologists from the Madaba Plains Project digging at Tall al-vUmayri have discoveredadditional sections of a building with two rooms dedicated to the worship of ancient deities. Thebuilding, which contained five rooms and dates to ca. 1500 BC, was preserved almost three m highand was built of stone topped with mud bricks for the second story. The builders carved a smallniche into a mud-brick wall and placed standing stones into a thick layer of plaster. Excavatorsfound pottery gifts still lying in the niche next to the standing stones. Worshipers entered the struc-ture from the east through a monumental gateway and passed by a large standing stone,  probablyrepresenting an ancient god, set into a plastered base as they walked into the inner room for wor-ship at the niche. The structure probably served as a temple, but no one has been able to identifythe names of the gods or just how they were worshiped. The people who constructed the buildingwere probably ancient Amorites who lived at the site before the Ammonites.Tall al-vUmayri is a rich Bronze and Iron Age site which began about 3000 BC and lasted untilthe Persian Empire around 500 BC. At the very beginning of the history of vUmayri, a dolmentomb was built of huge stones in the shape of a large box.  While thousands of dolmens exist fromsouthern Jordan around the Mediterranean and Atlantic Ocean, only a handful have remains inthem, including the ‘Umayri dolmen.  This year a building associated with the dolmen was alsofound. As far as we know, an associated building has shown up nowhere else. The largest settlement at the site is 4500 years old, from the middle of the Early Bronze Age.Farmers from the area banded together for protection to form a sprawling conglomeration of housecompounds and narrow streets. However, the most important period of occupation at the siteThe entry room of the LB building with two fallen standing stones and the stepped entryway. (con’d on p. 2)12334newsletter 29.4.qxp  5/5/2009  11:09 AM  Page 1is Iron Age I, which dates to about 3200years ago. Two houses from this periodwere excavated in earlier seasons. Thissummer, excavators began to uncoverseveral other houses. They found a deep,fiery destruction layer overlying the hous-es. Under the destruction were manycrushed pottery vessels, mostly large stor-age jars.  A team of excavators alsoexplored the ancient city wall from thistime period. It stands almost five m highand they have not yet found the base.Another team was able to clear anIron Age II B house (ca. 2800 years old).It had both cobble and dirt floors withwalls preserved over a meter high.Two other teams discovered Persian-period houses. Their rooms contained typ-ical domestic goods and bins for storage.One building contained a large tabunalmost a meter in diameter and preservedalmost 40 cm high.Small finds from the various parts ofthe excavation include nine seals, figurineheads of humans and animals, jewelry,and pottery vessels. (Larry G. Herr andDouglas R. Clark)Vaughn LectureDr. Andrew Vaughn, ExecutiveDirector of American Schools of OrientalResearch, presented a lecture entitled“The Success of Hezekiah: A New Lookat Hezekiah’s Success FollowingSennacherib’s Campaign in 701 BCE.” onMonday, December 3, 2007 at AndrewsUniversity.Dr. Vaughn began the lecture by giv-ing some background on Hezekiah, men-tioning his reforms, including centralizingworship in Jerusalem.  The king is lookedupon favorably by the Chronicler, but it isthe events surrounding the middle of hisreign, when Sennacherib came fromAssyria in 701 BC, that in some waysshaped the biblical perspective.Hezekiah’s reign has usually been viewedby scholars as a failure. However, Vaughnbelieves that even though Judah wasalmost completely destroyed, there wasenough of the kingdom left to be rebuilt.If this was the case, then  Hezekiah was“partially” successful. Sennacherib almost completelydestroyed Judah.  This destruction isgraphically represented by the siege rampfound at Lachish (Level III). The AssyrianAnnals say he laid siege to 46 cities inJudah.  The Shephelah, where many ofthese sites were located, was the bread-basket of Judah. When Judah was strongit was reflected in the strength of  theShephelah.  Archaeological surveys indi-cate that during the first part ofHezekiah’s reign the Shephelah was verystrong, but after Sennacherib’s campaignthere was a dramatic drop in develop-ment.  The consensus view is that Judahdidn’t grow again until Josiah’s reign andthen not as much because the Shephelahdidn’t grow.  However Vaughn doesn’tbelieve this was the case.He sees a significant problem withviewing Hezekiah as a complete failure.First, Hezekiah was the only ruler in thearea who escaped with his life.Sennacherib was not known as a graciousconqueror; he killed anyone who revolted.The reason Sennacherib didn’t kill himwas because he couldn’t.  Hezekiah begana large economic build up several yearsbefore Sennacherib came to Judah.  It isincorrect to view the LMLK jars as an iso-lated occurrence at the end of the 8th cen-tury BC.  They are important for under-standing Hezekiah’s reign.  Their distribu-tion is evidence of a kingdom-wide infra-structure based around strong cities.Vaughn believes that Hezekiah began toprepare the kingdom in 715 BC.  Whiledoing so he also improved Jerusalem.  Hereconstructed a stronger city wall, as evi-denced by the “Broad Wall,” that exclud-ed extramural settlements. Second, thesiege of Lachish and other fortified citiesdrained the Assyrians to the point thatJerusalem could be saved.  Third,Manasseh could not have taken part in thebuilding project described in Chronicles ifJudah had been completely wiped out.Thus, it seems that a remnant of Judahwas left for such a quick rebuilding effort.In the last section of his lectureVaughn focused on the site of RamatRachel. He argues that the site was initial-ly built by Hezekiah and then rebuilt justafter the destruction in 701 BC.  There aretwo Iron Age strata at the site; Level 5a(the later one, with parallels to Lachish II)destroyed in the early 6th century BC, andthe earlier, Level 5b, 8th century BC stra-tum, with architectural features thatinclude proto-Aeolic capitals and header-stretcher masonry, typical of thePhoenician-influenced palaces at Samaria.Vaughn believes that Hezekiah was thelast king of Judah to know of the gloriouspalaces in Samaria.  It is even possiblethat builders and artisans fled to Judahafter the destruction of Samaria in 722BC. After the destruction of RamatRachel, in 701 BC, either Hezekiah or hisson, Manasseh, restored the site and builtthe Level  5a palace. Level 5b architectur-al elements were reused in this palace,and there is evidence of rebuilding, reno-vation and different use phases. The Level5a palace was in use for around another100 years.Vaughn concludes that Hezekiah wasnot a complete failure. After 701 BCimportant parts of his kingdom remainedand other parts were rebuilt.Understanding the results of Hezekiah’sreign in such a manner helps us betterunderstand the accounts from 2 Kings andChronicles, and also the prophecies ofIsaiah and how the city of Jerusalem wasrestored in the 7th century BC and later.(Owen Chesnut)Andrew Vaughn.newsletter 29.4.qxp  5/5/2009  11:09 AM  Page 2Egypt TourFrom May 11-25, 2008, a 28 mem-ber Old Testament tour group traversedthe length of Egypt from St. Catherine’sto Abu Simbel. Two days were spent inthe Sinai, three days in Cairo and vicinitywith its great Pyramids and camel rides.An overnight train took the group toKarnak where it visited the temples ofKarnak and Luxor, the Valley of theKings and Hatshepsut’s Mortuary Temple.The group luxuriated on a cruise ship,spending four days drifting down the Nilewith Roy Gane teaching exegesis classesfrom its deck. From Aswan, faluccasbrought us to Elephantine and Philae, anda small plane took us to Abu Simbel. Thestudents were terrific, as was RandallYounker’s leadership. It was an unforget-table experience for all. (Constance E.Gane)Prof. Rhonda Root, Andrews University8435 E. Campus Circle DriveBerrien Springs, MI 49104-0450rroot@andrews.edu269-471-3496Contact for further informationhttp://home.earthlink.net/~galondon/NEH2009July 1 - July 24, 2009NEH Summer Institute for School Teachers Daily Life in Ancient TimesSponsored by:  National Endowment for the Humanities &Stipends ($3,200)Available for 30 teachersApplication deadline: March 2, 2009Archaeology of Israel and JordanDr.Gloria London7701 Crest Dr. NESeattle, WA 98115glondon@earthlink.net206-522-6426COPYRIGHT © 2008 STEFANIE ELKINSSchoolteachers from around the US willcall the Institute of Archaeolgy/HornArchaeological Museum home next July,thanks to a grant from the NationalEndowment of the Humanities (NEH).Professor Rhonda Root and Dr. GloriaLondon are codirectors of the NEHSummer Institute for Schoolteachers:“Daily Life in Ancient Times: Archaeologyof Israel and Jordan.” There are ten different NEH Institutes nationwide each summer. Teachers will access museum artifacts tolearn: 1) how we know what we knowabout the past; 2) why the past is important; 3) daily life in the FertileCrescent; and 4) how to use archaeologyin the classroom. Seminars and laboratories with Institute archaeologistsand invited speakers from North Americafocus on Madaba Plains Project excavations. Application dateline: March 2, 2009. TheNEH awards stipends of $3,200.00 to 30full-time teachers. For details contact Dr. Gloria London,glondon@earthlink.net or AU ProfessorRhonda Root, rroot@andrews.edu.Application information: http://home.earthlink.net/~galondon//NEH2009/.Reginald Exum on the Nile River.Students at Temple of Karnak.newsletter 29.4.qxp  5/5/2009  11:09 AM  Page 3Way of Horus Discoveries:Archaeologists exploring the oldmilitary road in northeastern Sinaihave unearthed the remains of afortified city, a 19th Dynasty (1295-1185 BC) temple built on top of an18th Dynasty (1576-1295 BC) fort,another mud-brick fort with towersdating to Ramses II (1279-1213 BC)and rows of warehouses used by theEgyptian army during the NewKingdom (1576-1069 BC).Inscriptions about the Way of Horuson the walls of the Karnak Templeindicate that 11 fortresses protectedEgypt’s eastern border. Five of theseforts have been discovered to date.Roman Temple Found:The ruins of a 2nd century AD Roman temple have been found at Zippori, the ancient Jewishcapital of the Galilee, in Israel. This discovery indicates that the city housed a pagan populationduring the Roman period. A church from the Byzantine period sits on top of the ancient temple.Solomon’s Mines Discovered?Archaeologists have discovered a copper-productioncenter in southern Jordan, dated by C14 analysis onorganic materials to the 10th century BC, the time ofKing Solomon. The discovery was made at Khirbaten-Nahas, located south of the Dead Sea, in Edom. Fire Temple Found?Archaeologists working inKermanshah Province, Iran,have found what appears tobe a Sasanian Fire Templeannexed to the southern corner of a Parthian manorhouse at the site of Sarab-Mort. It consists of aChahar-Taqi (free-standingZoroastrian Fire Temple),which functioned as a private chapel to the manor.The manor house was builtduring the Parthian Dynasty(248 BC - AD 224) andcontinued in use during thesucceeding SasanianDynasty (AD 224-651),when the temple was added.To discover more about archaeology, theInstitute, and the Museum, contact us at:VOX: 269-471-3273FAX: 269-471-3619E-mail: hornmuseum@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 49103Gladiator Tomb Found:Archaeologists have discovered the tomb of the person who inspiredthe character of the film “Gladiator.” The tomb is on the Tiber Rivernear the via Flaminia, north of Rome. It was collapsed, but itscolumns, roof and decorations were intact. Marcus Nonius Macrinus,born in Brescia in northern Italy, was a general who led military cam-paigns for Emperor Marcus Aurelius from AD 161-180. He was oneof the Emperor’s favorites, also serving as proconsul in Asia.newsletter 29.4.qxp  5/5/2009  11:09 AM  Page 4

The Institute of Archaeology & Siegfried H. Horn Museum Newsletter Volume 29.4

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The Institute of Archaeology & Siegfried H. Horn Museum Newsletter Volume 29.4

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