Ray, Paul J.

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Andrews University

Andrews University Digital Commons @ Andrews University Faculty Publications Winter 1-1-2018 ASOR 2017 Annual Meeting Paul J. Ray Andrews University, rayp@andrews.edu Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/pubs Recommended Citation Ray, Paul J., "ASOR 2017 Annual Meeting" (2018). Faculty Publications. 2898. https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/pubs/2898 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ Andrews University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Andrews University. For more information, please contact repository@andrews.edu. Table of ContentsPageASOR 2017Hess LectureRandom SurveyINSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGYHORN ARCHAEOLOGICALMUSEUMNEWSLETTERPaul J. Ray, Jr.                                EditorConstance E. Gane             Assoc. EditorRandall W. Younker            Assoc. EditorRobert D. Bates                  Assoc. EditorDorian Alexander                  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, 9047US 31, Berrien Springs, MI 49104-0990,Telephone 269-471-3273, Fax 269-471-3619, e-mail hornmusm@andrews.edu.Volume 39.2 Spring 2018ISSN 1095-2837                                   ASOR 2017 Annual MeetingThe Annual Meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) was held inBoston from November 15-18, 2017. This year there were 120 sessions, in which over 650 papersand posters were presented. The plenary address was presented by William Boardman, Professor ofFine Arts at Harvard University, entitled “Archaeology, Object History, Art History: Questions ofDefinition and Discipline.”       This year was the 50th anniversary of the Madaba Plains Project and its predecessor theAndrews University Heshbon Expedition. In connection with this celebration three separateMadaba Plains Project at 50 sections took place, one for each major excavation site: Heshbon,‘Umayri and Jalul. Those Madaba Plains Project Members and affiliates who presented papers inthese sections included: Lawrence Geraty (Contextualizing the Quest for Biblical Heshbon at TallHisban); Bert deVries (Contextualizing the Quest for Early Christianity at Esbus);  Bethany Walker(Contextualizing the Quest for Islamic Housban at Tall Hisban); Forde Jacobsen (Al Musallah:Local Ideas About Tal Hisban); Øystein LaBianca Contextualizing the Quest Theories of theLongue Durée at Tall Hisban); Timothy Harrison (Contextualizing MPP at Tall al-‘Umayri: TheEarly Bronze Age); Kent Bramlett (Contextualizing MPP at Tall al-‘Umayri: The Late BronzeAge); Douglass Clark (Contextualizing MPP at Tall al-‘Umayri: The Early Iron Age); Larry Herr(Contextualizing MPP at Tall al-‘Umayri: The Late Iron Age and Early Persian Period); GaryChristopherson (What Happened When the Tall al-‘Umayri Regional Met Fernand Braduel’sTemporal Hierarchy?); David Merling and Randall Younker (In the Trenches at Jalul: Struggles,Strategies, Discoveries); Constance Gane (Jalul and the Empires of the North); Paul Gregor (TallJalul: What Happened to Amorite Heshbon?); Paul Ray (Jalul and the Mesha Inscription: Was Jalul Paul Ray, Randall Younker, Gerald Mattingly, William Dever and David Merling at ASOR. 124(cont’d on p. 2)Biblical Bezer?); and Randall Younker(Jalul and the Modified High Chronologyfor Iron Age IIA-B).Other Madaba Plains ProjectMembers and affiliates who presentedpapers this year that were not connectedwith the MPP 50th anniversary included:Michael Hasel (Socho of the JudeanShephelah: The 2010 Survey); MoniqueVincent (Households, Communities, andDimensions of Social Identity in the EarlyIron Age at Tall al-‘Umayri, Jordan); S.Thomas Parker (Ceramic Imports toPetra: Domestic versus FuneraryContexts); Abelardo Rivas (Jalul as aBorder City in Iron Age Transjordan),Michael Orellana (Building an Iron IIB-IIC Pottery Assemblage for Tall Jalul);Trisha Broy (Working Toward aDefinition of the Collard-rim Pithos);Friedbert Ninow, Monique Vincent andKent Bramlett (The 2017 Season atKhirbat al-Balu‘a—In Search of Patternsof Settlement); Robert Bates and PaulRay (Between the Roads: An Update onthe Iron Age Roads at Tall Jalul 2016-2017); Helen Dixon (The “Look” and“Feel” of Levantine Phoenician SacredSpace); and Ralph Hawkins with DavidBen-Shlomo (The Bedouin at Modern Rasel-Auja and the Early Iron Age Settlers atKhirbet el-Mastarah). Those MPP members who chairedsessions of the program this year include:Øystein LaBianca and Lawrence Geraty(Madaba Plains Project 50: Hisban);Douglas Clark and Larry Herr (MadabaPlains Project 50: Tall al-‘Umayri,Randall Younker (Madaba Plains Project50: Jalul); Timothy Harrison (TheCRANE Project I and II); and OwenChesnut (Archaeology of the SouthernLevant I, II, and III). In addition BethanyWalker presided over the Consultation ofDig Directors in Jordan.In a workshop on gender-related situ-ations in the workplace, dealing withbroadly-based gender-related issues in thefield, in grad school, in the academy andother work places, Stefanie Elkins-Batespresented a paper entitled “A ProfessionalWoman Working in Jordan.”  In addition,Douglas Clark and Kent Bramlettpresided over the Madaba Plains Projectand Khirbat Balu‘a Workshop; with Clarkalso presiding over the Madaba RegionalMuseum Project Workshop.The Poster session included entriesby Jeff Hudon (Refreshing anArchaeological Site: The Example of TallHisban, Jordan); Kristina Reed, SarahBurton, Lawrence Geraty, ØysteinLaBianca, Randall Younker and DouglasClark (Golden Excavations: Fifty Years ofthe Madaba Plains Project); Kristina Reed(Tall al-‘Umayri: 32 Years of Excavationsand Discoveries); and Randall Younker(Highlights from the Heights of Jalul).Concurrent Annual Meetings of theSociety of Biblical Literature (SBL) andthe Near East Archaeological Society(NEASB) were held from November 18-21, and 15-17, 2017 respectively. (Paul J.Ray, Jr). Hess LectureOn Oct. 23, 2016 Richard Hess,professor of Old Testament studies atDenver Seminary, presented a lectureentitled “King Lists, Names, and the Linefrom Adam to Abram in Genesis 1-11” aspart of the Horn Museum Lecture Series.Hess opened his lecture by explainingthat his goal was to use ancient NearEastern materials to study the Genesisgenealogies, and to suggest how compara-tive material enlightens the questionsconnected with them. To achieve this, heanalyzed literary comparisons, especiallythe king lists and what such observationsmight say about the origins andcontributions of comparative material. When looking at the genealogies inGen 5 and 11, ancient Near Easterncomparisons have focused on king lists,e.g., King, who argued that names fromthe Sumerian Kings List (SKL) are foundin Gen 5 and 11; Jacobsen, who suggestedthat the purpose of the SKL was topromote national feeling; Hallo, whofurther suggested its purpose was topromote unity under a single king, andthat there always be only one king whoruled. Lambert suggested that before 1600BC the term “x son of y” referred to abiological or adopted son, with nogenerations between them, but after thistime it could refer to missing generations.But “son of” does not occur in Gen 5 or11. In the 1960s Reiner and Landsbergerreconstructed a tradition about the sevenapkallu as the pre-Flood fish (monsters)that brought about the collapse ofcivilization. Each apkallu correspond to aking and brings some new aspect ofcivilization. In this sense, they werecomparable to the line of Cain in Gen 4.Later Finkelstein argued that the SKLhas kings reign between 6,000-72,000years, which is much more than in Gen 5or 11. He compared the apkallu and thepre-Flood kings with the lists in Gen 4and 5, because both have dual lines (SKLthe apkallu and pre-Flood kings; Genesisthe lines of Cain and Seth). In both cases,the first line doesn’t continue after flood(the apkallu and Cain), but the secondline (kingship and Seth) returns afterflood. There are also similar names inboth lines (e.g., En-men-gal-ana/An-men-gal-ana; Methushael/Methuselah). But,there is no convincing evidence betweenthe names in the SKL and Gen. 5 and 11.Lambert then compared Gen 1-11 to theAtrahasis Epic, and noted that the creationand flood accounts in both occur in alarger literary narrative. Finkelstein alsopublished Tablet BM80328, whichcontains rulers of the 1st Dynasty ofBabylon. Some of the names correspondwith known Amorite tribes, as well as tonames at the beginning of the AssyrianKing List (e.g., Tu-ub-ti-ya-mu-tu /Tudiya-Adamu). This is not a king list, but aritual text with a religious purpose (likeGen 5 and 11), and thus part of a largerperspective.Hallo also argued that there was agenealogical orientation by theBabylonians ca. 200 BC, a notionfurthered Malamut, who also observed asimilar numerical grouping of 10-12names both in the king lists and Gen 5and 11. However, Wilson, who comparedethnographical, oral, and tribal genealo-gies in order to gain an overview of their

ASOR 2017 Annual Meeting

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ASOR 2017 Annual Meeting

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