Publications by Year: 2012

The 1979 Excavations:

• The Site of Agios Georgios (Tomb 1 – Tomb 63, Finds from the cemetery area, Tomb 1989/6)
• The Site of Agios Prodromos (Tomb1-22, objects not assigned to a particular tomb)

Link to the publication page for Volume II

Link to a review of the work from Sardinia, Corsica et Baleares antiqvae : An International Journal of Archaeology (xv · 2017)

The best preserved quarry, dated in the second half of the 4th century BC. is Quarry 2. It covered an area of 450 m2, while the volume of extracted rock reached a total of 1.125 cubic metres. Archaeological research in the region located more sites with traces of ancient quarrying which were scattered over an extensive area, 2 km in length on the lower SE slopes of Vermion Mountain between the Asomata area and Beroia.

The study assembles a corpus of all known sites with traces of ancient poros quarrying in Greece and discusses various issues regarding the extraction methods, the tools, but also the operation and organization of quarries during Classical and Hellenistic times.

The excavated quarries are irrefutable witnesses of quarrying activity in this region of the Old Macedonian kingdom at a time of prosperity and intense building activity in the major Macedonian cities. Their location, between two important cities, Aigai and Beroia, posed a logical question on the extracted material’s destination. To test our hypothesis that the Asomata quarries were operated during the 4th century BC. in order to supply a large building programme at nearby Aigai, which lacks poros deposits, we undertook an interdisciplinary approach.

The analysis results confirm that the samples from the Asomata quarries and ancient monuments of Aigai show clear similarities regarding their mineralogical-petrographical, chemical and isotopic composition. What is important is the creation of a database for poros stone of the region, which can be enriched in the future and become the starting point for future studies on identifying the material provenance of important Macedonian monuments.

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A definitive work by Jordan's ceramic expert, this volume is devoted to typological analysis and descriptions, including drawings of the large corpus of pottery from Tell Hesban and vicinity. Special emphasis on ancient ceramic technology presents the results of petrologic and INAA  research for sherds dating to the LB/Iron, Iron Age, Classical, and Medieval Eras. A total of 12 ware categories, identified for 230 thin sections, characterized sherds dating to the Iron Age through medieval times. Discussions include detailed analysis of: collar rim storage jars; "Ammonite Ware"; clay bodies and non-plastics; cookware fabrics; burnishing; glazing; manufacturing traditions; firing strategies; organization of the pottery industry; Hand-made Geometric Painted Ware; and social implications of changes within the pottery industry over the millennia. The result is an assessment of continuity and change of ceramic bodies found at a single site spanning two millennia.

Major contributors include: Larry Herr (Iron Age), Yvonne Gerber (Hellenistic-Byzantine Periods), Bethany Walker (Islamic Period), Gloria London (technology and petrography), and Robert A. Schuster (technology and petrography).

With contributions by Miriam Avissar, Dan Bahat, David Ben-Shlomo, Ariel Berman, Gabriela Bijovsky, Naama Brosh, Leah Di Segni, Judit Gärtner, Hillel Geva, Ben Gordon, Liora Kolska Horwitz, Omri Lernau, Nili Liphschitz, Jodi Magness, Henk K. Mienis, Ravit Nenner-Soriano, Matthew J. Ponting, Leen Ritmeyer, and Irit Yezerski

From 1969 - 1982 extensive archaeological excavations were conducted in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem under the direction of the late Professor Nahman Avigad on behalf of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Israel Exploration Society, and the Department of Antiquities (now the Israel Antiquities Authority). During these excavations remains of fortifications, public buildings, and domestic dwellings were found, as well as numerous artifacts from all of the periods of the continuous settlement of this area, from the end of the Iron Age through the Ottoman period.

Among the major discoveries made over the course of the Jewish Quarter Excavations are fortifications, part of the northern section of the First Wall that protected the Southwestern Hill of Jerusalem during the First and Second Temple periods; luxurious residences of the Upper City of Jerusalem of the late Second Temple period, including the Palatial Mansion; the Cardo and the Nea Church of the Byzantine period; a public architectural complex including a large hall from the Crusader period; and sections of the southern fortifications of the Islamic city. These and other finds from the excavations in the Jewish Quarter have changed many of the traditional conceptions of the size and topography of ancient Jerusalem.

This volume is the fifth of the final reports of the excavations in the Jewish Quarter. It presents the architectural remains and artifacts from two major Byzantine architectural complexes: the Cardo (Area X), a long, wide colonnaded street that served as the main north-south thoroughfare of the city, and the Nea Church (Areas D and T), one of the largest and most important churches to have been constructed in the Land of Israel in the Byzantine period.

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With contributions by Jacob Lauinger, Monica Louise Philips, Benjamin Studevent-Hickman, and Aage Westenholz

An expedition from the University of Chicago excavted the site of Bismaya (ancient Adab) from December 24, 1903, until late June 1905. The excavations were directed first by Edgar J. Banks and then, briefly, by Victor S. Persons. Over 1,000 artifacts, many of them early cuneiform documents, were sent to Chicago, where they are now housed in the Oriental Institute Museum.

The results of the Bismaya excavations were never properly published, and most of the material was never published at all. Banks wrote a lively and highly readable popular account, Bismaya, or the Lost City of Adab, that appeared in 1912 and gave the impression that his field methods were considerably less than satisfactory. However, that was not the case. Banks kept a careful field diary, complete with highly accurate sketches, and sent detailed weekly reports, lavishly illustrated with his own drawings, back to Chicago. These materials show that he exacted a mid-third-millennium B.B. temple and discovered some of the world's first historical inscriptions incised on stone vessels dedicated in that structure. He also uncovered residences of the late Early Dynastic period, two Akkadian administrative centers, and a palace of the Isin Larsa/Old Babylonia period.

This monograph presents this large and significant corpus of unpublished material and includes analyses of stratigraphy, architecture, sculpture, cylinder seals, metalwork, and pottery, and discussions of chronology, the succession of the first kings of Adab, and administrative practices during the third millennium B.C.

Find out more at the Oriental Institute website

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With contributions by Rina Y. Bankirer, Uri Baruch, Anat Cohen-Weinberger, Yuval Goren, Raphael Greenberg, Mark Iserlis, Mordechai E. Kislev, Ofer Marder, Robert A. Mullins, Nava Panitz-Cohen, Matthew Ponting, Yael Rotem, Irina Segal, Orit Simchoni, Ariel Vered, Dalit Weinblatt, Naama Yahalom-Mack, and Adi Ziv-Esudri

This volume is the fourth and final in the series of final reports on the Beth-Shean Valley Archaeological Project, directed by Amihai Mazar on behalf of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem between the years 1989-1996. The volume presents the results of the excavations at Tel Beth-Shean from the Early Bronze Age and the Intermediate Bronze Age. A substantial EBIB building in Area M was violently destroyed and rebuilt shortly afterwards. Its plan and rich finds have implications on our understanding of social and economic aspects of this formative period. After a gap in Early Bronze II, the Early Bronze III is represented by a series of occupation phases, most of them accompanied by a large amount of Khirbet Kerak Ware, confirming that Beth-Shean was the southernmost settlement site of the 'Khirbet Kerak people'. After a possible occupation gap, an ephemeral Intermediate Bronze Age settlement existed for a short time on top of the abandoned Early Bronze Age city.

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This final report sums up the excavations at the unique desert site of Kuntillet 'Ajrud (Arabic: 'the solitary hill of the water'). The site has no biblical identification. Its Hebrew name, Horvat Teman, was assigned by the excavators due to the appearance of this biblical name (meaning 'the far south') in some of the inscriptions discovered at the site.

The site of Kuntillet 'Ajrud is located in eastern Sinai, in an arid desert region empty of permanent settlements, whose only inhabitants are desert nomads. The site is situated on a prominent hill near a meagre but perennial water sources, near the Darb Ghazza - the ancient road to Elat and southern Sinai. It was a short-lived, single-stratum, one-period site dated by typology and paleography, and confirmed by radiocarbon dating and historical probability, to the beginning of Iron Age IIB (first half of the 8th century BCE).

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Archaeological remains at the site are dispersed over a relatively large area, underlying the modern towns of Azor and Ḥolon (particularly its industrial area). The city is a typical example of the conflict between modern urbanism and thepreservation of ancient remains, where no systematic large-scale, long-term excavations have been undertaken, yet several salvage excavations have revealed a continuous sequence of occupation from the Chalcolithic to the Ottoman periods (Plan 1.1; see Golani and van den Brink 1999: Appendix 1). The lack of systematic investigation makes it very difficult to reconstruct the ancient settlement at any given period. Moreover, most of the remains uncoveredthus far relate to funerary activities.

The tell itself is quite small, however the ancient site appears to have spread beyond its confines, as noted by several large cemeteries, dating from the Chalcolithic period through to modern times. These seem to indicate the presence of a larger settlement than that located on the relatively small tell, yet, it is not possible at this stage to estimate its size. However, the site’s location on the main coastal routes may hint at the use of the area as a regional cemetery in certain periods, catering not only to the site itself. It should be noted that natural caves are common along the kurkar ridges of the region, which can easily be cut for shaft graves.

This volume, the sixth in the Hazor series, is the first to present the results of twenty years of excavation and research by the renewed expedition of Hazor (1990 - 2009). It presents the Iron Age remains uncovered in Area A, located at the center of the Upper City of Hazor. The Bronze Age remains uncovered in this area will be the subject of Hazor VII.

Part I consists of four chapters presenting the stratigraphy of the Iron Age remains (stratum "XII/XI" to Stratum C), which extend over an rea of closet to 4,000m2. The fact that such a large area was excavated led to technical difficulties in present all the structures belonging to a single stratum on one plan. Consequently, the discussion of each stratum begins with a schematic plan, on which each building is identified by its main locus number. Detailed plans of individual buildings accompany the discussion, each with an inset showing its location on the schematic plan.

Part II consists of two chapters providing a detailed discussion of the pottery types uncovered at Hazor. Despite the relegation of the stratigraphical discussion of Stratum IV to Hazor VII, the ceramic assemblage of this stratum is discussed in the present volume, as it reflects the general trends exhibited by the Iron Age ceramic assemblages.

Part III contains twelve chapters presenting other find uncovered in the Iron Age strata at Hazor, as well as analyses of the achaeozoological finds.

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This first volume of the new series titled Cyrrhus is dedicated to the excavations of the French mission, particularly to the worked done on the theater between 1952 and 1993. The mission, led by Edmond Frezouls, focused its excavation work on the theater, which was dated to the second half of the second century AD by the excavator himself.

This publication is divided into three chapters:

The introduction presents the entire work of the mission in a chronological order. The next two chapters are written by Edmond Frezouls on the history of Cyrrhus and Northern Syria as well as the history of the theater. The third and last chapter discusses the recent researches done by the Lebanese-Syrian mission of Cyrrhus on the theater while referencing the old documentation and the archaeological material found by the previous (older) mission. New researches and observations are also included in this volume which will be the starting point for a new publications that will encompass the new day on the theater and on the project as a whole.

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