Happy to share the new books and new journal volumes that are available now in our library:
The Acceleration of Cultural Change : From Ancestors to Algorithms (2017) | R. Alexander Bentley and Michael J. O'Brien
How culture evolves through algorithms rather than knowledge inherited from ancestors. From our hunter-gatherer days, we humans evolved to be excellent throwers, chewers, and long-distance runners. We are highly social, crave Paleolithic snacks, and display some gendered difference resulting from mate selection. But we now find ourselves binge-viewing, texting while driving, and playing Minecraft. Only the collective acceleration of cultural and technological evolution explains this development. The evolutionary psychology of individuals—the drive for “food and sex”—explains some of our current habits, but our evolutionary success, Alex Bentley and Mike O'Brien explain, lies in our ability to learn cultural know-how and to teach it to the next generation. Today, we are following social media bots as much as we are learning from our ancestors. We are radically changing the way culture evolves. Bentley and O'Brien describe how the transmission of culture has become vast and instantaneous across an Internet of people and devices, after millennia of local ancestral knowledge that evolved slowly. Long-evolved cultural knowledge is aggressively discounted by online algorithms, which prioritize popularity and recency. If children are learning more from Minecraft than from tradition, this is a profound shift in cultural evolution.
Khirbet Wadi Hamam : A Roman-period Village and Synagogue in the Lower Galilee (2018) | Uzi Leibner
Khirbet Wadi Ḥamam is a Roman-period village located at the base of the cliffs of Mt. Nitai and above the gorge of Naḥal Arbel, two km west of the Sea of Galilee. In an attempt to shed new light on a number of topics concerning village-life in Roman Galilee, primarily the debated question of the date of ‘Galilean’-type synagogues, the site was excavated between 2007–2012 by an expedition from the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In addition to the synagogue and its surroundings, excavations were carried out in a series of domestic and public structures and spaces, agricultural installations and in the village, as well as along a massive fortification located on the summit of Mt. Nitai, accompanied by a survey of numerous caves in the cliffs between the village and the mountaintop. The rich remains opened a wide window onto the material culture of rural Roman Galilee, enabling us to trace and delineate the history of a typical local village from its establishment in the Hasmonean period until its final abandonment at the beginning of the Byzantine era. The findings bear implications for various aspects in the study of ancient Galilee: the beginning of Jewish settlement in the region in the Second Temple period, the Jewish revolts against Rome, ancient economy, rural life and livelihood, communal organization, domestic architecture, household utensils, ancient diet and above all, the art, architecture and date of the ‘Galilean’-type synagogues.
Edom at the Edge of Empire : A Social and Political History (2021) | Brad Crowell
Edom at the Edge of Empire combines biblical, epigraphic, archaeological, and comparative evidence to reconstruct the history of Judah's neighbor to the southeast. Crowell traces the material and linguistic evidence, from early Egyptian sources that recall conflicts with nomadic tribes to later Assyrian texts that reference compliant Edomite tribal kings, to offer alternative scenarios regarding Edom's transformation from a collection of nomadic tribes and workers in the Wadi Faynan as it relates to the later polity centered around the city of Busayra in the mountains of southern Jordan. This is the first book to incorporate the important evidence from the Wadi Faynan copper mines into a thorough account of Edom's history, providing a key resource for students and scholars of the ancient Near East and the Hebrew Bible.
The Syro-Anatolian City-States: An Iron Age Culture (2021) | James F. Osborne
This book presents a new model for understanding the collection of ancient kingdoms that surrounded the northeast corner of the Mediterranean Sea from the Cilician Plain in the west to the upper Tigris River in the east, and from Cappadocia in the north to western Syria in the south, during the Iron Age of the ancient Near East (ca. 1200 to 600 BCE). Rather than presenting them as homogenous ethnolinguistic communities like "the Aramaeans" or "the Luwians" living in neatly bounded territories, this book sees these polities as being fundamentally diverse and variable, distinguished by demographic fluidity and cultural mobility. The Syro-Anatolian City-States sheds new light via an examination of a host of evidentiary sources, including archaeological site plans, settlement patterns, visual arts, and historical sources. Together, these lines of evidence reveal a complex fusion of cultural traditions that is nevertheless distinctly recognizable unto itself. This book is the first to specifically characterize the Iron Age city-states of southeastern Turkey and northern Syria, arguing for a unified cultural formation characterized above all by diversity and mobility and that can be referred to as the "Syro-Anatolian Culture Complex."
Approaching Biblical Archaeology (2022) | Anthony J. Frendo
Anthony J. Frendo introduces biblical students and scholars alike to the discipline of archaeology by explaining how the minds of professional archaeologists work, explaining what archaeologists seek, how they go about doing so, and how they interpret their data. Frendo shows those engaged in biblical scholarship how they can properly integrate biblical research with archaeological discoveries in a way that allows the bible and archaeology to be viewed and kept as distinct disciplines, the respective results of which, where relevant, may be integrated in productive discussion.
Frendo also examines how the archaeology of the ancient Near East (particularly that of the southern Levant) has an essential bearing on how scholars can better appreciate the text of the bible, including its religious message. Frendo examines such matters as artefacts, stratigraphy and chronology, and archaeological reasoning. He also demonstrates that, whilst generally it is archaeology that casts light on the biblical text, at points biblical interpretation can help archaeologists to understand certain data.
Gender Stereotypes in Archaeology : A short reflection in image and text (2021) | Laura Coltofean-Arizancu, Bisserka Gaydarska and Uroš Matić (eds.)
Were men the only hunters and producers of tools, art and innovation in prehistory? Were women the only gatherers, home-bound breeders and caregivers? Are all prehistoric female depictions mother goddesses? And do women and men have equal career chances in archaeology? To put it short, no. However, these are some of the gender stereotypes that we still encounter on a daily basis in archaeology from the way archaeologists interpret the past and present it to the general public to how they practice it as a profession.
This booklet is a short but informative and critical response by archaeologists to various gender stereotypes that exist in the archaeological explanation of the past, as well as in the contemporary disciplinary practice. Gender and feminist archaeologists have fought for decades against gender stereotypes through academic writing, museum exhibitions and popular literature, among others. Despite their efforts, many of these stereotypes continue to live and even flourish, both in academic and non-academic settings, especially in countries where gender archaeology does not exist or where gender in archaeology is barely discussed. Given this context and the rise of far right or ultraconservative ideologies and beliefs across the globe, this booklet is a timely and thought-provoking contribution that openly addresses often uncomfortable topics concerning gender in archaeology, in an attempt to raise awareness both among the professionals and others interested in the discipline.
Göltepe Excavations : Tin Production at an Early Bronze Age Mining Town in the Central Taurus Mountains, Turkey (2021) | Kutlu Aslıhan Yener
This volume presents over fifteen years (1981–1996) of archaeometallurgy surveys and specifically the excavations of an Early Bronze Age miners’ village, Göltepe and its associated tin mine, Kestel. The results of the surface surveys, test pit operations, profile trenches and excavation finds demonstrate that processing of cassiterite-rich ore was the primary function of activities at Göltepe. The variety and density of tin-rich vitrified crucibles as well as ground, powdered tin-rich ore from excavated contexts were only some of the several lines of evidence. Other finds indicated that the site was profoundly associated with metal production. Weighty evidence came in the numbers of multifaceted molds, ingots and tin bronze artifacts. Furthermore, 50,000 ground stone tools for ore dressing and vitrified material grinding were estimated on the site surface, while 5,000 came from excavated contexts. Early Bronze Age Göltepe and Kestel Mine represent the as-yet unique example of the highland production model, that is, the industrial tier 1 of the extraction and processing of raw materials for the production of metal artifacts. This model entails the mining and smelting operations in the metalliferously rich ore deposits and forests, usually located in the mountains, in this case, the central Taurus Mountains in southern Turkey.
In the Shadow of Empire : Israel and Judah in the Long Sixth Century BCE (2021) | Pamela Barmash and Mark W. Hamilton (eds.)
The essays in this volume revisit issues of exile and occupation during the sixth century BCE through texts, iconography, and material culture. Unlike previous studies that focused narrowly on the Babylonian exile of the Judahite elites, this volume widens the geographical and temporal scope to include the Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian Empires. Contributors Pamela Barmash, Ryan P. Bonfiglio, Caralie Cooke, Lisbeth S. Fried, Martien A. Halvorson-Taylor, Mark W. Hamilton, Matt Waters, and Ian D. Wilson lay a firm foundation for future work on the long sixth century.
Ashkelon 8 : The Islamic and Crusader Periods (2019) | Tracy Hoffman
This eighth installment in the series of Final Reports of The Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon presents a synthetic study of the remains dating to the seventh through the twelfth centuries. Bringing together contributions from specialists on architecture, fortifications, ceramics, small finds, and organic remains, Ashkelon 8 opens a window onto everyday life during a period when Ashkelon was one of the most important cities in the southern Levant.
Glossaire sumérien–français : Principalement des textes littéraires paléobabyloniens (2021) | Pascal Attinger
The Glossaire sumerien-francais, principalement des textes litteraires paleobabyloniens (Sumerian - French Glossary, Primarily Based on Old Babylonian Literary Texts) endeavours to fill one of the most glaring gaps in modern Sumerology by providing a much-needed printed glossary that satisfies scientific standards. The oeuvre does not strive for completeness but offers an expansive choice of words taken from Old Babylonian literary texts from the beginning of the 2nd millennium BCE. Particular attention has been paid to (idiomatic) expressions of the type 'noun (+ noun) + verb' such as si "horn" + gu3 "voice" + ra "to beat" = "to sound the horn." More than one thousand of such expressions have been registered. In more than 3.700 lexicographical notes, some of which extensive, Pascal Attinger clarifies the reading of difficult lexemes, discusses the meaning of rare or unclear terms and provides a detailed bibliography which will facilitate further research. The glossary itself is preceded by a catalogue of cited compositions including abundant bibliographical references and, where applicable, information on new duplicates, a comprehensive discussion of the importance of a consistent transliteration, as well as a concordance of common readings and those adopted in the Glossary.
Sha'ar Hagolan 4 : The Ground-stone Industry : Stone Working at the Dawn of Pottery Production in the Southern Levant (2014) | Danny Rosenberg and Yosef Garfinkel
The 1331 ground-stone implements, which are the focus of this volume in the Sha‛ar Hagolan publication series, were retrieved from the large courtyard buildings. The main contributions of this report are threefold. Firstly, it gives a full and comprehensive descriptive account of the entire ground-stone assemblage of Sha‛ar Hagolan and thus enables comparison to other ground-stone assemblages and databases. Secondly, the structure of this book, divided into chapters each dealing with a specific tool type or group of types, allows us to focus on the specific characteristics and distinctive traits of the tools, including their typology, morphology, technology of production and other aspects. Finally, we offer a comprehensive discussion of the assemblage and the Yarmukian ground-stone industry.
Anthracology: Charcoal Science in Archaeology and Palaeoecology : (2021) | Eleni Asouti and Ceren Kabukcu (eds.)
Content
Anthracology: Charcoal Science in Archaeology and Palaeoecology - Eleni Asouti, Ceren Kabukcu
Sampling and quantitative analysis methods in anthracology from archaeological contexts: Achievements and prospects - Ceren Kabukcu, Lucie Chabal
Reconstructing the heterogeneity of past woodlands in anthracology using the spatial distribution of charcoals in archaeological layers: Applied to the postglacial occupation of the Abeurador cave (Hérault) in the South of France - Lucie Chabal, Christine Heinz
Evaluating sampling methods in charcoal-rich layers and high diversity environment: A case study from the Later Stone Age of Bushman Rock Shelter, South Africa - Elysandre Puech, Marion Bamford, Guillaume Porraz, Aurore Val, Isabelle Théry-Parisot
Best practices for digitizing a wood slide collection: The Bailey-Wetmore Wood Collection of the Harvard University Herbaria - Madelynn von Baeyer, John M. Marston
Xylophagous insects of the wooden floor of Camelin block (Fréjus, France): An interdisciplinary approach combining archaeology and anthraco-entomology - Magali Toriti, Aline Durand, Pierre Excoffon, Fabien Fohrer
Wood as a structural element in the houses of Akrotiri on Thera, Greece. The anthracological evidence - Antigoni Mavromati
New climatic approaches to the analysis of the middle Paleolithic sequences: Combined taxonomic and isotopic charcoal analyses on a Neanderthal settlement, Les Canalettes (Aveyron, France) - Benjamin Audiard, Liliane Meignen, Thierry Blasco, Giovanna Battipaglia, Isabelle Théry-Parisot
A reconstruction of woody vegetation, environment and wood use at Sibudu Cave, South Africa, based on charcoal that is dated between 73 and 72 ka - Bongekile Zwane, Marion Bamford
Vegetation change in southeastern Greece during the Late Pleistocene. The wood charcoal record from Klissoura Cave 1 (Peloponnese, Greece) - Maria Ntinou
Landscape and fuel management in the context of prehistoric and historical occupations of Cova des Moro (Manacor, Mallorca, Spain) - Yolanda Carrión Marco, Damià Ramis, Jaume Coll Conesa
Firewood-gathering strategies in high mountain areas of the Parc Nacional d’Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici (Central Pyrenees) during Prehistory - Laura Obea Gómez, Mireia Celma Martinez, Raquel Piqué Huerta, Ermengol Gassiot Ballbè, ... Ignacio Clemente Conte
Mid-Holocene palaeoenvironmental record from the Atlantic Band of Cádiz (SW Spain) based on pollen and charcoal data - Paloma Uzquiano, Blanca Ruiz-Zapata, Ma José Gil-Garcia, Eduardo Vijande, ... Manolo Montañés
Environment and horticulture in the Byzantine Negev Desert, Israel: sustainability, prosperity and enigmatic decline - Dafna Langgut, Yotam Tepper, Mordechay Benzaquen, Tali Erickson-Gini, Guy Bar-Oz
Environmental reconstruction and wood use at Late Chalcolithic Çamlıbel Tarlası, Turkey - John M. Marston, Peter Kováčik, Ulf-Dietrich Schoop
Long–term history of woodland under human impact, archaeoanthracological synthesis for lowlands in Czech Republic - Jan Novák, Romana Kočárová, Petr Kočár, Vojtěch Abraham
Open canopy forests of the loess regions of southern Poland: A review based on wood charcoal assemblages from Neolithic and Bronze Age archaeological sites - Magdalena Moskal-del Hoyo
After the flood and with the people – Late Holocene changes of the woody vegetation in the southwestern Chad Basin, Nigeria - Alexa Höhn, Peter Breunig, Detlef Gronenborn, Katharina Neumann
A step forward in tropical anthracology: understanding woodland vegetation and wood uses in ancient Sri Lanka based on charcoal records from Mantai, Kirinda and Kantharodai - Ethel Allué, Charlene Murphy, Eleanor Kingwell-Banham, Wijerathne Bohingamuwa, ... Dorian Q. Fuller
Anthracological analysis from the Bronze Age site of Erlitou (Henan province, China) - Shuzhi Wang, Haitao Zhao, Guoliang Chen, Hong Xu, Marvin Demicoli
What was burning in the past? Charcoal identifications supplement an early-Holocene fire-history reconstruction in Yellowstone National Park, USA - Dominique Marguerie, Teresa R. Krause, Cathy Whitlock
Trees, shrubs, and forests at Joya de Cerén, a Late Classic Mesoamerican village - Venicia Slotten, David L. Lentz
Wood resource exploitation by Late Holocene occupations in central Argentina: Fire making in rockshelters of the ongamira valley (Córdoba, Argentina) - Andrés Robledo
2500 years of charcoal production in the Low Countries: The chronology and typology of charcoal kilns and their relation with early iron production - Koen Deforce, Bert Groenewoudt, Kristof Haneca
High resolution reconstruction of modern charcoal production kilns: An integrated approach combining dendrochronology, micromorphology and anthracology in the French Pyrenees - Léonel Fouédjeu, Mélanie Saulnier, Mathieu Lejay, Martin Dušátko, ... Vanessa Py-Saragaglia
Firewood and timber collection and management strategies from early medieval sites in eastern England. Initial results from the anthraco-typological analysis of oak charcoal remains - Robert Francis, Alexa Dufraisse
Dendro-anthracological tools applied to Scots type pine forests exploitation as fuel during the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in the southern central pre-Pyrenees (Spain) - Marta Alcolea, Alexa Dufraisse, María Royo, Carlos Mazo, ... Ramón Fábregas
Late Holocene Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis Miller) woodlands in Mallorca (Balearic Islands, Western Mediterranean): Investigation of their distribution and the role of human management based on anthracological, dendro-anthracological and archaeopalynological data - Llorenç Picornell-Gelabert, Gabriel Servera-Vives, Yolanda Carrión Marco, Francesc Burjachs, ... Maurici Mus Amézquita
Looking for the invisible: The use of anthracological analysis to reveal ritual acts in the eneolithic cremations of Puglia (SE Italy) - Giorgia Aprile, Girolamo Fiorentino
Food for the dead, fuel for the pyre: symbolism and function of plant remains in provincial Roman cremation rituals in the necropolis of Bracara Augusta (NW Iberia) - Filipe Costa Vaz, Cristina Braga, João Pedro Tereso, Cláudia Oliveira, ... Manuela Martins
Use of decayed wood for funerary practices: Archaeobotanical analysis of funerary wooden artefacts from Prehispanic (ca. 400–1500 CE) Gran Canaria (Canary Islands, Spain) - Paloma Vidal-Matutano, Teresa Delgado-Darias, Néstor López-Dos Santos, Pedro Henríquez-Valido, ... Verónica Alberto-Barroso
Woodworking technology during the early Neolithic: First results at the site of La Marmotta (Italy) - L. Caruso Fermé, M. Mineo, M. Ntinou, G. Remolins, ... J.F. Gibaja
Woodworking in the cliffs? Xylological and morpho-technological analyses of wood remains in the Prehispanic granaries of Gran Canaria (Canary Islands, Spain) - Paloma Vidal-Matutano, Amelia Rodríguez-Rodríguez, María del Cristo González-Marrero, Jacob Morales, ... Marco Antonio Moreno-Benítez
Wood technology of Patagonian hunter-gatherers: Selection and use of woody resources as raw material - Laura Caruso Fermé
Interpreting Judean Pillar Figurines (2014) | Erin Darby
Judean pillar figurines are one of the most common ritual objects from Iron II Israel. These small terracotta females have received a great deal of scholarly attention, appearing in discussions about Israelite religion, monotheism, and women's practice. Yet the figurines are still poorly understood. Modern interpreters connect the figurines with goddesses, popular religion, and females but often base their arguments on the presumed significance of the figurines' breasts and the Hebrew Bible. In contrast, archaeological context is frequently overshadowed or oversimplified. In an attempt to address these problems and to understand figurine rituals in Jerusalem, Erin Darby evaluates relevant Near Eastern texts, archaeological context, biblical texts, and Near Eastern iconography. She also explores changes in figurine iconography, the function of the figurines in rituals of healing and protection and the gender of figurine users.
קתדרה, גיליון 179, 2021
דביר רביב וחיים בן-דוד - תוצאותיה הדמוגרפיות של מלחמת בר-כוכבא על פי קסיוס דיו: דיווח מהימן או גוזמה בעלמא?
קייט רפאל ומוסטפא עבאסי - תפרוסת הכפרים בגליל בתקופה הממלוכית ובראשית התקופה העות'מאנית, 1260–1746: משבר או המשכיות?
יוסי בן-ארצי - עדות בנוף - נויהרדטהוף: מושבת-בת טמפלרית נשכחת
יגאל שפי - הפשיטה על נצרת, 19–20 בספטמבר 1918: ערעור יציבת היריב
אילה שקלאר ויוסי כץ - העיתון 'ההד' כמעצב תרבות חרדית-ציונית בהשראת הראי"ה קוק, 1926–1933
רענן ריין - מחירן הכבד של הכרעות אישיות: פנחס חפץ והמתנדבים הארץ-ישראלים במלחמת האזרחים הספרדית
יורם פריד - המטה הכללי ושאלת השימוש ביישובים אזרחיים כחלק ממערך ההגנה של צה"ל לאחר מלחמת העצמאות
ארנון גולן - לגלות חוקר: אדוארד רובינסון ומסעו לארץ הקודש
גיל גורדון - צמיחתה של תרבות אדריכלית בירושלים המנדטורית
אביבה חלמיש- 'רְאִי, אֲדָמָה [...] הֵא לָךְ הַטּוֹבִים בְּבָנֵינוּ'
Israel Exploration Journal Vol. 71 (2) 2021
Rethinking the Iron Age Carmel Coast: A Coastal and Maritime Prespective - Ehud Arkin Shalev, Ehud Galili, Paula Waiman-Barak and Assaf Yasur-Landau
Notes on the Date and Function of Samaria Ostraca - Israel Finkelstein
Chalk-Stone Vessels in the Southern Golan: Archaeological, Historical, and Cultural Contexts - Sharya Fridman
Finds from the Bar-Kokhba Revolt on the Cliffsides of Wadi Charition (Nahal Teqoa) - Dvir Raviv, Micka Ullman, Boaz Langford, Amos Frumkin, Roi Porat and Boaz Zissu
The Arabic Papyri from Early Islamic Nessana - Robert G. Hoyland
Palestine Exploration Quarterly Vol. 153 (4) 2021
Guest Editorial: The Rockefeller Museum - Jonathan N. Tubb
‘I am sorry for troubling you with the bother of replying! But I really want to know’: An unpublished letter by T. E. Lawrence to Max van Berchem about a Mameluke inscription from Naqb (Sinai/Negev) - Massimiliano Munzi & Corinne Sandoz
The Lion’s Mausoleum of Hippos of the Decapolis - Michael Eisenberg
Building 101 at Tel ‘Eton, the Low Chronology, and the Perils of a Bias-Perpetuating Methodology: A Response and a Proposal for the Study of All the Phases in the History of Buildings -Avraham Faust & Yair Sapir