Raiders of the Faux Ark
ASOR vice president for programs challenges those who claim to make 'fantastic' archaeological discoveries in Boston Globe article.

Precarious Scholarship:
Problems with Proposing that the Seal of Yzbl was Queen Jezebel's

posted 3/9/06
The W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem is pleased to announce the winner of the fifth annual competition for the Sean W. Dever Memorial Prize. This award offers $500 for the best published article or paper presented at a conference by a Ph.D. candidate in Syro-Palestinian and Biblical Archaeology. Authors may be of any nationality but the article or paper must be in English.

This year's winner is John D. M. Green, Institute of Archaeology, University College London. His paper is entitled "Anklets and the Construction of Gender and Age in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age Southern Levant." It was presented at the 2005 Annual Meetings of the American Schools of Oriental Research, in the World of Women: Gender and Archaeology session. In addition, it will be published in a forthcoming book, Women in Antiquity, Women in Archaeology, edited by S. Hamilton, R. D. Whitehouse and K. I Wright and published by UCL Press, London.

The Sean W. Dever Memorial Prize was established in 2001 by Professor William G. Dever and Mrs. Norma Dever in memory of their son Sean.

posted 8/05 
ASOR works to help preserve Afghanistan's natural heritage.

posted 9/7/05
ASOR is co-sponsoring several lectures and events in the Boston and Worcester areas as part of its celebration of Massachusetts Archaeology Month. See the complete schedule for details.

posted 8/29/05
Student fellowships are available for travel to and lodging at our Annual Meeting in Philadelphia this November. Please see the fellowship page for more information.

posted 5/13/05
At their meeting on April 30, 2005, the CAARI Board of Trustees elected Gustave Feissel of Santa Rosa, California, as their new President. Mr. Feissel retired in 1998 from a long career with the United Nations. From 1992 to 1998 he held the position of Assistant Secretary-General and Chief of Mission of UN Operations in Cyprus. He joined the CAARI board in 2000, and served as its Treasurer from 2002 until his election to the Presidency.

posted 5/4/05
The AIAR will be hosting a seminar this June on "New insights on the Archaeology of the Ottoman and Mandate periods in the southern Levant" (read the program).

posted 1/28/05
ASOR member Suzanne Richard's Near Eastern Archaeology: A Reader has been recognized by the American Library Association's "Choice" magazine as an "Outstanding Academic Title." The book was published by Eisenbrauns in 2003 (read more on the book).

posted 1/26/05
ASOR is seeking an experienced professional for a Development Director position. Read the job posting and apply by January 31, 2005.

posted 11/30/04
A series of Honors and Awards were given out at our 2004 Annual Meeting in November. Review the list of the honorees and congratulate your colleagues.

posted 7/13/04
ASOR is joining other archaeological research organizations in participating in public events during Massachusetts Archaeology Month this October, 2004. See the schedule of events for more information on co-sponsored events in Amherst, Worcester, Boston, and Cambridge.

posted 7/8/04
A unique program to help restore the University of Babylon's library, destroyed in last year's looting, is now in place. Books on Middle Eastern archaeology and history are badly needed and can be donated in the U.S. via the al-Sharaka program. Read how to donate your books to the library.

posted 5/18/04
The Chair of our Committee on Annual Meeting and Program, Eric Cline, has been featured in an interview on the subject of Troy on this National Geographic online article.

posted 5/14/04
New web pages highlighting the activities of CASOR, the American Schools of Oriental Research in Canada, are now posted.

Nominate a deserving scholar for one of ASOR's Honors and Awards - the deadline for nominations has been extended to June 30, 2004.

posted 4/14/04
ASOR has been mentioned in a New Yorker article on the James ossuary for our policy on refusing to publish illicitly-excavated antiquities (see our antiquities policy). The article, "Written in Stone" by David Samuels, appears on pages 48-59 of the April 12, 2004 issue of The New Yorker.

posted 3/30/04
The W. F. Albright Institute is pleased to announce the 2004 winner of the Sean W. Dever Memorial Prize, Ms. Christine Thompson of the University of California, Los Angeles. Ms. Thompson's paper is entitled "Sealed Silver in Iron Age Cisjordan and the 'Invention' of Coinage."

posted 3/22/04
An upcoming seminar at the Albright Institute in Jerusalem will explore pastoral and agricultural societies through archaeological and ethnoarchaeological data. Read more about this program, entitled "On the Fringe of Society" scheduled for June 3, 2004.

posted 1/29/04
The ASOR Board appointed Douglas R. Clark as our new Executive Director at their November 2003 Board Meeting in Atlanta. We are pleased to welcome Doug to the staff of ASOR in Boston.

The Call for Papers for our 2004 Annual Meeting is now available. Paper submissions must be made by April 1 for consideration by section chairs.

posted 12/31/03
The seminar on the Wadi Arabah associated with our Annual Meeting in November 2003 has been featured in an article in the New York Times. Registration (free) is required to view the article. John Noble Wilford writes "The region between the Negev of Israel and southern Jordan is increasingly fascinating to scholars who pursue what could be called the archaeology of borderlands."

posted 12/11/03
An NEH seminar in "Aramaic in Post-Biblical Judaism and Early Christianity" is being offered by Duke University in summer of 2004, co-directed by ASOR Board member Eric Meyers.

A four-day conference on "The Levant in Transition - the Intermediate Early Bronze Age" will take place at the British Museum in April 2004, organized by ASOR member Jonathan Tubb. Online registration and more information is available via the link above.

posted 12/10/03
A series of job postings is available on our Position Announcement page.

posted 10/3/03
Not only the program but the abstracts for our upcoming Annual Meeting in Atlanta are now available online. Just click on the 'abstracts' link to the right of the session name to review them, or click on 'papers' link to see a summary of the papers to be given in that session.

posted 9/30/03
ASOR joins the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) in supporting House Bill 2009 which would help prevent illegally exported Iraqi antiquities from entering the U.S. Ultimately, this action could help prevent some of the devastating looting that is currently occurring at sites in Iraq by removing some of the demand for these artifacts. See more information on HR 2009.

posted 9/26/03
ASOR is co-sponsoring a free public lecture at Emory University on November 20, 2003. Featured will be Dr. Edward Bleiberg of the Brooklyn Art Museum, speaking on Jewish Life in Ancient Egypt. See more information on this public lecture in Atlanta.

posted 7/25/03
An article on the 'James ossuary' by Prof. Eric Meyers on the Bible and Interpretation website lauds ASOR's handling of the controversy surrounding this artifact and praises our antiquities policy.

posted 7/17/03
A history of ASOR's Baghdad School, active in Iraq between 1923 and 1969, is now available.

posted 6/17/03
The ASOR-sponsored "Great Debate" at UCLA, featuring Larry Stager and Israel Finkelstein was a great success. Read Tammi Schneider's report of the debate.

posted 3/18/03
The deadline for submitting an abstract for our Annual Meeting in Atlanta is April 1, 2003, two weeks away. Visit our Annual Meeting web page to submit your participation/abstract form and preregister for the Meeting.

posted 3/10/03
The W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research is pleased to announce the award of the 2003 Sean W. Dever Memorial Prize. The prize is awarded for the best paper in Syro-Palestinian archaeology by a graduate student. This year's winner is Juan Manuel Tebes of the University of Buenos Aires, for a paper entitled "A New Analysis of the Iron Age I 'Chiefdom' of Tel Masos (Beersheba Valley)" presented at the XIV Jornadas de Becarios de Investigacion, Secretaria de Ciencia y Tecnica, Universidad de Buenos Aires.