New Titles
The
Middle Bronze Age IIA Cemetery at Gesher: Final Report.
edited by Yosef Garfinkel and Susan Cohen
Gesher is a small Middle Bronze Age IIA cemetery site located in the central Jordan Valley in Israel. Initial excavations in 1986-1987 indicated the site's importance for examining population and settlement in the interior of Canaan in the early second millennium BCE. In particular, the nature of the interments and the early date of the site's material culture highlighted the importance of Gesher for studies of MB IIA development. Three additional seasons of excavations were conducted from 2002-2004, which were designed to gain further data regarding the mortuary customs, material culture, and social and economic developments of this population in MB IIA Canaan. During the five seasons of excavation, a total of 23 interments were excavated in the cemetery, together with their associated grave goods, consisting of ceramic vessels, bronze weapons, and one bronze toggle pin. This final report presents the burials and material culture from the cemetery and compares these data with other Middle Bronze Age sites in Canaan. It contributes valuable information regarding Canaanite mortuary customs and increases the corpus of material culture dating to early MB IIA. The burials and material culture from the Gesher cemetery date to the earliest phases of the MB IIA, while also preserving traditions and forms of the preceding EB IV/MB I period in Palestine. As such, Gesher provides a window into the transitional period between EB IV/MB I and MB IIA which is rarely attested at other sites, to date, and thus has significant implications for knowledge concerning this cultural era in Canaan.
ISBN-13 9780897570756
ISBN-10 0897570758
December 2008 • Hardback • $74.95
Available from ISD.
Tel
Tanninim: Excavations at Krokodeilon Polis, 1996-1999.
by Robert Stieglitz
Following the annexation of Samaria by Sargon II, around 700 BC, a new settlement was established just south of the urban center at Tel Dor. The site, known as Krokodeilon Polis "Crocodile City" to the Greeks (modern Tel Tanninim), was excavated from 1996 to 1999 by the Tanninim Archaeological Project, revealing significant Persian and Hellenistic period remains. Located on the Crocodile River in the Sharon Plain in Israel, this fishing village experienced something of a renaissance in the Late Byzantine period (450-640 AD), boasting several fresh water fishponds supplied by the Caesarea Maritima aqueduct and a large basilica church atop its mound. The site continued to be occupied sporadically through the Ottoman period. This volume is a final report of the excavations at this important site.
ISBN-13 9780897570725
ISBN-10 0897570723
December 2006 • Hardback • $84.95
Available from ISD.
Caesarea Maritima: The Coins and the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine Economy of Palestine.
by Jane DeRose Evans
This volume presents the numismatic results from nineteen seasons of fieldwork by the Joint Expedition to Caesarea Maritima (1971-1987 and 1993-1993). The expedition recovered just over 8,000 coins, of which about 2,700 were datable between 350 BC and AD 640. The volume provides a complete descriptive catalogue of the datable coins along with a separate section illustrated with color photographs of a spectacular hoard of 99 gold Byzantine solidi of Valens and Valentinian I discovered in 1993.
ISBN-13 9780897570749
ISBN-10 089757074X
December 2006 • Hardback • $84.95
Available from ISD.
Cult Image and
Divine Representation in the Ancient Near East
edited by Neal H. Walls
ASOR Books volume 10
While biblical prophets ridiculed the notion of humans fashioning an idol that they would then worship, ancient Near Eastern theologians developed a sophisticated religious system in which divine beings could be physically manifest within the material of a cultic image without being limited by that embodiment. The four essays in this compact volume examine the intriguing subject of cultic images and divine iconography in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Anatolia and Syria-Palestine.
This interesting and eclectic group of essays explores the textual and artifactual evidence for the creation and veneration of divine images in the ancient Near East. The recent resurgence of scholarly interest in the study of divine representation in ancient Israel and the Near East makes this comprehensive reexamination especially timely.
ISBN 0-89757-068-5
114 pages •
November 2005 • softcover
Available from ISD.
The Tafila-Busayra Archaeological Survey 1999-2001, West-Central Jordan
by Burton MacDonald, Larry G. Herr, M. P. Neeley, T. Gagos, K. Moumani and M. Rockman
Presents the archaeological evidence for human settlement and land use in the Tafila-Busayra region of southern Jordan from the Paleolithic (ca. 500,000 B.P.) to the 20th century A.D. The 480-square-kilometer survey stretched from Tafila and Busayra in the west to Jurf ad-Darawish in the east, adjoining areas earlier surveyed by MacDonald the Wadi al-Hasa (1979-1983) and the southern Ghor and northeast Arabah (1985-1986). Using a combination of random and purposive sampling, reinvestigation of documented sites, and aerial photography, the survey recorded some 290 sites, ranging from the well known Iron Age citadel at Busayra to architectural ruins, camp sites and cemeteries along with isolated sherd or lithic scatters and other cultural features such as watch towers, terraces, water channels, quarries and roads. Burton MacDonald is Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at St. Francis Xavier University, Nova Scotia.
ISBN:
0-89757-066-9
8 1/2 x 11 • 435 pages • $99.95 (hardcover)
November 2004
Available from ISD.
100
Years of American Archaeology in the Middle East
edited by Douglas R. Clark and Victor H. Matthews
Proceedings
of the American Schools of Oriental Research Centennial Celebration Washington,
DC, April 2000.
Available from ISD.
The Earliest Prehistory of Cyprus
edited by Stuart Swiny
CAARI Monographs volume 2
The remarkable developments concerning the earliest prehistory of Cyprus are presented by scholars immediately involved with the research who discuss the evidence and its interpretation. No other publication encompasses recent findings from the period of earliest colonization of the island to the Neolithic sedentary communities. Together with a review of evidence from the Levant, this collection of papers is essential reading for prehistorians and archaeologists working in the region.
Available from ISD.
ISBN: 0-89757-051-0
184 pages
Desire, Discord and Death:
Approaches to Ancient Near Eastern Myth
by Neal Walls
ASOR Books volume 8
The three essays presented in this volume reveal the symbolic complexity and poetic vision of ancient Near Eastern mythology. Through the application of contemporary methods of literary analysis, the author explores the interrelated themes of erotic desire, divine conflict, and death's realm in selected ancient Mesopotamian and Egyptian mythological narratives. Topics include the construction of desire in the Gilgamesh epic, a psychoanalytic approach to "The Contendings of Horus and Seth," and gender and the exercise of power in the stormy romance of Nergal and Ereshkigal. Walls' fresh treatment of these three important myths brings them to life for the specialist and mythology buff alike.
"Neal Walls' critically informed readings of ancient Near Eastern myths are novel, insightful and very smart. This book is a must for anyone interested in the literature and religions of the ancient Near East." -Jerrold S. Cooper, Professor of Near Eastern Studies at The Johns Hopkins University.
"A feast of erudition and insight!" -Laurie L. Patton, Associate Professor of Early Indian Religions and Chair, Department of Religion, Emory University.
Available from ISD.
ISBN:
0-89757-055-3; 056-1
viii + 212 pages
$29.95 (paper); $54.95 (cloth)
Archaeology and the Religions of Canaan and Israel
by Beth Alpert Nakhai
ASOR Books volume 7
Archaeological data, when viewed objectively, provide independent witness to the religious practices of the ancient inhabitants of Syria-Palestine and help to identify the integral part that religion played in the social and political worlds of the Israelites and Canaanites. By applying current anthropological and sociological theory to ancient materials excavated over the past eighty years, the author offers a new way of looking at the archaeological data. Archaeology and the Religions of Canaan and Israel summarizes and analyzes the archaeological remains from all known Middle Bronze through Iron Age temples, sanctuaries, and open-air shrines to reveal the ways in which social, economic and political relationships determined—and were shaped by—forms of religious organization.
Available from ISD.
ISBN:
0-89757-057-X
xii + 264 pages
$29.95 (paper)
"East of the Jordan":
Territories and Sites of the Hebrew Scriptures
by Burton MacDonald
ASOR Books volume 6
This volume is a convenient
tool for all those interested in the location of territories and sites attested
in the Bible as "East of the Jordan," i.e., in what is now The Hashemite
Kingdom of Jordan. It presents the history of the identification of each biblical
site and suggests the most likely location based on information provided by the
biblical text, extra-biblical literary information, toponymic considerations,
and archaeology. The volume treats all territories and sites of the Hebrew Scriptures
in Transjordan, from the "Cities of the Plains" (e.g., Sodom and Gomorrah),
the Exodus itineraries, and the territories and sites of the Israelite tribes
(Reuben, Gad, and half Manasseh), to Ammon,
Moab, Edom, and Gilead.
Available from ISD.
ISBN:
0-89757-031-6
viii + 286 pages
$29.95 (paper)