Table of Contents for Near Eastern Archaeology 80.3 (September 2017)

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Pp. 148-153: “From the Bible to the Levant and Beyond,” by William G. Dever

Professor Dever reflects on eighty years of Near Eastern Archaeology within the changing disciplinary landscape of biblical and Near Eastern archaeology.

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Pp. 154-165: “Forgotten Fortress: Returning to Uronarti,” by Laurel Bestock

The kings of the ancient Egyptian Middle Kingdom (ca. 2055–1650 B.C.E.) conquered and subsequently administered a large territory in Lower Nubia, south of the First Cataract. Monumental fortresses that were built along the banks of the Nile were excavated in the early twentieth century, but largely destroyed by the floodwaters from the damming of the Nile in the 1960s. Recent discovery that two of these fortresses have survived has led to new archaeological work, including survey and excavation at the site of Uronarti. Preliminary work there shows the complexity of lifestyle and cultural interaction at this ancient colonial outpost.

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Pp. 166-175: “Dendara at Its Origins: New Evidence for a Pre- and Early Dynastic Settlement Site in Upper Egypt,” by Gregory Marouard

The archaeology of Pre- and Early Dynastic Egypt has been one of the most active area in Egyptology in the past few decades, but despite the intensification of the fieldwork research in the Nile Delta or Middle Egypt, our knowledge of early Egyptian settlements in Upper Egypt is still limited to several prominent sites, some under excavation since the late nineteenth century. The work undertaken by a team from The Oriental Institute—on the concession of the French Archaeological Institute (IFAO)—in the intramural area of the Hathor and Isis sanctuaries at Dendara has uncovered the earliest archaeological levels discovered to date, with several strata from the Naqada IIC–D and Early Dynastic periods. These discoveries push back the date of a first permanent community at this site by more than five hundred years and add an important point on the map of the predynastic occupation of Upper Egypt, all the more significant since the site became one of the main provincial centers, the capital of the 6th Nome of Upper Egypt, in the following centuries.

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Pp. 176-187: “The Archaeological Renaissance in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq,” by Jason Ur

After an absence of over two decades, foreign archaeology has returned in earnest to one of the “cradles of civilization” in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Two wars, international sanctions, and internal unrest had together brought archaeological research nearly to a standstill; only a few under-funded Iraqi teams and a handful of intrepid Europeans attempted fieldwork following the first Gulf War of 1991. Following a decline in political violence that began in 2008, archaeologists have returned to the Republic of Iraq. The resumption of fieldwork in the southern “heartland of cities” has been significant but slow, and hampered by internal politics. In the autonomous Kurdistan Region, however, foreign research has expanded rapidly and continuously, in partnership with local archaeologists and institutes. This essay reviews these new developments, discusses how the new discoveries are challenging long-held ideas and filling blank spaces on the archaeological map, and suggests some new directions for the future of Mesopotamian studies.

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Pp. 188-195: “Reading and Writing in the Dark at Khirbet el-Qom: The Literacies of Ancient Subterranean Judah,” by Alice Mandell and Jeremy Smoak

How did ancient Israelites and Judeans interact with inscriptions located in subterranean contexts such as tombs, tunnels, and caves? What roles did writing hold in the darkness of such places? The present article argues that a multimodal approach to literacy needs to be applied to the study of such inscriptions in order to understand how they communicated to audiences underground in the dark. We challenge traditional approaches to the study of tomb inscriptions in ancient Judah, most of which have studied them for what they reveal about historical grammar and the development of orthography. We argue that a better understanding of how audiences interacted with such inscriptions proceeds from a consideration of the visual grammars of tomb aesthetics, architecture, and the funerary objects in these spaces. This context is what enabled ancient audiences to decode the meaning of inscriptions in tomb complexes.

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Pp. 196-201: “Cimmerian and Scythian Funerary Rituals in the South Caucasus,” by Garegin S. Tumanyan

The author presents the results of his investigation of sepulchers in the southern Caucasus that carry Cimmerian-Scythian features in the hopes of shedding light on the question of whether there was a Cimmerian-Scythian presence in the southern Caucasus in the late eighth to sixth centuries B.C.E. To identify eligible burial complexes, the author developed criteria based on a number of specific features: these included the presence of intrusive burials within the sepulchers, the presence of an anthropomorphic stone sculpture over the tomb or in the burial chamber, the skeleton’s position lying stretched on its back, the presence of human sacrifices, the practice of burying horsemen with their horse, and more. Specific burial goods, such as horse bits with stirrup-shaped ends, bronze mirrors, whetstones with holes for rings, javelins, acinac-type blades, and Scythian arrowheads, were also identified as indicating the presence of Cimmerian-Scythian burials. Based on a thorough exploration of available sources on sepulchers and burial complexes in the South Caucasus, the author identified 145 sepulchers and 63 burial grounds meeting his criteria and concluded that Cimmerian and Scythian cultures were present in the southern Caucasus of the seventh and sixth centuries B.C.E.

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Pp. 202-203: “‘There Is Nothing so Whole as a Broken Heart’: Reflections on ‘The Practice of Repairing Vessels in Ancient Egypt’ (NEA 79.4 [2016]) by Julia Hsieh,” by Aren M. Maeir

The author offers an additional perspective on the mending of ancient pottery, suggesting that breakage and repair are part of the normal life cycle of an object and that mending can in some cases lead to an enhancement of the original object and to a valuing of the repaired vessel.

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