HAPPY BIRTHDAY ACOR AND CAARI!

By Susan Ackerman, ASOR President

CAARI Trustee Achilleas Demetriades, Gerald Carr and CAARI Vice-President Annemarie Weyl Carr, ASOR President Susan Ackerman, CAARI Executive Director Lindy Crewe, CAORC Executive Director Rick Spees, and ACOR Executive Director Barbara Porter.

June was a big month for two of ASOR’s affiliated Overseas Research Centers, ACOR (the American Center of Oriental Research, in Amman) and CAARI (the Cyprus American Archaeological Institute, in Nicosia), as ACOR celebrated its fiftieth anniversary and CAARI its fortieth.

The CAARI party was first, beginning on Cyprus on June 14th, with a field trip for celebrants to Athienou, to learn more about the excavations being conducted there by CAARI Trustee Michael Toumazou (and to share a delicious lunch in the village afterwards). But that wasn’t all the food for the day, as that evening, a large crowd of CAARI friends and supporters gathered at the Presidential Palace of the President of the Republic of Cyprus for a gala banquet. Speakers included Kathleen Doherty, the US Ambassador to Cyprus, Dr. Marina Solomidou-Ieronymidou, the Director of the Cyprus Department of Antiquities, and CAARI’s Vice-President, Annemarie Weyl Carr, and Executive Director, Lindy Crewe. The highlight was the honoring of CAARI Trustee Chris Christodoulou, who has been one of CAARI’s most ardent supporters on Cyprus and was a leading figure in the effort to develop the recently opened underground extension of CAARI’s library.

CAARI executive assistant Vathoulla Moustoukki lights the candles on CAARI’S 40th birthday cake.

On Saturday, June 16th, many of us gathered again, for the 37th Annual CAARI Archaeological Workshop, where, between 9:00 am and 3:30 pm, twenty-two different researchers gave presentations on their current work on Cyprus — and this on top of the twenty-seven different posters that were available for study during our (way too short!) breaks. It was like an ASOR meeting on steroids, although don’t we all wish our ASOR meeting days could end the way the CAARI Workshop day ended — with a lovely outdoor reception in the CAARI courtyard. And how lucky we all were the next day to get to join another CAARI field trip, this one to see beautiful painted Late Byzantine churches in the Troodos Mountains. Our guide, moreover, was the most noted of experts: CAARI’s Vice-President, Annemarie Weyl Carr.

Finally, on Monday, June 18th, many of us convened one last time: in the morning for business (the CAARI Board meeting) and then, in the evening, for a farewell reception at the US Embassy. The next morning, I flew off for Jordan, and the CAARI staff settled down — I hope — for long and well-deserved naps. What a party, and Happy Birthday CAARI!

The Acropolis at Tall Hisban.

Once I reached Jordan, the festivities for me started up again almost immediately, as I traveled first to Madaba, to visit the Madaba Plains Project team on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of their original excavations, at Tall Hisban (excavations began, but the season was aborted, in 1967, with a full season the year following, in 1968). ASOR Trustee and former Chair of the ASOR Committee on Archaeological Research and Policy Øystein (Sten) LaBianca of Andrews University provided a tour of the site, both for me and the current chair of the Committee on Archaeological Research and Policy, Steve Falconer. We were also joined by ASOR colleagues Patricia (Pat) Fall and Elizabeth (Liz) Ridder. The tour was in-depth, and I really mean in-depth, including a little spelunking at the top of the tell!

Laying out excavation squares at Khirbet Safra.

That afternoon, Sten, Steve, Pat, Liz and I were joined by Professor Robert (Bob) Bates from Andrews, to visit two other Madaba Plains Project sites, Tall Jalul and Tall al-‘Umayri. Then, the next morning, on June 20th, I visited the latest Madaba Plains Project endeavor, Khirbet Safra. The first season of excavations had just begun on June 14th, so it was an exciting opportunity to get to see this project and talk with its director, Professor Paul Gregor, at its inception.

My next several days in Madaba also offered me the opportunity to see many projects with which ASOR and ASOR members have been involved over the years. With Steve Falconer, Pat Fall, and Liz Ridder, I visited Bab edh-Dhra and Steve and Pat’s former excavation site at Zahrat adh-Dhra, and with ASOR Past President Tim Harrison I visited sites such as the megalith and dolmen field at al-Murayghat,

Liz Ridder & Pat Fall gathering plant samples near Madaba.

Khirbet Ataruz, Khirbet Iskander, Dhiban, Wadi ath-Thamad Site 13, as well as Tim’s former excavations at Tall Madaba. ASOR Trustee Debra Foran, of Wilfred Laurier University, also gave me and Tim a wonderful tour of her excavation site at Khirbet al-Mukhayyat.

Intermingled in all this, moreover, were celebrations at ACOR — a wonderful reception in Executive Director Barbara Porter’s flat on Sunday evening, June 24th, and then the big ACOR 50th Anniversary event on the evening of June 25th. That 50th Gala was packed with special programming, including welcoming speeches from ACOR President Randolph (Randy) Old, ACOR’s First Vice-President Abdelelah Al Khatib, and ACOR Executive Director Barbara Porter. Guests were also able to view a special film “ACOR@50” which ACOR had produced for the occasion of its anniversary, as well as a film on ACOR’s Sustainable Cultural Heritage Through Engagement of Local Communities Project, funded by USAID.

Tim Harrison with the Tall Hisban Field School at Khirbet Ataruz.

In addition, there were beautiful Jane Taylor photographs available to buy through a silent auction and a special thank you to Mohammed Adawi, who is retiring after having served as ACOR’s chef for the Center’s entire fifty years. We all then ate birthday cake and went home well sated and well fêted, filled with admiration for all ACOR has accomplished in the past fifty years.

So, Happy Birthday ACOR, and Happy Birthday CAARI, and here’s to many more decades fulfilling your missions of fostering scholarship about Cyprus, Jordan, and the ancient and modern regions of which they are a part!