FRIENDS OF ASOR WEBINAR
Back to the Field: Recent Discoveries & Summer Plans 2022
Friends of ASOR presents a free webinar on April 3, 2022 from 6:00pm to 7:30pm EDT, “Back to the Field: Recent Discoveries & Summer Plans 2022,” featuring Lorenzo d’Alfonso, Kathryn Grossman, and James R. Strange. This special event will preview the field seasons of three sites across Turkey (Kinik Höyük Archaeological Project), Cyprus (Makounta-Voules Archaeological Project), and Israel (The Shikhin Excavation Project). The program will include three presentations covering such topics as introductions to each site in its historical context, current excavation and survey progress, and the research focus of the upcoming field season. Join us as we explore some of the exciting projects that ASOR members are currently participating in across the eastern Mediterranean region. The panelists will conclude their webinar with a live Q&A session with the audience. The full program is below. The event will be recorded. This event is free for everyone.
ASOR Sustaining Members: $0 | ASOR Members: $0 | Public: $0
6:00pm – 6:20pm
Lorenzo d’Alfonso
Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University
Turkey: Niğde Kınık Höyük (N-KH) Archaeological Project
The site of Niğde Kınık Höyük (N-KH) is located in south Cappadocia, in the Niğde province, on the Bor-Ereğli Plain at the foot of the Melendiz Mountains. Excavations at N-KH originated from a survey conducted by the University of Pavia in 2006–2009. Within the sites recorded in the 800 km2 survey of the southeastern slopes of the Melendiz Mountains, N-KH proved to be the largest site with the longest occupation history, from the Early Bronze Age to the Early Ottoman period. In this lecture, Dr. Lorenzo d’Alfonso, director of the project, will present the results of the last two site campaigns (2020-2021) with particular focus on the recent discoveries from the Middle Iron Age and the Hellenistic period, and on the archaeological evidence of cultic activities in first millennium BCE Anatolia. Furthermore, he will report on the design and creation of a showcase for a permanent exhibition at the Niğde Archaeological Museum that includes restored votive statues and figurines from N-KH.
6:20pm – 6:40pm
Kathryn Grossman
North Carolina State University
Cyprus: Makounta Voules Archaeological Project
The Chalcolithic and Bronze Age site of Makounta-Voules-Mersinoudia is located on the northwest coast of Cyprus, near the town of Polis Chrysochous. Although research projects elsewhere on the island have frequently targeted Chalcolithic and Bronze Age sites, there have been few scientific excavations of prehistoric remains in this region. In 2017, the Makounta Voules Archaeological Project (MVAP) began with a program of intensive, systematic survey, which revealed Late Chalcolithic and Early-Middle Bronze Age ceramics, along with stone tools, slag, and wall stones spread across a hillslope overlooking the Makounta River. In 2018 and 2019, the MVAP team conducted excavations that revealed a series of Chalcolithic round buildings, a fire installation tentatively identified as a copper smelting furnace, and other stone-built features. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, excavations were put on hold in 2020-21. In 2022, the team will return to the field to continue excavations of the ancient settlement, as well as explore new areas that might be related to early copper mining activity. In this presentation, Dr. Grossman will show results from previous excavation seasons, describe plans for future work, and discuss some of the big-picture questions that guide the research at Makounta-Voules-Mersinoudia.
6:40pm – 7:00pm
James R. Strange
Samford University
Israel: Shikhin Excavation Project
The site of Shikhin sits less than a mile north of the acropolis of ancient Sepphoris. Evidence of activity on the hilltop dates as far back as the Late Bronze Age, but, like many Galilean settlements, the village appears to have been founded between the second and first centuries BCE (the Late Hellenistic period). In the 2022 season, the Shikhin Excavation Project will resume its work in two areas: the remains of a large public building that was probably the village’s synagogue in the Roman period, and an adjacent ceramics industry set up in the courtyards of houses. The most exciting event of the season will be an exercise in experimental archaeology. Yeshu Dray and Ilana Gonen of Restoration of Ancient Technology are building two kilns based on construction methods used at Shikhin. During the 2022 season, Shikhin volunteers will make clay oil lamps that Yeshu and Ilana will fire in both kilns using fuel that would have been used in the ancient period.
7:00pm – 7:30pm
Audience Q&A with all Panelists
ASOR Sustaining Members: $0 | ASOR Members: $0 | Public: $0
If you are new to ASOR, please click on the “New Visitor Registration” link to register your e-mail address and choose a password for our online store. Once logged in, navigate to “Meeting and Event Registration” to register for the webinar. Each registrant will receive a confirmation e-mail. If you do not receive this e-mail, then you are not registered. Please e-mail membership@asor.org with any questions or issues with registering.
You will be e-mailed the Zoom Webinar link in the week prior to the webinar on April 3. If you do not receive the link by the close of business on the Friday before the event, please e-mail membership@asor.org immediately. This event will be recorded and all paid registrants will be sent a link to view the recording.
Sponsors will be acknowledged during the event. Sponsorships are available at the following levels:
- Bronze Sponsor: $50 (includes 2 gift registrations to share)
- Silver Sponsor: $100 (includes 5 gift registrations to share)
- Gold Sponsor: $500 (includes 15 gift registrations to share)
- Platinum Sponsor: $1,000 (includes unlimited gifts registrations to share)
Each sponsor will receive a confirmation e-mail. If you do not receive this e-mail, then we did not receive your sponsorship online. If you prefer to register or sponsor over the phone, please call 703-789-9230. Please e-mail membership@asor.org with any questions or issues.
Speakers / Presenters
Lorenzo d’Alfonso is a Professor of Archaeology and History of ancient Western Asia at ISAW-NYU and Associate Professor of Archaeology of ancient Western Asia at Pavia University. He has published several books and papers on the history and archaeology of Anatolia and Syria, focusing on the Late Bronze and Iron Ages. His most recent publication is the volume Borders in Archaeology: Anatolia and the South Caucasus Ca. 3500-500 BCE (Peeters 2021) co-edited with K. Rubinson, which was published three months ago. Dr. d’Alfonso has excavated at different sites in Italy, Syria, and has directed an archaeological survey in south Cappadocia, Turkey from 2006-2009, before starting the excavations at Niğde Kınık Höyük in 2011.
Kathryn Grossman is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at North Carolina State University. She is an archaeologist and zooarchaeologist with expertise in the complex societies of the Near East and eastern Mediterranean. She earned her BA in Archaeology from Tufts University and her PhD in Near Eastern Art and Archaeology from the University of Chicago. Her current research focuses on resistance to state-making, the biographies of early cities, and human-animal relationships in early complex societies. She directs the Makounta-Voules Archaeological Project in Cyprus and has been a senior staff member on archaeological projects in Syria, Cyprus, Egypt, and Iraq. This summer, in addition to directing excavations at Makounta-Voules-Mersinoudia in Cyprus, she will spend two months as a CAORC fellow at the American Center of Research in Jordan, where she will be analyzing animal bones from Petra.
James R. Strange has directed the Shikhin Excavation project since 2012, with Motti Aviam, Tom McCollough, and David Fiensy (2012) as Associate Directors. Dr. Strange is the Charles Jackson Granade and Elizabeth Donald Granade Professor in New Testament at Samford University. With David Fiensy, he is co-editor of the two-volume set Galilee in the Late Second Temple and Mishnaic Periods (Fortress, 2014 and 2015). His book, One Problem After Another: An Introduction to Archaeology, the Gospels, and First Century Roman Galilee is scheduled to come out in 2022.
ASOR is grateful for your support. Each registrant will receive an automated confirmation e-mail. If you do not receive this e-mail, please check you Spam folder and then contact ASOR. If you prefer to register over the phone, please call 703-789-9230. Please e-mail membership@asor.org with any questions or issues.
