FRIENDS OF ASOR WEBINARS
Digging the Divine?: Judahite Pillar Figurines and the Archaeology of Israelite Religion
Friends of ASOR present the next webinar in our monthly series on October 7, at 7:00 pm EDT, featuring Prof. Erin Darby. In this webinar, Dr. Darby will introduce you to the enigmatic female pillar figurines from the nation of Judah in the 8th-6th centuries BCE. These small clay figurines either supporting or holding their breasts are among the most numerous ritual objects uncovered in ancient Israel. However, they are never clearly mentioned in biblical texts and they lack inscriptions or identifying symbols. As a result, they have been interpreted in many ways, including as goddesses, as implements in illicit, popular rituals, and as objects used primarily by women to aid in fertility, birth, and infant health.
We will explore questions scholars ask about these clay statues, like: “Who made them?”, “What was their function?”, and “What do they tell us about religion in ancient Israel?” By focusing on the archaeological context of figurine fragments, we will debate what role archaeological data may play in the interpretation of these important figures.
Join us for this exploration of these mysterious figurines and what they can tell us about the people of Judah. Prof. Darby will conclude her webinar with a live Q&A session.
Registrants now get 25% off of Erin Darby’s new book through Brill!
Dr. Erin Darby is an associate professor of Early Judaism in the Department of Religious Studies and the Faculty Director of Undergraduate Research and Fellowships at the University of Tennessee. Erin is an expert in the archaeology of Israelite religion, with a particular focus on figurines and other cultic objects. These are the focus of her monograph, Interpreting Judean Pillar Figurines: Gender and Empire in Apotropaic Practice (Mohr Siebeck 2014) and a forthcoming co-edited volume entitled Iron Age Terracotta Figurines from the Southern Levant in Context (Brill, fall 2021), as well as several other publications. Her research has been supported by two fellowships from the W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research (AIAR) in Jerusalem. She has also received funding to support her research at the American Center of Research (ACOR) in Amman, Jordan and the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute (CAARI), in Nicosia, Cyprus. Her most recent work has focused on figurines and other ritual objects at shrine sites in the Negev Desert of southern Israel and in southern Jordan. She is also an active field archaeologist and co-director of the ‘Ayn Gharandal Archaeological Project in the Wadi Arabah of southern Jordan.
ASOR Sustaining Members: $0 | ASOR Members: $5 | Public: $10
To receive your ASOR member discount, log into the online store. If you are new to ASOR, please click on the “New Visitor Registration” link to register your e-mail address and choose password for our online store. Once logged in, navigate to “Meeting and Event Registration” to register for the webinar and pay the fee. Each paid registrant will receive a confirmation e-mail when you pay for the webinar. 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 lecture on October 7, 2021. If you do not receive the link by the close of business on the Thursday before the webinar, please e-mail membership@asor.org immediately. All webinars are recorded and all paid registrants will be sent a link to view the recording.
All proceeds from this lecture are used to fund scholarships for members impacted by COVID-19 as well as increasing ASOR’s online resources, which are free to the public.
