Strata

014

Changing of the Guard at ASOR

Geraty to Replace Seger on July 1

Lawrence T. Geraty, a member of BAR’s Editorial Advisory Board who has long been associated with American excavations in Jordan, will become the next president of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR), the professional organization of archaeologists working in the Middle East. On July 1, Geraty will replace Joe Seger, who has served two 3-year terms. Geraty will retain his position as president of La Sierra University, a small liberal arts school in Riverside, California, affiliated with the Seventh-Day Adventist church.

Geraty told BAR that his first action will be to address organizational questions. “Our membership office is in Boston and our publications office is in Atlanta. Is that an efficient way to run things? I want to make sure we’re not duplicating efforts.”

Another top concern, not surprisingly, is funding. “We’re doing okay, but we’re certainly not flush,” Geraty said.

Geraty described the last several of ASOR’s annual meetings as “very successful”; ASOR has held these separately from the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) and the American Academy of Religion, with whom ASOR used to meet (see “Dancing in Denver,” in this issue). Geraty added that ASOR and SBL have been exploring the possibility of organizing sessions at each other’s meetings, but he was not sure whether that would be possible in time for the next round of meetings, in Toronto this coming November.

For the past 25 years, Geraty has been vice president of the American Center of Oriental Research, in Amman, Jordan, one of three oversees affiliate organizations of ASOR. Geraty was born in 1940 in China to a missionary family. After the Communist takeover there, his family moved to Lebanon. It was there that Geraty met Siegfried Horn, a professor of archaeology at Andrews University in Michigan. Geraty studied archaeology under Horn and went on to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1972. He then returned to Andrews and took over Horn’s excavation at Hesban (Biblical Heshbon) after Horn’s retirement. Geraty directed the expansion of the dig to two other sites; together they constitute the Madaba Plains Project.

Outgoing president Seger told BAR that finances will likely be a central concern for the organization. “The historic challenge for ASOR has always been money. That’s not likely to change unless the heavens open,” Seger said. Asked what he was most proud of during his tenure, Seger answered, “The way the annual meeting has developed. It was a challenge.” He, too, noted that ASOR and SBL might host sessions at each other’s meetings, but he added, “Independence has its benefits—we can actually talk to each other.”

Scrolls a No-Show at Olympics

Why Was Exhibit Cancelled?

“Something for Everyone,” said the NBC television advertisement for the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City this February. But it wasn’t quite true. Not for people who wanted to see the Dead Sea Scroll exhibit that was scheduled to take advantage of the expected crowds. As we reported in Strata, BAR 27:06, the scrolls exhibit scheduled to coincide with the Olympic Games was canceled. But no one seems to know why.

The post-September wave of patriotism that invigorated the games themselves apparently did not catch on with those responsible for the exhibit.

One professor at Brigham Young University told me that after September 11 the Israel Antiquities Authority demanded that the scroll fragments be insured for $100 million and that no insurance company was willing to write a policy for such a large amount. When the professor realized what he was telling me might find its way into print, however, he was not so sure of this story.

Another Brigham Young professor said that “they” were worried that Middle Eastern terrorists would target the Hebrew fragments. He didn’t specify who “they” were, however.

Still another explanation was fear for the people attending the exhibit: A different “they” would be at risk in a terrorist attack. Apparently, the terrorists would be less 015likely to target people who came for the Olympic events themselves.

One source said that the exhibit was not cancelled, but only postponed—to an indefinite date. Whatever date that would be, however, has missed the crowds that were in Utah for the Winter Olympics.

The exhibit was to include 18 Dead Sea Scroll fragments from the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem. The particular fragments to be in the exhibit had already been chosen, and were not to include any of the intact scrolls housed in the Israel Museum. But Jordan had agreed to send part of the Copper Scroll, with its list of 64 hiding places of enormous treasure; it is today housed in Amman.

Russia had also agreed to lend the exhibit the irreplaceable Leningrad Codex, the oldest complete copy of the Hebrew Bible, dating to about 1005 A.D.

Whatever the explanation for the cancellation of the exhibit, it appears to be another victim of the terrorist attack of September 11.

Digs Update

Additions and Corrections to Our Dig Report

Although wary of the continuing unrest in Israel and the Palestinian territories, dig directors are trying to stay the course in planning their 2002 dig seasons. The great majority of excavations are located in remote areas far from the hot spots—and, to date, we have not heard of any volunteers who have felt threatened or endangered while working on a dig. Dig directors also report that the smaller contingent of volunteers that came out last season was unusually focused and productive in the field—and highly appreciated by the staff!

Nevertheless, the situation in the area is still fluid and could yet induce some directors to postpone their excavations until next year. Dig director Moshe Fischer, for example, recently wrote that he is considering rescheduling the next dig season at Yavneh-Yam (10 miles south of Tel Aviv) until summer 2003 in hopes that the political picture will improve by then. To keep abreast of developments there and at other digs, check our Web site, (www.biblicalarchaeology.org), where we will post new announcements as we receive them. If you have any questions about the status of a particular dig, you should also directly contact the dig director; look for contact information on our Web site or in “Dig Now 2002,” BAR 28:01.

Among those who are continuing to recruit for their digs are Andrea Berlin (Univ. of Minnesota) and Sharon Herbert (Univ. of Michigan), directors of the excavation at Tel Kedesh (22 miles north of Tiberias). During the 2002 season, volunteers will help excavate a large Hellenistic administrative building that has yielded a cache of more than 2,500 bullae. The dig season at Kedesh will be June 2-July 12. Find out more by contacting Berlin at 305 Folwell Hall, Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, or by calling 612–626-7371 or faxing 612–624-4894. You may also e-mail her at aberlin@tc.umn.edu or visit the dig Web site, www.umich.edu/~kelseydb/Excavation/Kedesh/Kedesh.html.

Amnon Ben-Tor (Hebrew Univ.) is also actively recruiting volunteers to excavate the Canaanite royal complex at Tel Hazor

(10 miles north of the Galilean town of Safed). The correct dig season dates are June 25-August 6, 2002 (our apologies for publishing an erroneous start date in our previous issue). For more information, contact Ben-Tor at 972–2–588–2403/4 (voice) or 972–2–582–5548 (fax). You can also e-mail him at bentor@h2.hum.huji.ac.il or visit the dig Web site at http:/unixware.mscc.huji.ac.il/~hatsor/hazor.html.

The fax number and Web site address of Adam Zertal’s dig, Tel Assawir (8 miles east of Caesarea between Tel Aviv and Haifa) have both changed. The new Web address is http://ahwat.haifa.ac.il/; the fax number is 972–4–824–9342.

And finally, Aren Maeir, dig director at Tell es-Safi (ancient Gath), writes that the fee for volunteers is now $300 per week (with a minimum of two weeks) or $1,150 for the entire season, June 23-July 19. Academic credit is available for participation in the field school; tuition is $1,000.

016

What Killed Herod?

Between BAR and a Major Medical Conference, It Seems to Be a Popular Question These Days

A 69-year-old man presented with chronic low-grade fever, edema [swelling], abdominal pain, insatiable hunger pangs, shortness and foulness of breath, pruritus [itching], inability to stand, convulsions, and, according to one source, “gangrene of his privy parts, engendering worms.”

Thus begins the case history of Herod the Great, the eighth historical figure to have his final illness diagnosed at the annual Historical Clinicopathological Conference at the University of Maryland medical school. On January 25 nearly 200 physicians, medical students, historians and interested laypersons heard an eminent physician discuss King Herod’s miserable, and until recently unexplained, death.

The annual conference is organized by Dr. Philip Mackowiak, a professor at the medical school and director of medical care for the Veterans Administration Maryland Health Care System. In past years, he has invited physicians from all over the country to tackle the mysterious deaths of Edgar Allen Poe, Alexander the Great, Mozart, Beethoven, Pericles, General Custer and the Roman emperor Claudius. Mackowiak explained that Herod met the three requirements for selecting subjects for the conference: He was famous, his death has never been satisfactorily explained and there is enough information about his last days that a doctor could make an informed guess about what killed him.

We‘re pleased to see that this year’s discussant, Dr. Jan Hirschmann, a specialist in internal medicine and infectious diseases from Seattle, largely confirmed Nikos Kokkinos’s conclusions in “Herod’s Horrid Death,” in this issue. According to Hirschmann, King Herod died at the age of 69 of chronic kidney disease, complicated by a rare form of genital gangrene, called Fournier’s gangrene.

For the full story of Herod’s miserable last days, turn to “Herod’s Horrid Death.”

Ancient Empires, Syria: Land of Civilizations

Fernbank Natural History Museum, Atlanta

On view until September 2, 2002

Ancient Empires, Syria: Land of Civilizations boasts nearly 400 objects from 11 museums across Syria, many of which have never before been seen outside that country. They range in date from the Paleolithic (the oldest is a million-year-old flint hand axe) through the 16th century, and chart the rise of civilization in the Fertile Crescent—including artifacts from the great city-states of Palmyra, Ugarit, Ebla and Mari. On view are a number of objects already familiar from BAR’s pages, such as the stone face from the Temple of ‘Ain Dara and the limestone bull from Tell Brak featured in “The New ‘Ain Dara Temple: Closest Solomonic Parallel,” BAR 26:03, and WorldWide, BAR 26:03, respectively. Besides religious and ceremonial items, weapons and luxury goods like silks and jewelry, visitors can also see a collection of scientific and medical items, including manuscripts and surgical instruments. The exhibit was organized by the Musée de la Civilisation in Quebec.

For more information call 404–929-6300 or visit www.fernbank.edu.

015

What Is It?

A. Tool for making twine

B. Idol

C. Dressmaker’s Dummy

D. Ancient Opthalmological Instrument

016

What It Is, Is …

A. Tool for making twine

Until recently, objects similar to this one—with double eye-like holes—had been assumed to be idols; throughout the Mediterranean world of the third and fourth millenia B.C., the human (or divine) figure was often rendered extremely abstractly—almost like modern sculpture. But archaeologists now think that many so-called “spectacle idols” were not created for religious (or artistic) purposes, but were actually devices for making twine. The object shown here, made of terracotta and coming from Tell Kashkashuk (ca. 2800 B.C.) in modern Syria, would have been used to make cord out of separate threads of wool or linen. The cord-maker would have spun the threads with a spindle and passed one strand through each of the object’s “eyes,” twisting them together to produce a stronger thread. (Similar objects have been found with three holes, thus allowing three separate strands to be wound together.)

This twining device is one of two currently on display at the Fernbank Natural History Museum in Atlanta, as part of the traveling exhibition, Ancient Empires, Syria: Land of Civilizations.

Changing of the Guard at ASOR