BARlines

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Ancient Fleet Found in Egyptian Desert

Twelve large wooden boats have emerged from the desert in an archaeological excavation at Abydos, eight miles from the Nile River in southern Egypt. Estimated to be 50 to 60 feet long, the vessels date between 3000 and 2700 B.C., the time of the Ist and IInd Dynasties of pharaohs.

The excavation, co-directed by David O’Connor of The University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, and by William Kelly Simpson of Yale University, found the boats in a 185-foot-long row of boat-shaped graves. Each grave, built of mudbrick in the outline of a boat, held one vessel. After each boat was put into its grave, a pottery offering was placed within it, and then the boat and the grave were filled solid with mudbrick or sand. Finally, the top of the grave was plastered over, completely encasing the boat.

The row of boat graves lies close to a series of brick-walled enclosures containing the funerary cult buildings of several Ist and IInd Dynasty pharaohs, who are buried about a quarter mile away from the enclosures. According to Dr. O’Connor, the boats were buried near the funerary enclosures so as to serve the dead pharaohs whose cults were celebrated there. Egyptian boat burials have also been found at Saqqara, at Helwan, and by the famous pyramids at Giza, but the boat burials at Abydos preceded them all.

Later this year, the Abydos expedition will continue to investigate the boat graves and will extend the area of their excavations to see whether additional boats or other monuments can be found.

Archaeological Survey Aims to Save Roman Forts

Some of the world’s best-preserved Roman forts sit on top of rich deposits of oil shale, east of the Dead Sea, in Jordan. Built to protect the Roman frontier, the forts themselves now need protection from proposed mining of the shale. An archaeological team from North Carolina State University has responded to the threat by surveying some 560 sites, using test excavations, surface observations and aerial and satellite photography to evaluate the sites’ archaeological significance. The results of the survey, which concluded in January, will be used to help Jordan steer the mining away from the sites of greatest cultural value. The abandonment of these forts in the sixth century (an economizing measure by the Roman military) played an important role in the religious history of the Middle East because it left the then-Christian empire open to invasion, in the next century, from the Arab tribes united under Islam.

Shuni Dig Needs Volunteers

Eli Shenhav, director of the excavation at Shuni, seeks volunteers for the 1992 season, during July and August. Located about four miles from Caesarea, Shuni served as a hospital and spa for the people of Caesarea during the Roman period. Water festivals were held here at the Roman theater of Maiumas. The site also features an Asclepion—a building dedicated to Asclepius, the Roman god of medicine—where work will continue in the coming season. Volunteers are expected to stay at least two weeks. The $15-per-day fee includes room and board. Contact: Shuni Excavation, P.O. Box 111, Binyamina, Israel.

Museum Guide

19th Century Views of Egypt

May 19–September 6,1992

As a prelude and complement to “Egypt’s Dazzling Sun” exhibit (see below), the Cleveland Museum of Art will display lithographs by David Roberts (1796–1864) and photographs by Francis Frith (1822–1898) and others. Roberts traveled through Egypt in 1838–1839 making sketches of landscapes, architecture and street scenes. After his return to England, he worked with artist Louis Haghe to make color lithographs published 1842–1849 as Egypt, Syria and the Holy Land. Frith made three expeditions to Egypt 021in the late 1850s; he and other commercial photographers were working to satisfy the strong demand in Europe for representations of Egyptian landscapes, architecture and culture. Of particular interest to BAR readers are the many views Frith took early in the excavation of important archaeological sites such as the Great Sphinx, shown still buried up to its neck in sand.

Also at the Cleveland Museum, “Egypt’s Dazzling Sun: Amenhotep III and His World,” July 1–September 27, 1992, will feature more than 140 works of art from the reign of Amenhotep III (1391–1353 B.C.), whose rule marked a period of peace that allowed the arts to flourish. Amenhotep III encouraged aesthetic and technical innovations that continued to influence styles in the reigns of such successors as Tutankhamen and Ramesses II. Objects include jewelry; glass and faience vessels; opulent mummy cases; and portraits of the royal family and court. Two massive statues—a red granite lion and a gray granite ram—will flank the entrance to the exhibit. The exhibit will move to the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, October 24, 1992-January 31, 1993.

The remaining schedule of “The City of David: Discoveries from the Excavations,” described in Museum Guide, BAR 18:02, is June 21–Aug. 9: Biblical Arts Center, Dallas; Sept. 14–Nov. 15: Mizel Museum of Judaica, Denver; Dec. 1992–Mar. 1993: Cleveland College of Jewish Studies, Beachwood, OH; Apr. 1993–Aug. 1993: Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto.

In Memoriam

Gösta W. Ahlström, 1918–1992

Gösta Werner Ahlström died January 17, 1992 at age 73 from complications following an accidental fall. Before retirement in 1988, he held a joint appointment at the University of Chicago Divinity School (in Hebrew Bible) and at the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the Oriental Institute (in ancient Syro-Palestinian studies).

Self-disciplined, independent, witty and charming, Gouml;sta Ahlström was born in Sweden in 1918. He began his university studies at Göteborg in 1944, received his Ph.D. in 1959 from Uppsala University and joined the University of Chicago Divinity School three years later.

In his early fifties his career took a dramatic turn. Encouraged by archaeologist George Ernest Wright, Ahlström became Annual Professor at the W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem in 1969, where for the first time he actively participated in archaeology. He went on to serve as a staff member at several excavations during the 1970s, and he focused his teaching and research on history and archaeology for the rest of his career.

Gösta was equally at home supervising a square at a dig, playing the cello or talking about European architecture. At first meeting he often seemed formal and cold, but this was only a cover for shyness. Behind this facade was a man who loved repartee, classical music and life in general.

His intellectual curiosity never let him rest. While writing his magnum opus, The History of Ancient Palestine from the Paleolithic Period to Alexander’s Conquest, which will be published posthumously by the University of Sheffield Press in the JSOT Supplement Series in 1992, he lamented that the first chapters would be out of date before he finished the final ones. Among his other, more recent works are Royal Administration and National Religion in Ancient Palestine (E.J. Brill, 1982) and Who Were the Israelites? (Eisenbrauns, 1986).

In the last few years, as his recognition and respect among colleagues and students began to peak, he was regularly sought out by students for advice or for discussion of points raised in his numerous books and publications.

Gösta Ahlström is survived by his wife Maria, his daughter Pernille, son Hans, son-in-law Jeremy and grandson Nikolai.

Albert E. Glock, 1925–1992

The American archaeologist Albert E. Glock died Sunday, January 20, 1992, after he was shot twice at close range near Ramallah on the West Bank. The assailant and motive are unknown.

Glock was professor of archaeology and director of the Institute of Archaeology at Bir Zeit University, on the West Bank. He had lived on the West Bank and had taught at Bir Zeit since the early 1970s.

A graduate of Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri, Al Glock was an ordained Lutheran clergyman. He served a church in Normal, Illinois, and taught for 12 years at Concordia University in River Forest, Illinois. He received his Ph.D. in Biblical studies and archaeology from the University of Michigan.

Glock gained his initial archaeological experience at Shechem under George Ernest Wright in 1962. This prepared him for a leadership role in the Concordia Seminary-American Schools of Oriental Research excavations at Taanach, where he served as a member of the core staff. Those excavations were directed by Paul W. Lapp for Concordia Seminary, and field seasons took place in 1963, 1966 and 1968.

On Lapp’s death in 1970, Glock took over the publication of the Taanach materials and returned to Jerusalem in 1971 to work on them. From 1977 to 1980 he served as director of the W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem. He received a faculty position at Bir Zeit University in 1976 and founded the university’s Institute of Archaeology. In addition to directing his students in several salvage excavations and surveys in the Jenin and Taanach areas, Glock’s research in archaeology included important studies on the manufacture of pottery and the analysis of wares. His article, “Homo Faber: The Pot and the Pottery at Taanach,” (Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 219 [1975], pp. 9–28), broke new ground in the methodology of how pottery is studied. Glock’s interests in recent years had expanded to ethnological studies and the relation of the recent past to antiquity.

The Iron Age pottery volume of the Taanach excavations appeared in 1978. Written by Walter E. Rast, it was prepared under Lapp’s direction before his death and edited by Al Glock. Final materials from the excavations have been prepared on the domestic structures by Delbert Hillers, the fortifications by Carl Graesser, and the cultic material by A. V. R. Sauer. A graduate student from Johns Hopkins University, Mark Meehl, is working on the Iron Age occupation, and Glock’s Bir Zeit students are working on other phases of the material. It is hoped that the study and publication of the Taanach materials will continue under the direction of Glock’s wife, Lois, Nancy Lapp, Walter E. Rast and Delbert Hillers.

Glock was well liked and respected in the Palestinian community and at Bir Zeit University. On his death, the Acting President of the University, Gabriel Baramki, issued a statement that said Glock had “served the University and the Palestinian people faithfully.” Glock was buried at the Lutheran Cemetery near Ramallah. Besides his wife Lois, Al leaves three sons and a daughter in the United States.