Books in Brief

014

The Image of the East: Nineteenth-Century Near Eastern Photographs by Bonfils

Carney E. S. Gavin

(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982) 115 pp. with 10 microfiche transparencies, $70.00

In 1890, the curators of the newly established Harvard Semitic Museum acquired a collection of approximately 28,000 prints, negatives, and lantern slides depicting the peoples, landscapes, and ancient monuments of Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor and Greece. The creators of this collection were the Bonfils family of Beirut, well-known in their time as purveyors of scenic photographs to western tourists traveling throughout the Middle East. Unfortunately, as the decades passed and academic interests moved on to other concerns, this massive collection was relegated to the museum attic and its existence was eventually forgotten. In the autumn of 1970, however, the Bonfils collection was suddenly rediscovered and its historical importance was recognized for the first time. As the largest collection of 19th-century photographs of the Middle East from a single source, it provided invaluable visual information on the ethnography, geography, and archaeology of the lands of the Bible in the period before modernization.

The Image of the East is a preliminary report by Dr. Carney Gavin, curator of the Harvard Semitic Museum, on the background, scope and significance of the Bonfils collection. The major portion of the text is devoted to biographical sketches of the most prominent members of the Bonfils family and to a discussion of the historical context of their photographic achievement. As Dr. Gavin explains, at the time of the rediscovery of the collection, little historical information about the Bonfils family was available, but 015through the utilization of the internal evidence of the photographs and accompanying catalogues, as well as family manuscripts, interviews and public records, the Harvard Semitic Museum staff has been able to reconstruct the history of the Bonfils’s photographic work from their arrival in Beirut in 1867 to the eventual dissolution of their establishment in 1938.

In addition to the biographical material, three helpful appendixes are included at the end of the text, providing a genealogical chart of the family, a chronological chart of their work, and a timeline of parallel developments in the history of photography. The bibliography includes all published works in which Bonfils photographs appeared, as well as a list of selected secondary sources relating to the development of photography in the Near East.

By far the most important and innovative aspect of this book is the inclusion of 10 microfiche transparencies that reproduce 815 photographs and documents produced by the Bonfils family. The original Bonfils catalogues divided the material geographically (Upper Egypt, Lower Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Anatolia, and Greece) and by subject (Egyptian types, scenes and costumes, and types, scenes and costumes of Palestine and Syria), and the selected examples reproduced give a representative sample of the photographs from each category. Also included are a list of the Bonfils’s original titles of the photographs presented on the transparencies and a geographical index.

As Dr. Gavin points out, the Bonfils photographs are important not only as historical records but as invaluable aids to archaeological restoration, since at the time the Bonfils photographs were taken, many of the ancient monuments of the Middle East were in far better states of preservation than they are today. In fact, the evidence provided by the Bonfils collection has already been utilized in the restoration projects currently under way 016at Jerash, Petra and Damascus.

Because so little scholarly attention has been paid to the historical and practical importance of early Middle Eastern photography, the present publication of the Harvard Bonfils collection was intended as an example of how other similar collections might be reproduced and distributed. With this goal in mind, the Harvard Semitic Museum, aided by such organizations as the National Endowment for the Arts, the U.S. International Communication Agency, and UNESCO, among others, has established a program for international cooperation in preserving other collections of early photographic documentation from the Middle East.

Although The Image of the East is intended more as a resource tool than as a reading experience, it provides a well-documented and wide-ranging collection of 19th-century photographs that should be of great importance to any institution, library, or individual interested in the archaeology and ethnography of the lands of the Bible.

Archaeological Field Methods: An Introduction

William S. Dancey

(Minneapolis: Burgess Publishing Co., 1981) 192 pp., $12.95

A Complete Manual of Field Archaeology: Tools and Techniques of Field Work for Archaeologists

Martha Joukowsky

(Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1980) 640 pp., $14.95

These two volumes are quite different in scope and content, but both will be interesting to many BAR readers—those who have worked at digs and those who may be intrigued by how archaeologists explore a site.

Dancey’s slim volume has a three-fold purpose: to deal with recent archaeological methods, to stress “strategy more than tactics,” and to focus on “archaeological investigation in general rather than any particular type of inquiry” (p. iii). After an introductory chapter describing the goals of archaeology as an academic discipline, five further chapters deal successively with how archaeological records are kept, research design in field archaeology, common elements of archaeological field techniques, the archaeological survey and excavation. Each chapter ends with a brief summary that serves as a good review. The volume closes with a seven-page bibliography of works cited, a two-page list of suggested readings, and a four-page general index.

Since Dancey’s personal experience is with the archaeological investigation of simple societies (villages, campgrounds, food-gathering sites) in North America over the last 10,000 years, many of his discussions and examples come from that source. Readers of BAR who are mainly acquainted with the archaeology of much more complex societies (towns, cities, nations, empires) in the Near East over a somewhat shorter time span will still find this volume interesting and informative. The discussions are generally straightforward and well-illustrated. Many topics covered by Dancey will be reasonably familiar to readers who have participated in recent digs in the Middle East. However, the only extended contact between Dancey’s book and the methodology most familiar to BAR readers occurs in chapter six, a discussion of the Wheeler-Kenyon (or balk/debris-layer) method of stratigraphic digging in a grid system, which is widely used in Middle 018Eastern digs. Dancey notes several objections that have been raised about this method, namely the painstaking excavation techniques and record-keeping limit the excavation area to small exposures; the balks impede visual understanding of the site; closer supervision is needed than in other methods; breadth of exposure is sacrificed for depth.

In contrast to Dancey’s relatively brief introduction, Joukowsky’s volume is a comprehensive text originally written for her field archaeology course at New York University. Nevertheless, it fulfills the promise of its title and is an interesting and highly useful manual for the field archaeologist. After an initial three-page chapter on ethics in archaeology, in which she raises the important issues of responsible recording, accurate reporting, and collegial respect, the remaining 20 chapters cover such general topics as archaeology and the environment, the archaeological staff, and pre-excavation exploration, and also include detailed discussions of surveying, fieldwork (pre-excavation planning, excavation, and recording and measuring), stratigraphy, the catalogue and field conservation, and on to a series of chapters on the analysis of artifacts generally, of stone tools, of pottery, and of various other materials. Additional chapters deal with drafting and artifact drawing, field photography, dating processes and the field collection of laboratory samples, site publication, fieldwork opportunities, and financial aid for archaeological research. Six appendixes supplement various chapters or provide further new information. The volume concludes with a 65-page bibliography and a 23-page index.

Joukowsky’s Manual includes simple, common-sense directives intended for the true novice, as well as very detailed instructions for tasks performed by experienced senior staff. Although deciding for what audience it is intended is difficult, the book generally succeeds in providing a comprehensive introduction to the work of field archaeology for a wide range of interested people. The author has produced an exhaustive text that takes a broad perspective on all aspects of a dig. It will be useful to those seriously interested in archaeology in any part of the world. Only occasionally does a touch of provincialism appear, as when a brief paragraph on schools with educational programs in archaeology limits itself to 12 institutions in New York state, with passing reference to Rutgers as one of several such schools in New Jersey! Similarly, pages 467–469 describe some 23 sources of information about field opportunities, both domestic and foreign, but no mention is made of the annual volunteer opportunities listing in BAR (January/February) or of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR).

The reader interested in a brief introduction to archaeological field methods, especially those appropriate to the study of remains from simple societies, will profit from Dancey’s book. Those wishing to learn a great deal more about the tools and techniques of excavation, from initial preparations through final publication, will find Joukowsky’s volume invaluable; it can serve as a good basic text for a course, as a handy reference on the shelf of anyone seriously interested in the archaeological enterprise, or as a manual carried in the field.

Excavations at Athienou, Cyprus, 1971–1972

Trude Dothan and Amnon Ben-Tor

(Jerusalem: Hebrew University, 1983) 192 pp., $12.95

This is a final excavation report. From the professional’s viewpoint, it is a first-class product by top-flight archaeologists Trude Dothan and Amnon Ben-Tor. But few nonspecialists will want to read it. It is noteworthy, nevertheless, because it is a final report. There are many excavations but very few final excavation reports—one of the profession’s more embarrassing secrets.

This excavation was conducted in 1971 and 1972 at a low mound named for the nearby village of Athienou, on Cyprus. The excavation is noteworthy because it was conducted by Israel, specifically by Hebrew University. Many countries other than Israel excavate in Israel. But Israeli archaeologists rarely have an opportunity to dig in eastern Mediterranean countries or in other Middle Eastern countries. These excavations in Cyprus were one of the rare exceptions—indeed, a first for Israeli archaeologists. One is left with the melancholy thought that because of the decline in relations between Cyprus and Israel, such an excavation would be unlikely today. What a pity that there have been no Israeli excavations in Egypt or Egyptian excavations in Israel.

Another sign of the times in this excavation report is that individual sections of it are written by different specialists. An Egyptologist, Raphael Giveon, analyzes an Egyptian scarab discovered at Athienou. A Cypro-Minoan inscription is analyzed by Emilia Masson. The cylinder seals are treated by Edith Porada. A team of three specialists analyzes the metallurgical finds. Even the pottery is subdivided and assigned to different scholars with the requisite backgrounds. For example, Robert S. Merrillees, an archaeologist who is now Australia’s ambassador to Israel, describes the early, local Cypriot pottery. Archaeology today is definitely a team effort.

In general, the excavations verify what is already known about Cyprus and the eastern Mediterranean during the Late Bronze Age (the 16th through the 12th centuries B.C.). This was the time when the Sea Peoples, including the Philistines, emerged in the area.^a Cyprus, a center of trade, was a natural meeting point for diverse cultures and influences.

Copper apparently played an important role in Cyprus both economically and, perhaps because of this, religiously. Copper and metalworking were clearly part of the local cult, but it is difficult to explain precisely in what way.

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Athienou was a station on the trading route leading from Cyprus’s copper mines to the large marketing centers on the island’s east coast. Athienou was apparently also a cult site of some sort, although little architecture was found. Waste material from a metal industry that included smelting was also prominent at the site. Metalworking was carried on side-by-side with cult activities.

Although architecture was uncommon, the archaeologists did find thousands and thousands of small vessels. Some were normal size, but most, like those illustrated, were miniature juglets, too small to be used. The vessels were found in extraordinarily large heaps, especially in the courtyard of one building in Stratum III. In all, over 2,000 intact vessels were found. In addition, the potsherds of crushed vessels indicate that parts of approximately 8,000 more small vessels were left here. This is the largest concentration of pottery ever found on Cyprus. Since these miniature vessels could not have been functional and were never used in everyday life, they must have been votive vessels—brought to this place of worship as offerings. More, the archaeologists do not speculate. Perhaps BAR readers will have some ideas.

Who Was Who in the Greek World

Diana Bowder, editor

(Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1982) 240 pp., $29.95

A companion volume to Who Was Who in the Roman World (also edited by Diana Bowder), this book contains brief biographical entries of the men and women who figured prominently in the history of ancient Greece from the time of the first Olympic Games (traditionally dated to 776 B.C.) to the fall of the last Hellenistic kingdom in 30 B.C. Each entry is written by a classical scholar and has a bibliographical note at its conclusion. Introductory sections provide background on notable Homeric heroes and an outline history of Greece from 776 B.C. to 30 B.C. Appendices contain a glossary, maps and family trees of Spartan and Hellenistic kings. Who Was Who in the Greek World is generously illustrated with black-and-white photographs.

Jesus and Paul: Places They Knew

F. F. Bruce

(Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1983) 128 pp., $12.95

In 131 excellent full-color photographs and in 43 maps and drawings, Jesus and Paul: Places They Knew evokes 20 different towns and regions where Jesus and Paul lived and taught. Many of the cities are still thriving, like Jerusalem, Athens and Rome. Some sites, however, are only familiar to us from textual references and/or archaeological evidence—for example, Capernaum, Ephesus and Corinth. The text and photographs of F. F. Bruce’s book vividly illuminate this evidence.

The text is clear and incisive and relates intriguing details of the first-century A.D. Biblical world. For example, in the chapter on Antioch, we learn that it was here that the followers of Christ were first called Christians. Bruce, a frequent traveler in the Bible lands, is Emeritus Professor of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis at the University of Manchester in England. Three British photographers were commissioned to photograph most of the places in the book: Gordon Gray, Gill Rennie and Adrian Neilson.

The Image of the East: Nineteenth-Century Near Eastern Photographs by Bonfils

Carney E. S. Gavin

(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982) 115 pp. with 10 microfiche transparencies, $70.00