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Pp. 1–19: “The Ördekburnu and Katumuwa Stelae: Some Reflections on Two Grabdenkmäler,” by K. Lawson Younger Jr.

The recent discovery of the Katumuwa Stele and the new edition of the Ördekburnu Stele have invigorated the study of ancient Yādiya/Samʾal, in particular the study of its Grabdenkmäler. This article will investigate some of the ways in which the two are mutually informing of one another. It will address some of the important interpretive difficulties in these monuments, especially as they bear on religion in that ancient polity.

ASOR Members with online access: navigate to the token link email sent to you before attempting to read this article. Once you have activated your member token, to access the above article on The University of Chicago Press Journals’ website.

Pp. 21-43: “Marble Sculptures from the Great Eastern Baths of Gerasa (Jordan): The Sources of the Marbles,” by Khaled Al-Bashaireh, Thomas M. Weber-Karyotakis, Nizar Abu-Jaber, and Thomas Lepaon

This paper aims to examine the provenance of Roman marble statues uncovered from the Eastern Roman Baths (Gerasa of the Decapolis, Jordan) during the 2016 and 2017 excavation campaigns. The samples were characterized using magnifying lenses, an x-ray diffractometer, a stable isotope mass spectrometer, and a polarized light microscope. The results show that the Aphrodite and drapery marbles are dolomitic and most probably from the Cape Vathy of Thassos Island (Greece); the Asklepios and Zeus marbles are fine-grained and most probably from Docimium (Turkey); the Melopmene, Demetrius Aphrodite, and eagle marbles are fine-grained and most probably from Penteli (Greece); the dancing satyr and Apollo marbles are coarse-grained and most probably from Lakkos (Paros Island, Greece); and the marble fragments of unknown statues are coarse-grained and most probably from Marmara (Proconnesus-1) Island, Turkey. The results indicate that sculptors preferred fine white marbles for carving sculptures in spite of their source, price, and sculpture workshop. The results agree with previous studies that showed a wide variety of marble sources, indicating that Gerasa prospered in its location on the King’s Highway and participated in a well-established trade network with the major cities and marble sources in the Roman Empire.

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Pp. 45–67: “Basileus Meets Imperator: Herod’s Evolving Honors to Augustus,” by Barbara Burrell

This paper uses recent finds and reinterpretations (archaeological, epigraphic, and historical) to re-examine and place in a wider context Herod the Great’s actions towards honoring Augustus in his realm. As a king formerly allied with Antony, Herod needed to placate Augustus quickly after Actium. At first he showered his new overlord with service, money, and supplies, but it may have been in imitation of cities like Pergamon in Asia that he established a festival in Augustus’s honor in Jerusalem. We hear nothing of actual temples, however, until after Augustus granted Herod new territories; it was there, in non-Jewish areas, that Herod founded cities (which was what kings did), named them in honor of his sole superior, and built in them temples to Augustus and Roma, perhaps again on the model of Hellenic cities of Asia or Bithynia, or of Alexandria in Egypt. Herod did this not for the sake of Hellenization or Romanization, but to reify his relationship with Augustus before his kingdom and the world, enshrining him in the sole place in the hierarchy that a king could tolerate, and also, not incidentally, to show his own magnificence.

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Pp. 69–76: “Hazon Gabriel: A Display of Negligence,” by Årstein Justnes and Josephine Munch Rasmussen

How do recently crafted objects of dubious provenance become ancient manuscripts of serious scientific interest? In this article, we will explore the curious case of Hazon Gabriel. We will demonstrate how this unprovenanced stone inscription was turned into an “authentic” artifact with an ideal provenance, and we will discuss the role of the owner and the scholarly community in this process.

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Pp. 77–103: “Crime and Punishment: Deportation in the Levant in the Age of Assyrian Hegemony,” by Jonathan Valk

Assyrian imperialism is closely associated with the practice of mass deportation. This practice has been explained by recourse to many different motivations. But can we hope to pinpoint the logic informing deportation rather than merely identifying its advantages? This paper surveys the evidence of deportation in the Levant in the period 745–620 b.c.e. Focusing on deportation in this circumscribed time and place enables a more concentrated account of its use. Deportation is generally argued to have served three broad ends: bolstering the supply of human resources in the Assyrian heartland, meeting particular strategic needs, and dealing with dissent. This paper finds that despite the many uses of deportation, it was first and foremost a punitive instrument intended to curb resistance to Assyrian hegemony. This punitive dimension constituted the foundation of Assyrian deportation in the Levant in the age of Assyrian hegemony.

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Pp. 105–132: “Foreigners at Beni Hassan: Evidence from the Tomb of Khnumhotep I (No. 14),” by Anna-Latifa Mourad

The procession of Asiatics in the tomb of Khnumhotep II (No. 3) at Beni Hassan is one of the most famous scenes alluding to ancient Egypt’s interactions with its neighbors. Khnumhotep II, however, was not the only official at Beni Hassan to include representations of foreigners. The tomb of his possible grandfather, Khnumhotep I (No. 14), additionally features unique depictions of a number of individuals who can be identified as of non-Egyptian origin. These foreigners signal that particular cross-cultural relations could remain under the auspices of specific families in the early Middle Kingdom, perhaps influencing power and political dynamics that helped shape the 12th Dynasty. The following presents the most recent recordings of the depictions as completed by The Australian Centre for Egyptology, commenting on their nature and historical significance in relation to Khnumhotep I and the Oryx nome.

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Pp. 133–158: ““Beloved of the Lady Are Those Who …”: A Recurring Memorial Formula in the Sinaitic Inscriptions,” by Aren M. Wilson-Wright

This paper proposes a revised interpretation of the recurring sequence ḏ t b ṯ n m ṯ found in the early alphabetic inscriptions from Serabit el-Khadem, an Egyptian turquoise mining facility located in the Sinai Peninsula. I argue that this sequence combines with the well-known phrase m(ʾ)hb(b)ʿlt “beloved of the Lady” in Sinai 351, 353, 360, and 361 to form a memorial formula meaning “Beloved of the Lady are those who tell people about Māṯ.” It thus expresses a sentiment similar to contemporaneous Egyptian inscriptions from Serabit el-Khadem: the author of the inscriptions—in this case Māṯ—asks the reader to perform some action on his behalf. In return, he assures the reader that they will be beloved of the Lady (i.e., Hathor, the patron goddess of the mining district).

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Pp. 159–182: “The People Behind the Stamps: A Newly-Found Group of Bullae and a Seal from the City of David, Jerusalem,” by Anat Mendel-Geberovich, Ortal Chalaf, and Joe Uziel

The article presents a group of thirteen inscribed bullae and a stamp seal, dated to the late 8th–early 6th centuries B.C.E., discovered in the recent excavations of Area U in the City of David, Jerusalem. Following the presentation of the archaeological context and palaeographic analysis of the finds, we discuss the names appearing on them and their contribution to the broader topic of the history of Jerusalem, with a special emphasis on the connection of the findings to the importance of the Gihon Spring and to the debate regarding Israelite refugees in Judah.

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Pp. 183–190: “The Morphology of Iron Age Storage Jars and Its Relation to the Handbreadth Measure (Biblical Tefach),” by Avshalom Karasik, Ortal Harush, and Uzy Smilansky

In this paper we compare morphological features of three groups of Iron Age storage jars that were unearthed in several Judahite and Israelite sites. The most famous group is the royal Judahite storage jars with stamped handles (“lmlk,” “rosette,” etc.). The other two groups are the “Hippo” jars found abundantly in Israelite sites and the jars from Khirbet Qeiyafa (Judah), assigned chronologically to the early 10th century b.c.e. We scanned most of the available jars in 3D and compared them in a detailed morphological study. We extracted several metric measures and observed large variations between jars within a group and, to a larger extent, between jars from different groups. The only exception is the inner rim diameter, which shows surprising uniformity. Moreover, the distribution of inner rim diameters is consistent with anthropometric measurements of the handbreadth of the human male. We provide a detailed description of our methodology and findings and offer a few alternative explanations for the clear correlation between the measured inner rim diameter and the human tefach.

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Pp. 191–209: “Yehud Stamp Impressions from Ramat-Raḥel: An Updated Tabulation,” by Oded Lipschits and David S. Vanderhooft

The 2011 publication of the corpus of the Yehud stamp impressions of the Persian and Early Hellenistic periods included 582 items—307 of them were excavated at Ramat Raḥel. A few additional handles with Yehud stamp impressions were discovered since then, mainly in Jerusalem, but 33 more stamped handles were discovered in the “Babylonian-Persian Pit” at Ramat Raḥel (five of these were previously published and one is unidentified). Forty-one more were discovered during processing, cataloging, and restoration of material from the 2009–2010 seasons (three of them are unidentified), bringing the total number of identified Yehud stamp impressions from all sites to 647. In this paper we present all the unpublished stamped handles, as well as a final tabulation of Yehud stamp impressions excavated at Ramat Raḥel, and reflect on the significance of the site for the administration of the province during the Persian and early Hellenistic periods.

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Pp. 211–240: “Radiocarbon-Dating the Late Bronze Age: Cultural and Historical Considerations on Megiddo and Beyond,” by Mario A. S. Martin, Israel Finkelstein, and Eli Piasetzky

Megiddo, with its tight stratigraphy and well-controlled ceramic typology, yielded more than half of the radiocarbon determinations for the time span of the Middle Bronze II to the Iron I in the southern Levant. Here we present two radiocarbon models for this entire sequence, focusing on the Late Bronze Age—1) for Megiddo; 2) for Megiddo and Beth-Shean—adding a third model for sites which provide results relevant to the Middle Bronze III/Late Bronze I transition. We then discuss the impact of the results on the material culture and history of Megiddo in particular and the southern Levant (and eastern Mediterranean) in general.

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