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Table of Contents for Bulletin of ASOR 389 (May 2023)

Pp. 1-19: “When “the Sweet Gifts of Bacchus” Ended—New Archaeological Evidence for Settlement Changes and the Decline of Wine Production in Late Antique Southern Palestine,” by Gideon Avni, Guy Bar-Oz, and Gil Gambash

Based on the accumulated data from numerous excavations in the hinterland of Gaza and Ashkelon and the results of the comprehensive bioarchaeological research on Late Antique settlement and economy of the Negev Highlands, this article addresses the decline of the flourishing wine industry of southern Palestine, dating it to the second half of the 6th century c.e. The decline in wine production in the region had a direct effect on the rapid abatement of Elusa, the main city of the Negev, and Shivta, a wealthy large village in the western Negev Highlands. Consequently, the extensive system of industrial farms that formed the hub of the flourishing wine industry declined at the same time. This article suggests connecting these events with changes in the patterns of demand, supply, and production of the “sweet gift of Bacchus,” taking into consideration regional aspects, environmental fluctuations, economic transformations, and the decline of consumption markets.

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Pp. 21-33: “Grain Mills from the Late Roman Legionary Camp in Palmyra,” by Grzegorz Majcherek

The Late Antique grain mills from the Roman army camp in Palmyra (Syria) are the first archaeologically documented examples of Roman geared mills in the Levant. Their discovery in the 1980s by the Polish Expedition excavating the Camp of Diocletian provided a body of data that has proved to be of significance for students of both military architecture in Late Antiquity and ancient milling technology. This paper presents the evidence for an advanced type of geared mill and discusses its implications in reference to the existing theoretical reconstruction of the Vitruvian mill.

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Pp. 35-64: “Middle Islamic Rural Occupation at Kani Shaie in Iraqi Kurdistan,” by Mustafa Ahmad and Steve Renette

A wave of new fieldwork in Iraqi Kurdistan during the past decade offers the opportunity to study societies of the Islamic periods from an archaeological perspective. Unfortunately, our current understanding of ceramic typology and chronology in the region still hinges overwhelmingly on datasets from major urban centers and the long-standing analysis of the technological development of glazed wares. The material culture of rural communities, on the other hand, is poorly understood. This causes problems for the reconstruction of the social and economic history of Islamic-era societies, and for survey projects that aim to assess longue durée changes in settlement patterns based on chronological assessments of surface collections. This article presents a coherent corpus of Middle Islamic pottery retrieved from a series of large pits from the site of Kani Shaie in Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Iraqi Kurdistan. Given the small size of the site, the lack of contemporary settlement remains, and the nature of the ceramic assemblage, it is proposed that these pits were used to dump refuse by a small nomadic community or household that returned to the site for a number of years in the 11th–13th century c.e. This small dataset offers glimpses into the lifeways of people who inhabited the border zone between the urbanized lowlands of Mesopotamia and the Zagros Highlands.

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Pp. 65-73: “Grain Tribute in Hittite Syria and the Fall of Ugarit,” by Yoram Cohen and Eduardo Torrecilla

This paper examines the term mānaḫātu in the letters from Hittite officials found at the House of Urtenu from Ugarit and recently published in the Ras Shamra-Ougarit 23 volume (RSO 23, Lackenbacher and Malbran-Labat 2016). This paper proposes that the exact meaning of mānaḫātu—in Ugaritic mnḥ(t)—depends on the context, since it was both a vassal tribute due to the empire by the Ugarit palace (consisting of vast amounts of grain staples) and a form of taxation imposed by the Ugarit palace on merchants and citizens of the kingdom at a local level. In addition, the letters concerning mānaḫātu reveal that the Hittite pressure on its vassal to meet its requirements likely contributed much to exacerbate the food shortage suffered by the kingdom of Ugarit, not long before its fall in the early 12th century b.c.

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Pp. 75-97: “Honoring the Elite Deceased: A Re-Examination of the Shechem Courtyard Complexes,” by Holly A. Winter

The function of the enigmatic Middle Bronze Age Courtyard Complexes at Shechem has remained at the forefront of debate concerning the courtyard palace form. Shechem’s excavators have been unable to agree on the function of the Courtyard Complexes, with some viewing them as palaces and others as temples. Since the only detailed analysis of the Shechem Courtyard Complexes occurred almost four decades ago (Toombs 1985), a reassessment of the material is overdue. An analysis of the Phase 902 Courtyard Complex, the best preserved of the five sequential complexes, supports its architectural association with the courtyard palace form (Oren 1992), while also highlighting a commemorative function, centered around housing and honoring the deceased elite and administering the ancestral funerary cult. Moreover, a functional link with the later Migdol temple and standing stones suggests at least a partial transference of function to this new, and possibly introduced, temple form in the later Middle Bronze Age. Therefore, the Shechem Courtyard Complexes are to be associated with the courtyard palace form, along with a primarily funerary/commemorative function and are perhaps better viewed as elite funerary complexes.

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Pp. 99-119: “The Bamu Stela, Shahr-i Fadak, and Tapeh Shaho: Why Were so Many Monuments Erected around Mount Bamu?” by Sajjad Alibaigi and John MacGinnis

The reliefs and stelae created in the area stretching from Rania in Iraqi Kurdistan to Sar Pol-e Zahab in Iran are among the outstanding cultural materials of the late 3rd and early 2nd millennium b.c., supplementing the information in cuneiform texts for telling the story of important political and military events in the region. Based on the concentration of these reliefs on the northern side of the present-day city of Sar Pol-e Zahab and the picture presented in the cuneiform texts, it appears that the region along the Great Khorasan Road—and especially the area surrounding Sar Pol-e Zahab (ancient Halman)—was the center of major political and military events of that time. The recent discovery of a new stela at Sarab-e Sey Khan and two new rock reliefs at Darvan-e Duhol, coming in addition to the long-known relief at Shaikhan and the stela discovered on Mount Bamu in 1955, requires us to re-evaluate our understanding of this sector of the western Zagros in the late 3rd and early 2nd millennium b.c. This article addresses the question as to why no less than five important monuments were erected in the vicinity of Mount Bamu. The results suggest that these monuments commemorate victories by rulers over the indigenous Bronze Age populations from the mountain kingdoms that lay between Mesopotamia and the high Zagros. Furthermore, study of the archaeological landscape leads to some proposals for the identifications of the polities that were the objects of these attacks. Specifically, sites on the western slopes of Mount Bamu such as Tapeh Shaho, Tapeh Ama-Husein, and Tapeh Qalandari, all three of which appear to have been occupied at this time, lead us to surmise that the main purpose of the attacks on this area was to conquer these settlements, and that these monuments were erected to commemorate these victories.

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Pp. 121-163: “Towards a Better Understanding of the Chronological and Geographical Distribution Patterns of Plain and Painted Handmade Wares in Bilād al-Shām,” by Piotr Makowski

Though it has now been more than 90 years since the phenomenon of plain and painted handmade wares first became apparent to field archaeologists working at historical sites in the territory of Bilād al-Shām, so far relatively little effort has been made to explain it sufficiently. The current paper provides an introductory survey of the available literature and attempts to organize the overall discussion regarding the patterns of their chronological and geographical distribution. Particular attention has been paid to the dating of the appearance of handmade wares and the first phase of their development. Illustrating the occurrence of handmade wares in the form of maps and charts, this article also intends to assess the regional differences in their status as well as the mutual relationship between plain and painted wares.

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Pp. 165-189: “Drowned Landscapes: The Rediscovered Archaeological Heritage of the Mosul Dam Reservoir,” by Paola Sconzo, Francesca Simi, and Andrea Titolo

Like natural catastrophes or armed conflicts, resource extraction projects herald the alteration or destruction of natural and cultural landscapes alike. Dam construction is a major threat to cultural heritage in Western Asian archaeology. One event may result in obliterating hundreds of sites, most of which never reappear or do so only sporadically following cyclical water fluctuation. Destruction of sites remains ongoing, necessitating constant assessment of damage and the establishment of strategies of documentation and maintenance. This paper proposes a new paradigm for future safeguarding and, more widely, a new tool for managing contiguous terrestrial and lacustrine cultural zones. It outlines a new set of cost-efficient tools for observing these archaeological localities’ “emergence patterns” and quickly assessing damage timescales and site areas. As a case study, Iraq’s largest hydroelectric basin, the Mosul Dam reservoir on the upper Tigris, is discussed, as it offers several insights into tackling endemic issues of site recording, monitoring, and threat assessment in a constantly shifting environment. The research has profited from an unexpected drought in 2018 yielding archaeological sites and villages thought forever lost and is informed by new archaeological projects recently undertaken on the eastern bank of the lake.

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Pp. 191–216: “The Archaeology and History of Rock-cut Cisterns and Open Water Reservoirs in the Negev Highlands,” by Andrea Junge, Zachary C. Dunseth, Ruth Shahack-Gross, Israel Finkelstein, and Markus Fuchs

This article provides the final assessment of a large-scale optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating project of water installations in the arid Negev Highlands, southern Israel. Results from five open reservoirs and five rock-cut cisterns are reported. By sampling spoil piles, feeding channels, and accumulation of sediments within reservoirs and cisterns, their construction and phases of maintenance and abandonment are dated. Conventional wisdom argued for progress from simpler open reservoirs in the Bronze or Iron Ages to the more sophisticated rock-cut cisterns of the Nabatean–Byzantine periods. It is shown that open reservoirs were dug throughout the history of the region, likely from the Early or Intermediate Bronze Ages until the medieval period, including periods with no stone-built remains in the region. The construction of subterranean cisterns, which calls for more resources and skill, characterize the Late Roman/Byzantine to Early Islamic period. The significance of these results for reconstructing the history of human activity in the region is also discussed.

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Pp. 217-234: “The Identification of the Deity Aramiš/s and the Locations of Qarnē/Qarnīna and Azaʾi/Aṣî in the Tell Taʿyinat Treaty,” by K. Lawson Younger Jr.

For many years not much was known about a deity Aramiš/Aramis, being only mentioned in a few personal names. His identity remained a mystery. But with the discovery of the Esarhaddon Succession Treaty from Tell Taʿyinat, an association with the city and land of Qarnē/Qarnīna, the city and land of ˹azaʾi˺, came to light. Based on the available data found in the personal names, toponymy, and iconography, this article explores the possible identification of this deity and the two toponyms associated with it.

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