http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification 720 https://escholarship.org/uc/ucb_melc/rss Recent eScholarship items from Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures Tue, 8 Sep 2026 14:42:50 +0000 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4ng405bv A short report describing the results of the Busayra Cultural Heritage Project's 2025 season. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4ng405bv Sun, 30 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Porter, Benjamin W. McGeough, Kevin Bubel, Shawn Weitzel, Jordan al-Saudi, Ehab Ziad https://escholarship.org/uc/item/31h5v2xq <p>Authors’ Note: This manuscript was submitted for publication in Summer 2026 for a forthcoming edited volume. Please cite the manuscript as follows:</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>McGeough, Kevin, Benjamin W. Porter, Shawn Bubel, and Jordan Weitzel. Forthcoming. Emergent Networks in Iron Age Southern Jordan: A View from Ancient Busayra. In A. Danielson and B. Routledge, <em>The Seat of Kingship? Royal Cities and Political Communities in Iron Age Jordan</em>. University Press of Colorado</p> https://escholarship.org/uc/item/31h5v2xq Sat, 1 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 McGeough, Kevin Porter, Benjamin W. Bubel, Shawn Weitzel, Jordan https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8h84g270 This manuscript describes the results of the Busayra Cultural Heritage Project's research in the Area A building during Summer, 2025. This manuscript was submitted for publication in the Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan in Summer, 2026. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8h84g270 Thu, 18 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 McGeough, Kevin Bubel, Shawn Weitzel, Jordan al-Saudi, Ehab Z. Porter, Benjamin W https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2kq5107p In 2024, images of three previously unknown Middle Persian documents on leather became available, reportedly originating from an undisclosed location in Fārs province, Iran. All three documents are formal letters. In this article, we propose that the documents originate from the same site, Tang-e Bolāġī, as seven other documents which became known beginning in 2023. Based on an analysis of the opening sections of these three new documents, we argue that two date to the reign of Xusrō II (r. 590–628 CE), while the third is attributable to the reign of his father, Ohrmazd IV (r. 579–590 CE). We furthermore consider the evidence for the titulature of the Sasanian kings at the end of the 6th and beginning of the 7th centuries CE. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2kq5107p Wed, 25 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Asefi, Nima Farridnejad, Shervin https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5zx8d9x7 This manuscript was submitted for publication to the <em>Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan</em> in 2014. For whatever reason, it never appeared in print. While not the most exciting piece of scholarship, the manuscript nonetheless contains valuable updated information about the site’s condition in 2013 prior to site development activities that occurred between 2015 and 2020. The manuscript also contains updated information about the size of the site that was gained through a comprehensive topographic survey. Please contact Benjamin W. Porter at bwporter@berkeley.edu with any questions. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5zx8d9x7 Sun, 4 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Porter, Benjamin W. Brown, Stephanie Wilson, Andrew T Farahani, Alan Bravo, Christopher D https://escholarship.org/uc/item/14q686n6 The Edward Gans Collection of Seals (EGC) at the University of California, Berkeley comprises 680 seals and seal-related objects as well as 111 modern impressions of seals not in the EGC. This handbook is a guide to the collection.&nbsp; https://escholarship.org/uc/item/14q686n6 Mon, 27 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Ziegler, Alice H. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9wn6t7xm History of Egypt 1382-1469 A.D. (Part VII, 1461-1468 A.D.), translated from the Arabic Annals of Abu l-Maḥasin Ibn Taghrî Birdî https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9wn6t7xm Wed, 21 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Popper, William https://escholarship.org/uc/item/96b6m3md Ethiopic and South Arabic Contributions to the Hebrew Lexicon https://escholarship.org/uc/item/96b6m3md Wed, 21 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Leslau, Wolf https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8p5944m6 Abû ’l-Maḥâsin Ibn Taghrî Birdî’s Annals entitled An-Nujûm az-Zâhira fî Mulûk Miṣr wal-Ḳâhira, Vol. VI. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8p5944m6 Wed, 21 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Popper, William https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6s55t2d3 The Verb in Harari (South Ethiopic) https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6s55t2d3 Wed, 21 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Leslau, Wolf https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6r5739wx History of Egypt 1382-1469 A.D. (Part II, 1399-1411 A.D.), translated from the Arabic Annals of Abu l-Maḥasin Ibn Taghrî Birdî https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6r5739wx Wed, 21 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Popper, William https://escholarship.org/uc/item/68k379b1 History of Egypt 1382-1469 A.D. (Part III, 1412-1422 A.D.), translated from the Arabic Annals of Abu l-Maḥasin Ibn Taghrî Birdî https://escholarship.org/uc/item/68k379b1 Wed, 21 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Popper, William https://escholarship.org/uc/item/65h424f1 History of Egypt 1382-1469 A.D., translated from the Arabic Annals of Abu l-Maḥasin Ibn Taghrî Birdî, Indices https://escholarship.org/uc/item/65h424f1 Wed, 21 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Popper, William https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5wb6z28z History of Egypt 1382-1469 A.D. (Part VI, 1453-1461 A.D.), translated from the Arabic Annals of Abu l-Maḥasin Ibn Taghrî Birdî https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5wb6z28z Wed, 21 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Popper, William https://escholarship.org/uc/item/52r3v9xz Studies in Biblical Parallelisms. Part II: Parallelism in Isaiah, Chapters 11-35 (and 37.22-35) https://escholarship.org/uc/item/52r3v9xz Wed, 21 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Popper, William https://escholarship.org/uc/item/34x5s96s Egypt and Syria under the Circassian Sultans, 1382-1468 A.D. Systematic Notes to Ibn Taghrî Birdî’s Chronicles of Egypt https://escholarship.org/uc/item/34x5s96s Wed, 21 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000 William, Popper https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0qq556gc Egypt and Syria under the Circassian Sultans, 1382-1468 A.D. Systematic Notes to Ibn Taghrî Birdî’s Chronicles of Egypt, continued https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0qq556gc Wed, 21 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Popper, William https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0hp3f92j History of Egypt 1382-1469 A.D. (Part IV, 1422-1438 A.D.), translated from the Arabic Annals of Abu l-Maḥasin Ibn Taghrî Birdî https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0hp3f92j Wed, 21 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Popper, William https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9fv276tp Abû ’l-Maḥâsin Ibn Taghrî Birdî’s Annals entitled An-Nujûm az-Zâhira fî Mulûk Miṣr wal-Ḳâhira, Vol. II, Part 2, Nos. 1-3 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9fv276tp Tue, 20 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Popper, William https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8wx554hw Abû ’l-Maḥâsin Ibn Taghrî Birdî’s Annals entitled An-Nujûm az-Zâhira fî Mulûk Miṣr wal-Ḳâhira, Vol. VII, Parts 1-3, Indices, and Glossary https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8wx554hw Tue, 20 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Popper, William https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8p02q5vx Ibn Taghrî Birdî: An-Nujûm az-Zâhira fî Mulûk Misr wal-Kâhira https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8p02q5vx Tue, 20 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Popper, William https://escholarship.org/uc/item/67q9r1fq &nbsp;Abû ’l-Maḥâsin Ibn Taghrî Birdî’s Annals entitled An-Nujûm az-Zâhira fî Mulûk Miṣr wal-Ḳâhira, Vol. V (746-800 A.H), Parts 1-3, Indicies, and Glossary (746-778 A.H) https://escholarship.org/uc/item/67q9r1fq Tue, 20 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Popper, William https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5nf1q023 Extracts from Abû ’l-Maḥâsin Ibn Taghrî Birdî’s Chronicle entitled Ḥawâdith ad-Duhûr fî Madâ L-’Ayyâm Wash-Shuhûr (Parts 1-4; 845-856 A.H.) https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5nf1q023 Tue, 20 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Popper, William https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7qg8b0wm The Supposed Hebraisms in the Grammar of the Biblical Aramaic&nbsp; https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7qg8b0wm Mon, 19 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Powell, Herbert H https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7dr4z0tf Studies in Biblical Parallelisms. Part II: Parallelism in Isaiah, Chapters 1-10 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7dr4z0tf Mon, 19 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Popper, William https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1nx1694n Studies in Biblical Parallelisms. Part II: Parallelism in Isaiah, Chapters 1-35 and 37.22-35. The Reconstructed Text (Hebrew) https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1nx1694n Mon, 19 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Popper, William https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0d2267mc Studies in Biblical Parallelisms. Part I: Parallelism in Amos&nbsp; https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0d2267mc Mon, 19 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Newman, Louis I https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9p46b7rg Sasanian Sealstones is a B.A. thesis completed in 1994 by Catherine Bullock (Demos), who graduated from Near Eastern Studies (now MELC). The thesis was completed under the direction of Professor Guitty Azarpay, as part of a project to catalog and study the Gans Collection of seals, involving multiple undergraduate and graduate researchers throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. Bullock later contributed to the digital publication of the Gans Collection on the now-retired online Sasanian Empire project on the Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative. Although the MELC Department does not typically make undergraduate theses available online, an exception was made for the present thesis as it was and is a very useful aid to the Sasanian part of the Gans Collection and enriches the material available for its study. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9p46b7rg Mon, 12 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Bullock, Catherine https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8ns6650c Sasanian Seals from the Collection of the late Edward Gans is a publication that accompanied the digital publication of the Gans Collection on the now-retired Sasanian Empire project on the Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative in 2001. It was meant to function as a brief introduction to the digital collection, the cataloging of the objects, and to overview a series of articles that were also made available on the ECAI website. It is also useful for the mention it makes of the many students who contributed to work on the Collection. Since for many years it was the only publication about the Gans Collection that circulated among scholars, it has seemed best to keep it available at a consistent digital location. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8ns6650c Mon, 12 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Azarpay, Guitty https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3bf088gh This article proposes new readings and interpretations for parts of seven Middle Persian documents first published by Philippe Gignoux and Dieter Weber, namely: Berk. 80, Berk. 95, Berk. 43B, Tehran B, LA1, Berk. 149, and Berlin 28. It also provides the <em>editio princeps</em> of Berk. 19. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3bf088gh Fri, 25 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Asefi, Nima https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6v57h0v5 Known as a place, a people, and a kingdom at various points in the second and first millennia BCE, Moab has long sustained the attention of archaeologists, philologists, and historians, in part because of its adjacent location to ancient Israel. The past 150 years of research in what is today west-central Jordan has proffered a significant corpus of evidence from the region's archaeological sites. However, a critical analysis of this evidence reveals significant gaps in knowledge that challenge attempts to narrate Moab's political, economic, and social history. This Element examines the evidence as well as the debates surrounding Moab's development and decline. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6v57h0v5 Thu, 27 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Porter, Benjamin W. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6v0837s4 The Xorde Avesta is considered a collection of shorter Zoroastrian liturgies. Until recently, neither the architecture of the manuscripts in which the Xorde Avesta was handed down was analyzed in detail, nor was the relationship between manuscript and practice adequately described. This article develops the thesis that the representation of the Xorde Avesta in manuscripts and liturgical practice can be understood from the point of a ritual structuring of circular units of time. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6v0837s4 Fri, 29 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000 König, Götz https://escholarship.org/uc/item/506794cz Crop Storage and Animal Husbandry at Early Iron Age Khirbat al-Mudayna al-‘Aliya (Jordan): A Paleoethnobotanical Approach https://escholarship.org/uc/item/506794cz Sat, 3 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Farahani, Alan Porter, Benjamin W Huynh, Hanna Routledge, Bruce https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3gc5755t After Walter Bruno Henning’s untimely death in Berkeley (CA, USA) in 1967, his work materials, correspondence, and personal library seem to have remained in his home for some years. Contemporaries of Henning’s were convinced that his estate contained unpublished work of great value, and complained, sometimes bitterly, that they were prevented from making use of them. Yet some materials were in fact sent to colleagues, for at least several years after his death. But after this time, it does not appear that Henning’s unpublished work or other materials continued to be used by other scholars. His Nachlass re-surfaces in 1992 in the Guide to the Archival Materials of the German-speaking Emigration to the United States after 1933, where it is listed as still in Berkeley in the possession of his son-in-law Theodor B. Kahle. By 2008, the Nachlass (including unpublished working materials, correspondence, and personal library) was accessioned by the Deutsches Exilarchiv 1933-1945, part... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3gc5755t Sun, 21 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Benkato, Adam https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1j42b6f7 This study publishes a first edition of a newly-discovered Middle Persian document located in a private collection but stemming from the area of Hastijan, Iran. It is related to the ‘Pahlavi Archive’, the majority of which is held in the Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley, and the contents concern the family of a certain Farroxzād, mentioned in several other documents in the archive. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1j42b6f7 Wed, 27 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000 Asefi, Nima https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8hc2f09x Archaeological plant remains are key data in the identification of the material consequences of imperial interventions in past local lifeways. In this paper, the spatial and stratigraphic analysis of plant remains preserved in a hypothesized kitchen context from the archaeological site of Dhiban, Jordan, is presented in detail. This context is dated to ca.&nbsp;a.d.&nbsp;570–640 based on 16 AMS dates, a time when the Dhiban community was part of and located at the eastern edge of the Byzantine empire. Analysis of over 130 point-provenienced flotation samples reveals a local emphasis on the agricultural production of wheat, peas, and grape, in spite of the challenges of water management in a semi-arid landscape. Comparison with other nearby and contemporaneous sites indicates that while all grew a similar suite of crops, their frequencies vary, possibly indicating a community of agricultural practice specializing in different foodstuffs or crops. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8hc2f09x Tue, 12 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000 Farahani, Alan Kutner, Melissa Steen Fatkin, Danielle Porter, Benjamin W https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9j39d3c5 Egyptian Tomb Steles and Offering Stones of the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology of the University of California https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9j39d3c5 Fri, 18 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000 Lutz, Henry F. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7g3977tc The Predynastic Cemetery N 7000. Naga-ed-Dêr, Part IV https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7g3977tc Fri, 18 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000 Lythgoe, Albert M https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6j54g9v5 The Early Dynastic Cemeteries of Naga-ed-Dêr, Part II. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6j54g9v5 Fri, 18 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000 Mace, Arthur C. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5jg0p3df Egyptian Statues and Statuettes in the Museum of Anthropology of the University of California https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5jg0p3df Fri, 18 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000 Lutz, Henry F https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2vt4m4zr A Provincial Cemetery of the Pyramid Age at Naga-ed-Dêr, Part III https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2vt4m4zr Fri, 18 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000 Reisner, George A https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2dj7r311 The Early Dynastic Cemeteries of Naga-ed-Dêr, Part I https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2dj7r311 Fri, 18 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000 Reisner, George A https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0xh1p2jk Egyptian Pottery: Proceeding of the 1990 Pottery Symposium at the University of California, Berkeley https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0xh1p2jk Fri, 18 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000 Redmount, Carol A. Keller, Cathleen A. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0131c4js The Hearst Medical Papyrus: Hieratic Text in 17 Facsimile Plates in Collotype with Introduction and Vocabulary https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0131c4js Fri, 18 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000 Reisner, George A. Lythgoe, Albert M https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7tb5j1pj Das „Xorde Avesta“ ist eine (in Handschriften und Drucken überlieferte) Sammlung von (größtenteils) kürzeren liturgischen Texten in avestischer Sprache (sowie in persischen und in indischen Sprachen) auf der Grundlage einer sie charakterisierenden, allgemein verbindlichen Struktur folgt. Diese Struktur zeigt typische Variationsmuster gemäß Klasse, Zeit und Ort der Handschrift. Im Rahmen von allgemeiner Struktur und partikularem Muster finden sich wiederum individuelle Differenzen in Material und in dessen Anordnung, die dafür verantwortlich sind, daß Xorde Avesta Handschriften fast immer Unikate sind (und vermutlich darum auch niemals im Rahmen der Hypothese der 'Stammhandschriften' diskutiert wurden). Die Hs. T12 aus der Mitte des 16. Jh. gehört zu jenen Handschriften des Xorde Avesta, die für unsere Rekonstruktion der Geschichte einer bestimmten Handschriftenklasse eine herausragende Position besitzen. Sie bildet zudem eine Schnittstelle von frühem iranischen Xorde Avesta... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7tb5j1pj Mon, 7 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000 König, Götz https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7t41f8j6 Mount Zaneh is among the mountains of Marvdasht located in the current municipality of Abarj. The mountain has long attracted scholarly attention for housing a rich variety of scattered archeological remnants from the Elamite up to the Sasanian eras. In particular, there are two ancient ossuaries whose patterns resemble the ossuaries in Naqsh-e Rostam. This study introduces and deciphers a newly-discovered six-line Middle Persian inscription in the skirts of Mount Zaneh. The inscription is comparable with other funerary inscriptions in Middle Persian. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7t41f8j6 Mon, 5 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000 Doroodi, Mojtaba Owladhoseyn, Mohammad Javad Zeini, Arash https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6h36x5vw The purpose of this manifesto is to raise broad questions about philological inquiry as a background to the purpose of this occasional journal. It reflects both on general questions of philology (Section 2) and delves into an example from the Middle Persian translations (<em>Zand</em>) of the <em>Avesta</em> in which can be seen a clash between the traditional approach in that field and the type of inquiry that I advocate here (Section 3). https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6h36x5vw Tue, 23 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000 Zeini, Arash https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8jm8w9v1 Archaeological remains of brachyurans (e.g. crabs) are often overlooked as potential paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatical proxies in contrast to other marine and terrestrial invertebrates such as mollusks and landsnails. The potential for fine-scale regional paleoclimate reconstruction based upon these organisms' behavioral ecology has yet to be examined. We present novel isotopic analyses of the remains of a semiterrestrial freshwater crab (<em>Potamon potamios</em>) endemic to southwest Asia recovered from the archaeological site of Khirbat al-Mudayna al-’Aliya (KMA). KMA lies on a southern tributary of the Wadi al-Mujib in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, approximately 40&nbsp;km east of the Dead Sea. Excavations here recovered architecture, artifacts, and ecofacts dating to a single-period occupation during the early Iron Age (∼1000&nbsp;cal BCE). Oxygen and carbon isotopes from these brachyuran remains were analyzed in conjunction with a two-year isotopic and morphometric... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8jm8w9v1 Tue, 16 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000 Farahani, Alan Miller, Melanie J Porter, Benjamin W Dawson, Todd Routledge, Bruce https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1dq9h79w Archaeological remains of brachyurans (e.g. crabs) are often overlooked as potential paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatical proxies in contrast to other marine and terrestrial invertebrates such as mollusks and landsnails. The potential for fine-scale regional paleoclimate reconstruction based upon these organisms' behavioral ecology has yet to be examined. We present novel isotopic analyses of the remains of a semiterrestrial freshwater crab (<em>Potamon potamios</em>) endemic to southwest Asia recovered from the archaeological site of Khirbat al-Mudayna al-’Aliya (KMA). KMA lies on a southern tributary of the Wadi al-Mujib in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, approximately 40&nbsp;km east of the Dead Sea. Excavations here recovered architecture, artifacts, and ecofacts dating to a single-period occupation during the early Iron Age (∼1000&nbsp;cal BCE). Oxygen and carbon isotopes from these brachyuran remains were analyzed in conjunction with a two-year isotopic and morphometric... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1dq9h79w Fri, 14 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000 Farahani, Alan Miller, Melanie J Porter, Benjamin W Dawson, Todd Routledge, Bruce https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2r87b75s University-based anthropology museums are uniquely positioned to pursue nuanced decisions concerning the disposition of collections in their care, setting best practice for the field. The authors describe a three-staged approach to repatriations that they led during their concurrent service as head of cultural policy and repatriation (Jordan Jacobs) and director (Benjamin Porter) of the University of California, Berkeley’s Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology between 2015 and 2019. Examples involving human remains and cultural objects from Australia, Canada, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, Japan, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Saipan, Senegal, Vanuatu, Venezuela, and South Carolina in the United States demonstrate the benefits of transparency, open communication, and rigorous investigation of provenance and provenience, which may or may not lead to transfer based on the criteria and priorities of potential recipients. This article also provides a history of the Hearst Museum’s... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2r87b75s Tue, 15 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000 Jacobs, Jordan Porter, Benjamin W https://escholarship.org/uc/item/34w048mm Climate scientists project that rising global temperatures will substantially transform the Middle East during the remaining decades of the century. These changes will also impact the region’s cultural heritage, particularly its documentation and management. This article reflects on how archaeologists can respond to these changes now and in the near future. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/34w048mm Fri, 12 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000 Porter, Benjamin W. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6r15n85r Toward a Socionatural Reconstruction of the Early Iron Age Settlement System in Jordan’s Wadi al-Mujib Canyon https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6r15n85r Fri, 23 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000 Porter, Benjamin W. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5d25c95x We use faunal evidence from Khirbat al-Mudayna al-ʿAliya, an agropastoral settlementlocated in west-central Jordan, to examine early Iron Age subsistence regimes.Analysis of faunal evidence reveals a low-intensity, nonspecialized animal economy dependenton both domesticated and wild species, including freshwater crabs. The subsistenceeconomy of the settlement, we argue, was structured so as to take maximumadvantage of its location overlooking the Wadi al-Nukhayla, a perennial water sourcesupporting a relatively verdant floral and faunal array. This diverse and flexible organizationmade subsistence in this resource-scarce environment more sustainable. Whenthis profile is compared with other early Iron Age southern Levantine communities, thediversity of ways that animal economies were organized during this period is apparent,signaling the need to investigate the local strategies that communities used to adapt totheir immediate environmental circumstances, not only ecologically but... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5d25c95x Mon, 15 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000 Lev-Tov, Justin Porter, Benjamin W. Routledge, Bruce https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2kz517g7 History and ethnicity have been the preferred frameworks for explaining how Levantine societies organized themselves during the early Iron Age. Consequently, opportunities are missed to understand how local economic and environmental factors structured social life. In this study, a collection of early Iron Age settlements from southwest central Jordan, the Dhiban and Karak Plateaus, is examined using a community perspective. Emphasis is placed on the production and consumption of food, the raw materials for household and communal wealth. The value of food in the communities was heightened due to the difficult semi-arid environmental conditions in which is was produced. The sharing of food between households and communities was one way to create social bonds, or to gain power over others. Food circulation through practices such as storage, everyday meals and feasts therefore offers an ideal window through which to observe social life. Evidence for the communities' food-systems... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2kz517g7 Sat, 13 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000 Porter, Benjamin W https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1664j0bc Since 2008, the Dilmun Bioarchaeology Project has analyzed the human skeletal remains and artifacts that Peter B. Cornwall excavated from Bahrain in the 1940s, now held in the Hearst Museum of Anthropology. One mode of interpretation and dissemination pursued by the DBP team is forensic facial reconstruction. The subject of the first reconstruction is a twelve- to fifteen-year-old male who lived during the Early Dilmun period (ca. 2050–1800 b.c.e.). The resulting sculpture incorporates skeletal data about his identity and health as well as visual cues grounded in archaeological and sociohistorical contexts. It will be one of two reconstructions at the center of a traveling museum exhibition beginning in 2013. The goal of the exhibition is to present members of past societies to the interested public in a tangible fashion that encourages empathy and an appreciation of our shared humanity. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1664j0bc Thu, 11 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000 Boutin, Alexis T Sholts, Sabrina B Nusse, Gloria L Porter, Benjamin W https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2z06r9bj This article presents an overview of the Peter B. Cornwall collection in the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. Cornwall conducted an archaeological survey and excavation project in eastern Saudi Arabia and Bahrain in 1940 and 1941. At least twenty‐four burial features were excavated in Bahrain from five different tumuli fields, and surface survey and artefact collection took place on at least sixteen sites in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. The skeletal evidence, objects and faunal remains were subsequently accessioned by the Hearst Museum. The authors recently formed the Dilmun Bioarchaeology Project to investigate this collection. This article provides background information on Cornwall’s expedition and an overview of the collection. Additionally, skeletal evidence and associated objects from two tumuli in Bahrain, D1 and G20, are presented to illustrate the collection’s potential contribution. Although the tumuli’s precise locations... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2z06r9bj Wed, 10 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000 Porter, Benjamin W Boutin, Alexis T https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1tt957q7 The extensification of agricultural systems into marginal lands is a common response to environmental,economic, and political pressures for more cultivable land. Yet the course that extensification takes inparticular instances is unpredictable given the choices available to producers. This article investigates aninstance of extensification during the late second millennium BCE on the semi-arid Eastern Karak Plateauin west-central Jordan. Architectural, faunal, and archaeobotanical evidence is presented from Khirbat al-Mudayna al-’Aliya, one of several communities that participated in an extensified settlement system onthe edge of the Wadi al-Mujib and its tributaries. Producers practiced agriculture and pastoralism in alow-intensity subsistence economy that supported a nucleated settlement of households. Faunal analysisdetermined goats were kept, and wild animals supplemented diets. Archaeobotanical analysis of charredplant remains from storage bins in a building destroyed byfire... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1tt957q7 Wed, 10 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000 Porter, Benjamin W Routledge, Bruce E Simmons, Ellen M Lev-Tov, Justin https://escholarship.org/uc/item/794560j3 Introduction: Bringing Out the Dead in the Ancient Near East. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/794560j3 Tue, 9 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000 Porter, Benjamin W. Boutin, Alexis https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6mz830r7 Commemorating Disability in Early Dilmun: Ancient and Contemporary Tales from the Peter B. Cornwall Collection https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6mz830r7 Tue, 9 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000 Boutin, Alexis Porter, Benjamin https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9tj5d97n Archaeological research on the Iron Age (1200–500 BC) Levant, a narrow strip of land bounded by the Mediterranean Sea and the Arabian Desert, has been balkanized into smaller culture historical zones structured by modern national borders and disciplinary schools. One consequence of this division has been an inability to articulate broader research themes that span the wider region. This article reviews scholarly debates over the past two decades and identifies shared research interests in issues such as ethnogenesis, the development of territorial polities, economic intensification, and divergent responses to imperial interventions. The broader contributions that Iron Age Levantine archaeology offers global archaeological inquiry become apparent when the evidence from different corners of the region is assembled. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9tj5d97n Fri, 22 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000 Porter, Benjamin W https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0m915846 Moving Beyond King Mesha: The Archaeology of Social Life in Iron Age Jordan https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0m915846 Fri, 22 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000 Porter, Benjamin W. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9xp1666x Hard Times: Critical Approaches to Crisis and its Aftermath https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9xp1666x Tue, 3 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000 Org, JAGNES https://escholarship.org/uc/item/67w7f0f9 A letter from our Editors-in-Chief about the Volume and its contents. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/67w7f0f9 Tue, 3 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000 Norton, Brooke Safi, Lubna https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3z15677c In his contribution, “Homebound Travelers: The Return's Destabilization of Homeland inArabic literature,” Shawheen Rezaei sheds light on the shattered perspective of “the return.” Inhis reading of the riḥ la Rezaei focuses on the way it disorients the traveler — both the characterand the reader. Rezaei’s article suggests that we consider how our perspective as readers issimilarly complicated in our reading of this genre. In the novels he examines, the question of thetraveler’s encounter with the other is nuanced both by the other that the traveler encountersabroad and the other that he encounters once he returns home. When the traveler returns as anoutsider, we are forced to question whether there can really be a return. Ultimately in askingwhat it means to return, the works that Rezaei readsforce us to consider if any return is possible. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3z15677c Mon, 2 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000 Rezaei, Shawheen https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3g68325p Rachel Winter’s contribution to this issue, “I Have a Story, Too: Suicide Bombers,Borders, &amp; Peripheral Narratives” counterposes the narratives of suicide bombings constructedby the news media to those offered by the artists she examines. Winter diviersifies thisperspective further by looking into representations of female suicide bombers, and the differentgendered narratives that motivate thesir represntation in the media. She offers the archetypes thatpackage these suicide bombers, inflecting the Jungian archetypes with the mythical bent of the“Femle Monster” and “Woman Warrior.” What comes under scrutiny is not merely therepresentation of the suicide bomber by the artowrk, but also its framing. Winter asks, “What isthe viewer to make of the title, “Snow White”?” The fairytale is the framework around which thesuicide bomber can be made familiar to the audience and Winter’s paper puts pressure on thedesire to repackage the suicide bomber’s experience through a Western framework.1 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3g68325p Mon, 2 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000 Winter, Rachel https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0qx1f1mg Editors-in-chief, Brooke Norton and Lubna Safi sat down with fellow NES graduate student AriaFani to speak with our JAGNES 2019 Spring Lecture speaker, Mohammad Rafi about hisresearch, pedagogy, free speech, critical theory and more. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0qx1f1mg Mon, 2 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000 Rafi, Mohammad https://escholarship.org/uc/item/37w0t9kr Dry dig: Ethics and alcohol in Middle Eastern archaeological practice https://escholarship.org/uc/item/37w0t9kr Mon, 13 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +0000 Porter, Benjamin W. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/61c6k3qj <p>This article is a brief preliminary report on the Dhiban Excavation and Development Project's research on the Middle Islamic settlement. The article describes architecture, artifacts, coins, and the results of radiocarbon testing of organic remains to determine the site's settlement history. The article discusses Dhiban's role in the Mamluk empire's economic management of the Levant.</p> https://escholarship.org/uc/item/61c6k3qj Mon, 7 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000 Porter, Benjamin W. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/40n1d5qv <p>The magnificent collection of ivories found in an annex of the Stratum VIIA palace at Megiddo is often cited as illustrative of the internationalism characterizing the Late Bronze Age. This article re- examines the ivories from both a stylistic and archaeological perspective to provide a new reconstruction of their acquisition and deposition. Considering the diversity of the ivories’ styles, their incomplete and unreconstructible nature, and the presence of a large, articulated animal skeleton on top of them, I propose that the assemblage is best viewed within an interpretive framework of hoarding and ritual deposition at the end of the Bronze Age.</p> https://escholarship.org/uc/item/40n1d5qv Thu, 11 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000 Feldman, Marian https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9t822113 <p>In 2008-2009, the authors performed a collections assessment on the Peter B. Cornwall Collection at the P.A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology. The document describes the collection's history, its contents, and avenues for future research.</p> https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9t822113 Mon, 30 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000 Porter, Benjamin W. Boutin, Alexis https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8m60x7vq <p>The strategies political elites implement to garner political authority and legitimacy in emergent polities are scrutinized in a case study from Iron Age Edom, located in modern southern Jordan and the south-east corner of the State of Israel. Edom provides a productive context in which to conduct this investigation as local elites managed a fractious polity consisting of unstable segmentary identities, while at the same time, remaining loyal to the successive Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian empires that dominated them. This tenuous position required elites to maintain a flexible elite identity while promoting broader metaphors of attachment (e.g. Edomite) among their disparate constituents. This case study ultimately moves toward an understanding of political polities, not as disembodied entities (e.g. States), but as embedded phenomena within the societies they comprise.</p> https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8m60x7vq Mon, 30 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000 Porter, Benjamin W.