A.D. Riddle, Author at BiblePlaces.com

More Lectures in Chicago

(Post by A.D. Riddle)

These are all free and open to the public.

Wed, Feb 13, 2013, 7:00-8:30 pm
John Walton, “Origins Today: Genesis with Ancient Eyes” followed by responses from Richard Averbeck and Lawson Younger.
ATO Chapel, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, IL.

Sat, March 2, 2013, 5:00 pm
Kathryn Bard, “Harbor of the Pharaohs to the Land of Punt: Excavations at Mersa/Wadi Gawasis 2001-2011.”
American Research Center in Egypt – Chicago Chapter.
LaSalle Bank Room, Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.
See website for more details.

Wed, Mar 6, 2013, 7:00–8:00 PM
T.J. Wilkinson, “Canals, Kings and Hydraulic Landscapes in the Ancient Near East: An Archaeological Perspective” followed by reception in the museum.
Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.
Register at oimlwilkinson.eventbrite.com.
See website for more details.

Fri-Sat, Mar 15-16, 2013
University of Chicago Oriental Institute Symposium.
“Household Studies in Complex Societies: A (Micro) Archaeological and Text Combined Comparative Approach.”
The schedule for the symposium is given below. See website for more details.

Friday, March 15:
Opening Remarks, 9:00-9:30 AM

Session 1: Method and Theory, 9:30-11:10 AM
Adelheid Otto “How to Reconstruct Daily Life in a Near Eastern Settlement: Possibilities and Constraints of a Combined Archaeological, Historical, and Scientific Approach”
Kate Spence “Ancient Egyptian Houses: Architecture, Conceptualization and Interpretation”
Paolo Brusasco “Interaction between Textual Materials and Social Space in the Definition of Family Composition in Mesopotamia”

Session 2: Activity Area Analysis, 11:10-1:00 PM
Peter Pfälzner “Activity-area Analyses of Room and Grave Contexts in Third- and Second-millennium BC Syria”
Lynn Rainville “Everyday Life in an Assyrian City: Microarchaeological and Ethno-archaeological Approaches to the Study of Activity Areas”
Felix Arnold “Clean and Unclean Space in Houses on Elephantine”
Lisa Nevett “The Use and Abuse of Artifact Assemblages in Classical Greek Domestic Contexts”

Session 3: Social Stratification, 2:30-3:30 PM
Miriam Müller “An Ancient Egyptian Middle Class as Revealed in a Neighborhood of Tell el-Dabʿa/Avaris”
Heather Baker “Family Structure, Household Cycle, and the Social Use of Domestic Space in Urban Babylonia”

Session 4: Ethnicity and Identity 4:00-5:00 PM
Nicholas Picardo “Hybrid Households: Institutional Affiliations and Household Identity in the Town of Wah-sut (South Abydos)”
Aaron Brody “Living in Households, Constructing Identities: Ethnicity, Boundaries, and Empire in Iron IIB–IIC Tell en-Nasbeh”

Reception: 5:00-6:00 PM

Saturday, March 16
Session 5: Private and Political Economy, 9:00-10:00 AM
Jens-Arne Dickmann “Crucial Contexts: A Close Reading of the Household of the Casa del Menandro at Pompeii”
Kristin de Lucia “Micro-archaeology and the Identification of Household Multicrafting among Lakeshore Communities in Pre-Aztec Central Mexico”

Session 6: Urban-Rural and Core-Periphery Relations 10:00-10:40 AM
Peter Miglus “Private House or Temple: Decoding Patterns of the Old Babylonian Architecture”

Responses and Roundtable Discussion 11:00-1:00 PM

Tagged Lectures

Two Lectures in Chicago

Here are two free lectures for those in the Chicago area. Apologies for such short notice.

American Research Center in Egypt – Chicago Chapter lecture.
Today, Feb. 2, Saturday at 5:00 pm.
Peter Brand, “All in the Family: The Royal Family of Ramesses II.”
The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, LaSalle Bank Room.
Website for details.

Oriental Institute lecture.
Feb. 6, Wednesday at 7:00 pm.
Elizabeth Stone, “City and Hinterland in ancient Mesopotamia: An
examination of continuities and developments in the fabric of urban and
rural settlement from 5,000 B.C. until the time of Christ.”
Free Registration required here.
Website for details.

Tagged Lectures

Tayinat Colossal Statue

(Post by A.D. Riddle)

There have been a dozen or so online pieces in the last two days about the colossal statue found at Tel Tayinat this summer, but most of them repeat what can be found in the official news release (see the update added to the end of our first post).

A few new photos have appeared, and the Toronto Star describes the discovery of the statue by Darren Joblonkay, a student working on the dig this summer.

(photo by Jennifer Jackson)

Darren Joblonkay with statue fragment (photo from The Star).

In the lower photo, one can barely see that the back of the statue, from the shoulders down, has an uneven surface. This must be the “lengthy Hieroglyphic Luwian inscription” in raised relief. The article in the Toronto Star gives a few intriguing details about the content of the inscription. It belongs to the Neo-Hittite king Suppiluliuma (9th cent. B.C.) and describes his “taking land from eight neighbouring kingdoms, establishing a border, and building a monument to his father.” The photo shows another piece of monumental sculpture, a column base fragment depicting a winged bull. The other reports state that the column base also has a relief of a sphinx.

The low mound of Tell Tayinat in the Amuq Plain, Turkey.

(photo source)

UPDATE: The official announcement was also released at the website of the University of Toronto, including a link to a photo of the column base fragment.

(photo by Jennifer Jackson)

Tagged Discoveries, Turkey

New Sculpture from Tell Tayinat (and the treaty tablet)

(Post by A.D. Riddle)

According to an online article at Hürriyet Daily News, excavations at Tell Tayinat unearthed the head of a large statue last month. The Tayinat Archaeological Project is directed by Timothy Harrison of the University of Toronto. The head is made of basalt with inlaid eyes, is about 5 feet tall (1.5 m) and weighs 1.5 tons. Some excerpts give a few details:

“It is a figure with a beard and long hair, and it seems to be holding a weapon…The rest of the sculpture has not been found, indicating that it may
well have been damaged. However, the upper part is in very good
condition…The sculpture has been sent to the Hatay Archeology Museum, where it
will be restored by a professional team…Harrison also showed that
there is writing that says ‘Suppiluliuma’ at the back of the sculpture.”

In related news, an Assyrian vassal treaty tablet was discovered at Tell Tayinat in 2009 (see here).

Two articles including the publication of the treaty tablet and a discussion of the archaeological context appear in the latest issue of Journal of Cuneiform Studies (pdf downloads available here).

Harrison, T.P. and Osborne J. F.
2012 “Building XVI and the Neo-Assyrian Sacred Precinct at Tell Tayinat.” Journal of Cuneiform Studies 64: 125-143.

Lauinger, J.
2012 “Esarhaddon’s Succession Treaty at Tell Tayinat: Text and Commentary.” Journal of Cuneiform Studies 64: 87-123.

For a number of years (or rather, decades), Kenneth Kitchen has been working on collecting all Ancient Near Eastern treaties, covenants, and law codes. The culmination of this work now appears in print as:

Kitchen, Kenneth A. and Paul J. N. Lawrence.
2012 Treaty, Law and Covenant in the Ancient Near East. 3 parts. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.

A detailed table of contents and introduction (pdf) can be downloaded at the publisher’s website. (I am counting on my library to get a copy, since I don’t have quite enough change in my pocket to cover the nearly €300 [= $370] price tag.) The introduction notes that this work includes 106 documents in 10 different languages. Parts 1 and 2 include the texts in transliteration and translation, with notes, indexes and color diagrams. Part 3 is a nearly 300 page commentary and synthesis of all this material. See here for a discussion of the significance of this study for the book of Deuteronomy in particular. (Deuteronomy and other biblical treaties and covenants are included in Treaty, Law and Covenant in the Ancient Near East, but the new Tayinat treaty tablet is not—it is probably too recent to have made it in.)

UPDATE (Jul 30, Mon): An official announcement concerning the new statue fragment was released this morning by the University of Toronto. It includes two more photos and states that the fragment was found underneath the paved surface of a monumental gateway leading to the Neo-Hittite citadel.

From the release:

The head and torso of the human figure, intact to just above its waist,
stands approximately 1.5 metres in height, suggesting a total body
length of 3.5 to four metres. The figure’s face is bearded, with
beautifully preserved inlaid eyes made of white and black stone, and its
hair has been coiffed in an elaborate series of curls aligned in linear
rows. Both arms are extended forward from the elbow, each with two arm
bracelets decorated with lion heads. The figure’s right hand holds a
spear, and in its left is a shaft of wheat. A crescent-shaped pectoral
adorns its chest. A lengthy Hieroglyphic Luwian inscription, carved in
raised relief across its back, records the campaigns and accomplishments
of Suppiluliuma, likely the same Patinean king who faced a Neo-Assyrian
onslaught of Shalmaneser III as part of a Syrian-Hittite coalition in
858 BC.

Tagged Discoveries, Resources, Turkey

Reports from the Philistines

(Post by A.D. Riddle)

This blog noted before that the final excavation reports for Ashkelon were being made available as free pdf downloads. Volume 3, published last year by Eisenbrauns and covering Ashkelon in the 7th century B.C., is now available for download.

And from Gath (Tell es-Safi), Aren Maeir gives a period-by-period summary of the 2012 season which concludes this week. Of particular interest is what appears to be a section of the Late Bronze city wall (photo here).

HT: Ancient World Online.

Tagged Philistines, Resources

King Taita’s Inscription at Aleppo

(Guest post by A.D. Riddle.)

Since 1996, Kay Kohlmeyer has conducted excavations at the storm-god temple atop the citadel of Aleppo.


Aleppo Storm-god Temple (Gonnella, Khayyata and Kohlmeyer 2005: 112).

In 2003, a Hieroglyphic Luwian inscription was discovered in the temple which belonged to a king named Taita. We first mentioned the inscription last March. Now, full publication of the inscription by J. D. Hawkins has appeared in the latest issue of Anatolian Studies (vol. 61 [2011]: 35-54). The inscription is in the Hieroglyphic Luwian script and is designated ALEPPO 6 (there are other Hieroglyphic Luwian inscriptions from the temple, some also by Taita). The 11-line inscription is positioned behind a relief of Taita who faces the storm-god.

Relief of Taita with Hieroglyphic Luwian Inscription (Kohlmeyer 2009: 198).

The text of the inscription names Taita, the king of Palistin, and mentions his honoring the image of the storm-god of Aleppo. The majority of the inscription is given to ordering the kinds of offerings that should be brought, depending on whether (1) one is a king, prince, country-lord, or river-land lord, or (2) one is a lower-level ruler of some sort.

Drawing of ALEPPO 6 (Hawkins 2011: 42).

In our first post, there was a brief discussion of an article by Charles Steitler, in which he suggests identifying Taita with Toi/Tou, the king of Hamath mentioned in the Bible (2 Sam 8:9-11; 1 Chr. 18:9-11). At this time, there are three issues which make it hard to know for certain if Taita is Toi/Tou. First, it is hard to say why the additional -ta element at the end of Taita would have dropped off. Steitler identifies this element in other Hurrian personal names, but as far as I understand, it is not known for sure what it means, and if we do not know what it means, then we cannot explain why it would be lost. Second, Steitler suggests the shift in vowels from a to ō can be explained by the “Canaanite shift,” but this shift is thought to have taken place in the 14th century B.C., long before David, Toi/Tou, 2 Samuel or 1 Chronicles. (A friend has pointed me to an article by Joshua Fox [1996] which discusses a similar Phoenician vowel shift, but it is not clear to me how Phoenician would explain the change when moving from Luwian [or Hurrian] to Hebrew.) Third, Hawkins originally dated Taita to 900-700 B.C., and later adjusted this to sometime in the 11th and 10th centuries B.C., so pinning down the date is an issue for whether Taita could be Toi/Tou. But now, with the publication of ALEPPO 6, this last question concerning chronology has taken a new twist.

In the new article by Hawkins, he makes two modifications to his previous historical reconstruction.

First, he is more confident about dating Taita to ca. 1200 B.C. (11th century B.C.). This date is reached on the basis of (1) archaic features noted in the paleography of the ALEPPO 6 inscription, (2) radiocarbon dating of the storm-god temple phase associated with Taita, and (3) stylistic comparison of the sculptures from the Taita phase of the storm-god temple with the sculptures at the temple of ‘Ain Dara. Second, the archaic features in the ALEPPO 6 inscription indicate it is earlier than the other Hieroglyphic Luwian inscriptions connected with Taita which were found at Shaizar and Muhradah (about 13 miles northwest of Hamah, Syria). Hawkins suggests the possibility of two kings named Taita: Taita I and Taita II. But because the inscriptions of Aleppo, Shaizar, and Muhradah share many similarities—Taita’s name and title, and unique epigraphic features—Hawkins believes that Taita I and Taita II were separated by perhaps not more than a single generation, with Taita II possibly being the grandson of Taita I. Thus, Taita I who was responsible for the Aleppo inscription would have ruled in the 11th century B.C., and Taita II would have ruled in the early 10th century B.C.

It will be interesting to see how the historical picture continues to change as more information is obtained from excavations and studies, and then, what light this might shed on the time of David and our understanding of biblical history.

Image sources
Gonnella, Julia; Wahid Khayyata; and Kay Kohlmeyer.
2005 Die Zitadelle von Aleppo und der Tempel des Wettergottes: Neue Forschungen und Entdeckungen. Münster: Rhema.

Hawkins, J. D.
2011 “The inscriptions of the Aleppo temple.” Anatolian Studies 61: 35-54.

Kohlmeyer, Kay.
2009 “The Temple of the Storm God in Aleppo during the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages.” Near Eastern Archaeology 74/4: 190-202.

Tagged Syria