The Scotsman has an interesting preview of an upcoming lecture by Colin Renfrew.  The article is entitled, “Cemetery Looting Robs Archaeologists of DNA Link to Past,” but I think the more interesting discussion is about other subjects.  For instance:

A greater puzzle is why, after Homo sapiens dispersed from Africa about 60,000 years ago, pockets of human culture developed in different ways at different rates. Urban civilisations developed independently in six or seven locations, thousands of years apart, with no contact between the different groups, from Sumerian culture in 4,000BC, to West African in AD1,000.
“It’s one of the great unanswered problems of the human story,” Lord Renfrew says. “Why did societies working independently in different parts of the world come up with civilisations, including cities, which are in some ways quite similar?
“For a long time, archaeologists assumed there was a diffusion of cultures from one area to another. There was even a theory that everything emerged from ancient Egypt, and wise people from there went over the world and built their pyramids in Mesoamerica. But as we get a much better understanding of the archaeological record, it is clear that there wasn’t sailing over great distances until the time of the Conquistadores and early colonists, although the Polynesians did make some amazing voyages in their canoes.”

You can read the whole here. The lecture is in Scotland on Monday.

HT: Joe Lauer

Readers may find this of interest:

Dear Friends and Colleagues, We are writing to inform you of a new session being proposed for the 2008 ASOR annual meeting in Boston that will focus on the archaeology of Judaism and Christianity in the Roman and Byzantine periods.  The session chairs are seeking papers that present architectural, art historic, inscriptional, or any type of material discussion of synagogues, churches, necropoleis, and/or their associated communities in either Palestine or the Diaspora.  We are also looking for papers that address material evidence for cultural and religious communication among Jews, Christians, and their neighbors.  Reports on field seasons are also encouraged where relevant. This new session has not yet been accepted for the 2008 ASOR annual meeting.  Before it is proposed, we would like to demonstrate the interest in such a session to the Program Committee by assembling a list of possible presenters.  If you are interested in submitting an abstract for this session, please notify us before January 31 by emailing [email protected].  We do not necessarily need abstracts or paper titles by then — only a stated interest and intent to submit an abstract. Please feel free to forward this message to colleagues, students, and others who may be interested in taking part in the proposed session.  Thank you for your support. Sincerely, Steve Werlin and Carrie Duncan

This conference has already started (Jan 13-16), but the program (pdf) may be of interest to those not in Jerusalem.  The full title of the conference is “Jewish Views of the After Life and Burial Practices in Second Temple Judaism: Evaluating the Talpiot Tomb in Context.”  This is the Third Princeton Symposium on Judaism and Christian Origins, and it looks like James Charlesworth will likely edit a book from the proceedings, similar to his Jesus and Archaeology, which came out of a conference in Jerusalem in 2000.  Presenters or panel participants include Kloner, Vermes, Magnes, Meyers, Gibson, Lemaire, Zias, Tabor, Barkay, Netzer, and many others.

HT: Yehuda News

Ehud Netzer, the archaeologist who discovered Herod’s tomb and excavated most of Herod’s other sites throughout Israel, is lecturing (in Hebrew) this Thursday at Hebrew Union College, Jerusalem. 

The details are:

Lecture: The Discovery of King Herod’s Tomb at Herodium (in Hebrew) with Ehud Netzer

Location: HUC/JIR, 13 King David Street

Date: Thursday, Dec 27, 2007 at 5 PM

Website:  http://www.huc.edu/events/07/12/JE.shtml

HT: Joe Lauer

Those interested in the goings-on at the ASOR meeting in San Diego should look at the LMLK Blogspot of George Grena. In his first post, he discusses some of the scholars he met and the first session which was on Ramat Rahel. I’m in town for another conference but opted to not to go the ASOR meetings because of the high admissions fee (and the Biblical Archaeology Society conference was even more outrageously priced). You can see the ASOR program schedule here. Other highlights of the day that Grena noted in a posting to the ANE-2 list are:

2) Interesting ruffling of feathers between attendees at Chang-Ho Ji’s paper on Khirbat ‘Ataruz (Ataroth?) regarding the interpretation of 2 male figures (homosexual deities?) on a cult statue.

3) A heated exchange between the excavators of Beth Shemesh & Yosef Garfinkel & Saar Ganor of the IAA after their consecutive papers. The former pointed out the lack of evidence for an 8th-century earthquake, but suggested that a burnt layer relates to 2Kings 14:11-2; the latter identified Khirbet Qeiyafa as Biblical Azekah.

4) A 6-line ink-inscription ostracon found at Tall Jalul, presented by Randall Younker–note that this was a surprise change from the topic originally planned–you won’t find it in the abstracts program book.

5) A strong protest by Aren Maeir following the Zayit Abecedary session.

The 52nd Annual Archaeology Lecture Series is underway at Wheaton College, entitled “Ashkelon and the Ports of the Mediterranean.” The remaining lectures are:

Wednesday, Oct 31, 6:30pm

Brian Brisco, “The Persian Period at Ashkelon”

Billy Graham Center, Room 140

Wednesday, Nov 7, 6:30pm

Tracy Hoffman, “The Byzantine and Islamic Periods at Ashkelon”

Billy Graham Center, Room 140