From the Editors

Abstract

Welcome to our first issue of 2023. Our readers will find that the articles that follow are quite diverse in terms of the methods, theories, and regions they describe. They do, however, have one significant thing in common. As archaeologists have come to realize that excavation is not the only way to address archaeological questions, they are turning, much more, to less destructive means to find out about the past. Conducting surface surveys, examining museum collections, making better use of remote sensing data, reanalyzing previously excavated materials, and archival research are no longer seen as “auxiliary” methods to excavation but, rather, as stand-alone approaches to understanding earlier cultures.“Pathways to Know and Sidetracks to Forget,” is a discussion by Faidon Moudopoulos-Athanasiou about the interweaving of nineteenth-century travelers’ accounts and systematic modern surveys. Using the region of Zagori in northwestern Greece as a case study, the author describes how both historical and modern reflections on cultural landscapes that are informed by walking those very landscapes facilitate the formation of a detailed view of the peoples who inhabited them. Promoting the idea of an “inclusive landscape archaeology,” Moudopoulos-Athanasiou suggests that the study of historical walks combined with a modern archaeologist’s survey expertise can inform appropriate heritage management of a region, which will benefit tourists as much as residents.Mustafa Nuri Tatbul and Deniz Burcu Erciyas, authors of “The Potential of Quantified Surface Data in Understanding the Rural Landscapes of Byzantine Komana,” describe their surveys at this site in Turkey and the late ninth- through twelfth-century churches and settlements they discovered. Scholars have reasoned that this was a time when building small churches became a trend, as rural settlements and monastic communities grew. The authors use a “mixed methods” approach to survey methodologies against the theory of rural revival at a regional level. Utilizing qualitative data from previous surveys for information and comparison, they revisited the identified sites to test whether the identifications of these churches could be verified by quantitative analyses.In a very interesting geographic departure from the countries that are the journal’s usual focus, this issue contains an article about Saudi Arabia. Undeniably, the cultures of Arabia and the Ancient Near East co-existed, communicated, and traded in the very distant past. Unfortunately, unlike the Near East, many sites in Saudi Arabia remain unstudied, so it has been difficult to establish its true place in the region’s history. Concentrating on “Monumental Stone Structure Archaeology” in the Al Ha’it oasis of northwest Saudi Arabia, authors Ahmed Nassr, Ahmed Elhassan, Ali Tueaiman, and Mohammed al-Hajj show how an intensive desktop archaeological survey using remote sensing, followed by traditional archaeological survey and excavations reveals the region’s archaeological richness. The authors describe how among the monuments observed were previously undiscovered structures in the al Ha’it oasis.Tali Erickson-Gini and Alegre Savariego discuss excavated material from the site of Er-Rasm, located ca. 2 km southeast of Tel Ashkelon, which revealed the existence of a cemetery of the second to mid-fourth century CE there. In “Funerary Artifacts from Roman Ashkelon and the Rockefeller Museum Collections,” they explain how recent and earlier twentieth-century sarcophagus finds illuminate the history of Middle and Late Roman Ashkelon, documenting the city’s significant wealth at the time.“Intrigue and Feud in Colonial Cyprus” are explored by Nicholas Stanley-Price, who discusses a critical report submitted in 1936 by Professor Talbot Rice to the British Government on the state of Cyprus’s Department of Antiquities. The author contends that the structure of colonial rule in Cyprus at the time was such that it enabled the Governor of Cyprus, Sir Richard Palmer, to decide on matters concerning which he obviously had little knowledge. The disposition and care of antiquities were definitely in that category. The problems raised by Talbot Rice, the author further contends, were indicative of many things related to colonial rule—some of which are ongoing today, such as a continued reliance on the reports of outside experts with little knowledge of the country’s context. Stanley-Price shows in this article how archival research can shine a light on continuing problems in countries that are still suffering from the systems created by colonialism.A short report by Samuel R. Wolff, which was written as a response to Naama Yahalom-Mack’s 2017 article entitled “Crucibles, Tuyères, and Bellows in a Longue Durée Perspective” (Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies, vol. 7, issue 1), brings our attention to a small find with big implications. The author explores a previously unpublished artifact from his 1994 excavation in “A Pot Bellows Fragment from Tel Megadim, Israel” and reveals that this particular artifact signals a “turning point” between Middle Bronze Age stone pot bellows and ceramic pot bellows.This issue concludes with four book reviews. The first, by Christophe Delage, is on Flint Procurement and Exploitation Strategies in the Late Lower Paleolithic Levant: A View from Acheulo-Yabrudian Qesem Cave (Israel), by Aviad Agam. Sabine Fourrier reviews Iron Age Terracotta Figurines from the Southern Levant in Context, edited by E. D. Darby and I. J. de Hulster. Christopher Stedman Parmenter reviews Untangling Blackness in Greek Antiquity, by Sarah F. Derbew, and Maura Sala reviews Digging Up Jericho: Past, Present and Future, edited by Rachael Thyrza Sparks, Bill Finlayson, Bart Wagemakers, and Josef Mario Briffa.