Two Notes from the American Schools of Oriental Research

I am on the program committee for the American Schools of Oriental Research annual meeting and have had the good fortune to be “in the loop” on some of the cool things that ASOR has done over the past several years. 

One of the coolest is the their March Fellowship Madness fundraising drive. This is driven by the blog and its an effort to expand the amount of money available to distribute as the ASOR fellowships. These fellowships help students at all levels participate in archaeological projects, graduate students conduct research in the Near East, and projects fund new initiatives. Here’s a link describing the fund raising drive.

In addition to this page, they are also featuring blog posts on how theses fellowships made an impact on the recipients’ lives, research, and careers. My project on Cyprus – the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project – received a Harris Grant to fund some equipment at a key moment in the project’s development. We were a tiny project of maybe 3 scholars and 6 students conducting a survey at the coastal site of Pyla-Koutsopetria. Our funding came from a hodgepodge of sources including our universities, private donors, and places like ASOR. Every dollar was crucial to be able to achieve our research goals, so the Harris grant allowed us to get a printer and a scanner so we could digitize our results in the field.

In my capacity as a member of the program committee for ASOR’s Annual Meeting, I also want to spread the word that we’re looking for some more papers on the Byzantine period. The Byzantine period in the Near East coincides with what the Aegean and Western Mediterranean calls Late Antiquity. The deadline is March 15 and there will be no penalty for late abstracts. There remains much to be done to explore issues of the economy in the Near East and its relationship to the rest of the Eastern Mediterranean. The remarkable character of Late Antique/Byzantine settlement in the Near East has tragically come to the fore through recent events in Syria which has seen the reoccupation and shelling of well preserved village on the Limestone Massif. Religious architecture, particular Christian Churches, is on the verge of a major step forward in the Near East owing to the recent careful, stratigraphic excavation of a number Byzantine churches. The quality of recent archaeological work provides an well-documented assemblage that deserves careful attention. I could go on…

So please, take a moment to think about giving to ASOR’s Fellowship Drive and, if you’re a Byzantine archaeologist, think about sending in an abstract to ASOR. Also check out my post yesterday and give me feedback!