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to the Mediterranean Perspectiveson theAncientWorldfromMesopotamia A Publicationof the AmericanSchoolsof OrientalResearch

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Volume58 Number1

March1995

Herdersor Homesteaders? A NeolithicFarmin WadiZiqlab, Jordan E. B. Banning

Around 8000 BCE,the early farming villages of the Neolithic revolution disappeared. Explanations have been offered-from invasions, to socio-political dysfunction-but still the question remains: where did the villagers go? Through systematic sampling of steam terraces,the Wadi Ziqlab Project is exposing Late Neolithic campsites and other small sites that hold the promise of putting the heirs of the first villagers back on the map.

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SearchingforBenchmarksin the BiblicalWorld: as FieldArchaeologist TheDevelopment ofJosephA.Callaway GeraldL.Mattingly

Collected as carefully as his stratigraphic data, Callaway's correspondence opens a revealing vista on his archaeological life. Letters show that Albright,Wright,and Kenyon regarded him as an exemplary field archaeologist. Apart from his field work, Callaway left a legacy of contributions to the dialogue between archaeological and biblical research.

26 ;cl;4

NewLighton KingNarmerandthe Protodynastic Egyptian

Presencein Canaan

ThomasE. Levy,EdwinC.M.van den Brink,YuvalGoren,and DavidAlon Immortalized on a stunning palette, Narmer, the last king of Egyptian Dynasty 0, has surfaced in the southern Negev in the form of his serekh (royal emblem) incised on the shoulder of an Egyptian storejar. Clear stratigraphy bolsters the value of this early manifestation of relations between Egypt and the southern Levant.

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The HalakhicLetter(MMT) details debates over sacrificial law and ritual purity that fueled the schism that produced the Qumran sect. Originating among disaffected Sadducees, the letter derives from an early point in the sect's history.When the Hasmonean high priesthood failed to respond, the dissident group withdrew into the wilderness by the shores of the Dead Sea.

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Sect OriginandEarlyHistoryoftheQumran

LawrenceH. Schiffman

Notes,News,andReviews Flying Amphoras! Bob Hohlfelder investigates the mysterious "Cave of the Amphoras'"off the coast of Cyprus. Plus, excavations at Qadir H6ytik and a review of the new edition of Finegan'sclassic TheArchaeologyof the New Testamnent.

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ON THECOVER: The recently discovered royal emblem (serekh sign) of Narmer incised on a storejar sherd excavated from the Halif Terrace,Israel,is superimposed upon the verso of the Narmer Palette. Narmer,last king of the Egyptian Dynasty O,prepares to strike a captive from the Delta region.

American

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1995-1996 Boardof Trustees P.E.MacAllister,Chairman of theBoani RobertJohnston,Vice-Chairman KevinG. O'Connell,Vice-Chairman of theBoanrd EricM. Meyers,President R.Thomas Schaub,FirstVice-President, Puiblications CAP Joe D. Seger,Vice-President, Donald Wimmer,Vice-President Corpomtion Treasurer Finance, W.H. Holden Gibbs,Vice-President Public Relations Vice-President, Shufro, T. Lydie ErnestFrerichs,Vice-President-at-Large JamesE Ross,Secretary

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CharlesHarris JeffreyKurzweil George Landes P.E.MacAllister James E Ross Joe D.Seger GeraldVincent

HonoraryTrustees

Trustees Corporation

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AffiliateInstitutionalTrustees Stephen L. Dyson, ADA Holland Hendrix,SBL David I Owen, AOS

AdvisoryBoard

Gus VanBeek EugeneGrant Alfred Gottschalk Eileen Guggenheim-Wilkinson ElizabethMoynihan LawrenceStager 36

58:1(1995) BiblicalArchaeologist

From

the

Editor

Riddles and conundrums are especially appealing at certain stages in one's life. Certainly,they fascinate in pre-adolescent years, as my daughter'spesky riddling attests. The operation of riddles depends upon a gap in knowledge, a missing piece of data that must be supplied deductively. Thus, because of archaeology's intrinsic properties, it is as filled with riddles as it is beset by ignorance. Archaeologists work at an enduring stage of riddling. Here's a delightful one: How can second century BCE amphoras constitute the roof of a cave beneath the sea? Bob Hohlfelder's brief note in this issue of BA provides a solution: Spilled out of a lacerated, ancient hull, the pottery knitted together over time through the natural processes of reef formation. Erosion then undermined the reef, turning what was once a superficial deposit into the ceiling of a subterranean grotto. Recreational divers off the southwest coast of Cyprus can see it for themselves. Most archaeological riddles are not so satisfyingly solved. What sets Abu Gosh, Beidha, and Jericho apart from Ain Ghazal, Ramad, and Wadi Shu'eib? The former three (and many others) collapsed in the middle of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period. What accounts for the disappearance of these centuries-old large farming villages? Perhaps the term "disappearance"is misleading--a typical riddling device. Instead of "vanish,"the term is better understood as a socio-cultural transformation from more nucleated to more dispersed settlement patterns. If settlement sites were more dispersed, then they are more difficult to locate. Ted Banning's Wadi Ziqlab Project takes aim at this conundrum with both survey and excavation tools. Along the terraces of this dry stream bed, invisible on the surface and buried in alluvium, are remains of the campsites to which the heirs of the abandoned villages scattered. Turning from pre-history to the earliest historical era, epigraphic discoveries pose riddles concerning the interaction between the emergent Egyptian civilization and its Canaanite flank: Can you catch catfish in the Negev desert? If the "catfish"is the stylized serekhof early Egyptian King Narmer, then the excavators of the Tell Halif terrace have answered affirmatively.Tom Levy and his collaboratorspose for themselves the more complex riddle of the significance of Narmer's royal emblem for charting the region's cultural evolution. Like the flying amphoras of Hohlfelder's cave, tell-based stratigraphyregularly offers up impossible riddles: from "floating" walls to inverted fills. Among American archaeologists, Joseph Callaway was an early master of stratigraphic excavation. The stratigraphicperplexities aside, Callaway's most enduring legacy may be his reasoned pursuit of the dialogue between archaeological data and biblical text. Callaway believed that the excavation of the ancient Palestinian tells was "alaboratory of scientific Bible study." Riddles at the intersections of biblical and archaeological disciplines, however, expose their nightshade side-their role in political games of ingroup/out-group knowledge and control. Employment, publication, funding possibilities all are at stake in the riddling enterprise. The same holds true for archaeology's role in cultural-resource management. While archaeological riddles include the playful ("flying amphoras") and the methodologically perplexing (socio-cultural change), they can also be very serious business, hardly a stage through which we will soon pass.

BiblicalArchaeolo Perspectiveson theAncientWorldfrom to theMediterranean Mesopotamia

Editor David C. Hopkins Art Director Bucky Edgett,LuckyProductions Book Review Editor James C. Moyer EditorialAssistant Mary PatrinaBoyd EditorialCommittee JefferyA. Blakely Douglas A. Knight Elizabeth Bloch-Smith Mary Joan Leith Gloria London Betsy M. Bryan J. P Dressel Jodi Magness Gerald L. Mattingly Ernest S. Frerichs Gaetano Palimbo Ronald S. Hendel Paul Zimansky RichardS. Hess Kenneth G. Hoglund Subscriptions Annual subscription rates are $35 for individuals and $45 for institutions. There is a special annual rate of $28 for those over 65, physically challenged, or unemployed. Biblical is also availableas part of the beneArchaeologist fits of some ASOR membership categories. Postage for Canadian and other international addresses is an additional $5. Payments should be sent to ASOR Membership/Subscriber Services, PO. Box 15399,Atlanta,GA 30333-0399 (ph: 404-727-2345;Bitnet:SCHOLARS@ EMORYUI).VISA/Mastercardorders can be phoned in. Back issues Backissues can be obtained by calling SP Customer Services at 800-437-6692or writing SP Customer Services, PO Box 6996, Alpharetta,GA 30239-6996. Postmaster Send address changes to Biblical ASOR Membership/Subscriber Archaeologist, Services, PO. Box 15399,Atlanta,GA 30333-0399 Second-class postage paid at Atlanta,GA and additional offices. Copyright ? 1995by the American Schools of Oriental Research. Correspondence All editorial correspondence 4500 should be addressed to BiblicalArchaeologist, Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington,DC 20016-5690(ph: 202-885-8699;fax:202-885-8605). Books for review should be sent to Dr.James C. Moyer,Department of Religious Studies, Southwest Missouri State University 901 South National, Box 167,Springfield,MO 65804-0095. Advertising Correspondence should be addressed to Leigh Anderson, ScholarsPress, PO. Box 15399,Atlanta,GA 30333-0399(ph:404-7272327;fax:404-727-2348).Ads for the sale of antiquities will not be accepted. BiblicalArchaeologist (ISSN 0006-0895)is published quarterly(March,June, September,December) by Scholars Press, 819Houston Mill Road NE, Atlanta,GA 30329,for the American Schools of Oriental Research(ASOR),3301 North Charles Street, Baltimore,MD 21218.Printed by Cadmus JournalServices, Baltimore,MD. OF

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Homesteaders?

A NeolithicFarmin WadiZiqlab,Jordan By E. B. Banning EIGHT YEARS THOUSAND AGO,

ABOUT somethingdramatichap-

pened to the largevillages that had dotted the landscapefor more than a millenniumin what is now the regionof Israel,Jordan,and southwesternSyria.The people had developeda commitmentto agriculture and animalhusbandry,and their aceramicculturestretchedfrom southernJordanto the foothillsof the Taurusmountains.Forreasonsthat still puzzle archaeologists,these people virtuallydisappearedfromthe archaeologicalrecord(Kenyon Rollefson Moore1973:37-41; 1979:43; and K6hler-Rollefson 1989;Rollefson 1989).Sitessuch as Abu Ghosh,Basta, Beidha,and Jerichowere abandoned, some of them forever. One possibleexplanationfor the

relativedearthof sites belongingto the eighth millennium BP1was that

these early farmershad not really vanished.Instead,they adopteda very differentsettlementstrategy accompaniedwith the potteryand other sweeping technological changesthat often lead archaeologists to proclaimthe dawn of a new culture.Excavationsin and arounda small site in northernJordannow give us some insightsinto this possibility,and allow glimpses into the kinds of social and economicchanges which may have prompteda switch from a nucleatedto a much more dispersed settlementpattern.

TheNeolithicof the Southern Levant

Whether ornotNatufian(ca. 12,000 to 10,500BP)sites

representthe firsthorticulturalsettlementsor the firstvillages of intensivehuntersand gatherers, the Natufiansset the stagefor the developmentof largevillages with an increasingrelianceon cerealgrains and legumes thatcould be cultivated. By about9000 BPtherewere many such villages acrossthe southern Levant,of which CAinGhazaland Jerichoare well known examples,and theirinhabitantswere cultivating

Above:Thewell-preservedstructureat the southernend of Tabaqatal-BOma (AreasD35 and E35)hasa clay-linedsilo in one wallof its mainroom,laterusedfor a flexed burial, and a smallerroomaccessedfromoutside.Photographby T.Dabney.

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A Map of the southern Levant.TheWadi Ziqlabresearcharea in western Jordan encompasses a wadi system that drainsthe plateau region into the Jordan RiverValley. With its abundant water and other natural resources,WadiZiqlab attracted prehistoric settlers during the Neolithic period. Other Neolithic sites pepper this region of the

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