Presentation: "Sodom: Discovery of a Lost City"
By: Steven Collins, Ph.D., TeHEP Director
For: Kerygma Class
Date: 5 June 2011 (Sunday)
Time: 11am
Location: Highland Park United Methodist Church; 3300 Mockingbird Lane, Dallas, TX, USA
Presentation: "Sodom: Discovery of a Lost City"
By: Steven Collins, Ph.D., TeHEP Director
For: Evening Service
Date: 5 June 2011 (Sunday)
Time: 6:15pm
Location: Grace Bible Church; 11306 Inwood Road, Dallas, TX, USA
Presentation: "Sodom: Discovery of a Lost City"
By: Steven Collins, Ph.D., TeHEP Director
For: Lunchtime Study Session
Date: 6 June 2011 (Monday)
Time: 12pm
Location: Interstate Batteries; 12770 Merit Drive, Dallas, TX, USA
JULY 2011
Scientific Session: "A Dialogical Approach to Archaeology and the Bible: Insights from the Excavations at Tall el-Hammam, Jordan"
Presentations by: Steven Collins, Ph.D., TeHEP Co-Director; Ziad Al-Saad, Ph.D., Director General of the Department of Antiquities, Jordan; Gary Byers, Ph.D.(c), TeHEP Assistant Director; Carroll Kobs, Ph.D.(c), TeHEP Field Archaeologist; Leen Ritmeyer, Ph.D., TeHEP Architect; David Maltsberger, Ph.D., TeHEP Field Archaeologist; Brandy Forrest, Ph.D.(c), TeHEP Director of Planning; Hussien Aljarrah, TeHEP Co-Director; Kennett Schath, Ph.D.(c), TeHEP Field Archaeologist; Lucy Clayton, Ph.D.(c), TeHEP Senior Anthropologist.
For: Society of Biblical Literature; International Meeting
Dates: 4-7 July 2010; TeHEP session on Wednesday, 6 July 2011
Time: 1:30pm-4:30pm
Location: King's College, Waterloo Campus; London, England
Event: TeHEP Ceramiganza, Part II
Activities: The TeHEP Ceramic Typology Team will make a final pottery readings of over 2,000 diagnostic sherds from Season Five and Season Six; instruction in ceramic typology for master's and doctoral students; associated evening lectures; parallel photography session making publication photos.
Availability: Invited participants and a limited number of volunteers
Dates: 28-30 July 2011 (Thu, Fri, Sat)
Time: 9am-5pm; other times will be posted at the main event
Location: provided to participants only
AUGUST 2011
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SEPTEMBER 2011
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For: Trinity Southwest University; call TSU to register: 505-332-4253
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Time: 9am-4pm
Location: Trinity Southwest University, 5600 Eubank NE, Albuquerque, NM, USA
OCTOBER 2011
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NOVEMBER 2011
Event: Bible Land Expedition, Study Tour of Jordan and Israel
Includes: A 14-day (ground to ground), intimate experience of the history and archaeology of the Holy Land led by Dr. Steven Collins and Dr. Leen Ritmeyer.
Dates: 31 October - 13 November 2011
Scientific Paper: "Tall el-Hammam Season Six: Data, Interpretations, and Insights from the 2010-2011 Excavations"
Presentation by: Steven Collins, Ph.D., TeHEP Director
For: American Schools of Oriental Research, Annual Meeting
Date: 16-19 November 2011; details tba
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Location: Westin St. Francis Hotel; San Francisco, CA, USA
Abstract: This paper overviews the activities and discoveries of the Tell el-Hammam Excavation Project (TeHEP) in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Season Six, from 10 December 2010 through January 27, 2011. TeHEP is a joint scientific Project between the College of Archaeology of Trinity Southwest University and the Department of Antiquities of Jordan. The author is Project Co-Director and Chief Field Archaeologist. Although much speculation has surrounded Tall el-Hammam's regional stature and occupational history, until recently very little work had been accomplished at the site other than surface sherding and extremely limited probing on the lower tall. As a result, knowledge, much less understanding, of the site has remained virtually invisible to scholars interpreting (particularly) the Southern Levantine Bronze Age. Excavations through Season Six have now revealed not only several phases from the Iron Age, replete with residential and monumental architecture, but also a massive 36-hectare fortified Bronze Age city with seemingly-continuous occupation during the EBA, IBA, and MBA. While in recent years scholars may have been trending away from the city-state model of EBA social organization in the Transjordan due to a perceived lack of true city-state-sized urban centers, excavations at Tall el-Hammam are now revealing a top-tier fortified Bronze Age city replete with multiple satellite towns and villages within a 2.5 km radius. There is little doubt that Tall el-Hammam was the epicenter of an influential city-state during the EBA, and continuing into the MBA. Tall el-Hammam’s sheer size attests to its position as the dominant Bronze Age urban center in the Jordan Valley, except for an occupational hiatus between the MBA and late Iron I. Indeed, interpreting the Transjordan Bronze Age without Tall el-Hammam at the center of the equation has been tantamount to studying modern Jordan without considering Amman.
Scientific Paper: "The Middle Bronze Age Fortifications at Tall el-Hammam/Sodom"
Presentation by: Steven Collins, Ph.D., TeHEP Director
For: Near East Archaeological Society, Annual Meeting
Date: 16-19 November 2011; details tba
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Location: Marriott Marquis Hotel & Parc 55 Wyndham Hotel; San Francisco, CA, USA
Abstract: The stone and mudbrick city defenses of MB1-2 Tall el-Hammam are among the largest ever discovered in the southern Levant. The upper city rampart alone tallies between 70 and 90 million mudbricks in its construction, rising over 30m above the lower city. The lower city wall and rampart system is several times larger, the thickness of which ranges from 33m to 50m over its 2.5km circumference, with numerous major and minor towers, and several gate complexes. There is significant evidence that the lower rampart had multiple tiers supported by at least three separate stone revetment-stabilizer walls. These massive fortifications protected the sprawling urban center—replete with monumental palace and temple architecture, and domestic ‘neighborhoods’—which served as the nucleus of a major city-state that dominated the ‘Land of the Kikkar’ during the era of Abram and Lot. Six seasons of excavations at Tall el-Hammam, together with surveys and explorations over the ‘visual’ extent of the city-state, are providing many new insights concerning the biblical Cities of the Kikkar and the chronological structure of the patriarchal period.
Scientific Paper: "From Text to Ground and Back: A Dialogical Approach to Biblical Archaeology"
Presentation by: Steven Collins, Ph.D., TeHEP Director
For: Near East Archaeology Society, Annual Meeting
Date: 16-19 November 2011; details tba
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Location: Marriott Marquis Hotel & Parc 55 Wyndham Hotel; San Francisco, CA, USA
Abstract: This paper analyzes the often-rocky relationship between archaeology and the Bible, which has traditionally been a nearly-one-sided affair among evangelicals. On the one hand, while conservative scholars have permitted archaeology to provide helpful insights into the biblical world, archaeology has had almost no application as a substantive component of biblical hermeneutics. On the other hand, while liberal scholars have often used the Bible to generate interest in their archaeological work, the biblical text has held no particular value in the formulation of ancient Near Eastern history. What is needed is a meaningful dialogue between the Bible and Near Eastern archaeology which allows each to influence the other. For example, a “the-Bible-says-it-and-that-settles-it” approach to biblical chronology has proven fruitless in terms of fostering consensus vis-à-vis chronologies of the Genesis patriarchs and the Exodus narratives. Bible scholars must allow archaeology to weigh in on this and many other subjects. Archaeologists must allow the biblical text a voice in the interpretation of archaeological data. A dialogical approach to biblical archaeology can convey enhanced understanding into both arenas, resulting in a hermeneutical synthesis wherein ‘authentic’ meaning replaces ‘literal’ interpretation.
Scientific Paper: "Goddess, Musician, or Harlot of Hammam: A Plaque Figurine at Tall el-Hammam, Season Six"
Presentation by: Carroll Kobs, Ph.D.(c), TeHEP Field Archaeologist
For: Near East Archaeology Society, Annual Meeting
Date: 16-19 November 2011; details tba
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Location: Marriott Marquis Hotel & Parc 55 Wyndham Hotel; San Francisco, CA, USA
Abstract: The subject of Iron Age figurines in the Ancient Near East has been approached from a variety of motivations. From an overall typology and speculation of function to the more detailed researches of sub-topics such as gender roles and religion, these artifacts continue to fascinate and draw out new theories. This paper is a broad overview of past investigations as well as the study of a specific figurine, within its context, during Season Six from the Tall el-Hammam Excavation Project. Similarities and differences between this object and other Transjordan figurines are reviewed in order to identify and implicate this particular figurine among others.
DECEMBER 2011
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JANUARY 2012
Event: Tall el-Hammam Excavation Project, Season Seven
Activities: Excavation and related projects; TeHEP Field School; lectures; field trips
Dates: 12 January-23 February 2011
Location: Tall el-Hammam, Jordan; TeHEP Headquarters: Movenpick Dead Sea Resort & Spa
FEBRUARY 2012
Event: Tall el-Hammam Excavation Project, Season Seven
Activities: Excavation and related projects; TeHEP Field School; lectures; field trips
Dates: 12 January-23 February 2011
Location: Tall el-Hammam, Jordan; TeHEP Headquarters: Movenpick Dead Sea Resort & Spa