The archaeology of the Ostraca House at Israelite Samaria : epigraphic discoveries in complicated contexts / by Ron E. Tappy.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Tappy, Ron E., author.

Contributor:

American Schools of Oriental Research, issuing body.

Series:

Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research ; v. 70.

The annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research ; volume 70

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Excavations (Archaeology).

Inscriptions.

Ostraka.

Samaria (West Bank : Region)--Antiquities.

Samaria (West Bank : Region).

Ostraka--West Bank--Samaria (Region).

Inscriptions--West Bank--Samaria (Region).

Excavations (Archaeology)--West Bank--Samaria (Region).

Antiquities.

West Bank--Samaria (Region).

Physical Description:

xx, 220 pages : illustrations (some color), maps, charts, facsimiles ; 29 cm.

Place of Publication:

Boston, MA : American Schools of Oriental Research, [2016]

Summary:

"George Andrew Reisner counted the Israelite ostraca among the most important finds ever recovered by the Harvard Expedition to Samaria. But the precise provenance of these historic inscriptions has remained murky at best. To date, the most incisive and intuitive statement on their archaeological context comes from a brief treatment in I. T. Kaufman's unpublished 1966 dissertation written at Harvard University. The present study considers in much greater detail the depositional history of the Ostraca House and its immediate surroundings. The investigation proceeds on three distinct but related levels. First, it attempts to clarify the date and nature of the archaeological contexts from which excavators recovered the inscriptions. Second, it evaluates both the quantity and quality of data recovered and the overall manner in which the project leaders presented those data in their official excavation report. Finally, the study draws not only from published records but also from unpublished materials recorded in the handwritten daily journals and private diaries of David Gordon Lyon, George Andrew Reisner, Clarence Stanley Fisher, and Gottlieb Schumacher. Thus an important subplot unfolds as the analysis of archaeological remains advances through the narrative. The unpublished records not only provide supplementary data crucial to a study of the ostraca, they also enliven the story behind the discovery of the inscriptions and reveal the archaeological and administrative trials persistently faced by the excavators, who found themselves working betwixt and between international and local powers and events during the waning years of the Ottoman Empire and the coming of World War I. Still, the internal and external struggles of a start-up expedition cast within a bourgeoning academic field and the vicissitudes of world affairs did not prevent the Harvard Expedition from becoming one of the most influential projects of the early twentieth century."-- Back cover.

Contents:

Introduction and background

Horizontal axis : the ostraca building's original footprint and surrounding area

Vertical axis : the ostraca building's complex depositional history

Ceramic considerations

The Samaria ostraca and modern scholarship

Back to the backstory : the characters and concerns behind the Harvard expedition to Samaria

Appendix A: Ostraca : provenance data and vessel descriptions

Appendix B: Ostraca : sequence of discovery

Appendix C: Non-epigraphic pottery with provenance data matching those of the ostraca

Appendix D: D.G. Lyon's report to the president of Harvard University for the academic year 1898-1899, showing the financial generosity of Jakob Heinrich Schiff

Appendix E: Reisner's field drawings of selected ostraca.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 201-210) and indexes.

ISBN:

9780897570954

0897570952

OCLC:

958066381