The application form the Joseph Shaw Student Travel Fellowship Grant is now avaliable click on the link to access the application form.

AIA_Student_Travel_Fellowship_Application_2012

Good Luck to all our candidates.

Remember, the deadline is April 1, 2012.

Tell Tayinat Project 2011

Darren Jablonkay - Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto (MA 2012)

Verbal report scheduled before AIA lecture October 26, 2011

Square G4.58 was a new square opened at the start of the 2011 excavation season and was
allocated to Field I. However, the square lies in an area directly between Fields I and II. Field I is located in the center of the upper mound, on the southern edge of the Syro-Hittite Expedition’s West Central Area excavations. The Field I excavations were composed of four 10x10m squares. The most notable features, in relation to my square for the 2011 excavation season, was a Temple complex (Temple 2) excavated in the 1930’s by the University of Chicago expedition which resided directly above G4.55 and G4.56, and north of which resided Building 1, a Bit Hilani palatial complex. Field II is located directly east of that palatial complex, and is where Temple 16 was unearthed during the 2008-2009 seasons in three squares (G4.28, G4.38, and G4.48). G4.58 is therefore located directly between perpendicular Temple complexes. Topographically, G4.58 was thought to be located above an area that in ancient times formed a saddle that led to the upper citadel.

Based on comparisons of the architectural layout of citadel complexes at similar sites (ex.
Carchemish) it had been speculated that a courtyard would have existed between Temples 2 and 16. For this reason, one of the objectives of the 2011 TAP expedition was to evaluate the Iron Age remains south of Temple 16. G4.58 was chosen over G4.57, which lies directly east of Temple 2, because an excavation trench from the 1930s expedition was observed in the eastern profile of G4.56. However, there are also complications with the area in which G4.58 resides. It was observed that the modern property line, which is delineated just south of Temple 16, was established by bulldozing the area and in the process removing the stones that were once a part of the paving that would have extended into the courtyard between Temples 2 and 16 to prepare the land for agricultural activities. Our efforts therefore were to be concentrated on 1) evaluating whether or not a substructure existed upon which the courtyard may have resided; and 2) on evaluating the preservation of any earlier Iron I or Iron II remains in the area where a courtyard was thought to have been constructed during the latest phase of Temple 16 (Iron II/III).

Throughout the excavation season several amazing finds were unearthed. The north-west pillar of a monumental gateway was the primary architectural feature to be exposed. This gate was constructed at the top of a natural saddle in the topography and would have led to an earlier phase of Temple 16, which has not been excavated to present. However, an earlier phase of Temple 16 was verified this season by Amy Higginson who excavated a probe of the western wall of Temple 16 in G4.38. It is clear that there was an earlier phase of Temple 16 that pre-dated the Assyrian occupation at the site. Additionally, a parallel of a similar gate complex was found at Carchemish.

Two monumental statues were associated with this gateway: a monumental basalt statue of a lion, and a basalt monument depicting the ‘Master of Animals’ motif. At present, the leading hypothesis is that the statues date to the late Iron I/early Iron II and were associated with an early Iron Age phase at the site. During the construction of the gateway that led to Temple 16, the statues were deposited and incorporated into the mudbrick superstructure of the gateway’s north-west pillar. The dating of the monumental lion statue is based primarily on the ceramic repertoire that is associated with it. The surface on which the lion statue was deposited is characterized by late Iron I pottery forms, and
the mudbrick fill in which the lion was seemingly encased was characterized by Iron II pottery forms. Therefore, it is reasonable to suggest that the lion statue was perhaps constructed sometime during the early Iron II; however, it is important to note that this remains speculation for the time being and further excavation, particularly a larger horizontal exposure, is required in order to truly understand the context in which these statues were deposited.

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Toronto Society of the Archaeological
Institute of America for their support, which helped me attend the Tayinat Archaeological Project this year.

Iklaina Archaeological Project

Cristina Ichim -  Archaeology Specialist and Classical Civilization Major, University of Toronto (BA 2013)

Verbal report scheduled before AIA lecture September 28, 2011

My participation in the Iklaina Archaeological Project (IKAP) has allowed me to gain a
wide variety of practical archaeological experiences relating to excavation work, measuring and recording of finds, as well as lab work.

Excavation work mostly consisted of removing the backfill at the beginning of the project and cleaning the area for excavation and for photographs; setting up five by five metre trenches with a one-metre baulk on the northern and eastern side; uncovering archaeological features, ecofacts, and artefacts; and taking soil samples for soil analysis and flotation. Field activities also included flotation, in which the light and heavy fractions of soil samples taken from loci of various trenches were separated. I became familiar with the Locus System, which was employed at IKAP to record and organise the spatial relationships between finds and features by dividing a trench into various loci as the excavation proceeded.

Furthermore, I took elevation measurements of the opening and closing points of loci and features. I conducted soil sample analysis and used a Munsell Soil Chart to determine the soil composition of each locus. I also took measurements for use in triangulation for archaeological drawings, and I filled-out the form for the loci.

Lab work consisted of sorting the heavy fraction from flotation; labelling bags and
assigning numbers to sherds; washing pottery; data entry of pottery sherds; and sorting faunal remains by species and bone type. I also worked with the ceramics experts to sort pottery sherds into categories of coarse, plain, and fine ware and to piece together vessel fragments. As a result of working with ceramics, I have learnt to distinguish diagnostic vessel types as well as to distinguish between early Mycenaean styles and fabrics and late Mycenaean ones.

The discoveries of the 2011 excavation season continue to support Iklaina’s importance for understanding secondary state formation in the early Mycenaean period. The finds continue to indicate the use of massive formal architecture with attention to aesthetics (ashlar masonry, frescoes, antae) and craft specialisation (possible metallurgy workshop and flax industry, due to presence of drains), all pointing to social stratification, attempts to define social identities, and ability of the élites to mobilise resources and a large work force.

Overall, I have had a very enriching archaeological experience on the Iklaina archaeological

Project. Despite the long laborious hours in the hot sun and the hard physical work that went into the excavation, I have gained a much greater appreciation and love for archaeology as well as a realisation of the dedication and patience oftentimes required to contribute an extra bit of information to the existing corpus of knowledge of the Mycenaean world. The practical field experience has supplemented the knowledge I gained from more theoretical archaeology classes to add to my understanding of the workings of archaeology. In addition, my participation on the project has allowed me to gain some familiarity with the Mycenaean material culture. The opportunity of digging at a site like Iklaina has sparked my interest in the early Mycenaean period and the formation of the Pylian state, a subject to which I hope to devote further attention in the future.