Some Recent Archaeological Publications
Review by: W. F. Albright
Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, No. 118 (Apr., 1950), p. 31
Published by: The American Schools of Oriental Research
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Number 118 April 1950
SOME RECENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL PUBLICATIONS
Ai. In 1933-1935 the late Mme. Judith Marquet-Krause directed three campaigns
of excavation at the site of et-Tell, ancient biblical Ai. The reviewer was at the
School in Jerusalem during most of her work in Ai, and for two months he was
her next-door neighbor at Bethel, only two miles away. Needless to say, he visited
her chantier repeatedly and compared notes on every possible occasion. Mine. Mar-
quet did an exceedingly careful job of digging, and we should have had a first-class
publication long since if it had not been for her untimely death. Meanwhile her
husband, Yves Marquet, worked over the files of the excavation, and he has presented
the data in two volumes (Mme. Judith Marquet-Krause, Les fouilles de 'Ay [et-Tell]
193341935 [Institut Franqais d'Archdologie de Beyrouth: Bibliotheque Archlologique
et Historique, Vol. XLV, Paris: Geuthner, 1949]: text volume, vi + 369 pp. [quarto];
plate volume, 100 plates and folding charts). Owing to the death of the excavator-
in-chief there are less than 30 pages of description, followed by 330 pages of detailed
inventory of the finds, nearly all of which are illustrated by adequate photograplhs
or drawings (or both). In other words we have here raw material for future
synthesis, covering roughly the period -from before 3000 to about 2200 B. C. (not
2000, as stated by the excavator), and during the 12th-11th centuries. These dates
will be discussed in detail in the reviewer's forthcoming Bethel volume.
Ugarit is represented by a second massive volume from the pen of its indefatigable
excavator, M. C. F. A. Schaeffer (who has resumed work at this fabulous site; see
above) : Ugaritica II (Mission de Ras Shamra, Vol. V, Paris: Geuthner, 1949,
pp. xv + 320 + 45 plates [quarto], price 3000 francs). Chapter I (pp. 1-48) is
devoted to a thorough comparative study of the two extraordinary golden bowls,
which are dated between 1450 and 1365 B.-C.--dates with which no competent
scholar will quarrel. In Chapter II (pp. 49-120) M. Schaeffer gives us a valuable
comparative study of the " Wearers of Torques "; the latter are rigid bronze neck-
laces with twisted ends, never properly studied hitherto in Western Asia. The
author correctly dates the culture where these torques make their appearance at
Ugarit between 2100 and 1900 B. C.; they appear with toggle-pins possessing mas-
sive heads and other artifacts peculiar to the first quarter of the second millennium.
In Chapter III the author studies the Baal stele of Ugarit, showing the god 'with
his lightning spear, and dates it between 1900 and 1750 B. C. Here the reviewer
cannot follow, but still believes that this stele dates from between 1650 and
B. C., i.e., probably toward the end of Stratum II. Three-fifths of the volume150.0 is
devoted to the first instalment of a great corpus of Ugaritic pottery, which will be
of very high value for future investigation. We congratulhte the distinguished
author on a magnificent contribution to the archaeology of the ancient East.
The Tarsus publication has begun auspiciously with Hetty Goldman's Excavations
at Gizlii Kule, Tarsus, Vol. i: The Hellenistic and Roman Periods, Text and Plates
(Princeton University Press, 1950, pp. vii + 420 [quarto] and 276 :figures [on suc-
cessive pages (not numbered) outside the text] + 9 plans and folding charts. Price
$36.00). These two volumes represent the results of the campaigns of 1935-1939
on the mound proper, insofar as they bear on the Hellenistic and Roman periods.
Miss Goldman and her coworkers have done a splendid job: stratigraphy, classifica-
tion of material, and comparative treatment are alike on a very high level of
excellence.
Nuzi Tablets have been appearing less frequently of recent years, but there are
still many hundreds of valuable documents to be published, besides a considerable
mass of more fragmentary material. Ernest R. Lacheman has brought out a new
volume of Miscellaneous Texts from Nuzi, Part II: The Palace and Temple Archives
(Excavations at Nuzi Conducted by the Semitic Museum and the Fogg Art -Museum
of Harvard University, with the Cooperation of the American &helool of
Research at Baghdad, Vol. V, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1950, Orien•al
pp.
xx + 49 + 118 plates [quarto]. Price $600). This new instalment of the joint
publication of Harvard University and the Baghdad School gives 153 tablets in
transcription alone (continuing Vol. XIII of the Harvard Semitic Series) and
265 documents in autograph copies-more than 400 in all. The autograph copies
contain a wealth of data for reconstructing the culture of this fifteenth-century site.
W. F. ALBRIGHT.
31
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