Affiliation: University of Tennessee
Dr. Erin Darby is an associate professor of Religious Studies at the University of Tennessee and the co-director of the ‘Ayn Gharandal Archaeological Project in southern Jordan. She is an expert in Levantine archaeology, the Hebrew Bible, and ancient Near Eastern history, and specializes in ancient religion and iconography. Her first book, Interpreting Judean Pillar Figurines: Gender and Empire in Judean Apotropaic Ritual (Mohr Siebeck 2014), and her co-authored volume, Iron Age Terracotta Figurines from the Southern Levant in Context (Brill, 2021) draw upon her knowledge of Late Bronze through Persian period figurines in Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Syria, and Mesopotamia. Her current monograph, Religion at the Boundaries, examines the cultic furnishings and votive deposits from a series of late Iron Age shrines connected along trade networks in southern Israel and Jordan. She is particularly interested in the material cultural evidence for institutional patronage, craft specialization, economic development, and interreligious exchange.
Dr. Darby will guide the audience through the in’s and out’s of archival research, as we look for the unpublished ritual artifacts excavated by Nelson Glueck at Tell el-Kheleifeh, in southern Jordan in 1938-1940. Despite the incomplete state of publication, Kheleifeh has remained an important site for archaeologists studying the Neo-Assyrian empire in the southern Levant, the role of trade routes in the region, and the expansion of the Iron II Edomite state. Although ritual artifacts have been important in these discussions at other sites, they have been largely ignored at Kheleifeh, primarily because most remain buried in the archive of the American Society of Overseas Research. While bringing these objects to light, we will discover what we can learn about ritual lives at Tell el-Kheleifeh and how these artifacts help us better understand relationships between sites across the southern Levant.
This lecture will introduce the audience to the site of ‘En Hazeva in southern Israel, its place in scholarly debate, and the new insights coming from renewed analysis over the last several years. Although ‘En Hazeva has figured prominently in discussions about political control over southern Israel in the eighth-sixth centuries BCE, the site has never been fully published. Additionally, scholarly approaches to the ritual objects from the site’s extramural shrine have focused on identifying an ethnic orientation for the objects’ artistic style, eliding political, religion, and ethnic identities as one. In contrast, the new data coming from analysis of ‘En Hazeva not only sheds light on the rituals taking place at the site, but also complicates the way we understand ‘En Hazeva in light of larger political and economic developments in the region.
Dr. Darby will introduce us to the enigmatic female pillar figurines from the nation of Judah in the 8th-6th centuries BCE. Although these small clay figurines are among the most numerous ritual objects uncovered in ancient Judah, they are still poorly understood. As a result, they have been interpreted in many ways, including as goddesses, as implements in illicit, popular rituals, and as objects used primarily by women to aid in fertility, birth, and infant health. To model an archaeological approach and illustrate the importance of museum collections research, this lecture will explore figurines excavated from tombs at the famous site of Tell ed-Duweir (biblical Lachish) to better understand how archaeological context might complicate or even challenge the way we understand the function of these figurines in ancient Judahite ritual life.
This lecture approaches Iron Age desert cultic sites from southern Israel and Jordan as
zones of interaction in cultural, economic, and ritual networks, considering them in light of larger patterns in human mobility and ritual economy across the Mediterranean region. We will compare and contrast cultic assemblages from eighth through sixth century BCE desert shrines from southern Israel, comparable ritual sites in central and southern Jordan, and cultic assemblages from sites across the southern incense route that connected traders traveling between the Arabian Peninsula and the Mediterranean coast. Together, we will investigate how cultic activity in southern Israel and Jordan facilitated interactions between agents of differing religio-cultural identities, including the artisans who produced shrine furnishings, the visitors to the sites, and the social and political elites responsible for the creation and maintenance of cultic activity.
Join Dr. Erin Darby as we explore the archaeology of Horvat Qitmit in southern Israel and surrounding sites to identify who might be responsible for creating the famous cultic furnishings of the “Edomite” shrine. Our journey will take us through the ancient Near East to identify what we know about the producers of terracotta ritual artifacts and the processes for creating objects used in ritual spaces. On the way, we will consider the functions of the Qitmit shrine, its relationship with the emerging trade routes of the Iron IIb-c, and who might have commissioned the artisans responsible for the desert cult, requiring us to reconsider how we understand ethnic, cultural, religious, and political affiliation.
