Affiliation: Lycoming College
Pamela Gaber is Professor of Archaeology and Judaic Studies with Lycoming College, and holds her degrees from the University of Wisconsin (B.A.), and Harvard University (M.A. and Ph.D.). Her areas of specialization are the archaeology of ancient Cyprus and Biblical archaeology. She is Director of Lycoming College’s expedition to Idalion, Cyprus, and has directed various excavations at the site for over 20 years. Her publications include Idalion III: Excavations on Mouti tou Arvili, the East Acropolis of Idalion (forthcoming, American Schools of Oriental Resarch). Professor Gaber was a 2010/2011 AIA Kershaw Lecturer.
The island of Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean has yielded hundreds of votive sculptures from the first millennium BCE. A study of these sculptures reveals information about religious worship in the Ancient Near East. In addition, a detailed examination of these collections can actually tell us about trade relations and travel, not only between sites on Cyprus, but between Cyprus and the Levant. Such an examination reveals chronological sequences and even hints about the nature of worship in ancient Near East, including Israel. Subsequent studies have even shown that we are able to discern the hands of individual sculptors.
Short bibliography and/or website on lecture topic:
“The History of History: Excavations at Idalion and the Changing History of a City-Kingdom” Near
Eastern Archaeology, Vol. 71, Nos. 1-2, March-June 2008;
Encyclopedia Britannica, online edition, 2009.
Regional Styles in Cypriot Limestone Sculpture: The Sculpture from Idalion, Garland Press, 1986.
See Pamela Gaber's work in the American Journal of Archaeology.
