Year 1 No.

February 2012

LCM Newsletter
Bulletin of the MA Program in Archaeomaterials at Tel Aviv University

About this newsletter

This newsletter has been created with the aim of providing information about the current research and academic activities carried-out in Tel Aviv Universitys MA Program in Archaeology and Archaeomaterials and the Laboratory for Comparative Microarchaeology (LCM). It will be distributed monthly by email to the list of our Friends of the Archaeomaterials Program, as well as colleagues, students and interested parties.

the mid-20th century, and glass has been analyzed since the 1960s. The study of archaeomaterials requires specialist training. Our MA program in Archaeology and Archaeomaterials provides such training. In return, it has led to exciting new discoveries, particularly in the Near East with its rich archaeological record and cultural diversity. Examples include the provenancing of the famous Amarna Tablets, correspondences written by local rulers in the Levant and the great kings of the ancient Near East during the Late Bronze Age to the Pharaoh of Egypt, detailing aspects of trade and political relations at the time. Similarly, studying glass objects from this and later periods highlights cultural connections and details of commodity exchange not dissimilar to todays patterns. The origins of metallurgy and major steps in its development are suspected to be buried in the Near East. Only scientific investigation of minute finds of slag and metal will unravel the emergence of metallurgy as one of the main forces to shape complex societies over several millennia.

What is Microarchaeology?
Microarchaeology is the study of archaeologically-related materials under the microscope. This discipline focuses on the observation of minuscule occurrences in the archaeological record that are invisible to the naked eye. Microarchaeology, like mega-scale archaeology, uses a combination of fieldwork and laboratory techniques to investigate a broad spectrum of cultural and historical issues.

Microarchaeology and Archaeomaterials

Archaeology provides unique insight into the development of human societies and their different ways to interact with each other, and the environment. Understanding the Past helps us to prepare for the Future, now more than ever. Archaeological materials (archaeomaterials) are the physical remains of human technology from the past. This term refers to the inorganic leftovers of knowledge and skill as reflected by the manipulation of materials. The study of archaeomaterials reveals aspects of human knowledge, concepts, beliefs, economy, social hierarchy, and exchange. The application of scientific research methods in archaeology is not new. As early as the 1930s, petrographic along with other microscopic methods were applied in order to discover details about technological traits and production location of ceramics. Metal artifacts were analyzed by physical and elemental methods since

The Laboratory for Comparative Microarchaeology

The Laboratory for Comparative Microarchaeology accommodates facilities for a wide range of microarchaeological analyses. It can support research in the fields of ceramic petrography, plaster technology, micromorphology of sediments, microwear analysis, micropaleontology, and metallographya new field developed at the laboratoryis the microscopic investigation of extremely delicate objects such as clay seal impressions and cuneiform tablets. The laboratory houses the worlds largest collection of Eastern Mediterranean archaeological ceramics in thin sections, comprising about 15,000 specimens as well as educational collections of rocks, minerals and archaeological materials. The laboratory also houses an exhibition dedicated to the history of the field microscope, including about 100 historical field microscopes of the last 250 years.

Copyright 2012 Laboratory for Comparative Archaeology, Tel Aviv University. All rights reserved. The newsletter may be distributed freely and used for academic or educational purposes only. No other use is allowed without written permission by the authors.

Year 1 No. 1

February 2012

Research News
Reading the Zip Codes of 3,500 Year-Old Letters
When kings sent letters to each other in ancient times, their post offices didnt record a senders address or details. So today when archaeologists dig up Bronze Age letters made from clay in Syria, Egypt, Turkey or Israel it takes quite a bit of super-sleuthing to understand not only the content of the letter, but from where it originated. Knowing a letters origin can reveal much about the rulers and civilization of the time. Sourcing the raw materials of archaeological ceramics, stamps and tablets has been a timely challenge for us. Our field of interest intersects at the worlds of geology, mineralogy and ancient technology, as we try to understand where ancient tablets and ceramics are made, based on the elements and minerals found in the materials of these artifacts. Traditionally archaeological scientists take small samples of an artifact - a chip or a slice - in order to analyze its composition. But as more and more museums and archaeological sites ban intrusive means of investigating archaeological finds, Professor Yuval Goren found a way to work around the problem. Using an offthe-shelf lab tool used in chemistry analyses, Prof. Goren adopted a kind of x-ray machine that can reveal hidden information about a tablets composition information that the eye cant perceive. Many museums will no longer allow any more physical sampling of artifacts, something especially problematic for unique tablet fragments and seal impressions which cannot be broken in the process. Thus we had to find another way to know what these artifacts are made from. Using the portable XRF spectrometer (pXRF), Prof. Goren used data he previously collected through physical intrusive sampling over the years, and compared the results to readouts that he got on the XRF. He was able to build a table of results so that in the future all that will be needed will be to scan a tablet - touching the surface of it gently with the machine, to assess the clay type and location of the minerals of the artifact. This tool can also be applied to coins, ancient plasters, and glass, the information collected will be widely available to researchers.

In a recent study, published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, Prof. Goren and his colleagues Prof. Jrg Klinger from the Free University of Berlin and Prof. Hans Mommsen from the University of Bonn, investigated about 100 Late Bronze Age documents written in the Akkadian and Hittite languages from the archives of the Hittite kings found at Boazky/Hattua in present-day Turkey, and el Amarna in Egypt now deposited in the Vorderasiatisches Museum (VAM) in Berlin and the British Museum in London.

Using the XRF tool, cross-referenced with physical sample, the researchers concluded in their journal article that the method enables now the non-destructive analysis of many more tablets. This will enable provenance studies of hundreds if not thousands of cuneiform tablets in museums where physical sampling was not allowed so far. As such, this project aims at studying the most salient aspects of cultural exchange and historical processes through a set of scientific methods.

Field Projects
Excavations in Timna
The excavations led by Dr. Erez Ben-Yosef will take place at the ancient copper smelting camp of Timnas Site 34, otherwise known as Slaves Hill or in Hebrew as Givat Haavadim. Complementary soundings will be conducted at two of the blocked mine shafts in Mining Field A, and two of the blocked mining shafts in Mining Field F. Located on the top of an isolated hill, Site 34 is one of the largest smelting camps in the Timna Valley (ca. 3 ha.). The site was surveyed by Nelson Glueck and the Arava Expedition of Beno Rothenberg, but has never been excavated. The Arava Expedition dated this site like many others in the Timna Valley to the Late Bronze Age by the similarity of surface finds to other, supposedly well dated, smelting sites in the valley and the assumption of connection to the New Kingdom Egyptian activity in the

Copyright 2012 Laboratory for Comparative Archaeology, Tel Aviv University. All rights reserved. The newsletter may be distributed freely and used for academic or educational purposes only. No other use is allowed without written permission by the authors.

Year 1 No. 1

February 2012

nearby temple (Site 200). Some of the mining shafts of Mining Field A were excavated by the Arava Expedition, but no datable artifacts were found and their date was also determined by assuming a link to the Egyptian activity in the temple of Site 200. The pit-mines of Mining Field F were only surveyed by the Arava Expedition, and their early date was determined by the very simple mining technology they represent, assuming a linear technological evolution through time. A survey of the history of research of the Dr. Erez Ben Yosef Timna Valley demonstrates that the interpretation of every site in this significant copper resource region was dominated by the paradigm established by the Arava Expedition, even when they were not investigated by proper survey and excavations. Based on new evidence from excavations at Faynan and Timna, we believe all sites might be dated to the early Iron Age (11th 9th c. BCE) and one of the aims of the project is to clarify the chronology of these sites.

most interestingly a large amount of ceramic wasters, which appear to have come from major workshops. Tel Sochoh has never been excavated until now. We believe that the site is one of the main industrial workshops of the Kingdom of Judah. Previous studies, including the studies performed in the LCM, predicted that the main royally controlled production site of large oil and or wine containers was located at Tel Sochoh. The petrographic analyses of samples from done by Professor Yuval Goren showed that the provenance of the raw materials for almost all lmlk jars originated from the vicinity of the Ellah Valley, making the site of Sochoh the most probable location. This conclusion is based on two rationales: that the name of Sochoh is included in the tetrapolis stamped on the jars, and that Tel Sochoh is the major 8th-7th century BCE site in the valley. Since it has never been excavated, it may explain the lack of discovery of the workshops for these jars so far. The results of our survey from this past summer suggest that there was indeed a large-scale workshop at this site. The dig will involve our archaeomaterials program and become the first excavation which will be conducted with the view of archaeological sciences and directed by a team of experts in the field of ancient technology. The main focus of our excavation will be on uncovering material culture which will be able to shed light on the administrative aspects of the economy of Judah throughout the 400 year period when it was under Assyrian, Babylonian and Persian rule (732-333). The archaeological and historical records supply significant information regarding the general patterns of the administration and economy in Judah between 732 and 333 BCE. At the same time, very little attention has been directed thus far to the finer details of the governmental system through the study of the modes of distribution of taxes and commodities. We will attempt to answer these questions throughout the excavation with with the assistance of an onsite archaeomaterials laboratory. More information on this project may be found at www.tesochoh.com.

The Archaeomaterials Excavation at Tel Sochoh

Tel Sochoh (Arabic: Khirbet Abad) is located in the Ellah Valley, which is one of the most fertile valleys in the Judean lowlands. The site is situated on the main ancient road which crosses the valley from west to east, leading from the coastal plains to the direction of Bethlehem and the Judean hills watershed line. The mound slopes from North, West and South creating a natural fortification, to the East the site is connected by a saddle ridge to Khirbet Shuwaikah, which retains a continuation of the ancient name of Sochoh, one of the cities of Judah. According to the biblical text Sochoh was one of the cities allotted to Judah, it lay between Adulam and Azekah (Joshua 15:35). Most famously Sochoh is the place where the Philistines gathered their armies to battle with King Saul, where David fought Goliath (2 Chronicles 11: 5-12). Tel Sochoh has never been excavated, but the mound has been surveyed several times in the 19th and 20th Centuries. In 2011 Yoav Tzur conducted a systematic survey of Khirbet Abad and Khirbet Shuwaikah as his M.A. research project, under the supervision of Professors Oded Lipschits and Yuval Goren and Dr. Yuval Gadot. In order to establish the ground work for the research a digital mapping of the site was done to get a clear plan of the sites borders. The most significant finds from the survey included many stamped jar handles of the Iron Age II, 10 of which were of the lmlk (of the King) type, Judean Pillar Figurines as well as other zoomorphs and

News in Brief
TAU-UCL Collaboration in Archaeomaterials
Over the past years Prof. Yuval Goren of Tel Aviv University (TAU), together with Prof. Thilo Rehren from the Institute of Archaeology, University College London (UCL), have developed a low-level exchange of staff and students, the further development of which was hampered by the lack of suitable funding. They now look for moderate strategic funding to facilitate and expand their existing collaboration on postgraduate training and mutually agreed projects in the field of pyrotechnology.

Copyright 2012 Laboratory for Comparative Archaeology, Tel Aviv University. All rights reserved. The newsletter may be distributed freely and used for academic or educational purposes only. No other use is allowed without written permission by the authors.

Year 1 No. 1

February 2012

The idea is to make the TAU-UCL collaboration a norm, and to include training periods for postgraduate students in the sister laboratory to broaden their experience and knowledge, as well as enhance collaboration on specific projects such as the analysis of glazed Crusader ceramics or the study of Early Bronze Age metal production. In collaboration with Dr. David Levin Chairman of the TAU Trust in the UK, Ms. Cara Case and Ms. Elinor Yudan of the TAU Trust, we organized an event where the outline and benefits of the planned collaboration will be presented to a group of friends of TAU. Mr. David Sofer from London very kindly agreed to host the event in his home. The event will be held on May 22nd, 2012.

tube reads: "E. Hartnack & Co., Paris & Potsdam. This model is a stand VIII, of 1876-7. Edmund Hartnack (1826-91) was a Prussian microscope maker who studied his craft in Berlin. In 1857, Hartnack joined the instrument-making firm of his uncle, Georges Oberhauser, which was based in Paris and enjoyed a reputation for high quality products. Hartnack had to leave Paris during the French-Prussian war of 1870 and maintained his factory in Potsdam.

Microscope of the month

In this column, we will display a landmark instrument from our labs collection of historical microscopes, with special emphasis on field microscopy.

Pasteurs Favorite Microscope: the Hartnack VIII

The second half of the 19th century is signified by some of the major improvements in the construction and optics of the microscope. It also marks the transitional phase between the simple and very limited microscopes of the 18th century and the modern scientific instruments of today. The growing need for affordable microscopes, coincided with the expansion of science, and led to an increased demand for quality microscopes from scientists for their investigations. During this time span, most of the affinities of the modern optical microscope were introduced including approved achromatic lenses, binocular vision, the objective nosepiece, the Abbe condenser and polarized light microscopy. No scientific discovery was ever made with a fancy and expensive Lealand and Powell 1st Class, or similar luxurious and overly complicated models. Scientists preferred efficiency and cost effectiveness over snobbish, classy and excessively complicated instruments. The microscope shown here reflects the early design of the continental microscope of the second half of the 19th century. It was produced by one of the most distinguished optical makers of the era. Script signature on the draw The continental microscope enjoyed popularity among 19th century scientists, such as Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch. In the detail from the famous painting made by Albert Edelfelt in 1885, Louis Pasteur is seen in his laboratory with an identical model of microscope. The original instrument is kept in the Pasteur Institute in Paris. Pasteur used this microscope in his studies of the pebrine disease of silkworms, of the anthrax and rabies pathogens and in his researches concerning spontaneous generation of organisms.

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Copyright 2012 Laboratory for Comparative Archaeology, Tel Aviv University. All rights reserved. The newsletter may be distributed freely and used for academic or educational purposes only. No other use is allowed without written permission by the authors.