Tali Erickson-Gini - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Tali Erickson-Gini
Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies, 2021
This is a report of an architectural survey of the “Mufti's House” in Motza/Qālūnyā, Israel. ... more This is a report of an architectural survey of the “Mufti's House” in Motza/Qālūnyā, Israel. The data is primarily drawn from Saidel and Erickson-Gini's 2019 survey; some information is also drawn from Mashiah's fieldwork in 2010. Historical images demonstrate that this compound was standing by 1906 and that it remained in use throughout the Mandate period. This compound was built using traditional Palestinian construction methods such as those described by Tawfiq Canaan. There is no obvious evidence for architectural modifications to this complex during the Mandate period. Historical records indicate that members of the Husseini family, including the Mufti, occupied this building throughout the Late Ottoman and British Mandate periods. This structure is an example of a summer or country house that was built by an elite Jerusalemite family.
Excavations and Surveys in Israel, 2022
Preliminary report of the 2019 excavation in Ashqelon, er-Rasm located ca. 2 km. southeast of Tel... more Preliminary report of the 2019 excavation in Ashqelon, er-Rasm located ca. 2 km. southeast of Tel Ashqelon.
Global agro-biodiversity has resulted from processes of plant migration and agricultural adoption... more Global agro-biodiversity has resulted from processes of plant migration and agricultural adoption. Although critically affecting current diversity, crop diffusion from antiquity to the middle-ages is poorly researched, overshadowed by studies on that of prehistoric periods. A new archaeobotanical dataset from three Negev Highland desert sites demonstrates the first millennium CE’s significance for long-term agricultural change in southwest Asia. This enables evaluation of the “Islamic Green Revolution” (IGR) thesis compared to “Roman Agricultural Diffusion” (RAD), and both versus crop diffusion since the Neolithic. Among the finds, some of the earliestSolanum melongenaseeds in the Levant represent the proposed IGR. Several other identified economic plants, including two unprecedented in Levantine archaeobotany (Ziziphus jujuba, Lupinus albus), implicate RAD as the greater force for crop migrations. Altogether the evidence supports a gradualist model for Holocene-wide crop diffusion,...
Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 2009
The concept of a socially constructed space of human activity in areas of everyday actions, as in... more The concept of a socially constructed space of human activity in areas of everyday actions, as initially proposed in the field of anthropology by Tim Ingold, has actually been much more applied in archaeology. In this wide-ranging collection of 13 papers, including a re-assessment by Ingold himself, contributors show why it has been so influential, with papers ranging from the study of Mesolithic to historic and contemporary archaeology, revisiting different research themes, such as Ingold’s own Lapland study, and the development of landscape archaeology. A series of case studies demonstrates the value and strength of the taskscape concept applied to a variety of contexts and scales across wide geographical and temporal situations. While exploring new frontiers, the papers contrast British, Nordic and Mediterranean archaeologies to showcase the study of material culture and landscape and conclude with an assessment of the concept of taskcape and its further developments.... Download...
Antiquity
Long-distance trade routes criss-crossed ancient Africa and Eurasia. Archaeological research has ... more Long-distance trade routes criss-crossed ancient Africa and Eurasia. Archaeological research has focused on the commodities in transit and the excavation of major centres located along these routes, with less attention paid to smaller caravanserai and evidence such as rubbish middens. The ‘Incense Route’ linked the Arabian Peninsula and Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, with activity peaking during the Nabataean and Roman periods. The authors present the results of test-pit excavations of middens at three small Nabataean–Roman desert caravanserai along the ‘Incense Route’. The assemblages recovered include material culture attesting to wide, inter-regional connections, combined with archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological data illuminating the subsistence basis of the caravan trade.
The Incense Roads 2020 edited by D. Perry and C. Ben-David, 2021
The Incense Roads 2020, edited by D. Perry and C. Ben-David, 2021
The Incense Roads 2020 edited by D. Perry and C. Ben-David, 2021
Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean, 2021
In the desert regions of the Southern Levant, the dating of Nabataean sherds and vessels is a cri... more In the desert regions of the Southern Levant, the dating of Nabataean sherds and vessels is a critical factor in determining the dates of archaeological strata, architecture, and even entire sites. In recent years, archaeologists working at Petra and related sites have tended to date most Nabataean sherds and vessels to the 1st century CE based on the proposed typo-chronology of the Swiss–Liechtenstein excavations at al-Zantur in Petra, published by Stephan G. Schmid (2000). Accepted typo-chronologies must withstand scrutiny and can override imposed historical frameworks. However, an uncritical reliance on the ez-Zantur chronology has created an artificial gap in the material record of Petra and other Nabataean sites in the post-annexation period, that is to say, the 2nd and 3rd century CE. This paper provides a critique of the Nabataean fine-ware typo-chronology from ez-Zantur, based on finds from other excavations and sites, and proposes a revised chronology in which the productio...
Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies, 2020
This article reports on the 2012 and 2016 field seasons at the Nabataean-Roman hilltop town of Av... more This article reports on the 2012 and 2016 field seasons at the Nabataean-Roman hilltop town of Avdat in the central Negev highlands of Israel. The fieldwork, being carried out as part of the Avdat in Late Antiquity Project, is concerned with a multi-roomed cave and stone-built compound along the southern slope of the town, which appears to have been inhabited by the town's monastic community during late antiquity. The various finds in the compound, including numerous red-painted dipinti and unusually well-preserved organic remains, provide evidence of the social and economic agency of the monks and draw attention to the understudied phenomenon of “urban monasticism” in late antique Palestine. In addition, through the combined use of radiocarbon and archaeoseismological data, important new questions are raised about the Byzantine-Early Islamic transition and the duration of settlement at Avdat.
Hadashot Arkheologiyot, 2022
https://www.hadashot-esi.org.il/report\_detail\_eng.aspx?id=26120&mag\_id=134
Antiquity
Three seasons of archaeological fieldwork by the Avdat in Late Antiquity Project have yielded new... more Three seasons of archaeological fieldwork by the Avdat in Late Antiquity Project have yielded new evidence of intensive Early Islamic activity in the late antique town of Avdat in Israel's Negev Highlands. This evidence has important implications for understanding the fate of such towns in the region during the Byzantine–Islamic transition.
American Journal of Archaeology, 2017
Archaeological Excavations and Research Studies in Southern Israel Collected Papers Volume 5 18th Annual Southern Conference, 2022
2022 survey results of Byzantine remains including the man-made caves and the agricultural terrac... more 2022 survey results of Byzantine remains including the man-made caves and the agricultural terraces and installations in the area around ancient Oboda / Avdat.
Archaeological Excavations and Research Studies in Southern Israel Collected Papers Volume 5 18th Annual Southern Conference, 2022
A funerary compound was excavated in the Negev Highlands in southern Israel in 2021 in a site re... more A funerary compound was excavated in the Negev Highlands in southern Israel in 2021 in a site remote from any settlement and situated at the crossroad of two important trails leading through the central Negev Highlands.
The excavations revealed the remains of over 50 individuals, interred in a tomb of a type found in southern Arabia together with several alabaster objects related to preparation and burning of incense on incense burners made from clay, basalt and limestone. Other objects discovered in the burials include scarabs, amulets, bronze and silver jewelry, a variety of beads including glass and carnelian beads and bone rings, shells and a bronze "spectacle" fibula produced in southern Europe. Preliminary analysis of the remains and associated finds point to the burial of women.
The small number of ceramic vessels that were uncovered suggests a date of the mid-first millennium BCE.
Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies, 2021
This is a report of an architectural survey of the “Mufti's House” in Motza/Qālūnyā, Israel. ... more This is a report of an architectural survey of the “Mufti's House” in Motza/Qālūnyā, Israel. The data is primarily drawn from Saidel and Erickson-Gini's 2019 survey; some information is also drawn from Mashiah's fieldwork in 2010. Historical images demonstrate that this compound was standing by 1906 and that it remained in use throughout the Mandate period. This compound was built using traditional Palestinian construction methods such as those described by Tawfiq Canaan. There is no obvious evidence for architectural modifications to this complex during the Mandate period. Historical records indicate that members of the Husseini family, including the Mufti, occupied this building throughout the Late Ottoman and British Mandate periods. This structure is an example of a summer or country house that was built by an elite Jerusalemite family.
Excavations and Surveys in Israel, 2022
Preliminary report of the 2019 excavation in Ashqelon, er-Rasm located ca. 2 km. southeast of Tel... more Preliminary report of the 2019 excavation in Ashqelon, er-Rasm located ca. 2 km. southeast of Tel Ashqelon.
Global agro-biodiversity has resulted from processes of plant migration and agricultural adoption... more Global agro-biodiversity has resulted from processes of plant migration and agricultural adoption. Although critically affecting current diversity, crop diffusion from antiquity to the middle-ages is poorly researched, overshadowed by studies on that of prehistoric periods. A new archaeobotanical dataset from three Negev Highland desert sites demonstrates the first millennium CE’s significance for long-term agricultural change in southwest Asia. This enables evaluation of the “Islamic Green Revolution” (IGR) thesis compared to “Roman Agricultural Diffusion” (RAD), and both versus crop diffusion since the Neolithic. Among the finds, some of the earliestSolanum melongenaseeds in the Levant represent the proposed IGR. Several other identified economic plants, including two unprecedented in Levantine archaeobotany (Ziziphus jujuba, Lupinus albus), implicate RAD as the greater force for crop migrations. Altogether the evidence supports a gradualist model for Holocene-wide crop diffusion,...
Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 2009
The concept of a socially constructed space of human activity in areas of everyday actions, as in... more The concept of a socially constructed space of human activity in areas of everyday actions, as initially proposed in the field of anthropology by Tim Ingold, has actually been much more applied in archaeology. In this wide-ranging collection of 13 papers, including a re-assessment by Ingold himself, contributors show why it has been so influential, with papers ranging from the study of Mesolithic to historic and contemporary archaeology, revisiting different research themes, such as Ingold’s own Lapland study, and the development of landscape archaeology. A series of case studies demonstrates the value and strength of the taskscape concept applied to a variety of contexts and scales across wide geographical and temporal situations. While exploring new frontiers, the papers contrast British, Nordic and Mediterranean archaeologies to showcase the study of material culture and landscape and conclude with an assessment of the concept of taskcape and its further developments.... Download...
Antiquity
Long-distance trade routes criss-crossed ancient Africa and Eurasia. Archaeological research has ... more Long-distance trade routes criss-crossed ancient Africa and Eurasia. Archaeological research has focused on the commodities in transit and the excavation of major centres located along these routes, with less attention paid to smaller caravanserai and evidence such as rubbish middens. The ‘Incense Route’ linked the Arabian Peninsula and Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, with activity peaking during the Nabataean and Roman periods. The authors present the results of test-pit excavations of middens at three small Nabataean–Roman desert caravanserai along the ‘Incense Route’. The assemblages recovered include material culture attesting to wide, inter-regional connections, combined with archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological data illuminating the subsistence basis of the caravan trade.
The Incense Roads 2020 edited by D. Perry and C. Ben-David, 2021
The Incense Roads 2020, edited by D. Perry and C. Ben-David, 2021
The Incense Roads 2020 edited by D. Perry and C. Ben-David, 2021
Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean, 2021
In the desert regions of the Southern Levant, the dating of Nabataean sherds and vessels is a cri... more In the desert regions of the Southern Levant, the dating of Nabataean sherds and vessels is a critical factor in determining the dates of archaeological strata, architecture, and even entire sites. In recent years, archaeologists working at Petra and related sites have tended to date most Nabataean sherds and vessels to the 1st century CE based on the proposed typo-chronology of the Swiss–Liechtenstein excavations at al-Zantur in Petra, published by Stephan G. Schmid (2000). Accepted typo-chronologies must withstand scrutiny and can override imposed historical frameworks. However, an uncritical reliance on the ez-Zantur chronology has created an artificial gap in the material record of Petra and other Nabataean sites in the post-annexation period, that is to say, the 2nd and 3rd century CE. This paper provides a critique of the Nabataean fine-ware typo-chronology from ez-Zantur, based on finds from other excavations and sites, and proposes a revised chronology in which the productio...
Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies, 2020
This article reports on the 2012 and 2016 field seasons at the Nabataean-Roman hilltop town of Av... more This article reports on the 2012 and 2016 field seasons at the Nabataean-Roman hilltop town of Avdat in the central Negev highlands of Israel. The fieldwork, being carried out as part of the Avdat in Late Antiquity Project, is concerned with a multi-roomed cave and stone-built compound along the southern slope of the town, which appears to have been inhabited by the town's monastic community during late antiquity. The various finds in the compound, including numerous red-painted dipinti and unusually well-preserved organic remains, provide evidence of the social and economic agency of the monks and draw attention to the understudied phenomenon of “urban monasticism” in late antique Palestine. In addition, through the combined use of radiocarbon and archaeoseismological data, important new questions are raised about the Byzantine-Early Islamic transition and the duration of settlement at Avdat.
Hadashot Arkheologiyot, 2022
https://www.hadashot-esi.org.il/report\_detail\_eng.aspx?id=26120&mag\_id=134
Antiquity
Three seasons of archaeological fieldwork by the Avdat in Late Antiquity Project have yielded new... more Three seasons of archaeological fieldwork by the Avdat in Late Antiquity Project have yielded new evidence of intensive Early Islamic activity in the late antique town of Avdat in Israel's Negev Highlands. This evidence has important implications for understanding the fate of such towns in the region during the Byzantine–Islamic transition.
American Journal of Archaeology, 2017
Archaeological Excavations and Research Studies in Southern Israel Collected Papers Volume 5 18th Annual Southern Conference, 2022
2022 survey results of Byzantine remains including the man-made caves and the agricultural terrac... more 2022 survey results of Byzantine remains including the man-made caves and the agricultural terraces and installations in the area around ancient Oboda / Avdat.
Archaeological Excavations and Research Studies in Southern Israel Collected Papers Volume 5 18th Annual Southern Conference, 2022
A funerary compound was excavated in the Negev Highlands in southern Israel in 2021 in a site re... more A funerary compound was excavated in the Negev Highlands in southern Israel in 2021 in a site remote from any settlement and situated at the crossroad of two important trails leading through the central Negev Highlands.
The excavations revealed the remains of over 50 individuals, interred in a tomb of a type found in southern Arabia together with several alabaster objects related to preparation and burning of incense on incense burners made from clay, basalt and limestone. Other objects discovered in the burials include scarabs, amulets, bronze and silver jewelry, a variety of beads including glass and carnelian beads and bone rings, shells and a bronze "spectacle" fibula produced in southern Europe. Preliminary analysis of the remains and associated finds point to the burial of women.
The small number of ceramic vessels that were uncovered suggests a date of the mid-first millennium BCE.
Excavations at Mezad Zohar, a heavily eroded medieval fort west of the Dead Sea, have revealed th... more Excavations at Mezad Zohar, a heavily eroded medieval fort west of the Dead Sea, have revealed that it was constructed in the later decades of the 12th century and occupied until the14th century CE. During the Mamluk period, the fort was part of the ‘barid’ network between Cisjordan and southern Transjordan.
The Socio-economic History and Material Culture of the Roman and Byzantine Near East collects thi... more The Socio-economic History and Material Culture of the Roman and Byzantine Near East collects thirteen papers written in honor of S. Thomas Parker by his colleagues and former students. S. Thomas Parker is one of the most influential archaeologists of the past half century who have worked on the Roman and Byzantine remains of Jordan He is responsible for excavations at the Roman legionary fortress at Lejjūn, the Nabataean and Roman Red Sea port of Aila, and more recently, domestic structures in the Nabataean capital of Petra.
These papers focus on four areas of Parker’s legacy in Near Eastern archaeology: regional survey, material and written culture, the Roman military, and the economy. Topics discussed include: examinations of settlement patterns in central and southern Jordan in the Neolithic period and Iron Age, road systems around the southern Dead Sea, how ceramic lamps and glass provide evidence about culture in the region, and how a Nabataean inscription from Bir Madkhur provides evidence of the divinity of Nabataean rulers.
Other articles discuss the impact of Roman military pay on the economy around Petra, how Roman engineers designed fortresses in the Near East, the composition of military units in Petra in the Roman and Byzantine periods, how the economy of Caesarea Palaestinae fits into discussions of the ancient economy, how Romans viewed women and luxury goods, and what archeobotanical research can indicate about land use and agriculture in the region. The most controversial paper, which uses evidence from the largely unpublished excavation of the Temple of the Winged Lions in Petra, argues that scholars have been misdating Nabataean ceramics. If accepted, this could cause a re-evaluation of dates in Petra and elsewhere in the region.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), 2019
The historic event of the Late Antique Little Ice Age (LALIA) was recently identified in dozens o... more The historic event of the Late Antique Little Ice Age (LALIA) was recently identified in dozens of natural and geological climate proxies of the northern hemisphere. Although this climatic downturn was proposed as a major cause for pandemic and extensive societal upheavals in the sixth–seventh centuries CE, archaeological evidence for the magnitude of societal response to this event is sparse. This study uses ancient trash mounds as a type of proxy for identifying societal crisis in the urban domain,and employs multidisciplinary investigations to establish the terminal date of organized trash collection and high-level municipal functioning on a city-wide scale. Survey, excavation, sediment analysis, and geographic information system assessment of mound volume were conducted on a series of mounds surrounding the Byzantine urban settlement of Elusa in the Negev Desert.These reveal the massive collection and dumping of domestic and construction waste over time on the city edges. Carbon dating of charred seeds and charcoal fragments combined with ceramic analysis establish the end date of orchestrated trash removal near the mid-sixth century, coinciding closely with the beginning of the LALIA event and outbreak of the Justinian Plague in the year 541.This evidence for societal decline during the sixth century ties with other arguments for urban dysfunction across the Byzantine Levant at this time. We demonstrate the utility of trash mounds as sensitive proxies of social response and unravel the time–space dynamics of urban collapse, suggesting diminished resilience to rapid climate change in the frontier Negev region of the empire.
Master Thesis presented to Tel Aviv University , 1999
The purpose of this paper is to concentrate and present the findings of two seasons of excavation... more The purpose of this paper is to concentrate and present the findings of two seasons of excavations in the ancient Nabataean settlement of Mampsis (Ar. Kurnub, Heb. Mamshit), carried out by the author in 1993 and 1994. The architecture, stratigraphy, and ceramic and non-ceramic finds revealed in these excavations are presented here as well as their impact on our understanding of the development of the settlement and its role in the wider geo-historical context of the early centuries of the first millennium CE in the Roman East.