Josephine Verduci | University of Melbourne (original) (raw)

Papers by Josephine Verduci

Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies, 2019

British School at Athens , 2015

ABSTRACT In this paper, we re-examine inscribed items of Minoan jewellery in the light of the inc... more ABSTRACT In this paper, we re-examine inscribed items of Minoan jewellery in the light of the increasing number of studies on ancient eastern Mediterranean jewellery and its meanings. We reach a fourfold conclusion. First: as these objects, with one exception, are clearly associated with adult females, while the exception (a ring) cannot be affiliated with a particular gender or age, inscribed Minoan jewellery seems so far to lie mostly outside the purview of men. Second: these objects were almost certainly used to construct and broadcast the elite identity (and perhaps authority) of the people who wore them. Third: the objects may also have served as apotropaic amulets and/or symbols of rites of passage for their wearers, thus expressing certain rituals associated with the lives of the people who wore them. Fourth: inscribed items of Minoan jewellery may have played an active role in linking elite Minoan (and particularly elite Minoan female ) identity and authority to the divine.

Buried History , 2016

Tuleilat Qasr Mousa Hamid, in southern Jordan, is believed to be the Iron Age site of biblical Zo... more Tuleilat Qasr Mousa Hamid, in southern Jordan, is believed to be the Iron Age site of biblical Zoar. This paper reports on an excavation that was undertaken in January 2015. It is clear from finds that there was a significant agricultural and industrial settlement at the site in the Iron Age II period.

Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception (EBR), 2017

Conference Presentations by Josephine Verduci

American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) Annual Meeting in San Diego , 2019

American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) Annual Meeting in Boston , 2020

Ancient World Seminar at University of Melbourne , 2019

A Man’s World Queens, Goddesses, and Mothers in the Ancient Near East. Archaeology Discovery Weekend at La Sierra University, California (12/11/16), 2016

The International Union of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences World Congress, Paris (04/06/2018), 2018

ASOR 2014 Annual Meeting, San Diego (21/11/2014), 2014

Recent focus on the body a site for the gathering of information and symbols for communal consump... more Recent focus on the body a site for the gathering of information and symbols for communal consumption, views the ornaments on the body’s surface as a deliberate social strategy through which embodied identities are actively created. Personal agency within the public sphere means that by means of dress and ornamentation, an individual has the ability to create their social skin. The individual experiences the dress and adornment on the body and they also are visual cues to others, culminating in a duality that enables expression of individual and collective identities.
Ethnographic parallels indicate that for many individuals identity and ethnicity was primarily a question of bodily perceptions and how sensory experiences affected them physiologically. The embodiment of memory in objects, particularly those conservative cultural practices reproduced over extended periods of time, may have served as mnemonics prompting memories with certain groups over more than one lifetime. Whether people were actively involved in this process of remembering is central to the question of intentionality.
Drawing on the personal adornment data available from sites in Cis- and Transjordan, this paper analyses methods of individual and group display. Focusing specifically on the rings, bangles and earrings in the various assemblages I aim to explain southern Levantine modes of adornment and the manner by which it was experienced, and how it served as a highly visible emblem of personal identity – a dual role that marked and reinforced social and territorial boundaries.

Poster presented at ASOR 2015 Annual Meeting, Atlanta (22/11/2015), 2015

In January 2015, the Australian Institute of Archaeology (AIA) in collaboration with the Hellenic... more In January 2015, the Australian Institute of Archaeology (AIA) in collaboration with the Hellenic Society of Near Eastern Studies launched its inaugural archaeological survey and excavations of Tuleilat Qasr Mousa Hamid (Mousa Hamid) in the Ghor es-Safi area of southern Jordan. Mousa Hamid is believed to be the biblical site of Zoara, one of the five biblical cities of the Pentapolis, along with Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zaboim.

Early archaeological surveys of the region identified remains associated with the Bronze and Iron Ages, and test trenches conducted in 1999 at the site identified Iron Age sherds and extensive surface evidence of agricultural industry in the form of grinding stones and querns. The primary objectives of the AIA project were to assess the site using total station technology and GIS software to generate a topographical map of the site. Despite intense agricultural activity in the immediate vicinity, it was additionally possible to conduct preliminary fieldwork. Finally, a collection of stone tools recovered from the site was photographed and catalogued. The excavation revealed two Late Iron Age strata of occupation. Archaeological results indicate an episode of destruction in the most recent Iron Age stratum, architectural features, a cooking installation and a large amount of Iron Age IIC whole and fragmentary vessels.

This poster presents the data collected from this first season of excavation at Zoara/Mousa Hamid and explore the implications for future work at the site.

ASOR 2015 Annual Meeting, Atlanta (22/11/2015), 2015

This paper explores the deposition of adornment within mortuary contexts and the personal and pub... more This paper explores the deposition of adornment within mortuary contexts and the personal and public forces at play in the display and abandonment of wealth. As a material object an item of adornment exists, it is a fact, and as such it is of importance. Scientific questions, such as, what is it? Is not of significance here, rather the existential one, that is, what was done with it? What was its purpose? By exploring the complexities of individual agency and the intimate relationship between humans and objects I argue that we might identify the intricacies of such existential significance. I use a range of examples to demonstrate how the material and the human domain interact with each other. This redirects enquiry from the culturally determined individual towards what is intentional in terms of the employment of dress and adornment in identity construction and explores human experience in the ancient past.

ASOR 2013 Annual Meeting in Baltimore (20/11/2013), 2013

Examination of ancient societies based purely on artistic representations engenders a fascination... more Examination of ancient societies based purely on artistic representations engenders a fascination that can lead to long held characterizations that become embedded in modern perceptions. The iconographical expression of Philistine identity, people invariably interpreted as seafaring warriors, has often involved the communicative aspect of costume based on ideologies prescribed by convention and tradition. I present an overview of Philistine costume and weaponry, largely on the basis of the depiction of the Sea Peoples in the Medinet Habu reliefs. In particular I distinguish different forms from the conventional feathered headwear generally recognized. The goal of such an exercise is to offer a new perspective on costume in relation to Philistine cultural expression.

ASOR 2012 Annual Meeting in Chicago (10/11/2012), 2012

This paper will present findings and interpretations relating to the stylistic attributes of jewe... more This paper will present findings and interpretations relating to the stylistic attributes of jewellery within the southern Levant Iron Age I-IIA periods, with a focus on sites within Philistia. By exploring the issue of identity and asking how the people of Philistia used their material culture to express their identities, both as individuals and as part of larger groupings. I examine the evidence emerging from several Philistine sites in the southern coastal plain, with comparisons to other regions in the eastern Mediterranean, from a perspective that encompasses issues of identity and transculturalism.

My research focuses on items of personal adornment, including metal jewellery, beads, shells and clothing attachments and examines what they might indicate about change and variability in population. I argue that different imperatives were at play, by multiple identities, at different stages of the early Iron Age. To this end I suggest certain objects were appropriated, while others were redefined and transformed.

Using Tell es-Safi/Gath, one of the Philistine pentapolis sites, as the primary case-study, and drawing on other sites in the region, this paper analyses methods of cultural display using the personal adornment data available and focusing on the motifs and technologies occurring in the various assemblages. The aim is to contribute a different set of data rarely used in archaeological reconstructions and comment

ASOR Annual Meeting in San Francisco (16/11/2011), 2011

The Iron Age I-IIA periods of the southern coastal plain of the Levant, encompassing a timeframe ... more The Iron Age I-IIA periods of the southern coastal plain of the Levant, encompassing a timeframe from roughly 1200 – 900 BCE, while having no definitive cultural break from the Late Bronze Age have certain new features that suggest the appearance of the Philistines or other Sea Peoples. The jewellery from hoards and burials from this region provide an indication of the wealth of the inhabitants of Philistia and hint at the cultural changes occurring during that time.

Often marginalized as “small finds”, personal adornment is a crucial component in social interaction. The process of adorning the body can convey cultural identity, social status, ethnicity, gender, and age in a manner more immediate than verbal communication. Thus the contents and the context in which the jewellery from these hoards and burials were found will help to create not only an accurate jewellery typology for the period, but also assist our understanding of the cultural influences prevalent during the early stages of Philistine society.

Using Tell es-Safi (ancient Gath), one of the Philistine pentapolis sites, as the primary case-study, and drawing on other sites in the Philistia region for comparative purposes, this paper analyses methods of cultural display, using the personal adornment data available from each site. Focusing specifically on the motifs and technologies occurring in the various assemblages in order to create a typology of Philistine jewellery. I will also discuss a catalogue of jewellery types recently recorded from Transjordan to assess any transmission of motifs across the Jordan Valley.

Book Chapter by Josephine Verduci

In K. Neumann and A. Thomason (eds), The Routledge Handbook of the Senses in the Ancient Near East, 2021

This chapter is an exploration of the entanglement of cognition and embodied cultural and social ... more This chapter is an exploration of the entanglement of cognition and embodied cultural and social identity. Evidence derived mainly from mortuary contexts and supplemented by pictorial and iconographic sources indicates that anklets were a common form of adornment during the Bronze and Iron Ages in the southern Levant, and indeed forms the largest category of metal jewellery for those periods. Studies of anklets have, in the past, focused on their ethnic significance, their metallurgical properties, and their role as an expression of gender and age; however, little considered is how sensory experience and corporeal embodiment can lead to decisions that challenge cultural meanings. Recent studies of cognitive neurobiology suggest that emotions are integral to cognition; furthermore, they are an essential aspect of memory formation and retrieval. Somatic effects, such as weight, pressure, movement, as well as other sensory qualities such as sight and sound, will therefore be discussed in light of their implications for adornment in bodily practice, in order to explore how identity for ancient individuals may have been a matter of bodily perceptions and how sensory experiences affected them physiologically.

in K. D. Politis (ed.) Ancient Landscapes of Zoara I Surveys and Excavations at the Ghor as-Safi in Jordan, 1997–2018. Routledge, 2020

M. Cifarelli, (ed.), Fashioned Selves: Dress and Identity in Antiquity. Oxford: Oxbow, 2019

Examination of ancient societies based purely on artistic representations engenders a fascination... more Examination of ancient societies based purely on artistic representations engenders a fascination that can lead to long held characterizations that become embedded in modern perceptions. The iconographical expression of Philistine identity, people invariably interpreted as seafaring warriors, has often involved the communicative aspect of costume based on ideologies prescribed by convention and tradition. I present an overview of Philistine costume and weaponry, largely on the basis of the depiction of the Sea Peoples in the Medinet Habu reliefs. In particular I distinguish different forms from the conventional feathered headwear generally recognized. The goal of such an exercise is to offer a new perspective on costume in relation to Philistine cultural expression.

Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies, 2019

British School at Athens , 2015

ABSTRACT In this paper, we re-examine inscribed items of Minoan jewellery in the light of the inc... more ABSTRACT In this paper, we re-examine inscribed items of Minoan jewellery in the light of the increasing number of studies on ancient eastern Mediterranean jewellery and its meanings. We reach a fourfold conclusion. First: as these objects, with one exception, are clearly associated with adult females, while the exception (a ring) cannot be affiliated with a particular gender or age, inscribed Minoan jewellery seems so far to lie mostly outside the purview of men. Second: these objects were almost certainly used to construct and broadcast the elite identity (and perhaps authority) of the people who wore them. Third: the objects may also have served as apotropaic amulets and/or symbols of rites of passage for their wearers, thus expressing certain rituals associated with the lives of the people who wore them. Fourth: inscribed items of Minoan jewellery may have played an active role in linking elite Minoan (and particularly elite Minoan female ) identity and authority to the divine.

Buried History , 2016

Tuleilat Qasr Mousa Hamid, in southern Jordan, is believed to be the Iron Age site of biblical Zo... more Tuleilat Qasr Mousa Hamid, in southern Jordan, is believed to be the Iron Age site of biblical Zoar. This paper reports on an excavation that was undertaken in January 2015. It is clear from finds that there was a significant agricultural and industrial settlement at the site in the Iron Age II period.

Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception (EBR), 2017

American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) Annual Meeting in San Diego , 2019

American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) Annual Meeting in Boston , 2020

Ancient World Seminar at University of Melbourne , 2019

A Man’s World Queens, Goddesses, and Mothers in the Ancient Near East. Archaeology Discovery Weekend at La Sierra University, California (12/11/16), 2016

The International Union of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences World Congress, Paris (04/06/2018), 2018

ASOR 2014 Annual Meeting, San Diego (21/11/2014), 2014

Recent focus on the body a site for the gathering of information and symbols for communal consump... more Recent focus on the body a site for the gathering of information and symbols for communal consumption, views the ornaments on the body’s surface as a deliberate social strategy through which embodied identities are actively created. Personal agency within the public sphere means that by means of dress and ornamentation, an individual has the ability to create their social skin. The individual experiences the dress and adornment on the body and they also are visual cues to others, culminating in a duality that enables expression of individual and collective identities.
Ethnographic parallels indicate that for many individuals identity and ethnicity was primarily a question of bodily perceptions and how sensory experiences affected them physiologically. The embodiment of memory in objects, particularly those conservative cultural practices reproduced over extended periods of time, may have served as mnemonics prompting memories with certain groups over more than one lifetime. Whether people were actively involved in this process of remembering is central to the question of intentionality.
Drawing on the personal adornment data available from sites in Cis- and Transjordan, this paper analyses methods of individual and group display. Focusing specifically on the rings, bangles and earrings in the various assemblages I aim to explain southern Levantine modes of adornment and the manner by which it was experienced, and how it served as a highly visible emblem of personal identity – a dual role that marked and reinforced social and territorial boundaries.

Poster presented at ASOR 2015 Annual Meeting, Atlanta (22/11/2015), 2015

In January 2015, the Australian Institute of Archaeology (AIA) in collaboration with the Hellenic... more In January 2015, the Australian Institute of Archaeology (AIA) in collaboration with the Hellenic Society of Near Eastern Studies launched its inaugural archaeological survey and excavations of Tuleilat Qasr Mousa Hamid (Mousa Hamid) in the Ghor es-Safi area of southern Jordan. Mousa Hamid is believed to be the biblical site of Zoara, one of the five biblical cities of the Pentapolis, along with Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zaboim.

Early archaeological surveys of the region identified remains associated with the Bronze and Iron Ages, and test trenches conducted in 1999 at the site identified Iron Age sherds and extensive surface evidence of agricultural industry in the form of grinding stones and querns. The primary objectives of the AIA project were to assess the site using total station technology and GIS software to generate a topographical map of the site. Despite intense agricultural activity in the immediate vicinity, it was additionally possible to conduct preliminary fieldwork. Finally, a collection of stone tools recovered from the site was photographed and catalogued. The excavation revealed two Late Iron Age strata of occupation. Archaeological results indicate an episode of destruction in the most recent Iron Age stratum, architectural features, a cooking installation and a large amount of Iron Age IIC whole and fragmentary vessels.

This poster presents the data collected from this first season of excavation at Zoara/Mousa Hamid and explore the implications for future work at the site.

ASOR 2015 Annual Meeting, Atlanta (22/11/2015), 2015

This paper explores the deposition of adornment within mortuary contexts and the personal and pub... more This paper explores the deposition of adornment within mortuary contexts and the personal and public forces at play in the display and abandonment of wealth. As a material object an item of adornment exists, it is a fact, and as such it is of importance. Scientific questions, such as, what is it? Is not of significance here, rather the existential one, that is, what was done with it? What was its purpose? By exploring the complexities of individual agency and the intimate relationship between humans and objects I argue that we might identify the intricacies of such existential significance. I use a range of examples to demonstrate how the material and the human domain interact with each other. This redirects enquiry from the culturally determined individual towards what is intentional in terms of the employment of dress and adornment in identity construction and explores human experience in the ancient past.

ASOR 2013 Annual Meeting in Baltimore (20/11/2013), 2013

Examination of ancient societies based purely on artistic representations engenders a fascination... more Examination of ancient societies based purely on artistic representations engenders a fascination that can lead to long held characterizations that become embedded in modern perceptions. The iconographical expression of Philistine identity, people invariably interpreted as seafaring warriors, has often involved the communicative aspect of costume based on ideologies prescribed by convention and tradition. I present an overview of Philistine costume and weaponry, largely on the basis of the depiction of the Sea Peoples in the Medinet Habu reliefs. In particular I distinguish different forms from the conventional feathered headwear generally recognized. The goal of such an exercise is to offer a new perspective on costume in relation to Philistine cultural expression.

ASOR 2012 Annual Meeting in Chicago (10/11/2012), 2012

This paper will present findings and interpretations relating to the stylistic attributes of jewe... more This paper will present findings and interpretations relating to the stylistic attributes of jewellery within the southern Levant Iron Age I-IIA periods, with a focus on sites within Philistia. By exploring the issue of identity and asking how the people of Philistia used their material culture to express their identities, both as individuals and as part of larger groupings. I examine the evidence emerging from several Philistine sites in the southern coastal plain, with comparisons to other regions in the eastern Mediterranean, from a perspective that encompasses issues of identity and transculturalism.

My research focuses on items of personal adornment, including metal jewellery, beads, shells and clothing attachments and examines what they might indicate about change and variability in population. I argue that different imperatives were at play, by multiple identities, at different stages of the early Iron Age. To this end I suggest certain objects were appropriated, while others were redefined and transformed.

Using Tell es-Safi/Gath, one of the Philistine pentapolis sites, as the primary case-study, and drawing on other sites in the region, this paper analyses methods of cultural display using the personal adornment data available and focusing on the motifs and technologies occurring in the various assemblages. The aim is to contribute a different set of data rarely used in archaeological reconstructions and comment

ASOR Annual Meeting in San Francisco (16/11/2011), 2011

The Iron Age I-IIA periods of the southern coastal plain of the Levant, encompassing a timeframe ... more The Iron Age I-IIA periods of the southern coastal plain of the Levant, encompassing a timeframe from roughly 1200 – 900 BCE, while having no definitive cultural break from the Late Bronze Age have certain new features that suggest the appearance of the Philistines or other Sea Peoples. The jewellery from hoards and burials from this region provide an indication of the wealth of the inhabitants of Philistia and hint at the cultural changes occurring during that time.

Often marginalized as “small finds”, personal adornment is a crucial component in social interaction. The process of adorning the body can convey cultural identity, social status, ethnicity, gender, and age in a manner more immediate than verbal communication. Thus the contents and the context in which the jewellery from these hoards and burials were found will help to create not only an accurate jewellery typology for the period, but also assist our understanding of the cultural influences prevalent during the early stages of Philistine society.

Using Tell es-Safi (ancient Gath), one of the Philistine pentapolis sites, as the primary case-study, and drawing on other sites in the Philistia region for comparative purposes, this paper analyses methods of cultural display, using the personal adornment data available from each site. Focusing specifically on the motifs and technologies occurring in the various assemblages in order to create a typology of Philistine jewellery. I will also discuss a catalogue of jewellery types recently recorded from Transjordan to assess any transmission of motifs across the Jordan Valley.

In K. Neumann and A. Thomason (eds), The Routledge Handbook of the Senses in the Ancient Near East, 2021

This chapter is an exploration of the entanglement of cognition and embodied cultural and social ... more This chapter is an exploration of the entanglement of cognition and embodied cultural and social identity. Evidence derived mainly from mortuary contexts and supplemented by pictorial and iconographic sources indicates that anklets were a common form of adornment during the Bronze and Iron Ages in the southern Levant, and indeed forms the largest category of metal jewellery for those periods. Studies of anklets have, in the past, focused on their ethnic significance, their metallurgical properties, and their role as an expression of gender and age; however, little considered is how sensory experience and corporeal embodiment can lead to decisions that challenge cultural meanings. Recent studies of cognitive neurobiology suggest that emotions are integral to cognition; furthermore, they are an essential aspect of memory formation and retrieval. Somatic effects, such as weight, pressure, movement, as well as other sensory qualities such as sight and sound, will therefore be discussed in light of their implications for adornment in bodily practice, in order to explore how identity for ancient individuals may have been a matter of bodily perceptions and how sensory experiences affected them physiologically.

in K. D. Politis (ed.) Ancient Landscapes of Zoara I Surveys and Excavations at the Ghor as-Safi in Jordan, 1997–2018. Routledge, 2020

M. Cifarelli, (ed.), Fashioned Selves: Dress and Identity in Antiquity. Oxford: Oxbow, 2019

Examination of ancient societies based purely on artistic representations engenders a fascination... more Examination of ancient societies based purely on artistic representations engenders a fascination that can lead to long held characterizations that become embedded in modern perceptions. The iconographical expression of Philistine identity, people invariably interpreted as seafaring warriors, has often involved the communicative aspect of costume based on ideologies prescribed by convention and tradition. I present an overview of Philistine costume and weaponry, largely on the basis of the depiction of the Sea Peoples in the Medinet Habu reliefs. In particular I distinguish different forms from the conventional feathered headwear generally recognized. The goal of such an exercise is to offer a new perspective on costume in relation to Philistine cultural expression.

Near Eastern Archaeology, 2018

B. Davis and R. Laffineur (eds), Neôteros: Studies in Bronze Age Aegean Art and Archaeology in Honor of Professor John G. Younger. Aegaeum 44; Leuven - Liège: Peeters, 2020

. Shai, L. A. Hitchcock and J. Chadwick (eds), Tell it in Gath: Studies in the History and Archaeology of Israel. Essays in Honor of Aren M. Maeir on the Occasion of his Sixtieth Birthday. Ägypten und Altes Testament; Münster: Ugarit-Verlag, 2018

A.M. Maeir and J. Uziel (eds), Tell es-Safi / Gath II, Excavations and Studies. Zaphon: Münster, 251–270, 2020

M.L. Nosch and R. Laffineur (eds) KOSMOS: Jewelry, Adornment and Textiles in the Aegean Bronze Age, Proceedings of the 13th International Aegean Conference, University of Copenhagen, 21–26 April 2010. Aegeaum 33; Liège: University of Liège, 2012

I. Shai, R. J. Chadwick, L. A. Hitchcock , A. Dagan, C. McKinney, and J. Uziel (eds), Tell it in Gath: Studies in the History and Archaeology of Israel. Essays in Honor of Aren M. Maeir on the Occasion of his Sixtieth Birthday. Ägypten und Altes Testament; Münster: Zaphon, 2018

What Shall I say of Clothes? Theoretical and Methodological Approaches to the Study of Dress in Antiquity, 2017

This examination of the deposition of adornment within mortuary contexts sheds light upon the per... more This examination of the deposition of adornment within mortuary contexts sheds light upon the personal and public forces at play in the display and abandonment of wealth during the Early Iron Age southern Levant. Existential questions are explored, such as, what was the object’s purpose? What responses did the object provoke? Initially, I offer an overview of southern Levantine jewelry, followed by a discussion of the material from Azor, Tell el-Far‘ah (S), Ashkelon, and Tell es-Safi/Gath, to demonstrate how such material and the human domain interact. In conclusion, I discuss the complexities of individual agency, and the intimate relationship between humans and objects, by which we can identify the intricacies of such existential significance. This study redirects enquiry from the culturally determined individual towards what is intentional in terms of the employment of dress and adornment in identity construction, and explores human experience in the ancient past.

personal display in the southern levant and the question of philistine cultural origins soUthern ... more personal display in the southern levant and the question of philistine cultural origins soUthern levant 247 pam 23/2: sepcial studies peRSONal diSplay iN tHe SOutHeRN leVaNt aNd tHe queStiON OF pHiliStiNe cultuRal ORigiNS Josephine verduci centre for classics and archaeology, University of melbourne abstract: