Edward B Banning | University of Toronto (original) (raw)

Papers by Edward B Banning

Canadian Numismatic Journal, 2024

When exactly numismatic collecting first came to what is now Canada is a mystery. For the most pa... more When exactly numismatic collecting first came to what is now Canada is a mystery. For the most part, we only learn of early numismatists when they published numismatic books, had renowned collections, or sold or donated major collections. This paper reviews numismatic collectors in Canada, born before 1815, who are mentioned in our available sources. These sources are biased in favour of Montreal and Toronto, so there were likely many more in parts of Canada where we have less documentation.

Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, 2022

‘Ayn Qusaybah (WQ 120) is a small site on the north bank of Wādī Qusaybah, in northern Jordan. Ex... more ‘Ayn Qusaybah (WQ 120) is a small site on the north bank of Wādī Qusaybah, in northern Jordan. Excavations at ‘Ayn Qusaybah resumed in 2018 to refine the occupational history of the site in Areas G11 and H10, and to delineate the plan of the previously exposed architecture by expanding to adjacent areas. Four weeks of excavation at ‘Ayn Qusaybah revealed parts of a sprawling domestic complex and evidence for three distinct Middle Bronze Age occupational phases.

Numismatica Canada, 2024

To celebrate its 25th anniversary in 1887, the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Montreal com... more To celebrate its 25th anniversary in 1887, the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Montreal commissioned two “official” medals from the Belgian medallist, Fernand Dubois. One of them was a small medal or “jeton de présence” meant for distribution to all those who attended a celebratory banquet and exhibition, while another, larger, medal featured the portrait of the Society’s president. What is not widely known is that Fernand Dubois was not the only, or the first, medallist whom the Society approached about producing these medals, nor that it was R. W. McLachlan who took charge of commissioning the medals. McLachlan’s correspondence shows that there was considerable discord between the Society and Dubois over money, as the Society was dissatisfied with the designs and their execution. Most likely, the young artist was never fully compensated for his work, and this, among other things, accounts for the fact that the smaller medals arrived in Montreal too late for the celebration.

Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, 2020

During August 2018, the University of Toronto mounted excavations at a Yarmukian site called Taba... more During August 2018, the University of Toronto mounted excavations at a Yarmukian site called Tabaqat Ar Rutūbah (‫‬ َ ‫طوب‬ ‫الرُّ‬ ‫طبقة‬ WQ 117), which the Wādī Qusaybah Survey first discovered in 2012, and subjected to small test excavations in 2014. The site is about 0.35ha in size and in 2014 we encountered stone and mud-brick building foundations as well as pits. Although thick colluvium at the site obscures much of its area, where Neolithic deposits are closer to the surface, we have found up to 2m of stratification that may span a period from ca. 6200 to perhaps 5700 cal. BC. This provides an excellent opportunity to study changes in important aspects of Yarmukian material culture, including its pottery, over time. The site also exhibits some enigmatic aspects, including its rarity of sickle elements and a complete lack of mammalian bone, both of which are usually fairly abundant at sites of this period.

Open Archaeology, 2023

The spectacular finds at Turkey's Göbekli Tepe have fired the imaginations of archaeologists and ... more The spectacular finds at Turkey's Göbekli Tepe have fired the imaginations of archaeologists and the general public alike. Reflecting on developments at and about the site since the 2011 publication of a critique of the site's dominant interpretation as a hunter-gatherer cult centre, this article shows that some elements of that critique, including assertions about roofing and a residential population, have gained traction, while others have fallen on deaf ears. Göbekli Tepe has also become the locus of discussion and speculation in disciplines ranging from astronomy and religion to psychology and architectural history, while also inspiring pseudoscientific claims that associate the site with the Garden of Eden, a supposed technologically sophisticated pre-Holocene civilization or extraterrestrial visitors.

American Journal of Archaeology, 2010

... The reconstructions were carried out in the Umayyad and the Mamluk periods. The Survey in the... more ... The reconstructions were carried out in the Umayyad and the Mamluk periods. The Survey in the Wadi al-&#x27;Arab The summer campaign in 2009 was devoted to a sur-vey in the Wadi al-&#x27;Arab, part of a three-year project within the framework of the Gadara Region Project. ...

Canadian Paper Money Journal

To have confidence in the results of an archaeological survey, whether for heritage management or... more To have confidence in the results of an archaeological survey, whether for heritage management or research objectives, we must have some assurance that the survey was carried out to a reasonably high standard. This paper discusses the use of Quality Assurance (QA) approaches and empirical methods for estimating surveys' effectiveness at discovering archaeological artifacts as a means for ensuring quality standards. We illustrate with the example of two surveys in Cyprus and Jordan in which resurvey, measurement of surveyor Bsweep widths,^ and realistic estimates of survey coverage allow us to evaluate explicitly the probability that the survey missed pottery or lithics, as well as to decide when survey has been thorough enough to warrant moving to another survey unit.

Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 1984

This paper explores the possible links between rapid climate change (RCC) and social change in th... more This paper explores the possible links between rapid climate change (RCC) and social change in the Near East and surrounding regions (Anatolia, central Syria, southern Israel, Mesopotamia, Cyprus and eastern and central Sahara) during the ‘long’ 4th millennium (~4500e3000) BC. Twenty terrestrial and 20 marine climate proxies are used to identify long-term trends in humidity involving transitions from humid to arid conditions and vice versa. The frequency distribution of episodes of relative aridity across these records is calculated for the period 6300e2000 BC, so that the results may be interpreted in the context of the established arid episodes associated with RCC around 6200 and 2200 BC (the 8.2 and 4.2 kyr events). We identify two distinct episodes of heightened aridity in the early-mid 4th, and late 4th millennium BC. These episodes cluster strongly at 3600e3700 and 3100e3300 BC. There is also evidence of localised aridity spikes in the 5th and 6th millennia BC. These results are used as context for the interpretation of regional and local archaeological records with a particular focus on case studies from western Syria, the middle Euphrates, southern Israel and Cyprus. Interpretation of the records involves the construction of plausible narratives of humaneclimate interaction informed by concepts of adap- tation and resilience from the literature on contemporary (i.e. 21st century) climate change and adap- tation. The results are presented alongside well-documented examples of climatically-influenced societal change in the central and eastern Sahara, where detailed geomorphological studies of ancient envi- ronments have been undertaken in tandem with archaeological research. While the narratives for the Near East and Eastern Mediterranean remain somewhat speculative, the use of resilience and adaptation frameworks allows for a more nuanced treatment of humaneclimate interactions and recognises the diversity and context-specificity of human responses to climatic and environmental change. Our results demonstrate that there is a need for more local environmental data to be collected ‘at source’ during archaeological excavations.

Walls of the Prince: Egyptian Interactions with Southwest Asia in Antiquity, 2015

This paper explores the possible links between rapid climate change (RCC) and social change in th... more This paper explores the possible links between rapid climate change (RCC) and social change in the Near East and surrounding regions (Anatolia, central Syria, southern Israel, Mesopotamia, Cyprus and eastern and central Sahara) during the ‘long’ 4th millennium (∼4500–3000) BC. Twenty terrestrial and 20 marine climate proxies are used to identify long-term trends in humidity involving transitions from humid to arid conditions and vice versa. The frequency distribution of episodes of relative aridity across these records is calculated for the period 6300–2000 BC, so that the results may be interpreted in the context of the established arid episodes associated with RCC around 6200 and 2200 BC (the 8.2 and 4.2 kyr events). We identify two distinct episodes of heightened aridity in the early-mid 4th, and late 4th millennium BC. These episodes cluster strongly at 3600–3700 and 3100–3300 BC. There is also evidence of localised aridity spikes in the 5th and 6th millennia BC. These results are used as context for the interpretation of regional and local archaeological records with a particular focus on case studies from western Syria, the middle Euphrates, southern Israel and Cyprus. Interpretation of the records involves the construction of plausible narratives of human–climate interaction informed by concepts of adaptation and resilience from the literature on contemporary (i.e. 21st century) climate change and adaptation. The results are presented alongside well-documented examples of climatically-influenced societal change in the central and eastern Sahara, where detailed geomorphological studies of ancient environments have been undertaken in tandem with archaeological research. While the narratives for the Near East and Eastern Mediterranean remain somewhat speculative, the use of resilience and adaptation frameworks allows for a more nuanced treatment of human–climate interactions and recognises the diversity and context-specificity of human responses to climatic and environmental change. Our results demonstrate that there is a need for more local environmental data to be collected ‘at source’ during archaeological excavations.

Levant, 2014

Two Early Epipalaeolithic sites in Wadi Taiyiba, northwestern Jordan, occur in quite different ge... more Two Early Epipalaeolithic sites in Wadi Taiyiba, northwestern Jordan, occur in quite different geological circumstances than similar sites in neighbouring Wadi Ziqlab. Both would have been close to ancient Lake Lisan but one is a shallow site on a slope near the edge of the Lisan shoreline while the other has deeper, stratified deposits in front of a collapsed rockshelter a short distance upstream, overlooking a hot spring. Small excavations at both sites have shown that faunal remains were scarce at the former but fairly common at the latter, where mountain gazelle is the most abundant taxon, followed by boar, hare, wolf, fox, red deer, aurochs, and wild sheep and goat, and there were also some human remains from at least two individuals. Both sites have some ground stones. Overall, the shallow site appears to have been a short-term camp focused on tool manufacture and gearing-up for hunting, while the deeper site has a denser and much more diverse assemblage, human remains, and evidence for many different activities, suggesting that it was a longer-term residential site that was re-used over many seasons. The sites contribute to our understanding of site diversity and settlement pattern in the relatively poorly known Early Epipalaeolithic.

Canadian Numismatic Journal, 2024

Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, 2022

Numismatica Canada, 2024

Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, 2020

Open Archaeology, 2023

American Journal of Archaeology, 2010

Canadian Paper Money Journal

Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 1984

Walls of the Prince: Egyptian Interactions with Southwest Asia in Antiquity, 2015

This paper explores the possible links between rapid climate change (RCC) and social change in th... more This paper explores the possible links between rapid climate change (RCC) and social change in the Near East and surrounding regions (Anatolia, central Syria, southern Israel, Mesopotamia, Cyprus and eastern and central Sahara) during the ‘long’ 4th millennium (∼4500–3000) BC. Twenty terrestrial and 20 marine climate proxies are used to identify long-term trends in humidity involving transitions from humid to arid conditions and vice versa. The frequency distribution of episodes of relative aridity across these records is calculated for the period 6300–2000 BC, so that the results may be interpreted in the context of the established arid episodes associated with RCC around 6200 and 2200 BC (the 8.2 and 4.2 kyr events). We identify two distinct episodes of heightened aridity in the early-mid 4th, and late 4th millennium BC. These episodes cluster strongly at 3600–3700 and 3100–3300 BC. There is also evidence of localised aridity spikes in the 5th and 6th millennia BC. These results are used as context for the interpretation of regional and local archaeological records with a particular focus on case studies from western Syria, the middle Euphrates, southern Israel and Cyprus. Interpretation of the records involves the construction of plausible narratives of human–climate interaction informed by concepts of adaptation and resilience from the literature on contemporary (i.e. 21st century) climate change and adaptation. The results are presented alongside well-documented examples of climatically-influenced societal change in the central and eastern Sahara, where detailed geomorphological studies of ancient environments have been undertaken in tandem with archaeological research. While the narratives for the Near East and Eastern Mediterranean remain somewhat speculative, the use of resilience and adaptation frameworks allows for a more nuanced treatment of human–climate interactions and recognises the diversity and context-specificity of human responses to climatic and environmental change. Our results demonstrate that there is a need for more local environmental data to be collected ‘at source’ during archaeological excavations.

Levant, 2014

Many archaeological surveys make the assumption that a single fieldwalk by a survey team is suffi... more Many archaeological surveys make the assumption that a single fieldwalk by a survey team is sufficient to determine whether a space does or does not contain archaeological materials. Making retrodictive statements about site distributions or locational preferences relies on the accuracy of this assumption. We instead take the approach that the probability of detecting artifacts by fieldwalking is less than 1.0 and use calibration surveys to calculate survey teams’ “sweep widths.” Our calibrations took place in typical fields in which we “seeded” artifacts in known locations, but otherwise simulated actual survey conditions. Sweep widths, in combination with knowledge of the total length of transects walked, then allows us to calculate survey coverage. In prehistoric surveys in Tremithos Valley, Cyprus and Wadi Quseiba, Jordan, continually updated estimates of coverage and its effect on the probability
that survey areas contained undetected sites were crucial elements in survey planning, execution and evaluation.

Percolation Theory The behaviour of interconnected clusters in spatial lattices can provide insig... more Percolation Theory The behaviour of interconnected clusters in spatial lattices can provide insights into adaptive-sampling protocols applied to two-dimensional scatters of artifacts. In percolation theory, the cells in a lattice, like the rectangular grid that archaeologists use to sample with SSTs, can be " occupied " or " empty, " and the probability that any node is occupied is p and the probability that it is empty (has no artifacts) is 1-p. Clusters consist of occupied cells linked by adjacency, but can also have " holes " in them. In a 2D lattice, values of p greater than about 0.7 — the critical threshold — lead to a continuous cluster that extends all across the lattice. The Simulations We use GRASS to generate simulated distributions of artifacts, both random and clustered into " sites, " and to simulate 100 iterations of adaptive shovel testing. The random distributions are Poisson, while the " sites " have a higher internal density, with a more diffuse background scatter. The SST plans began with an initial placement of 30cm SSTs at 5m intervals, a second interation of four SSTs at 2.5m intervals in the cardinal neighborhoods of positive SSTs, and a third iteration of up to three SSTs at 2.5m intervals in the neighborhoods of new positives. At each subsequent iteration, we randomly shift the x-and y-axis of the 5m grid to repeat the adaptive sampling plan. We performed experiments with four random distributions, and four " site " distributions for a total of eight experiments and in these results assume that intersection yields detection. We repeated each experiment 100 times, with a new randomize grid placement each time. Results: Interpolated clusters of adjacent cells that the adaptive plan finds co-occur with " sites " when the background is low, but clusters found are typically more numerous and smaller than " real " clusters. On average, the plan yielded more negatives than positives within site boundaries when site density was 5/m 2 , but more positives than negatives when it was 10/m 2. As predicted by percolation theory, only 40% of initial SSTs that intersected sites were positive when artifact density within those clusters was 5 artifacts/m 2 .