The American Society of Overseas Research (ASOR),[1] founded in 1900 as the American School of Oriental Study and Research in Palestine, is an international organization whose mission is to initiate, encourage, and support research into, and public understanding of, the history and cultures of the Near East and wider Mediterranean, from the earliest times to the present, by:
Fostering original research, exploration, and archaeological fieldwork;
Encouraging scholarship in the region’s languages, texts, traditions, and histories;
Disseminating research results and conclusions in a timely manner, through a robust publication program, annual meeting, and other venues;
Adhering to the highest ethical standards of scholarship and public discourse;
Upholding the highest academic standards in interdisciplinary research and teaching;
Promoting educational opportunities for undergraduates and graduates in institutions of higher education around the world;
Developing engaging programs of outreach for the general public;
Supporting and participating in efforts to protect, preserve, and present to the public the historic and cultural heritage of the Near East and the wider Mediterranean and to raise awareness of its degradation.
As of 2019, the ASOR headquarters is now located in Alexandria, VA.[2] It is apolitical and has no religious affiliation. Sharon Herbert began her term as President starting in January 2020.[3]Susan Ackerman served as President from 2014-2019.[4][5]
ASOR collaborates with three independent overseas institutes:
ASOR convenes a scholarly conference once a year in North America, always beginning 8 days before Thanksgiving (on a Wednesday evening) and running through Saturday evening.
2008 – Boston, MA and drew over 730 scholars and interested lay members from around the world.
ASOR also publishes three scholarly publications. Two of the journals are academic flagships in their respective areas: the Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research presents archaeological, historical, and epigraphic articles on topics from the ancient Near East, and the Journal of Cuneiform Studies presents articles in English, German, and French on Mesopotamian topics. The organization also publishes Near Eastern Archaeology, a quarterly that reports recent research for both popular and professional audiences. University of Chicago Press began publishing all three ASOR journals in 2019.
King, Philip J. American Archaeology in the Mideast: A History of the American Schools of Oriental Research (1983).
Clark, D.G. and V.H. Matthews 100 Years of American Archaeology in the Middle East: Proceedings of the American Schools of Oriental Research Centennial Celebration (2003).
The Levant is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, it is equivalent to the historical region of Syria, which included present-day Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Palestine and most of Turkey south-east of the middle Euphrates. In its widest historical sense, the Levant included all of the Eastern Mediterranean with its islands; that is, it included all of the countries along the Eastern Mediterranean shores, extending from Greece to Cyrenaica in eastern Libya.
William Foxwell Albright was an American archaeologist, biblical scholar, philologist, and expert on ceramics.
Near Eastern archaeology is a regional branch of the wider, global discipline of archaeology. It refers generally to the excavation and study of artifacts and material culture of the Near East from antiquity to the recent past.
Israel Finkelstein is an Israeli archaeologist, professor emeritus at Tel Aviv University. Finkelstein is active in the archaeology of the Levant and is an applicant of archaeological data in reconstructing biblical history. He is also known for applying the exact and life sciences in archaeological and historical reconstruction. Finkelstein is the current excavator of Megiddo, a key site for the study of the Bronze and Iron Ages in the Levant.
Cyrus Herzl Gordon was an American scholar of Near Eastern cultures and ancient languages.
Abila was an ancient city east of the Jordan River in Moab, later Peraea, near Livias, about twelve km northeast of the north shore of the Dead Sea. The site is identified with modern Khirbet el-Kafrayn, Jordan and identified on the Madaba Map as an unnamed icon. There is a widely supported theory that in the Hebrew Bible, it is referred to as Abel-Shittim, as well as in the shorter forms Shittim and Ha-Shittim.
Alexander H. JoffeAlex Joffe is an archaeologist and historian of the Near East.
Eric H. Cline is an author, historian, archaeologist, and professor of ancient history and archaeology at The George Washington University (GWU) in Washington, DC, where he is Professor of Classics and Anthropology and the former Chair of the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, as well as Director of the GWU Capitol Archaeological Institute. He is also the advisor for the undergraduate archaeology majors, for which he was awarded the GWU Award for "Excellence in Undergraduate Departmental Advising" (2006). Cline is co-editor of the Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research along with Christopher Rollston.
Biblical archaeology, occasionally known as Palestinology is the school of archaeology which concerns itself with the biblical world.
Jeffrey R. Chadwick is an American professional archaeologist and university professor. He serves as Jerusalem Center Professor of Archaeology and Near Eastern Studies at the Brigham Young University Jerusalem Center in Israel, and as Associate Professor of Religious Education at Brigham Young University in Utah, USA. He is also senior field archaeologist and director of excavations in Area F at the Tell es-Safi/Gath Archaeological Project in Israel.
Carl Hermann Kraeling (1897–1966), an American theologian, historian, and archaeologist; born in Brooklyn on March 10, 1897 and died in New Haven on November 14, 1966; he is known for its publications on the synagogue and the Christian chapel of Doura Europos.
Ancient Near East studies is the field of academic study of the Ancient Near East (ANE). As such it is an umbrella term for Assyriology, in some cases extending to Egyptology.
The W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research (AIAR), is an archaeological research institution located in East Jerusalem. It is the oldest American research center for ancient Near Eastern studies in the Middle East. Founded in 1900 as the American School of Oriental Research, it was renamed in 1970 after its most distinguished director and the father of Biblical archaeology, William F. Albright. Its mission is to develop and disseminate scholarly knowledge of the literature, history, and culture of the Near East, as well as the study of civilization from pre-history to the early Islamic period.
The Kenyon Institute, previously known as the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem (BSAJ), is a British overseas research institute supporting humanities and social science studies in Israel and Palestine. It is part of the Council for British Research in the Levant and is sponsored by the British Academy.
Clarence Stanley Fisher, known as C. S. Fisher, was an American archaeologist.
Seymour Gitin is an American archaeologist specializing in ancient Israel, known for his excavations at Tel Miqne-Ekron. He was the director of the Albright Institute of Archaeological Research (AIAR) in Jerusalem from 1980 to 2014.
Prof. Christopher A. Rollston is a scholar of the ancient Near East, specializing in Hebrew Bible, Old Testament Apocrypha, Northwest Semitic literature, epigraphy and paleography.
The American Center of Research (ACOR) is a private, not-for-profit academic institution & consortium, research library, and hostel. Based in Alexandria, Virginia, with a facility in Amman, Jordan, ACOR promotes the study of the MENA region, with an emphasis on the past and present of Jordan. The institution is a member of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) and the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC). Prior to 2020, ACOR was known as The American Center of Oriental Research.
Nancy L. Lapp is an American archaeologist and biblical scholar who has worked on a number of sites in Jordan and Palestine, alongside her husband, Paul Lapp. After her husband's untimely death in 1970, she dedicated herself to publishing all of their excavation reports, an immense task which is still ongoing. Lapp became curator of the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary's Museum of Near Eastern Archaeology in 1970, and in 2000 became Curator Emerita. She also currently serves as a Trustee Emerita of the American Center of Oriental Research (ACOR) in Amman, Jordan, to whom she has donated an expansive collection of photographs documenting her and Paul's travels and archaeological expeditions.
Michael Mathias Homan is a Professor of Theology and Department Head at Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans. He attended the University of Nebraska Omaha, and the University of California San Diego where he majored in Hebrew Bible and minored in Near Eastern Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern History and Religion. Homan teaches courses in Hebrew Bible, Hebrew language, ancient Near Eastern religion, and a course about the cemeteries of New Orleans.
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