From the Editor

Abstract

Next article FreeFrom the EditorStephanie L. BudinStephanie L. Budin Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreHello, Readers!Welcome to the December issue of Near Eastern Archaeology, which comes at the tail end of the New Year’s season. It turns out that New Year’s is, in fact, its own season. It begins in September with Rosh Hashanah (Shanah Tovah, my friends!) and continues in October with the Celtic New Year that begins at sundown on October 31st (Samhain Sona, my friends!). We then finish it all up with the calendrical New Year’s on January first, which rounds out the season. (Obviously, I’m leaving out the July 1st fiscal New Year). I first noticed the seasonal quality of New Year’s when I realized I always started my New Year’s resolutions in October, apparently prioritizing my Jewish and Celtic heritage. At least come January 1 all the groundwork has already been set.This end of the New Year’s season seemed to be a good time to consider changes and developments in NEA over the course of 2019. The most significant was that we changed our peer-review process to a double blind system to keep in line with best current practice throughout the industry. In this way, author identities are unknown to peer reviewers, just as the reviewer’s identities are unknown to the authors. Such practice has been shown to lead to greater parity in publication, both in terms of gender and matters of academic seniority. While it is too soon yet to know how the change will affect NEA in this regard, one clearly noticeable development has been that those invited to review articles but must decline very frequently suggest the (unknown) author of a the article as the best possible alternative suggestion. This has encouraged our assistant editor Julia Hsieh to learn to bang her head against a wall very gently. You would also be amazed how often reviewers now suggest that authors cite their own works in articles…A second change has been to limit the number of Special Topics issues to only one out of every three or (more likely) four issues. While NEA will continue to focus some issues on really interesting topics—of which we have a plethora in the ANE—and will continue to host guest editors for such issues, there was an expressed desire for greater diversity in subject matter (considering that plethora). We look forward to what developments might come…Speaking of that plethora of interesting materials, this issue once again reminds us of the amazing chronological depth of Near Eastern archaeology. Here we go back into the Palaeolithic with Biglari and Shidrang’s article on rescue archaeology in the Kurdish Zagros region. Jumping forward, we see the remarkable mixing of cultures that characterized Bronze Age Hala Sultan Tekke in Cyprus, thanks to Peter Fischer, while John Gaudet gives a light, interesting, and extremely informative look at the role of papyrus in ancient Egypt and, from there, the world. If you read codices, books, or journals (and I know you do): Thank an ancient papyrus farmer! Turning the bend into the Common Era, we have three articles from the Negev, Egyptian Thebes, and Nubia. The first, by Gil Gambash and colleagues, considers the unexpected role of the Judean desert in the acquisition and trade of the Red Sea parrotfish in Roman times (including a recipe for those still looking for something truly different for Christmas Eve dinner, although please do not use actual parrotfish: They’re endangered!). Speaking of Christmas, we then turn to water-jar holders from Thebes, which display some of the earliest Christian iconography in Byzantine Egypt—thanks to Benjamin Durand. Finally, to the south, we have an excellent article by Solange Ashby on funerary offerings of milk libations in Nubia. As I was originally writing this introduction on Hallowe’en (aka: New Year’s), this reminder of the role of the dead in the lives of the living struck an oddly modern chord.Happy Midwinter Festival of Light to one and all! Light the fires on the Menorah or tree (remembering safety first!), and get through the dark times. And for those readers in the southern hemisphere, remember: Winter is coming. Next article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Near Eastern Archaeology Volume 82, Number 4December 2019 A journal of ASOR Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/707454 © 2019 by American Schools of Oriental Research. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.