Abstract
This article is a study of the ASOR society, based on a database compiled from the 2017 annual meeting at Boston, one of the largest meetings in its history. Such a study has not been performed before. We study the research of ASOR as represented in the meeting by the roles of the scholar-members (poster presenters, lecture presenters, and session chairs), their research subjects (geographic areas, periods, and topics), and their affiliations (gender and institutions). The analysis leads to several questions – and conclusions – about Archaeology in the Ancient Near East (ANE). Despite important progress by ASOR (e.g., in addressing gender), ANE archaeology is still a privilege of the ‘west’. Rarely a ‘local’ scholar spices up the discussions. Modern politics and ideologies determine what areas are studied and what topics of research are ‘in’. Political neutrality is proclaimed, but not achieved, in the spaces of the meeting. The aim of the article is to foster discussion about these systematic issues, which do not have easy solutions. By presenting quantified data, they can no longer be dismissed as unsubstantiated, personal impressions.
Highlights
The large and important American Society of Overseas Research (ASOR) is unearthing the past of the Ancient Near East (ANE) since 1900, and is itself a worthy subject for research
In this article we study the current research of ASOR, by using the abstract book of its annual meeting at Boston (Abstract Book 2017) as a database
To the best of our knowledge, no such study has been performed in the field of ANE Archaeology
Summary
The large and important American Society of Overseas Research (at time of writing, still the American Schools of Oriental Research) (ASOR) is unearthing the past of the Ancient Near East (ANE) since 1900, and is itself a worthy subject for research (see King 1983; Seger 2001; Clark and Matthews 2003; Shirley and Seger 2020). In this article we study the current research of ASOR, by using the abstract book of its annual meeting at Boston (Abstract Book 2017) as a database. Boston 2017 was one the largest of ASOR’s meetings, with over 600 lectures. It was an obvious choice for this study. The data shows diverse aspects of the current research of ASOR, as performed by the scholar-members who have actively participated in the meeting. They performed as poster-presenters, presenters of papers (lecturers) and session-chairs, and we can study their institutional affiliations, gender, and research interests (areas, periods, topics of research, etc.)
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