Middle Eastern Archaeology

Lahav Research Project Excavations at Tell Halif, Israel

Since 1983 the Cobb Institute has been the major sponsor of the Lahav Research Project (LRP) and its ongoing program of archaeological and related investigations at Tell Halif in southern Israel (See map). The project has continued through three phases (I-III) embracing twelve seasons of field excavation and regional survey work. These efforts have revealed nineteen separate occupation phases at the site (See strata chart). These include major settlements from the Early Bronze Age (3200-2300 B.C.) and from the Israelite period of the Iron II period (900-700 B.C.) as well as significant finds from the Chalcolithic era (3500-3200 B.C.) and from the Late Bronze Age (1550-1200 B.C.) when the site largely was under Egyptian influence. Traces also exist of Persian and Hellenistic period occupation (500-100 B.C.). Major settlement resumed again in the Late Roman and Byzantine eras (100-600 A.D.) when the region was the scene of Jewish and Christian resettlement after the Roman destruction of Jerusalem. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries A.D., the site was the occupied seasonally by Bedouin groups and fellahin from neighboring villages. Kibbutz Lahav was established on the eastern flank of the tell in 1952. Detailed excavation reports from each season have been filed with the Israel Antiquities Authority and with ASOR’s Committee of Archaeological Policy. In addition, numerous preliminary reports and interpretive studies on the LRP’s work have appeared in the Israel Exploration Journal, Revue Biblique, the Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, and elsewhere (See LRP Publications). (For additional detailed results from some facets of the Project’s work, see below.)

The LRP was organized by Joe D. Seger in 1974, and Phase I of its work was conducted between 1976 and 1980 with sponsorship by the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Phases II (1983-1989) and III (1992-1999) were conducted under Cobb Institute auspices. A fourth phase (IV) was initiated in 2007 under Emory University sponsorship. During all field seasons, efforts have also been assisted by consortia of other American academic institutions and with support in Israel from the W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research and the Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology, both in Jerusalem, and from the Joe Alon Center for Regional and Folklore Studies at Kibbutz Lahav. Throughout, the LRP has been affiliated with the American Schools of Oriental Research as one of its approved projects. (See Staff list.)

Through all phases, financial support by consortium institutions was supplemented by generous gifts received as private contributions from staff members, subscribers, and worker participants. We are sincerely grateful to this very large group of individuals for their participation in and generous support of LRP work. (See Contributors List.)

At the same time, we also recognize that none of the project’s work could have been accomplished without the help of the members of Kibbutz Lahav. With warm encouragement and much material assistance, Lahav’s members have provided a supportive and congenial base for the LRP team’s field research through all of the past three decades. The LRP is greatly indebted to them.

North American Archaeology

The Lyon's Bluff Site (22OK520) is a Mississippian mound and village site located in Oktibbeha County, Mississippi. Several episodes of archaeological investigation have been undertaken at the site by MSU researchers over the past forty years. Most notable are the seasons of new excavations conducted at the site as part of MSU's archaeological field school program in the summers of 2001 and 2003.

The Lineage Bibliographic Index provides a research tool for those interested in the application of Darwinian theory in archaeology. Lineage provides a database of over 190 references pertaining to the work of archaeologists interested in the utility of Darwinian theory for explaining how and why particular kinds of cultural phenomena came to be.

During the summer of 2005, Cobb Institute researchers S. Homes Hogue and Jeffrey Alvey were involved in burial recovery at an unmarked African-American cemetery in Lowndes County, Mississippi that dates from the late nineteenth century to 1956. The cemetery was located on the outskirts of the Weyerhaeuser Pulp and Paper Plant near Columbus, Mississippi and was discovered when construction aimed at expanding a portion of the plant disturbed human remains.

From June 7 to July 1, 2004, Cobb Institute researchers initiated investigations at the Pocahontas Mound A site (22Hi500) in northeastern Hinds County, MS. The investigations were necessitated by MDOT plans to transform the Pocahontas Mound A site into a roadside park. The Pocahontas site is a Mississippi Landmark, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The park will include an educational center designed to provide information to the public concerning the site’s cultural and historical importance.

This pilot study by researchers from MSU and California State University at Long Beach demonstrates the usefulness of Laser Ablation-Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry as a method for sourcing ceramic materials recovered from archaeological sites. This method is meant to provide archaeologists with an alternative to the use of stylistic attributes for identifying ceramic materials as local or non-local.

In February 1997 Janet Rafferty and S. Homes Hogue, on a contract with the Mississippi Department of Transportation, began work as co-principal investigators on a project of test excavations at three sites (22Ok902, 22Ok904, and 22Ok905) in Oktibbeha County that were scheduled to be destroyed by construction of the Highway 82 bypass north of Starkville. Ultimately, the project involved work at a total of nine sites. The sites represent use from Late Woodland (A.D. 550 - 1100) through Protohistoric (A.D. 1550 - 1650) times.

Test excavations began at the Cork site, 22Ok746, in November 1998, with Janet Rafferty and S. Homes Hogue serving as co-principal investigators on a contract from the Mississippi Department of Transportation. Full-scale excavation commenced after testing showed the site to be significant. The site was occupied primarily during Middle Woodland (200 B.C. - A.D. 550) times, with a small Mississippian occupation also present.

Interstate 69 has been authorized to form a new connection between Indianapolis, Indiana and southern Texas, crossing the northwest part of Mississippi. The Mississippi Department of Transportation has contracted with Mississippi State University to produce a book that will be an overview of existing archaeological knowledge for the part of the highway corridor running through the state. Janet Rafferty and Evan Peacock are principal investigators for the volume. They will organize and edit the contributions, as well as writing chapters respectively on prehistoric settlement patterning and environmental change. It is planned to have the book published by a university press, making it widely available.