AIA Lecturer: Melissa Cradic

The Badè Museum of Biblical Archaeology (Berkeley, California, USA) houses an archival collection of 12,000 documents and3,000 photographs. These records derive from archaeological excavations held over five seasons, from 1926-1935, led by William F. Badè at the site of Tell en-Naṣbeh (Ramallah, Palestine). Until recently, their use has been limited to addressing questions about archaeological methods and historical evidence to shed light on the ancient settlement. In 2021, museum curators began cataloging and reevaluating these archival sources, viewed through a new lens: as museum objects that are part of a continuous, multivariate assemblage alongside the archaeological artifacts housed at the museum, which were also produced by the original Mandate-era excavations at Tell en-Naṣbeh. Like the artifacts, the archives hold rich and complex histories of production, disposition, use, digitization, curation, interpretation, and exhibition. The archives range in format and modality, including analog and digitized image, film, and documentary records. They encompass photographic prints and negatives; hand-painted glass slides; nitrate film reels; hand-drawn illustrations, maps, plans, and object sketches; and hand- and typewritten documents covering a wide array of issues of daily life and excavation management. This paper will discuss the complex and varied life-histories of several key examples of different archival media to inform on questions about the dependent relationships between the archives and artifact collections. It will also explain the curatorial and archiving processes at the museum in the past and today, including new efforts to digitize, document, and curate these important records.

The Badè Museum of Biblical Archaeology (Berkeley, California, USA) houses an archival collection of 12,000 documents and3,000 photographs. These records derive from archaeological excavations held over five seasons, from 1926-1935, led by William F. Badè at the site of Tell en-Naṣbeh (Ramallah, Palestine). Until recently, their use has been limited to addressing questions about archaeological methods and historical evidence in order to inform on the ancient settlement. Few researchers–mainly archaeologists specializing in Iron Age Judah and epigraphers interested in biblical history–have been aware, let alone made use, of these wide-ranging materials. In 2021, museum curators began a process of cataloging and reevaluating these archival sources, viewed through a new lens: not only as sources of key archaeological data about the ancient remains of Tell en-Naṣbehbut as historical records of the context of 20th century Mandate-period excavations in Palestine. This paper will explain the process of cataloging and rediscovery of the archives and their significance for situating the role of Tell en-Naṣbeh and its key actors in the development of Mandate-period archaeology. It will focus on how the initial curatorial program has grown into a multiplatform set of three digital projects. It will also discuss the results and impacts of this project, including a born-digital, public-facing web exhibition about the uncredited laborers who contributed to the production of archaeological knowledge in this setting; an open-access scholarly lecture series; and, finally, a co-edited volume that brings together a range of research approaches to archaeological archives produced in Mandate-period Palestine.

This talk presents new, cutting-edge archaeological findings from an elite (possibly royal) Bronze Age tomb from the southern Levant in concert with the forthcoming publication of its final field report, Megiddo VII (Cradic, Adams, and Finkelstein, eds.).Archaeological study of burial contexts has developed significantly in scale, scope and precision in the last decade, presenting pioneering opportunities to investigate human burials and their relationship to society in ways that have not been previously possible. Emerging scientific approaches to questions of diet, health, genetics, and migration patterns of humans and animals across their lifespans, for example, have yielded novel datasets that enrich understanding of the excavated remains and the social status of the interred individuals during their lives. This report is one of the first of its kind to investigate mortuary contexts from the ancient Middle East holistically and comprehensively at the scale of the individual, applying digital methods of documentation, high-resolution contextual analyses, and an array of novel scientific techniques. In this talk, the lead excavator of this context, Dr. Melissa Cradic, addresses how these new frontiers in archaeological documentation and analysis have opened fresh questions about chronology, identity, human-environment relationships, exploitation of resources, and the performance of ritual and mortuary practices.

Why did the living bury their dead under house floors in the Bronze Age Middle East, and in many cases, continue to interact with their mortal remains for years or even decades after interment? This talk proposes a new framework for investigating mortuary culture in the ancient Levant that challenges the way that disturbed and re-used graves are viewed. Using high-resolution archaeological field data, I argue that post-depositional interaction with bodies and gravesites constituted a key element of mortuary culture that was deeply rooted, and which shifted over time as cultural and imperial influences changed. Such interventions bear the hallmarks of performed commemoration that are consistent with ancient Near Eastern sources about posthumous roles of the body, identity, and person. Unlike traditional studies that address the lived identities of the dead, this project examines the continuing social and material roles of the dead after burial. This talk examines who became an ancestor and how the living grounded ideas about the otherworldly realms of the (dis)embodied dead within their material worlds.