Archaeology Magazine - June 1956 - 64

ing on Tuesday afternoon B. W. Buchanan spoke on the origin of the
Egyptian button seal. Despite a good
deal of evidence, it still remains an
enigma: J. Lewy, speaking on Old Assyrian references to Amorites, showed
that Amoritesliving in Assur were employed by Assyrian merchants as caravan leaders. Some were merchants
themselves,and both in Assur and in
Asia Minor payments were made in
"Amurru silver." Edith Porada discussed problems of classification and
interpretation of Achaemenian seals.
H. Tadmor spoke on problems of the
chronology of Sargon's campaigns in
Syria and Palestine, which is inconsistent in different accounts. He believes
the tradition of the Nineveh prisms is
to be preferred to that of the Khorsabad
Annals.
A few papers given at the Far East
Section meetings on Tuesday and
Wednesdaypertained to archaeological
problems.R. C. Rudolph describedthe
travel diary of a Yüan artist written in
1308-09,pointing out its valuable contribution to knowledge of the art and
artists of the period. S. Cammann, discussingsome mythical beasts and birds
in Ming art, showed that the fiveclawed lung dragon and the fêng phoenix were symbolsrestricted to imperial
use in the Ming period (1368-1644).
Various lesser forms were developed
for non-imperial nobles and officials.
Sinceseveral of these variants dropped
out at the end of the dynasty, they
identify as authentically Ming any objects on which they occur. Elfie Newman-Perper spoke on the Hsiung-Nu
and the Yueh-Chi in relation to early
trade routes, bringing out various
points on the geographic and historic
orientation of these Central Asian nomadic peoples.
In the Near East and South Arabian
Section J. C. Greenfield discussed recently discovered second century Aramaic inscriptions from Hatra, which
add to our knowledge of the eastern
Aramaic dialect. M. B. Rowton's paper
on the international background of the
treaty between Ramesses II and Hattusilis III involved a matter of comparative chronology. The reason for the
treaty was the rise of a commonenemy,
Assyria. G. W. Van Beek spoke on
chronologically important forms of
early South Arabian pottery^ from a
stratified site at Hajar bin Humeid in
Wadi Beihan, Aden Protectorate. Fifty
feet of occupational debris covered a
144

span of over one thousand years. An
absolute chronologycan be worked out
by comparisonwith pottery forms from
other areas, especially Palestine and
Mesopotamia. Evidence for the early
rise of Sabaean culture was discussed
by W. F. Albright, who based his conclusionson the finds of the recent Arabian Expedition.Comparative art studies by Dr. Berta Segall give the same
picture as the pottery, namely,influence
from the north and west, beginning
about the tenth century B.c.
The presidential address at the annual dinner was given by Herrlee G.
Creel. Entitled "What is Taoism?" the
address was a witty and scholarly discussion whose main thesis was the distinction between philosophical Taoism
and the cult of immortality which also
assumed the name of Taoism.
Guggenheim Awards
The fellowships announced by the
Guggenheim Foundation for 1956-57
include the followinggrants to scholars
working in archaeologyand allied subjects:
Jack Leonard Benson, University
of PennsylvaniaMuseum.Studiesof influences from the Orient on Archaic
Greek art.
Peter Charanis, Rutgers University. Studies of the social structure of
the ByzantineEmpire.
Glanville Downey, Dumbarton
Oaks Research Library and Collection.
Studies of the history of Antioch on
the Orontes.
Charles Farwell Edson, Jr., University of Wisconsin. Studies into the
ancient history of Macedonia.
Henry George Fischer, University
of Pennsylvania Museum. Studies of
provincial government in Egypt prior
to the Middle Kingdom.
Charles Mayo Goss, Louisiana
State University. Studies in the history
of medicinein ancient Greece.
Glenn Raymond Morrow, University of Pennsylvania. Studies of
Plato's Laws in relation to actual ancient Greek life and law.
Robert Lawrence Rands, University of Mississippl.Studies of the Mayan ceramics excavated at Palenque,
Chiapas, Mexico.
Matthew Immanuel Wiencke,
New Haven, Connecticut. Studies of
Greek sculptural reliefs of the Archaic
and Classical periods.

Jerusalem School Activities
The staff of the Jerusalem Schoolof
the American Schools of Oriental Research for the,year 1956-57has recently
been appointed. The Director is Prof.
Robert C. Dentan; the Annual Professor is Prof. H. Neil Richardson; the
Fellows are Dr. David C. Pellett and
Dr. Lawrence E. Toombs. Karl Katz
has been reappointed as the L. Rabinowitz Fellow.
The School is to participate in several archaeological investigations of
interest to students of Biblical history.
One of these began in April at Dhiban,
where the School has already dug for
several seasons. This year the excavation is being conductedjointly with the
Southern Baptist Seminary.Dr. W. M.
Morton is in charge. Another excavation, planned to begin at Bethel in
June, has been canceled for this year.
This is a joint undertaking with Pittsburgh-Xenia TheologicalSeminaryunder the leadership of Dr. James L.
Kelso. Another excavation is that at
el-Jib, shared with the Church Divinity
School of the Pacific. Dr. James B.
Pritchard will be in charge. In addition,
the Jerusalem School is to be affiliated
with the joint expedition at Shechem
to be conducted by Drew and McCormick Theological Seminaries.
Fellowships for Study of Glass
The Corning Museum of Glass is
offering two six-week fellowships for
the 1956-57season. These fellowships,
each for $1500, will be granted to
professionalmuseum personnel for the
purpose of pursuing studies in the history and art of glassmaking. Facilities
are also available for study in cataloguing,photography,display,shipping
and related subjects. The fellowship is
comprisedof a $750 direct grant to the
fellow, $375 to the institution as recompense for loss of his serviceswhile
he is studying, and up to $375 for
travel to and from Corning,New York.
The participating fellow is encouraged to select a single field of interest
and to apply himself in that field using
the library, the collections and other
research facilities at the Museum.
Museumpersonnelinterestedin making application for one of these fellowships should write to the Director, The
Corning Museum of Glass, Corning
Glass Center, Corning,New York.

Archaeology Magazine - June 1956

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - June 1956