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Research (AIAR) in Jerusalem; the American Center of Oriental Research (ACOR) in Amman, Jordan; and the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute (CAARI) in Nicosia. These centers sponsor scores of field projects in the Middle East.
ASOR publishes the Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (the first issue appeared in 1919), the Journal of Cuneiform Studies (begun in 1947), Biblical Archaeologist (a popular journal launched in 1938), and several monograph series. ASOR celebrated its centennial on 15 April 2000 with a conference at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., entitled “Footsteps in the Dust: A Century of ASOR Discoveries in the Ancient Near East.”
ASOR established its first overseas research center in 1900 in Jerusalem. The AIAR’s present home, just north of the old walled city, opened in 1925. Originally called the American School of Oriental Research, the AIAR assumed its present name in 1970 in honor of william foxwell albright, a pioneer in the scientific excavation of sites in Palestine and a longtime director of the school. The building, which was enlarged in 1930 and renovated in 1985, houses a research library, laboratories, and residential and dining facilities for fellows and visitors. The AIAR sponsors seminars, workshops, and lectures and currently coordinates the excavation, surveying, and publication of approximately twenty archaeological sites, chief among them Ashkelon, Caesarea, Sepphoris, and Tel Miqne-Ekron.
ASOR’s Jordanian center was born in 1968 after the Six-Day War in June 1967 between Israel and the Arab world brought an end to AIAR work in the Hashemite Kingdom. The Jordanian government regarded the new branch of ASOR, originally called the American Research Center in Amman, as an exiled operation of the Jerusalem school. Reflecting the new political reality of the Middle East, in 1970 the Amman Committee of ASOR became a separate corporate entity and assumed its present name (the Jerusalem school took on its new name at the same time). ACOR is now the largest research institute in Amman and is the liaison between the Jordanian Department of Antiquities and North American excavators and researchers. ACOR’s present headquarters, constructed in 1984–1986, are in a five-story structure located near the University of Jordan and the British and German archaeological institutes. The building houses a research library, offices, workrooms, a lecture hall, a conservation laboratory, and residential and dining facilities. ACOR currently coordinates about thirty excavations, surveys, or publication projects covering several millennia of the history of Jordan. Among the most notable sites are ‘Ain Ghazal, Petra, Aqaba/Ayla, and the Citadel of Amman.
The newest of ASOR’s research centers, CAARI, founded in 1978, is the only foreign organization in Cyprus dedicated to archaeological study, and it opens its doors to visitors from all over the world. CAARI’s headquarters, a remodeled two-story residence built in the 1930s, is in central Nicosia near the Cyprus Museum. Like the AIA institutions in Jerusalem and Amman, CAARI houses a research library, laboratory, workrooms, and residential quarters; sponsors lectures and symposia; and offers research fellowships. As the liaison between the Cypriot Department of Antiquities and North American scholars, CAARI facilitates numerous American field and research projects on the island from prehistory through the classical, Byzantine, Venetian, and Ottoman periods.
References
ACOR: The First 25 Years. The American Center of Oriental Research: 1968–1993. 1993. Amman, Jordan: ACOR.
Davis, T.W. 1989. “A History of American Archaeology on Cyprus.” Biblical Archaeologist 163–169.
King, P.J. 1983. American Archaeology in the Mideast: A History of the American Schools of Oriental Research. Philadelphia: American Schools of Oriental Research.
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