American Schools of Oriental Research

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The American Schools of Oriental Research, (commonly abbreviated as ASOR) founded in 1900, supports and encourages the study of the peoples and cultures of the Near East, from the earliest times to the present. It is apolitical and has no religious affiliation.

ASOR convenes a scholarly conference once a year in North America, usually the second or third week of November.

ASOR also publishes two scholarly publications, the Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research and the Journal of Cuneiform Studies. The organization also publishes Near Eastern Archaeology Magazine, a quarterly that reports recent research for both popular and professional audiences.

ASOR supports three independent overseas institutes in Cyprus, Israel and Jordan. The overseas institutes support scholars working in the Middle East that focus on Near Eastern Archaeology, Semitic languages, history, and Biblical studies.

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[edit] ASOR and the Dead Sea Scrolls

ASOR also played a significant role in the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. In the Spring of 1948, Dr. John C. Trever was filling in for Millar Burrows, the director of ASOR in Jerusalem, when he was contacted by a representative of Mar Samuel, who wanted to authenticate three ancient scrolls that he had recently purchased from an antiquities dealer. Trever photographed the scrolls, and immediately sent copies to his mentor--famed Near East scholar William F. Albright, who congratulated him on the "greatest manuscript discovery of modern times!”

In early September 1948, Mar Samuel contacted Professor Ovid R. Sellers, Burrows' successor as ASOR Director in Jerusalem. Samuel showed Sellers some additional scroll fragments that he had acquired. Sellers then focused on finding the cave in which the scrolls had been found. In late 1948, nearly two years after the discovery of the scrolls, scholars had yet to locate the cave where the fragments had been found. Conducting such a search was dangerous. When the British mandate in Palestine ended on May 15, 1948, war broke out immediately, and peace would not be restored until November. With the unrest in the country, Sellers attempted to get the Syrians to help locate the cave, but they demanded more money than Sellers could offer. The cave was finally discovered on January 28, 1949 by a UN observer, and Sellers brought his box brownie camera to take the first photos of the cave, which were soon published in Life Magazine.

[edit] Sources

Ancient Near East Portal
  • King, Philip J. American Archaeology in the Mideast: A History of the American Schools of Oriental Research (1983).
  • Clark, D.G. and V.H. Matthews 100 Years of American Archaeology in the Middle East: Proceedings of the American Schools of Oriental Research Centennial Celebration (2003).

[edit] External links

[edit] Council of American Overseas Research Centers

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