Papers by Jacob C . Damm
Migration and Mobility in the Ancient Near East and Egypt - The Crossroads IV, 2024
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Despite varying interpretations r... more ****Please feel free to contact me if you would like a copy.
Despite varying interpretations regarding the social significance of the phenomenon, the presence of large quantities of locally manufactured Egyptian-style pottery at Late Bronze Age sites throughout the southern Levant has been regarded as a key datapoint for understanding local manifestations of the New Kingdom empire. Treatments have differed but have largely sought to assess whether the forms provide direct evidence for the presence of Egyptians as part of the New Kingdom imperial apparatus. In this paper, I propose a new, multi-level approach for assessing the social significance of Egyptian-style pottery as it pertains to Egypto-Levantine interaction. Drawing on theories of practice, I analyze the phenomenon within three distinct spheres of social interaction: the community of specialists that produced Egyptian-style pottery, the imperial administration that saw to the provisioning of the garrison community, and the garrison community that adopted, adapted, and—at times—rejected the new forms. Using a new radiometric chronology and ceramic data from the garrison site of Jaffa (modern Israel), it is possible to investigate these three social spheres from the earliest Late Bronze Age IB levels exhibiting evidence for Egyptian involvement down to the last decades of Egyptian rule at the end of the 12th century BCE. By examining ceramic production and consumption patterns over time, several key points about social relations at the site can be clarified. First, at the level of the potters, the community of practice that produced Egyptian-style ceramics remained fully separate from their Levantine counterparts over three centuries of imperial occupation at Jaffa. Indeed, the group was potentially derived from itinerant potters from Egypt brought in specifically to supply the garrison and cycled out regularly. At the level of the garrison administration, there seems to have been a certain degree of top-down provisioning wherein a select group of ceramic forms were deemed necessary to sustain specific foodways derived from Egyptian modes of doing. While this top-down initiative likely structured the body of forms made available at the site, it must be separated from the use and appreciation of Egyptian-style forms that occurred on a day-to-day basis. This final social sphere, the garrison population that utilized these ceramic forms, demonstrates dynamic shifts in consumption patterns that often correspond with major—sometimes violent—sociopolitical shifts within the community. These data are joined by a reanalysis of previously published data from Ramesside Beth Shean (modern Israel), which also suggest a similar picture. Collectively, the three spheres reveal a situation wherein the production and consumption of Egyptian-style ceramics must be viewed as an extension of the empire itself, with the availability and desirability of these forms being inseparable from the imperial and colonial institutions that sustained New Kingdom territorial control in the region.
Chemistry in the Service of Archaeology, 2023
This chapter offers a critical review of previous work on the archaeological chemistry of beer an... more This chapter offers a critical review of previous work on the archaeological chemistry of beer and considers promising avenues for future investigation. After providing an overview of methodological concerns germane to a wide range of potential beer residues, the status of the most commonly used marker, calcium oxalate, is discussed. By considering literature from chemistry, botany, and brewing studies, it is demonstrated that calcium oxalate alone is not sufficiently diagnostic, but that proteomic analysis on potential beerstone residues may offer a more compelling approach. Other studies addressing suites of compounds used for beer identification are similarly critiqued to illustrate the difficulty of identifying ancient beer using analytical chemistry. The chapter concludes by exploring potential chemical markers that might signify certain beer ingredients, namely markers for certain grains and fermentative cultures. Each marker is subjected to a critical review and, ultimately, we assess whether it is possible to use such markers in tandem with other data points from morpho-technological or archaeobotanical analyses to hypothesize a plausible beer association. Ultimately, we stress the need for multidisciplinary communication and increased experimental work with both replica and ethnographic materials to better understand the creation, preservation, transformation, and degradation of the various residues associated with beer.
Accessible at https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-27330-8_16
No Place Like Home: Ancient Near Eastern Houses and Households, 2022
**NOTE: This chapter is currently under embargo by the publisher, please contact me directly if y... more **NOTE: This chapter is currently under embargo by the publisher, please contact me directly if you are interested in seeing the work so that I might abide by fair-use policies.
Damm, Jacob C. 2022. "Identity at the Twilight of Empire: Domestic Foodways and Cultural Practice at 12th Century BC Beth-Shean," pp. 92-110 in No Place Like Home: Ancient Near Eastern Houses and Households, edited by Laura Battini, Aaron Brody, and Sharon R. Steadman. Archaeopress: Oxford.
by Aaron A Burke, Amy B Karoll, George A. Pierce, Nadia Ben-Marzouk, Jacob C . Damm, Andrew J Danielson, Brett Kaufman, Krystal V. Lords Pierce, Felix Höflmayer, Brian Damiata, and Heidi Dodgen Fessler American Journal of Archaeology, Dec 2016
Excavations of the Egyptian New Kingdom fortress in Jaffa (Tel Yafo, ancient Yapu), on the southe... more Excavations of the Egyptian New Kingdom fortress in Jaffa (Tel Yafo, ancient Yapu), on the southern side of Tel Aviv, were renewed by the Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project from 2011 to 2014. This work is an outgrowth of the project’s reappraisal of Jacob Kaplan’s excavations in the Ramesses Gate area from 1955 to 1962. As the Egyptian fortress in Jaffa is the only one excavated in Canaan, its archaeological record provides a unique perspective on resistance to Egyptian rule from ca. 1460 to 1125 B.C.E., but especially during the second half of the 12th century B.C.E., when Jaffa was twice destroyed. Radiocarbon dates from these two destructions are presented, and it is suggested that they offer the clearest basis thus far for proposing ca. 1125 B.C.E. as a terminus post quem for the end of Egyptian rule in Canaan. The archaeological evidence, taken together with textual sources, yields a picture of local resistance to the Egyptian military presence in Jaffa likely originating in Canaanite centers located throughout the coastal plain.
Dissertation (Ph.D.) by Jacob C . Damm
Damm, Jacob C. “Conflict and Consumption: Foodways, Practice, and Identity at New Kingdom Jaffa.” PhD diss., University of California, Los Angeles, 2021. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6n7456cb., 2021
Abstract: During the Late Bronze Age (c. 1640/1540 – 1100 BCE), the installation of Egyptian garr... more Abstract: During the Late Bronze Age (c. 1640/1540 – 1100 BCE), the installation of Egyptian garrisons throughout the southern Levant made Egypto-Levantine interaction the primary discursive relationship defining cultural expression in the region. To date, focus has predominantly been on how elites navigated the new imperial system, a product of the types of data published by early modern excavations. To expand upon this past work and assess Egypto-Levantine interaction across a broader socio-economic spectrum, I utilize new data from the garrison site of Jaffa (modern Israel) in a practice-based analysis of garrison foodways. From archaeobotanical and ceramics data, I demonstrate human entanglements that occurred at the site over the course of more than three centuries of occupation, discussing how interaction unfolded on a day-to-day basis in the imperial periphery. Specifically, I articulate the presence of multiple communities of practice with roots in both Egyptian and Levantine modes of doing. At no point in the history of the site did one tradition dominate, but rather garrison foodways were a complex product of acceptance, accommodation, indifference, and rejection, resulting in a hybrid foodways inseparable from the colonial system. The greater part of food preparation was purely Levantine in character, likely signifying the entanglement of the local population in the sustenance of the colonial system. And yet, certain modifications to traditional Levantine foodways seem designed to accommodate Egyptian tastes. Other elements of foodways—namely ceramics production/consumption and beer production—attest to a complex chaîne opératoire with roots in Egypt, with their expression suggesting a tension between top-down forces provisioning the garrison and local, bottom-up consumption practices. This especially manifests with dining practices, as shifting patterns in the use and appreciation of locally manufactured Egyptian-style or Levantine ceramics correlate with violent disruptions at the site. While it is not always possible to tie foodways to specific identities, they reveal a complex picture of mutual transformation that cannot be separated from the colonial context of the site, detailing entanglements between locals and imperial personnel wherein actors from all sides episodically drew upon foodways to navigate life in an unstable imperial periphery.
Conference Presentations by Jacob C . Damm
ASOR Annual Meeting, Creative Pedagogies Session, Denver, CO, 2018
Given current higher education trends, almost every seat in the Ancient Near Eastern Studies clas... more Given current higher education trends, almost every seat in the Ancient Near Eastern Studies classroom is occupied by non-major students satisfying general education requirements. These transient students should not however be seen as representative of the plight of our discipline, but rather an opportunity for public outreach. For many of them, our course will be their only exposure to humanistic and social scientific study of the ancient world, and as such we must present them with an accessible, dynamic, and engaging curriculum primed to let them explore the current relevance of the past. The traditional model of instruction, a master narrative of facts delivered by the lecturer-as-sage, is unsuited to the task. That said, a reform-minded instructor will find precious few pedagogical resources within our discipline to redesign class and curriculum—even if they extend their search to sister fields. As such, this paper will first explore classroom-tested methods for the development of a critical and engaged pedagogy that both explores ANE subject matter and uses it as a vehicle to explore broader themes of humanistic relevance. It will then present a discussion on the assignation of a multimodal project at UCLA–an outward-facing, student-generated podcast series. The assignment was designed to engage students by charging them with the responsibility of educating the public on a topic from the past that has relevance for the present. Thus, the goal of public outreach comes full circle, and the students become active participants in the creation and distribution of knowledge about the ANE.
![Research paper thumbnail of The Kaplan Excavations Publication Initiative, 2015 [Poster]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/51404280/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Since 2007, the Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project has sought to prepare the results of Jacob Kaplan... more Since 2007, the Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project has sought to prepare the results of Jacob Kaplan’s excavations (1955-1974) for publication through an integration with renewed archaeological investigation. As the excavations in the Ramesses Gate area near completion, new data sheds greater light on the terminal phases of Egyptian occupation at Jaffa, particularly in terms of social interaction with the local inhabitants, as well as radiocarbon dates for these terminal phases. Additional investigation by the JCHP into the Lion Temple area has focused upon the conspicuous Late Bronze and Persian and Hellenistic levels, seeking to better define and elucidate these phases. Following the preliminary excavations of this area in 2014, and following a productive study season in 2015, a more nuanced perspective of the Lion Temple area is emerging. These investigations by the JCHP have sought to combine Kaplan’s data in terms of daily plans, photographs and material culture with the JCHP’s renewed excavations and phasing schema. In this endeavor, the Persian and Hellenistic levels, in particular, have necessitated a revised interpretation that better accounts for the complex phases of habitation. This poster seeks then to portray a synopsis of the findings in the Ramesses Gate area, as well as new directions and preliminary findings in the Lion Temple area that are providing a more robust and nuanced perspective of the work that Jacob Kaplan began.
An essential component of the Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project (JCHP) is the analysis and subseque... more An essential component of the Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project (JCHP) is the analysis and subsequent publication of the materials excavated by Jacob Kaplan at Tel Yafo from 1955 to 1974. To further the study of ancient Jaffa, two publications on the Bronze and Iron Ages are in preparation. A team from the JCHP, under the direction of Aaron Burke (UCLA) and Martin Peilstöcker (Mainz University), undertook studies of the previously unpublished materials from Tel Yafo during the summer of 2014. The primary focus of this season was to elucidate the connections between Kaplan’s excavations in Area A and the current excavations by the JCHP, with an emphasis on the Late Bronze Age (LB) Egyptian occupation of the area. In addition, this season focused on the later occupational phases that were removed by Kaplan and correlated them with architecture that remains in situ.
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Papers by Jacob C . Damm
Despite varying interpretations regarding the social significance of the phenomenon, the presence of large quantities of locally manufactured Egyptian-style pottery at Late Bronze Age sites throughout the southern Levant has been regarded as a key datapoint for understanding local manifestations of the New Kingdom empire. Treatments have differed but have largely sought to assess whether the forms provide direct evidence for the presence of Egyptians as part of the New Kingdom imperial apparatus. In this paper, I propose a new, multi-level approach for assessing the social significance of Egyptian-style pottery as it pertains to Egypto-Levantine interaction. Drawing on theories of practice, I analyze the phenomenon within three distinct spheres of social interaction: the community of specialists that produced Egyptian-style pottery, the imperial administration that saw to the provisioning of the garrison community, and the garrison community that adopted, adapted, and—at times—rejected the new forms. Using a new radiometric chronology and ceramic data from the garrison site of Jaffa (modern Israel), it is possible to investigate these three social spheres from the earliest Late Bronze Age IB levels exhibiting evidence for Egyptian involvement down to the last decades of Egyptian rule at the end of the 12th century BCE. By examining ceramic production and consumption patterns over time, several key points about social relations at the site can be clarified. First, at the level of the potters, the community of practice that produced Egyptian-style ceramics remained fully separate from their Levantine counterparts over three centuries of imperial occupation at Jaffa. Indeed, the group was potentially derived from itinerant potters from Egypt brought in specifically to supply the garrison and cycled out regularly. At the level of the garrison administration, there seems to have been a certain degree of top-down provisioning wherein a select group of ceramic forms were deemed necessary to sustain specific foodways derived from Egyptian modes of doing. While this top-down initiative likely structured the body of forms made available at the site, it must be separated from the use and appreciation of Egyptian-style forms that occurred on a day-to-day basis. This final social sphere, the garrison population that utilized these ceramic forms, demonstrates dynamic shifts in consumption patterns that often correspond with major—sometimes violent—sociopolitical shifts within the community. These data are joined by a reanalysis of previously published data from Ramesside Beth Shean (modern Israel), which also suggest a similar picture. Collectively, the three spheres reveal a situation wherein the production and consumption of Egyptian-style ceramics must be viewed as an extension of the empire itself, with the availability and desirability of these forms being inseparable from the imperial and colonial institutions that sustained New Kingdom territorial control in the region.
Damm, Jacob C. 2022. "Identity at the Twilight of Empire: Domestic Foodways and Cultural Practice at 12th Century BC Beth-Shean," pp. 92-110 in No Place Like Home: Ancient Near Eastern Houses and Households, edited by Laura Battini, Aaron Brody, and Sharon R. Steadman. Archaeopress: Oxford.
Dissertation (Ph.D.) by Jacob C . Damm
Conference Presentations by Jacob C . Damm
Despite varying interpretations regarding the social significance of the phenomenon, the presence of large quantities of locally manufactured Egyptian-style pottery at Late Bronze Age sites throughout the southern Levant has been regarded as a key datapoint for understanding local manifestations of the New Kingdom empire. Treatments have differed but have largely sought to assess whether the forms provide direct evidence for the presence of Egyptians as part of the New Kingdom imperial apparatus. In this paper, I propose a new, multi-level approach for assessing the social significance of Egyptian-style pottery as it pertains to Egypto-Levantine interaction. Drawing on theories of practice, I analyze the phenomenon within three distinct spheres of social interaction: the community of specialists that produced Egyptian-style pottery, the imperial administration that saw to the provisioning of the garrison community, and the garrison community that adopted, adapted, and—at times—rejected the new forms. Using a new radiometric chronology and ceramic data from the garrison site of Jaffa (modern Israel), it is possible to investigate these three social spheres from the earliest Late Bronze Age IB levels exhibiting evidence for Egyptian involvement down to the last decades of Egyptian rule at the end of the 12th century BCE. By examining ceramic production and consumption patterns over time, several key points about social relations at the site can be clarified. First, at the level of the potters, the community of practice that produced Egyptian-style ceramics remained fully separate from their Levantine counterparts over three centuries of imperial occupation at Jaffa. Indeed, the group was potentially derived from itinerant potters from Egypt brought in specifically to supply the garrison and cycled out regularly. At the level of the garrison administration, there seems to have been a certain degree of top-down provisioning wherein a select group of ceramic forms were deemed necessary to sustain specific foodways derived from Egyptian modes of doing. While this top-down initiative likely structured the body of forms made available at the site, it must be separated from the use and appreciation of Egyptian-style forms that occurred on a day-to-day basis. This final social sphere, the garrison population that utilized these ceramic forms, demonstrates dynamic shifts in consumption patterns that often correspond with major—sometimes violent—sociopolitical shifts within the community. These data are joined by a reanalysis of previously published data from Ramesside Beth Shean (modern Israel), which also suggest a similar picture. Collectively, the three spheres reveal a situation wherein the production and consumption of Egyptian-style ceramics must be viewed as an extension of the empire itself, with the availability and desirability of these forms being inseparable from the imperial and colonial institutions that sustained New Kingdom territorial control in the region.
Damm, Jacob C. 2022. "Identity at the Twilight of Empire: Domestic Foodways and Cultural Practice at 12th Century BC Beth-Shean," pp. 92-110 in No Place Like Home: Ancient Near Eastern Houses and Households, edited by Laura Battini, Aaron Brody, and Sharon R. Steadman. Archaeopress: Oxford.