Getting Started at the Site

This Dr. Jerry Mattingly with Abu Iman. Abu Iman is our guard out at the site, he stays at the site 24 hours a day to watch over the equipment and the site while we are working. We fondly call him Abu Hajar which means Father of the Rocks. He is an expert at breaking up large rocks that we have at the site. As we excavate down we need to remove debris so we can continue down, that sometimes includes large rocks which need to be broken by a sledgehammer. Often when this happens we call out for Abu Hajar.

The day was spent transfering the equipment from the nearby village to the site, and preliminary cleanup and setup of the site including an orientation to the site for new members of the crew.

Here Philip Eubanks packs the truck for the move of equipment from the village to the site. On the right of the picture are some of the shifts we use to shift all of the excavated soil of the excavation.

Here Leslie Bean (center) and Adam Bean (right) load shifts on the truck.

Jeremiah McLeod, Johnson University and Amy Stickler, Gardner Webb University help load the truck.

Tim Snow, Catholic University of America, on the left is the official photographer of the excavation. We document our progress daily with photos. In the middle is Dr. Mark Green, Indiana State University, is focusing his work on survey of the area surround the site. He is researching the regional geography the area. On the right is Abu Hajar.

Joshua Carter, Carson Newman College, helps unload the truck at the site. In the background is Dr. Dwayne Howell, Campbellsville University, lines up for the next item.

This is the truck with the equipment at the site. The small shed will serve as our storage area as well as Abu Hajar's home for the duration of the excavation.

The equipment for excavation is now sorted and ready for use on the site. Here are stacks of buckets which we use in may ways but primarily to sort, transport, and wash pottery. In the center are guffahs which are made from old tires. We use them to move soil from the excavation square to the shift.

This is a map of our site which is a retangular Iron Age fortress. You can see the different excavation areas labelled as A, B, C, and D. This we are working in Area A, B, and C. Area A excavations continue the inner walls of the fortress with the outer walls. Area B excavates a massive four chambered gate complex. Area D is largely Iron Age domestic architecture (houses). 

 

 

Dr. Michael VanZant, Mt. Vernon Nazarene University, gives the orientation to Area A.

Dr. Jerry Mattingly, Johnson University, stands in the middle of the four chambered gate while explains the excavations in the area.

 

 

John Mark Wade, Emmanuel Christian Seminary, explains Area D to the crew.

Mike VanZant assisted by his daughter Mellissa assembly a shift on the site. We shift every guffah of soil from the excavation in an effort to not miss any artifacts.

Here Mike makes final adjustments to the shift so it will ready for use tomorrow.

This is another essential part of the equipment of our dig, our homemade outhouse. Since our site is so remote we need this facilty. Here the framework is up but the rest of the "walls" are are not yet assembled.

Tommorrow we beginning cleanup of the site of debris which has gathered over the last two years and reestablish our squares for excavation.


John Wineland
Jordan