Another season is winding down

Greetings,

By the time you read this most of the team should be home. It was another productive season for us. Now only three of the team remain in Jordan to do final paperwork before they head home (Daniel Hoffman, Jerry Mattingly, Tim Snow).

On the final day off from excavating the team visited two important Nabatean sites. This one is Dhat Ras you can read more about it on our website at this address: http://www.vkrp.org/studies/historical/dhat-ras/

The second site is al-Qasr you can see the team standing in front of the ruins of this temple.

Much of the work this past week was completing the documentation process. This involves a great deal of drawing and photography. Here you can see Tim Snow taking final photos in the gate area of the fortress.

Our site has a number of fine capitals which line the gate area. You can read more about it here: http://www.vkrp.org/studies/historical/capitals/info/capitals-Mudaybi.asp

This season in the wall of the Byzantine caravansary another fragment of a capital was found.

Adam Bean spotted a fragment of another capital volute in a well at Kerak Castle, pictured here.

Here is another of the final photos.

Here you can see an overview of Field D at the end of the season.

Look for another post later as we wind the season down.

John Wineland

Grayson, Kentucky

:Last Days of Work

Greetings,

Things are winding down now, soon the team will be packing up and moving all of the equipment to the warehouse.

On the last days off the team did some traveling to nearby sites. This is a picture of Ain Sara (or the Spring of Sara). It is a local sources of water which heads down to the Dead ea eventually. The team was interested in surveying this area because several years ago we found an interesting capital much like the ones found at our fortress near this spring. So the team used the day off to visit the area near the spring to do some sherding on the surface. 

The team also visited the train station at Qatrana Railway Station. This is a part of the Hejaz route (that is the train that would take pilgrims to Mecca.) You might recall that this railway line was the target of frequent attacks by the British during WWI (Lawrence of Arabia).

Another thing that we have experimented with this summer is using Skype to connect Jim Pace and later myself to the group during pottery readings. This has allowed Jim and I to "attend" pottery readings and keep track of what is happening.

Here is some of the pottery at pottery reading. We "read" the pottery to tell the age of the pottery so we can determine when it was made and from that determine the time period the layer of the soil layers that we are excavating.

Another type of work we do in camp is flotation. This is a process where we put soil samples into a 55 gallon drum and "wash" the dirt. This separates out material that will float like carbonized seeds.

The sieves help us separate material out from the water.

We process soil that we have found especially in areas where there has been in ovens or campfires or other areas where things have been burned.

Here you can see we use different sieves to separate out fine material.

This material is then dried and it will be shipped back for examination in a lab. From this material we can determine what kind of plants were being grown, gathered, and eaten.

Here the team is drying the float material so we can ship it back for review in the lab.

Look for another entry soon.

The team will be coming home soon!


John Wineland
Grayson, Kentucky

Last week of excavation Finished

Greetings

The last days of excavation is over. The next few days will be spent making sure that all final photographs and drawing is finished. Also any last minute details and some back filling of squares. Then it will be time to pack up all of the equipment.

Here are some of the photos of the work the past few days.

Here Don Garner and Josh Carter working in Field D.

This is Tim Snow taking an overview photography of Field D. You can see many Iron Age walls and the squares are lined with sandbags to help preserve the balks.

Gerald Keown is working on his tannur (a large oven) while Any Stickler (right) looks on.

Another angle of Field D in the northwest corner of the fortress.

Don Garner found a knife in his square E 4. Here John Mark Wade uses his small tools to excavate the knife.

Here is a close up of the work to excavate the knife. 

Another metal object was too. Here the "fork" is being photographed in situ (in its original location.)

Here is photograph of one of the small ovens (tabuns).

 Here is an overview of Gerald Keown's square with a nice cobbled floor and a large tannur.

Here we see Dr. Don Garner and his student Josh Carter both of Carson Newman College.

Look for more posts to come!.

John Wineland
Grayson, Kentucky

Last Week of Excavating

This is the last week of excavation. Next week the work will focus on drawing, photography and packing up materials. Much is being discovered but now everyone senses that time is running put. We have to get as much information as we can in the time remaining.

Here a man posing as Tim Snow takes photos of an oven or tabun. (We are not sure what happened to Tim Snow, the bearded man who came to the excavation. This person/avatar has taken his place.) Note how the scales are placed at different parts of the square to provide scale for the main features of the square.

Here working in Field D is Jerry Mattingly and Melissa Hope while Gerald Keown keeps a careful watch.

Here in the center of the photo is Don Garner. He is pondering over his square in Field B, the gate area. While Amy Stickler holds the surveyors scale awaiting elevations for the square. This is a critical square for understanding the construction of the gate complex. In the background you can see several of the workers resting on the stones of the gate tower.

Here our bus driver Salah keeps a watchful eye on the Fajj. Our fortress was built in this location because it affords a strategic position along the the valley known as the Fajj.

On the left is our Department of Antiquities representative Khalid Tarannah. Khalid is an excellent excavator and he is helps us cooridinate our work with the local workers.   

Here Jerry Mattingly looks over the work in Field D. Jerry is the director the entire project.

The weather has finally heated up in Jordan to the conditions that we have had in years past. Remember to keep checking back for more updates.  

John Wineland

Grayson, Kentucky



A Day off , a trip to the Dead Sea and Bab edh-dhra

The weather is starting to heat in Jordan after an unsually cool start. Several team members left last weekend for home. (This was planned for them but unplanned for me.Since some of you have communicated their concern for me, I thought I would tell you I am do well. My doctor here in the US beleives with treatment I should be fine in about two weeks. Thank you for your concern and prayers.)

The team took a well deserved day off from excavation which include a field trip to the Dead Sea and the site of Bab ed-dhra.

As the team desended down to Dead Sea they passed a Crusader Castle on this high point. This is Karak Castle (also known as the Fortress of the Ravens) built in the early 11th century by King Fulk from France. It was in the control of the Crusaders for about 50 years before it fell the Saladin after a seige that lasted more than a year. From this castle the Crusaders could signal to Jerusalem, in fact they could use signal fires to relay messages up and down a chain of castles and strongholds. At the time of Saladin's attack it was controlled by Reynald, a man who was, by all accounts, a cruel man.

As the time head down the valley they dropped in elevation from about 1400 feet above sea level to 1400 feet below sea level. Here the group paused to photograph a sign which indicates that they are at sea level.

Here is a sign which will give you an idea of the depth of the Dead Sea. It is the lowest point on the face of the earth. The Dead Sea is in a Rift Valley created by geological pressure. In this sign you can see that Amman and Jerusalem are about at the same elevation.

On  the way down to the Dead the group stopped at Bab eh drah an Early Bronze Age site. As you might have noticed archaeologists are proned to take "Busmen's holidays." We like to a break from digging by going and seeing where other people dug. This site was excavated by Paul Lapp and then later by Thomas Schaub and Walter Rast. There is evidence of burning, sulfur and bitumen at the site. Some people have argued that this is location of Sodom.

On this hillside you can see pitting. Each of these pits indicates a robbed out tomb. The site has been ripped apart by illegal digging by tomb robbers who then selling the pottery on the black market. If you do a google search on Bab edh drah you cna see where this material ends up. Here is a link for example
http://cgi.ebay.com/BURNISHED-ARCHAEOLOGY-JUG-3100-2900-BC-BAB-EH-DRAH-/350444141060

This is currently listed on Ebay. It is a burnished piece of pottery from the Early Bronze period. It is this type of black market which fuels the destruction of archaeological sites around the world.

Here are one of the robbed out tombs.

Here is a piece of broken pottery which the robbers left behind. They are interest in whole objects because they can sell them for more money.

Here is the view they have as they drive down to the Dead Sea. You can see the valley and the Dead Sea in the distance.

Here some of the group looks over the Dead Sea while Melissa Hope wades out into the water.

This is a pool of water now cut off from the Dead Sea. The diversion of water along the Jordan valley is causing the Dead Sea to dry up. Water is in short supply in the Middle East and much of the water of the Jordan River and its tributaries are captured for use as drinking water and for irrigation. For many years there has been a plan to pump water from the Ocean to the Sea. The plan would be to install turbines which would be turned by the desending sea water. This process would create electrical energy. It also would replenish the water of the Dead Sea.

Here is a nice graphic which illustrates how the Dead Sea has changed since 1960. Notice the the southern area of the Sea has evaporation pans. This is where potash and other chemicals are extracted from the water.

Here is a nice picture of our faithful bus drivers, Salah and Hussein. They help us in many ways and are good friends. It is hard to image doing this work with out them.

John Wineland
Grayson. Kentucky

Completing another week and a visit to Sul

This is an overview of Field D of the fortress which is located in the NW corner of the site. This area has a great deal of Iron Age II domestic architecture.

Here you can see Don Garner on the left and Gerald Keown (standing) confer with Jerry Mattingly (seated) about the progress of excavation in Gerald Keown's square in Field D. You can see the remains of a large doorway in the front center of the picture which dates to the Iron II period. 

This picture shows how we take levels out at the site. This lets us know elevation of any find in the square and lets us compare this to elevations in other square.

 

Here we see a method of reading the level for the vertically challenged.

Here Don Garner is drawing the balks in Field E. We drawing the balks to show the layers of soil and debris. This is critical to understanding the history of the deposits.

Here you can see some of our local workers taking a break.

Yesterday, the team visited the village of Sul which is located near the excavation site. The current village of Sul is built upslope from the Ottoman period village of Sul which is now abandon.

Here Dr. Jerry Mattingly explains the Ottoman ruins of Sul. Studying these kind of ruins helps us understand how ruins are formed.   

You can see here that some of the arches are still intact.

Here you can see the remains of a entire building from the Ottoman building.

I have returned to Kentucky. The doctors advised me to return home and not return to the excavation. So I will be contining the blog throughout the season from home.

John Wineland

Grayson, Kentucky