Amman and Aqaba March 31-April 12

On the afternoon of March 31, I moved out of ACOR because the building was going to fill up beyond capacity the next day with a large group of graduate students from Belgium for a couple-week study program. I went to stay with Isabelle Rubin, an old friend and fellow participant in a number of excavation projects over the years, including my short season at Humayma in the summer of 2009.

Most days I went to ACOR to work in the library. I wound up work on the Madaba Archaeological Park, putting the records back in storage until I return in the fall. One day I met Ghazi Bisheh, the excavator of the Madaba Archaeological Park in 1992-1993, to look at his slides of the excavation, which he only recently mentioned that he had.

I also helped proofread Dino Politis’s report of his Deir ‘Ayn ‘Abata (Lot’s Cave) excavation report; Isabelle has been doing the page layout. I also finished my revisions of Gustaf Dalman’s first volume of Palestinian Customs. I also mostly finished up my entries for the Metropolitan Museum exhibit. Unfortunately, my permission to look at some of the objects did not come through, so that loose end will have to wait until I return in August.

I also did some work on my Humayma reports. I needed to check a few details for some pieces of marble from the excavations in storage in the Department of Antiquities office in Aqaba, so on April 9 I took an evening bus to Aqaba, arriving in a most unusual heavy rainstorm. The next day, April 10, I spent a couple of hours working in the museum in Aqaba. Unfortunately the person in charge of the storerooms was on vacation that week, so I could not see all of the marble pieces I needed to check, but my tight schedule did not permit me to go to Aqaba any other time. Finishing up that task will also have to wait until I return to Jordan in August.

One of the marble pieces from my excavations at Humayma

That afternoon I walked around and saw the archaeological sites in Aqaba once again, including the possible earliest known church building. The excavator, Tom Parker, has asked me to write a chapter about the identification of the building as a church.

The possible earliest known church in Aqaba

The next morning, April 11, I took a bus to Ghor al-Safi, to met Dino Politis at the Lot’s Cave museum, which he has been spending years getting set up. The museum is close to opening; it will be officially called the Museum at the Lowest Place on Earth. Also at the museum that day was Yiannis Meimaris, who was looking at some of the Greek tombstone inscriptions from Dino’s excavations that he has been publishing.

Yiannis Meimaris in the Lot’s Cave museum storeroom

That afternoon I returned to Amman and stayed once again at Isabelle’s place.

 The next day, April 12, was a major event at the new National Museum in Amman, sponsored by the Department of Antiquities to formally launch their Mega Jordan data base of archaeological sites. The database is better than anything else anywhere in the world, so Jordan is a world-leader in this field.

That day was the end of my current stay in Jordan, and that evening I went to the airport for my flight. I had overstayed my three-month tourist visa by a couple of weeks, but paying the fine at the airport was an easy solution to the problem.

Amman March 8-March 30

After finishing the intensive work on the plan of the Madaba Archaeological Park in the first part of March, I continued at ACOR for the rest of the month.  I did some further work on the Madaba Archaeological Park reports and worked with two American volunteers who had been helping out with sorting through the Madaba pottery for a few hours each week since mid-February. I also did some work on my Humayma excavation reports and continued to revise Nadia Sukhtian’s translation of Gustaf Dalman’s first volume about Palestinian customs. I also proofread a forthcoming issue of the Jordan Journal for History and Archaeology.

But my main work for the second half of March was to write a number of entries for an upcoming exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum in New York on Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition (7th-9th Centuries). I was assigned to write two essays about mosaics and inscribed objects along with entries for a number of mosaic inscriptions, lamps and other objects; I had a total of 4000 words to write. Most of the objects that I was assigned come from Jordan, so I was already familiar with them. Several of the objects are on display in the archaeological museum in the Amman Citadel, so one day I went to look at them there. As it turned out, there was more involved with some of the objects than I had thought and so I needed to see the objects outside of their museum display cases. But to do that I needed to apply for formal permission from the director of the Department of Antiquities, which unfortunately was delayed.

The inadequate view of one of the pots I am writing an entry for on display in the Amman Citadel Museum

Among social events, on March 16 I attended a public lecture at ACOR by Dino Politis on his excavations in Ghor al-Safi, in which I have participated over the years. His lecture was followed by a reception at the British Institute. Also attending was Isabelle Rubin, another long-term participant in Dino’s excavation projects.

Isabelle Rubin, Dino Politis and me at the British Institute reception

On March 26 I attended an event in Jerash sponsored by the Department of Antiquities about new techniques in 3D mapping in which some Italians presented their work to 3D map the south theater in Jerash. After a lunch we saw their equipment in operation in the south theater. I took advantage of the opportunity to look at one of the lamps I am writing an entry for that is in the Jerash archaeology museum.

The 3D surveying gizmo in the Jerash south theater