After my week in Germany, I returned to Amman on the morning of Monday November 26. I stayed at the American Center of Oriental Research in the following weeks and worked on various translation and editing projects.
I spent a considerable amount of time working on the translation of the second volume of Gustaf Dalman’s study of Palestinian customs and started work on the index.
I also started to translate two books by Mohammad Ghosheh from Arabic to English: his new book about the Dome of the Rock and his 2010 five-volume collection of historic photographs of Jerusalem. A bank in Abu Dhabi is sponsoring the English edition of the two books and they want the volumes done in time for Ramadan (July). I got about two thirds of the way through a draft translation of the two books during this period.
In mid-December I spent a week polished a translation of a museum catalogue of Islamic metalwork from German to English that one of my Bamberg colleagues had prepared. I also spend a few days polishing the English of an article about pre-Islamic Arabia written by another of my Bamberg colleagues.
On December 14 I finally received the permission from the Andhra Pradesh Department of Archaeology for my survey project in India in February. I had given up hope of getting the permit after nothing had happened for a long time. But it turns out that the permit was signed on October 12, and then two months passed before I received notification.
On December 2 everyone at ACOR attended the wedding of Janet Lumbang, one of the long-standing cleaning staff at ACOR, to Reggie, also from the Philippines. The wedding was at the Philippino church in Amman, followed by a reception.
Princess Sumaya at the opening of the shelter
ACOR’s Christmas lunch was on December 16. I did not do anything special on Christmas Day, but I went to a New Year’s Eve party with some friends. In the course of the month I watched quite a few opera performances on YouTube until they were removed for violation of copyright.
I spent a considerable amount of time working on the translation of the second volume of Gustaf Dalman’s study of Palestinian customs and started work on the index.
I also started to translate two books by Mohammad Ghosheh from Arabic to English: his new book about the Dome of the Rock and his 2010 five-volume collection of historic photographs of Jerusalem. A bank in Abu Dhabi is sponsoring the English edition of the two books and they want the volumes done in time for Ramadan (July). I got about two thirds of the way through a draft translation of the two books during this period.
In mid-December I spent a week polished a translation of a museum catalogue of Islamic metalwork from German to English that one of my Bamberg colleagues had prepared. I also spend a few days polishing the English of an article about pre-Islamic Arabia written by another of my Bamberg colleagues.
On December 14 I finally received the permission from the Andhra Pradesh Department of Archaeology for my survey project in India in February. I had given up hope of getting the permit after nothing had happened for a long time. But it turns out that the permit was signed on October 12, and then two months passed before I received notification.
On December 2 everyone at ACOR attended the wedding of Janet Lumbang, one of the long-standing cleaning staff at ACOR, to Reggie, also from the Philippines. The wedding was at the Philippino church in Amman, followed by a reception.
The ACOR group with Janet and Reggie in the church
The ACOR group at the reception with Janet and Reggie to the left
Janet and Reggie at the wedding reception
On December 13 I attended the gala opening in Madaba of the shelter over the Church of the Martyrs in the Madaba Archaeological Park. The church with interesting mosaics that had suffered deliberate damage to their images is adjacent to the area that I am writing the excavation report for.
Princess Sumaya at the opening of the shelter
The Church of the Martyrs with the mosaics now exposed
ACOR’s Christmas lunch was on December 16. I did not do anything special on Christmas Day, but I went to a New Year’s Eve party with some friends. In the course of the month I watched quite a few opera performances on YouTube until they were removed for violation of copyright.
