Amman June 1-30

I spent the month of June at the American Center of Oriental Research in Amman, Jordan, now half-way through my six-month fellowship to work on the report of the archaeological excavations of the Byzantine-Umayyad Burnt Palace in the archaeological park in Madaba.

Among my other research activities, early in the month, while John Oleson, the director of the Humayma excavations, was around, I continued to work on my Humayma excavation reports. I also translated a short article of my Palestinian colleague Khader Salameh about the Armenians in 19th Century Jerusalem. I also evaluated the MA thesis of student at Adelaide University in Australia about Byzantine mosaics in Jordan.

June was a busy month at ACOR, with a lot of people on various excavation projects passing through. In the middle of the month a group of American students arrived for a two-month Arabic language program, so the building has been full to capacity.

I also went on a number of trips to visit archaeological sites. In early June the ACOR trustees were around and on Friday June 4 I joined them on a day trip to Umm al-Jimal in northern Jordan, where I spoke about the churches I had excavated there during the 1984 season.

The North Double Church at Umm al-Jimal

We then went to the nearby site of Umm al-Surab and then to a winery at Jabr, near the border with Syria. We hung out at the swimming pool at the residence of the vineyard proprietor, who also held a wine-tasting session.

The group at the pool

I went on a number of day trips to visit archaeological sites with Ivana Kvetanova, an ACOR fellow from Slovakia. On Friday June 11 we went to visit sites in the north Kerak plateau and south of Amman. We went to the Ottoman hajj fort at Qatrana, the Roman legionary fortress of al-Lajjun, where I had participated in the excavations for five seasons during the 1980s, Ja‘dat al-Jabur, where I had worked in 1996, and other sites where there are remains of Byzantine period churches, including Hesban.

The Byzantine church at Hesban

Then on Thursday June 24 we visited Byzantine church sites in the Madaba area: Ma‘in, ‘Uyun Musa, where I had worked in 1987, Mukhayyat, Khattabiyah and ‘Umayri East, before going to ‘Iraq al-Amir. The next day, Friday June 24, we went to Mount Nebo to meet with Carmelo Pappalardo, the head of the Franciscan archaeological mission there.

Ivana at Iraq al-Amir

Also on Saturday June 19 I went with Tom Parker, the director of the al-Lajjun excavations, and Stephanie Brown, a graduate student, to visit sites south of Amman. We went to the site of Massuh, where I had not been before, as well as Hesban, Tell ‘Umayri and the newly discovered church at ‘Umayri East, and Khirbat al-Sar.

Among other activities, on June 7 I led a tour of the main King Abdullah mosque in the city center for the members of a dig team from the US. On June 9 I went to the Columbia University Center for a showing of the movie Hurt Locker. The showing was outdoors, but it was cool enough to be unpleasant; many of the audience left early on. I also attended the usual round of public lectures at ACOR and a reception at the German archaeological institute.

I continue to watch a lot of German-language video podcasts. This month I watched a 14-part lecture series about cultural anthropology posted on the University of Munich’s iTunes University site.