Today we had our first day off since the field work began. I think it was welcome by everyone. It gives us the time to wash some laundry, get a nap, and visit the northern part of the Karak Plateau.
We did not have breakfast until 7AM today. It was nice to get some extra sleep. After breakfast we headed out in our small buses headed northward toward the Wadi Mujib.
Dr. Friedbert Ninow was our guide at the site called Balua. He knows the area well, because he has excavated here for 10 seasons or more and he is the director of the excavations. You can see the wadi Balau in the background.
This is the "Qasr (castle)" at Balau which is a fortress that dates back to the Iron Age and was reused during the Roman period. Balau is a hige site near the Wadi Mujib with a long history of occupation from the Bronze Age up through the Islamic periods.
This is Dr. Jim Pace from Elon University, he hurt his foot while climbing up the tradition site of Mt. Sinai during a tour he was leading before the excavation began. He is a central part of KRP and he serves as our registrar (keeping track of all of the material we dig up) and our ceramist. He makes sure that we keep all of the material in order. He wants us to make sure everything is "bagged and tagged." He has had to stay in camp because of his injury but he decided to come with us today. To keep his brace clean he "bagged" it, so Dr. Jerry Mattingly decided to have some fun by making sure he was also "tagged."
Here his tag reads Iron II, one of his favorite periods.
Dr. Don Garner of Carson-Newman College, climbs up an ancient staircase which connections ancient Balua to the springs in Wadi Balau.
This is a fragment of a volute captial, similar to the ones we have found at Mudaybi. To learn more about these captials click this link and read the casestudy written by Dr. Joel Drinkard from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, http://www.vkrp.org/studies/historical/capitals/
Compare it with this one from our site.
Note the similarity of the lines of the triangle in the lower part of the capital. The Balua capital is made from basalt while all other examples are made of limestone.
Here is the wadi Balau as seen from the site, it drains into the wadi Mujib.
Near the site of Balau are the Azazmeh, a tribe of Bedouin people who originally lived near Beersheba in the Negev. They used to travel back and forth between this area and the Negev, but because of the political situation they must stay in Jordan now. Here we see a Bedouin man water his flock.
The Bedouin traditionally have moved their flocks to sources of water and food.
Here is a view of a mother with her children. Water is a major problem for Jordan there is a growing population and a decline in water. This situation greatly affects the Bedouin people.
These boys wave good-bye to our group.
Here is a picture of our group today at the Wadi Mujib. You can see on the upper right hand side of the photo the lake which has formed behind the dam in the Wadi Mujib. The Wadi Mujib is often called the "Grand Canyon" of Jordan. In the Bible the Mujib is know as the Arnon. So the area of Moab is traditional considered to be, the area east of the Great Rift Valley where the Dead Sea is found, the area south of the Wadi Mujib (Arnon) and the area north of the Wadi Hesa (Zered).
Here is a map of Moab showing the the biblical names.
This dam has only recently been constructed, it is one of the ways that Jordan is trying to meet its water demands.
After we left the Wadi Mujib we travel south to Rabba to the ruins of a Nabatean temple which is similar to the temple at Dhat Ras which we visited last week.The ruins are found in the center of the town along a busy street. The city has a long history dating back at least to the Iron Age.
We stopped for a good view of Karak castle on our way back into town. Tomorrow we have another day off and then it is back to the early mornings and hard work.John Wineland
Karak, Jordan
