A Finish to our 3rd Week in the Field

Hello again from Jordan. We are doing fine and have now ended our third week in the field. Good progress can now be seen in all areas.

Above is Dr. James Pace of Elon University in Elon, North Carolina, we affectionately call him Jimmy. He deals with all of our objects and pottery in camp, but we enjoy it when he gets to come out to the site. Here he is during our "second breakfast" watermelon (in Arabic bateek) break. In the background you can see the watermelon being cut on one of the lintels from the gate area.


I have been working this week on a big project in the gate area. We are taking down balks and cleaning up 8 years of erosion and windblown fill. Here you can see the full size of one of the chambers of the gate. We still have a great deal of windblown material to remove from this chamber as you can see. We have moved many large rocks and cut stones from this area.


Here is Dr. Ted Carruth working in the gate area you can the bench he uncovered earlier now protected by sandbags. Also the threshold is now covered with sandbags.

Here you can see that Ted has uncovered the gate tower. You can see that Mudaybi has a commanding view of the Fajj (the valley visible in the distance).

Here also in Area B (the gate area) Linda Perkins and Melissa Spong are excavating in front of the pier wall on the right with the substantial blocking wall on the left. You can see the tools of the trade in the foreground, a pick, dustpan, trowel, brush, and guffas (rubber baskets made from old tires).


Here you can see the side of the pier wall ( just behind where Linda and Melissa are in the previous photo). The wall in the top of the photo is the pier wall while the wall on the left is a later wall which blocked the chamber.

Over in Area A, Dr. Mike VanSant leads a crew excavating the area near the exterior wall of the fortress. The exterior wall was paralleled by a smaller inner wall to reinforce it. This inner wall was formed into small rooms, this is known as a casemate wall system which was very popular during the Iron Age. In this photo you can see Emily Saunders, Dr. Gerald Mattingly, and Jihad Haroun.

Here is another view of the square with (from left to right) Jihad Haroun, Gerald Mattingly, and Emily Saunders.

In this video clip, Dr. Mike VanSant explains the work in the square. (turn up your volume for this one.)

To the west in Area D a crew is clearing many of the tumble stones on the surface so work can proceed in the square.

Dr. Gerald Keown and Dr. Miriam Perkins are working hard in their square, which has a large doorway with a finely constructed threshold (on the right). It was in the room that a small amulet was found.




Here is a picture of the amulet (a "good luck" charm) it has a hole drilled through it vertically to allow it to be worn on a string. You can clearly see the design inscribed on it, unfortunately only half of it remains.

Today I end with a short clip of the ride from the site to the nearby village of Umm Hamat. We have two buses one bus takes mainly the workers from their home village to our site. A few of us (Gerald Keown, Tim Snow, John Mark Wade and me) ride with them. Things can get a little loud and rowdy on the way home.

Tomorrow we will visit two local sites, do our laundry (in pottery buckets), and get some rest.

John Wineland
Karak, Jordan