Last Week of Excavation

Greetings,

Above is a view of Don Garner enjoying a slice of watermelon during our second breakfast.

Here are four of the "Kansas City 6", students from Mid-America Nazarene University from left to right, Megan Love, in the back Crystalyn Oswald, in the front Byran Love, and in the hat A. J. Fry.


Gerald Keown is also enjoying our typical second breakfast treat.

Here is an overview of Area B this morning.


Today was the first day at the site for the "Kansas City 6". Here is Linda Perkins with A. J. Fry, a student at Mid-America Nazarene University, in Area B, the gate area. A. J. helped to uncover part of the Iron Age gate.


Also working in Area B is Bryan Love another student at Mid-America Nazarene University. He is working to clear one of the gate chambers of the debris which has blown in over the eight years since we worked the site.

All over the site we have many large stones that are too big to move so we must break them up. Everyone gets involved with the work, here Melissa Spong uses the sledge hammer on a a big 'hajar" (rock). Linda Perkins an A. J. Fry look on.

Linda Perkins takes her turn at the big rock, while A. J. Fry and Melissa Spong look on in Area B.

Here in Area D, Crystalyn Oswald from Mid American Nazarene University (center) joins the work with Gerald Keown and Miriam Perkins.

Also in Area D here is Jacob Isbell a student at Mid America Nazarene University working with Hadassah Penwell.

In Area A Megan Love a student from Mid American Nazarene Univerity (left) joins Don Garner and Emily Dew.

Also in Area here is the crew, left to right Emily Saunders, Dr. Randall Cloud, professor at Mid America Nazarene University who joins the work of Mike VanZant.

Here is a photo of our off-site survey crew. Dr. Karen Borstad and Jihad Haroun. Dr. Borstad is searching for evidence of roads in the Karak area.

Here is our surveyor still hard at work at the site with his total station.

This is Dr. Miriam Perkins of Emmanuel School of Religion who is holding an Iron Age amulet that she found in her square in Area D.

Here is a closer view of the amulet which has a hole drilled through it so it could be carried on a string.

Again it is late and I must get up at 3:45 AM.

Remember you can always view all of the posts at this address http://krp2009.blogspot.com
You can contact me at wineland@kcu.edu

John Wineland
Karak, Jordan

The Sights of Karak

Greetings,

Today we did not go to the field, so some of the team spent some time walking through the city of Karak doing some shopping and window shopping. I thought it might be interesting to see what our home away from home looks like.

Here is a sign in the center of town pointing the way to the Dead Sea, Amman, Petra, and Aqaba. Since Karak was a castle town there are very limited ways in and out of city still today. Karak is at the top of the wadi Karak which runs down to the Dead Sea and from there it is not far to Jerusalem. So the castle here guarded the eastern flank of Jerusalem.

In the center of town is a large statue of Saladin, a hero in Karak because he drove the Crusaders out of the city. Unfortunately the sword in his hand is now broken, this has happened since 2001.


In the center of town the traffic is busy so often you see police officers directing the traffic. This police officer agreed to pose for my picture today.

In cities in the Middle East, instead of large department stores etc., small shops are group by type. So the auto repair shops are small and side by side, same for wood and lumber, clothing, etc. Today we walked through the clothing and food sections of Karak. Above you see a fruit and vegetable shop with all of the various items on display in along the street.

Much of produce comes from the Jordan River valley, where the climate is semi-tropical. Where they grow bananas, dates, etc. The produce is trucked into the city.


Also along the way you find food vendors and shops, this is the "fast food" of Karak. This is a french fry stand.

Here is a falafel stand (you might call it a chickpea hushpuppy). These can be eaten alone or place in pita with humus and vegetables to make a sandwich.

This is a shawarma shop, this is chicken shawarma but it can could be lamb. The meat is grilled and then sliced off and put in a piece of pita along with vegetables and yogart to make a sandwich.

The chickens for the shawarmah are right next door, alive in cages. People in Jordan like to look the chicken in the eyes before they buy them.


Here is a meat market, most of the time the sheep hangs up in the street, but this is a "fancy" shop because the meat is inside in a case.

People like to see the head and eyes so they know the meat is fresh and in good condition.

Here is a picture of a pastry shop, with the sweets displayed on round trays. Much of the sweets are made with honey and nuts.



These cars look like taxis but really they are called servicees, which means they run a set route much like a bus. The car does not leave until it full, unless the passengers pay for the empty seat.

Often displayed in shops are pictures of royal family of Jordan, King Abdullah II and Queen
Rania and their children.


Here we see pictures of Prince Hussein and King Abdullah II. Since we have been in Jordan Prince Hussein had his 15th birthday (June 28th) and is now officially the Crown Prince of Jordan.

We stopped at a local bakery and they graciously agreed to let me look around and take photos. Karak is famous in Jordan for its bakeries. Here we see the dough being processed and flattened out. They place the dough in flat pieces of wood and stack them near the oven.

Here you can see the dough stacked on the wooden racks near the gas fired oven. The dough is tranferred to a long wooden paddle and then placed in the oven.

In just about two minutes the bread is cooked and it puffs up and is removed from the oven to cool.

Then the bread is ready to purchase. They sell it by weight, most people buy their bread every day or two by the kilogram (about 2.2 pounds). I think the price is is less than a half of dinar per kilogram (about 70 cents for 2.2 pounds) quite a good deal because the government subsidizes the price of bread.

Right across the street this bakery is a another bakery which makes the traditional Bedouin style bread cooked on an inverted dome of metal.


We stopped in to a rug shop where a man was weaving some nice rugs in traditional style on a hand loom.


The man is this shop caters to the tourist trade in Jordan, with his designs and colors.


I will end with some of the children of Karak, this boy saw my camera and asked me to take his picture.

This boy was seated outside a shop today in a display area.

That is all for tonight, we get up early tomorrow again for our last full week of work in the field.

We added six to our number this evening as the "Kansas City 6" (Dr. Randy Cloud and 5 students) arrived in Karak. They are from Mid-America Nazarene University in Olathe, Kansas. All of them arrived safe and sound. They will join us in the field tomorrow.

John Wineland
Karak, Jordan

A Day Off

Hello,

We had a day off today, I think the entire crew needed some rest. We washed our clothes, rested and did a little site seeing.

After breakfast we traveled to the village of Sul. There are two parts to Sul, the current modern village and the Ottoman part of the village which is now abandoned. Here you can see first had an abandoned village which is in the process of becoming an archaeological site. Now the buildings of the Ottoman building are empty or used to house animals like the sheep above.

Here you can see a well preserved wall and doorway at Sul.

On our way to the next site Nakhl we sawa large herd of camels along the road.

This is a view of Nakhl (which means palm tree), it has a long occupational history but much of the excavated portion of the site dates to the Roman and Byzantine periods.

While we were there a large flock of sheep passed by the site.

Some of the ladies on our crew decided to have a group photo at the site Nakhl. From left to right Melissa Spong, Hadasah Penwell (both Johnson Bible College students) Linda Perkins, Dr. Miriam Perkins (professor at Emmanuel School of Religion, and Emily Saunders (student at Carson-Newman College).


After our tour we were invited to the home of Khalid Tahrana for tea. Here he is with his family. He works with us on the site and he serves the director of antiquities in the Karak District of Jordan.

We sat in his "receiving room" in his flat in Umm Hamat.

He served us tea with mint and cake which we all enjoyed.

Later in the day I took a walk Dr. Jerry Mattingly and Dr. Don Garner in the Karak castle and thought about all of events that took place on this spot over the years. Here you can see how the castle is built on the bedrock with the Mamluk Keep high above.

This is one of the arrow slits used to the defend the castle. I thought about I would incorporate the information from the castle into my Medieval History course in the fall.


I will end today with a view of from Karak castle over the wadi Karak which leads to the Dead Sea. You can see what a commanding view the castle has over the surrounding area.

John Wineland
Karak, Jordan

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