Our First Day Off

Greetings,

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

End of the First Week of Field Work

Hello,

We have completed our first week of excavation. I thought that today I would highlight some of the things we do we each day plus some of the special things that happened today.


This is the site we have each morning. We get up at 3:45 AM. Then we load on two microbuses after breakfast. When leave when it is dark and the drive takes about 45 minutes to the site (the return in the afternoon takes about an hour because of traffic). We go from riding on a paved road, to a gravel road, and final to a dirt road to the site.

Above is the view from the the bus that I rode on this morning. You can see the other bus on the dirt road shead of us. I always ride "shotgun" in the bus that Salah drives.

After about 30 minutes we reach the village of Umm Hamat and we pick our the local workman, who squeeze into Salah's bus with us. This is a picture looking back from my "shotgun" seat. You can see Dr. Ted Carruth, of Lipscomb College, on the left, and just behind him is Tim Snow, of Catholic University of America, in the white hat. On the far right is Valdecy Da Silva, of Colegio Biblico. Just behind Valdecy is Dr. Gerald Keown, of Gardner-Webb University. The haze is the dust from the road that fills the bus.

We arrive at the site before sunrise, so we can have good lighting for our daily photographs of the progress of the excavation. We also have the benefit of working in the cool of the day. We have been fortunate to have good weather so far. It has been in the mid-90's most days, but today it hotter with less wind and the high was about 110. The wind is coming from the east instead of the west (as it normally does) that means that the wind is coming from across the desert so it is much hotter. I hope it changes back soon.


Today I am going to focus on Area B which is where a massive gate is located. This gate dates to the Iron Age II period (925 - 539 BC). The gate complex was decorated with beautiful volute capitals. Here Dr. Ted Carruth of Lipscomb University (one of the members of the KRP consortium) proudly poses with one of the massive monolithic limestone stones that once towered (about 16 feet high) over the entrance to the gate. The stones probably toppled in an earthquake and you can see it is in four pieces.


This is one of the captials that we found during an earlier season, at least 6 of these hugh limestone capitals adorned the 4 chambered gate complex.

This is a possible reconstruction of the chambers of the gate.


The Dig Photographer Tim Snow, of Catholic University of America, takes overview photos of the gate early this morning. Our main job in this area today is moving some of the large stones which are tumbled in the gate and block our digging.


Archaeologists normally work with small picks, brushes, and trowels but at times we need to bring in heavy equipment to move massive stones that we need to preserve so that someday this gate can be reconstructed. In the photo above I am helping our crew wrap a large rope around a large limestone block so it can be elsewhere. Work in Ted's square was blocked by several large stones.


After we carefully attach the ropes, the stones were lifted by a large front end loader and placed elsewhere in the site so we they can be used for reconstruction at a later time. I am glad to report that our relocation of large building stones was a success. Thankfully no one was injured during the process and the stones were not damaged either.

After successfully moving these stones, there is a pause for a photo at the urging of Salah. Here is the picture of one of our drivers Salah (on the left) with Melissa Spong, a student at Johnson Bible College. Melissa works with Ted in the gate area. Abu Ayman is on the right. He guards the site night and day while we are there. He is also an expert at removing stones. His fondness for and skill at breaking large stones with a sledge hammer has earned him the nickname "Abu Hajar" which means "Father of the Rocks."


After returning to camp we clean up and eat lunch, then we have a rest period which is following by at work time at 4pm when the pottery is washed. Then we have pottery "reading" where we identify the pottery we have dug up . (more on this another day).

Lunch is served in the building on the left (a renovated 19th century Ottoman hospital) but we eat dinner together on the veranda with a great view of the medieval walls of Karak Castle.


This is the view from the veranda where we eat. Note the arrow slits in the wall where defenders of the castle could fire at anyone who attacked the castle.


We also get a wonderful view of the setting sun each evening. This was our view tonight. The sun sets over the rift valley and the Dead Sea, those are the mountains of southern Israel.

It is late once again but at least I get to sleep in tomorrow( if I can). We do not eat breakfast until 7AM then we leave on a tour of northern Moab at 7:40AM.

John Wineland
Karak, Jordan

Wednesday at KRP: Some views of the day

Today I thought I would just highlight some of the activities of the day with some pictures. Above is a picture of some of the crew just after our "second breakfast" which most days is very tasty watermelon. Every day at 9:30 we stop for about a half an hour to eat and rest before continuing our work. From left to right is Dr. Jerry Mattingly, Salah Slaihat one of our bus drivers, Emily Saunders a student from Carson Newman College, Hussein Al-Ababdeh our other driver, and one of our local workers.


This Dr. Friedbert Ninow who is excavating the gate area at Mudaybi. He teaches at the Theologische Hochschule Friedensau in Germany. Friedbert has worked for many years in the northern part of Karak at a site called Balua.

Today on our way back to Karak after working at the site we stopped to see a large herd of camels. The men watching over the camels told us that were brought to Jordan from Saudi Arabia and the far southern parts of Jordan to graze on thistles, some of these plants have many long sharp thorns. Notice on the right is a baby camel.

Our survey crew is working on a topographic map of the area surrounding the site. Here they are fixing one of the survey prisms to the top of a stadia rod. On the left is our surveyor, Paul Mabry from South Puget Sound Community College and one of our survey crew Wilbur Reid from Johnson Bible College.

This is Area D, hard at work this morning, excavating their squares. In the foreground on the left is KRP veteran Dr. Gerald Keown of Garner-Webb University, in the middle is one of the local workman, and on the right is Dr. Miriam Perkins of Emmanuel School of Religion. In the distance standing is John Mark Wade also of Emmanuel School of Religion and also in the distance standing on the right is Hadassah Penwell a student at Johnson Bible College.


This morning Dr. Gerald Keown, of Garner-Webb University demonstrates for the local workers how to use the shift properly. We carry all of the excavated soil in rubber buckets called guffas (one is visible on the lower right) to the shifts (one shift per square) here the workers seperate any artifacts from the soil and rocks.

Tomorrow we end our first full week of excavating. We have had good weather so far with highs about 95 or so but tomorrow it will be hotter maybe 40 degrees Celsius which is about 104 F.

I want to welcome several new readers to the blog, you can read all of the postings anytime at http://krp2009.blogspot.com If you need to send me a message you can do so at wineland@kcu.edu Let me know if you would like to be added to the email list. If you are on this list you automatically receive each post as an email.

It is late once again so I better end for now, there is alot of fireworks going off right now but I am not sure which holiday is being celebrated.

John Wineland
Karak, Jordan

CAP Visit to Mudaybi

Dr. Tim Harrison, University of Toronto, President of ASOR (on the left) with Dr. Sten LaBianca, Andrews University, Chair of ASOR's CAP Committee

Dr. Gerald Mattingly gives the CAP members a tour of Mudaybi
Jerry on the left, Dr. Tim Harrison, center and Dr. Sten LaBianca, right

Greetings,

Today we had another good day. We have made good progress in all the squares. All of the fill and windblown debris has been removed. Now we are excavating "new" material from each square. This morning Jerry saw two desert foxes leaving the site. The site looks uninhabited but we have seen (in addition to the foxes), several snakes, scorpions, and spiders.

The main event of the day was a visit from the Committee on Archaeological Research and Policy (CAP) of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR). Two long time excavators came to look over the site. As I mentioned yesterday, KRP is endorsed by ASOR, which is the main American organization that encourages archaeological work in the Middle East.

I think Tim and Sten enjoyed their visit to the site, they had some kind words and helpful suggestions and insights. They visited a project in Petra, in the morning, before coming to our site. They stayed for lunch and then went on to visit the excavations at Dibon before returning to Amman.

After lunch we had a rest period and then pottery reading at 4pm. We are now in full swing of excavating, processing, and recording.

As for camp life, people are now to the point of needing to deal with to the washing clothes. I washed some clothes today in the sink, we have put a rope up in the room to serve as a clothesline.

Its late so I better say goodbye for now.

John Wineland
Karak, Jordan
(remember you can view the entire blog anytime at http://krp2009.blogspot.com)

Another Productive Day

I took this photo by zooming in on the site from the distant survey point. You can see some of the crew on the horizon. The dark stone you see is basalt which is formed from volcanic activity. Most of the walls on the site are built from basalt.

This is the rest of the survey crew, Wilbur Reid and Ralph Carnathan with the rod.

I have been helping our surveyor Paul Mabry, here you can see him with his total station set over the main benchmark at the site.

Greetings,

Today was a productive day. We have made good progress in our squares. Tomorrow we should be able to begin excavating new material from the squares. Our survey team was able to find the points and benchmarks from 8 years ago. So we have reestablished our grid. I spent much of the day hiking around the site and surrounding region. At the end of the day we found a distant survey benchmark hidden for 8 years.

We have changed our schedule because yesterday we got to the site too late. So now we are getting up at 3:45AM, breakfast at 4AM, we leave for the 4:30. It takes us about 45 minutes to an hour to drive to the site. We need to be at the site before the sunrise. We do this so we can get good photographs of our squares without harsh shadows. We take progress photos every morning to record the daily work in each square. Also the early start allows us to work in the cool of the day.

Since yesterday was the longest day of the year we should be able to adjust our wake up time to a bit later as the summer progresses. Tomorrow we will follow the same schedule.

We left the site a little after noon and arrived at the resthouse about 1:30. After cleaning up we had a good lunch, then a time to rest until 4pm, when we have pottery reading and work time. "Reading" pottery is what we call the process of identifying the time period from which a potsherd was made. Dr. Jim Pace from Elon University in North Carolina gave and excellent overview of the process we use to process and record pottery. To learn more about this see his excellent article at http://www.vkrp.org/studies/archaeological/pottery/

Our project is endorsed by the American School of Oriental Research (ASOR) and tomorrow we will be visited by their Committee on Archaeological Research and Policy (CAP). Each year we must report to our work to ASOR. It is much like the process by which colleges and universities receive accreditation.

Well it is time for bed, I have to get up at 3:45AM !!!!

Remember as always you can see all of the postings to this blog at
http://krp2009.blogspot.com/

John Wineland
Karak, Jordan

First Day in the Field

This shows how we have the site laid out into a grid, each square has a letter and number designation, just like the game Battleship.

Our fearless leader Dr. Jerry Mattingly giving directions at our excavation site at Mudaybi

Hello from Karak,

We had our first day in the field today. Up at 4AM, breakfast at 4:30AM, Depart at 5AM. We left in the dark, then in Umm Hamat we picked up our local workers. Our main job today was getting our squares (the areas we excavate) in shape. After 8 years there is a great deal of windblown debris in the squares.

We are going to work in 7 squares at first. When we finish one (we finish by reaching bedrock) then we will start another. This might be our last season of excavation, although I hope we can return again, so it is important that finish all of the squares we begin.

Everything got under well today. Clean up is mostly finished so tomorrow we will get into some new material. I spent all of my time working with our surveyor Paul Mabry. We hiked all over the site looking for benchmarks so we can reestablish the grid of the site. We have laid out the the entire in squares, so we can keep track of all the objects we find and data that we generate.

After lunch we worked in camp, getting our pottery table setup and cleaning the plastic crates that we had in storage, so we can use them to store the pottery and artifacts that we unearth this season.

This evening we had a "church service".

Tomorrow we start early again.

John Wineland
Karak, Jordan

Saturday in Karak

This is me today, at the edge of Karak Castle with the glacis of the castle in the background

Greetings,

This morning we visited the castle located next door to where we are staying. Tour buses come each day and park out front of the Rest House. Most of them are filled with Europeans, mostly French, because the French control this castle during the Crusades. Many excavations have taken place at the castle, in fact today we saw a crew from the department of Antiquities digging.

We are able to enter the castle with out charge all summer whenever we have time. I hope to visit several more times this summer, this ought to inspire me for my medieval history course in the fall.

This afternoon we had a chance to go into the city to change money and do some shopping. Tomorrow we begin our "normal" schedule of rising at 4AM, breakfast at 4:30AM, leaving Karak at 5 AM and on the site by about 5:30 to 5:45AM. This will be followed by a break at about 9:30 and we complete our digging for the day at 12:30 and head back to the camp. After we cleanup we will have lunch and then a rest period. Then we will have lab work and paperwork to complete.

Out at the site, we need to get our squares started, there is a great deal of rocks and debris since we have not excavated here since 2001. I think we are ready but 4:30AM will come quickly.

John Wineland
Karak, Jordan