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

Moon Over Mudaybi

Greetings,
It was another good day at Mudaybi, but it was hotter than the last few days and there was very little wind today. I took this picture this morning, when we arrived at the site the full moon was bright over the site. This is a view of the ancient Iron Age gate with full moon.

Here is another shot of the moon in the western sky over Mudaybi, in this view you can see the many stones of the site and some of the color in the sky from the rising sun.


For the last two days I have been directing a team of workers in cleaning up the gate area and removing old balks so we can proceed with our work. It involves moving and breaking very large building stones. We use pry bars and sledge hammers to move and break the stones. Then it is all hauled out by hand. Above is a view of Area A (the gate area) looking East.



About a half an hour before time to leave the site, we found two good samples of carbonized wood. We found this in the gate in earlier seasons. The gate area was roofed with cedar beams covered with mud and reeds. Above you see the sample in situ. We then removed it with our metal trowels. Since we want to use this sample for radiocarbon dating, we had to be sure not to touch the sample or expose it to any carbon (including paper or plastic).

In order to protect it and store it we wrapped it in aluminium foil. We will send samples for testing after we return home.

In Area D John Mark Wade and his crew have uncovered more of the nicely paved floor in an Iron Age II room.



Here John Mark Wade oversees Hadasah Penwell as she uncovers the paved room.

Also in Area D, Gerald Keown and Miriam Perkins unearthed a finely constructed doorway. Gerald is standing on a large theshold. A seal was found in this square yesterday. I hope to post a picture of the seal tomorrow.

Here is a video with John Mark Wade describing some of the work being done in Area D.

Don Garner and Emily Dew have removed a hard packed soil level in their square in Area A, and now they are reaching bedrock.

When we eat lunch at the Rest House resturant we often see tourist groups from France, Spain, Italy, and Germany. The location of Karak makes it a good place for tourists coming from Amman or Petra to stop and see the castle and then eat lunch. Yesterday we had lunch with the Boston Children's Choir. They are traveling Jordan at the invitation of the King. They performed five concerts in Jordan including one in Karak. They invited us to attend their performance last evening and several of the excavation team went to hear them.

When we arrived we found the auditorium packed with hundreds of children from the Karak area. They were so excited and noisy that we really could not hear much of the performance. One team member describe it as "Bedlam."



The choir did several numbers and remained focused despite the noisy crowd.

We enjoyed the unexpected cultural event, even though it turned out to be a lesson in the youth of Karak rather than the youth of Boston.

I will end tonight with this mornings sunrise at the site. Once again it is late and we get up for breakfast at 3:45AM.

Remember you can view the blog anytime at

http://krp2009.blogspot.com

If you have trouble the video from the email you should be able to see it on the blog.

You can email me at wineland@kcu.edu

John Wineland
Karak, Jordan