Archaeology of Jordan

Nel “Palazzo delle asce di rame” della città del Bronzo Antico IIIB (2500-2300 a.C.) di Khirbet al-Batrawy sono stati rinvenuti tre dischi superiori di tornio da vasaio, una delle maggiori innovazioni tecnologiche del IV-III millennio a.C. Questa scoperta ha portato ad una riconsiderazione dello strumento in tutti i contesti noti del Bronzo Antico palestinese al fine di indagarne i risvolti socio-economici all’interno della società sud-levantina del periodo.

Keywords: potter’s wheel/tournette; Khirbet al-Batrawy; Southern Levant; Early Bronze Age; ceramic manufacturing production

The notion of the change caused by smelting and melting technology during the 5th and 4th Millennium in the
Levant is not well understood. Chronological errors and socio-economic misconceptions have been shrouding a clear
view on the sequence of events and their interregional consequences. Surprisingly complex metallurgy started already in
the middle of the 5th Millennium BC and caused changes in social distinction, exchange systems and ideology. Other
technologies were not directly affected, but on the contrary, lithic technique and ceramic styles show great elaboration.
In a comparative approach the archaeological record of the Levant is compared to that of Southeastern Europe, and
several structural similarities are discussed. It is argued, that the chronological parallelism is an argument against an
autochthonous technical evaluation of the Balkan Peninsula, and that the social systems of both areas must have had
similarities, which made the new cast metal artefacts very attractive.

The third season of The Sydney/ Wooster Joint Expedition to Pella, Jordan, was conducted during the winter and spring of 1981. Field operations were carried out, as previously, in two sessions: the first began on December 16 and ended on February 23 and was conducted by a University of Sydney group; the second, from March 19 through
May 19, was carried out by a staff under the auspices of The College of Wooster. In 1981 excavations and related archaeological activities were carried out by the Wooster-directed team in four of these areas, two of which (VIII and IX) had been opened in 1979 and two of which (XIII and XIV) were new. Excavations by the University of Sydney in the third season included work in Areas 111, IV, V, and VI, all of which had been started in previous seasons.

Authors: Smith, Robert H.; McNicoll, Anthony W.; Hennessy, J. B.; Potts, Timothy; Walmsley, A.; Wightman, Greg; Shraideh, Sultan; Darwish, M.; Cannon, B.; Lenzen, C.; Day, L.; Martin, D.; Hanbury-Tenison, J.

Until 1993 there were conducted first excavations in what promised to be the site of one of the most important buildings of Petra, the stunning capital of the Nabataean kingdom. Its construction, whose initiation century BC, several changes, reconstructions and landslides along its more than five hundred years of operation. But despite this still unknown for certain functions for which it was designed and that, regardless of the construction elements, materials have been located just still less inscriptions that shed some light on a mystery that will try here exhibit various theories that enable closer to resolution.

This paper presents some preliminary results about systematic Light Archaeology surveys (integrating Building and Landscape Archaeology) that the author is leading in the village of Al-Jāyyah, SE of the Shawbak castle, within the archaeological investigations on the landscape surrounding the fortress managed by the Italian archaeological Mission 'Medieval Petra,' University of Florence. The aim of the surveys is to investigate the historical connection between the castle and the village, suggested by some Medieval written sources. The research's preliminary outcomes are confirming that even if the present appearance of the village is modern, it preserves significant Medieval material evidences plausibly linked to the Crusader suburb and the Islamic madīnah of Shawbak.

In this year of 2001, the University of Sydney continues to celebrate its sesquicentenary. Established by an act of Parliament in 1850, Sydney University was Australia’s first university. In 1852 it had three professors and 24 students; today the University has 5,580 staff and 39,950 students. A total of 218,347 students have graduated from the University since foundation.
Recognising the long-standing and cordial relations between the University of Sydney and the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, this year’s Eighth International Conference on the History and Archaeology of Jordan is being promoted as a major event in the Sesquicentenary program. The Conference is truly international in scope, with around 90 presentations and 125 participants from 15 countries. Papers will be presented over five days in two or three parallel sessions. The objective of this year’s meeting is to evaluate the contribution of historical and archaeological studies to our understanding of social, cultural and economic developments in Jordan and neighbouring countries from prehistoric times to the Ottoman period. A central theme is “pre-modern identities”, by which is meant the way community groups defined and projected themselves, intentionally or otherwise, and the way they interacted with others.

ان الانسان بطبيعته يحمل حنين الى الماضي وذكرياته القديمة ويمكن ان تكون هذه الذكريات بعض القيم او الفنون وفي بعض الاحيان ممكن ان تكون تجربة لنشاط بشري في مكان معين; كما نشاهد ذلك في مدرسة السلط الثانوية  للبنين التي تتربع على قمة جبل الجادور - أحد جبال السلط الثلاث الرئيسية- المطل على وادي السلط من جهة الجنوب , هذه المدرسة التاريخية التي لا تحتل مكانه تعليمية فحسب بل تعدت قيمتها لتأخذ قيمة اجتماعية من حيث تفاعلها مع السكان ومكانتها في ذاكرتهم وايضا تحمل قيمة جمالية  من حيث طابعها المعماري الذي ميزها عن غيرها من المعالم. هذه المدرسة العريقة تعاقب عليها عدة اعمال ترميمية على فترات زمنية مختلفة ابتدأت بصيانة المبنى الرئيسي واضافة عدة مرافق جديدة ما زالت مستمرة الى الان.

Circular stone structures are common throughout the Middle East and can date to almost any period. To date at least 12 examples have been recorded  in Jordan but now a single further example near Homs in Syria has been published. The latter is one of the few to have been examined in some detail on the ground; most are known only from brief reports although all the Jordanian examples may be viewed on the Flickr site of the Aerial Photographic Archive for Archaeology in the Middle East (APAAME). Dating is problematic in every case, though they seem certainly to be pre-Roman.

This entry focuses on the religions in the northern Hejaz and neighboring regions during the Late Bronze and Iron Ages and later (ca. 1500-300 BCE), the first time when there is firm archaeological and epigraphic evidence of local cultic practices.

This conference seeks to explore and contextualize the configuration of the varied desert cultic practices from the southern Levant and northern Arabia during the Late Bronze/Iron Ages that may have contributed to the emergence of the Yahwistic cult. Recent archaeological excavations in the Negev, southern Transjordan and Hejaz and new interpretations of old epigraphic and iconographic evidence are rapidly changing the biblical-based paradigm of the interactions between the desert cults and the Iron Age Levantine religions.

The conference adopts an interdisciplinary approach, assessing textual, archaeological, as well as epigraphic data. The papers presented here contribute in a unique way to big historical questions of the LBA/IA desert religions: Was there something unique in the desert cults? How were the religious experiences shaped by the interactions between the local rituals and the sanctuary cults that penetrated from the agricultural lands? The conference also touches the much wider debate of the role played by trade–in copper, incense, pastoral products–and cultural interconnections in the diffusion of religious ideas. It particularly explores how these data relate to those religious practices attested in Judah and Israel of the later Iron Age and beyond, thereby providing new insights into the prehistory of the Yahweh cult.

Archaeobotanical samples recovered during the 2004, 2005, 2009 and 2011 excavation seasons at the Petra Garden and Pool Complex in Jordan examined plants that were preserved during different phases of use of the site. The analysis of these remains attempts to determine what plants would have been grown in the garden in antiquity. Results indicated that the material recovered likely represented plants that had been preserved elsewhere in the area and then deposited in the garden to act as fertilizer. The remains were generally charred and were probably derived from fuel and/or waste deposits as it does not appear that the garden was catastrophically burned. Although it is difficult to ascertain garden variety plants under these preservation conditions, an analysis of the archaeobotanical data from the Petra Garden and Pool Complex addresses the questions of what and how plants functioned in the local and regional economy, and how the role of the garden changed through time, in addition to providing insight into the general environmental or ecological conditions present in southern Jordan from the Late Hellenistic through Late Byzantine/Post-Classical periods. Though ornamental species represent a small fraction of materials collected, the presence of these taxa may indicate their occurrence in the garden. Even if garden plants are not readily identifiable, this study aids in addressing the larger issues of trade, economy and environment of this ancient city, as well as the feasibility of identifying garden plants in antiquity.

The arid areas of the Negev and Edom played a prominent role in the socio-economic and cultural development of the Iron Age civilizations of the southern Levant and northwestern Arabia, being at the interface of key trade routes, providing essential resources and developing cultic practices that spread to neighbouring regions. This volume comprises the papers presented at the symposium "Unearthing the Wilderness: Workshop on the History and Archaeology of the Negev and Edom in the Iron Age", held at the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research, Jerusalem, on 12 December 2010, and supplemented with studies from other leading scholars. Research questions include the socio-economic and political fluctuations in the arid margins of the southern Levant, southern Judah, and the northern Hejaz in the Iron Age, the exploitation of the copper mines of Timna under New Kingdom Egyptian and local control, the relationships between the southern Levant and the Arabian world as seen from the archaeological and epigraphic record, and the question of the "Edomite" pottery assemblage in late Iron Age Judah.

The late Antique mosaic of Orpheus decorated a small room, approximately 18 m2 in area, connected with two even smaller ones, in 4 m2 and the other 2 m2 in area, belonging most likely to a small funerary chapel (or tomb) discovered in the ancient necropolis by the Damascene Gate in Jerusalem; it was discovered in 1901 by H. Vincent.
The author proposes a new interpretation of the iconographic program of the Orpheus myth used by wealthy Christians in a sepulchral context (see Olszewski M.T. «Orphée endeuillé de la mosaïque funéraire de Jérusalem», in Rey Mimoso-Ruiz, B. ed., Actes du colloque «Orphée entre Soleil et ombre», à l’Institut Catholique de Toulouse du 16 au 17 novembre 2007, Inter Lignes, numéros spécial – mars 2008, pp. 205-214, 226). He also proposes a new interpretation of the role Orpheus played in Roman funerary art, concentrating on the importance of the play on words and the visual and textual punning that was popular in ancient art and especially in funerary art. He rejects the popular interpretation of Orpheus as Christ in the Roman catacombs and proposes to interpret the image as that of Orpheus, bard of the departed souls, without any ahistorical connection with Christ. The program of the mosaic from Jerusalem is thus explained as a play on the words Orpheus-orphanos and Chiron (Chi-Rho) and Pan [Παν(τοκράτωρ)].The frequently used Christian funerary formula of resting in peace, Christ or the Lord corresponds
perfectly with the mood created around the mythical bard.
Orpheus’ universal role as singer and musician moving even the most stony of hearts, extolling the beloved departed, is absolutely justified in the context of a 6th-century Christian tomb. Orpheus is a popular and neutral figure, meaning that in effect it does not constitute a threat to Christian theology and can be tolerated by the educated Christians of Jerusalem.

This paper approaches earth as an effective and useful building material with various characteristics that separate it from other materials
used in construction. Earth is amongst the first known materials to man that had been used in building. This material has many notable and
distinguished properties together with some flaws and imperfections that must be assessed, studied and reduced to enable working with
it. Methods have varied when it came to using this material in construction both in the past and the present, which depended mainly on
environmental determinants including climate, soil quality, and obtainable materials in addition to the nature of available expertise. Nowadays, earth has received ample attention acting as a solution for different issues in industrial and developing worlds alike, where the industrial world suffers from pollution and energy problems and the developing world suffers from housing and unemployment problems. The main objective of this paper is to go over the properties of earth and its application in the new field of architecture in Jordan, while pinpointing the main aspects to develop this material to make possible using it to the highest degree conceivable in present and future architecture.

A pedagogical transcription of Richard Sampson's (attr.) motet in double canon, "Salve radix," written to celebrate the union of Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon and the birth of their daughter, Mary.

For a video with recording accompanying the modern transcription with side-by-side animated original notated music see the link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9wl1XqV6Nk

The aim of this paper is to review some technical and spatial issues involved in the construction of Qasr Kharana (Jordan), paying special attention to its vaulting system, its origins and the original appearance of some missing elements of this Umayyad qasr, like the dome of the main audience hall. The paper includes an appendix on the setting of the building in its surrounding landscape, and some recent discoveries related to it.

Nelson Glueck's survey of Eastern Palestine was groundbreaking at the time, but has been heavily criticised since, and is often dismissed as inaccurate and outdated. This study aims to show that much criticism results from misinterpretations of his work, and his conclutions were more accurate than he was given credit for. Also, his identifications are often the only information we have of sites that have since been destroyed or disappeared altogether.

Simpson, E., ed. The Adventure of the Illustrious Scholar: Papers Presented to Oscar White Muscarella. Leiden: Brill, 2018.

The Adventure of the Illustrious Scholar: Papers Presented to Oscar White Muscarella, edited by Elizabeth Simpson, is a Festschrift celebrating the career of one of the foremost archaeologists of the ancient Near East. Oscar Muscarella is a former curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a formidable scholar who has excavated at sites in Turkey, Iran, and the United States. He has published eight books and nearly 200 articles, excavation reports, and reviews on topics ranging from the arts of antiquity and the importance of connoisseurship, to the difficulties of dating and the problems of forgeries, the looting of ancient sites, and the antiquities trade. The forty-seven contributors are experts in the areas of Muscarella's interests and are major scholars in their fields. This volume constitutes an unusual, important, and timely addition to the archaeological and art historical literature.