My journey with archaeology began not in a high-tech laboratory, but in the red dust of Jordan’s ancient sites. As a student at Yarmouk University and later as a field archaeologist, I spent years unearthing the tangible remains of our past, working on projects that stretched from the Roman aqueducts of Gadara (Umm Qays) to the Nabataean wonders of Petra. There is a unique, almost indescribable thrill in discovering an ancient coin in a fresh excavation layer. To me, it is never just a piece of metal; it is a tiny, circular portal to a specific year, a specific ruler, and an entire economy that existed thousands of years ago. However, my early experiences teaching field archaeology at sites like Umm Qays taught me a sobering lesson: the most dangerous threat to our history is not time or erosion—it is the modern forger.

In recent years, the challenge of counterfeit ancient coins in Jordan evolved from a niche scholarly concern into a pressing matter of public debate. News of sophisticated forgeries circulating in the local market, and even more distressing reports of original numismatic collections in museums being swapped for replicas, shook the public’s trust. These were no longer just legal cases; they became “matters of public opinion,” threatening the very integrity of our national identity. As a researcher who had already spent years combating the illicit trade of antiquities, I realized that our traditional methods of visual inspection were no longer enough to verify these ancient currencies. We needed a “scientific shield”—a way to let the coinage itself testify to its own age and authenticity.

My pursuit of this scientific solution started during my MA studies at Yarmouk University. I owe a great debt of gratitude to Prof. Ziad Al-Saad, who was the first to truly open my eyes to the gravity of this issue. Drawing from his experience as the former director general of the Department of Antiquities, he shared a profound, first-hand perspective on the true scale of the counterfeiting crisis and the real technical challenges Jordan faced in confronting it. It was through his guidance that my passion was truly ignited; I felt a deep responsibility to fight this phenomenon and protect our heritage. This inspiration drove me to develop a rigorous, multi-tiered authentication protocol, moving from stylistic and physical assessments to investigating manufacturing methods, and finally, a deep dive into the chemical composition of the metal.

To bring this vision to life, I moved to Germany to pursue my PhD at the Technische Universität Berlin. I was incredibly fortunate to conduct my research under the supervision of Prof. Stefan Simon, director of the Rathgen Research Laboratory, which is part of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (National Museums in Berlin). Prof. Simon provided unwavering support for this study, opening the doors to the oldest museum laboratory in the world and offering all the laboratory’s resources and cutting-edge facilities to implement and validate my methodology. My project was specifically focused on developing a comprehensive, systematic approach for the detection of the counterfeiting of ancient coins. This methodology is built on a multi-tiered forensic sequence designed to uncover even the most sophisticated modern replicas. The process begins with a meticulous visual inspection to analyze stylistic features, followed by physical assessments such as weight and density measurements. We then move into the heart of the technical analysis: investigating the manufacturing methods to see if they align with ancient striking or casting techniques. The final and most decisive stage involves a deep dive into the chemical composition of the metal. By integrating these layers—from surface aesthetics to elemental DNA—we can reach a point of absolute certainty regarding the coin’s authenticity. The ultimate goal was to apply these rigorous tests to a corpus of coins seized by Jordanian law enforcement and held by the Department of Antiquities (DoA)—the legal guardian of Jordan’s cultural heritage. 

However, I soon faced a major logistical challenge. The administrative and legal requirements for shipping these artifacts from Jordan to Berlin were extremely complex. Progress became possible through a shift in the management approach at the DoA, which prioritized international scientific collaboration to solve such hurdles. With the direct facilitation of the minister of Tourism and Antiquities, Dr. Imad Hijazeen, and the director general of Antiquities, Dr. Fawzi Abu Danah, together with the professional staff at the DoA, it was decided to conduct the study locally. They provided the necessary workspace and support within the DoA facilities in Amman, allowing us to implement the methodology on site and ensuring that the project could move forward effectively. “Progress often requires a shift in perspective.” A practical solution was reached. Rather than moving the coins to the lab, I brought the lab to the coins.

To overcome the daunting logistical challenges, I built a comprehensive “micro-laboratory” from the ground up directly within the main storage facilities of the DoA. This was not merely a setup, but a full-scale mobilization of technical resources that involved the carefully managed transfer of analytical instruments and delicate conservation tools from the Regional Center for Conservation and Restoration in Jerash to the repositories in Amman. This strategic feat transformed a standard storage environment into a high-level scientific hub, ensuring the 65 confiscated ancient coins remained in a secure, controlled space while being subjected to rigorous investigation.

The creation of this laboratory was further empowered by the James A. Sauer Fellowship (2025–2026) from ACOR, which provided the essential funding to equip the site with a sophisticated suite of technology. This included the procurement of high-precision measurement tools, specialized mechanical cleaning equipment, and advanced imaging gear for professional macro-documentation. By building this functional laboratory “from scratch” within the heart of the repositories, I demonstrated that world-class archaeological science can be successfully localized.

The completion of this phase marked a significant milestone; while I meticulously restored the storage area and returned the borrowed equipment to Jerash, the impact of the work remained deeply embedded. The facilities were left physically unchanged, yet they were now enriched with a wealth of invaluable scientific data—a digital and analytical legacy that previously did not exist. The success of this approach led me to the 16th International Conference on the History and Archaeology of Jordan (ICHAJ 16) in Athens, where I presented this “Jordanian Model” of scientific numismatic authentication to global experts.

Today, the project is expanding; I am currently planning to incorporate a diverse range of study samples from various key institutions, including the Jordan Museum and the Jordan Ahli Bank, to broaden the scope of my findings. This ongoing work will culminate in the presentation of my final results at the ASOR Annual Meeting in Chicago in 2026, marking a significant milestone in this international outreach. This project has evolved into a pivotal pillar for heritage preservation in Jordan, providing the definitive evidence needed to distinguish our genuine history from modern fabrications. This work is more than just a PhD; it is a long-term commitment to ensuring that Jordan’s numismatic history remains untarnished. By establishing a comprehensive scientific fingerprint encompassing the stylistic, physical, and chemical attributes of every coin, I am creating a permanent and faithful guardian for our historical truth.

Mohammad Rababah is a PhD candidate in archaeology at Technische Universität Berlin. His research focuses on developing a systematic methodology for detecting ancient coin counterfeiting using non-destructive scientific techniques, advanced imaging technologies, and machine learning. This innovative approach aims to improve the authentication of numismatic collections and support the protection of cultural heritage. He holds a master’s degree in conservation and management of cultural resources and a bachelor’s in archaeology and anthropology from Yarmouk University in Jordan. From early in his academic journey, Mohammad has been deeply engaged in the preservation of Jordan’s archaeological legacy. With over a decade of professional experience, he has worked as a field archaeologist with the German Archaeological Institute in Saudi Arabia and Yarmouk University. His responsibilities have included excavation, artifact analysis, documentation, and heritage conservation. He has also served as a teaching assistant and research associate on several international cultural heritage projects, contributing to education, preservation, and site management. His current research includes collaborations with museums and laboratories in Jordan and Germany, analyzing ancient coin samples to develop a replicable framework for detecting forgeries. Mohammad’s work stands at the intersection of archaeological science and heritage protection, blending technical precision with cultural responsibility.

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During my time as an undergraduate, I enrolled in a course called “Technology in Prehistoric Periods.” At 19, the word “technology” still made me think of computers, but I signed up out of curiosity. Prof. Maysoon Al-Nahar introduced us to the fascinating world of stone tool technology using Neolithic assemblages from Tell Abu Suwwan (ASW) (Fig. 1). That course gave me my first encounter with a real prehistoric stone tool—a moment I still remember vividly. 

Years later, after I completed my master’s research, which focused on the African Middle Stone Age (c. 300,000–30,000 years ago), Prof. Al-Nahar invited me back to the University of Jordan to assist with her ongoing analysis of ASW (Fig. 2). Alongside other students, I helped sort and study thousands of stone artifacts. Among them, one type of flake caught my attention: It showed removals from its ventral surface, a practice not common at most prehistoric sites. These “cores-on-flakes” (COFs) were flakes originally removed from a core for everyday use—but here they were reused as cores themselves, creating more flakes (Fig. 3). It reminded me of repurposing a cookie tin to store needles and thread—but happening thousands of years ago. I decided to investigate this phenomenon further. I applied to the American Center of Research for funding in 2023 and was initially rejected, but I successfully received support in 2025 for my project “Stone Tool Optimization and Recycling Mechanisms in Tell Abu Suwwan (STORM).”

For the STORM project I examined 500 artifacts and worked in collaboration with Ruaa Al-Athamneh, a master of arts student, resulting in a combined dataset of 1,232 artifacts. Research took place at the University of Jordan, using both technological and typological approaches. Our main question was whether these cores-on-flakes represent deliberate recycling or a standard reduction strategy at ASW—a site located just meters from abundant raw material. Based on previous studies, one might not expect recycling at a site with such readily available stone, which made the investigation particularly intriguing.

Our analysis revealed that COFs were mostly created from reduction “waste” rather than formal cores. Size did not matter much. These flakes were selected to produce small, functional flakes—rarely more than two removals per flake. The resulting flakes were tiny, often less than 2 cm long, with minimal shaping or preparation. It seems the people at ASW were focused on quickly producing small cutting tools from existing materials rather than investing much time and effort.

The results show early humans deliberately recycling their stone tools. Even in a landscape where raw material was abundant, the knappers at ASW found ways to make the most of what they already had. Rather than creating a wasteful surplus, they turned old flakes into new tools—demonstrating ingenuity, adaptability, and resourcefulness. In other words, the COFs reflect a deliberate, flexible strategy for meeting everyday needs.

The outcomes of the STORM project are being prepared for submission to a peer-reviewed journal. Finally, I would like to sincerely thank the American Center of Research for funding this project, which made it possible to carry out the research and investigate these aspects of Neolithic life at Tell Abu Suwwan.

Osama Samawi is the 2025–2026 S. Thomas Parker Memorial Fund Fellow. He is a PhD candidate in the Interdisciplinary Center for Archaeology and the Evolution of Human Behavior (ICArEHB) at the University of Algarve, Portugal, where he researches the Middle and Later Stone Age in Mozambique. His work focuses on experimental knapping, lithic techno-economics, and the human-environment nexus during the Middle Stone Age. He is also engaged in research projects on the Middle Stone Age in Jordan, South Africa, and Oman.

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Prior to this field school, my only archaeological experience and exposure came from classes I had taken at the University of Alberta, volunteer work I had done with one of my professors, and travels I had taken with my family. Never once had I stepped foot on a site intending to contribute to its archaeological knowledge—until now. After spending three weeks at the Humayma Archaeological Field School in Jordan under the supervision of Prof. Craig A. Harvey, I have become better equipped to understand the nuanced processes and work involved in modern archaeology. This is especially true for instances in which archaeological surveying unexpectedly uncovers discoveries which require adjustments to the work. Through my time spent at the American Center of Research (ACOR) and at the archaeological site of Humayma, I developed valuable skills in photography, photogrammetry, and writing site reports. These “hard” skills were complemented by the “soft” skills I also cultivated during my time in Jordan. These included establishing positive relationships with the Bedouin people and the Jordanian Department of Antiquities to help protect the site of al-Humayma against looting. All in all, my time spent under the Jordanian sun was both mentally and physically stimulating, and I could not have asked for a better first experience at an archaeological field school.

Before going into the field, I spent a week at ACOR, examining materials found at al-Humayma from previous seasons, which contributed tremendously to my ability to both understand the site and work meaningfully at it. From late Nabataean fine ware to African red slip, and from stone cooking ware to terracotta pipes, it was through these materials and lectures (both formal and informal) that I gained a greater understanding of the site’s history and the artifacts found there. I am a very hands-on person, and I tend to retain information much better when I can see, hold, and feel in real time what it is I am learning about. If it were not for the lessons on these materials, I would not have had the ability to examine objects at al-Humayma so easily and discern a cup base from a perfume bottle rim—a skill I had no idea I could hone in just two weeks!

My fond experiences examining the material artifacts also extended to photography and photogrammetry. As Matthew Vincent, project director at ACOR, would often say, “The future of archaeology is in 3D modules.” Through him, I learned about real-time kinematic positioning (RTK), how to use it in the field to improve the accuracy of data from global navigation satellite systems used in surveys, and the important role it plays in creating 3D models of a site. With the field school’s MA student, Josh Feland, I learned about RealityScan and how to do photogrammetry, from small artifacts to large complexes. I was able to later apply these skills in the field, helping Sophie Tews, one of the field school’s supervisors, with the RTK positioning of a monumental tomb structure and an unknown “latrine” structure, which was used to help with photogrammetry of those features. It is incredible to see just how technology has improved our ability to do archaeological work, both in surveying and excavations. These are skills I will continue to refine and use. As I reflect on my three weeks in Jordan, I see that my biggest accomplishments, without a doubt, are developing my photographic techniques, learning how to use software for 3D scanning and modelling, and honing my ability to assess a site and take in-depth notes. Although I had some prior experience with photography and 3D scanning, I was able to learn more about the techniques involved.

Before the field school, I would not have known the importance of shooting photos in aperture mode for photogrammetry or the proper way to take site photographs to use as references for future surveying and excavation. As well, I found that, by the end of the last week, I was able to create in-depth notes which accurately identified and captured key features and aspects of the sites and complexes I worked on. As I continue my education and work as a field archaeologist in CRM, I see these skills becoming invaluable for helping determine whether an area is an archaeological site and quickly assessing specific elements of said site, whether it was a religious complex, a burial feature, or simply a midden/garbage dumping ground. Most especially, my ability to do all of this on my own with little to no supervision — to have my director feel confident in my ability to be unsupervised and produce good work — has been the most profound accomplishment for me. This field school has set me up for success for a future in archaeology by providing me invaluable experience working hands-on with materials, applying theory from class and volunteer work in a practical way, and, most especially, helping confirm that archaeology, with a specialization in heritage management, is the career I see myself pursuing wholeheartedly

Rachel Carroll, Jennifer C. Groot Memorial Fellow (2025-2026), is a fourth-year Combined Honors Undergraduate student at the University of Alberta who is also completing academic certificates in Archaeology and International Learning. Her focus throughout her degree has been on researching how people form and reinforce identities through cultural practices during turbulent and transitional periods.

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I had the privilege of staying at the American Center of Research during the months of May, June, and July of 2025 and conducting research on depictions of Midian/Madyan in the Hebrew Bible and the Qur’an. Historically, Midian/Madyan is believed to have been located in the northwestern Arabian Peninsula, with its northernmost boundaries around Jordan’s Gulf of Aqaba and its capital in Saudi Arabia’s Tabuk region. In the Hebrew Bible, Midian represents the place where the Prophet Moses is said to have escaped and settled, as well as where the Israelites lived between their exodus from Egypt and arrival in Canaan. The Hebrew Bible is so rich with allusions to God and Midian that since the nineteenth century, a school of biblicists have argued that the Israelites first adopted their conception of their deity from a people who lived there, in what has become known as the Midianite-Kenite Hypothesis. As the idea is based on a scholarly “hunch” rather than a substantial body of evidence, it remains a hypothesis. The biblical allusions are rich, but the archaeological record on Midian has only recently emerged and has yet to reveal anything about the land’s religious landscape (Fig. 1). Naturally, any relevant literature from the Semitic milieu of late antiquity comes as a welcome source of insights. 

Here we come to the Qur’an. Although certainly beyond the secular paradigm of the Midianite-Kenite Hypothesis, the Qur’an lends weight to the idea that in Madyan there was a precedent for Israelite religious thought. While the Qur’an shares with the Hebrew Bible the account of the Prophet Moses meeting his father-in-law in Madyan, it also features a unique account of a Prophet Shu’aib, who is portrayed as having preached there centuries before the Prophet Moses or the Israelites arrived. Whereas the Hebrew Bible calls the Prophet Moses’s father-in-law “the Priest of Midian” without saying anything about this priest’s religion, the Qur’an conveys a continuity of beliefs between him and his regional predecessor, the Prophet Shu’aib. Although the Qur’anic style generally lends to thematic continuity between prophets, it would appear that the Qur’an is specifically highlighting Madyan’s regional religious significance; not only does Madyan account for one of the few place names in the scripture, but it is also the only land in which the stories of both an “Arabian” and a “biblical” prophet—Shu’aib and Moses, respectively—take place. This significance might not have been lost on the Qur’an’s 7th-century audience in the neighboring Hejaz, for whom Madyan was a cultural-spatial bridge between them and Palestine. One example of how the Qur’an impresses religious significance upon Madyan is how it insists on its location for Mount Sinai. The Qur’an insisted on a Midian location despite the belief current since the 4th century that this mountain was located in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, an association cemented by Justinian I’s construction of the St. Katherine’s Monastery there. Mount Sinai’s location is just one case in which the Qur’an subtly weighs in on important debates among biblicists. 

I am honored to have resided and conducted research at ACOR (Fig. 2). It is a place of gathering for archaeologists and enthusiasts of the region’s history. The library has for decades facilitated research that draws from diverse primary and secondary sources, putting archaeological findings in conversation with religious scriptures and their commentaries. Most importantly, ACOR is the home of a cohort of researchers and scholars from a range of disciplines, all converging on their interest in the region. I am honored to be the first ACOR fellow since 2002 to be awarded a grant focused on Qur’anic research and hope to see more projects like it in the future. I would like to extend my warmest gratitude to my fellowship grantors, Dr. Pierre and the late Dr. Patricia Bikai, for their generous patronage of my research, as well as ACOR’s staff for facilitating such a comfortable, welcoming stay. 

Kareem Rosshandler was the 2025–2026 recipient of the Pierre and Patricia Bikai Fellowship. He is a PhD student at Emory University in the fields of Islamic studies and comparative religions. Prior to resuming his academic career, he served as a researcher and project manager at the West Asia-North Africa Institute in Amman, Jordan. His focus areas included human security, international trade, and refugee inclusion. He received his BA from the George Washington University and his MA in Middle Eastern studies from the University of Chicago.

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When it comes to understanding religion in Iron Age Jordan (ca. 1200–550 BCE), terracotta figurines offer one of our most abundant and expressive forms of archaeological evidence. These three-dimensional artistic objects fit readily into one hand (typically 10–15 cm), apparently crafted for personal use. At the same time, they appear across a range of social settings, from the household, to tombs, to temples and other public settings of formal worship. 

As in periods before and after the Iron Age, figurines take the form of animals (most often horses and bulls but sometimes others), human beings (female and male), and inanimate objects (for example, furniture). While female figurines from the southern Levant have dominated scholarly attention for decades now, much less consideration has gone to their proportionally less frequent male counterparts. For Iron Age Jordan, male figurines are well attested, numbering at least 65 published examples.

The male figurines have much to tell us about the religious beliefs and practices of people living during the Iron Age. Yet basic questions remain debated: What do these figurines represent? How did people use them in ritual? How can the male figurines help us understand relationships between household religion and other socioreligious realms in Iron Age Jordan? 

With these questions in view, I focused the research of my ACOR-CAORC Postdoctoral Fellowship for spring 2025 on male figurines from Iron Age Jordan. I have sought to interpret the male figurines based on their archaeological contexts, physical features, and comparative artistic evidence. What I found was a wide variety among the male figurines in terms of their form and subject matter, and their apparent ritual functions, along with clear indicators of the impact of the region’s political kingdoms on household religion during Iron Age II (ca. 950–550 BCE). Here are some preliminary insights with illustrating examples. 

Gods and Men: The Household and the Palace

Nearly half the identifiable male figurines survive only as head fragments (sometimes including the upper torso). These are variously hand-modeled or pressed from a mold. Male figurines lacking headgear and constructed in a variety of styles likely represent human subjects, perhaps as images of venerated human ancestors or as votive objects representing living human worshipers or embodying concerns of daily life.^[1]  

A rare instance of a fully preserved male figurine is the “traveler” from Tall as-Sa‘idiyyah in the Jordan Valley (Fig. 1). This pillar-style figurine depicts a bearded male wearing a thick headband or turban, a long-sleeved mantle, and a backpack thrown over his left shoulder, containing a large round object that James Pritchard interprets as a pilgrim flask (Pritchard 1968). This figurine’s domestic find context (dated to the mid-8^th century BCE) and the accompanying specialized objects are consistent with its place in household worship, the male figurine likely serving as a votive representing a senior male of the household (cf. Pritchard 1968, 26, 29). 

In contrast to that depiction of full clothing, six unfortunately headless figurines from several sites in Jordan portray nude males (Daviau 2022, 261, n. 7). An artistic portrayal placing nude male figures into a broader visual context is a relief frieze decorating a ceramic krater from Iron II Tall Nimrin in the east Jordan Valley (Flanagan et al. 1992). It shows a procession of nude males taking part in a fertility ritual (Dornemann 1995). Based on this comparison, nude male figurines might have served in communal or household rituals concerned with male fertility. At the same time, a stone statue of a nude male figure at roughly contemporary Khirbat al-Mudayna, in the Wadi Thamad in northern Moab, offers a presumably honorific portrayal of either an elite individual (Daviau 2022, 261) or possibly a deity. Nudity occurs as a regular motif in artistic depictions of female deities in the Levant and broader West Asia (Bloch-Smith 2014; Darby 2014, 330–338, 398–406). Given the ethnographic and comparative literary evidence for multiple representations and functions, even for the same figurine (Moorey 2003), the nude males might have portrayed a deity or supernatural being while also embodying a concern for male reproduction addressed in ritual.

A high deity is more clearly in view among figurine head fragments from Amman and locations affiliated with other material culture. Examples from outside a “palace” building at the Amman Citadel (Zayadine et al. 1989, 362), from Tall Jawa 10.5 km south of Amman (Daviau and Dion 1994), and from farther south at Tall Jalul (Younker et al. 1996) wear a form of the atef crown deriving ultimately from Egyptian tradition and appearing in Iron II stone statuary as the emblem of the leading god of the Ammonite kingdom (Abou-Assaf 1980; Daviau and Dion 1994; Burnett 2016; 2024). The Tall Jawa example’s discovery inside a domestic building, along with other cultic objects (Daviau 2003, 136–137), indicates this figurine’s function as a terracotta image of the Ammonite chief deity, perhaps a replica of larger stone statues at the capital, within domestic ritual at this outlying location. The domestic use context for this example and likely the one from Tall Jalul (Daviau 2001, 201) shows that the iconographic system supporting the Ammonite monarchy was incorporated into that of the family-based realm of domestic worship. 

Messengers and Mediating Figures: Houses, Tombs, and Public Worship Places

More than a dozen other male figurine heads wear various forms of a conic or pointed cap resembling the headgear of horse and rider figurines so well attested for the Amman Citadel and nearby sites and from the Jordan Valley (Fig. 2). The fully preserved horse-and-riders tend to bear decoration of black and white painted lines and other designs on their headgear and clothing. The uniform thus portrayed, along with the headgear’s resemblance to a pointed helmet (variously depicted for warriors in multiple ancient Near Eastern battle scenes; Dornemann 1983, 137–138), suggests a military association for these figures, although they tend to appear without weapons or other military equipment. A messenger figure might thus be the implication, especially considering the quality of swiftness the horse represents. In any case, most of the population would not have had horses, and these widely attested figurines likely reflect royal military imagery and its impact on household and family religion.  

The two-headed horse carrying a rider excavated at Tall Damiyya in the Jordan Valley (Petit and Kafafi 2016) suggests a depiction of supernatural beings. The discovery of these hybrid depictions (combining zoomorphic and anthropomorphic figures) in a worship sanctuary, amid fragments of a cult stand (Petit and Kafafi 2016), and in tombs (Harding 1945; 1950) would be consistent with imagery of divine messengers mediating between higher deities and their living and deceased human worshipers. Like the atef-crowned figurines, the horse-and-riders show the institution of the monarchy to have shaped conceptions of divine-human relationships in household, mortuary, and public religious life, as well as the connections among these societal realms on the Ammonite plateau and the Jordan Valley during Iron Age II. 

Another type of mediating figure appears in male figurines attached to the entrances of ceramic miniature shrines, thus marking and guarding spatial boundaries. The best-preserved example was excavated in the Iron II temple at Khirbat Ataruz, overlooking the Dead Sea (Ji 2012, pl. 47). It features two male figurines flanking the shrine’s entrance, each with a bare upper body and holding a small animal. These guardian figures’ positioning at the threshold indicates their liminal status, mediating the boundary between divine and human, sacred and profane. 

Conclusions: Variety and Range among the Male Figurines

While questions remain, the array of male figurines yields many insights into the religion of Iron Age Jordan. Human beings and their life concerns, deities, and mediating supernatural beings find representation, with some figurines perhaps combining more than one referent. In their ritual functions, the male figurines serve as propitiatory votives, stand-ins for human worshipers, and miniature divine images, and serve other attention-focusing roles, for example, in mediating divine-human interaction. Male figurines reflect personal and family concerns such as reproduction, perpetuation of the household lineage, and care for the deceased. Other examples, such as the atef-crowned heads and horse-and-rider figurines, signal the monarchy’s relevance to the household’s general wellbeing. Continuing research and new archaeological discoveries hold promise for refining these preliminary results. What is clear is that these well-attested artistic objects embody a variety of representations, cultic functions, and socioreligious circles.

References

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Burnett, J. S. 2016. “Egyptianizing Elements in Ammonite Stone Statuary: The Atef Crown and Lotus.” In R. A. von Stucky, O. Kaelin, and H.-P. Mathys (eds.), 9 ICAANE: Proceedings of the 9th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East (June 9–13, 2014, University of Basel). Volume 1: Traveling Images, 57–71. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.

Burnett, J. S. 2024. The Amman Theater Statue in Its Iron Age Contexts, with contributions by R. Gharib and D. F. Parker. AASOR 75. Alexandria, VA: American Society of Overseas Research.

Bloch-Smith, E. 2014. “Acculturating Gender Roles: Goddess Images as Conveyors of Culture in Ancient Israel.” In I. J. de Hulster and J. M. LeMon (eds.), Image, Text, Exegesis: Iconographic Interpretation and the Hebrew Bible, 1–18. The Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies 588. New York: Bloomsbury.

Darby, E. 2014. Interpreting Judean Pillar Figurines: Gender and Empire in Judean Apotropaic Ritual. Forschungen zum Alten Testament 69. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.

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Younker, R. W., L. T. Geraty, L. G. Herr, Ø. LaBianca, and D. Clark. 1996. “Preliminary Report of the 1994 Season of the Madaba Plains Project: Regional Survey, Tall al-‘Umayri, and Tall Jalul Excavations (June 15 to July 20, 1994).” Andrews University Seminary Studies 34(1): 65–92.

Zayadine, F., J.-B. Humbert, and M. Najjar. 1989. “The 1988 Excavations of the Citadel of Amman, Lower Terrace, Area A.” Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 33: 357–363.

^[1] See the list of possible representation and uses of figurines Christopher Tuttle has developed, building on the model of Peter Ucko and Mary Voigt (Tuttle 2009: 246). 

Joel Burnett is a professor of religion (Hebrew Bible/Old Testament studies) at Baylor University. His research centers around the history and religion of Iron Age Israel and Transjordan. His most recent publications include “The Persistence of El in Iron Age Israel and Ammon” (pp. 297–330 in Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies in Honor of P. Kyle McCarter Jr. ANEM 27, ed. C.A. Rollston, S. Garfein, and N. H. Walls. Atlanta: SBL, 2022), “Geochemical Characterization of Jordanian Basalts Using Portable X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometry and Sourcing of the Amman Theater Statue” (coauthored with Carolyn D. Dillian, Aktham Oweidi, and Romel Gharib, Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 46 [2022]: 103720), and The Amman Theater Statue in Its Iron Age Contexts (with contributions by Romel Gharib and Don F. Parker. Annual of ASOR 75. Boston: ASOR 2024).

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From August 1 to September 12, 2024, I had the fortunate opportunity to undertake an internship at the American Center of Research (ACOR) in Amman, Jordan. I worked with the National Cultural Heritage Property Database of The Kingdom of Jordan project, known informally as the National Inventory. While currently training to be a conservator, I have an educational background in archaeology, art history, and cultural heritage protection. The internship at ACOR provided me with a unique multidisciplinary experience in which I could blend and apply my interests in a practical manner.

The National Cultural Heritage Property Database of the Kingdom of Jordan project utilizes Axiell software as the basis for a centralized database of Jordan’s moveable cultural heritage. Axiell furthermore provides a digital repository that ensures records are retained in case a natural disaster or other such crisis impacts Jordan’s collections. My task was to incorporate conservation knowledge into the database and to assist with site assessments and recommendations.

During the course of the internship, the project team and I visited a number of museums and storehouses to conduct on-site assessments of their respective collections. Visits included excursions to As-Salt, Zarqa, Jerash, and Irbid. The project team would correlate collection survey data with physical locations. I would assess the general condition of artifacts and their physical settings. Through this, I learned about past conservation practices in museums and the unique challenges facing collections contemporarily (e.g., rising temperatures). Recommendations were then provided in a short report regarding measures that could be beneficial for individual collections.

I greatly enjoyed interacting with a variety of organic and inorganic artifacts on site. By visiting numerous collections, I saw an assortment of objects ranging from bronze weaponry to glass perfume vials, figurines, and intricately beaded jewelry. Mosaics are a particular favorite of mine, and Jordan is renowned for having a bounty of beautiful ones. Being able to view mosaic depictions of pomegranates, olives, or grapes and then walking outside to see those same trees and vines still growing in the vicinity bridged the past and present in a delightful way.

The chance to assist with cleaning and identifying ceramic fragments from Petra further made the internship a memorable experience. Revealing painted designs on the ceramic surfaces — which may have last been viewed hundreds of years ago — was a reminder of how remarkable working with cultural heritage materials can be.

I’ve learned about Jordan’s cultural heritage management and the variety of artifacts held in diverse collections. I’ve been fortunate to gain knowledge of the available tools used for preventive conservation through consultation with project stakeholders. Most critically, through the internship I have gained an insight into the growing contemporary importance of digital preservation and documentation techniques for movable cultural heritage objects. The length of the internship further permitted me to explore Amman and travel to Aqaba, Petra, Ajloun, and beyond during my six weeks. By interning with ACOR, I was able to experience Jordan in a new light and gain valuable experience for my future career path. I am grateful for the hospitality shown to me by the staff and fellows at ACOR.

Thank you for the opportunity.

Madeleine Tripp is an emerging objects conservator with a background in archaeology, art history, and heritage protection. She is currently undertaking the University of Melbourne’s Master of Cultural Materials Conservation program. With an anticipated graduation in late 2024, Madeleine aims to apply her conservation skills into continued archaeological and cultural heritage work.

The post ACOR Internship Experience: The National Inventory Project appeared first on ACOR Jordan.

The Beginning

In the academic year 1967–1968 I enrolled as a student at the Department of History and Archaeology at the University of Jordan. Unfortunately, in that same period the Arab-Israeli Six Days War began on June 5, 1967. As a result of the war, in 1968 the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR; now the American Society for Overseas Research), already based in Jerusalem, decided to establish an independent archaeological research center in Amman. For this purpose, a building located very close to the third circle in Amman that belonged to one of the members of the Khalifeh family was rented.

During that time, we had Egyptian and Syrian professors, and in 1969 one of them, namely Greco-Roman specialist Fawzi Fakharani, decided to take nine of us students to visit the so-called Temple of Hercules on the Amman Citadel. During our visit we visited the excavation of American archaeologist Rudolph Dornemann. That was my first experience with American archaeologists. In 1970 we were lucky to have Professor Bastiann Van Elderen, then director of ACOR, to teach two courses in archaeology at the University of Jordan: Research Methods in Archaeology and Field Archaeology. In addition, he took us to visit the archaeological site of Tell Hesban and trained us in the field by excavating a church in Amman’s Sweifiyyeh neighborhood (Fig. 1). That was the beginning of my relationship with the American Center and American archaeologists.

ACOR Was My Second Home (1973–1977)

In 1973, the University of Jordan started an MA graduate program in archaeology, and Bastiann Van Elderen was one of the professors who established its plan of study. At that time I worked as the curator of the University of Jordan Archaeological Museum and had the chance to enroll in the program. Van Elderen taught a course on Byzantine culture. In addition, during the time Henry (Hank) O. Thompson was director of ACOR (1972–1973), he started the Tell Siran excavation and found the well-known bronze bottle with what is considered to be the first complete inscription in the ancient Ammonite language. He was followed by Bastiann Van Elderen, who continued the excavation with the participation of a group of American students (Fig. 2).

If I remember well, van Aldren left the ACOR directorship in late 1973, and his appointed successor was Prof. George Mendenhall of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. His field of study was ancient Near Eastern civilizations. During his teaching career at the University of Jordan, he taught a course on the epigraphy and history of the ancient Near East, and in June 1975 took us on a trip to Wadi Muqat in the Black Desert to copy, register, and study Safaitic inscriptions (Fig. 3). In addition, at that time James Abbot Sauer was a fellow at ACOR and along with Mendenhall conducted an archaeological excavation at the Ammonite site of Umm er-Rujm with the participation of the MA students, of whom I was one. Moreover, in May 1974 he resumed archaeological excavations at the site of Rujm Khilda (Fig. 4) with the participation of archaeology MA students from the University of Jordan and a few American volunteers; of them, I still remember the name “Richard Dorsett.”

In the 1975–1976 academic year, James Sauer (Fig. 5) took over from Mendenhall, and to our good fortune he began teaching archaeological courses at the University of Jordan. I enjoyed very much his course “Ancient Pottery of the Holy Land,” and I presented a paper entitled “The Late Bronze Age Pottery in Jordan: East Bank,” which later became the subject of my MA thesis. In addition, the MA students had been invited to participate in the 1974 season of excavations at Hesban (Fig. 6). At the dig, I was introduced to American senior archaeologists, and I am much indebted to Larry Herr, who was my area supervisor in Area D, Square 2, for training me in the field of archaeology (Fig. 7). At the dig, and along with James Sauer, I was honored to be introduced to Larry Geraty, Roger Boraas, and my square partner, Orly Nelson. I became much more acquainted with American excavating methods and habits by living with the expedition team for almost six weeks. That following year—1975—was a decisive one for my future career. I became very close to James Sauer and decided to write under his supervision my MA thesis, which I defended on June 19, 1977. The late Walter Rast was a member of the examining committee.

The year 1975 was full of joint archaeological fieldwork conducted by ACOR and other Jordanian archaeological institutions, such as the Department of Antiquities and the University of Jordan. One example is the Jordan Valley survey, which was conducted under the co-directorship of James Sauer, Khair Yassine, and Mo’awiyah Ibrahim. It was my good luck to have participated in the two seasons of this survey, 1975 and 1976, and I learned much from Sauer by attending his reading of the pottery found at the sites visited (Fig. 8). 

James Sauer became my mentor in my studies, and I found myself very much attached to him. Due to this, I became a regular visitor to ACOR and remember very well the flavor of Sue Sauer’s brownies. At that time, ACOR had only a small library, but it was very useful for me, and because I had started working on the material and writing chapters of my thesis, I met with Jim for long hours during the week. ACOR became like my second home. This lasted until I sat for the defense of my thesis, which took place on June 19, 1977, and I am very proud to mention that in addition to Jim, I had Walter Rast as a member of my thesis examination committee (Figs. 9–10). James Sauer is the one who put me on the real track of archaeology, and to him I will be indebted for my whole life.

During winter 1977, Khair Yassine, then professor of archaeology at the University of Jordan, agreed with James Pritchard of the University of Pennsylvania to excavate Tell es-Sa’idiyyeh, in the Jordan Valley. However, this excavation was cancelled due to security reasons, and most of the American students returned home, except for few of them, and one of these being Barbara Porter. Khair decided to continue his excavation plan, but instead at Tell Mazar. There, I worked hand in hand with the American participants on the dig, and I have been very close friends with Barbara Porter since that time (Fig. 12).

After my successful MA defense, I was very eager to pursue my PhD studies at one of the renowned American universities. I was in fact admitted to several of these, but without receiving any scholarships. Thus, I applied to the Deutscher Akkadmischer Austauch Dienst (DAAD), received a scholarship, and left Jordan on October 6, 1977, for the city Freiburg, where I learned the German language. This did not prevent me from continuing my relationship with my adored professor James Sauer or with ACOR (Fig. 12). I remember that during my studies in Germany I presented some books to the ACOR library. In addition, I shared with James Sauer all my interpretations of the archaeological material I obtained from the Jordan Valley Survey to use for my PhD dissertation.

I cannot remember exactly when (either in 1975 or 1976) ACOR moved from Amman’s 3^rd circle to the 6^th, though I preferred the older building to the new one. Jim started thinking of buying a piece of land to build a permanent residence for ACOR. I never stopped communicating with James Sauer, then the director of ACOR, during my time in Berlin, and in winter 1979 I came back to Jordan to study the pottery sherds and flint tools from the survey for my PhD dissertation, and ACOR was my study base. I used ACOR’s library, and ACOR’s draftsman (I believe Abdel-Razzaq?) helped in drawing the pottery sherds under study.

ACOR, My Research Center

After I finished my PhD studies in 1982, I returned to Jordan and joined Yarmouk University as an assistant professor. Because of this, we moved to Irbid, but I still went to ACOR to use the library and contact people there. I believe it was in 1981 when David McCreery took over the ACOR directorship from James Sauer, but this did not mean I stopped going to the center. David is a very nice and helpful person, and he was the one to finish construction of the new ACOR building and the move from the 6^th circle to Tla’a Ali. Professor McCreery participated in numerous excavations, most notably at Bâb edh-Dhrâ` and Numeira (Jordan). In addition, he served as co-director of the Tell Nimrin excavations in Jordan.

From 1982–1984 I taught for the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences of Yarmouk University, where we had several American faculty members, among them Robert Gordon, Gary Rollefson, and Scott Rolston, in addition to research assistants, including the photographer Cowherd and his wife. Those colleagues helped to establish the Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology of Yarmouk University under the directorship of Mo’awiyah Ibrahim, who was behind this.

In 1984 I began my Jebel Abu Thawwab excavation (on the highway leading from Sweileh to Jerash), and David McCreery came to visit me several times. I remember that Larry Herr and some of the Tell ‘Umairi expedition team also joined him. During the second season of excavations, ACOR asked Yarmouk University to accept the participation of around 15 American students who came to Jordan through the President’s Council for International Youth Exchange to participate on the Jebel Abu Thawwab and Khirbet ez-Zeiraqoun projects (Fig. 13). In return, a group of Yarmouk University students was to be invited to visit several universities in the USA, and this is what happened.

In the year 1979, the famous site of ‘Ain Ghazal was exposed during the process of bulldozing the highway connecting the capital Amman with the city az-Zarqa to the east. In the beginning of the 1980s, Gary Rollefson, who was a fellow at ACOR, and Khair Yassine, professor of archaeology at the University of Jordan, visited the site and decided to start rescue excavations with the cooperation of the Department of Antiquities. Unfortunately, Khair was asked to leave the project by the DoA, and ACOR and the Department of Antiquities continued the rescue excavations. In 1983, Gary joined Yarmouk University as a faculty member, and I benefited from this in that I obtained permission from the dig to study “the white-ware objects.” In 1984, Gary was offered a job at San Diego State University. He left Yarmouk, and I took over the project from him as Yarmouk University’s representative (Fig. 14), although the project continued to be a joint Jordanian-American project. Because of this project, I became acquainted with many American archaeologists who either participated on the dig or who came to stay at the ACOR residence. Gary Rollefson, Alan Simmons, and I became like brothers.

It can be stated here that during all seasons of excavations at ‘Ain Ghazal, and also durin the Wadi Shu’eib 1988 and 1989 seasons, ACOR was always involved in offering either financial help and/or a place to study, as well as facilitating the American members’ accommodation. ACOR’s permanent building was opened in 1986, a major milestone for which David McCreery deserves credit. Bert de Vries followed David McCreery as ACOR’s director (1988–1991). During this period, I was outside Jordan on sabbatical leave without pay, first at the Free University of Berlin and then at King Sa’ud University. Bert’s main archaeological interest was in documenting, restoring, and presenting Jordanian architecture from antiquity. His main love was the multi-period city of Umm el-Jimal in the Basalt Desert in northern Jordan. Yarmouk University faculty members and students were also involved in his Umm el-Jimal project.

ACOR as a Partner

In 1991, I returned to Yarmouk University from my sabbatical and leave without pay, which lasted for three years (1988/1989–1991/1992), and I was appointed as a director of the Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology at Yarmouk University. During my work, I continued the same policy of cooperation with all national and international archaeological institutions. During my period as director of the Institute (1991–1997), Patricia and Pierre Bikai were the directors of ACOR, from 1991 to 2006. Their publications and numerous fieldwork projects were a major contribution to the archaeology of Jordan. Moreover, in 1987, the cultural resources management (CRM) program was established jointly with the Department of Antiquities, with the purpose of preventing the destruction of archaeological sites in Jordan. In addition, Gaetano Palumbo, the ACOR contracted archaeologist, published an inventory of around ten thousand sites under the title “JADIS,” the Jordan Antiquities Database and Information System. All my surveyed or excavated sites were registered in this inventory.

During the tenure of Pierre and Patricia, we kept up the good relationship between our two institutions and I remember that I was always invited either to participate in workshops or to meet people at ACOR, and visa-versa, with Pierre being a regular visitor to the IAA/Yarmouk. I still remember his Arabic song to me, saying:

على دلعونا وتحت الصفصافة   وينو حبيبي زيدان كفافي

والله لأرحله وأمشي له حافي   لوكانوا  رجلي عم يوجعوني 

Pierre and Patricia’s main interest in the archaeology of Jordan was concentrated in Petra, and the excavations of the Great Temple and the Petra Church took all their time. The discovery of the Petra Church papyri absorbed much of their attention, which helped in the decipherment of these Byzantine-era documents. Pierre Bikai was also the person who advised the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, delegation to visit Yarmouk University in 1997 and to seek the possibility of starting a joint CRM project (Figs. 15–16). That delegation, consisting of William Schwab and Jerry Rose, and accompanied by Pierre and Ghazi Bisheh (then director general of antiquities), visited Yarmouk University and successfully negotiated a plan to apply to USAID to finance such a project. In addition to the exchange between faculty members of the two universities, a joint excavation project was started at the site of Ya’moun. In September 1997 I finished my role as director of the Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology and was assigned as a dean of research and graduate studies at Yarmouk University. Although I changed positions, I continued my cooperation with ACOR.

Welcome to My Friend Barbara

Pierre and Patricia Bikai were followed in the directorship of ACOR by an excellent and very close friend of mine with whom I worked at the Tell Mazar excavation in 1977, namely Barbara Porter (Fig. 17), who kept this position from 2006 until 2020. During her stay in Jordan, Barbara Porter became a friend to many Jordanians and became acquainted with Jordanian habits and customs. In addition to this, she was enormously active in studying, presenting, and preserving Jordanian archaeology. One of her most excellent accomplishments was organizing the International Conference in the History and Archaeology of Jordan in Washington, D.C., in 2007. Many Jordanian archaeologists and I were involved in the arrangement of and participation in this conference. Moreover, she much enlarged ACOR’s library collection. Due to this, it became well visited by researchers and students. She also organized a mostly monthly lecture series discussing the archaeology of Jordan, and I was a regular visitor to those events. In addition to this, during her directorship, ACOR assisted projects through its library as well as with the ACOR Conservation Cooperative, created in 2007. Under Barbara’s leadership, ACOR began implementation of the USAID-funded Sustainable Cultural Heritage Through Engagement of Local Communities Project (SCHEP) in 2014. As a result of this project, there are now several archaeological projects that were adapted to different site-specific or urgent needs, such as rescue excavation at Beit Ras and, more recently, the excavation of the Ammonite site Khirbet Abdoun.

For a researcher, the best place to go to is ACOR’s library, but in return one must give back something in thanks; thus I presented to the library all my published books (Fig. 18). Barbara Porter’s chapter in my festschrift (published in winter 2023) contributed an informative article discussing the ACOR’s role in Jordan’s heritage over 50 years. This number of years equals my number of years in very successful and fruitful cooperation with ACOR. In addition, Barbara finished her work as ACOR’s director in 2020, and I finished my job as a president of Yarmouk University in 2020 and went into retirement. Thank you to my dearest friend, Barbara. To show our gratitude and love to Barbara, we gave her a farewell party at our home (Fig. 19).

Pearce Paul Creasman

In February 2020, Dr. Pearce Paul Creasman became ACOR’s director. Dr. Creasman’s scientific interests focus on the heritage, archaeology, and environment of the Middle East and North Africa. Dr. Creasman is a cooperative and helpful archaeologist; this is reflected in his encouragement to Jordanian archaeologists regarding their publications. He continues to open the doors of ACOR’s library to all Jordanian researchers.

ACOR has influenced my archaeological career greatly and helped me in my archaeological studies and research. Many thanks to ACOR for being an excellent factor in my life.

Zeidan Kafafi received his PhD in February 1982 and since then has taught general and specialized M.A. courses at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences (1982–1984) and in the Faculty of Archaeology and Anthropology, then the Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, (1984–present) of Yarmouk University. His major field research and subsequent publications have centered on archaeological excavations and surveys, with special emphasis on Neolithic sites in Jordan (‘Ain Ghazal, Abu Hamid, ‘Ain Rahub, eh-Sayyeh, and Abu Thawwab), which contributed to a better understanding of the Late Neolithic periods and their material culture, as well as connections with neighboring regions. In addition to the Neolithic period, he is interested in other early periods, such as the Chalcolithic, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age; thus, he has directed or participated in expeditions at sites related to those periods, among them Abu Hamid, Deir ‘Alla, Mugheir, Dhaher el-Madina, and Tell Damiya. The results of his research have been presented in both local and internationally recognized journals. He has also been active in a wide range of university and community services and has received several prizes, presents, scholarships and awards from Jordan and other countries. A royal decree was issued on March 18th, 2018, by His Majesty King Abdullah II appointing Dr. Kafafi as the president of Yarmouk University. He served in this position until September 12th, 2020, and currently he is professor emeritus in archaeology.

The post Together with ACOR: Fifty Years of Cooperation appeared first on ACOR Jordan.

This year I was able to participate in the study season for the Khirbet al-Muhkayyat Project, along with Kathleen Macleod Kerr, a fellow undergraduate student from Wilfrid Laurier University. We were delighted to return to the dig house in Madaba where we had stayed in 2023 while completing the field-school credit for our degree program. However, this year we felt like true members of the team, as we were participating in work that would make its way into final project reports. 

When we first arrived in Jordan, on May 14, we still had a few days to ourselves before the senior team members arrived. We decided to take a return trip to Petra, since it had been so breathtaking last year, and it was just as mind-blowing this year (and even better, I was able to visit on my birthday!). We spent some time trekking up the steep hills of Wadi Musa back to our hotel and were able to stop and catch our breath while talking and playing soccer with some local boys. Talking with them was a nice break while we regained our composure from the long walk up hills and stairs.

A few days later, work kicked off in the dining-room-turned-office in the dig house. The kitchen tables were transformed into an intricate maze of makeshift desks where everyone pored over articles, potsherds, maps, and bones. The main task for Kathleen and I was to draw potsherds from last year’s field season that had been stored in the museum in Madaba; our drawings would become illustrations in the reports that senior members were writing (Fig. 1). We also worked on editing and digitizing pottery drawings from last year, as well as previous years, practiced some pottery reading, and helped with organizational housekeeping tasks such as labeling boxes and bags of human and animal remains. It was a wonderful opportunity and experience to work more closely with the senior team members than we had our first year, and we both hope to return to Jordan next field season to work with everyone again.

During our final few days in Jordan, Kathleen and I decided to venture out on our own to experience Jordan in ways that we did not have time to do in 2023 given our tight schedule. We took a taxi down to Wadi Mujib and experienced an exhilarating (both because of the scenery and from fighting the currents) hike through the waterfalls and beautiful stone passageways. It was well worth the hike to reach the waterfall at the end of the trail (Fig. 2)! The next day, we took a trip to Amman with the logistics manager for the project, Mashoor, and his family to visit the project leader, Prof. Debra Foran. In Amman, at Jafra Restaurant and Café, we had the most delicious breakfast I have ever experienced. We then headed to the American Center of Research to have lunch and chat with researchers staying there and were able to explore the grounds a bit before heading into the library to get some more work done (Fig. 3). 

Overall, our trip to Jordan was well worth it, and with our newfound knowledge and valuable experiences, we hope to return as part of the KMAP team next summer

Nina Rozic is an undergraduate student at Wilfrid Laurier University, finishing up her fourth year and graduating with a major in archaeology and heritage studies and a minor in global studies. Recipient of the Jennifer C. Groot Memorial Fellowship, she is interested in pottery and artifact care and curation and enjoys learning about Near Eastern and Mesoamerican archaeology. In 2024 Nina is also participating in a work-study program in collections management, working with cataloging and re-boxing legacy collections at her university, as well as working on completing an individualized directed study on Mamluk pottery from Trans-central Jordan under Dr. Debra Foran, using survey pottery from previous seasons.

The post Joining the 2024 Study Season at Khirbet al-Mukhayyat appeared first on ACOR Jordan.

In the 1920s pilots flying over the Harrat ash-Sham volcanic fields (also known as the Black Desert) were struck by a landscape that was “rugged and desolate” (Maitland 1927: 198), “like a dead fire — nothing but cold ashes” (Rees 1929: 389), whose “odious flat-topped slag heaps” instilled a “sinister foreboding” and the “epitome of loneliness” (Hill 1929: 3). It is likely that most people who fly above the Black Desert today would agree with these observations. Yet 9,500 years ago the situation was far removed from the conditions of today. Whereas the number of transhumant Bedouin herders in the 1920s may have numbered several thousand in the Black Desert (including its extensions into Syria and Saudi Arabia), a very different climate regime that included up to 60% more annual rainfall created a more luxuriant countryside, where water remained available for many months — perhaps all year — and grasslands that fed larger populations of domesticated and wild animals; in such a scenario, groups of people and their herds of sheep, goats, and perhaps cattle, enjoyed a more sedentary life.

The Eastern Badia Archaeological Project (EBAP), co-directed by Yorke Rowan, Alexander Wasse, Morag Kersel, and me, began surveys and excavations of six structures at Wisad Pools and the in Wadi al-Qattafi in 2008. At Wisad, where it is estimated that there are at least 300 structures (Fig. 1), one (W400) was occupied from ca. 7,000 to 6,500 BCE; W110 habitation lasted a perhaps a couple of centuries around 6700 BCE; W66 was occupied with interruptions from about 6400 to 5500 BCE; and W80 (the largest) from possibly 7200 (radiocarbon date pending) to 5600 BCE, again with two or three periods of abandonment. Some 30 km west of Wisad, as many as 800 buildings lie on the lower slopes of the basalt-capped mesas in the Wadi al-Qattafi, of which two were investigated. Mesa 7 structure SS-1 is approximately the same size as W80 and lasted from ca. 6500 to 6000 BCE. Building SS-11 on the southern slope of nearby Mesa 4 is rather small, just over 6 m² in floor area, and is attached to an animal enclosure.

In the twelve field seasons of the project, more than 24,000 chipped-stone artifacts, including 11,621 tools, 3,380 cores, and 9,124 pieces of debitage and fragments, spanning 1,600 years of the Late Neolithic Period (and a few artifacts from the last 200 years of the 8th millennium), were found. This inventory offers a database produced by a single analyst using five metric and twenty-seven qualitative variables sorted to phases of local habitation in a series of stratified deposits that can trace changes in what tools were made and by what techniques and styles. The results of the global analysis reflect strong conformity in many aspects of lithic production, but the data also show remarkable local singularity in some of the categories, which raises some intriguing questions of what might account for widespread matching behavior patterns and what may have caused distinctive local deviations from otherwise “normal” or “expected” practices. The following discussion will look at differences in what types of tools were manufactured, how some of those types changed over that length of time, how the quantities of specific tool types varied and what this might mean in terms of subsistence economy, and the role of specialization.

Arrowheads: Numbers and Forms

Investigations of the faunal remains from the excavations at Wisad (on the eastern edge of the basalt) and in the Wadi al-Qattafi (at the western edge) indicate that there was a strong similarity in terms of the importance of hunting wild mammals (especially gazelle) and caprine herding (Martin et al. 2022). It might be expected that the focus on gazelle in both Wisad and Qattafi would use the same kind of hunting equipment, but this was not the case. At Wisad W80, arrowhead styles that were prevalent before 6600 BCE rapidly switched from Haparsa/Nizzanim/Herzliya points to a predominance (80%) of relatively tiny transverse arrowheads that, instead of being pointed, bore a broad razor edge at the tip (Fig. 2). At Qattafi only three transverse arrowheads were recovered, and they are clearly produced by someone who had heard of the type but had had no experience in making them. But one point type — the Badia point, long and relatively heavy — made up 16% of the arrowheads, and no Badia points were found at W80.

Drills

Drills (Fig. 3) were made at all the excavated buildings, and nominally they were for the production of beads of stone, bone, and shell. Bead drills were very numerous at Qattafi SS-1 (11%), more than any other building except for Wisad W400, which was clearly a “drill factory,” with a stunning number of 919 pieces (58% of the tool kit). Beyond the amazing popularity of drills, the number of beads is only a handful, in addition to which there were no stored materials to be made into beads and no tools to shape the blanks into beads. Even so, W400 is certainly an example of specialization by one or several people, and there are other examples of specialization, as at Jilat 13 and Jilat 25 (Wright et al. 2008) and Bawwabat al-Ghazal. (Rollefson et al. 1999).

In addition to hand drills and rotary, there are considerable numbers of burin spalls retouched to extremely acuminated piercing tools; a better name for the tools might be “needles,” with tips at 1 mm diameter. The thinness at the tip suggests a vulnerability to snapping if used against a hard surface such as shell, bone, or stone, and a function other than bead drill is much more likely. A possible reason for fashioning the delicate needles might be for tattooing skin (human or leather), although evidence for such a function has not been recovered.

Denticulates

As became immediately clear while clearing a small patch of Phragmites reeds on the western edge of the southern pool at Azraq, one does not simply pull the reeds out of the ground. That may explain the strong presence of denticulates at the buildings at Qattafi and Wisad. This type comes in two versions: regular denticulates and microdenticulates (Fig. 4). The saw-like edge on the former tool is relatively long with wide adjacent notches and strong, sharp points between them. The second type uses much smaller adjacent notches and would probably have been selected for finer work.

The basalt walls of the structures at Wisad and Qattafi were built to a height of about a meter, but they did not support a roof. Wilfred Thesiger (2000) demonstrated how versatile and effective cane reeds could be used for roofing, and with permanent or nearly permanent water in the mudflats in the Black Desert during the Late Neolithic, there would have been an abundance of roofing material to construct a dome over the structures. The vicious-looking regular denticulates would have been used to harvest the larger reeds, and the microdenticulates used for cutting arrow shafts.

Wedges

Wedges (or “splintered pieces”) (Fig. 5) have long been known and are usually characterized as “debitage” (Betts and Kafafi 1992: 157), but we consider them to be an important component of the tool kit of the Late Neolithic industry of the Black Desert. They range from only 2% in M7 SS-1 at Qattafi to 9% at Wisad W80, 10% at W66, and 14% at W400. The tool is distinguished by heavy severe bifacial battering on opposed ends, or lateral edges, or on all opposed edges. The apparent manner of use can be described as fragments of blades or flakes, held between thumb and forefinger, and hammered with a stone. The intent of wedges is to split longitudinally objects such as reeds or animal bone; the first use is to provide slats for weaving mats used as roofing and flooring, as well as baskets and other containers, and the second to split animal bone to extract marrow.

Polyhedrons

Polyhedrons are not tools; they are geometric objects shaped by percussion into cuboid, spherical, and pyramidal forms, ranging in mean dimensions of 14 mm high to 10 by 11 mm basal width (Fig. 6). They normally are made from fine-quality translucent flint of clear quartz, brown, tan, and white. They have absolutely no visible utilitarian function except, perhaps, as tokens in games, something also suggested by Fujii (2006) and D. Cropper (2011); such games are indicated by fifty-three game boards from the Late PPNB  (Pre-Pottery Neolithic B) period into the Late Neolithic and appear to be antecedents of such games as those found at Mesopotamian cities in the 4th through 1st millennia BCE (Rollefson forthcoming).

References

Betts, A. and Kafafi, Z. 1992. “Aspects of the Neolithic Periods in Jordan.” Paléorient 18(2): 156–158.

Cropper, D. 2011. Lithic Technology and Regional Variation in Late Neolithic Jordan. BAR International Series 2291. Oxford: Archaeopress.

Fujii, S. 2006. “Wadi Abu Tulayha: A Preliminary Report of the 2005 Spring and Summer Excavation Seasons of the al-Jafr Basin Prehistoric Project, Phase 2.” Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 50: 9–31.

Hill, R. 1929. The Baghdad Air Mail. London: Edward Arnold & Co.

Maitland, P. 1927. “The ‘Works of the Old Men’ of Arabia.” Antiquity 1: 196–203.

Martin, L. and Saritas, Ö., with Rollefson, G. Rowan, Y. and Wasse, A. 2022. “New Insights into Late Neolithic Herding in the Jordanian Harra: Zooarchaeological Results from Wisad Pools and Wadi al-Qattafi.” Paper presented at The Archaeozoology of Southwest Asia and Adjacent Areas International Meeting, Tokyo, 28 November 28–2 December 2022.

Rees, L. 1929. “The Transjordan Desert.” Antiquity 3: 389–407.

Rollefson, G. Forthcoming. “What Are the Odds? Neolithic Game Boards from the Levant.” In Desert Journeys: Papers on the Prehistory and Protohistory of the Arid Southern Levant. Journal of Arid Land Environments.

Rollefson, G., Quintero, L. and Wilke, P. 1999. “Bawwab al-Ghazal: Preliminary Report on the 1998 Testing Season.” Neo-Lithics 1/99: 2–4.

Thesiger, W. 2000. The Marsh Arabs. London: HarperCollins.

Wright, K., Critchley, P. and Garrard, A. 2008. S”tone Bead Technologies and Early Craft

Specialization: Insights from Two Neolithic Sites in Eastern Jordan.” Levant 40(2): 131–165.

Gary Rollefson, a 2023–2024 ACOR-CAORC Postdoctoral Fellow, is professor emeritus of anthropology at Whitman College in Washington State and at San Diego State University. He began prehistoric research at Lower and Middle Paleolithic sites in the Azraq Wetlands in 1978, but in 1982 became the principal investigator at ‘Ain Ghazal. Since 2008 he has been co-director of the Eastern Badia Archaeological Project in the basalt region of eastern Jordan. His publications number more than 380 and include three co-edited books on prehistoric Jordan.

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I had the opportunity to participate in the Khirbat al-Mukhayyat Archaeological Project in Jordan for my first field school as an undergraduate from Wilfrid Laurier University thanks to a Jennifer C. Groot Memorial Fellowship award from the American Center of Research. I enjoyed working alongside my peers, the local community, and professors, including Dr. Debra Foran. Throughout my time in Jordan, I learned new terminology, used my knowledge and skills from past classes, and participated in what is, for me, a new culture. The team members and I were fortunate to open up a handful of units, go on survey, and practice our lab work. Excavation was conducted with research goals in mind: Khirbat al-Mukhayyat was a lively area during the Bronze and Iron Ages, and the archaeological data make clear that there was social, political, and economic development taking place here. The 2023 season had a set of objectives, such as mapping and collecting data from architectural finds, collecting artifacts and samples, as well as analyzing the data, entering it into the database, and undertaking preservation/conservation. The students had the chance to experience all aspects of the archaeological process, including excavation, survey, flotation, and various kinds of lab work. The lab work I performed consisted of washing and sorting pottery for further analysis. Object drawing and pottery registration were also a part of the afternoon routine. 

My favorite part of the field school was excavating on site. Searching for artifacts and learning not only more about them but also why it was either common or rare to find different types of objects was very interesting. The archaeological fieldwork experience felt unreal—not only was the view from the site spectacular, but being able to see the new research focuses for the year was exciting. Participating in this project in Jordan was an unforgettable experience as I learned more about not just the archaeology but also the local culture and people. I also very much enjoyed my first time surveying in the wadi, which I was able to experience with good friends, mentors, and colleagues. I enjoyed the hike and searching the surface for pottery, lithic tools, and other objects. I was able to apply my knowledge from one of my courses, Artifact Analysis, which made these artifacts easier to spot in the condensed fields. 

Living in Madaba was an enriching experience; just walking to different shops and trying different foods added to our cultural understanding. Some of my favorite things to eat were the pita and hummus, falafel wraps, and shawarmas. Our cook also made our group delicious dishes for lunch, and in Wadi Rum we were able to try a traditional meal cooked underground. All the Jordanians on the project were very welcoming and made our time in Jordan very enjoyable. It was a pleasure to get to know them.

Throughout my time in Jordan, every weekend our group went on field trips to different archaeological sites. Some of my favorites were Jerash, Petra, Wadi Rum, and Qasar Azraq. I enjoyed seeing Qasar Azraq, as I was fascinated by the basalt blocks with which the castle was built. Walking through the Roman city of Jerash was amazing, especially seeing the Temple of Artemis and the Temple of Zeus. Jerash was especially impressive for how large and well-preserved the temples are. Hiking through the trails at Petra was an unforgettable experience. Being with my peers and walking on the steps to get to the monastery—and seeing the whole site from the highest points—was an amazing journey. After Petra we went to Wadi Rum, where the night sky was saturated with stars. Not only were we fed a delicious dinner, but being a part of a group of students running around in the desert was lots of fun and a satisfying way to end that weekend trip. 

Overall, my field-school experience was more than I could have ever expected. Khirbat al-Mukhayyat was so beautiful and everyone on the project was very helpful. I learned much through excavating and enjoyed learning about Jordan’s complex history. The Near East has such interesting archaeology, and I hope to come back and study more in Jordan. 

Miya Pletsas is an undergraduate student attending Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. She is majoring in archaeology and heritage studies, with a minor in North American studies. She has just finished her second year and is a member of the Archaeology Society. She also volunteers at pottery labs and works as an instructional assistant for a first-year archaeology course. She is interested in Near Eastern archaeology and enjoys learning about pottery. Miya will be completing her fieldwork credit at the Khirbet al-Mukhayyat Archaeological Project in Jordan in the summer of 2023 thanks to the Jennifer C. Groot Memorial Fellowship offered by the American Center of Research.

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