by Gary Rollefson 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…
by Yorke Rowan Material culture provides a glimpse into the important objects that people created, exchanged, and carried with them for functional and symbolic purposes. The study of archaeology requires a suite of specializations and perspectives, but material culture remains a fundamental source of information. In his pioneering volume In Small Things Forgotten (1977), James Deetz…
ACOR Proudly Presents:“An Invocation to Jesus in a Safaitic Inscription?” An ACOR online lecture by Dr. Ahmad Al-Jallad (Ohio State University) on February 16, 2021 About the Lecture: Safaitic inscriptions constitute the largest epigraphic corpus in Jordan. “Safaitic” refers to the northernmost branch of the South Semitic alphabet, a sister of the Ancient South Arabian…
Dr. Gary Rollefson, anthropologist and recent National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Fellow at ACOR, writes below about his ongoing research in the desolate Black Desert of eastern Jordan. In 1980, Alison Betts, a doctoral student at the time, invited me to Jordan’s Black Desert to see what her research area looked like. After climbing to…
The ACOR Video Lecture Series provides accessible discussions of new research into the past and present of Jordan and the broader Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean worlds. This video was adapted from the October 2017 public lecture delivered at ACOR by Dr. Gary Rollefson, ACOR-NEH Fellow and Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, Whitman College. Dr. Rollefson’s…
An ACOR Public Lecture Who Were the People in the Neolithic Black Desert? Wednesday 18 October 2017 at 6:00 pm Dr. Gary Rollefson ACOR National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow & Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at Whitman College Wednesday 18 October 2017 at 6:00 pm To be followed by a reception About the lecture Before…
Dr. Gary Rollefson, professor emeritus of Anthropology at Whitman College, is a 2017 National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) fellow at ACOR. Dr. Rollefson’s NEH Fellowship project, titled “Lithic Technologies and Social Identities: A Comparative Analysis of Chipped Stone Tool Production in Jordan’s Badia,” examines the stone tools associated with the remains of Neolithic houses…
Catherine Maier is an undergraduate in Anthropology at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington. Her passion for geology and archaeology led her to apply for the Groot Fellowship to join excavations at Wadi Qattafi and work with Dr. Gary Rollefson as part of the Eastern Badia Archaeological project. The summer 2016 dig aimed to uncover…
Austin “Chad” Hill, 2015–2016 CAORC Post Doctorate Fellow Chad Hill preparing to launch a fixed wing drone at Feifa, Jordan 2014 (Photo by Morag Kersel) Chad Hill is an archaeologist who specializes in the rapidly developing field of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)-based surveying. He uses aerial photography and 3D photogrammetry to identify archaeological sites, document excavations, and…
[vc_row][vc_column][td_block_video_youtube playlist_yt=”RL7GMKNoxBw”][vc_column_text]
The Late Neolithic Colonization of the Eastern Badia Dr. Gary Rollefson Professor of Anthropology, Whitman College ACOR-CAORC Senior Fellow Tuesday 25 February 2014 at 6:00pm Reception to Follow About the Lecture Unprecedented population growth, environmental degradation, and a reduction of rainfall by the end of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) period (c. 8,700-7,000 BC) resulted…
A Kinder, Greener Black Desert: Results of Archaeological Research of Neolithic Sites Dr. Gary Rollefson Professor of Anthropology, Whitman College ACOR-CAORC Senior Fellow Tuesday 25 February 2014, 6:00 pm Reception to Follow About the Lecture: Passing through the Black Desert in northeastern Jordan, one is struck by the lifeless and forbidding character of the landscape….