On 21 October 2020, ACOR participated in the Middle East Librarians Association Annual Conference (MELA) for the first time, presenting on how our library and archives adapted to the changing conditions of the pandemic, alongside panelists from institutions across thirteen different time zones spanning from California to Qatar. Below is a text adapted from a presentation delivered by archivist Jessica Holland, which you can also watch as a video recording at the link below.

Challenges – COVID-19 at a time of change for ACOR

Jordan has experienced one of the strictest lockdowns in the world in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. This began with the closure of the airport on Tuesday, 17 March, which led our interns, fellows, and residents to rush to find flights home. In the days that followed, emergency law was announced to ensure compliance with measures that included comprehensive lockdowns and restrictions on travel between regions in the country and even between neighborhoods. A driving ban lasted until the end of April. From March to June, on days where there was not a comprehensive lockdown, sirens announced a sunset curfew. Schools remained closed until September, and, as October 2020, the majority have since converted to remote learning.

With airports and borders closed from March to September, our library and archives team sought solutions in order to keep serving those who had planned to travel to Jordan for research or to lead educational tours, not to mention educators within Jordan who regularly use ACOR’s library. All such activities were now postponed indefinitely.

Changes underway at ACOR

ACOR was already in the midst of major changes even before COVID-19 altered all of our lives. In the two weeks prior to the travel ban and lockdown, Carmen “Humi” Ayoubi, ACOR’s library director of thirty-two years, retired, and the institution as a whole gained a new director, Dr. Pearce Paul Creasman.

Fortunately, ACOR had a strong foundation to build upon in these strange times. Since 2016, ACOR has implemented a project to digitize, describe, and share online a large proportion of its photographic archives. This investment in a digital humanities project—“the ACOR Photo Archive”— made it possible for our team to keep building resources for our user communities during lockdown despite not being able to serve them in person.

For those not familiar with the project, the ACOR Photo Archive includes a variety of collections donated to the center, as well as institutional archives, which in total span eleven countries in the region over the past eighty years and include photographic negatives, prints, and slides. These photographs record significant changes relevant to cultural heritage, social and political history, and environmental change. The dedicated archive platform also compiles for the first time all major transliterations and Arabic script versions of 200+ prominent heritage site names in Jordan, improving search capacities.

This project took the library from a state of providing access to resources to producing a resource itself. It brought the team into contact with experts in library science, archival methods, and photography conservation from around the world, activated latent skills of existing staff members, and trained new project staff in their roles as archivists, technicians, assistants, and interns.

The resulting increase in digital literacy for our library and archives project staff meant that ACOR as a whole was in much better position to cope with the sudden shift to remote working than we might have been otherwise.

Practical challenges

That being said, we faced some serious challenges. When we began working from home in mid-March, our main focus was our imminent project deadline and concrete target of 30,000 images to be published online by 30 September 2020. Even though there was a kind offer by Department of Education to extend the deadline for outstanding project tasks due to the pandemic, we felt that, with our strong team, we were able to meet the digitization and upload target for the project without interruption.

The immediate transition to working from home presented challenges that readers will be familiar with, and also some challenges perhaps more specific to Jordan, such as household internet access not being particularly prevalent beyond what a mobile device can provide. Mobile data packages are typically generous enough to cover most “recreational” uses of the internet, such as WhatsApp and YouTube, and so, prior to the lockdown, there was not much, if any, need for dedicated home connections. Of course, relying on mobile data is not feasible for extended periods of working from home, particularly when essential tasks include video calls and the processing of large images and metadata.

Finally, as digitization is a core component of the Photo Archive Project, our team needed access to physical photographs, We had to react fast to the rumors of an imminent lockdown that circulated in the days before the airport closed.

Division of digitization/description labor

In the three-days’ notice before the total lockdown, archival technician Razan Ahmad rapid-scanned slides to produce a backlog for her and library and archives assistant Eslam Al Dawodieh to work on in the weeks that followed. Simultaneously, Ashley Lumb, who, as project archivist, was living at ACOR and thus had access to the material, continued to scan images, which were then edited, described, and uploaded by team members from their homes.

As weeks turned into months, we moved from the immediate crisis response into sustaining workflows. We rearranged our project timeline to focus on tasks that could be done remotely, moving a scheduled period of image and metadata quality-control checking forward by several months and then dividing up the tasks involved into component parts (slide scanning, photo editing, metadata description and checking, uploading images to the online platform), spreading these out among the team.

By doing this, we were able to process and publish 3,500 images through our online archive. This meant that we almost reached our target of 30,000 images online several weeks ahead of schedule.

Second phase of the pandemic in Jordan: June–August

Over the summer, there was almost no community transfer of COVID-19 in Jordan, so staff began working in the office again. Even though Jordan was going through a period of relative normality, we recognized the need to realign our outreach strategies to account for the fact that our global and local research communities had now moved largely online. We prioritized sharing video content about the archive online in English and Arabic, in short and longer formats, and experimented with paid promotions on social media. This had great results, with some one-minute clips garnering 2,700 cross-platform views. Assistant librarian Samya Khalaf Kafafi’s Arabic-language introduction to how the archive can be used to teach the Jordanian school curriculum was made available for online viewing just before schools converted to 100% remote learning last month.

Initiating new digital projects

ACOR implements the USAID Sustainable Cultural Heritage Through Engagement of Local Communities Project (SCHEP), the typical activities of which do not overlap much with library and archive programming. However, given the effects of the pandemic on international and national visitors to touristic and heritage sites, an archiving project was developed with SCHEP as a way to continue facilitating, on a remote basis, the transfer of knowledge and best practices in the field of heritage preservation and sustainable development.

By collaborating with our colleagues in SCHEP, ACOR’s library and archive has been able to design and implement our first born-digital archive project, described by fully bilingual metadata, thus making it a valuable future resource for both English and Arabic speakers.

Building online user communities

The Photo Archive Project also helped ACOR build collaborations with local open-access organizations, therein further expanding our user communities. Prior to the pandemic, project staff initiated a collaboration with the Jordan Open Source Association and Wikimedia Levant to host ACOR’s first-ever Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon on the theme of Jordanian heritage in October 2019 and then to offer Wikimedian-in-Residence opportunities at ACOR from January to June 2020. We stayed in touch with this online editor community through a Facebook group called “Open Jordanian Heritage.” In June, Jacqueline Salzinger, ACOR’s development and communications officer, was able to utilize this network to connect to U.S. audiences through a 24-hour Virtual Edit-a-Thon that drew participation from both MENA and North America. The June event was coordinated with the help of interns who had been repatriated to the United States in March as well as ones newly engaged as remote summer volunteers. Most recently, ACOR held an edit-a-thon dedicated to increasing the amount of information about Jordanian academics on Wikipedia on 24 October.

Lessons Learned from 2020

Digital projects should be valued as core activities—not fashionable “add-ons” to library services

Overnight, “secondary” digital projects and outreach activities became the primary methods through which we could continue to provide resources of value to our user communities and actively engage with them. This demonstrates the vital importance of such activities as part of our core library and archives services.

Collaborate in order to weather the storm together

The 2020 Middle East Librarians Association conference—held, as you might expect in 2020, online—presented an opportunity for us to share how ACOR has been adapting to pandemic circumstances and to see how others have as well. This has demonstrated MELA’s immense value as a support system of global reach. Ultimately, we always have so much to learn from one another, but now more than ever, this transfer of knowledge and advice between professionals across the field has become a lifeline.

About the author:

Jessica Holland is the ACOR archivist. Her work specializes in digital curation and outreach activities as part of a long-term strategy to make ACOR’s significant archival holdings more accessible to the public.  Jessica’s background is in art history, curation and museums. She received her B.A. from the University of Cambridge in History of Art (2013), and her M.A. from SOAS, University of London in Near and Middle Eastern studies with intensive Arabic, having submitted her thesis within the digital humanities field (2018).

You can read more about the ACOR Photo Archive Project (2016–2020) at photoarchive.acorjordan.org.

Browse the over 30,000 published images for yourself at acor.digitalrelab.com

Subscribe to ACOR by email and on Youtube to receive future updates on content like this!

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“ACOR Photo Archive: A New Visual Resource for Middle and High School Teaching about Jordan and the Region. ” This Arabic presentation was delivered as part of the Jordan School Librarians Conference in November 2019 to introduce the ACOR Photo Archive project and its work to preserve endangered photographic heritage from Jordan and the region. Thirty thousand archival photographs, dating from the 1940s to the 2000s, have been digitized and made freely available online, for anyone to download and reuse. The presentation links photos in the ACOR collection to core subjects within the Jordanian middle- and high-school curriculum, including social studies, heritage, history, and tourism. ACOR Assistant Librarian Samya Khalaf Kafafi, with Archivist Jessica Holland, makes suggestions about how school librarians and teachers could use these photographs within lesson plans and independent research projects for their students.

Samya Khalaf Kafafi studied library information and management systems at the Jordan University (high diploma, 2010) and cultural resource management at the Hashemite University (BSc, 2004). In 2011, Samya joined ACOR as a full-time staff member and has become part of the core management team of the ACOR Library. As part of the ACOR Archive, Samya does considerable work adding and researching metadata, overseeing uploads and is an expert with the Starchive software platform.

For more content such as this, please subscribe to our blog, ACOR Insights, and the ACOR YouTube channel. A recent lecture about the photo archive in English may be found here. 

عن المحاضرة:

محاضرة بعنوان “أرشيف أكور الالكتروني للصور والوثائق: مصدر مرئي جديد للتدريس في المدارس عن تاريخ الأردن والمنطقة”  قُدمت في مؤتمر أمناء المكتبات المدارس الاردنية ، نوفمبر 2019. تم االتعريف عن المركز الأمركي للابحاث الشرقية أكور واهم اهدافها ونشاطتها والمشاريع الخاصه بها ومن ثم التركيز على المشروع أرشيف أكور الالكتروني للصور والوثائق والذي يهدف للحفاظ على التراث الثقافي الفوتوغرافي المهدد بالانقراض في الاردن والشرق الاوسط، من خلال رقمنة الصور التي يعود تاريخها مابين 1940-2000، من اشكالها المختلفة كشرائح مصورة، صور السلبية والفوتوغرافية الى الإلكترونية، وتوفيرها على قاعدة بيانات وشرح مفصل على كيفية استخدامها. وجاءت الفكرة هنا لربط المنهاج المدرسي لمادة الاجتماعيات بأرشيف أكور الالكتروني من خلال عمل دراسة مسحية لكتب مادة الاجتماعيات في المنهاج والمحتوى الأثري والسياحي والتاريخي فيها وكيف ممكن على أمناء المكتبات ومعلمي مادة الاجتماعيات العمل على زيادة الوعي للطلاب بالمواقع الاثرية والتراثية باستخدام صور الارشيف الموثوقة والموثقه من قبل آثاريين بدلا من استخدام صور عامة على الانترنت وتعريف الطالب بتاريخه الاردن والمنطقة.

درست سامية دبلوم عالي في نظم معلومات المكتبات وإدارتها في الجامعة الأردنية (2010)، وحاصلة على درجة البكالوريوس في إدارة الموارد التراثية والمتاحف من الجامعة الهاشمية (2004) انضمت سامية في عام 2011 إلى أكور كعضو بدوام كامل وأصبحت جزءًا من فريق الإدارة الأساسي لمكتبة أكور، وكجزء من الأرشيف، سامية منسقة في المشروع ومسؤوله عن ادخال البيانات في الارشيف والبحث عنها، وتحميلها على قاعدة البيانات.

The post أرشيف أكور: مصدر مرئي جديد للتدريس في المدارس عن تاريخ الأردن والمنطقة appeared first on ACOR Jordan.

ACOR Proudly Presents:
“Nabataeans on the Shores of the Dead Sea”
An ACOR Public Lecture by Dr. Konstantinos D. Politis on March 10, 2020

About the Lecture:

Ancient sites that have recently come to light on the Dead Sea littoral reveal what life was like for the average Nabataean some two thousand years ago. Ancient texts also refer to these communities and the close relations that they had with their immediate neighbors to the northwest, even to the extent of intermarriage. The Dead Sea region will be discussed in the larger context of the evolving Nabataean realm. The site of Khirbet Qazone will be given special attention, as it is the focus of K.D. Politis’ current research supported by an ACOR CAORC fellowship. The cemetery at Khirbet Qazone included well-preserved textiles, along with other objects dating from the 1st to 3rd centuries A.D. There is also an early Christian phase (4th to 6th century), which includes a church.

About the Lecturer:

Dr. Konstantine Politis is an archaeologist educated in Greece, the United States, Britain and Belgium. His early fieldwork was in Greece and Liechtenstein. From 1988–2011, he was based at the British Museum, which was the principal sponsor of his excavations. The focus of his work is the Late Antique and early Islamic periods in the east Mediterranean and Arabia. Dr. Politis has worked in Jordan for over 35 years, and his main archaeological projects include the Sanctuary of Lot at Deir ‘Ain ‘Abata, the Masna al-Sukkar and Khirbat ash-Sheikh ‘Isa at Ghawr as-Safi, and Khirbet Qazone. Currently he is on a second ACOR-CAORC Fellowship to conclude the studies of that site for publication. As chairperson of the Hellenic Society for Near Eastern Studies, Dr. Politis initiated the Museum at the Lowest Place on Earth in Jordan, led excavations at Ra’s al-Hadd in Oman, and coordinated a documentation training program for mosaics in Syria, as well as an exhibition on Hellenistic Syria in the Hama Museum.

For more content such as this, please subscribe to the ACOR Insights Blog and ACOR Youtube account.

A recent lecture given in Arabic may be found here. 

Learn More: 

• For a written summary of Dr. Politis’ current research, please read his February article on the ACOR Blog.
• Click here to watch a past ACOR lecture by Dr. Politis, called “The Origins of the Sugar Industry in Jordan: Latest results of the Ghawr aṣ-Ṣāfī Project.”
• To explore tourism opportunities in the Southern Ghawr, please click here to be taken to the “Visit Safi,” a SCHEP-supported tourism micro-enterprise.

The post Nabataeans on the Shores of the Dead Sea appeared first on ACOR Jordan.

   للتنويه:  هنا يتوفر محاضرة توجيهية عن أرشيف أكور باللغة العربية

ACOR Proudly Presents:
“The ACOR Photo Archive: Mobilizing Digital Tools to Preserve Visual Heritage”
An ACOR Public Lecture by Dr. Jack Green and Jessica Holland on February 11, 2020

About the Lecture:

The ACOR Photo Archive contains rich collections of tens of thousands of photographs, but its reach also extends far beyond the images themselves. ACOR’s archival collections reflect the seismic shifts that have occurred in the region over the past 80 years, including early black-and-white photos of 1940s Amman, rare color slides of the technological and development boom of the 80s, and photographs of heritage sites that have since been damaged by conflict in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen in the last decade. Newly digitized, these images and their associated metadata provide an especially valuable frame of reference  with which to understand Jordanian heritage, demonstrating many applications within academic research and among cultural heritage professionals. In addition, given the rapid urban development Jordan has experienced within the past 30 years, the photos document social change in cities such as Amman and Aqaba and provide new generations access to alternative views of these places within living memory.  The ACOR Photo Archive Project is driven by the values of sustainability and accessibility, and in order to make ACOR’s archival efforts sustainable in the long term, the Project trains Jordanian graduates in photo digitization and hosts workshops attended by Jordanian national and international heritage institutions.  The ACOR Photo Archive Project is funded by the United States Department of Education (Title VI grant; 2016 – 2020).

A breakdown of the different sections is as follows: Project Introduction (1:49–8:40), Changes Over Time: From Excavation to Restoration (8:41–27:55), Interdisciplinary Collections (27:56–44:01), Collaboration (44:02–46:20), Re-use of Archive Photos (46:20–48:28), and Future Directions (48:28–50:19).

To download a high-resolution, linked PDF of the lecture presentation, please click here. 

Background: About the ACOR Photo Archive Project

The ACOR Photo Archive collections is interdisciplinary, featuring works of interest to a broad range of specializations including anthropology, architecture, urban studies, history and art history, conservation, economics, geography and cultural heritage studies. Each of the 25,000 photos online is described in detail, and the growing number of Arabic language references continue to improve bi-lingual search capabilities within the free, online database.  Please note you can read more online, search the collection yourself, and follow project highlights on Instagram.

About the Lecturers:

Jessica Holland is the ACOR Archivist. Her work specializes in Digital Curation and outreach activities as part of a long-term strategy to make ACOR’s significant archival holdings more accessible to the public.  Jessica’s background is in art history, curation and museums. Jessica received her B.A. from the University of Cambridge in History of Art (2013), and her M.A. from SOAS, University of London in Near and Middle Eastern Studies with Intensive Arabic, submitting her thesis within the digital humanities field (2018).

Jack Green joined ACOR as the Associate Director in October 2017. He supports ACOR’s activities, including the USAID SCHEP project. He also serves as the project director of the Temple of the Winged Lions Cultural Resource Management Initiative (TWLCRM) at Petra and co-Project Lead of the ACOR Photo Archive Project. Jack Green’s academic and professional background is in ancient Near Eastern archaeology, cultural heritage, and museums.  He was curator of Ancient Near East at the Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford (2007–11), chief curator of the Oriental Institute Museum, University of Chicago (2011–15), and deputy director at the Corning Museum of Glass. Jack Green received his B.A. degree from the University of Liverpool (1999) and M.A. and Ph.D from the Institute of Archaeology, University College London (2001, 2006 respectively).

For more content such as this, please subscribe to the ACOR Blog and ACOR Youtube account. A recent lecture given in Arabic may be found here. 

The post The ACOR Photo Archive: Mobilizing Digital Tools to Preserve Visual Heritage appeared first on ACOR Jordan.

ACOR Proudly Presents:
“Religious Change in Southern Jordan in the Byzantine and Islamic Periods” An ACOR Public Lecture by Dr. Robert Schick on December 10, 2019

About the Lecture:

In the first centuries AD, everybody in the area of Jordan south of the Wadi Mujib were devotees of some Nabataean or Roman religion or another. Christians first appear in the early fourth century and grew in numbers as the pagans largely disappeared by the early fifth century. The Christians formed the overwhelming majority of the population throughout the fifth, sixth and early seventh centuries and continued to thrive for a few generations after the Muslim Conquests of the 630s. As the Muslim population grew and became the majority, the Christians declined and largely faded from view by the ninth and tenth centuries, leaving a Christian population attested in only a few places in the Crusader period. After the Crusades, the Christians dwindled into the minority population found today. This talk seeks to investigate this two-fold change in religious affiliation from paganism to Christianity to Islam within some five hundred years through the analysis of historical sources and archaeological evidence.

About the Lecturer:

Dr. Robert Schick has been working in Jordan since 1980 as an archaeologist and historian, with a focus on the Byzantine and Islamic periods. He has also researched the Islamic sites and monuments in Jerusalem for many years and taught archaeology courses at al-Quds University and Bir Zeit University between 1995 and 1998. He taught Islamic Studies in Hyderabad, India between 2000–2006. Since 2014, he has been based in Germany at the University of Mainz, researching early Christianity in southern Jordan, the topic of this lecture.

التغيير الديني في جنوب الأردن في الفترات البيزنطية والإسلامية: من الوثنية للمسيحية الى الإسلامية 

محاضرة عامة، ألقاها الدكتور روبرت شيك في أكور ،10-12-2019

معلومات عن المحاضرة

 في القرون الأولى بعد الميلاد، كان الناس في منطقة وادي الموجب – جنوب الأردن معتنقي لبعض الديانات النبطية أو الرومانية أو غيرها. ظهر المسيحيون لأول مرة  في أوائل القرن الرابع الميلادي و ازدادوا عددا حتى اختفى الوثنيون إلى حد كبير في بداية القرن الخامس. شكّل المسيحيون الغالبية العظمى من السّكان طوال القرن الخامس والسادس و أوائل القرن السابع واستمروا في الإزدهار لبضعة أجيال بعد الفتوحات الإسلامية في ثلاثينات القرن السادس الميلادي. مع نمو أعداد المسلمين حتى أصبحوا هم الأغلبية، تراجع المسيحيون و تلاشوا  إلى حد كبير في القرنين التاسع و العاشر،  تاركين شواهد لهم في بعض الأماكن التي تعود للعصر الصليبي. تضاءل عدد السكّان المسيحيين بعد الحملات الصليبية حتى أصبحوا من الأقلية السّكانية في الوقت الحالي. تسعى هذه المحاضرة إلى تحقّيق التغيير الثنائي في الانتماء الديني من الوثنية إلى المسيحية إلى الإسلامية خلال حوالي خمسمائة عام من خلال تحليل المصادر التاريخية والأدلة الأثرية 

عن المحاضر

يعمل الدكتور روبرت شيك في الاردن منذ عام 1980  كعالم آثار ومؤرّخ، مع التركيز علی العصور البيزنطية والإسلامية. كما بحث في المواقع والمعالم الإسلامية في القدس لعدة سنوات وكان يُدرس علم الآثار في جامعة القدس وجامعة بيرزيت في الفترة ما بين 1995-1998. قام بتدريس الدراسات الإسلامية في مدينة حيدر آباد في الهند في الفترة ما بين 2000-2006. منذ عام 2014، يقيم الدكتور روبرت في ألمانيا في جامعة ماينز، يبحث في  المسيحية المبكرة في جنوب الاردن، و هو موضوع المحاضرة

For more content such as this, please subscribe to the ACOR Blog and ACOR Youtube account. A recent lecture given in Arabic may be found here. 

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ACOR Proudly Presents:
“The Archaeology of Olive Oil: New Excavations at Khirbet Ghozlan in the Wadi Ar-Rayyan” A public lecture at ACOR delivered by Dr. James Fraser on October 30, 2019

About the Lecture:
In the mid 3rd millennium BCE, people abandoned their fortified “urban” settlements and dispersed across the countryside into small village sites. However, their rural way-of-life may have been more complex than traditionally understood. In particular, several small sites have been identified with monumental enclosure walls. Why defend such small settlements?

Khirbet Ghozlan in the Wadi ar-Rayyan is one such site. New excavations test the hypothesis that it served as a specialized olive processing center that was enclosed to protect seasonally-produced caches of oil. This lecture presents recent discoveries including a storage complex, industrial production tools and – most importantly – the microscopic botanical remains associated with olive pressing.

About the Lecturer:
Dr. Jamie Fraser is Senior Curator at the Nicholson Museum (University of Sydney) and has worked on archaeological projects in Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Kashmir, Greece, Cambodia, and the Solomon Islands. His book Dolmens in the Levant was awarded the G. Ernest Wright Award at the 2018 ASOR annual meeting. He currently directs the Khirbet Ghozlan Excavation Project in the Wadi Rayyan.

Resources referenced during the talk include:

• “The Levantine Early Bronze Age” by Suzanne Richard (ACOR Lecture, 2016)
• The ACOR Photo Archive Project
• The ACOR Blog
• Jordanian Poet ‘Arar (Mustafa Wahbi Tal) and his poem ‘Ashiyat Wadi Yabis 

For more content such as this, please subscribe to the ACOR Blog and ACOR Youtube account. A recent lecture given in Arabic may be found here. 

The post The Archaeology of Olive Oil: New Excavations at Khirbet Ghozlan in the Wadi Ar-Rayyan appeared first on ACOR Jordan.

About the Lecture:

Ancient sites which have recently come to light on the Dead Sea littoral reveal what life was like for the average Nabataean some two thousand years ago. Ancient texts also refer to these communities and the close relations which they had with their immediate neighbors to the north-west, even to the extent of intermarriage. The Dead Sea region will be discussed in the larger context of the evolving Nabataean realm. The site of Khirbet Qazone will be given special attention as it is the focus of K.D. Politis’ current research supported by an ACOR CAORC fellowship. The cemetery at Khirbet Qazone included well preserved textiles along with other objects dating from the 1st to 3rd centuries A.D. There is also an early Christian phase (4th to 6th century) which includes a church.

About the Lecturer:

Dr. Konstantine Politis is an archaeologist educated in Greece, the United States, Britain and Belgium. His early fieldwork was in Greece and Liechtenstein. From 1988–2011, he was based at the British Museum, which was the principal sponsor of his excavations. The focus of his work is the Late Antique and early Islamic periods in the east Mediterranean and Arabia. Dr. Politis has worked in Jordan for over 35 years, and his main archaeological projects include the Sanctuary of Lot at Deir ‘Ain ‘Abata, the Masna al-Sukkar and Khirbat ash-Sheikh ‘Isa at Ghawr as-Safi, and Khirbet Qazone. Currently he is on a second ACOR-CAORC Fellowship to conclude the studies of that site for publication. As chairperson of the Hellenic Society for Near Eastern Studies, Dr. Politis initiated the Museum at the Lowest Place on Earth in Jordan, led excavations at Ra’s al-Hadd in Oman, and coordinated a documentation training program for mosaics in Syria, as well as an exhibition on Hellenistic Syria in the Hama Museum.

For more content such as this, please subscribe to the ACOR Blog and ACOR Youtube account. A recent lecture given in Arabic may be found here. 

Learn More: Related Links

For a written summary of Dr. Politis’ current research, please read his February article on the ACOR Blog.

Click here to watch a past ACOR lecture by Dr. Politis, called “The Origins of the Sugar Industry in Jordan: Latest results of the Ghawr aṣ-Ṣāfī Project.”

To explore tourism opportunities in the Southern Ghawr, please click here to be taken to the “Visit Safi,” a SCHEP-supported tourism micro-enterprise.

The post Nabataeans on the Shores of the Dead Sea appeared first on ACOR Jordan.