The Institute 2002/2003: Some remarks on the current situation in the Middle East

Since the publication of our last This sad state of affairs has its Newsletter in November 2002 the impact far beyond the political level overall political situation in the and it affects the general atmos­ Vol.8, No. 1, March 2003 Middle East has become worse phere of relations between people and, from my point of view, it will and communities in the region. Ne­ vertheless we all hope that, despite CONTENTS take a miracle to find a diplomatic solution to avert a war in Iraq. In the anger and frustration, peace Assyria under Threat 2 some way the same seems to be and mutual understanding between The Polis of Kanatha 4 true for getting the peace process all parties will finally be achieved. The Archaeology of North-Western back on track in Palestine. The Each one of us should try to contri­ Arabia: Recent Perspectives 7 cycle of violence is running out of bute to this for the benefit of all of Tall Hujayrat al-Ghuzlan 2002 9 control and the suffering of innocent us who work and live in the region. Survival at Present-day Sabra 12 people is growing continuously. Donors to the Library 12 The Region of Gadara/Umm Qeis As I write these words, it is just Project. The 2302-Season: a test possiole that within a few days or trench on Tell Zera'a 13 weeks some of the most important The Abandonment of the Decapolis archaeological sites in Iraq, belong­ and the Question of Environmental ing to Christian, Jewish and Mus­ Change 14 Fellows in Residence and Visitors 17 lim traditions could find themselves in the midst of a high-tech modern The Significance of Ba'ja for the Early Near Eastern Neolithic war. Remains from Sumerian, Ak­ Research 17 kadian, Babylonian, Assyrian and Excavations and Survey at Qal'at Islamic eras are under serious 'Unaiza, Jordan, May - June 2002 19 threat and many of the paster- Ras Hamra: A Nabataean Sanc­ pieces" that may be fortunate Fig. 2: Guests from Jerusalem: Pro­ tuary south of Petra 21 enough to survive a war, will appear vost Reyerand his wife having lunch Working as a DAAD-Lecturer in at the Institute on the international antiquities Amman 23 market. I n any case - they are lost. Since November 2002, our Institu­ A New Palace in Qatna (Mishrifeh, te (DEI) has been involved in a va­ Central Syria) 24 riety of scientific activities. Amongst others, several articles giving the re­ Published twice a year by the Ger­ man Protestant Institute of Archaeo­ sults of our first campaign in Tell logy in Amman. Johfiyeh have been prepared for P.O. Box 183, Amman 11118. Jordan. publication. Furthermore, negotia­ tions concerning our second cam­ Tel. 06/5342924, Fax: 06/5336924. E-mail: [email protected] paign were successfully brought to a close. Thanks to the financial and Editor: Roland Lamprichs, Amman. logistic support confirmed by the ad­ ministrative board of our Institute Technical and editorial assistance: Susanne Helbig, DEI Hannover, Evan- (DEI) and the Institute of Archaeo­ gelische Kirche in Deutschland. logy and Anthropology (IAA), Yar- mouk University Irbid, we are now Newsletter logo above by Samir Fig. 1: Dr. Susanne Kerner reading able to start the preparations for Shraydeh. pottery from Hujayrat al-Ghuzlan at another three week campaign in the Institute 2 OCCIDENT & ORIENT - March 2003

late spring 2003. The main subject Pottery reading and research on man despite the current political sit• of this years research at Tell Joh- the Hujayrat al-Ghuzlan material uation, have been Prof. Dr. R. Eich- fiyeh will be a deep sounding aiming (2002 season) was carried out in the mann (DAI, Berlin), Provost M. at clarifying the stratigraphy and the Institute (DEI) by Dr. Susanne Ker- Reyer and his wife (Jerusalem), B. pottery sequence. We are also ner (German Archaeological Insti• Lucke (University of Cottbus), Prof. planning to continue our work on the tute, Berlin) during late January and Dr. P.-K. Schuster (State Museum, plateau of the site to gain more in• February 2003. Berlin), Prof. Dr. G. Schauerte (State formation about the architecture Museum, Berlin) and Prof. Dr. B. Among our guests (see Jellows in and general structure of the site. Salje (Museum of the Ancient Near residence and visitors") during that East, Berlin). time, who did find their way to Am• Assyria under Threat

By: Arnulf Hausleiter, CNI Copenhagen University (Denmark)

Through the construction of a new sance operations were and are con• in the Fatha region were also studi• dam on the river Tigris, a core area stantly accompanied by the explora• ed (Ibrahim 1972). of Mesopotamian civilisation, risks tion of archaeological sites by The idea of the regional research being inundated by the waters of the means of excavation. At present, concept of an area can be recognis• future reservoir. Among the sites the northern edge of Assyria is the ed in the investigations of M. el- threatened are the cities of Assur object of salvage excavations (e.g. Amin and M.E.L. Mallowan in the and Kar-Tukulti-Ninurta which are Matney et al. 2002) whereas in the Makhmur Plain, east of the Tigris very significant for Assyrian cultural southern periphery, in the Haditha river, during the late 1940's, even history. Numerous other sites are al• area of Iraq, this had been the case though only archaeological excava• so located in the area. Some of some 20 years ago. tions of sites and not a systematic them are being excavated by Iraqi By contrast, the Assyrian heart• surface survey were carried out. archaeologists and are producing land, a triangular-shaped region Much earlier, in 1913/1914, W. important results, but the majority around the cities of Assur, Arba'il Bachmann had visited some sites so far remain unexplored. The and Nineveh, was one of the areas in the area but did not publish his same is true of the archaeological of Mesopotamia in which the explo• notes (Dittmann 1995). El-Aminand landscape of the future reservoir ration of the Ancient Near East start• Mallowan opened soundings on area. A look at the available ar• ed in the mid 19th century AD A H. three sites (Tell Aqrah, Tell Ibrahim chaeological and textual informa• Layard, P.E. Botta, H. Rawlinson, H. Bayis/Eski Mahmurand Kaula Kan- tion underlines the great importance Rassam, to mention only a few, con• dal) and site plans and selected pot• of this particular region for the his• centrated all their efforts on investi• tery sherds were published (el-Amin tory of Northern Mesopotamia and gations in the Assyrian cities of Nim- and Mallowan 1949, 1950). Con• at the same time confirms that there rud, Nineveh and Khorsabad (Lar- trary to other regions investigated are still many open questions. sen 1996). Although the site of As• at a later stage, there was no immi• In discussing the archaeological sur had been rediscovered by J.C. nent threat by the construction of a landscape of the Assyrian heartland Rich in 1821, systematic large scale dam. in Northern Iraq, it has to be stated excavations there did not start until More recently, pre-lslamic settle• that not much is known about it. Re• 1903, that is 100 years ago (Kolde- ments of the Jazira, with a special gional investigations and the re• wey 1903,18). The aims of the mid focus on the Parthian period, have search activities o* recent years 19'" century investigations were cer• been the object of a publication have concentrated mainly on adja• tainly quite different from modern ar• combining various survey data from cent areas. In Syria there was the chaeological exploration. Research the area west of the Tigris (Ibrahim systematic exploration of the Kha- on a regional level and on settle• 1986). The late 1980's saw another bur region, followed by numerous ment systems within a defined geo• attempt towards a systematic ap• surveys elsewhere in the country. graphical area had not been applied proach of the exploration of the th The areas next to the Balikh river yet. Later, during the 20 century, Makhmur Plain. Some 60 sites and and the Upper Syrian and Lower some smaller sites were excavated several canals, supposedly of Mid• Turkish Euphrates were studied as well: QasrShemamuk/Kilizu, Tell dle Assyrian date, were identified subsequently (Wilkinson 2000, Billa, Tell Rimah, Tell Taya and Bala- (Dittmann 1995), adding informa• 223). These surface reconnais• wat (Anastasio 1995). Several sites tion to the maps of the Atlas of ar- OCCIDENT & ORIENT - March 2003 3

chaeological sites in Iraq (DGA mation it is hardly possible to write Larsen, M.T., The conquest of Assyria. 1970). At about the same time, the a comprehensive history of settle• Excavations in an antique land. London North Jazira Project North-West of ment in the area based on the data and New York 1996. the river Tigris (Wilkinson and presently available. Matney, T; Roaf, M.; MacGinnis, J.; Tucker 1995) and the archaeologi• McDonald, H., Archaeological excava• Archaeological excavations, sur• cal exploration of the Eski-Mosul tions at Ziyaret Tepe, 2000 and 2001, veys and the application of remote area came to an end. This extre• Anatolica 28, 2002, 47-89. sensing techniques will help to mely productive period of archaeo• gather as much information as pos• Wilkinson, T.J., Regional approaches logical investigations also saw new to Mesopotamian archaeology, Journal sible in order to rescue one of the excavations at the sites of Nineveh, of Archaeological Research 8, 2000, core areas of Mesopotamia for fu• Nimrud and Assur. At the first two 219-267. ture investigations into its palaeo- sites surface surveys were carried environmental and human history Wilkinson, T.J.; Tucker, D.J., Settle• out, while the site of Assur was sub• through the millennia. Such investi• ment development in the North Jazira, ject of a geophysical survey (Becker Iraq. A study of archaeological land• gations will shed a new light on the 1991). Unfortunately, these promis• scape, Warminster 1995. region itself and will also contribute ing activities were interrupted by the to a better understanding of the re• 1991 war. lationship between this particular Iraqi archaeologists, however, re• zone and adjacent regions, such as sumed their activities as soon as Babylonia, Syria, Anatolia and NW- conditions allowed and for the last Iran. few years the number of archaeolo• gical expeditions from foreign coun• References tries actively working in Iraq, such El-Amin, M.; Mallowan, M.E.L., as Austria, France, Italy, Japan and Soundings in the Makhmur-Plain, Germany, has increased. Sumer 5, 1949, 145-153. Subsequently in 2001 and 2002, El-Amin, M.; Mallowan, M.E.L., two international conferences on Soundings in the Makhmur-Plain, Part Ancient Near Eastern Studies were II, Sumer 6, 1950, 55-68. organized in Baghdad that were at• Anastasio, S., The archaeology of Up• tended by a large number of scho• per Mesopotamia. An analytical biblio• lars and reported on by the national graphy for the Pre-Classical Periods, and international media. Most Turnhout 1995. recently, two high quality volumes Becker, H., Zur magnetischen Pros- of the archaeological journal Sumer pektion in Assur, Testmessung 1989, have been issued. Mitteilungen der Deutschen Orient-Ge- sellschaft 123, 1991, 123-132. The site of Assur is certainly in the centre of public and scholarly in• DGA / Directorate General of Anti• terest when the Makhool dam is dis• quities of Iraq, Atlas of archaeological cussed. The Iraqi authorities are sites in Iraq, Baghdad 1970. evaluating the construction of a re• Dittmann, R., Ruinenbeschreibungen taining system in order to protect the der Machmur-Ebene aus dem Nachlali site from flooding and infiltration von Walter Bachmann, in: Finkbeiner, from the reservoir. Furthermore, on• U., Dittmann, R., Hauptmann H. (eds ), going investigations by the Iraqi Beitrage zur Kulturgeschichte Vorder- asiens, Festschrift R.M. Boehmer, State Board of Antiquities and Heri• Mainz 1995, 87-102. tage in the future reservoir area are looking at numerous sites and not Ibrahim, J.K., More archaeological only at remains from the Assyrian sites from Fatha, Sumer 28,1972,233- periods. It is known that there are 239. attested archaeological traces from Ibrahim, J.K., Pre-lslamic Settlements the prehistoric times up to the rise in the Jazirah, Baghdad 1986. of Islam and thereafter. In addition, Koldewey R.,Ausfunfweiteren Brie- textual sources provide much rele• fen Dr. Koldeweys, Mitteilungen der vant data on the historical topo• Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 20, graphy of the region. However, al• 1903, 17-30. though there is some general infor• 4 OCCIDENT & ORIENT - March 2003

The Polis of Kanatha: Hellenisation and Romanisation in Late First Century BC.

By: Klaus Stefan Freyberger, German Archaeological Institute (DAI), Rome (Italy)

Introduction History tors: the upper city with its sacred enclosures occupied the southern The history of ancient Kanatha dur• Location sector, while the northern sector ing the Hellenistic period is largely was occupied by the lower city, The black basalt buildings and the unknown. Archaeologically, how• which was primarily residential. Pa• charming, archaic sculptures of an• ever, the site is understandable from rallel to this main axis, there was a cient Kanatha, which is identified the 1s! century BC onwards. It had second street further to the south with the present-day Druze village become part of the province of that ran straight from the ancient of Qanawat, still excite the interest Syria, which was established by southwest gate to a monumental of many travellers, artists and scho• Pompey in the year 63 BC. Shortly square in the upper city. A third lars. The site lays 7 km north-east thereafter, Kanatha was the only street led from this square along• of the district capital of Soueida, the one of the numerous settlements of side the western slope of the Wadi ancient Dionysias-Soada, and 85 the Auranities, the present-day re• towards the city centre in the north. km south-east of Damascus. It gion of Djebel el-Arab, to receive the Around the crossroads of the two stands on the north-western of the status of polis. It kept this status dur• main streets there were public baths volcanic basalt massive of Djebel ing the early imperial period. During and other secular community build• el-Arab at about 1200 m above sea the rule of Severan Caesars, in the ings, which were used for the enter• level. Since ancient times the site 3'° century AD, the city flourished tainment and business of the city has been a desirable place for set• again as the seat of a bishop and in inhabitants. On the eastern slope of tlement because of its rich water Byzantine times, Kanatha remained the Wadi, that is the other side of sources; there are numerous the leading city in the region until the city, there were two further build• springs in the southern suburb of the 7th century AD. ings: a Nymphaeum connected by the city. A sophisticated canalization water canalization to a small Ode- system, which ran from the south, Structure of ancient Kanatha on hewn in the rocky slope 70 m west and eastern hills toward the Like today's Qanawat, the ancient further to the north. north, brought the water to the val• site stretched along a north-south ley, where it was stored. It was the Necropolises surrounded the city slope, limited by the Wadi Qanawat water supply system that led to the on all four sides, but there is a parti• to the west and by the slopes of Dje• name of the site. The ancient name cularly large concentration of tombs bel el-Arab to the east. Kanatha, of Aramaic origin, means on the north side. In the southern canalization, as does the Arabic The area of the ancient settlement, part of the city there are walls with meaning of the present-day name, which lies on a high plateau, is of the towers that formed the enclo• Qanawat. modest dimension. The whole city sure of the sanctuaries. They were covers 160,000 sqm and is 730 m net part of a city wall, nor indeed is long and 220 m wide. there any evidence that the city ever Its unusual shape, a had one. long, narrow rec• tangle, was presum• History of the research ably due to the loca• tion of the ancient The monumental buildings, which buildings on the still give the site today its individual slope alongside the character, have been a subject of Wadi, which provid• scholarly study since the 19* cen• ed a direct water tury. The focus of this earlier re• supply to the settle• search was primarily on the archi• ment. Three main tecture of the principle ruins, but ex• axes essentially de• tensive studies on the development termined the layout of the urbanism at the site were of the ancient streets. lacking. For this reason, a project An east-west street, was planned in 1997, between the Fig. 1: Qanawat, „Peripteral Tem• which still exists to• Syrian Department of Antiquities ple", view from south day, divided Kanatha into two sec• and the German Archaeological In- OCCIDENT & ORIENT - March 2003

stitute in Damascus. The aim of the A particularly useful example is the perial period which can therefore be project was to gain information sanctuary with the so-called 'Perip• identified as part of the earlier struc• about the urban organization and teral Temple', which lies just outside ture. In the 3^ century the new build• the way of life of the inhabitants of the ancient settlement. Its remains ing was erected on the almost intact ancient Kanatha. are well preserved since they lie in podium of the earlier edifice. a garden area that has been largely Our particular concern was the in• spared from modern housing de• The inscription from the frieze vestigation of the site during the late velopments. The complex rises up Hellenistic and the early imperial pe• Another part of the older building, a on a high terrace overlooking the riod, which extends from the second piece of the frieze made from two slopes of Djebel el-Arab to the east half of the 15' century BC until the blocks, was found directly in front and with a view to the west over the first half of the 1s' century AD. There of the lowest step of the podium on plain of the Hauran. In this direction, are very few archaeological findings the front side of the temple. The the trapezoid form of the enclosure from earlier times. Generally, the centre of this piece of frieze carries reduces to a spur, within which the traditional buildings of the Hellenis• a Greek dedicatory inscription temple stands on a high podium. tic period in this region consist of sculptured in high relief, flanked by The precinct walls are partially vi• great basalt boulders that are found two small, framed fields. Each of sible above the present day terrain. in some tombs in Kanatha and in The temple was en• buildings on the acropolis in Mafali, circled by columns which lies only 3 km to the north• and from the decora• east of Kanatha. Buildings that tion it can be dated show local forms alongside typical back to the first third Hellenistic-Roman elements, in the of the 3rd century AD. elaboration of the stones and the selection and execution of the orna• It seems, however, ments, did not appear before the that the whole com• middle of the 1s' century BC. Build• plex is in fact older. ings in which the co-existence of lo• Evidence to support cal and foreign elements is evident this theory lays in the are mainly of religious function preserved parts of the sl (temples). The process of the inclu• precinct and the 1 sion of foreign models and their ad• century BC Doric ca• aptation to local requirements and pitals belonging to the realities resulted in the creation of portal of the eastern individually conceived structures side of the precinct. Further evi• Fig. 2: Qanawat, ..Peripteral Temp• and sculptures that illustrate a ra• dence of an earlier phase came with le", Corinthian capital, late 1" cen• dical change of form against the another discovery during our exca• tury B.C. background of traditional buildings vation campaign in the spring of of roughly hewn basalt stones. In 2000. We found architectural ele• these contains a large multi-foliate light of this discovery it is appro• ments in the stone walls of the rosette which, in turn, contains the priate to investigate the conditions neighbouring orchards that were head of a lion. The style of the sculp• and requirements of the period in evidently different from the cor• tures and the form of the inscription which such luxury buildings were responding elements of the temple SL pport a dating of the frieze to the planned and executed. What kind of the 3* century AD, be it on stylistic late 1s' century BC. According to the of person would initiate and finance or dimensional grounds. Judging by text a member of the council, whose the construction of costly sanctu• their forms, the pieces found in the name is Philippos son of Alexen- aries and other public edifices? orchard walls are to be dated to the dros, his wife Naseathe and his son s What circumstances compelled the last third of the 1 " century BC and Alexendros erected the vestibule of inhabitants of Kanatha to invest their are thus attributable to an earlier the temple and dedicated it to the city with an entirely new quality of structure in this sanctuary. god of Rabbos. architecture? Where was this building located The founders of the building were within the area of the precinct? The local dignitaries, the father of the fa• The Early Imperial Period preserved parts of the temple pro• mily being a council member. This The sanctuary with the Peripteral vide the answer. The fine masonry kind of office existed only in cities, Temple: Construction and structure. of the podium and the reliefs of never in villages, thus we can infer heads with garlands on the steps that Kanatha enjoyed the status of The archaeological evidence can designate the podium and substruc• a polis (city) at the time of the en• help to answer the questions above. ture as a building from the early im• graving of the inscription. It is the 6 OCCIDENT & ORIENT - March 2003

oldest epigraphic evidence known half of the 1s' century BC? The ans• ornamented forms are closely com• from southern Syria, and with the wer, in my opinion, is to be found in parable to those of the sacred build• help of the archaeological context, the political setting of the time. As ing of Sia. The same holds true for it can be dated back to the late 1s' already mentioned above, Kanatha the temples of Selaima and Mu- century BC. The inscription desig• received the status of polis shortly shennef, modelled on the monu• nates a local divinity, the god of after the founding of the Province ments of Kanatha. Contrary to build• Rabbos, as the protecting patron of of Syria in the year 63 BC. Presum• ings in cities, monuments in villages the temple. According to other dedi• ably this event took place during the were of modest dimensions. Never• catory inscriptions from Kanatha, governorship of Aulus Gabinius in theless, they were elegant edifices, this Rabbos is identified with Thean- Syria between 55 and 53 BC. There reflecting the ambition of their foun• dros of Rabbos. The proper name are coins from Kanatha that bear ders to valorise their villages with in the genitive form, 'of Rabbos', the legend 'Gabina Canatha', dated buildings of „urban" quality. Under means the name of a place or a re• to the middle imperial period. The the political influence of the fading gion. indication of the year on these coins Roman Republic, the local commu• relate to the era of Pompey. The nities in the region developed a new The process of the Hellenisation name, Gabina Canatha, was not sense of identity that was highlight• only a designation of honour but al• ed in the new monumental buildings The founder of the building formally so the official name of the city. The and sculptures. They wanted to de• demonstrates his leaning toward privilege of the status of polis had fine themselves anew by enhancing Hellenistic culture. The text of the been a considerable honour for Ka• the traditional appearance of their inscription is not Aramaic but Greek natha, especially since almost no towns and cities by adopting the sty• and the names of the local foun• other towns in southern Syria enjoy• listic and technical standards of the ders, PhilipposandAlexendros, re• ed that status in the late Hellenistic Mediterranean world. This resulted call the most important rulers of the period. The new political and social in the flowering of a wealth of late Macedonian royal house. The de• position of Kanatha, presumably al• Hellenistic forms in the 40's and 50's signation as council member identi• so including economic prosperity, BC. The evidence for this is clearly fies the father of the family as an brought about a change to the sen• visible in the buildings of the upper official of the polis. Whether the title se of identity of the native communi• city of Kanatha. was purely an honorific or whether ty. They were quick to demonstrate he functioned as of a member of Shortly after the establishment of their affiliation to the Greco-Roman the city council, is, in this case, of the principate, the provinces were world. secondary significance. Consider• increasingly romanised. This pro• ably more important is the fact that It was the new order of the Pro• cess was also reflected in the de• the local dignitaries identified them• vince of Syria, installed by Pompey, sign of monuments and sculptures. selves as members of a polis which initiated the process of During this period there was a shift through the word, the writing and Hellenisation in this region. The of stylistic influence that can be the image. cities, which enjoyed the status of clearly seen when comparing the -— polis at that time, profit• ornaments of the two buildings of ed from the designation the Peripteral Temple at Kanatha. and thus they embrac• Roman forms, which later on be• ed the new conditions came a norm, replaced the Helle• in a positive way. This nistic ones. is reflected in the use of The reasons that induced Rome the Pompeian era that to bestow the status of polis on Ka• started in the year 63 natha are not known. It might have BC. The process of been in the interest of Rome to bind Hellenisation spread the city militarily closer to the empire out beyond the cities in• as a loyal partisan of Rome. The ar• to the surrounding villa• chers of Kanatha, who are known ges. This process is from inscriptions, were of great use• clearly demonstrated fulness to the Roman army as well by the monumental buildings of Ka• Fig. 3: Qanawat, „Peripteral Temp• as to the city of Kanatha itself. Kana• natha and Sia, which motivated the le", entablature, late 1" century B.C. tha held an important strategic posi• inhabitants of the nearby villages to tion in this area as a checkpoint on The political setting erect monumental buildings, temp• the northern border of the Naba- les in particular, of their own. What were the motives for the en• taean kingdom and it controlled sig• gaging in the process of Hellenisa• One such building was the temple nificant resources, especially since tion in Kanatha during the second of Soueida, whose architectural and it was in a position to recruit auxiliary OCCIDENT & ORIENT - March 2003 7

cohorts from its own people. It may also have been a checkpoint in the hinterland of the eastern Limes in this region. The city, as a large agri• cultural hub and a significant trading centre in the Hauran, controlled an extensive territory of 25 km in dia• meter, equalling those of Damas• cus, Samaria and Sebaste.

Whatever the reasons might have been, Kanatha and the surrounding region profited from the Roman new order that came with the foundation of the Province of Syria. The grow• ing prosperity is manifested in the Fig. 4: Qanawat, „Peripteral Temple", frieze with Greek inscription, archaeological evidence. late 151 century B.C. The Archaeology of North-Western Arabia: Recent Per• spectives By: Jean-Francois Salles, CNRS (Director of Research), IFPO (Institut Francais du Proche- Orient), Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Amman Branch (Jordan)

For more than 25 years French ar• King Saud University in Riyadh. Al• associating Saudi, European and chaeologists, often in association though a true friendship has long American scholars: the focus of with European colleagues, have since been established with Saudi each of the seminars was the ar• been exploring and excavating the archaeologists, through meetings chaeology and ancient history of ancient past of the Arabian penin• and conferences in Europe or in the north-western Arabia, and some of sula. A bibliography of these works Middle East, the starting point for the contributions were published as would list hundreds of papers and the new policy was a French go• ..dossiers" in the journal Topoi, publications, which is out of the sco• vernmental mission to Riyadh in (..Dossier" 1996, 1999). One cen• pe of this note. However, the focus 1995. It included the director of the tury or so after the pioneering works of the research has been, geogra• French Institute of Archaeology in phically speaking, concentrated on the Near East (IFAPO), the director the margins of the peninsula; Ye• of the Maison de I'Orient Mediterra- men in the south and the Arabian neen in Lyon, a delegate of the Gulf from the Sultanate of Oman up French Institute of Archaeology in to Kuwait in the east. There had ne• Cairo (IFAO), the director of the In• ver been any thorough investigation stitute of Research on the Arab in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. World in Aix-en-Provence (IREMAM) and an official of the Mi• Things have changed recently and nistry of Universities. Afew projects there is renewed interest in Arabia and short-term operations resulted by French scholars, evidenced for from the meeting of this group with instance in the recent translation the Saudi authorities, as well as and commentary of Charles M. many reciprocal visits. The new ge• Doughty's Travels in Arabia Deserta neration of learned Saudi officials, (Reverdy 2002). Also, more impor• professors and young archaeolo• tance is being given now by some gists has recently accelerated the French archaeological institutions to process of collaboration within the a closer collaboration with the De• framework of an opening up of the partment (Deputy Ministry) of Ar• kingdom. chaeology and Museums of Saudi Arabia and with the Department of Two scientific meetings were or• Fig. 1: Meda'in Salih: the entrance Archaeology and Museology of the ganized in Lyon in 1996 and 1998, (siq) to the sacred place (Jebel Ithlib) 8 OCCIDENT & ORIENT - March 2003

by Fathers Jaussen and Savignac also provided a new understanding to evaluate the archaeological po• (Sartre 1996) the objective was to of the political, economic and social tential of Meda'in Salih, the major assess, or at least try to assess, the life of the inhabitants of the oasis. Nabataean site of north-western Ar• past of the region in the historical This work, which is almost ready for abia. A significant collection of data period. New explorations by Wes• publication, will be a significant con• was gathered on this occasion: pho• tern scholars took place in the Hijaz tribution to the history of the region. tographs of the most important mo• from the 1960's to the 1980's, while numents, cartographic and topo• Some other projects on al-'Ula are new surveys and excavations were graphic surveys, descriptions and in preparation, in collaboration with carried out by the Saudi Department drawings of many facade-tombs Saudi archaeologists and histori• of Antiquities and regularly publish• and rock shrines. These valuable ans, and also the Department of Ar• ed in the journal Atlal and through records were greatly added to in chaeology of the King Saud Univer• Saudi publications (e.g. Abu Duruk 2001 during the first official cam• sity is ready to resume research on 1986 and Nasif 1988). It might ap• paign of a French-Saudi program• the site (Al Ansary, A.R.; Abu al Has• pear too early to attempt an histori• me in Meda'in Salih, then supervis• san 2001). cal and archaeological synthesis of ed by J.-M. Dentzer: the data col• all these recent data, dispersed as Since 1996 a joint venture asso• lected will be the basis of an ar• they are and often partial - many ciating French, Jordanian and Saudi chaeological atlas of the site, similar collections still remain unpublished, scholars has been carrying out in• in its methods and aims to the one see for example the carnets Philby tensive exploration of the Wadi Rum in preparation for Petra. There was and the carnets Milik under study - area, under the direction of Dr. Saba another campaign in December but new and rather valuable insights Faris-Drappeau and Dr. Fawzi 2002 under the supervision of pro• have been provided on al-'Ula, for Zayadine. Initially an epigraphic pro• ject's new director Dr. Laila Nehme. example, and on the Lihyanite state. gramme, which brought to light The preliminary results of the sea• more than 3000 new in• son include a systematic survey, to scriptions, the project has be continued, of Jebel Ithlib (the now been extended to a de• sacred place of Meda'in Salih), tailed archaeological and which brought to light several new anthropological survey of Nabataean inscriptions; an ar• the different Wadis that chaeological and geophysical sur• mark an important stage in vey of the city wall and of the resi• the migration of the tribes dential area, the „urban centre" of between inner Arabia and the site according to the archaeo• southern Jordan. Remains logists, both still to be completed; from the Neolithic period, and the discovery and mapping of from the phase of the „Arab a number of necropolises compos• kingdoms" (Qedar, Tha- ed of hundreds of rectangular rock- Fig. 2: AI-'Ula/Dedan, general view of mud, Petra), possibly a small Ro• cut tombs near Jebel Ithlib (L. the oasis man fort, as well as ruins of the Is• Nehme, pers. comm.). Both the lamic period were uncovered and 2001 and 2002 seasons are being In 1999, a major French thesis was are being studied by a team, which published in forthcoming issues of submitted on „Dedan et ses in• will continue its programme in the Af/a/in close collaboration with Sai- scriptions. Recherches sur la lan- coming years. Preliminary reports gue et la chronologie d'une oasis were published in various de TArabie du nord-ouest aux epo- journals (ADAJ, Topoi, ques perse et hellenistique" (Dr. etc.). One important as• Saba Faris-Drappeau, University pect of the programme is Aix en-Provence). Beyond a tho• the training of Jordanian rough linguistic and philological exa• and Saudi archaeologists mination of the Dedanite and Li• in French laboratories of hyanite inscriptions from al-'Ula and the CNRS (Lyon, Paris- its surroundings, the author propos• Nanterre, Tours), especial• ed a completely new and rational ly in the building and ma• classification of this large corpus of naging of Geographical In• data which is usually referred to rat• formation Systems (GIS). her erratically; and also a precise chronology of the inscriptions divid• In 1997, Prof. Jean-Ma• ed into three main phases, from the rie Dentzer (assisted by J.-P. Braun, Fig.3: Head of a statue found at Khe- reibeh/al-'Ula, 3,a cent. BC. (Jaussen 8,h to the centuries BC. She architect) was asked by UNESCO & Savignac, 1914, pi. XXVIII) OCCIDENT & ORIENT - March 2003 9

di archaeologists (H. Abu Al-Has- Abu Duruk, H.I., Introduction to the Nasif, A.A., Al-'Ula. An historical and san, D. Al-Tahli). archaeology ofTayma, Riaydh (Depart• archaeological survey, with special re• ment of Antiquities), 1986. ference to its irrigation system, Riyadh These are some of the new per• (King Saud University) 1988. Al Ansary, A-R. T, The state of Lihyan: spectives of further archaeological A new perspective, Topoi 9,1999,191- Reverdy, J.-C, Voyages dans I'Arabie research in rorth-western Arabia 195. deserte (Travels in Arabia Deserta), and South Jordan. Together with the Paris, Karthala 2002. results obtained during the past 25 Al Ansary, A.R.; Abu al Hassan, H., years in eastern Arabia and in the The civilization of two cities. Al Ula & Salles, J.-R, Al-'Ula - Dedan. Rech- Meda'in Salih, Dar al Qawafil, 2001. er-ches recentes, Topoi 6, 1996, 565- Gulf area - as well as in Yemen for 607. the languages and scripts, the De- Bowersock, G.W., Exploration in danite script being closely related North-West Arabia after Jaussen and Sartre, M., La Mission en Arabie des to the south Arabian ones - it will Savignac, Topoi, 6, 1996, 553-563. Peres A. Jaussen et R. Savignac, His- torique et bilan scientifique. Topoi 6, certainly help to give a more vivid .Dossier" Topoi 6, 1996, 531-607. 1996, 533-552. and comprehensive vision of the Ar• .Dossier" Topoi 9, 1999, 191-218. abian peninsula as a rather homo• geneous, socio-economic and cul• Faris-Drappeau, S., La divinite h- tural complex. KBTY/hn-'KBT en Arabie du Nord- Ouest et en Jordanie du Sud, Topoi 9, 1999, 201-208. References and further readings Gatier, P.-L, Romains et Saracines: Abu al Hassan, H., La divinite - deux forteresses de I'Antiquite tardive 'bt dans les Inscriptions Lihyanites, To- dans des documents meconnus, Topo: poi 9, 1999, 197-200. 9, 1999, 209-218. Tall Hujayrat al-Ghuzlan 2002

By: Klaus Schmidt, Ricardo Eichmann, Bernd Miiller-Neuhof, German Archaeological Institute (DAI), Berlin (Germany) and Lutfi Khalil, Jordan University, Amman (Jordan)

The prehistoric site of Tall Hujayrat intensive archaeological al-Ghuzlan is located on the nor• survey of Tall Hujayrat al- thern edge of the modern town of Ghuzlan and followed by a Aqaba, in the middle of the Wadi small scale excavation in l1 * al-Yitim fan, close to the contempo• 2000 (Bruckner etal. 2002; rary site of Tall al-Magass. There are 1 Eichmann, Khalil 1998, Z * '^Mf'taMta ot\M*-i plans to develop this area into a 1999; Khalil, Eichmann Ahu '•' . NitUMntim* residential district (Fig. 1). Tall Hu• 1999, 2001). The site was jayrat al-Ghuzlan and Tall-Magass inhabited at the time when are the oldest known permanent systematic copper metal• settlements in the direct vicinity of lurgy first appeared in M"K,M?*ll,,,*.,M ,1-O-J Aqaba, dating to the transitional pe• southern Jordan, between • Ahutit •l-Mfloi .„-'H-v* \ riod from the Late Chalcolithic to the 3900 and 3500 BC, ac• I! lh Early Bronze Age (4 millennium cording to a series of cali• \ V BC). The sites were first mentioned brated C14 dates. by the German scholar F. Frank (1934, 245, plan 27). In 1985 arch• The goal of the 2002 sea• •-. aeological research was initiated by son was to excavate a \ Lutfi Khalil at Tall al-Magass, and in large area of c. 650 sqm \A!**» 1990 he started a small-scale ex• in order to investigate the cavation at Tall Hujayrat al-Ghuzlan layout of a section of the (Khalil 1987, 1988, 1992, 1995). settlement (Khalil, Eich• Since 1998 archaeological research mann, Schmidt in prepa• at both sites has been conducted ration, Muller-Neuhof etal. Fig. 1: Sites dating to the 1" half of by the joint German-Jordanian in press). The exposed structural re• the 4'" millennium in Egypt and ASEYM project, beginning with an mains consist of mudbrick architec- southern Levant 10 OCCIDENT & ORIENT - March 2003

ture and the rest of stone walls (Fig. Pottery shapes include plates, found in the debris fill of building B 2). Large parts of the buildings were bowls and large jars, often with at Tall Hujayrat al-Ghuzlan. Exam• destroyed by an earthquake and a small handles or lugs. The rims are ples of similar vessels, so-called 'Li• fire, the rooms filled with debris from simple in profile. Few parallels for byan vases', made of basalt or other upper storeys (including pieces of the pottery are known from Teleilat hard stone, are known, among wooden roofbeams) and artifacts. Ghassul or ether sites of the central others, from Maadi, a Predynastic No floor level has been reached un• Jordanian Chalcolithic culture. settlement in Lower Egypt (Rizkana, til now. In the next field season of Seeher 1988 pi. 107, 1; pi. XI, 11). 2003 the excavated area will be en• Pieces of copper ore and crucibles larged by approximately another with traces of copper slag, as well 650 sqm, the rooms will be exca• as clay moulds, are important finds vated down to floor level, the earth• for identifying the settlement as a quake damage will be analysed and site involved in copper production remains of channels and dams in (Fig. 4). Finds of copper artifacts the vicinity of the Tall will be investi• have been quite rare so far, with gated. The analysis of the small only a few objects: an axe, some finds has been and will continue to awls and a small copper ring found be carried out by several specialists, in 2002. Two types of clay moulds for lithic artifact (Dr. Thomas Hika- Fig. 3: Cortical flake tools were found at Tall Hujayrat al-Ghuz• de), pottery (Dr. Susanne Kerner), lan, both are open moulds, one rec• metallurgical remains (Dr. Andreas Large tabular flint implements with tangular in shape, the other oval. Si• Hauptmann), floral remains (Dr. a cortical back are typical for the milarly shaped copper ingots with Reinder Neef), faunal remains Chalcolithic and the Early Bronze similar dimensions are known from (Prof. Norbert Benecke) and C14 Age in the Levant, although their Maadi (Rizkana, Seeher 1989 pi. 4, dating (Dr. Joachim Gorsdorf). function is yet unknown (Fig. 3). In 9 -10). Future research, especially Predynastic Egypt they are known the analysis of copper objects found only from Maadi, where they appear in Maadi and Hujayrat al-Ghuzlan, in great number and are regarded will help in proving whether these as an import from the East (Schmidt sites represent links in a chain that 1993). Sites with blanks for these connects Near Eastern Chalcolithic fan scrapers are known in eastern cultures with the emerging Phara- Jordan (Deutsches Archaolo- onic civilization (Rizkana, Seeher gisches Institut 2001, 684-685) and 1989). The fragment of the above the Jafr basin (Quintero, Wilke, Rol- mentioned 'Libyan vase' is a hint of lefson 2002). The so-called twisted a reverse direction of trade with Eg• bladelets are common in both re• ypt. gions, however no bladelet cores Ornaments made of molluscs from have been found in Hujayrat al- the Red Sea were most pre-ferred Ghuzlan. The twisted bladelets dis• in the southern Levant and in Egypt covered in Hujayrat were produced during this period and Tall Hujayrat elsewhere in the southern Levant al-Ghuzlan was a produc-tion site or perhaps in Egypt. Fig. 2: Area D7 from the air for these ornaments. It seems very At Tall Hujayrat al-Ghuzlan ground probable therefore, that copper was The architecture is characterized by stone artifacts such as mace heads, a planned layout of several large hammers and grinding stones are buildings, mostly constructed with as common as stone vessels of dif• mudbrick walls. The northern part ferent shapes. One dishlike frag• of the excavated area is characte• ment is decorated in geometric re• rized by a storage building, incor• lief. Similar objects were noted in porating several smaller and larger the ASYEM survey campaign 2000 compartments and built with at least in WadiYitirr (site 244, Yitim A) and two storeys. The pottery is generally in Khirbet Rizqeh, which remains, of quite a coarse fabric, with chaff until now, a unique ritual site in the and mineral temper. Burnished desert east of Aqaba (Kirkbride wares are sparse, and polished or 1969). At Rizqeh such vessels ap• painted pottery is non-existent. Very pear in great number. A fragment rows of finger imprints is common. of an Egyptian basalt vessel was Fig. 4: Moulds for copper ingots OCCIDENT & ORIENT - March 2003 11

not the only valuable product made Jahresbericht 2000 des Deutschen Ar- Quintero, L; Wilke, P. L; Rollefson, there, but bracelets from Tridacna chaologischen Instituts, Archaolo- GO., From Flint Mine to Fan Scraper: and other shells, for example, as gischer Anzeiger, 2001, 613-723. The Late Prehistoric Jafr Industrial Complex, BASOR 327, 2002, 17-48 well. This is document-ed by various Eichmann, R.; Khalil, L, German-Jor• stages of the chalne opGratoire danian Archaeological Project in Rizkana, I.; Seeher, J., Maadi II -The noted in the excavation material. Southern Jordan: Archaeological Sur• Lithic Industries of the Pre-dynastic vey and Excavation in the Yitim and Ma- Settlement, AVDAIK 65, 1988. The largest part of the faunal re• gassArea 1998 (ASEYM 98), Occident Rizkana, I.; Seeher, J., Maadi III -The mains (around 80 %) derives from & Orient 3/1, 1998, 14-16. Non-Lithic Small Finds and the Struc• domestic animals with sheep and Eichmann, R.; Khalil, L, Archaeologi• tural Remains of the Pre-dynastic Sett• goat being the dominant species. cal Survey and Excavation at al-Yutum lement, AVDAIK 80, 1989. Domestic cattle were also identified. and Tall al-Magass Area - Aqaba Schmidt, K., Comments to the Lithic The presence of calf bones may in• (ASEYM). A Preliminary Report on the Industry of the Buto-Maadi Culture in dicate either that this species was First Season 1998, ADAJ 43, 1999, 1- Lower Egypt, in: Krzyzaniak, L., Kobu- actually raised in the area under in• 20. siewicz, M., Alexander, J. (eds.), En• vestigation, or that young living ani• Frank, F, Aus der 'Araba I: Reisebe- vironmental Change and Human Cul• mals were brought from other re• richte, ZDPV 57, 1934, 191-280. ture in the Nile Basin and Northern Afri• gions for slaughter at Tall Hujayrat ca until the Second Millennium B.C., Khalil, L, Preliminary Report on the al-Ghuzlan. The wild fauna is repre• Proceedings of the International Sym• 1985 Season of Excavation at el-Ma- sented by onager, gazelle, ibex, posium at Dymaczewo near Poznan, 5- qass - Aqaba, ADAJ 31, 1987, 481- 10 September, 1988, Studies inAfri-can deer and hare. Surprisingly, there 484. were no remains of carnivores or Arcnaeology 4, 1993, 267-277. fish. Molluscs were used only for or• Khalil, L, Excavation at Maqass - Aq• aba, 1985, Dirasat 15/7,1988, 71-117. naments, not for food. Khalil, L, Some Technological Featu• Several flotation and drysieved soil res from a Chalcolithic Site at Maqass samples were taken. Remains of ty• -Aqaba, in: Bisheh, G. (ed.), Studies in pical desert plants were found, such the History and Archaeology of Jordan as the bitter apple (Citrillus co- IV, 1992, 143-148. locynthis), a cucumber-like plant. Khalil, L, The Second Season of Ex• Hence, the climate and precipitation cavation at al-Magass - Aqaba, 1990, during the late Chalcolithic did not ADAJ 39, 1995,65-79. differ significantly from that of today Khalil, L; Eichmann, R., Archaeologi• (less than 50 mm). Most of the bota• cal Survey and Excavation at Wadi al- nical remains preserved were car• Yutum and Tall al-Magass Area - Aq• bonised but, due to the very low an• aba (ASEYM). A Preliminary Report on nual precipitation, some materials the First Season 1998, ADAJ 43,1999, like the wood of tamarisk were pre• 501-520. served in an uncarbonised state as Khalil, L; Eichmann, R., Archaeologi• well. Cultivated plants are repre• cal Survey and Excavation at the Wadi sented by barley, emmer, wheat and al-Yutum and Magass Area - al-Aqaba flax. Species of shrubs and trees in• (ASEYM): A Preliminary Report on the clude acacia, tamarisk, wild fig, Second Season in 2000, ADAJ 45, Phoenician juniper and wild pista• 2001, 195-204. chio. Khalil, L; Eichmann, R.; Schmidt, K., Excavations at Tall Hujayrat al-Ghuz- References lan/Aqaba, 2002, in preparation. Bruckner, H.; Eichmann, R.; Herling, Kirkbride, D., Ancient Arabian Ances• L; Kallweit, H.; Kerner, S.; Khalil, L; tor Idols. Part I: Archaeology 22/2, Miqdadi, R., Chalcolithic and Early 1969,116-121; Part 11: Archaeology 22/ Bronze Age Sites near Aqaba, Jordan, 3, 1969, 188-195. in: Eichmann, R. (ed), Ausgrabungen und Surveys im Vorderen Orient I, Ori- Muller-Neuhof, B.; Schmidt, K.; Khalil, ent-Archaologie 5, Rahden 2002, 217- L; Eichmann, R., Ausgrabungen in Tall 339. Hujayrat al-Ghuzlan (Jordanien), Alter Orient Aktuell, 2003, in press. Deutsches Archaologisches Institut, 12 OCCIDENT & ORIENT - March 2003

Survival at Present-day Sabra

By: Manfred Lindner, Naturhistorische Gesellschaft Niirnberg (Germany)

The small oasis town of Sabra, want to stay long at Sabra. Similarly, Zayadine had not been stung but some 6.5 km to the south-west of later visitors were seriously en• only pinched by the scorpion. We Petra, has been explored by the Na• dangered several times. This article continued our excavation of a co• turhistorische Gesellschaft (NHG) reports on some accidents or near lumned building between the spring Nurnberg since the 1960's. I finished accidents during the years from and the temple without further my work there in 1990, there where 1978 to 1998. mishap. We were friends already, I have spent many days and nights since I had translated his disser• Once a Liathne from Wadi Musa, between steppe and desert, and I tation on the rock architecture of who was contracted to work with us, should like now to report on those Petra and had it included in my book came with a can of kerosene to Sa• events not usually published in about „Petra and the Kingdom of the bra. The danger from snakes is scientific journals. Nabataeans". great here, he said, as he poured Early visitors like de Laborde, the stinking liquid around his tent. An Austrian architect broke her Brunnow, Forder, Kennedy, Hors- Fortunately, only on one occasion wrist when she climbed down from field and Glueck did not generally was a snake seen on the way up to the rock wall of Jebelel-Jathum. On spend more than half a day at Sa• the Early Bronze Age station Sabra a camel that had to be brought from bra, and their accounts about what N (Ras Dakhlallah) and it was killed Petra during the night, she was they had seen was correspondingly instantly by the Bedouin. The thin transported there the next day. With short, and not always what actually snakes are feared by the Bedouin no other material available, the had been seen. As these daring and were already feared by their an• complicated fracture had to be put men used to travel in summer, they cient predecessors, as is clear from in a splint with an eagle's wing. Un• suffered from the dry heat and their petroglyphs. fortunately, the injured lady refused sandstorms. Additionally, as late as to have her wrist treated, as strictly When the Jordanian archaeologist the 1970's, the Bedouin of the Sa• ordered, in the hospital in Amman, Fawzi Zayadine jumped out of his bra region, mostly Sa'idiyin, were instead preferring to be treated by tent at Sabra and shouted „Akrab, not especially friendly toward for• a Bedouin camel healer from Petra. Akrab!", I sucked the tiny wound eigners or even to Bedouin from Consequently her wrist had later to with my cracked lips, gave him a se• other tribes. Later, the Department be fractured anew in Austria. dative, took one myself, and waited of Antiquities did not allow many for my premature death whilst One member of my group from the people to do research at Sabra. sleeping. The next morning, both Naturhistorische Gesellschaft Nurn• The early visitors already knew, or the doctor and the archaeologist berg temporarily lost his eye sight soon experienced, why they did not were unharmed. Apparently, Fawzi due to a diabetic crisis at Sabra. Donors to the Library

We would like to express our gratitude to the following institutions and persons who made donations to our library:

American Center of Oriental Research (ACOR), Amman (Jordan); Dr. Susanne Kerner, Berlin (Germany); Prof Dr. Adolf Hoffmann, German Archaeological Institute (DAI), Istanbul (Turkey); Prof. Dr. Ulrich Hubner, Kiel University, Kiel (Germany); German Protestant Institute of Archaeology in Jerusalem (DEIAHL); Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin (Germany); PD Dr. Andreas Kunz, Leipzig University, Leipzig (Germany); Prof. Dr. Raine-Riesner, Dortmund University, Dortmund (Germany); Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation, Amman (Jordan); Prof. E. Dabrowa, Krakow (Poland); Prof. Dr. Dr. Manfred Lindner, Nurnberg (Germany); Dino Politis, Hellenic Society for Near Eastern Studies, Athen (Greece); Elisabeth Schulz, German Speaking Evangelical Congregation, Amman (Jordan), Dr. Marc Verhoeven, Leiden University (Netherlands). OCCIDENT & ORIENT - March 2003 13

Luckily, as a result of his speedy re• his only means of earning money morning, however, the horse's ex• turn to Petra, Amman and Germany, in Petra. After eating an excess of pected vulgar noises freed every• he was healed. green grass (unknown at Petra) the body from their sorrow. horse's belly had bloated enor• There were no further mishaps at On another occasion, the only mously. The poor animal had, with• Sabra. We had learned our lesson horse of the Bdul Bedouin Soliman, out a veterinary and without a troika and so avoided everything that who accompanied us with his whole forcefully to be kept in motion and could harm us (or the animals) dur• family to Sabra, needed to be treat• to be fed laxatives all night long, ing the following years at Sabra ed. The family excursion threatened while the women cried over the ap• to destroy his horse and therefore parently threatening loss. The next The Region of Gadara/Umm Qeis Project. The 2002 sea• son: a test trench on Tell Zera'a

By: Karel Vriezen, Theological Faculty, University of Utrecht (Netherlands)

On Tell Zera'a, a conspicuous ar• recht, from the 19m until the 31th of dating from the Early Iron Age. This chaeological site located in the cen• October. The trench was enlarged accumulation of soil covered three tre of the Wadi el-'Arab and 4.5 km to 6.00 x 7.00 m, and was excavat• walis and their connecting floors be• south-west of Umm Qeis, there are ed to a depth of 4.72 m (that is, longing to a sequence of four Early traces of continuous habitation 22.54 m below sea level). Iron Age houses (Fig. 1). Connected since the Bronze Age. As a focal to the upper and last wall, were two The trench is situated on the point in the regional archaeology of consecutive floors, 2 cm thick and western edge of the top of the tell. the Gadara/Umm Qeis area, the tell grey in colour. The second wall is On the surface three parallel walls and its surroundings were explored related to a 4 cm thick black floor, are visible; in the excavation these by a joint project. In autumn 2001 a consisting mainly of ash. To the third appeared to contain ceramics from large scale survey of the site was and lowest wall, a 2 cm thick grey the Iron Age to the Early Islamic Pe• undertaken by a team from the Bibli• floor is related (Fig. 2) and, this wall riod, but may have been construct• cal Archaeological Institute, Univer• is constructed on the lowest of the ed in more recent times. They are sity of Wuppertal (Vieweger et al. floors, again forming a 2 cm thick, built as terrace walls. East of these 2002), followed by the excavation light grey layer. Each of these walls and 0.3 m below the surface, an of a test trench carried out by a team is built of undressed stone blocks, older terrace wall was found retain• from the Theological Faculty, Uni• with widths of between 0.65 m and ing soil with finds also dating from versity of Utrecht (Vriezen 2002). 0.85 m. Each of the floors has ash the Iron Age to the Early Islamic Pe• pockets containing cooking pot In 2002 the work on the test trench riod. The walls are built with field sherds, indicating the existence of was continued by a team from Ut- stones, except for some dressed fire places and cooking activities building stones in one of the latest of them. The lowest floor covered a large pit, 3.20 m in diameter, filled with In the enlargement of the stone boulders and red-brown earth trench excavated in 2002, the northern continuation of the loamy floor dating from the early Byzantine Period was found, together with the wall connected to it. Many tabun sherds were found on the floor.

Underneath the terrace walls and the Byzantine floor, there was an accu• Fig. 1: Part of the North and the East mulation of layers containing only Fig. 2: The lower Iron Age wall and sections of the test trench Iron Age finds, the great majority connected floor 14 OCCIDENT & ORIENT - March 2003

that cut into a thick layer of yellow it would not be surprising if future neath are the remains of mud brick loam. In and under this layer of excavations reveal these bricks to walls, which may belong to the Late loam, dark brown and bright yellow be of Late Bronze Age date. Bronze Age. bricks were discerned that may be interpreted as tumble from mud References brick walls. The structure of these Vieweger, D. et al., Tall Zera'a in the brick walls could not yet be Wadi al-'Arab, Occident & Orient 7/2, established; however one 0.90 m 2002, 12-14. wide mud brick wall is visible in the Vriezen, K., The Region of Gadara/ south section of the trench (Fig. 3). Umm Qeis Project. Second part of the Since finds from the Late Bronze 2001-season: a test trench on Tell Age increase in these lower levels. Zera'a, Occident & Orient, 7/1, 2002, 18-19.

Fig. 4: Chalice

At the end of this second campaign the following conclusions may be drawn (Fig. 4). In the test trench, under four terrace walls dating bet• ween Late Antique and modern times, there are the remains of two cultural periods: a floor of the By• zantine period and a sequence of Fig. 3: Mud brick wall in south sec• four Early Iron Age houses. Under• tion of the test trench The Abandonment of the Decapolis and the Question of Environmental Change - an Interdisciplinary Research Project

By: Bernhard Lucke, University of Cottbus (Germany)

The ruins of the Decapolis cities are ed. This is due to the nearly com• sponsible, whereas the two others famous and are important places for plete abandonment of the Decapo• see environmental changes to be cultural tourism. They are well lis region for about 1000 years, the major causes for the population known because, not having been which is remarkable because the exodus. The first believes misma• reused in later constructions, so area saw highly developed city life nagement to be the driving force, many ancient buildings are preserv- from the Early Bronze Age until the while the second postulates a me• 10th century A. D. Although dieval climatic change. gaps in settlement activity If there was a change of environ• had occurred, they were re• ment, this should be detectable in stricted to individual sites changes of land use patterns and and were soon followed by in the soil. The combination of land resettlement, which makes use analysis and soil science pro• the later total disappearance vides much information about the of city ife quite curious. environmental history. This ap• The causes for this are not proach is not new; it has been suc• known, but environmental cessful in the archaeology of Cen• reasons may be implicated. tral Europe for the last 20 years. Al• Generalising, it can be said though it was expected that certain Fig. 1: Abila: a general view that three theories exist: One be• adaptations to Mediterranean con• lieves political reasons to be re• ditions would be needed, this ap- OCCIDENT & ORIENT - March 2003 15

proach was considered transferab• available so far (Geraty et al. 1989) terra rossas are considered as old le to the Decapolis region. Afirst at• was not applicable to Abila. Even soils, dating to the Tertiary or the tempt to do so was part of a the ploughing technique is not Pluvials of the Ice Ages. It can be Master's thesis, submitted in 2002 known. The long fields of Abila could concluded that about 40 cm of soil (Lucke 2002), focussing on the site point to the use of a heavy plough, have been lost since the fields came of Abila. Abila was chosen because, which is also suggested by other under cultivation, meaning that any so far, there has been only limited findings (Kuhnen 1989), but the pre• traces of mismanagement devas• disturbance, while the settlement sent information does not allow a tating enough to have forced the ab• activity is quite well known (Fuller conclusion as to how natural soil de• andonment of the site were no lon• 1987, 1992) (Fig. 1). velopment would have changed ger present. Additionally, natural re• through the land use (Fig. 2). Furt• forestation was observed by Schuh- This preliminary examination of her research is necessary. macher (1890), indicating that suffi• the land use pattern and soils of the cient soil was present then to allow Decapolis city of AbHa found that the However, the soils derived from the growth of trees. This clearly soils on the agricultural plateau calcareous bedrock lend them• speaks against Lowdermilks and around the old city are too shallow selves to a pedogenetic argumenta• Butzer's theory of bad land use to allow a direct transfer of metho• tion. At present, the average depth (Lowdermilk 1944, Butzer 1978), as dology because, unlike in Central of soil is around 60 cm, charac• do newer historical investigations Europe, no buried soil surfaces are terizing it as rendzina, whereas its which found that the population con• preserved that would allow a com• red colour would normally suggest sists of highly developed agricultu• parison of conditions. Furthermore, a terra rossa, which is about 1 m rists (Watson 1981) (Fig. 3). the old land use patterns could not deep. The red colour, which emer• be reconstructed. It seems that very ges only after long and intensive As far as the history of the Deca• little is known about the old land weathering processes, is due to the polis is known, political reasons for use, and the limited information clay mineral haematite. Therefore the abandonment of the whole re• gion are not very probable. Abila was settled since the early Bronze Age and was quickly resettled when wars and earthquakes caused de• struction. The final decline occurred when the Islamic empire was at its peak. Although a heavy earthquake and a series of plagues caused much destruction at the end of the Umayyad period, new cities were built in theAbbasid period, but were subsequently abandoned in the 10in century. Maybe the beginning of po• litical unrest contributed to the aban• donment, but it was not the first and worst unrest the region saw, and there were no earthquakes, wars or plagues when the cities became de• serted. In contrast, the Mamluk pe• riod, characterised by unrest and corruption, saw the brief establish• ment of small towns in the ruins. These were deserted again soon after the Turkish conquest in the 16,h century, even though the Turks tried to develop the region. The shallowness of soils and the absence of permanent water• courses point to an agricultural sys• tem that was very vulnerable to droughts. Even today rainfall has a Fig. 2: The long fields of Abila, from the air critical effect on the harvest. Al• though the results are only prelimi- 15 OCCIDENT & ORIENT - March 2003

nary and nearly nothing is known found that the red colour can deve• Louis 1987. about the ancient land use patterns lop under present climatic condi• Geraty, L.T. et al., Madaba Plains Pro• and agricultural techniques, it tions, if the source rock has certain ject: The 1984 season at Tell el-Umeiri seems that a variation in climate qualities. This point can be address• and vicinity and subsequent studies, lasting about 100 years could have ed by an examination of the source Berrien Springs, Michigan 1989. rock at Abila. Colour and texture dif• had sufficient impact to force the ab• Kuhnen, H. P., Studien zur Chronolo- andonment of the whole region. ferences in the area could indicate gie und Siedlungsarchaologie des Kar- reforestation of some areas, while In recent years, important pro• mel, Beihefte zum Tubinger Atlas des others were seemingly always used Vorderen Orients, Reihe B Nr. 72, Wies• gress has been made in climate re• as fields. Furthermore, a soil has baden 1989. search, but climate reconstruction started to develop out of the debris is extremely difficult and the results Lowdermilk, W. C, Palestine - land in the ruins. This soil is grey, mean• are often contradictory. The most of promise, London 1944. ing that 1000 years of weathering recent investigations found that Lucke, B., Abila's abandonment, Mas• have not been sufficient for the red short but intense droughts exactly ter Thesis at Brandenburg Technical colour to cevelop. On the other match the time of abandonment. University, Cottbus 2002. hand, a relic Bronze Age surface But coincidence alone does not developed out of Early Bronze Age Schuhmacher, G., Northern Ajlun: prove causality. debris was red. This could mean Within the Decapolis, London 1890. that there was much more rain in Watson, A. M., A medieval green re• the Bronze Age. And finally, the volution - New crops and farming tech• composition of mud bricks from niques in the Early Islamic world, in: Bronze Age was identical with that Udovitch, A. L. (ed.), The Islamic Middle of the present agricultural surfaces. East, 700 - 1900: Studies in economic and social history, Princeton 1981. If this parallel can be proven for all mud brick remains, this implies that Further readings the Bronze Age agricultural condi• tions were similar to those of today. Bar-Matthews, M.; Ayalon, A.; Kauf- mann, A., Middle to Late Holocene Pa- To answer these questions satis• leoclimate in the eastern Mediterrane• factorily, research in close coopera• an region from stable isotopic composi• tion with archaeologists, soil scien• tion of Speleothems from Soreq Cave, tists, hydrologists, meteorologists Israel, in: Issar, A. S.;. Brown, N. (eds.), and geologists is intended. Work will Water, environment and society in continue at the site of Abila, and also times of climatic change, Dordrecht 1998. Fig. 3: Abila: section showing shal• at another well-preserved De- lowness of soils capolis city and at Tell Zera'a, a Bronger, A., Kalksteinverwitterungs- more rural area, for comparison. lehme als Klimazeugen?, Zeitschrift fur A new research project has there• For the future, it is hoped that the Geomorphologie N.F. Suppl. 24,1976. fore been designed to investigate soil stratigraphy in excavations will Butzer, K. W., Climatic change in arid the impact of the proposed climatic be documented more regularly and regions since the Pliocene, in: Stamp, changes. To achieve this it will be soil samples are collected, because D. (ed.), A history of land use in arid necessary to know more about the otherwise much information will be regions, UNESCO, 1961. ancient land use and the genesis irrevocably lost. A stronger coopera• Fuller, M., Regional survey and ehtno- of soils in the area. It must not be tion between archaeology and na• archaeological investigations at Abila, forgotten that land use influences tural sciences could help to shed ARAM 4, 1&2, 1992, 157-171. at least the local climate and can light on the environmental history Issar, A.S., Climate change and contribute greatly to the more or less and to predict future environmental history during the Holocene in the devastating effects of a drought. scenarios and their impacts. Eastern Mediterranean region, in: Issar, This is also interesting with regard A. S.; Brown, N. (eds.), Water, to present day development, References environment and society in times of because it is not known what will climatic change, Dordrecht 1998. happen if a drought occurs again, Butzer, K. W., The Late Prehistoric en• vironmental history of the Near East, Walmsley, A., Vestiges of the Deca• whether it is caused by natural de• in: Brice, W.C. (ed), The environmental polis in north Jordan during the late An• velopments or the greenhouse ef• history of the Near and Middle East tique and early Islamic Periods, ARAM fect. since the last Ice Age, London 1978. 4, 1&2, The Decapolis, International conference at University of Oxford, Additionally, very little is known Fuller, M., Abila of the Decapolis: A 1992. about the genesis of soils on calca• greco-roman city in Transjordan, Dis• reous rocks. Newer investigations sertation Washington University, St. OCCIDENT & ORIENT - March 2003 17

Fellows in Residence and Visitors (November 2002 - February 2003)

Mr. Bernhard Lucke, University of Cottbus (Germany)

Provost Martin Reyer and wife, Jerusalem

Dr. Susanne Kerner, Deutsches Archaologisches Institut (DAI), Berlin (Germany)

Mrs Christa Kuzbari, Deutsches Archaologisches Institut (DAI), Damaskus (Syria)

Mrs Barbara Nofal, Goethe Institute (Gl), Damaskus (Syria)

Mr. Holger Zahn, trainee at the German Technical Cooperation Office (GTZ), Amman (Jordan)

Prof. Dr. Ricardo Eichmann, Deutsches Archaologisches Institut (DAI), Berlin (Germany)

Mr. Bernd Muller-Neuhof, Deutsches Archaologisches Institut (DAI), Berlin (Germany)

Dr. Arnulf Hausleiter, Copenhagen University, Copenhagen (Denmark)

Dr. Konstantinos Politis, British Museum, London (Great Britain)

Team members of the excavation in Tell Zera'a, conducted by Dr. Karel Vriezen, Utrecht University, (Netherlands)

Dr. Hans-Dieter Bienert, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), Bonn (Germany)

Prof. Dr. Gunther Schauerte, State Museums, Berlin (Germany)

Prof. Dr. Beate Salje, Museum of the Ancient Near East, Berlin (Germany)

Prof. Dr. Peter-Klaus Schuster, State Museums, Berlin (Germany)

Prof. Dr. Zeidan Kafafi, Yarmouk University, Irbid (Jordan)

Dr. Mohammed Waheeb, Hashemite University, Zerqa (Jordan)

Mrs Elaine A. Myers, British School of Archaeology, Jerusalem The Significance of Ba'ja for the Early Near Eastern Neo• lithic Research

By: Hans Georg K. Gebel, Free University of Berlin (Germany)

The Late Pre-Pottery Neolithic site have chosen such a protected and settings; the wealth created by the of Ba'ja is known for its remote sett• hidden location, but we should ex• production of luxury goods (the ing within the rugged sandstone for• pect more such settings, or sites sandstone rings in the case of Ba'ja) mations north of Petra. (The site is havsng defensive structures in early required cutting oneself off from the designated as Ba'ja 1 in Gebel & Neolithic times. There has been outside world; or even, an unknown Starck (1985) and Gebel (1986), much speculation as to why this symbolic/psychological factor made and more recently as Ba'ja II (e.g. choice was made. The hitherto uni• the setting ritually attractive be• Bienert et al. (2002).) The immedi• que evidence from southern Jordan cause it was only accessible ate site area is called locally al-Meh- clearly demands more than a prag• through the „vagina-type of chan• mad. (For basic information on the matic explanation. To mention just nel" of the siq (gorge). site and its field research history see a few: environmental stress caused the references in Gebel & Herman- conflict between neighbouring late Many of these ideas are proble• sen (2001).) Until now, no other ear• PPNB sites and as a result commu• matic on their own, but the problem ly sedentary community is known to nities moved into more protected common to all such approaches is, 18 OCCIDENT & ORIENT - March 2003

that they are characterized by a aptations and deficit management now shelters and governs the inte• single determinant cause. Our pro• that would have previously been im• rests of the individual; kinship ject today stresses that it was a possible. groups replace small families; an combination of reasons that brought apparent differentiation in labour, Ba'ja flourished in an environmen• about the existence of Ba'ja in its subsistence, household and com• tally sensitive area soon after se• remote location, all of which reflect munal tasks, and in community go• dentary life arrived in the region half significant elements and needs of vernance which helps to strengthen a millennium before, during the early Near Eastern Neolithic com• these communities both socially middle PPNB of the greater Petra plexity. Possibly this association of and economically (Gebel 2002a,b). area. Differing from the core areas factors can be seen in a more pro• This development seems to have of Near Eastern sedentary life, the nounced way at Ba'ja than else• been the reaction to increasing con• potential reasons for the successful where. In this short contribution, I flicts between and within settle• adaptation in the greater Petra area am only able to outline some of the ments during the late early Neolithic are visible because of the more dis• more important considerations. in the area. Fast-growing communi• advantageous environmental condi• ties did not find the social answers tions, so that any intensifica• to manage complexity and growth. tion of human activity would Conflict may have been one of the result in a more drastic reasons why these settlements col• change in the archaeological lapsed by c. 6900 BC („hiatus pa- record. For example, the arri• lestinien"). Ba'ja may prove to be a val of the so-called megasite valuable resource in the area of phenomenon (to which Ba'ja Neolithic conflict studies. belongs) (Gebel 2002b), which introduced new social and socio-economic patterns ^ to the area, is clearly mirrored 9 in the Beidha-to-Ba'ja trans• formations. While this line of Fig. 1. Neolithic Ba'ja: A recent view reasoning emphasizes that the of the site and its excavation areas narrow but diversified physiographic units of the greater Petra area make Throughout the western wing of the the region highly suitable for the • t Fertile Crescent, and in many parts study of environmental impact on I. m of the its east segment, the 9 and the Neolithization processes, there PI lh 8 millennia BC witnessed a series are also other arguments more di• of regionally and temporarily diversi• rectly linked to the peculiarities of Fig. 2. Neolithic Ba'ja: Finds from a fied and confined complex develop• Ba'ja. collective burial (2001 season) ments that had not been seen be• fore. These are often characterized The problems associated with the On the other hand, the intrasite limi• by unmatched and even hypertro• development of early Neolithic terri- tations of space at Ba'ja, surround• phic features elsewhere, but they torialism are reflected at Ba'ja in a ed by vertical rocks and deep share one common trend: dissolv• very condensed way. On one hand, gorges, also provide an excellent lo• ing heterarchical structures in its the assumed migration of village po• cation for studying the human etho• broadest terms. Many of the main pulations from sites like Beidha into logy of early Neolithic space. Unlike ingredients of the processes of early the naturally protected (but indefen• „open" settlements, the unmodifi- sedentary life are to be seen in the sible) setting of Ba'ja, illustrates the able spatial restrictions at Ba'ja archaeological evidence from Ba'ja: tendency for the creation of shielded display spatial regulation in a much the formation of completely new ty• environments at the end of the Pre- more obvious way. The „domestica- pes of spatial, ritual, and social terri• Pottery periods. (This pattern could tion" of vertical space (multi-storey- tories and therefore new forms of occur much earlier in areas with a ed houses), a social life steadily mo• identity; an interaction that was longer settlement history and a de• difying ground plans, and symbolic strongly promoted by competition veloping settlement pattern, e.g. in behaviour supporting spatial inte• and the rapid cognitive processes the Pre-Pottery NeolithicAMediter- rests are just some of this evidence inherent in natural resources mana• ranean/semiarid contact zones of at Ba'ja. The limited 1.2-1.5 hec• gement, technological innovation, Palestine.) Ba'ja exhibits physio- tare of dense housing areas on and the creation of new social and graphically what happened socially Ba'ja's intramontane basin offers symbolic paradigms; patterns of dif• in the megasites such as es-Sifiya, the opportunity to excavate a late ferentiation at all levels of settled life 'Ain Jammam, Basta, 'Ain Ghazal, Pre-Pottery Neolithic site to a fuller that allowed for new economic ad• and others. Corporate organization extent and with a better under- OCCIDENT & ORIENT - March 2003 19

standing of its spatial framework Neolithic soil and arboreal environ• References: than other sites. Resulting sound in• ment would have been located too Bienert, H.D.; Lamprichs, R.; Vie- sights into the social structure of far away and too difficult to reach weger, D., Ba'ja. Archaologie einer Ba'ja's population, which is currently for the daily needs of a community Landschaft in Jordanien. Bericht iiber estimated to have been around 600 this size. If we overthrow the discre• archaologische Feldforschungen, in: inhabitants, can only have a regio• tely used but unproven axiom that Eichmann, R. (ed), Ausgrabungen und nal and temporal relevance. How• early Neolithic people did not build Surveys im Vorderen Orient I, Orient- ever, these special conditions at dams for water management and Archaologie 5, Rahden2002,159-214. Ba'ja allow for a more reliable ana• storage, and look at the favoured Gebel H.G., Die Jungsteinzeit im lysis of early Neolithic social struc• topographical and hydrological con• Petra-Gebiet, in: Lindner, M. (ed.), ture. ditions below the settlement, we find Petra. Neue Ausgrabungen und Ent- a strong argument for the harvest• deckungen, Munchen/Bad Windsheim, ing of rain water as contributing to Delp 1986, 273-308. the choice of settlement location. Gebel H.G., The Neolithic of the Near The topic of water in Ba'ja may open East. An essay on a polycentric process another necessary discussion for a and other research problems, in: Haus- period that in other parts of the Near leiter, A., Kerner S., Muller-Neuhof, B. East (e.g. the Djezirah, northern (eds ), Material Culture and Mental Iraq) was followed by the first evi• Spheres, Alter Orient und Altes Testa• ment 293, Munster 2002a, 313-324. dence of contour ditch irrigation. Gebel H.G., Subsistenzformen, Sied- Ba'ja's potential for further study lungsweisen und Prozesse des sozia- Fig. 3. Neolithic Ba'ja: Waste from into the process of Neolithization in len Wandels vom akeramischen bis sandstone ring workshops deposit• the Near East is becoming clear, zum keramischen Neolithikum, Teil II: ed in a rock cleft and it is finding its role in this re• Grundzuge sozialen Wandels im Neoli• search. It will help to contribute to a thikum der sudlichen Levante, http:// new understanding of Near Eastern www.freidok.uni-freiburg.de/volltexte/ A new and additional argument for Neolithization, which appears ne• 466, Freiburg 2002b. Ba'ja's location comes from the siq cessary after other recent exciting Gebel, KG; Dahl Hermansen, B., bordering the southern edge of the insights that were inconceivable be• LPPNB Ba'ja 2001. A short note. Neo- site. Here are ideal conditions for fore (e.g. the Gobekli interaction Lithics 2/010, Berlin 2001, 15-20. collecting the run-off water that sphere, the Cyprus colonization"). drains down from the vast eastern Gebel, H.G; Starck, J.M., Investiga• This short piece tried to emphasize tions into the stone age of the Petra catchment area. Today, there is no a few new starting points for such area (Early Holocene research). A pre• spring nearby. Any potential spring- discussion on behalf of Ba'ja. liminary report on the 1984 campaigns. fed water source in an intact early Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan (ADAJ) 29, Amman 1985,89- 114. Excavations and Survey at QaPat 'Unaiza, Jordan, May - June 2002

By: Andrew Petersen, Cardiff University/Center for British Research in the Levant, Amman (Jordan)

Qal'at 'Unaiza is located in southern 'Unaiza. When I first surveyed the west which I had assumed were Jordan, approximately midway bet• site as part of my M.Phil thesis on somehow related to the Ottoman ween Wadi Hasa and Ma'an on the Hajj forts it was the only fort that fort. I had these thoughts in mind Desert Highway. The ruins of the fort would not fit onto an A3 sheet when many years later when I found the stand a few hundred metres to the drawn at a scale of 1:100 (Petersen time and the funding to do more west of the road and are domi-nated 1989, 2001). The building was not• work on this fort as preparation for by the volcanic outcrop of Ja-bal ably bigger than the other forts and a monograph on the early Ottoman 'Unaiza {..little goat mountain") a had a gateway that was set asym• Hajj forts in Jordan. The other rea• kilometre further west. metrically into the east face rather son why I selected 'Unaiza for an I had always known there was than in the centre. The other notable intensive excavation and architec• something a bit odd about Qal'at feature was a pile of ruins to the tural survey was that, for a variety 20 OCCIDENT & ORIENT - March 2003

of reasons, it appears to have been The results of this work are currently in use for a relatively short time (i.e. being analysed and a preliminary 1576 to circa 1830) and therefore report will appear in Levant 35,2003 would be of use in identifying a typi• with a final report forming part of the cal assemblage associated with the monograph on the Hajj forts. Ottoman Hajj. In addition to the work on the 16m As soon as we arrived at 'Unaiza century Ottoman fort we also took it became apparent that much of the an interest in the adjacent Hijaz rail• peculiarity of 'Unaiza was derived way station. The station was built from the fact that it was built on the sometime after 1904 when the rail• site of an earlier, probably Roman way reached as far as Ma'an and is building. After we had carried out a still in use to service trains of the series of trial trenches (A-E) and a detailed survey of the 16th century fort, it was clear that the Ottomans had not only built over an earlier building but that large parts of the standing fort originally formed part of the earlier building. Although this Fig. 3: Ahmad Shurma standing next was a very interesting result, we re• to gun slit inside 'Unaiza railway sta• covered very little pottery or other tion fort finds from the trenches inside and immediately outside :he fort. In re• sponse to this problem we decided Jordan Potash Company. The sta• to excavate a large ash tip to the tion's importance was increased in north east of the fort which had large 1916 when a branch line was built amounts of typically Ottoman ma• to Shaubak in order to exploit the terial lying on the top (e.g. Tobacco woods in that area for use by the pipe fragments, coffee cups etc). Hijaz railway. This line was closed The excavation of a part of this a few years later and in 1924 the mound, Trench F, provided a wide track was dismantled. range of material (ceramics, texti• The present station is a complex les, metalwork, bone and glass) Fig. 2: Qal'at 'Unaiza Trench B, look• of buildings comprising a station with no architecture suggesting that ing east with earlier wall (Roman?) with signaling equipment, a fort, a ,fl this was a refuse dump either for embedded in wall of 16 century large cistern and a repair shop. For the fort, the Hajj caravan or both. Ottoman fortress our purposes the most interesting part of the complex was the railway fort which, in terms of function, has something in common with the 16,h century Hajj fort. Like the earlier fort, it was built in a position overlooking a cistern guarding the water supply which is still the most valuable re• source in this desert region.

The fort stands about three hund• red metres from its 16,n century pre• decessor and is a small rectangular structure (10 m x 15mapprox.)wi:h a single entrance on the north side. The interior comprises a narrow rectangular courtyard flanked by two rooms (each approx. 8 m x 4 m) each of which has a number of splayed gun slits. A staircase in the courtyard leads up to the flat roof Fig. 1: Qal'at 'Unaiza from east, with Jabal Unaiza behind which is enclosed by a low parapet OCCIDENT & ORIENT - March 2003 21

(approx. 1 m high) also containing Acknowledgments Petersen, A.D., Ottoman Hajj Forts, splayed gun slits. Chapter 28, in: Bienkowski, P., The team comprised Ahmad Shur- MacDonald, B. and Adams, R. (eds.), ma (Department of Antiquities Re• The Archaeology of Jordan, Sheffield Conclusion presentative) and Pierre Brun (Uni• 2001, 741-748. This short field season produced a versity College London). We are wealth of information which relates grateful for the support of the Bara- not only to the 16th century Hajj fort kat Trust (Oxford) and the Centre but also to the evolution of the site for British Research in the Levant through time. For the future it would (CBRL). be useful to find out the date and In Amman we were grateful for the function of the earlier building. If, as support and assistance of the CBRL seems likely, it is of Roman origin it in particular Nadja Qaisi, who would be interesting to examine its alerted us to the meaning of relationship with other structures of 'Unaiza, and Bill Finlayson for his similar date in the same area, in par• hospitality. ticular the spectacular site of Daja- niyya which stands seven kilome• References tres to the north. This is a topic cur• rently being investigated by George Petersen, A.D., Early Ottoman Forts Findlater. on the Darb al-Hajj, Levant 21, 1989, 97-118. Ras Hamra: A Nabataean Sanctuary south of Petra

By: Ulrich Hiibner. Institute of Biblical Archaeology, University of Kiel (Germany)

Ras Hamra is situated about 1 km man. M. -indner visited the site in is unknown. As far as can be seen south-southeast of Petra on the October 1991, but did not publish from the surface remains, there track through the Wadi ath-Thu- any account of it. In September were rooms at least in the north• ghra, which leads to Sabra and ev• 2000 the author examined and sur• eastern and the south-eastern cor• entually onto Jabal Harun. Ras veyed the site in some detail (Hiib• ners. On the outside of the eastern Hamra forms a small natural pla• ner 2002) for the first time (Fig. 2). and northern walls of the arrange• teau, about 170 m long by 75 m ment, and in the north gate, sand• In antiquity a 57.50 m x 57.50 m wide at the most, its northern peak stone tambours were used. These square arrangement was built on ending in an isolated, reddish rock are reused parts of older buildings, Ras Hamra. The slopes of the pla• 968 m above sea level; its Arabic and prove that there were renova• teau were secured by strong sup• name „Red Rock" comes from this tions of the peristyle building, pre• porting walls and water was stored conelike peak. From the plateau sumably under Roman rule. in a cistern on the western slope. there is a good view over the sur• An entrance in the rounding mountains and Ras Sulai- north, near the man, which lies to the south just north-eastern cor• under 500 m away. To the north, the ner and another in view extends past Detra, over al-Ha- the south, near the bis, Zibb Fira'un and az-Zantur to south-western cor• Umm Sahyun (Fig. 1). ner, lead into an The importance of Ras Hamra re• open yard, which mained unrecognised for a long seems to have been time, either because early descrip• mostly empty. In• tions were not based on personal side the square a visits, for example those of R. E. one-storey peristyle Briinnowand A. von Domaszewski, hall, 5.20 m-5.50 m or were rather short and inaccurate, wide, ran along all such as the description by G. Dal- four sides. The order of the columns Fig. 1: Ras Hamra from the south 22 OCCIDENT & ORIENT - March 2003

Dating can only be based on trie general structure of the site and its surface pottery because there are no inscriptions, statues or frag• ments of architectural ornaments. Based on these it seems that the site is unlikely to have been built be• fore the middle of the 1s'century BC or later than the 2nd century AD. The repairs of the peristyle indicate (re)usage in Roman times. Thus we can assume that it was built under Nabataean rule and later reused un• der Roman rule. To what extent the political changes in 106 AD affected the function of the building is un• known.

Reference

Hiibner, U., Ras Hamra bei Petra, Zeitschrifi des Deutschen Palestina- Vereins 118, 2002, 169-175.

Fig. 2: Map of Ras Hamra (U. Hiibner/A. Goddecke 2001)

Although there is obviously only one building inside the peristyle hall, it was not situated in the centre, but was built on the axis near the wes• tern peristyle. This building is 7.70 m wide and 8.60 m long. The main facade with the entrance was on the narrow eastern edge. Based on the position and structure of the build• ing, it may be presumed that it was a small temple, oriented to the west (Fig. 3). A more accurate identifica• Fig. 3: The Temple of Ras Hamra from the northeast tion of the type of the temple is not possible without excavation. The pottery found on the surface Merchants, visitors or pilgrims who shows that the building was used came on the track to Petra from the mainly in Nabataean and Roman Araba via Sabra, Abu Khusheiba or times, i.e. from about the middle of Naqb ar-Ruba'i or who wanted to the 1s' century BC until the beginn• leave Petra via the necropolis of ing of the 2na century AD and, with ath-Thughra, for example towards intervals, even into the 3rd /4th cen• the Jabal Harun, could stop on Ras tury AD. A few sherds from Byzan• Hamra to ask the god's blessings tine and Islamic times indicate only for his enterprise, while looking on occasional visits to the place during or back to the city. these periods. OCCIDENT & ORIENT - March 2003 23

Working as a DAAD Lecturer at the University of Jordan in Amman

By: Martin Harfmann, University of Jordan, Amman (Jordan)

On September the 12th I arrived in tember, I received a lot of applica• and science, plus a range of music Amman to start working as a DAAD tions for these grants in my first and dance courses. This year there lecturer for the University of Jordan. weeks here. Applications had to be is support for up to 16 students. The DAAD lecturer in Jordan has checked and applicants had to be three main duties: informed about the application re• Teaching at the University of quirements of this programme. Jordan • teaching German language and Then the successful applicants literature at the University of Jor• There are two lecturers, in addition were invited by the German Embas• dan to myself, in the German section, sy to be interviewed by a commis• which is a part of the Department • informing students and profes• sion in Amman. The commission is of Modern Languages. In every tri• sors about scholarships the headed by the Cultural Attache of mester I teach 12 hours weekly, that DAAD offers in Jordan the German Embassy and includes is 4 courses. Jordanian professors and represen• • providing Jordanians with gene• tatives of German institutions. It In the last trimester (Oct. 2002 to ral information about higher edu• ranks the applicants, but the DAAD Feb. 2003) I gave courses on the cation in Germany in Bonn makes the final decision as following subjects; German for be• to who will receive support. Up to ginners, listening and conversation, What is the DAAD? eight candidates will be sponsored. advanced writing, and German lan• DAAD stands for Deutscher Akade- guage in media and tourism. mischer Austauschdienst, that is the I enjoy teaching at the University „German Academic Exchange Ser• of Jordan very much. This espe• vice". In its capacity as a joint institu• cially holds for German in media tion of Germany's higher education and tourism, which is offered to community, this organisation is re• fourth year students. In this sponsible for promoting internatio• course the emphasis is on con• nal academic co-operation, particu• veying background information larly by arranging the exchange of on the media in Germany and university members. In Jordan, the Austria. It also focuses on Ger• DAAD offers a variety of scholar• man for special purposes, in this ships for students and scientists: instance: German for travel • research grants for doctoral can• guides. Students should be able Harfmann, M.: Working as a DAAD- didates and young academics to give a lecture in German on a Lecturer in the University of Jordan holding a Master's degree in Amman tourist site in Jordan. This practical focus motivates the students and • short-term scholarships for re• enhances their prospects of using search stays for university aca• In the middle of January I received German successfully at work later. demics and scientists as well as applications for the short-term return invitations for former scholarships for German language The first months here in Jo'dan scholarship holders courses. These scholarships are have been very exciting and I am looking forward to the coming years • exchange programme for Germ• open to students who have complet• that I will spend here. an and Jordan academics (only ed at least two years of German lan• researchers from the University guage study and have a good know• of Jordan and Yarmouk Univer• ledge of German. They are required to pass a DAAD test and an oral sity are eligible) exam. I was responsible for their ev• • short-term scholarships for Ger• aluation and advised the successful man language courses at Uni• students on where to take their lan- versities in Germany, lasting 3- guage courses. The language 4 weeks during the summer courses offered in Germany cover As the deadline for the doctoral German language, literature, area scholarships is at the end of Sep• and regional studies, engineering 24 OCCIDENT & ORIENT - March 2003

A New Palace in Qatna (Mishrifeh, Central Syria)

By: Marta Luciani, Italian Archaeological Mission at Tell Mishrifeh/Qatna, University of Udine (Italy)

It was not known until now that the not been located. According to our wels, alabaster vessels and import• urban centre of Qatna, like other Sy- re-evaluation of the Sondage 7, the ed Cypriot pottery along with an ar• ro-Mesopotamian cities of the Bron• walls, floors and pottery found there chive of cuneiform tablets have ze Age, featured more than one pa• could belong to our Building 6. The been unearthed. lace in the middle of the 2nd millen• importance of stratigraphically link• Most rooms are lavishly plastered nium BC. ing the old excavation to the new, with a thick, hard, lime lining, well lies both in the possibility of identify• Since the early 1920's, the pio• smoothed on the surface. This ing the actual extension of Building neering work of lieutenant R. du plaster is painted red in a secco- 6 and - by comparing texts and Mesnil du Buisson of the Arm6e du technique. Floors are consistently finds - address the question of the Levant not only allowed the square, of a cement terrazzo, made of diffe• administration and residents of this walled site of Mishrifeh, some 18 km rent layers and featuring little poly• new palace.) north-east of Horns, to be identi-fied chrome stones on the surface. Spe• with the ancient capital of Qat-na, cial rooms, such as but also brought to light the huge nilVSHRFEXei the one for food- building that served as the palace 70C0GRAPHK MAP storage (possibly a of its kings (Du Mesnil du Buisson Ail „wine or beer cellar", 1935,71-143). i.e. Room H) do not feature this type of Although providing us with much elegant floor and useful detailed information, investi• wall finishing. Rat• gations in the 1920's did not focus her, the floor is on intrasite exploration and contex- - ^ i beaten mud while tualisation. Therefore, starting in the plaster is not 1999, the Italian Archaeological Mis• painted, is rougher sion at Tell Mishrifeh/Qatna (the Ita• I and quite thick in lian component of the joint Syrian- order to achieve a Italian-German excavation project good degree of ther• at Mishrifeh/Qatna) set out to ex• mal insulation. Adja- plore three different excavation ar• cent to Room H, eas (Al-Maqdissi et al. in press), in Is Room I is a well-pre• an effort to clarify the urban layout served, plastered oven. Room M of the ancient city of Qatna as much Fig. 1. Site plan of Tell Mishrifeh/ was probably a bathroom and as possible. Qatna with excavation areas (A. Bei- nat, A. Marchesini, University of Ud• Room C a small kitchen with an ad• As most of the research in the ine) joining courtyard (Room B). 1920's and later had concentrated Although many of our interpreta• on the main, central mound {Colline The hypothesis put forward in 1999 tions must be considered prelimi• centrale), I thought it important to began to be proved right during the nary, some observations on the differentiate and explore extensively second campaign (Luciani 2002) structural layout and significance of an area in the lower northern town and can now be fully confirmed. Op• this important building may be put (Luciani in press) (Fig. 1). The loca• eration K proved to be the location forward. tion chosen (Operation K), halfway of a single, rather large monumen• between the Royal Palace and the tal residence (Building 6), a palace Building 6 in Operation K is com• Northern City Gate, looked rather that, some 150 m north of the Roy• posed of at least 34 rooms. Surely promising for the investigation of re• al Palace, may have served high of• this building had a long life, as sidences or dwellings of the urban ficials or, more likely, members of proven by the presence of at least elite in Qatna. (The only previous the royal family. The findings are two different floors on top of the ori• research in the vicinity of Operati• quite exceptional: besides a layout ginal terrazzo cement floor. Also on K were 13 small soundings carri• already covering over 1500 square walls and layout witnessed a num• ed out by G. Ploix de Rotrou [Du meters and surely extending further, ber of significant building activities. Mesnil du Buisson 1935, 168-171]. precious objects such as tens of Modifications and reconstructions of Their exact whereabouts have still bone and ivory inlays, bronzes je- the palace are clearly visible. This OCCIDENT & ORIENT - March 2003 25

suggests a fairly long use for Build• an approach on a bent axis (Matthi- provenance to the ones from Room ing 6 with the need not only to repair, ae 2002, 193-194). These aspects 18 in the Alalah IV palace. A rapid but also to change the disposition seem to place our Building 6 in the search (courtesy of A. Intilia, cur• of rooms. tradition of Old Syrian palatial archi• rently preparing a study on this ma• tecture. terial) showed that there are similar inlays in a many sites, from Kamid One of the rooms has revea• el-Loz, Ugarit, Ras Ibn Hani to Uruk led an exceptional inventory, - even if the latter are mother-of- worthy of a closer look. Room pearl - from Hattusa, where incised R allowed us to confirm the variants are known, to the core of multi-layered stratigraphy of the Mitanni empire at Tell Brak and the building. On its top-most Tell Feheriyeh. floor epigraphic finds, ivories and bone inlays, seal impres• A number of avenues for research sions, bronzes (Fig. 3), je• arise from this material, from identi• wels, an interred jar burial, lo• fication of the animal bone used and cal and imported pottery its :rade patterns, to reconstruction have been excavated. of the artefact on which they were inlaid and mapping traces of work. Back in the 1920's, cunei• But the most interesting question is form texts had been disco• whether in Room R of Building 6 we vered somewhere close to are dealing with a workshop as was the area of Operation K (Du the case in Ugarit (Barnett 1982,31) Mesnil du Buisson 1935, or Ras Ibn Hani, or with 'ivory rooms' 169-71). They are few but as parts of a treasury or „bank" of significant in a number of dif• the royals who were dwell-ing in this ferent ways and offer a good palace, as has been pro-posed for spectrum of personal na• Megiddo (Barnett 1982, 25). mes, mostly Human (Bottero 1950, 113-118). One of the The presence, in the same Room documents, being a for• R, of a beautiful ivory face in low erunner of the astronomic relief with inlaid gypsum eyes could Fig. 2. Schematic plan of Building 6, text Enuma Anu Enlil (Bottero 1950, point more to the latter than the for• Operation K (Field Surveyor: A. Sa- 111), most probably points to the mer hypothesis. On the other hand, violi, Computer Graphics: A. Intilia) presence of scribal activities. the nearby Room Y shows signifi• cant evidence of possibly having The archive uncovered by us dur• Figure 2 is a prelim nary, schema• been part of a workshop. ing the 2002 campaign in Room R, tic plan that sums up the evidence confirms the evidence of important of more than one phase of use. administrative activities also occurr• Less than 30 % of the rooms have ing outside the main palace. Ac• been excavated, sc that little may cording to J. Eidem, philologist of be said as to their specific functions. the Italian Mission, „Our tablets are However, the different tracts are re• administrative notes, which seem to cognizable and a number of signifi• pertain to the running of a large cant characteristics apparently house-hold. Cereals and beer are seem to emerge, based on an ana• items listed and these are distribut• lysis of Old and Middle Syrian pala• ed to various categories and indivi• tial buildings carried out by P. Mat- duals. Although study of the whole thiae (1990 and 2002): (1) The pa• archive must precede firm conclu• latial Building 6 is made of individu• Fig. 3. Selected finds from Building sions, it would seem that it may re• al sectors not surrounding a court, 6, Operation K (Photo: M. Cusin, Uni• late not just to the household itself and apparently with rooms at right versity of Udine) - which logically must be the build• angles to the exterior walls of the In seals and seal impressions from ing in which the tablets were found complex, (2) circulation is a contin• the early examples - which clearly - but also issues to perhaps visiting uous winding path where a sequen• belong to a very late MBA horizon - dignitaries and their retinues." ce of longitudinal spaces are preva• to the more typically Mitanni produc• lent, and finally (3) the layout of the In the same room ivory and bone tions, the Building 6 glyptic appears reception suite features a throne inlays were also found, similar in mostly elaborate in style and extre- room preceded by a vestibule with shape and - most important - in 26 OCCIDENT & ORIENT - March 2003

mely varied in theme: though com• at Qatna, in an age when the capi• January 2001 (Contributions to the pletely within local urban tradition. tal's political importance was, how• Chronology of the Eastern Mediter• ever, reduced to being but one of ranean vol. 3), Vienna 2002, 9-28 and A provisional date intc the earlier 245-260. the 'small kingdoms' of Syro-Pales- part of the Late Bronze Age might tine. Luciani, M., Operation K, in: Al-Maq• be suggested for the main phases dissi, M., Luciani, M., Morandi-Bona- 1 of use of Building 6 (15" century References: cossi, D., Novak, M., Pfalzner, P. (eds.), BC). It is, therefore, the more inte• Al-Maqdissi, M ; Luciani, M.; Morandi Excavating Qatna I. Preliminary Report resting because for the first time in Bonacossi, D.; Novak, M.; Pfalzner, P. on the 1999 and 2000 Campaigns of a period poorly known archaeologi- (eds.), Excavating Qatna I. Preliminary the Joint Syrian-ltalian-German Ar• cally, the transition from the MBA to Report on the 1999 and 2000 Cam• chaeological Research Project at Tell the LBA may finally be investigated paigns of the Joint Syrian-ltalian-Ger- Mishrifeh, Damascus (in press). on the basis of sound stratigraphic man Archaeological Research Project Matthiae, P., The Reception Suites of data and well preserved contexts. at Tell Mishrifeh, Damascus (in press). the Old Syrian Palaces, in: Tunca, 0. (ed.), De la Babylonie a la Syrie, en Because of its excellent state of Barnett, R.D., Ancient Ivories in the Middle East, Qedem 14, Jerusalem, passant par Mari. Melanges offerts a preservation (plastered walls stand• 1982. Monsieur J.-R. Kupper a loccasion de ing up to 1.50 m, cemented floors, son 70eanniversaire, Liege 1990,209- assemblages in situ) the palatial Bottero, J., Autres textes de Qatna, 228. Building 6 promises to offer a uni• Revue d'Assyriologie et d'Archeologie Matthiae, P., About the Formation of que chance to explore Late Bronze Orientale 44, 1950, 105-122. Old Syrian Architectural Tradition, in: Al- Age monumental architecture in Du Mesnil du Buisson, R., Le site ar- Gailani Werr, L.; Curtis, J.; Martin, H.; Central Syria, hitherto virtually un• cheologique de Mishrife-Qatna, Paris, McMahon, A.; Oates, J.; Reade, J. known. 1935. (eds), On Pots and Plans. Papers on the Archaeology and History of Meso• Comparisons with the main pa• Luciani, M., News from Syria: The MBA in the East and its End in the West, potamia and Syria Presented to D. lace, furthermore, will help better in: Bietak, M. (ed.), The Middle Bronze Oates in Honour of his 75'" Birthday, define the overall urban layout of the Age in the Levant. Proceedings of an London 2002, 191-209. site when major buildirg activities International Conference on MB MA were undertaken by the urban elite Ceramic Material. Vienna 24"'-26,h

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