December 23, 2011 • 6:46 pm 0
The Dhiban Project is now enrolling participants in their summer field school. The field school dates are June 29 until August 10, 2012. If you are interested in participating, see below:
Students affiliated with the Associated Colleges of the Midwest (ACM), click here!
All other applicants will apply through Berkeley Summer Sessions after February 1, 2012. Click here for more information!
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August 1, 2011 • 2:26 am 0
Follow upcoming Dhiban project events and news on Twitter: @DhibanProject (#DEDP).
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July 27, 2010 • 4:12 pm 0
Check out http://www.dhiban.org/ for updates regarding the Dhiban Excavation and Development Project.
Filed under: Uncategorized , archaeology
July 18, 2010 • 10:02 am 0
One of my goals this season was to hold a photo show, highlighting photos from work on the tall and in the community to show some of the people of Dhiban what we were doing. We rarely get visits from local folks so we thought it’d behoove us to bring some of the tall to them. I intended to do something similar last year, but ran out of time. It was a priority for the 2010 season.
After a couple of meetings with the mayor, he allowed us to use the Dhiban town hall, a building in the middle of the town that is used for community functions. We had the photos developed in Madaba, and bought frames there as well. Hanging them was rough as the town hall, like almost every other building in Dhiban, was made out of cinder blocks. But after much preparation (including runs to buy sweets and tea) we held the show last Thursday.
Along with the photos on the wall we ran a slide show with a lot more of the images taken from the season. This seemed to be the most popular part of the show, and people sat and watched until photos of themselves or of people they knew appeared on the screen, then cheered.
A lot of town dignitaries showed up, but not as many of the regular townsfolk. It was disappointing in that respect, but a good first step. I’ll have a lot more details in my dissertation, if you care to know!
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July 5, 2010 • 4:57 pm 0
Saleh and I moved 123 qufaf today, 80 of them before breakfast. A quffa (pronounced goo-fah) is a bucket made out of an old tire–they’re great for hauling dirt around, cheap, and relatively easy to repair. I hope to never use another plastic bucket. Anyway, I swung the pickaxe for most of the day, bashing through a layer of undifferentiated collapse inside my trench. There was a really late (I’m talkin’ TPQ 1970s here–modern screws and some bottle glass, along with a pull tab) pit cut into the eastern extent that was full of cobbles and very dark dirt that was pretty easy to boost out and once that was gone I was able to see that it cut into a relatively homogenous matrix. So, out came the pickaxe.
It was good to finally be able to move on my trench–I had been spending too much time on things like defining the big wall in the western extent and digging this late pit. I worked from known to unknown, removing the dirt where I could see spatial relationships to other architectural elements and moving out from there. A cluster of stones in the northwestern corner became an installation against the western wall, and I carefully cleaned around it to define the architectural aspects versus the stones that came in through the collapse. Soon, I came down to a nice flagstone paving for the room. Well, relatively nice, as it had been bashed up from the stone ceiling collapsing on it. The room terminated much more quickly than I had guessed–only two courses of stones remaining before the ground level. Some nice finds surfaced right above the floor–a nice fragment of a molded oil lamp, a bracelet fragment, and a whole lot of Mamluk-era pottery.
It’s surprising how none of the above description really does justice to excavating on a terrace over a wadi in Jordan. A hot wind whips up through the wadi, blowing your paperwork and any light artifacts. Little gazelle-like ants pause then scatter over my dustpan, too fast for my camera. Late in the day your tools become too hot to touch and any water left in the sun becomes tea-hot. I try to save most of my slow tasks for after our watermelon break, so I can draw or write up paperwork or bag artifacts instead of slinging dirt during the hottest part of the day. Sweat drips down your nose and splashes whatever you are working on, making dark spots on the ground that dry almost instantly. At the end of the day my arms are covered in swirls of white salt crystals that wash over my tattoos like a second skin.
So, today was a better day. I had some nice archaeology come up and was able to work out a few of the grad-school kinks in my back. Tomorrow I’ll finish revealing that nice paving, then photograph, draw, and otherwise fully record it.
Oh! And we found the missing rebar in a dip in the tell about 20 meters from the pit. So my hypothesis was correct: orneriness was to blame.
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July 3, 2010 • 5:10 pm 0
<a title=”CLM_2872 by Miss_Colleen, on Flickr” href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/colleenmorgan/4757407899/”><img src=”http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4074/4757407899_8689d336e0.jpg” alt=”CLM_2872″ width=”334″ height=”500″ /></a>
Saleh has been working with the Dhiban Excavation Team since 2009 and is back this year to help with excavation.
Saleh graduated with a degree in archaeology, but he has had a hard time finding steady employment, much like other archaeologists in the world. He knows some English and helps me learn Arabic, while I help him with the finer points of English grammar. He’d love to study Hebrew for his PhD, but would also like to get married.
Saleh’s family is from the local Bani Hamida bedouin and he sang his family-specific song today as we cleaned off a section in the hot sun. He also has blingin’ shoes.
He asked me to post about him today, and I did! Marhaba, Saleh. See you tomorrow.
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June 24, 2010 • 11:56 am 0
Welcome back to the Dhiban Excavation and Development Project Blog! We hope to have regular updates from students and supervisors this year, and lots of nice photos to show how the work is progressing here in Dhiban.
I woke just before dawn today, to the sound of roosters crowing and a cat bawling in the stairwell. I felt intensely relieved–I am already sleeping through the first call to prayer, which in Dhiban can sound from anywhere between 3:30-4:30 in the morning and is incredibly loud. It’s a major achievement in sleep and sanity, but it also attests to how tired I was.
I have been on site for three days now, the bulk of which has been cleaning the dig houses and organizing equipment in preparation of the start of field work. It has been good to be back; I didn’t realize how much I missed Katie, Bruce and Danielle, the three on-site supervisors this year and everyone is in high spirits. It’s different than last year as well, the team is still sex segregated, with the boys staying in their old house in the middle of town and the girls on the edge of town, just far enough to have to drive back and forth. The girls’ house is a big improvement on last year and has a small olive orchard, more room, and a nicer layout. There are also seven sisters living downstairs, and our initial chat over tea was fun and relaxing.
This year it looks like we will be testing the three terraces of Tall Dhiban to see the extent of the various occupations–we know it was intensively occupied during the Iron Age, Nabatean, Roman, Byzantine, and Mamluk periods, but different remains occupy different parts of the site. By better testing we can target different occupation levels without putting large trenches through the tell, which is how people have dug them in the past. We are also trying to see how surface collections that were performed last year relate to the remains below the ground. While I’m a little disappointed that I am not opening up a nicely defined piece of architecture, it should be interesting to dig in different areas on the tall.
I look forward to the rest of the team arriving and for work to officially start. I’m also putting on a photo show this year, the details of which will become clearer after today.
Filed under: Uncategorized , dhiban excavation archaeology
November 29, 2009 • 5:05 pm 0
From http://serc.carleton.edu/acm_face/dhiban/index.html:
A Collaborative Research project (Faculty Research) awarded to:
- Dr. Katherine Adelsberger, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies, Knox College
- Dr. Danielle Steen Fatkin, Visiting Assistant Professor of History, Knox College
The FaCE grant awarded in spring 2009 provided funding for the first season in summer 2009 of an interdisciplinary project in Jordan to develop a paleolandscape assessment of Dhiban as part of the Dhiban Excavation and Development Project (DEDP), an established archaeological project in the area.
The interdisciplinary FaCE-related portion of this project involved a regional survey for paleoclimate proxies and water resources, detailed site-specific survey for previously undiscovered cisterns and occupational periods, and the training of undergraduate students.
The excavations are part of a broader project to develop “best practices” in archaeological scholarship through the integration of outreach, excavation and geoarchaeology, and the project would be the first step in the longer-term involvement of Knox College (and other ACM faculty and students) in the Dhiban Project.
As part of the work of the DEDP, we bring about 20 archaeology students from different institutions to participate in the project. We train them in archaeological field methods by rotating them through various learning stations, including excavation, materials processing, flotation, topographic survey and geologic survey. They are taught to dig, record, and analyze archaeological and geological materials. In addition, there are evening seminars on methods, theory, and history twice a week and two weekend field trips to major Jordanian archaeological sites during the season.
- Field Season Dates: June 23 – August 8, 2010
- Estimated Cost: $5,000 ($3,000 program fee + $2,000 airfare)
- Application Deadline: December 15, 2009 (application must be received by this date)
For complete information and application materials, download the Student Application for 2010 DEDP Field Season (Acrobat (PDF) 106kB Nov24 09).
Filed under: Uncategorized , archaeology, dhiban, field school
October 28, 2009 • 11:43 pm 0
From Courtney:
It’s been nearly a month and a half since I left Dhiban for two weeks of adventures around the Levant and then home. As I think back on the entire experience, the things I discovered both in the world outside of America and within myself continue to surprise me. Tapping into the surface of an entirely different culture and experiencing history from a fresh approach changed the lens through which I perceive American society, as well as the hopes and plans I have for my own future.
I found myself challenged in unexpected ways, and having come through such experiences, I feel like a more solidified and confident individual. As the youngest on the dig, I think I was more aware of the age difference because I felt as if my lack of years somehow implied a lack of intelligence, or perhaps capability is more appropriate. This was especially the case because I was among people whose opinions and ideas I valued understanding, as they were students of a field I was just beginning to unearth (Haha, I have a poor sense of humor). My experience was quite the contrary. The team was willing to share and teach, allowing the newbies to make mistakes and ask all sorts of questions. It was a fascinating and engaging learning environment. I keep thinking back to my first archaeology class at Knox, reading the section about the various soil types and yawning. It was of little use to me when I memorized the information from a text book, but when I was down on my hands and knees, with my face six inches from the ground, carefully scraping at the soil to reveal a tabun, what had seemed like vapid jargon made tangible sense.
My personal growth during those two months continues to surprise me. I learned that I can live in an environment that is completely foreign to me. I adapted to the heat, the rather strict code of dress and behavior, the language barrier, food variants, the insect issues, and the culture differences with a fluidity I would not have expected of myself. I had the privilege of making some fabulous friendships across different cultures that brought me such laughter and happiness.
I am very excited to return to Jordan next summer with an idea of what awaits me. I am already craving some delicious falafel and fatayer. I miss the beauty of the desert and the never ending adventures that go along with placing a bunch of Westerners into a small Jordanian town. I look forward to continuing my study of archaeology and beginning a new dig season in Dhiban!
Filed under: Project Thoughts , archaeology, dhiban
September 19, 2009 • 4:30 pm 0
From Abby:
As I am sitting back at home in Topeka, KS, I realize what an impact Jordan had on my life. I miss the constant conversation that is always taking place between people on the streets and their usually welcoming personalities. There is such a great community environment in Dhiban that you can’t get in many American towns. The way men greeted and interacted with each other was something I will never forget. They were not uncomfortable showing affection to their friends and while they could not show the same affection to female friends, it was still very refreshing. They have a great respect for their elders, family members, and friends. Relationships are extremely valuable to people in this part of the world. While outsiders may be considered less valuable and sometimes treated with less respect, as an outsider, I was still able to see the compassion that went into their interactions. But even to foreigners (or ajinab), most people are overwhelmingly friendly. They invite strangers to tea freqeuntly, and one of my most fond memories is sitting with a Bedouin woman at Petra, drinking tea and talking about her children.
I am also deeply grateful for the skills I acquired this summer. The field school provided me with hands-on experience as an archaeologist, which is not possible in a classroom setting. I was given the opportunity to be a trench supervisor for a week of the season and I learned the process that each supervisor goes through, including the measuring and drawing of the trench, finding elevations, and completing paperwork for each stratum. With the knowledge I gained, I have no doubt in my mind that if I chose to be an archaeologist, I would be well prepared.
Filed under: Project Thoughts , archaeology, dhiban, jordan
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