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!
Filed under: Uncategorized
August 1, 2011 • 2:26 am 0
Follow upcoming Dhiban project events and news on Twitter: @DhibanProject (#DEDP).
Filed under: Uncategorized
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!
Filed under: Uncategorized
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.
Filed under: Uncategorized
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.
Filed under: Uncategorized
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
September 3, 2009 • 5:47 pm 0
From Danielle Fatkin:
Tall Dhiban is located on the northern edge of the modern town of Dhiban, approximately 35 kilometers south of Madaba on the King’s Highway, on the northern edge of the Wadi Mujib. The Dhiban Excavation and Development Project conducted its third season of fieldwork in the summer of 2009.
Goals
Based on previous seasons’ work, four primary areas of research were identified for this summer:
1) Continue excavation and conservation of the Ayyubid-Mamluk complex on the acropolis to reach construction phases
2) Continue excavation and conservation in William Morton’s Field L to identify undisturbed Iron Age contexts
3) Initiate a paleolandscape study focused on hydrological resources and long-term human impact on the environment of Dhiban
4) Map the extent of habitation at different periods through surface collection / on-site survey and test pits.
Results
On-Site survey. The surface collection conducted on the middle terrace of the site included the southern, western, and northern extent of the terrace. While the Roman / Byzantine period is well represented throughout the terrace, with greater visibility in the northern and southern sectors, the extent of the Ayyubid / Mamluk settlement appears limited to the central portion of the site, running in an elongated east-west shape. We began to test the correlation between the surface collection and the most recent period of habitation through the excavation of test pits.
Test pits. Excavating ten test pits was originally planned, yet excavations took place in four units this season, only two which were completely investigated. In those two units — one chosen as a control unit without previously collected surface material and one chosen for its predominantly Roman / Byzantine material — a strong correlation was found between the surface collection and the most recent period of habitation. This relationship will be tested further in future seasons by completing the excavation of the rest of the test pits.
Field L Upper. Our goal in this area this season was to reach the construction phase of the Ayyubid-Mamluk structure and to bring the architectural complex into the same phase. Excavations inside the buildings revealed several floors. Some areas were excavated more deeply, revealing earlier phases of habitation. As of now, the complex’s construction phase has not been securely identified. Based on ceramic analysis of this year’s finds and radiocarbon samples taken in 2004 and 2005, the uncovered surface likely dates to the late fourteenth or early fifteenth century CE. At the end of the season, the walls were conserved with a reversible mortar.
Field L Deep. Our goals in this area were (1) to clean and re-expose the Iron Age levels excavated by Morton in the 1950s and (2) to cut back Morton’s eroded sections and identify in situ Iron Age remains. The team undertook a large scale clearance, cleaning, and remapping of the walls from Morton’s excavations in Area L. These walls are all founded on bedrock and form a central rectangular room that is clearly part of a larger building. This was particularly evident on the west side of Area L (Deep) where our excavations traced portions of two additional Iron Age walls associated with this same building and defining several more rooms. Re-exposing the Iron Age walls excavated by Morton has proven the general accuracy of Morton’s architectural plans, which is now integrated into the GIS map created for Dhiban during the 2009 season. This re-exposure has also provided an opportunity to consolidate a substantial Iron Age building for the purposes of site interpretation. Over the next several seasons we will continue to expose, consolidate, and interpret (via signs and pathways) this important Iron IIB building.
Paleolandscape Study. The 2009 season was the beginning of the paleolandscape assessment, focusing on the site itself as well as the wadis immediately adjacent to the site. Sinkholes on the northwest side of the tall were identified as possibly man-made. Terrace walls were identified along the edges of Wadi Sakran and large geologic sections were cut through them in order to elucidate the depositional history of colluvium behind the walls. Our initial results confirm the highly erosional environment of Dhiban. Moreover, the sediment deposited within the terraces suggests that terrace construction was motivated by different factors in different locations around the site. A careful study of the terraces may reveal new information about the timing and nature of human activities at Dhiban.
Filed under: Uncategorized
August 26, 2009 • 3:05 pm 1
As the sun sets on Tell Dhiban, the colors become deeper, pink-tinged, and the limestone blocks look stunning against the blue sky. The wadi turns golden and a small wind picks up, cooling off the air. It’s really the best time to work up on the tell, and I saw several sunsets from the edge of my trench in the last week of the excavation. Everyone was working furiously on their trench reports and Harris Matrices. I was staying a couple of days later than most people, so I was up on the tell, drawing and photographing mostly alone. It was nice, a break from the busy work days with so many people in the trench all the time.
In the last few days, I had tea with Zaid and Abu Jamal up on the tell. The teapot is a symbol of hospitality in Jordan, and the sugary sage tea they served was lovely. I sat with them, chatted a bit in our patois of English and Arabic and realized that I would miss Jordan in the year to come.
Thanks to Dhiban for the hospitality and we will see you next year!
Filed under: Uncategorized, archaeology, dhiban, jordan
|
