One more fieldtrip!

Yes, we're safely home now. But I still have a few more pictures/posts to share before signing off...

Wednesday, the day before our return flight, we poked around campus looking mildly helpful and did our packing. When Eva and Kambiz invited us to join them for one more excursion, we accepted. They had access to a car and general directions for finding the Hellenistic ruins of a palace about 25 km north of Amman. Olivia Jensen came along and we happily got lost several times before finally finding our way.

At the bottom of a wadi-carved valley, the grand outline of a stunning estate, Qasr Iraq al-Amir, stands amidst lush garden plots, pomegranate, fig and olive trees.

We caught the end of a guided tour with a French group and watched a short documentary explaining the structure. Eva translated for us. Once surrounded by an artificial lake, the structure had two floors above ground level. As we wandered around, amazed by the massive carved stones -- hauled up huge sandpiles that were removed after building -- I was happy NOT to see a single pottery shard.

We returned to campus in time for lunch. Whew! There we said farewell to several of the team: Anita, my digging partner flew out that night and David and Amanda Hopkins left to visit Petra.

My friend Abu Bilal

Looking west from the high point of Tall Umayri down into a small wadi (valley) there are several tents and a large oblong cucumber (fagush) field sloping down towards the east. Each morning, a farmer would be out in his gray gelabia and red kafiya with his wife and sons picking the cucumbers. I inquired to several of the dig veterans but nobody seemed to know anything about the Tall's newest neighbors, nor did they seem to have any interest to know. But I was dying to know. I guess that's why I became a sociologist/anthropologist, I have this insatiable curiosity about people. After several days I just decided to walk out to the field and strike up a conversation using my steadily improving but still limited Arabic. Abu Bilal welcomed me and his sons surrounded me speaking some English phrases. Soon a tray of turkish coffee appeared out of nowhere. During breaks I would walk over to hold conversations. They would usually fill up a large bag of fagush for me to share with the people at the dig. One day they brought over homemade flat bread. If I didn't go out to talk they would send one of the sons with the bag.

With my limited Arabic and the sons' school English, I pieced together something of their lives. Abu Bilal is an elementary school teacher in a village south of Amman, he does this farming job in the summer with the apparent permission of the landowner, the wealthy Abu Jaber. His son's names are Bilal (oldest), Osama, Abdula, Mowan, Sofian. They were always curious about the U.S. "How many wives can a man have?" I spent several evenings at their place drinking tea and attempting communication. On the last night at their tent Graeme was with me and with his much better Arabic it was easier. Rasiah, the wife, made this wonderful coffee cake. Today I said goodbye and gave them some pens for school and several Arabic/English dictionaries. It is being invited into the family life and friendship that I find most rewarding.

The Dead Sea!

Sunday began with breakfast at 6:30, allowing a full morning for square supervisors, like Ken and me, to check notebooks. Other folks found employment moving crates of worthy pottery pieces – diagnostics – to a storage room on the third floor of the girls' dorm. Lizzy, my field supervisor, worked with me so the job wasn't overwhelming and I got through it by lunch time.

Resting during the heat of the day prepared us for our last big outing: a bus ride to the Dead Sea. Our group of 17, including the bus driver, packed cameras, swimsuits, sack lunches, and a watermelon for the 60 kilometer (one hour) ride. The average elevation in Amman is about 765 meters above sea level, while the Dead Sea is 400 meters below sea level. Our bus moved quickly along the Dead Sea highway so I was unable to photograph the drastically changing landscape, small towns and terraced farms carved along valley slopes.

We arrived while the heat of the afternoon still baked the salt-crystallized beach. Stepping into the sea did nothing to alleviate the heat. The warm, oily waters matched the temperature of the air. We floated in every silly posture, paddled around, and tried to avoid splashing the stinging brine into each others' faces. Ken and I searched for and found clay, said to have various healing properties. We painted up. After a few minutes an itchy tingle encouraged us to rinse off in the sea and finally under the marvelous fresh-water showers along the shore. I love fresh water! Guess I didn't have the mud on long enough to work it's magic; people still recognized me instead of thinking I was Justin.

Amman Beach really is a family beach. As afternoon turned to evening, more Jordanians moved to the shore and into the water. Mostly men and children swam, but an occasional woman, fully clad, also waded in. People were friendly and the atmosphere was relaxed. What a change from our usual routine.

All rinsed off, we claimed our chairs and faced the sea and setting sun while we ate watermelon and sandwiches at the lowest point on earth.

The full moon watched as our little bus made the steep drive back to the cooler clime of Amman.

This is how I feel right now...

How I feel right now is summed up in the following lyrics by Bob Dylan...

I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more
No, I aint gonna work on Maggie's farm no more
Well, I wake up in the morning
Fold my hands and pray for rain
I got a head full of ideas
That are drivin' me insane
It's a shame the way she makes me scrub the floor
I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more.


I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more
I aint gonna work on Maggie's farm no more
Well, I try my best
To be just like I am
But everybody wants you
To be just like them
They say sing while you slave and I just get bored
I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more.

Catching up while winding down

Here it's Monday and I've just finished organizing Saturday's pictures. I'm running out of steam.

The suq drew us in again. This time we went by bus with Suha and Vera. Thanks for adding to my pictures, Vera. We had a list of things we wanted, but just browsing was fun. Suha knows her way around, so we were quite successful. Also tried a few things we would have skipped if she hadn't recommended them: fresh prickly pear and hod-hod, a baked treat. Beyond the variety offered by all the vendors, the suq's swarming activity fascinates. While some shops target tourists, the majority of business is for locals; slice of life, you know. Needless to say, we had a wonderful time!

Saturday evening most of the group cleaned up for a traditional mensef meal. (I decided to take pictures of everyone sans dirt.) Our group dined on an outdoor terrace with a splendid view of the plain below and later of the full moon. For the meal, large platters of seasoned rice and grilled veggies, or grilled meat for omnivores, were shared by groups. The trick is to use only your right hand to scoop and form food into a ball, then pop the morsel in without allowing fingers to touch mouth. Ken tried this and succeeded. I chose the less daring plate and cutlery approach. After the meal, dessert and coffee, awards were given honoring many support staff as well as several from the dig team.

A few team members missed the festivities, so not everyone was captured in best dress. Oh, well.

Knowing we'd have to work Sunday morning, we went right to bed.

Visual Review of this Week

Anita shared her pictures with me. Yay! So here are even more captured memories, some that I experienced, some that I didn't – such as a khebsa Graeme and Anita attended.

Oh, I also found a picture from Mary Boyd's evening lecture on cloth production:

Intriguing finds in my domain

On the last two official dig days my team and I, Ken, finally got some interesting finds. Pots and jars were found and dated from the Early Iron Age. Preserved in a layer of clay, remnants of a violent end to the inhabitants of this house, possibly an Ammonite family. A lovely pilgrim's juglet/flask was found with enough pieces to reconstruct later, and several large jars and cooking pots. Till now a huge grindstone was the only thing of interest to gaze at for the last 4 and a half weeks.

Amjed the "sheikh" joined our team, and Graeme stopped by to join the musical and fun group, and we get it done.

Count down reflection

What wisdom I have is hard won. An approach time and repeated chagrin has earned me has been my motto this week: Pausing before venting. Having paused, here goes. I know that there are many things I do not know or understand:
1) Why projects that rely on volunteers assume said volunteers understand the purpose and importance as well as passionate apologists
2) Why archeological digs employ a hierarchical organizational style that creates distinct group divisions and privileges rank
3) Why digs are run like boot-camp and tacitly cultivate a "suck it up" culture
4) How a leader can expect volunteers to work without regular expressions of encouragement and appreciation
5) The notion that a project is more important then the people who make it possible; I appreciate focus but not at the expense of individual well-being

I do know some things:
1) I can become enthusiastic about a well-articulated vision, even someone else's
2) While I contribute hours of manual labor, I still appreciate inclusion in discussions held at the edge of my square, literally over my head, regarding the progress being made; I have a brain as well as strong arms
3) I'm a sucker for kindness and words of encouragement
4) Flexibility, a bit of fun and variety, compassion, and egalitarianism mean a lot to me
5) Limited sleep and physical duress profoundly affect my view of any situation
6) I can keep working even when feeling marginalized
7) I'm thrilled that we fly home in one week

It's been a tough week. Tuesday, Anita and I experienced something new that left her "Gob-smacked." The dig director and chief archeologist stood in our square and spoke to us about our work. A first. Then they complimented us. Completely disorienting. (We've excavated down to a flag stone surface and interesting mortar stone that resembles a toilet. But it's not. )

Tuesday afternoon we had pottery washing from hell. A core group scrubbed, some beginning right after lunch and others joining at 4:00, until well after 6:00. Light-headed with hunger, I stopped for supper at 6:30. Walking into the dining hall I paused. Ten or twelve people sat eating, without any thought of those still scrubbing. I almost lost my cool. So much for the "We're not done 'til it's all done" pottery-washing motto. I ate and returned to finish the chore. Kindness saved the day. Lizzy, our field supervisor, had helped with the pottery – something other sups consider beneath them, and Anita gave me an amazing back rub to help relieve the knots I've developed.

Windy Wednesday, only not wanting to disappoint my co-workers, Anita and Lizzy, got me up for the day. At the tall, we had our second encouraging visit with compliments. Nice, but still baffling. Just before quitting time, another twist developed. Some complication with the tourist police, who claim that we're tourists rather than volunteers and workers for the Department of Antiquities, meant that we watched our two small school buses drive off while we were still on the tall. We were ferried back to camp in the two rental cars the project directors use. Today, Thursday, negotiations somehow worked out a single school bus that, along with the cars, gets everyone to work and back. Wednesday evening, we joined the La Sierra group for a meal at Kan Zaman, a restaurant built in what was once an Ottoman fort. The name translates: A place in time, a phrase roughly equivalent to "Once upon a time," that begins every good story. Very nice:
Lots of digging. We completed work in Room A1 and drew top plans. Ugh. We removed the balk stub and began taking out the north balk for square 7K24. Lots of broken pottery and Anita found a seal with hash marks. She said she could now die happy.
This week I've worked the sift hoping to avoid further back strain. (I'm so ready for a visit to the chiropractor and massage therapist.) Today, Ken and I rode in a car – to and from the tall. It felt odd. Yes, I appreciated it, but riding in air conditioning while most of our fellow proletariat rode in the crowded bus, made me suspect myself as a possible elitist.

Fieldtrip! Zizia Potters and Bedouin Family Visit

Sunday we slept in again – woo hoo! Then about 9:20 boarded a small bus for a full morning visiting living people instead of ancient archeological sites. Driving past the airport heading south, we found the Zizia potters creating pottery (a refreshing change after digging up heaps of broken shards every day). These Egyptian craftsmen migrate to Jordan for part of the year when conditions best suit processing clay. The foreman walked us through the stages of clay preparation.

Raw material, taken from a sprawling hill of clay, starts its transformation into workable clay in a small block pool. Here the raw clay is mixed and soaked before a worker enters the pool to churn the gloopy mess. Working the mixture with feet and hands for about 15 minutes, the worker eventually scooped buckets of water-born clay into a sift. The liquid pours into a larger pool where sand and salt are added. This mixture eventually flows to a settling pool where the wet clay drains. Next the clay is moved inside and added to a large pattie that a worker stomps. The clay is then moved to a smaller pattie for another stomping before it is divided into chunks and placed into a desiel-powered machine. Just like a Play-doh press, this machine pushes out cylindrical snakes that the foreman removed in uniform lengths and lined up on the floor. These clay lengths were carried to one of four potters. After vessels are shaped and dried, they are fired in one of three huge kilns heated by burning trash. I've tagged the process in the photos:

After the potters we turned back toward town. Near Tall Umayri we pulled off the road and drove up to a Bedouin tent. Abu Muhammad, our host, greeted us in the men's "room" of his tent. While he prepared coffee, he answered questions that Romel translated for us. He also answered his cell phone. Customarily, women and men sit separately, but we all stayed together for most of the visit. We were allowed to take pictures in this area, however, our host told us "no picture" when his five-year-old daughter brought twigs for the fire and "no picture" later when the women in our group went to the women's part of the tent. We were all given sweet tea but when the coffee was ready, we were told that usually only men drank it. However, once the men were served, with Romel insisting that Doug Clark be served first as the most important man present, then Abu Muhammad also offered coffee to women in the group. He explained through Romel that after drinking three cups of coffee with a person, you become a member of the family. This means if the host goes to fight, you help him fight. If you are in a fight, the host will help you fight.

Eventually, the women were taken to the private women's part of the tent. Abu Muhammad's wife, a slim woman of about 35, smiled. Her oldest daughter, 17-year-old Amal, smiled. Neither spoke any English and we now had no translator. We all smiled. Anita asked Abu Muhammad if she could use the bathroom. He pointed to the neatly stacked silver cooking pots and smiled. Kitchen. Ahh. We admired the organized shelves and small refrigerator. Our host spoke to his oldest son and soon a goat stood very close to our "room". Holding a tin cup in one hand and a goat teat in the other, Abu Muhammad, with five practiced pulls, filled the cup with warm, foaming milk. The milk was passed around the group. Second in the line, I sipped. Not bad. It didn't taste goat-y, just milky. Smiling, Abu Muhammad explained with gestures and a few English words that his wife will have a baby next month. She didn't look eight months pregnant, with her eighth child. Then our host returned to the men. More smiles. It was awkward. Mrs. Muhammad tried to communicate. She wanted to know how many children I have. "Two," I showed her with my fingers. "A son, here (pointing through the partition) and a daughter." I have no idea if she understood.

We heard the shout to depart and smiled our farewells. The family's hospitality was wonderful. We plan to send a gift of school supplies for the children by way of a thank you. It is because of school that the family is here rather than with Muhammad's brothers in southern Jordan. They stay in once place, instead of moving about, so that their children can have an education.

Saturday Suq and beyond...

The cure for over-programed life, exhaustion and fatigue from working like a donkey: sleep, then spend a day exploring without a watch and only a suggested list of possible destinations.

After sleeping in and eating late (7:00 instead of 4:30), the idea of a morning nap appealed to Ken and me. Once rested up from the exertion of breakfast, we showered, dressed and set off for my first trip to the suq. As we neared this commercial center, the bustle of traffic and people on foot increased. Once I adjusted to the sensory overload – sounds, smells, sights – I kept my camera ever at the ready. Furniture, flowers, instruments, garments, fresh fruit, books, perfume, backpacks, coffee, meat, fabric, trinkets, houkahs, watches, videos, kitchen pots. A two-lane street and network of shady, warren-like alleys twisting away from and back to this main artery, provide space for permanent merchants as well as mobile vendors selling socks, chewing gum, or bottles of bubbles for children.

After the suq we stopped and asked directions to Darat al Funun, a museum of modern Jordanian art housed in three renovated villas. Art currently featured includes triptychs by Halim Al Karim and a photo and video survey by Jananne Al-Ani.

Once refreshed by lemonade with mint and interesting art, we walked up to Paris Square, really a circle. En route, we passed a bakery where baker (from Egypt, as we learned) thrust rounded dough into a flame-heated oven and within minutes flipped out fresh puffed bread. The Jordanian owner asked if I was from Germany and seemed a bit disappointed when I confessed, "No, America." Wandering 'round Paris Square, we found our way into a delightful cafe, the Librairie de Paris. We spent a leisurely afternoon eating sandwiches and crepes (see picture), sipping tea, and skimming books from the cafe's English collection. I found a copy of U Magazine, Jordan's answer to In Style. Our whole day – the suq, museum and cafe – felt just right and I knew once again what makes travel magic for me. It's the surprising and familiar all jumbled together in unexpected ways. It's moving through an unknown place at one's own pace.

When we felt like it, we paid our bill and assured the host we'd be back again. Our taxi ride home was a bit long. The driver said he knew how to find Amman Training College. He over-spoke. Who knew we'd be happy to see the gate of ATC again?

Now time for a Sunday afternoon nap. Check back again for details on Sunday's exploration.

Doing Debka

Taxi drivers always give you the impression at first that they know the destination. Thursday night we were in a fleet of 3 taxis going to Amjed's brother's wedding party. The address was written in arabic and each car had a copy. Eventually we made it, after asking numerous other taxi drivers, stopping at a carwash, asking half a dozen pedestrians, etc. We could hear it before we saw it. There was a large tent, an all male group were sitting down watching younger men doing the Debka – a traditional dance among Arabs. It was wonderful to watch. At one point they were in a circle, arms on each others shoulders. On a small stage a male singer called the lyrics and a sound guy controlled the volume of music which was very loud. Graeme was in his element, socializing with the younger set, some of them friends of the workers from Tall Umayri. The music started up again and Graeme volunteered to give it a try. I (Ken) joined in later but not with Graeme's prowess.

So What? or Where there is no vision...

Of the 35 or 36 people currently on the dig, a core of about 17 hunker down in the shaded walkway with brushes and pails full of soaking pottery pieces. The pottery, left during lunch, turns the water into a muddy soup. Once scrubbers set up their stations and begin the tedious chore, conversation moves the work along. Today, the usual camaraderie, good-natured jokes and laughter combined with Friday weariness giving vent to expressions of frustration, longings to go home, and other comments reflecting low morale. What I heard this afternoon, as well as a few other conversations, echoed my own opinions about a few things. Here's one.

Remember the "I've been Tom Sawyer-ed" revelation? This ah-ha moment bloomed in part from my personal lack of understanding. Little to no effort is made to include first-time volunteers in any sense of purpose for the project beyond the physical labor they provide. No vision is articulated and the larger purpose of the work seems privileged information for individuals who need dig data for academic credit or careers.

This past Monday morning, I sat in the shade of the breakfast tent and readied pail tags and locus sheets. I voiced some of my frustration to another member of the square. Within minutes two dig vets, with jobs that allow them freedom to roam, appeared. (Breakfast tents have ears.) "What is archeology to you, Rebecca?" "The longer I'm here, the less I know," I began. Then, off the record, I expressed some of my confusion. I'm as curious as the next person, but I feel that information for information's sake is pointless. "Think of your work here as a paragraph in a larger narrative," I was told. Okay. I like metaphors. I feel more like a sentence or a single word. Would anyone like to tell me the narrative? And if so, would the teller also explain how the narrative of Tall Umayri adds value to life, beyond the academic, today? But wait. I've got to dig, haul dirt, sift, wash pottery, fill out forms, and keep going on seven hours of sleep a night. Guess there's no time for a story.

While I enjoyed the unexpected 20 minute break beside the breakfast tent, I felt no more enlightened about the point, the So what? of this project than before. And based on this afternoon's pottery washing conversation, I, like a pottery shard soaking in a pail, am not alone in this muddy soup.

She carries light.

For our farewell evening with Justin we hailed a taxi and want to Gerard's for ice cream. Afterward we said our good-byes so J could sleep in this morning.

She left a note in our room while we spent the day at the tall.

Taxing work, long days and limited sleep. And she kept going, kept smiling. Our girl carries so much light. Now we count down the 14 days until we fly home and see her again.

Yula yula bye bye justin!

This shall be my last posting! tomorrow is my last day in yordan :) i have had an amazing adventure here but i am so so anxious to return to 2843 miguel street! here are some memories i want to save here and also share with you!
-Our Jordanian shabob Omar can kind of pronounce my name but he just sticks to calling me Jucksee...close enough!
-Everyone (especially the workers) loves my brother! They call him haroof which means sheep because of his curly head and they even sing a song about him
-Gerards. such good ice cream! i went the other night with my family and our friends matt and kent and had strawberry cheesecake and blueberry cheesecake flavors! yes! i kind of want to go back like, every day..for the rest of my life.
-the tea! the tea here is sweet and delicious. it tastes minty and spicy and i LOVE it.

Petra Part Three, etc.

I confess that I felt a bit cheated visiting Petra after a tiring work week. Fully energized is the best state for all the hiking and climbing the place requires. On the flip side, we typically think of weekends as time to rest and refresh rather than tramp through hot, sandy environs. The grandeur of Petra off-set much of the fatigue we incurred navigating the place and Saturday afternoon we found other ways to recharge.

Sunday, Ken and I dressed for exploring once again, with the Monastery as our goal. Entering the gate at 6:30, only one other person walked with us to the Siq. There we saw a few others, but our early start rewarded us with a nearly solitary experience. Of course I took another picture of the Treasury sans a flock of tourists. On the way to the Monastery we also saw the Colonnaded Street and the Roman Temple and Theatre. Carved stone elephant heads decorated the column capitals. We hired donkeys and rode up the 800-plus steps to the Monastery and found only one other tourist there before us.

The Monastery's design resembles the Treasury but surpasses it in scale. It was nearly impossible to stand back far enough to fit it in camera frame. Wandering past the Monastery, we found the End of the World and sat down for a snack. Leaving the Monastery on foot, we bought a silver bracelet from a Bedouin woman with a stall beside the path. She schmoozed us into the unintended purchase by making us a deal as her first sale of the day; in return she asked that we wish her good luck for business.

Our water and energy supply ran out just as we viewed the hotel. There we scrounged a bit of food, changed into our swimsuits and took our sweaty selves to the pool. Deanna joined us for a chat and then it was time to pack. Before departing for Amman, Randy and Deanna took us out for farewell ice cream. They would drive back separately for a bit more sightseeing before flying on to Tel Aviv. We savored their brief visit and only wish we'd had more time to savor ice cream together before dashing back to board the bus. The heat of the day, the hurried departure, the tacit disdain conveyed for the few minutes we were late kind of squashed the end of our Petra visit. But none of these spoiled our pictures or damaged any meaningful relationships.

After a very hot bus ride back, we added one more outing to the weekend. Matt and Kent took us to Gerard's for ice cream. While worn out from our journey, we felt like ourselves chatting and eating fabulous Jordanian ice cream. This time unhurried. The experience struck Ken and me as distinctly humanizing in contrast to much of our day to day work here.

Back at the Ranch

More pictures of Petra pend posting. However, day to day life at the tall and at camp continue. Monday, Graeme took a personal day Monday after staying up to see the final World Cup game. The workers asked, "Wane Prince?" (Where's Prince?) I explained that he was sleeping. The day moved on uneventfully, but he was missed. Knowing that he'd return more cheerfully if left to his own, I said nothing. Tuesday, he returned and our field seemed a bit livelier to everyone.

Today, he almost missed work again. His roommate Hew usually wakes him up because Graeme doesn't hear the morning bell. But this morning Hew didn't hear the wake up bell ringing either. At 5:00 Hew appeared, "I just got up. I'm going to get water," he told me. I asked if Graeme was up. "He was right behind me." One of the buses was late as well so the situation didn't seem to dire. The first bus filled and left. Ken and I waited with a group for the second bus boarding near the end of the line and watching for our boy. Like Hew, Graeme went to the cafeteria, but instead of just stopping for water, he grabbed something to eat as well. The late bus driver didn't listen when Ken asked him to wait a minute. We drove off without Graeme. "Well, he can help Suha in the pottery lab," I said. But Suha was on the other bus to be part of our group photo. The photo. My heart sank. This week marks mid-season for the dig and three fresh volunteers have joined the team. Today and tomorrow, three others – Justin, Stefanie Griffin and Larry Murrin – leave, but before they do, the entire group poses at the tall for a picture.

Justin's last day. The group picture. "How are you, Rebecca?" Doug asked. "A bit fragile, but I'll keep moving," I replied. What do you say to that? Apparently nothing. You smile as if that's normal and keep going.

Standing at the sift after the photo shoot, I thought I heard Graeme's voice. Trick of the wind that whirls across the top of the tall. I finished picking through my sift, flipped out the leftovers, and turned. There he was sitting in Rainbow's square, chatting with the workers. My heart soared. When the bus left he set out walking from camp. No taxis drove through the area at 5:15 in the morning, so he kept walking and then hitched a ride for the last kilometer or so, arriving at the tall around 7:15. "Does Justin know you're here?" I asked. He walked toward her square and called her name. They half ran toward each other, like in a movie, and hugged. "Does Daddy know you're here? He nearly flat-lined when the bus driver pulled out without you. Go tell him!"

When asked to introduce ourselves during orientation, I realized and announced that my purpose here, aside from the experience for myself, is to witness the experiences of Ken, Justin and Graeme. Archeology can rot, but I know what matters to me.

Oh, and there's another group picture here at camp at 4:00.

Petra Part Two - High Place of Sacrifice

Once able to stop gazing at the Treasury, we began walking to the High Place of Sacrifice. While the steps carved into the rocks merit wonder, the rocks themselves inspired me as the light played up their colors, varied shapes, and sheer enormity. Along the way Bedouin families or individuals sat tending donkeys, making tea or selling souvenirs.

The steep ascent, warming temperature, and sand on step surfaces made the climb a challenge. However, once at the top, a cool-ish breeze and panoramic view rewarded our efforts. After Justin was sacrificed on the altar, we strolled atop the mount and studied the valley.

Just below the last climb to the top, a small tea cafe nestled into the rock awaiting sacrificers. Our group took advantage of shade and refreshment before descending by another route. Once again the designs and colors in the natural rock fascinated me. See the pictures for an almost step-by-step record of the trek down. When almost back to the valley floor, Ken and I took a small detour with the four young people for a photo shoot. I worked as producer of the shoot and took pictures with Hew's camera while Justin shot from inside the stone room. Album cover material? I think so!

We wandered a bit after that but managed to spot the Royal Tombs above the main road where Randy and Deanna met us. After a quick stop in the restroom built into the rock, we returned to the Treasury via the theatre and some parked camels. Back at the Treasury we took our historic pictures. The day grew warmer and we clung to the shadows along the Siq as we returned to the hotel. The last stretch in full sun nearly did us in. Thankfully, showers and air conditioning awaited us.

Saturday afternoon pictures around town, etc. follow in next post.

Petra Part One - The Siq

So, this past weekend we visited Petra. The place rocks! (Channeling Justin as best as I can.) Making the adventure even more memorable: seeing it with our good friends the Wisbeys.

Because Wikipedia gives a bang-up overview of the civilizations responsible for the amazing carved-into-rock architecture (usually Nabataean), and impressive built-up-with-rock structures (usually Roman), I'll share words and plenty of pictures from our experience.

Friday, work on site ceased at 11:00. Returning to camp, we moved right to pottery washing and reading, then lunch – with the Wisbeys, and packing. Our deluxe tour bus waited outside the compound gates adding to Friday afternoon traffic. Ken and I managed last place out of the dorm, but someone driving Kent to the top of the hill, somehow managed to find room in the empty back seat of the car for the two of us and our bags, and soon we were all aboard.

About three and a half hours later, we pulled up at the Guest House Hotel, located a stone's throw from the official entrance to Petra. Exhausted from our week of work (and a bit of drama regarding our camera – ask me about that later), we rallied for supper in the hotel, then crashed in air conditioned rooms. Ahhh.

Saturday, we set off after an early breakfast. Randy, Deanna, Ken and I had talked about seeing Petra together, and here we were, about to realize the idea. We asked our children, before they left us in their wake, to humor us with a group family photo in front of the Treasury as proof of the joint venture.

Deanna, Justin and I agree that the Siq, the passageway carved into the pink and gold sandstone by flowing water, which leads into the city, is our favorite part of the Petra experience. With that in mind, the first set of pictures features our walk of awe.

Thursday Hats and the Wisbeys Visit Umayri

Apparently many of our crew stayed up watching the World Cup last night. The general pace seemed slower all over the tall. Ken and Graeme dragged in around midnight, but managed to keep moving, which is more than I can say for the workers in my square. With Petra in mind, work still got done.

Matt boasted Spain's victory over Germany by wearing a colorful hat over his keffiyah (corrected spelling). This served as inspiration for my photo series at the site today. Also inspiring: Deanna, Randal and Alex Wisbey visiting the site. Justin missed them at lunch yesterday and happily hugged Deanna and Randal. "It's so good to see someone from home!" she said.

Pottery washing Wednesday was ridiculous!! A few people started right after lunch at 2:00 rather than the official start time of 4:00, but even so a group of us scrubbed away until 6:00. Mohammad, the steward, came out to see why next to no one was coming in for supper. He sat down and helped. Doug Clark joined in for a few minutes and Matt Vincent got his hands wet. When the job was done, we all went to the cafeteria. Today, the pottery was washed well before supper hour. A good day.

Now I'm watching Graeme strike lithics. Nikki gave a presentation and followed with a demonstration of how stone tools were likely made. Wish I had my camera, but it's charging for the big trip starting tomorrow!

7 July

Tough start to the day. I felt just a bit wobbly and when Graeme went directly to the tent to nap, I came close to...well, not laughing. Half an hour into the morning, Anita unearthed a small creature in our balk. Not sure what we'd disturbed, we carefully dug it out. It was a HUGE spider (mentioned in previous post w/ comments about Wild Kingdom and I'll add a picture when John McDowell shares the one he took). Hearing the words "camel spider" roused the Prince from his repose. Once the excitement over the eight-legger subsided, Lizzy quickly found work for Graeme. In our square, work advanced to balk stud removal. Happy Anita.

Part of my wobbliness disappeared once Graeme was back in the flow. But today I could no longer continue in my course of chosen denial. I felt decidedly Tom Sawyer-ed. I've paid for the privilege of painting someone else's fence and, I could no longer pretend otherwise, I'm not really that into fences! Justin has been clear from the start that this is hard work that she doesn't really enjoy. While I haven't contradicted this, I haven't made too much of it either. Today, I joined her clear-eyed perspective. Once I admitted the Tom Sawyer reality to myself, I hailed Ken. "I need a personal day," I said, explaining my analogy. "After Petra this weekend and once Justin leaves, I need a break." I suspect many others feel the same way about a personal day, but this isn't built into the program. Jordan continues to agree with me, but I know that I didn't miss my calling as an archeologist. I'd rather look up and out and interact with the living, than look down and into the earth and puzzle over the ancient past.

Happily for Justin, she made a wonderful find today. She unearthed a small ceramic seal. Later, Suha studied it and found remarkable detail of an Ibex nursing its young, a crescent moon and star. Stunning. That find didn't come a moment too soon. The tone of the day continued improving, and I felt myself again by second breakfast.

Back at camp and before lunch, the time finally came to do something about Graeme's hair. "Do you want to dread it?" I asked. "Naw," he replied. Justin campaigned for cutting it and this seemed momentarily tempting. In the end, Graeme accepted my other offer – heavy conditioning and a good comb through. Now to see if he can keep it from matting again by using a kafia while at the dig.

My spirits rose considerably when Ken and I walked into the cafeteria. Randy, Deanna and Alex Wisbey were all there. I sat next to Deanna with my tray of spaghetti, a double treat. Between the two of us were were quite a pair. I was clean but wrung out from the day at the dig and she was slightly dazed from jet lag. "I think of what to say, but can't make my mouth form the words," she said. I'm so glad they're here. Petra will be wonderful with our families together.

Late. Time for bed. Several workers invited Ken and Graeme to watch the World Cup game between Germany and Spain. They return very late and I can only imagine how they'll feel at 4:00 tomorrow.

Call to prayer from one of the mosques near camp. My lullaby.

July 6

Tuesday, 6 July, the pace in square 7K23 picked up! This thrilled Anita especially. K'sigh moved over to help Rainbow in her square, and we kept Aboud and Shak'er busy. Shak'er found many ways of annoying the team, with multiple breaks, complaints of a tooth ache, and worst of all smoking in the square (he sat on the balk and puffed away) then putting out the cigarette in a full dirt quffa. The cigarette incident, multiple reasons to leave work, and a sour attitude did not spare him from Anita's attention. She made sure that he had constant meaningful employment. We're just glad he doesn't know where we sleep, because her thoughtful care for his steady industry seemed to make him unhappy enough to track us down.

Amjed, a worker from another field, created a mini-break when he handed out fresh cucumbers. After polishing mine against my shirt, I crunched away. No ill side-effects. Yet.

Graeme started to bottom out. Unlike the local workers, he is not paid. And, unlike the college students, he is not getting class credit or working on a paper. Several times throughout the day we worked at side by side sifts. "Graeme, I'm proud of you," I said. "What for?" he asked. "This is hard, hot work and you're keeping up with most of these college students," I said. "I'll never forgive you for bringing me here," he said without looking my way. "I'm prepared to live with that," I said. However, in spite of this, he continues to collect and correctly use an astonishing assortment of Arabic words and phrases. Early on the workers dubbed him "Prince" because he wears glasses like the prince of Jordan. (This means my name is "Mother of Prince". I'll settle for Queen.) He likes the nick name and clearly enjoys interacting with people on the site. Graeme also cheerfully works on pottery washing every afternoon, exchanging remarks and quips with the group. I don't think he'll be scarred.

Remember Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom? We have a small glimpse of that every once in a while on our square. Early on we rescued a lizard from our balk. Today, Amjed brought around seven small snake eggs cupped in the palm of his hand. Sorry, no pictures. Later, I worked in the breakfast tent with Audrey on a notebook check and heard commotion. A small snake was caught and released away from our field. Ants make regular appearances and a pale version of potato bugs make it into the sift. The occasional spider crawls out of the rubble and of course flies (not too many) seem to know when second breakfast arrives. Wednesday, the 7th, we had bees (no stings) and a ginormous "camel spider". Ugh!

Ken took a few more pictures of pottery tables since that is what we're really all about.

Tuesday & Thursday evenings lectures are presented for students and anyone else interested. This Tuesday groups visited the object/artifact room. Suha explained the process for recording items, Audrey talked about pottery washing etiquette, and Jillian gave a brief overview of photographing important finds. Then we moved to the computer room. Matt talked about GPS and GIS technology use on the dig. He is also responsible for setting up the open source Umayri database which he explained and showed to us. Finally, Larry took a few minutes to show us the program he wrote for cataloging information from the dig.

Daily Life

June 30, 2010
dear jack, here is what my day is like:
-i get up at four to the wake-up call which is someone ringing hand bells. i think Audrey does it which is needless because she just has to snore and every feral cat in the region takes a shit from pure fear! Audrey looks to be about 80,000 years old dating back to early early neolithic but she snores like a dragon.
-i put on my dig clothes and go down stairs and out of the dorm to the cafeteria which smells like armpit. Four and a half is when they serve breakfast and i usually have labnuh (thick yogurt) and cinnamon sugar on pita. sometimes jam too. Then i fill my water bottle and go back up the dorm stairs to brush my teeth.
-Five o clock is the time everyone starts to head out to the two buses which park outside the cafeteria. i must take empty buckets to the tall (tell) so that our square can fill them with pottery plus i bring my gear (trowel, knee pad, and pick) in another pail. once we get to the tall i climb up the hill and start brushing out my square.
-then i help my square supervisor measure rocks for her top plan. the top plans are gay and no one ever wants to do them so i will just say that they are a scale drawing of what the square looks like based on an x and y axes system...stupiddd.
-I work in field "L". "L" stands for labor. Hard, stupid, dusty labor added to pain!! i would never let you dig here, jack, because your bad knees could not take it! yesterday we broke ground in my square. this sounds fun and adventurous, but really it is a nuisance because topsoil is a little bitch 100% of the time. it is rocky. there are many narly roots.
-I use a dust pan A LOT because once you trim your balk or move dirt you gotsta sweep it up to dump in the guffa! When the guffa is full, i take it over to the sift where i weed through rocks to find pottery that i will later wash.
-At nine and a half, we eat second breakfast which is, every day, filafel sandwiches and watermelon. that meal got old really fast but i eat it because i am hungreeyy!
-After breakfast, we go back to work until noon thirty. before we leave, i help stephanie take elevations in the square to see how much lower we have gone. yay. we have Jordanian workers aka "shabobs" who help us and they speak zero english but i speak no arabic so it's aight!
-finally we head down the hill and pile ourselves into the buses and it's back to camp.
-lunch at one, then i shower and nap. at four we wash exorbitant amounts of pottery, most of which just gets dumped back onto the tall the next day after pottery reading.
-supper at six.
-BED

Dry Dusty Day

Not only dry and dusty but a bit dull. Perhaps I had some premonition that this would be a slow day when I started today's photo journal with shots of our bathroom. Who knows? Ken and I share a hall with one other married couple, Matt and Monique Vincent. The four of us share a large bathroom at the end of the hall. Water is precious so we wash with care and pour water from laundry buckets down Turkish toilets, or squatty potties, as I call them. Also, and this may be too much information, no paper of any kind can go down the toilet, but must be put in the trash.

Sure enough, work struggled to gain momentum in square 7K23 once we arrived. Graeme was seen lounging several times through out the day, and my work was so slow that I had time to capture a short series of pictures featuring our dig site latrine including views from inside. Returning to the square I managed to catch my first glimpse of the Joshua cloth; this handy device allows for shadowless photos on bright days. Remember the story of Joshua asking that the sun stand still? Thus the name. Anita and Aboud continued work on locus #20 and I hauled quffas to the sift – I have the dusty face to prove it. Instead of changing pails every 10-15 quffas, we brought back two pails, and these only because removal began on the balk in locus #20. Once again the rock to dirt quffa was one to one.

Second breakfast brought on a wave of drowsiness for many of our group. In the square next to Ken's, a fire ring, small mound for mortar stone, "table" surface and other signs of a kitchen in the middle of a house were found. Very unusual. Amjed, the guy who likes to tease Graeme and also one of the workers in Ken's square, gave him a beautiful copy of an English/Arabic Q'oran. This compliments the prayer beads that Abu Turkey gave him last week.

After supper I joined Monique, Carrie and one of the Stephanies for yoga. Then off to conversational Arabic from 7:00-8:00. Now done with blog, so time for bed.

Madaba for July 4

Sunday we slept in and ate breakfast at 8:00. What a change from our workday 4:30 breakfast call! Buses loaded at 10:00 to take us all to the city of Madaba. As noted on atlastours.net, "Madaba has a long history, dating back further than 1300 BC. It was first mentioned in the Bible as Medeba at the time of the Exodus (Numbers: 21,30; Joshua 13:9), it was then an Amorite town close to the Moab border, and it changed hands frequently." It was also the site of a mini-conference organized by Umayri dig director, Dr. Doug Clark. Archeologists gathered for the morning to share overviews of work on their particular sites. Our bus drivers got a bit lost in the city, so we missed about 45 minutes of presentation. However, as very inexperienced members of the team, much of what was said was better appreciated by others. After presentations, we were turned loose to find lunch and go shopping. We asked experienced dig participants Gary and Suha Huffaker if we could join them. And what a treat! They led us to Haret Jdoudna where we splurged on a fabulous lunch feast. We lingered over our meal talking about books. With 45 minutes to shop we managed to get a bit lost but finally found the tourist shops where Yousef, the hospitable shopkeeper, had tea ready and waiting. Ken was late back to the bus, but the group graciously waited for the last Crane. On our ride back to camp, Matt Vincent told us how he met his wife Monique while on a dig here in 2004. After supper, Justin went to the Amman souq with Suha Huffaker. She returned happy with her purchases. I blogged while Ken and Graeme watched the movie The Visitor. Another good day.

King's Highway Tour, Chunk #2

First, an aside: A cool shower, however brief, refreshes. Slightly wet feet dried by a standing fan, feel almost dance-ready.

Continuing our Saturday tour is a rather like a good theatre production; the second bit it is much shorter than the first and contains a highlight. After traipsing around Herod's fortress, we lunched on a shady veranda. Then we drove yet on to see another archeological site, Al-Lahun, dating to the same period as Umayri. This site perched on the edge of the Jordanian Rift Valley with a dammed wadi in the valley below. Finally, we wrapped up our tour with a stop at Umm Ar-Rasas, a Byzantine site with stunning mosaic floors in side-by-side sanctuaries from different eras. We all gazed at the pictures of the cities of the Decopolis, repeated tree of life motifs, fishermen (once naked, now scrambled, perhaps by iconoclasts, perhaps by Ottomen), animals, grapes, etc. all now protected from the elements and made accessible by raised walkways. A sense of awe came over us in this holy site. Beyond the churches, sprawling ruins made us curse our weariness and the shortness of the stop. There was so much to see and 45 minutes just wouldn't do. Sigh. Ken and I agreed that the Byzantine era is something of a favorite for us. (We also enjoyed the so-new-it's-not-yet-open visitors center at Umm Ar-Rasas. Open for us, but not yet selling tickets! It was nice to end the day with sparkling public restrooms. In that sense we lucked out all day with lux facilities at each of our stops. The small things really do matter.)


Pictures of July 4th in Madaba coming soon. We splurged for the holiday with...well, check back and see.

King's Highway Tour, Chunk #1

Information overload characterizes the bus tour we took yesterday. Photo captions should help explain what we saw and I've kept them in order. Start with the blurry shot of Ken, Justin & Graeme boarding the Jett bus and you're good to go.

We toured the site of a monastery on Mount Nebo, viewed Wadi Musa where the spring still flows that biblical accounts attribute to Moses' speaking to the rock, stopped at a mosaic workshop that trains disabled people in the ancient art then sells their wares along with other local crafts in an adjoining store. I went a little crazy here because of all the color. Especially interesting - mosaic "tattoo" onto ostrich eggs. The naturally occurring colors of the limestone allow for vivid and stunning detail when the stone is used for traditional mosaic work or ground to a powder and then applied by special needle to a shell surface. The ultra-fine work requires two- to over three hundreds of work, depending on the design.

Continuing south, we stopped in the city of Madaba, historically considered a Christian settlement. Currently about 25% of the population are Christians. Many Byzantine churches dot the city. Of special interest to us, The Greek Orthodox Church of St. George built over a stunning mosaic map originally part of a Byzantine church from about 570 AD. Because of our tour schedule, we didn't have time to browse the many shops along the walking tour of the numerous church sites. We saved shopping for a return trip on Sunday.

Driving through the land of Moab, a featured location for the biblical story of Ruth, we passed fields still planted in grain but harvested in more modern ways. We hiked a craggy limestone trail or paved path (depending on preference and energy level) to the top of Herod's Fortress with a spectacular vista of the Dead Sea and a constant breeze. This is where Salome danced with such skill that Herod promised her half his kingdom. She asked for the head of John the Baptist and it is likely that he was held at this fortress before his death. Pictures taken after this are on another camera. Stay tuned for Chunk #2.

Foods I Want When I Get Back:

-Taco Bell
-popcorn
-chocolate milkshake
-pizza
-mom's mandarin romaine salad!!
-a very tasty sandwich (wheat bread, yummy cheese like cheddar, provolone, or gouda, tomato, pickle, turkey, mustard)
-ice cream cake and juice yeah!
-REESE'S CUPS!
-cinnamon toast with homemade bread
-pineapple
-corn on the cob
-Jill's salad with grilled chicken, raspberries, and camembert cheeese :)
-chocolate covered strawberries
-blueberries!
-some popsicles

A Short Pause

Minor details conspire against the best of intentions. I love to take and post pictures, however in the rush of packing, the charger for our digital camera remained at home. Happily, Rainbow uses the same camera and I've been able to charge our battery using her charger. Today I assiduously clicked away on our tour of the King's Highway until the battery died. Now I won't be able to import any pictures until Rainbow returns from her day away from camp. Worst of all, I discovered that much of my interest and enjoyment when touring comes from chronicling events visually. The second half of the day I had to resort to taking stills with our video camera - not my favorite.

So, until a battery is recharged, here are a few catch up pictures taken almost a week ago in Aqaba. Sunday morning Justin and Graeme took a windsurfing lesson. Not pictured, but worth mentioning, is the shopkeeper from whom Ken and I purchased kafias for the kids. After the transaction, we asked, "Where's a good falafel place?" He paused a moment then escorted us out of his shop, paused again, went back, locked the door, then led us to the street. I thought he might point us in the right direction and give a short verbal prompt. But instead he walked to a parked car, motioned for us to get in, and drove us to the old downtown area a few blocks away. He stopped in a crowded intersection in front of a busy falafel shop, we said a hurried thanks, hopped out, and dashed to the sidewalk. When we turned to wave, he was gone, no doubt back to his deserted shop. Talk about hospitality. We bought sandwiches for the return trip to Amman and caught a taxi back to the hotel where we collected the kids and our bags then scurried to the bus station. On the bus ride home, Justin, as she already mentioned, held the cutie-patutie baby of the woman sitting in front of her.
Another day of good memories.

TGIF!

Hurrah for Friday! Knowing a weekend awaits us at the end of this day of back-breaking labor cheers everyone along. We began working in a new part of the square this morning. Information on the new locus sheet included matching the soil with what looked like paint chips on a Munsell Chart. Along with the Munsell reading, Lizzy also evaluated the texture of the soil. All the information collected is surprising. With a shift of locus, Anita and I found ourselves unusually idle – relatively speaking – because of the locus size. We tried digging together but soon realized the space was too cramped for quality work. As square supervisor I ended up digging on my own, frequently consulting Lizzy, our field supervisor. Because of a "surface" in an adjoining square, we were on the lookout for something similar in our square. The mental question, "Is this rock part of a surface or is it just more rubble?" repeated often. K'sigh hauled the dirt and rocks for me, but often sat and waited for me to fill a quffa. Just about every quffa of dirt was matched with a quffa of rocks. Before second breakfast I found a hammer stone: a flint tool about the size and shape of a billiard ball used in making other flint tools. Very exciting! Later I pulled a broken mortar bowl from a balk wall.

To keep busy, Anita and Aboud helped Rainbow and her team clean up their square. Debris scattered during balk removal must be swept out before the next locus level measurements are taken. Aboud and Graeme found time to listen to music and dance a bit when things slowed on their project.

Aboud brought hot, sweet mint tea to Rainbow, Anita and me after second breakfast. Love it! Friday means a slightly shorter work day and pay for the local workers. The representative from the Jordanian Department of Antiquities, Ramull, often tours the different fields at the start of the day with Doug Clark and Kent Bramlet. Today he was on hand to distribute pay after each field supervisor gave a report on the workers' performance for the week. Everyone was happy.

Like the workers, we also had a slightly shorter workday. Packing up at 12:00 instead of the usual 12:30, we took a short field trip. Working on the top of the Tall at Umayri we see a another archeological site across the highway. We went to inspect the fifth century Byzantine church with mosaic floor that another team uncovered between the last Umayri season and this one. Along with intricate mosaic work, the church also has gutters, a cistern, possible baptistry and curious underground room.

After pottery reading and washing this afternoon, I visited the room where important finds are photographed as well as sketched. The "amazing" ceramic nose of yesterday will end up there along with a small, detailed figurine head that was found in another field today.

Justin and Graeme joined a group going to town. They plan to see the World Cup match on a large screen at a mall. One of the dig participants, Canty Wang, is a huge Brazil fan. I'm ready to sleep. Hope I can snooze past the usual 4:15 wake-up time. Breakfast is at 7:00 and we go on a bus tour of the King's Highway after that. When I'm not too tired, I'm loving Jordan.

The Amazing (volunteer) Archeologists

Anita Burns personifies confident anticipation. Each day on the dig she crows, "We're going to find something amazing! I feel it." Or she happily announces the "amazingness" of our team. Today proved her right. With the help of Aboud and K'sigh, we removed the last rocky half of our very rocky balk. In the process we found two cowrie shells with the tops neatly sawed off. Pretty amazing.

Later I worked the sift and heard a shout, "Rebecca, we found a nose!" Thinking sagaciously that noses are made of cartilage, I trooped towards the square wondering who wanted to pull my leg. But Anita made good on the claim and showed me the diminutive ceramic nose severed cleanly from the face of some lost figurine. Soon I was crowing about the amazing find and a group gathered to see what caused the hullabaloo. Back at camp, our nose was a show and tell item for the day along with a piece of potter boasting a potter's mark from another square.

This exciting little spurt of "amazingness" helped carry us through the long afternoon pottery reading. Kent Barmlet spent almost an hour with the ten pails worth of finds from field M. One surprising piece that I scrubbed yesterday turned out to be a fragment of ostrich shell. Hm! After the reading I sat in the shade with those already scrubbing today's finds. Ten pails from field M once again. From all that we collect, about 5% is considered diagnostic. The rest is scooped back into pails and returned to a dump site back at the tall.

For a broader view of what's happening this season, visit the MPP official dig site for weekly updates.

The world according to square 7J69

Michaela, Ibrahim, Feraz, Amed and I are masters of square 7J69. Michaela is a recent graduate of La Sierra University, History major, archaeology minor, and was a student of mine in cultural anthropology. She probably had not imagined that we would be students together finding our way in the field methods of the archaeologist. Our Jordanian workers are helping us with Arabic and learning some English. Feraz is a college student, Amed is still in high school, and Ibrahim has a cell phone/mp3 player that he occasionally turns on for Jordanian pop music. His nickname is Abu Turkey. Abu means "father of" ... usually followed by the name of your child. Apparently the joke is that he wants to name his first child "Turkey." Haven't got to the bottom of that one, but check out his T-shirt.