July 3 – Friday
A busy schedule and a couple of new social experiences
over the last 2 days have kept me from my computer and the blog. But now on Sunday evening I will try to catch
up. The excavation is going very well
but we still have not fully cleared out the Iron Age 1 house. So with only 2 more days of scheduled digging
for this season, Monday and Tuesday, Dr Clark wanted us to put in several hours
this morning to do some urgent finishing cleanup. I operated a sieve this morning and
registered 145 guffahs sifted. Not a bad
effort. But it is time to reflect on
what we have done at Umayri over the last few days, and I plan to cover several
different topics in this posting.
Objects found
This afternoon I went to the lab at our camp where all of
the objects found during this season’s dig were laid out for inspection. I have already shared several of the
interesting items in the blog, but there are a number of others that should be
of general interest. Here is a selection of some of my photographs.
Beads and a bronze ring
The spindle with the wool being woven onto the stick was not from our site - it was provided as an example of the way raw wool was spun into yarn. The round whorl at the bottom right was found at Umayri and was used like a little flywheel to assist in spinning the wooden stick that would have passed through the hole in the middle. The objects at the top were small weights that would have been tied to vertical threads to keep them taught while a weaver worked on a vertical weaving loom.
The Dolmen
A dolmen was discovered at Tall Umayri a few years ago,
and this has been explored in detail. Archaeologists
still have some unanswered questions about dolmens. There are many in Europe and the Middle East,
but most have been robbed in the past leaving very little evidence to help
determine their purpose. They always have
a similar structure – a simple structure with just three or more upright stones
for walls and a stone slab covering the single chamber. It is most likely that they were graves and
they date from Neolithic time to the Early Bonze, 4000 to 3000 BC. The dolmen at Umayri is unique as it is the
only one among the hundred or more discovered in Jordan that had not been robbed. It was found intact and contained the
skeletons of about 20 people. Some
simple objects and artifacts were found along with the skeletons such as cups
and bowls and a little bit of jewelry.
The skeletons and the objects date the dolmen to the Early Bronze Age.
Pithoi follow-up
I have described at length the exciting discovery of a
crushed pithoi or large storage jar seen in the balk in our Iron Age 1
house. I also uploaded a photo of two
other pithoi found in situ in another field several weeks ago. Those two jars have now been carefully removed
and their contents saved for analysis.
They were not burned so it is assumed that if they had held any grain it
would have deteriorated by now and be unrecognizable. However they use special techniques such as
floatation to extract and organic material from the dirt and other debris and
the archeologists will be studying the content of these pithoi back at La
Sierra University. If these jars had
been burned like the pithoi in our house then the grains may have been
preserved. But at the bottom of one jar
they did find the skeletons of 3 rats, so it is reasonable to conclude that the
jars were used for storing grain.
Watermelon
I have briefly commented about watermelon previously, but it is time for some more detail. There seems to be an unlimited supply of watermelon. We can consume as much as we want at every meal, and we do, but it is at the second breakfast at 9.30, out on the dig, that the daily line-up of eager and thirsty worshippers has become a ritual. It begins with an announcement by Kent Bramlett the chief archaeologist, who then takes 3 large melons to a special flat rock nearby that has become our sacrificial watermelon altar. Acting like a high priest Kent first tests the fruit for ripeness by tapping it firmly with his finger, a slightly dull and resonant sound indicating that it is likely to be just right, ripe and sweet, in contrast to the higher pitched and firm sound that might indicate that it probably has several more days before it will reach its peak. Kent’s diagnostic style reminds me of a pulmonologist percussing a patient’s chest, worrying about a possible pleural effusion, which would give a solid sound, but pleased when instead he hears that clear, resonant sound of a normal lung.
The High Priest at the altar
The high priest then sacrifices the fruit with a bold
slash right down the middle, turns it over and happily offers a slice to each
of the eager worshipers in line. And it
is a long line. By the time the last
person is served a slice, people are coming back for seconds, and then thirds. The fruit is eaten over by the edge of the
Tall, so that when the luscious, thirst-quenching pink flesh is all eaten the
rind can be just thrown down the hill. At
first I was a bit perturbed that we were making a terrible mess with all of
that watermelon rind on the side of the Tall, having been somewhat critical of
how the Jordanians freely leave their litter everywhere. But my concerns were unfounded. Some Bedouins kept a herd of goats near and
around the Tall, and on cue they came eagerly looking for and devouring all the
rind that they could see, obviously preferring the moist watermelon rind over
the dry weeds and thistles they had as their usual daily staple.
Some happy worshipers enjoying the refreshing slices
More happy worshipers on the side of the Tall
Thanks for the goats to take care of the clean-up
Watermelon is obviously very popular with Jordanians in
general. As you drive along any highway
there are truckloads of the fruit everywhere, and beside the road all over the country
enterprising young men operate stand after stand selling nothing but
watermelons. In country towns huge
piles of watermelons crowd the main streets.
It is obviously no accident that the watermelon is so highly regarded in
a land with such a dry, hot summer. I
have been considering writing to King Abdullah 2 and recommending to His
Majesty that he declare the watermelon as Jordan’s national drink.
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