Masalama Umayri

August 7 - Tuesday

   

This will be my last report from the excavation site – I leave on August 8 to fly home and try to resume whatever it was I was doing before I began pretending to be an archaeologist.  I would like to give my minor contribution to the dig a context in the bigger picture at Umayri, and to record some overall impressions about the experience.

Umayri is located on a natural ridge 7 miles south of Amman, just west of the airport.  The site was occupied by 21 separate settlements, one on top of the other like a layer cake, all dating from the Early Bronze Age (3000 BC) to the Islamic period.  It is not a strategic site and although there is a perimeter wall there are no natural or built major defensive fortifications.  The site seems to have been chosen for occupation by these peoples because at the northern base of the hill there was a natural spring that provided the only reliable source of water between Amman and Madaba about 15 miles to the south.   The primary periods of occupation were the Bronze and Iron ages, and the best preserved remains are from the transition period between the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age, around 1200 BC.  The built structures from this period and the artifacts found in them are as good as or better than at any other comparable archaeological site in the Near East.

It is the goal of the senior archaeological team at Umayri to continue to excavate the site to reveal as much of the Iron Age I settlement as possible, learn all they can from their discoveries and then preserve the exposed built features for posterity.  After 14 seasons of excavation, that goal is near completion.  Already a nearly complete Four Room House and a small temple have been cleared and preserved, along with three other houses.  This season I have been working with a team on doing the final excavation of the last of those houses, and we are now almost done.  Much of what has been learned so far from the excavations at Umayri has been well recorded in an extensive series of scientific publications by the archaeologists.  But only a relatively small part of the Tall has been explored so far and we can only surmise what new discoveries might be unearthed in the future if the archaeological team is permitted to continue its excavations.  Let us hope that the secrets of past civilizations interred at Umayri will someday all be revealed.

Participation in this season’s dig at Umayri has been a rare experience for me.  It would never qualify as a summer vacation, but rather as a rash exercise in unearthing the unknown.  I was not quite prepared for the heavy physical demands of excavating tons of dirt, rubble and rock, and quickly concluded that if there is one thing more narcotic to the soul than lifting and carrying a 50 pound boulder to the rock pile, it is watching someone else do it.  All of that material had to be literally taken out by hand, and as I thought of myself as a research assistant to the archaeologists I marveled at how well we treat our research assistants at Loma Linda.  Neither was I prepared for the heat and the dust.  I come home each day from the dig with my body and clothes adorned with an elaborate applique of Umayri dust.

Our accommodation was adequate but Spartan, not receiving even a one star rating.  If I had broken a leg on this trip it would not have been because I fell off a balk but because I had slipped on the very slick tiled floor in the bathroom.  I had to adjust to the strange work schedule with the wake-up bell sounding at 4.15 every morning.  That restorative feeling of a good night’s rest vanishes with astonishing swiftness when you quickly realize that breakfast is at 4.30.

But all the minor irritations, tired muscles and aching joints were insignificant compared to the excitement on the dig.  When an interesting new “find” was displayed I could not match the effervescent exuberance of the archaeologists, but it is still an exciting experience.  Besides sharing in the joy of new discoveries, I really enjoyed learning a little about the procedures and the processes used in conducting an excavation at a historic site such as this.  So this experience has been an intellectual and emotional stimulus, not mind-bending but remarkable, one that has expanded my horizon, out of my comfort zone, and introduced me to a completely new world.

And then there has been the extraordinary experience of getting to know some Jordanians and traveling around and seeing the sites in this interesting country.  The people are most friendly and hospitable and it has been almost a humorous challenge to try to communicate with our Bedouin workers.  I have acquired a few words of Arabic – mahaba (hi), salam elecum (hello), masalama (goodbye), shukran (thank you), hef halek (how are you), mufi mushkala (no problem) and habibi (sweetheart) although I have not had much use for that last one.  But one of the real treats about joining the team this season has been the opportunity to travel with my enthusiastic colleagues and enjoy some of the incredible historic sights in Jordan.

Dr Clark attracts a large following of students who are interested in taking this hands-on excavation experience for university credit, but he is also interested in having volunteers like me join his team.  Actually I have pointed out that I am also getting credit for my experience here – from my grandkids who are giving me credit for being such a cool grandfather.

So – masalama Umayri.

 Moonrise over Tall al-Umayri

Developers

Aug 6 – Monday

The 2012 dig season is winding down.  We still have a little soil removal to do to finish our square, but we will have to stop very soon in preparation for the formal and official end-of-season photographs that record in detail where the excavation of the 2012 season actually ended.  There has to be a compulsive clean-up for the photographs – no dirt on any rocks, no loose stones on any flat surface and everything put away.  There are the multiple photos taken by our official photographer, but in addition the whole Tall is photographed again by the boom camera.  All of that takes considerable time and we have to leave the site by Tuesday evening.  One important reason for the detailed drawings, photographs and record-keeping is to clearly document where we leave the excavation this year so that when we come back next season the archaeologists will know exactly what their starting point will be.  More than that, their analysis and study during the coming year will help them develop specific objectives for exactly what they want to achieve during the next season. 

If there is a next season.   The land that includes the Tall is owned by a developer who is intent on bulldozing everything so he can build and realize his expected profit on his investment.  His attitude seems to be – civilizations have been building on top of each other for millennia, so what is different now?   Dr Clark contends that there are decades-worth of valuable excavation that could be done if he could continue at Umayri, and he has lobbied whomever he could to try and get support for his continued studies at the site.  At this stage he is still not sure what the future will be for the Umayri excavation.  The site is on the outskirts of Amman and the city is growing rapidly.  There are now many houses near the Tall and many more will certainly be built in the near future.  Right at the base of the Tall a big freeway has recently been built and there was quite a scrap over the ruins of a Byzantine church on top of hill that was standing in the way of the construction.  I was able to photograph the site right from the top of Umayri. 

Photograph taken from the top of Umayri looking over the freeway to the ruins of a Byzantine church

Visiting Petra

July 22

It is Sunday evening and we have just arrived back on a weekend trip to Petra.  There is much to report, but it will have to wait because I am too exhausted to do anything but collapse.  The crowds were thin at Petra because the summer heat keeps most sensible travelers away, making this the off season for tourists.  But our archeological team only has this time available to see the incredible sights at Petra, and the opportunity was too important to miss.  A bus collected us on Friday afternoon after we had finished our dig, and drove us to Petra and the Guest House Hotel right at the entrance to the site.  Exploring the site is demanding, especially if one tries to hike up to the high places up in the mountains, as I did.  More about that later, but just to report one  interesting personal item – from the time I walked through the gate into Petra on Saturday morning until I walked out at the end of the day, having hiked long distances horizontally and vertically, in the heat, I had drunk 4 and ½ liters of water. 

I now have to rest up for the 4.15 bell tomorrow morning and get myself in gear for a new week at the dig.                         

Objects and watermelon

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.

The lamp and in the upper left a small stand with feet at the bottom.   Two small bowls.

Some beads and a pendant

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.

Serving the worshipers

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.

An exciting discovery

August 2 - Thursday

We had an exciting discovery in our ballroom today.  The room has been excavated to about 90 to 95% and we are down to the floor level.  We still have some uncertainty about what is the real floor level and there may actually be two levels, one before and one built right after an earthquake.  I included a photo of one of the side balks on July 31 because it clearly shows the strata by which the archaeologists can read what happened to the house.  Our field supervisor Stephanie took another careful look at that balk today and she noticed about 10 pieces of pottery low down in the wall all spread out in one layer and pressed together.  They seemed to be all related to one object.  There was ash mixed in with the pottery and as she carefully probed the ash she found what was a large collection of kernels of grain, either wheat or barley.  The grains were intact and easily identifiable as kernels, but they had been blackened by the fire.

Our archaeologist came and consulted, and it was quite clear what had happened.  The pieces of pottery were what remained of a large storage jar, a pithoi, and this had been used as storage for grain.  It probably had been on the upper level and had fallen to the floor below when the roof collapsed in the fire.  Then the mud brick upper walls had tumbled down and covered everything, but in the process preserving it for us to find.  The discovery was exciting because the grains are sufficiently preserved that they can be analyzed and subjected to radioactive carbon dating.  Carbon dating is quite accurate but gives a slight range of about plus or minus 60 years.  This window can be substantially narrowed statistically by taking and testing multiple samples which of course we did.  So far the house has been dated by analyzing the large number of objects found in the house, especially pottery.  The carbon dating will allow the archeologists to confirm their estimates and give a more precise date about the occupation and destruction of the house.

The photographs below are close-ups of the photo of the balk that I have shown in the report on August 31. 

Multiple layers of pottery can be seen from the left side of the photo right over to the right.  The dark layer of ash from the charred kernels can be clearly seen

The hand is pointing to the top layer of broken pottery

A close-up of the ash

The Four Room House

August 1 – Wednesday

Early on in the excavation of Tall al-Umayri a series of 4 houses from the transitional period between the late Bronze Age and early Iron 1, around 1200 BC were discovered and were fully exposed for study.  They are remarkable both in their degree of preservation and in the trove of treasures found in them.  One house in particular has been referred to as the 4 room house because of its architectural design which is typical of many house structures found in other sites in Jordan and the west bank.  However this particular house at Umayri is one of the best preserved anywhere and has provided information that has shed much light on the details of everyday life in a village such as this.  In one of the rooms there were a great many ceramic items such as jugs and bowls and also 75 large storage jars called pithoi which were used to store food items such as barley and wheat.  Four skeletons were found in the house along with evidence of an abrupt destruction associated with burned wooden beams as the house collapsed.  There was space on the lower level for work areas and for keeping small animals, sheep and goats, and the humans lived on a second floor level.  This 4 room house has brought Umayri a great deal of attention among archeologists working in the Near East.

The Four Room House - the man standing on top is actually on the floor of the upper level, and there would have been a roof over that. 

Dr Clark telling about the construction of the Four Room House

Some of the team members attentively listening to Dr Clark.  Notice the Bedouin tent in the background that provides shade while we have our second breakfast.

Last evening Dr Clark took the team back to the dig and into the 4 room house where he held a discussion about its history and what the life of its inhabitants must have been like.  My team is working on clearing out the debris to clearly display the details of the last of these 4 houses.  But it was the special 4 room house that drew our attention last evening.  Dr Clark pointed out some of the details of its construction and what was found in the house and then led a freewheeling discussion, made all the more memorable because it was held in the actual structure in which a family lived 3200 years ago.  We could hear the noises – bleating of the sheep and goats, hammering of stone on stone in the making of flint tools, and laughter of children.  We could imagine getting smoke in our eyes from the cooking of food and when we looked in the backroom there would be rows and rows of food storage jars.  The smells would have overwhelmed us – not only from the animals and their manure, but also from the humans and their sanitation or lack of it.  Water was available at a spring nearby at the base of the Tall, and would have had to be carried in jugs up the hill to the house.   Here are several photos of the house.  None of the wall has been reconstructed – they are preserved as they were found.  However the wooden beams have been replaced with a covering roof to show the two levels of the house.

Two large storage jars about 4 feet tall, called pithoi,  found this week during excavation
of another building