Ramadan

July 25 - Wednesday                                                                                        

 The assignment for our team today was simply to continue to excavate the ballroom in the Iron Age 1 house, and we worked steadily at it all day.  By the time we stopped for the day our diggers, including me, had probably removed over half of the debris that had initially filled the room.  We were still in the deep mud brick layer, and not close to the bottom.  We should reach the floor in the next two or three days where we hope we will find some more interesting artifacts.  There were not too many artifacts in the layer of brick we removed today, but we did find many pieces of pottery.  In addition one member of our team found an intact oil lamp which I will photograph in the next day or so after it has been logged in and recorded.  One other item was also found – an intact small conical-shaped piece of pottery that had been used as a weight for a weaving loom. 

Textiles such as rugs, blankets, clothes and tents were woven on looms from the wool of sheep, goats and camels, but it is rare to find any of these items intact because the wool degrades over time and disappears.  However we know that weaving was an extremely important activity for people living in these ancient civilizations because it provided tents for shelter, clothes, bags for carrying things and many other articles. It has been estimated by the experts that for a family or a village the weaving of textiles filled about 50% of all working activity.

 We have had to adjust to Ramadan, the holy month in the 12 month Islamic yearly calendar.  It is the ninth month of the Islamic year, and begins, as all months do, with the first sighting of the new crescent moon in the west.  The Islamic calendar is based on 12 lunar months, each 29 or 30 days which makes the Islamic year 10 or 11 days shorter than the Gregorian calendar year we use in the west.  The Islamic calendar is used for keeping track of religious holidays and of Ramadan, but otherwise the western calendar is used here for regular daily Iife.  The shorter year means that the Islamic months drift about 10 or 11 days earlier each year compared to the Gregorian calendar.  Next year for example, Ramadan would be expected to start around July 10, while this year it started on July 20. 

During Ramadan Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset, and do not take any water, fluids of food.  There are exceptions for the elderly, for children and for those who are sick.  But the Bedouin workers who assist us at the dig have to carry on as best they can without food or fluids for the whole day.  They pace themselves and take rests to prevent too much fluid loss from perspiration and that leaves the rest of us to work quite a bit harder, including doing more of the carrying – boulders and guffahs.  I went for a short walk this evening with several of our group to have some ice-cream at a store nearby, and right after sundown the roads, normally congested with speeding traffic, were suddenly deserted.  Everyone, it seemed had gone home on cue to be ready to feast and drink beginning at sundown with their family and friends.

I read in the local Jordanian English newspaper that there is sometimes some uncertainty about just when Ramadan begins.  A very senior cleric in each country makes a declaration in advance about the start day, because the new moon is not seen on the same day in every country.  This year Ramadan started in Jordan last Friday, but in several other countries it started on Saturday.  Besides having an impact on our work, Ramadan has affected us in other ways.  The family that prepares our second breakfast and brings it to the dig at 9.15 every morning has stopped delivering the food during Ramadan.  So our kitchen is making up sandwiches for us to take with us to the dig and Kent Bramlett goes out and buys the three watermelons that we could not do without at breakfast.

We have a large herd of goats and sheep that graze on the weeds and dried thistles on the Tall and here is one of the shepherd boys with a baby goat.

We are halfway through the 2012 season’s dig.  A few of the people who joined the dig at Umayri signed up for only half the season, and today was the last day for those leaving at the mid-point.  So today we all gathered at the central location on the dig for the official group photograph, and I also had a group shot of the team working in our field.  

Our team