July 2007

It's been a while since we blogged regularly and we apologize to all of our blogging fans. It has been a very busy month for us, which involved reunions, a failed apartment search, a relocation to Toronto, guest lecturing at the University of Notre Dame's bioanth field school, driving to DC and back, a local festival in Ingersoll, horse racing and CHUCK E' CHEESE!!!!!

At the beginning of July Mo drove down to South Bend to spend some quality time with "the boys" (the various cats of SS) and to give an ethics lecture and rendezvous with Yo, who was also giving a lecture in the bioanthropology field school. Check out the fun photos and the excellent the field school website at: http://www.nd.edu/~nsfbones/nsfbones/Home.html And yes if you scroll around in the photos that is Mo knitting while Yo was giving his lecture. The ultimate multi-tasker...

We then drove back up to Ingersoll where we met up with some old pals from Mo's Queen's University days. M flew in from Brisbane Australia, J, B, B and H drove down from Milton and E, D and K came in from Mississaugua for a fun-filled weekend of merriment at the "yet-to-be-named" farm.

Tractor rides

(huge thanks to RM)

Water slides

and barbies galore were the order of the day. (Jonestown barbie)

It was an adventure filled weekend, enjoyed by all. You can check out more photos (excellent shots taken by master photographer B) at http://www.flickr.com/photos/brmurphy/sets/72157600718747046/

We then spent the next couple of weeks looking at various apartments (both nice and grotty) in Toronto. In the end we came up empty handed and Mo is going to live at the Kersel-Lyon hotel deep in the heart of Bloor West Village until she can make up her mind or they kick her out, whichever happens first.

Simpsonizing Yo and Mo

Yes, AmpiezzadiVedute and W did it first, but we couldn't resist samples of what we would look like as Simpson's characters. Here is Yo.

And here is Mo:

Perhaps a real post will appear someday....

Caving on Keros

During this field season I poked around the numerous caves in the Kavos region, which may or may not be associated with the site.

In a 1998 article by Bassiakos and Doumas, they discuss the possibility of the cave just north of the special deposit being associated with ritual use by the Early Bronze Age inhabitants. They actually state that the cave might be the "entrance to Hades" al a Greek mythology.

With the aid of a couple of geologists TK and JED, and some archaeological buddies MM, KR and BM we managed to identify a bunch of cave-like features and perhaps event the Bassiakos and Doumas “ritual cave”.


We excavated a small trench in order to look for evidence of human use in the cave . After about 60cm we hit bedrock (the natural limestone formation) and we recovered only one pottery sherd, one fragmented shell/goat animal bone (I was listening to SWK all of those years) and one sea shell. Perhaps they have austerity measures in Hades and the old adage that "you can't take it with you" in fact true.

The caving adventures will go on next year.

This is an image of my caving side kick Nicholas, he one of our workmen from the Cycladic Island of Amorgos. He would ask about a million times a day, "why are we digging here??" It was one of the Greek phrases I learned this summer. As was the answer "we are looking for hell".

Hot Off the Press!!

Ok, pretty hot off the press!

The book that Dr. Mo and colleagues edited actually came out some months ago, but in the world of academic publishing, that is yesterday. And while the reviews of such books traditionally take years to appear in print, the "internets" is changing that, slowly. Now many book reviews are being placed on line. The positive review of their book Archaeology, Cultural Heritage, and the Antiquities Trade (University Press Florida) by a well known archaeologist who specializes in South American archaeology and heritage is great news and a feather in the collective caps of the editors.


Although it may not seem like much of an "adventure" to an outsider, editing such a thing can certainly rate as an adventure -- but the kind many choose not to relive! Oh, and if you would like to read the review, you can find it here. It is a glowing review that includes phrases such as "This superb, valuable, and balanced volume is comprised of a well presented selection of case studies" and "...outstanding volume is a must-read for any scholar interested in museums, cultural heritage, and the traffic in illegal antiquities."

Another week in paradise

The site of Kavos on the Island of Keros. You can an idea of the slope (extreme archaeology) and the trenches in which we work.

This was our last full week in the field, so things were very hectic. I am posting some images of the past week, including one wet and rainy day.

As many of you know, my job this year on the dig was to organize and run the field school. We had twelve student from the US and Canada, they were all awesome. This morning we had a "What I learned during my summer vacation" session - they all seemed to enjoy themselves although 3 admitted that the field school was as much field archaeology they ever want to do. This is an image of one of the students from UPenn, she has just inaugurated her trowel, using it for the first time to break soil - a momentous moment.

Here is another student from U Ottawa with a find from the wet sieve. We put all of the dirt we take out of the ground through mesh screens in order not to miss any important artifacts. We send 20% of the dirt to the Beach where the valiant wet sievers put the dirt in a contraption and let the sea water sieve the material. The remaining material is then dried and sorted. During this process we often find small obsidian fragments, small marble figurine feet and pieces of pottery.

Here I am in the Kavos area in Trench F2.

We are in the field on Monday and Tuesday mainly drawing plans of what we found. The majority of the students and archaeologists leave on Wednesday. I'll be here for a few more days doing some post-excavation wrap-up and then off to Naxos and Athens for post-doc research.

Hello From the Cyclades

Dhaskalio and Keros, were they connected???

While I like Yo's posts, I still think that 3 posts in 5 weeks is lame. Today we have wireless on Koufonisi who knows about tomorrow. I'll try to upload a couple of images from the field season. We are having a great time, even though the weather has been very windy, rainy and cold. We have been dividing our time between two sites - one thought to be the settlement (Dhaskalio) and one where the special deposits (figurine fragments and other special finds) are found on Kavos. One of the research questions we are asking this season is whether in antiquity Dhaskalio and Kavos were connected making for ease of access between the settlement and the "ritual" area.

The above image is some of the field crew working in the special deposit area and the other image is the wait for the "daily commute". As many of you know we work on one island and travel 1/2 hour by boat to the site. Here is an image of me on the boat.

The field school is going well, we have 12 students (7 Canadians and 5 Americans) who all seem to be enjoying themselves. They have lectures every day, which I find tiring so they must be exhausted. Okay I am signing off and hoping that this uploads as it should. Hopefully more this week.

Burqu, basalt and badia

Inspired by last week's successful and extremely gratifying effort to avoid work, we again scheduled some eastern desert site visits for yesterday. Inspired by green licorice and perhaps a bit of gin (or was that a different evening?), J. insisted on a trip to Qasr Burqu, in the northeastern section of Jordan, not too far from the border with Iraq. I also had in mind finding the Early Bronze Age site of Jawa, although I had been warned by a Jordanian archaeologist that this is hard to find.


Once again we decided to kick off the day with the yummy coffee place that J guided us to, and if anything, the coffee was better this time (or it just seemed that way because we didn't have to listen to W. go on about 'sludge' since this week he stayed home to watch episodes of "Lost" or something.) This time we had pea donuts with the coffee. Who knew someone would make a fried dough ball with peas and shaved carrots inside? And who buys such a thing?
At any rate, we headed out, ever vigilant for jackknifed infernos of fuel tankers and colliding bumper cars/spaceships/protzoa. Along a certain area beyond Zarqa we noticed a tremendous number of serious looking Jordanian military police dudes with the snazzy red berets lining the highway. A few jets also came in low and fast, then shot up into the air; a few minutes later we could see the explosions, with the surrounding hills lined with important observers. Ever mindful of security precautions, you can see pictures of things exploding here.

With only a stop to top up the gas tank in Azraq, we pushed on to the east towards Baghdad. By the time one arrives in the oasis of Azraq (a former wetlands drained by the early 90s to meet the water needs of Amman), it is fairly flat already, but there is still greenery. Beyond this it becomes even flatter, with some relief barely visible to the north and flat desert to the east.

Armed with instructions from E! again, we knew that the turn-off to head north from the Baghdad road should be immediately after the "Burqu checkpoint, and just before ar-Ruwaished". As it turns out, the checkpoints were unmanned, and so without signs or humans, we had no idea which one was it. Luckily there was a sign just before Ruwaished that let us know where to turn. There was also a big wide dirt track marked on either side with shallow dug out mounds of earth on either side, each with a rock atop the mound. So it was well marked and one only needed a little faith that this was the right general direction.

Qasr Burqu next to lake. Note 'dahab hole' in foreground.

A note on Burqu: like Qasr Tuba, no one goes to this place. Information on Burqu is pretty skimpy, but it was probably originally built by the Romans, perhaps in the 3rd c. CE, reused during the Byzantine as a monastery, and then was used by the Umayyads later in about the 8th c. CE. According to the Lonely Planet (a guide book) for Jordan, "The castle is not worth visiting as such, and is certainly too difficult to reach to be a part of a day trip around the desert castles".







While it IS too far to fit in with a day trip to the other qasrs ('castles'), it is well worth the trip despite what the guidebook says (no wonder its lonely). First, there is all that water out in the middle of the desert! Apparently that water manages to stay even through the baking hot summer.

Two, there are animals and birds, not so common in Jordan. We didn't see any of the gazelle, fox or hyena that apparently still live out there, although we did see some impressive lizards, a dead snake and some birds.

Lonely Planet also claims that you need a 4 WD vehicle. This is also inaccurate, although a vehicle with high clearance is necessary. The former Minister of Tourism admitted on Saturday that he had only visited the site by helicopter. Thats another way to get there. I would be happy to explore this option.

After a lunch of hummus, we headed back out. The track was so smooth, wide and flat that it seemed a good place to have a manual stick tutorial for Miss A, who is now ready for the Porsche (girl version).

We headed to Ruwaished for more 'solar' (diesel). The kids (no, really, they were perhaps 9-11 years old) running the only petrol station in town insisted we pull ahead of the large tanker trucks, so we did, and once again topped up the tank. For some reason the truck drivers patiently took this in stride rather than simply running over us with their trucks. And when hot, sweaty and dusty, what do you need? A nice hot cup of dark sludge, thats right. So we stopped at the truck stop, where our little cups of tasty ahwey were brought on a platter to the truck.
Headed back west to Safawi, we were already getting a bit hot, dusty and tired. From Safawi we headed north In Search of Jawa. Jawa is an Early Bronze Age site excavated by S. Helms; the remarkable aspects of the site are all the water management constructions (dams, run-off channels, etc.) that sustained a larger town than seems possible. I knew that it would be very difficult to find, and indeed, we never found anything resembling a road that headed in the right direction. And in fact the road we were on was much worse than the non-road to Burqu. Next time I will try the approach from Deir el-Kahf.
But the landscape in this area, known as the badia (essentially, the badlands), is impressive. The whole area is covered with a mantle of basalt because of the numerous volcanic cones in the region. If you need something out here, its best if you can make it out of rock, that being the only available material other than the sand below it. There are corrals, sheep pens, cairns, and various other structures strewn across the landscape.




After finally admitting defeat and not eager to drive in the badia after dark, we headed back to Azraq for a coffee and shisha. This was enough to get us back through the harrowing drive of Zarqa and East Amman at night (here is where you need a guide - thanks J! ...not to find Burqu!).

Tuba bound, Tuba found

Yesterday I finally made the trip to Azraq to visit some rock cairns or tumuli that a colleague and friend had mentioned visiting last year; she thought they might be Chalcolithic. The other part of the plan was to visit one of the less accessible qasrs in Jordan, Qasr Tuba. I had heard of this qasr for many years from E! who has spent some time over the years not only locating it but also establishing the different approaches available to the intrepid traveler. Her directions were the reason we found it all, because we certainly had no useful maps or other credible info.

We started out from Amman quite early, and since the coffee maker at ACOR was not working, our first mission was to find coffee in town. Like a well adapted hunter-gatherer who knows where all the best mongongo nuts grow, J's highly developed cognitive map of all the known coffee shops in Amman saved us and we quickly had three cups of steaming turkish ahwey in hand (three for the two of us -- W. is too manly for anything like coffee). Almost as important, J also knew how to get us out of Amman to the eastern highways which neither wewa (W) nor I knew.

The drive out can be remarkable. First, one must negotiate fairly heavy traffic in the industrial areas of eastern Amman. Once on the highway, on-coming trucks prefer to use whichever side of the road is smoother, which leads to consequences that shouldn't be too surprising, but appparently are to some, so signs are posted:

It didn't take long to get to Azraq, although we had to go at fairly moderate speeds because I was driving an older truck, and because of the whole oncoming-truck-in-your-lane factor. Once in Azraq, we located this area of basalt boulders. There were various types of structures made out of the basalt boulders; some were probably relatively recent sheep and goats pens, while others may have served in some earlier period as houses. There were a few enigmatic tumuli or cairns; one was partially dismantled, probably in the never ending search for gold.

There were also a few substantial 'dahab holes' (gold holes, or looter's trenches) as W. termed them.

W. knew of a Roman fort (or 'fortlet', apparently) just to the north of Azraq, so we went to find it. We found Askhein without too much trouble, but were pretty surprised when we arrived and discovered that someone had taken a bulldozer and chopped several chunks of the site. Its hard to understand why someone would bother: either the idiot guessed that this would be the way to find the dahab, or just wanted to mess up an ancient site. Perhaps he just didn't like Romans? Why the Romans built a fort this far out is unclear - W. says that it was possibly because the boundaries of the empire shifted, but he seems skeptical of this notion.

We then headed back to Azraq, fueled up, and then headed south on the road towards the Saudi border. We continued further to the south until we got to the new gas station 70 kms south of Azraq, where we turned off the main road. We then followed the 'HAZMAT' road as instructed by E!, and then went too far when we should have turned off at the HAZMAT area. Instead we went west for a bit, until we got to a camel herd, and there we turned around.

baby camels are quite cute

When we got back to the Hazmat area we turned down the wadi and headed north up the wadi, visiting a few modern bedouin cemeteries en route.

Qasr Tuba wasn't far up the wadi. Tuba is one of the many structures extending from Amman to the eastern desert collectively referred to as the "Desert Castles", although they aren't castles and probably served a variety of functions. For any visitor to Jordan interested in something beyond the obligatory Petra tour (not that Petra isn't really wonderful), the Desert Castles are a 'must see'. Probably part hunting lodge, part political meeting point, and country estate for the rich and powerful of the Umayyad dynasty, Tuba was built in the 8th century and initiated by al-Walid, the Umayyad caliph who was assassinated before the complex was completed; he apparently disliked inhabited places and preferred remote places and hunting. Accounts suggest that he may have spent the spring there when the desert is alive and water is found in pools of the Wadi l-Ghadaf; we were surprised by the pools of water that were still here and there, presumably because its been a wet winter and spring. Unlike the other compounds referred to as Desert Castles, Tuba was built largely with fired bricks set on top of limestone cut blocks (others were generally made entirely of stone). Unfortunately, at some point, people appear to have also started robbing out the nicely cut blocks from the foundation, hastening the decay of the walls. Some of the baked bricks were even green, apparently an intentional effect for decorative value.

Once we'd had our fill of ruins, we settled in the shade of a wall and had some hummus. This was pretty tasty, and no one seemed tempted by my offer of sardines, which I also had in ample supply. Although a nap would have been in order, the flies where pretty bad, so we decided to move on. We had some good coffee in the truck stop part of Azraq and then headed back to Amman.

Visiting Suf

This year, when I spent time at Yarmouk University (my Fulbright affiliation) in Irbid, I've spent time hanging out with a few student friends, in particular K and M. They are sisters from the small village of Suf, not far from Jerash. They help me with my terrible Arabic, and I help them improve their (much better) English. K studies archaeology (on the right); M is more interested in ethnography and cultural anthropology. We've had some good conversations and often go for a coffee at the new little coffee hut outside the department. I gather that faculty do not 'hang around' with students, or as little as possible, but since I'm not teaching, I have few opportunities to interact with students. However, K and M sometimes drag along a friend or two. They are brave, in fact, for ignoring the predictable gossip.

I have had a standing invitation to visit their family house for some time. They admitted that although in the past they have had some visitors to their house for meals, those were all females. So, I was a bit nervous about going to visit for the simple reason that I wasn't sure what the rest of the family might think about me visiting. Mo left weeks ago already, and I was worried that going alone would be a rather stilted visit.

Last week after numerous invitations we agreed that I should come for a visit because the school year is quickly coming to a close (exams are in two weeks). I asked Miss A and she was up for an adventure, so we went to buy a big platter of sweets in Souk Sultan. The 'plan', if you can call it that, was to take a bus from Amman to Jerash, then another from Jerash to Suf. From the village we would then need to flag down to a 'bekup' to get to the family home, outside the village. Although being late is a perfectly Jordanian thing to do, this was starting to look like it might stretch the limits of 'fashionably late'. I called up my contact N., who in fact had one rental car available, and within half an hour we were on our way!

Amazingly, it was an overcast day and had rained the night before. As far as I know, this is pretty unusual for the region in the middle of May, but its welcome. We eventually found the sisters' brother, F., who was waiting for us in Jerash to show us the way. Conveniently, his fifth call trying to guide us to him happened to occur just as I was being pulled over by the police for an illegal u-turn. Handing the phone to the policeman, he listened, figure out where K. was waiting for us, and then gave us directions. The illegal U-turn was never mentioned and we were on our way, and found K. waiting for us a little further down the road.

We arrived at the family's house and were greeted warmly. Small cups of delicious Arabic (or Turkish, depending on who you are and where you are) coffee were soon produced and we sat in the front receiving room. We eventually had a wonderful platter of 'capseh', a yummy dish of the region that involves rice, veggies and chicken, all cooked in a huge container, and then flipped over. Nuts are also generously strewn over this, and this is all eaten with yogurt. Really, really yummy!

After lunch, we decided to pile ourselves into the little car and go out to look around the area just a little bit. We didn't go far and went slowly to take in the local scenery; the radio was belting songs I didn't know (although Miss A may have known all the words) and there was virtual dancing in the back seat (I'm not sure...I kept my eyes on the road).

We then pulled off near their house and walked around the fields, taking pictures. Our guests were quite giddy and despite a bit of dampness, all had a merry time.

After a bit more coffee and chat, we finally decided we should hit the road and head back to Amman. We had much more fun that day than expected, and I'm sure we'll keep in touch.

The Sandstorm

Its difficult to convey a dust storm like the one that hit Amman yesterday. The initial stages appear more like a bit of dusty haze, perhaps with flecks of rain as occurred in this recent storm. By mid-day yesterday, visibility was down to perhaps 200 meters or less (I have no idea how to judge this). On a normal, overcast day, the view from ACOR looks like this:
Thats the University of Jordan on the hill surrounded by trees. By noon yesterday the same view looked like this:
This is the sort of super-fine powder that you start to taste, even if you aren't a mouth breather like myself, as the fine dust works its way into buildings and everything else. It blots out much light just as this post will obliterate (or at least bury) that last post from Dr. Mo! Happily, by the end of the day a stiff wind blew in much cooler, fresh air, sending the dust storm on it's merry way - coming your way Mo!