Latest news with #DepartmentofAntiquitiesofJordan
Jordan Times
15-04-2025
- Science
- Jordan Times
Greek graffito in Jordan's Black Desert sheds light on early nomadic Christians
This cluster of about 100 petroglyphs was found by a burial in Jordan's Black Desert (Photo courtesy Peter Akkermans) AMMAN — The eastern Basalt Desert was a home of a 'very intensive' Christian graffiti production during first three centuries AD. Syrian-Jordanian desert was the frontier between the Roman Empire and Sassanian Empire during late Roman and early Byzantine periods. Thousands of drawings, tags, prayers, personal records and names testify about this activity in a desolated place and scholars try to reconstruct the life of ancient tribes by studying the meaning of this graffiti. These graffiti are the work of nomadic pastoralist who inhabited the Black Desert and are a point of research for international and Jordanian archaeological teams. Compared to Safaitic inscriptions, graffiti in ancient Greek are rare. One of the Greek graffito was found in 2010 with the corpus of Safaitic inscriptions by Jordanian independent historian and researcher Rafe Harahsheh. The location of the graffito is 35 kilometres east of Azraq, deep into the desert. It is hardly surprising that, in addition to prehistoric sites and graffiti, many of more recent drawings and texts have been spotted in the area, said Professor Hani Hayajneh from Yarmouk University. The professor added that the first batch of the Safaitic inscriptions was discovered by Captain Lionel Rees, a British pilot and World War I ace, in 1920s. Later, the American researcher Piere Bikai, a former director of American Centre of Research in Amman presented in 2009 30 Safaitic documents, chosen from the set of 125 texts inscribed on 77 stones. 'In 2010, an epigraphic survey of the basaltic hills and valley east of Qa Al Muqalla was carried out by Harahsheh while he worked for the Department of Antiquities of Jordan: a large number of Safaitic and Greek, Nabataean, early Islamic and Mamluk inscriptions was documented," Hayajneh said. An edition of the new Greek inscription is intended as a supplement to all these fieldwork, Hayajneh noted. The text is incised on a basalt pebble left in its row state approximately 40 centimetres high, 50cm wide and 20cm thick. The handwriting is influenced by cursive script. Remarkably, the author of the inscription began to the first word of the text before realising that there was not enough space and starting again further down, the professor said, adding that the translation of the inscription states- Remember Toulos, son of Ietouros, who wrote this. This graffito is one of records that documents a person or a prolonged stay in one place. 'Although it's quite common, it should be noted, however, that there is a mixture of two types of wording to emphasise that the mentioned person was both the one who wished to be commemorated and the one who actually engraved the text,' Hayajneh underscored.
Jordan Times
13-03-2025
- General
- Jordan Times
Archaeological efforts continue to uncover, restore Jerash's northern theatre
The stage of the North Theatre in ancient Gerasa( Jerash) (Photo by Saeb Rawashdeh) AMMAN — The intensive documentation of Jerash began in January 1982, as the Department of Antiquities of Jordan invited the directors of various archaeological institutions that operate in Jordan to take part in exploration of Jerash. This initiative led to renovation of Jerash and the city, antique Gerasa, was placed on the map of touristic attractions of the region. The North Theatre (168-230 AD) is one of three Roman theatres at Jerash, the others being the earlier and considerably larger South Theatre adjacent to the Zeus temple, and the later, much smaller theatre at the Birketain Springs. 'The North Theatre is located just south of the North Decumanus, west of the North Tetrapylon. It is oriented with its diameter and the north wall of the stage building parallel to the North Decumanus, which widens out to form a small piazza to the north of the theatre,' said Susan Balderstone from Australian Institute of Archaeology. "Between the northern wall of the stage building and the piazza there is a portico of which the engaged columns at each end and the first column from the east are still standing. When work began, the lower cavea of the auditorium was almost completely buried, as was the stage and most of the stage building," said Balderstone. "The first step for the new project was to fully document the extant structure, including recording the positions of all the fallen stones," Balderstone underlined, noting that a full measured survey of the theatre was carried out, together with a photographic survey and a detailed structural report of necessary repair and consolidation work. 'It was necessary to excavate in certain areas in order to understand the building, its sequence of construction and the history of its occupation, before general clearing could take place." "The British team excavated the external vomitoria, internal passage and paradoi, the Americans excavated the stage and stage building and established the level of the orchestra, and the Australians, who were already working on the north tetrapylon and north decumanus, excavated the portico area,' Baldersone explained, noting that it was possible to make some observations about the Northern Theatre. "The upper cavea of eight rows of seating is divided into eight cunei by seven scalaria. No trace remains of the two further scalaria which probably existed at the extreme east and west ends of the upper cavea. The lower cavea has fourteen rows of seats [Schumacher showed only eight], divided into four cunei by five scalaria," Bladerstone elaborated. Bladerstone noted that the praecinctio is marked by a vertical wall 2.74 metres high to the top of the cornice, punctuated by twelve shell-headed niches in groups of threes between five vomitoria. The central niche of each three is semicircular in plan, those either side are rectangular. Dowel holes in the praecinctio sill, opposite the small pilasters either side of the niches, and a corresponding hole in the soffit of one of the in-situ cornice blocks indicate that small columns once existed all around the praecinctio. "Previous work on the theatre comprised a report by G. Schumacher published in Zeitschriff der Deutschein Palastina Vereins, in which he gave a plan and section of the theatre; and some clearance and consolidation work carried out by G. Horsefield in 1925." Schumacher's plan is puzzling, as it indicates ten scalaria in the lower cavea and shows the Piazza to the north of the theatre as being completely walled off from the street," Balderstone highlighted. By the end of the first year of the project, the auditorium was cleared to exposed ten rows of seats in the lower cavea and the renovation of the Northern Theatre continued during 1980. "The areas of tumbled stones in the upper cavea had been cleared and the vault beneath partially consolidated. Work is now proceeding on the restoration of the praecinctio wall and upper cavea," Balderstone underscored.
Jordan Times
12-03-2025
- Science
- Jordan Times
Settlements of Jebel Qurma: Uncovering Jordan's ancient desert dwellings
The Jabel Qurma range contains thousands of petroglyphs accompanied with safaitic script (Photo courtesy of Jabel Qurma Archaeological Landscape Project) AMMAN — In northeastern Jordan, the rough and rocky Harra begins about 30 kilometres east of the small oasis town of Azraq. This basalt desert has been a home to different settlements and was occupied from the time immemorial. 'The Black Desert is characterised by basalt-capped table-mounds and plateaus that alternate with extensive gravel plains, mud flats of varying size, and low limestone ranges,' noted Merel Bruning from Leiden University. Bruning added that the hyper-arid and difficult-to-cross uplands have an average annual precipitation of less than 50 mm and are known as Jabel Qurma. "It is named after the prominent mound at the south-western edge of the Harra expanse, where Wadi Rajil debouches out of the basalt into the Hazimah plain. The site of QUR-595 is situated on small and low limestone hillock measuring about 45 m long, 20 m wide and 1–1.5 m high," said Bruning. The researcher added that it lies at the northern foot of the mound of Jebel Qurma and directly along one branch of Wadi Rajil. 'The 2013 survey and 2015 excavation at the site were carried out as part of the Jabel Qurma Archaeological Landscape Project, which seeks to address local settlement and quotidian activities from a multi-disciplinary and multi-period perspective, and investigates how these relate to the diverse landscapes and environment,' said the professor Peter Akkermans from Leiden University. Akkermans added that the project takes place under the auspices of the Faculty of Archaeology of Leiden University, and in close collaboration with the Department of Antiquities of Jordan. "The excavation in 2015 made clear that the site had three [possibly four] roughly round or oval-shaped, stone-walled installations built against each other at the top of the limestone hillock. These structures are named A to D in this contribution for matters of convenience," Akkermans noted. "It seems that Structures A and B were constructed first as free-standing structures, with the smaller Structures C and D added afterwards," Akkermans underlined, noting that the buildings range in diameter from about 5.6 m (Structure A), to 5.9 m (Structure B), and 1.7/1.3 m (Structure C). Less clear is the outline of Structure D, although its stone concentrations suggest some irregular walling: This comprises an area about 2.3 by 1.3 m, Akkermans underlined. The professor noted that each structure was bounded by low (maximum 40 cm tall) and wide (between 40 and 80 cm) walls, which consisted merely of loosely piled heaps of basalt rocks, the outlines of which were often difficult to establish. "In general, the amount of basalt stones uncovered in and around the structures is too limited to account for any substantially raised walls." "The only undisputed remains of walling were found on the north side of Structure A, in the form of a relatively narrow wall made of basalt blocks carefully stacked up to three courses high [ca. 40 cm]," Akkermans said. However, it is highly likely that this wall is a (much) later addition to Structure A, not only because of its better state of preservation, but also because it seems to block the original entrance to the structure, Bruning said. Structures A and B were originally accessible through openings in their northern walls, while the later Structures C and D had passages in the south-east (C) and south (D), Bruning continued, adding that none of the buildings preserved evidence for intentionally made floors or any form of roofing. "Most likely the low structures were simply open to the elements or they had superstructures made of perishable materials [such as hides or brushes]," Bruning concluded.
