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Archaeology in Jordan Bert De Vries This is the first installment of an annual newsletter on archaeology in Jordan. In order to launch the series efficiently, I have limited myself in this issue to those projects with which I am readily familiar, namely those associated with the American Center of Oriental Research (ACOR). The work reported is not, however, exclusively by North Americans; a number of projects are European, Australian, and Jordanian. The 1992 newsletter will also incorporate work by the Department of Antiquities, the Department of Archaeology of the University of Jordan, the Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology at Yarmouk University, and the numerous international projects working in association with their national institutes or diplomatic missions. In keeping with the AJA tradition for newsletters, the archaeologists report herein on their own work. In each case the reporter is the director or codirector of the project described. I thank all contributors for taking the time to write and send me their pieces. These reports are intended as news items, and do not replace the more elaborate scholarly reporting many of these project directors usually contribute to ADAJ, BASOR, and AASOR. Regular reports on fieldwork in Jordan also appear in the ACOR Newsletter and Ancient Jordan, a newsletter of the Jordanian Friends of Archaeology Society. In order to convey a historical overview, the reports are arranged in chronological order. Reports on surveys and multi-period sites are placed with the period where the project is making its greatest contribution currently. I am fully to blame for faulty judgments here! The chronological distribution of these 24 reports is typical of that of all the work being done in Jordan. Seven of the projects concern the prehistoric period, with important work in both the Palaeolithic and Neolithic periods. Seven projects cover the Bronze and Iron Ages, with greatest emphasis on the Early Bronze Age. Eight projects span the era from the Classical to the Late Antique period, with an even distribution of attention to the cultural phases ranging from Nabataean to Umayyad. Whereas two projects deal with exclusively Islamic periods, eight of the others concern themselves significantly with Islamic culture, either because it is stratified on the sites, or as the object of ethnographic study. Thus, these reports represent a survey of the almost continuous human habitation of Jordan from the Palaeolithic to the present. Geographically, too, there is an even distribution of sites discussed, from north to south and between the highlands and the rift valley. Only the settlements of the eastern desert are poorly represented. Palaeolithic, Neolithic, Chalcolithic Tor Hamar Wadi el-Hasa The Southern Ghors and Northeast 'Arabah Archaeological Survey Wadi el-Yabis Wadi Ziqlab Wadi Shu'eib 'Ain Ghazal Bronze Age, Iron Age Feinan, Wadi Arabah Feifa and Wadi Khanazir Khirbet Iskender Tell el-Hayyat, Tell Abu en-Ni'aj Tell Nimrin Madaba Plains Project Tell Safut Hellenistic, Roman, Mediaeval Aqaba-Ma'an Survey Petra Humayma Tell Irbid and Beit Ras Abila Limes Arabicus Greater Amman El-Quweisma, Amman Aqaba/Ayla Shobak, el-Wu'eira, and Kerak Castles |
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