Day 22-24: The End

This will be my last blog, at least until next years trip back to Jordan. I did this blog in partial fulfillment for a grade that I will be receiving for a course at the end of the summer. If you wouldn’t mind giving me a little feedback, I would very much appreciate it. I will be writing a 15 page paper in the hopes of turning my experience into a community learning experience. If you could tell me what you enjoyed and didn’t enjoy, what surprised you and what agreed with your expectations, and what else you wished to know—I would very much appreciate to include it in my final paper. You can email me at brerick@gmail.com or brad.erickson@duke.edu. All questions, comments and snide remarks are appreciated, whether it is from friend, family, or present / past teacher.

Our last weekend of the trip was amazing (I cannot recall how many times I began a post with the adjective ‘amazing’). We journeyed to Petra for the weekend and spent two full days exploring the ancient wonder of the world. You might recall Petra from the last Indiana Jones movie (not the ‘Crystal Skulls’—I still rfuse to consider that an official Indiana Jones movie—but I am referring to the Last Crusade with Sean Connery). Petra, meaning ‘rock’ in Greek, was an ancient Nabatean stronghold later turned Roman stronghold. Visitors travel upon a modern gravel path until they reach an enormous Siq (an old, narrow river carved canyon) that serves as Petra’s only ancient entry. The Siq comprises about a mile of narrow twists and turns until visitors are presented with the Treasury—a giant building likely used as a mausoleum of sorts for the Nabataea kings. For visitors daring enough (and of course, we were!), a further hike yields a series of 821 steps (according to one of our Jordanian friends) that evontually guides visitors to the top of Petra where another giant building rests. My friend and I journeyed to the top and went a little further to a couple of lookouts that displayed miles and miles upon the beautiful, surrounding land. It was breathtaking and a visit that I will not soon, if ever, forget.

The last night at Petra, a group of around 20 of us decided to visit a Turkish bath at the encouragement of Dr. Byron McCane. It was something that Byron had talked about since his first week on the dig, and it was something to which we were all looking forward. Upon arriving, the men were separated from the women, and once situated in slim bathing suits, the men were sent into a steam room. We spent around 30 minutes going between a steam room and a cold shower. After this process, we began going for our special message in groups of two. Each message lasted about 15 minutes and how intense it was. I have never received a true message before. I have always been eery about paying someone to rub on my body—something about it still sounds creepy to me for some reason. But I decided to give it a chance. It was incredible. They spent a few minutes with a scouring pad, scraping the dead skin from our body, and they spent the rest of the time popping our bones and rubbing oils into our skin. After finishing, we went to a waiting room to dry, drink Bedouin tea, and to watch a coupe of World Cup games. It was a very restful and relaxing end to a high-energy three weeks.

At the end of our stay at Petra, we loaded up on a bus and headed back to Amman to begin the long journey home. A few students left that night, and most of us left the next day. We had an end-of-the-dig party at a local pub. Instead of tearful goodbyes, we spent a majority of the night recalling and relating our favorite moments from the trip. At the end of our party, a group of six of us returned to our hotel to smoke Nargileh (hookah) for a couple of hours. Around 2:30 a.m., I realized I better be getting to bed because I wanted to be up by 5:30 a.m. the next morning.

I woke up on time the next day, made it to the airport and left at 10:30 a.m. for what turned out to be a 14 hour flight to Chicago.

I am still struggling a bit with jet lag, but I am mostly back to normal. I will never forget this trip, the relationships made, or the lessons learned. I cannot wait for next summer to return to the Middle East to begin another trip. Thanks for reading throughout my journey. Again, if you have the time, I would love to get an email and hear what you have to think (or any questions you may have about the actual dig—I was unable to post certain material due to publication restrictions, but may be able to relate specific information on a one-on-one basis). Thanks again.

Ma’a Salama

Brad

Day 20-21: The Conclusion of the Dig

Note: This entry is from three days ago. I was unable to post it due to lack of internet. Sorry for the scattered nature of this entry. I was exhausted when I wrote it.

The dig has come to a conclusion and what an experience it has been. We spent yesterday (Thursday) furiously trying to prepare the site for publishable photographs. I am pretty sure Dante originally intended to include sweeping sand in the desert as one of his circles of Hell. Everytime I felt like I had done a nice job on an area, I would look back only to see my work washed away with a new wave of sand and dirt. We eventually finished six hours later only to learn that our square would be returning that night along with two other squares to take the photographs. Archaeology is a funny thing, and from what I can tell, you learn most of the tricks as you go along. Well, one nasty trick is that you have to take photographs of the site either at sunup or sundown. Sundown was at 7:30 p.m. and sunup was at 5:00 a.m. I guess we got the better end of the stick, because the un-photographed squares had to leave the hotel at 3:30 a.m. the next morning to get theirs finished.

So a couple hours after lunch, we piled into a few vehicles and headed back to the site. We saw our site in a very different light at night than we had in the mornings. The sun was lower on the horizon, and it allowed for a cool breeze to pass as the sun danced in reds, oranges and purples off the surrounding mountains. The breeze was ncie for a while, but with our luck, it picked up into a nice little sandstorm right around 7 p.m.--the frantic last minute brushing time before the photographs. We somehow managed to complete the cleaning job and our dig director snapped the photographs. It was a very joyous moment.

So after all that sweeping, what do you think we did today? Backfill. In order to prevent looting, archaeologists often refill a site once it has been dug. Plastic tarps were placed in most of the squares so we would know how far down to dig in future excavations (for this is only the first of many seasons at our site). It was a little bittersweet dumping the same dirt that had been extracted with our blood, sweat and tears.

But we managed to have fun all the same. Dr. Byron McCane taught us that if you take the end off of one of the archaeological tools, it made a great bat / sword / golf club. If you can imagine, we had a pretty fun time.

I must be leaving soon, but I have to include the conclusion to our day. We were digging under a mile away from a Jordanian military base, and we had many military visitors throughout the day. They were always friendly and inquisitive--they were generally interested in what we were doing. A General of the Jordanian army runs the base and he stopped and insisted that we eat lunch at the base. After the several polite, "No, in sha'allah" our dig director agreed and we set to do it on the last day of the dig (Friday-today). We loaded in our bus and headed to the base (even though it was a mile away, we were exhausted from the day of hauling dirt). When we got there the army served us mansef--a tradition Jordanian dish made of lamb, rice, and a yogurt / cheese cream. The general dug in and showed us how to eat it with our hands like the Jordanians do, and boy did we have a blast. It's not every day that someone can say they were the guests of honor for a meal at a military base.

Well, that is the dig. It has been a great experience, and it has wetted my appetite for more. We are headed to Petra now for a couple of days, then back to Amman on Sunday so we can fly out on Monday. Thanks for reading.

Brad

Day 17-19: Beginning of the End

Sorry for the delay in posts. The last three days have been tiring. Monday followed the same pattern as the other days on the site. We awoke early, ate breakfast after a couple of hours of work on the site, left by noon to avoid the sun and so forth. Tuesday also followed a similar pattern except for one minor detail. Around 11 a.m. a sandstorm began and forced us to leave after 40 minutes of attempting to continue digging. The best way that I can describe it is that it was like snowstorm...but with sand. Our eyes were watering profusely, and we were coughing violently. I luckily had my kaffiyeh on and was able to cover my mouth and nose, but the wind had a sneaky way of unwrapping it from my head. When our directors decided that it was getting too bad to work, they pulled the plug, and we called it a day.

Today followed a similar suite as our other days. Today, our square director decided that we had dug down far enough (around 1.8 meters--not a small feet for four people working in a 5 x 5 meter hole). We spent a majority of the day sweeping, cleaning, and straightening our baulks in preparation for the taking of publishable photographs tomorrow and Friday. Our square was so deep that we had to lower one another in and pull one another out. It made for some fun and sometimes interesting times.

With the dig coming to a close, I am already preparing my trip back next year. One of our dig leaders (she broke her ankle at our Wadi Mujib hike and has not been able to make it to the field with us) is returning next year to dig at her old stomping ground--Petra (one of the Eight Ancient Wonders of the World!). It would be a blessing to be able to dig there and to continue learning from a group of people that I have come to respect greatly.

That is all I have for the day, but if you will allow me, I would like to share the topic of one of our professor's lectures with you breifly. Every night, we have a lecture from our dig leaders and on Monday night, Dr. Byron McCane spoke to us about archaeology and the Bible. He taught it through the guise of a troubled relationship--two endeavors that continually try to unite but two endeavors that continually fail to connect with one another. One relies on the examining of textual evidence to discover truth; the other relies on physical remains to discover truth. Please note that I am not dividing groups into Christian, ahtiests and other religious groups. Each faith tradition has representatives on both sides of the argument. Dr. McCane suggested that we need to stop relying on one or the other but use both in our quest to discover the past. It is an interesting argument that many of us have experienced. Books such as The Da Vinci Code add to this debate as they add their own ficticious arguments into the popular world of religion. It is becoming harder and harder to weed out the good from the bad, and it is becoming harder and harder for good professors to make their work known.

I have much more to say on the topic, but I am going to get a quick nap in before the US dominate the third game of the World Cup. Thanks for reading.

Brad

Day 15-16: Wadi Rum

I am sure more beautiful places exist in the world, but I have yet to see them. Wadi Rum was breathtaking. Desert extended into desert into desert, only so the horizon could steal its vastness from vision. Sandstone mountains stood haphazardly erect around us, stretching to the heavens and creating a false sense of enclosures in the ever expanding desert. Small shrubs and grasses grew along the base of many of these minor sandstone mountains, which helped to balance the red and brown sands that continuously blew around us. At any given time, we could look out and see no fewer than two dust devils blowing in the distance.

I believe I am getting ahead of myself. We went to Wadi Rum as a weekend dig excursion in order to participate in a camel trek, camping trip, and jeep trek. All three were incredible.

After arriving in a small Bedouin village on the outskirts of Wadi Rum, we were directed to our camels for the day. I immediately selected mine, and with a surprisingly strong lunge, was soon sitting far above ground. We launched our trek from the town and headed to Lawrence's Spring, a famous site that Lawrence met with surrounding Bedouin tribes before launching his attack against the Turkish controlled Aqabah. We then set off across a vast expanse of desert where we ate lunch and enjoyed a two hour siesta. I awoke once and looked around--we were all passed out. The Bedouin often take naps during the hottest time of the day to avoid the heat. I think this is a tradition that should be implemented in the States. After the sun reached its Zenith and began its long fall to the horizon, we set off again. Up to this point, my camel had been tied to three others. I mumbled what Arabic I had learned to try to ask if I could untether my camel and direct it myself. To my surprise, our guide did and let me go. It was a blast and only took 30 minutes of me running my camel (in a taunting manner of course--many of my friends were still tethered and their leaders would not let them take the reins themselves) until I was told not to run the camel so much.

Camels are interseting creatures and I wished I could own one. You sit with one leg crossed over the saddle, with your other leg either crossed over or hanging down to the side. Try to look at some pictures on Facebook if you get a chance to see some of the camel shots.

A little over eight hours after we started our trek (and a failed attempt to cross through a gorge), we arrived at our camp site. We laid down in a Bedouin tent and enjoyed a brief respite until we broke up in groups and decided to hike for a nice vantage point for the sunset. The sunset was beatiful as the waining light danced off the surrounding sand stone mountains. Colors of red, orange and deep purple flickered as the sun bid the world goodnight. Again, it was utterly breathtaking.

Most of us decided to drag our mattresses outside and we camped underneath the stars. Around 1 a.m., we began to notice a large cloud that stretched from one end of the sky to the other. We realized almost immediately that it was not a cloud but that it was the Milky Way. As a graduate of Space Camp and Space Academy (yes, I did just say that), I was taken aback. With hyperbole aside, it was an incredible view that I hope to see again someday.

The next day, we journeyed from site to site around the different canyons in jeeps. We saw several Nabatean remains and inscriptions, and managed to hike for a couple of hours as well (of course with another two-hour siesta at mid-day). Our last trip of the day was to a sand dune (that must have been a mile high--okay, probably not, but it took about 20 minutes to climb). Once we summited (those of us who were dumb enough to do it--it was hot and it was very windy), Dr. Byron McCane looked at us with a smile and said, "There's only one way down." After the last word exited his mouth, he took of bounding down a clear path on the dune at a full gallop. What took us 20 minutes to climb only took about a minute to descend. After building myself up for a sizable chunk of time, I too ran down. It was a blast. It made the horrible hike up to the top completely worth it.

Thanks for reading.

Day 13-14: The Weekend

We have survived our first week of the dig. The temperature has increased each day, but my body's capacity to handle the heat has also increased. This is good because we are heading to Wadi Rum early tomorrow morning for a camel trek / camping trip. The temperatures in the desert will be even higher this weekend due to a heat wave that is about to move through the region. We are excited, regardless of the heat, because Wadi Rum is where Lawrence of Arabia staged his attack on Aqaba during WWI. We will be visiting a very famous cave and spring where Lawrence held important meetings and both of which can be seen in the movie Lawrence of Arabia.

Today's dig was an entertaining one from the start to the beginning. Yesterday, another student and I (digging about ten meters from us) worked on an archaeological rap song. It aided to pass the time of sweeping the dust and sand (which there happens to be a lot of in the desert) in our square. Before I go into the exciting happenings of the day, of which there are two, I will talk a little bit about our daily schedule this previous week.

As I have said, we wake up at 4:30 a.m. so we can be on the bus by 5 a.m. We drive for about an hour each day to our site, arriving around 6 a.m. and just after the sunrises over the mountains. We launch into our dig and have breakfast (or second-breakfast for most of us) at 8:30 a.m. Our breakfast, every morning, comprises of pita bread, a hard-boiled egg, a chunk of soft cheese, a banana, a cucumber and a tomato. We usually slather whatever is given to us on pita bread and scarf it down under the shade of a Bedouin tent set-up just off the site. Breakfast lasts 30 minutes and then back to work until we pac up at noon. We finish at noon in order to avoid the more extreme range of the afternoon desert heat.

As for today, two exciting events took place. The first was the amazing discovery of Roman plaster that contained grafiti and a drawing of some type of animal. Finding writing at any site is big; finding plaster with paint remaining on it is even bigger; finding a mixture of the two is a pretty big deal. This was not in my sqaure, but we were all given a chance to come see it for a few seconds while it was photographed and documented.

The next exciting event was the roaming of the possibly wild herd of donkeys. They came running around the site and we laughed as we watched; then we looked in fear as they made a turn and ran directly toward our square. I grabbed my trowel and bolted from the edge of or square as the first donkey stampeded by us. I turned just in time to watch as all four donkeys ran past--one of which barely missed stepping into our balk--and unfortunately in time to see a rather frisky male donkey attempt to copulate with a female donkey. The female donkey was not feeling too keen toward the male donkey's advances and tried to escape. This fight / mating dance involved the female kicking the male several times in the head as they continued to run around our squares. Byron, right when the donkeys had originally approached, had grabbed a shovel with which to guard his square. Around this point, though, he had had enough and approached the donkeys and attempted to scare them away. After several attempts, the donkeys moved to the nearby field and gave us all a show--one of which we will not soon forget.

It goes to show you the general feel of the trip--not the donkeys intimate actions but the continual surprise of each new days adventure. I could have lived the rest of my life without having donkeys stampede toward me, but it gave us all a good laugh afterwards at a time when we definitely needed it. The US will be playing soccer soon, and I am heading to a local place to watch the game with some friends. Thanks for reading.

Brad

Day 12: The Dig...Continues

We have dug for three days, and we have begun to develop a rhythm on the site. This rhythm that has developed however, is one of flexibility. When we feel assured with our abilitywith one task, we are given a new one to learn. There is an ongoing atmosphere and learning and adapting to knew stimuli. There is never a boring moment.

Today, I spent a majority of my time diagraming and graphing an artifact along with another student. We thought the job would require no more than an hour--it took the entire six hours. A lesson in patience is never wanted; but it is eventually appreciated.

That is all I will write about the dig for today. There seems only so much you can say about digging in sand. Or maybe it is that I can only put so much into words. A lot of it is hard to describe and must be experienced. If you missed it, that was my plug to get you over to the Middle East on a dig.

The last bit I will write is on the perception of the Middle East around the world. It seems as if our news networks have become facinated with portraying Islam in a sleazy and violent fashion. It is hard to argue against without being exposed to the way true Islam functions, but I am beginning to respect the religion more and more. The national religion of Jordan is Islam, and the calls to prayer can be heard five times a day from the minarets. Many of the shops around around town have live broadcasts of Mecca and worship in conjunction to its call to prayer (which is synonymous with the other mosques in Jordan, as far as I can tell). The religion is one of peace, patience and virtue.

One story that sticks out is when one of our dig leaders accidentally broke her ankle (as if the breaking of an ankle can be anything but accidental). We asked for help from the front desk to get her up a ladder from a hike that we did, and in response an ambulance, a fire truck and nine army men appeared within fifteen minutes. After helping her up the ladder, one of the army men turned to another one of our dig leaders and said: "Praise be to God that we were able to help." All the glory, all the thanks, and all the praise was intentionally direceted away from those who helped and given to one held higher. Islam is not a simple Sabbath based religion (although they do hold a Sabbath). Islam is a lifestyle lived in reverence before God. No matter what you believe, the dedication and humility of Islam's practitioners is one to be respected. Thanks for reading. Sorry for breaking from the outline of our adventures, but I thought a change of pace may be appreciated.

Brad

Day 10-11: The Dig Begins!

Again, sorry for the lapse in posting. Our internet has been down. I am not entirely sure what I am allowed to post and what I am not allowed to post. Since our site is going to be published in journals and presumably in other mediums, we have a sort of gag order on what we are allowed to share. I am going to write what I am able, and I may edit based on what our directors say.

We awake at 4:30 a.m. and are on the bus by 5 a.m. The bus ride to the dig site lasts an hour and requires passage through two customs / military checks. The Jordanian military men that come onto our bus are nice and genial. Their true purpose is to make sure we are not smuggling anything out of Aqabah because Aqabah has a special tax free status in Jordan. We pass both without any problems. We get to the site and after an hour of sand dune after sand dune, we arrive at the sand dunes that we will call home for the next two weeks. We are divided up into our squares with our directors. Most squares have five students in them. Our square is moslty filled with sand, and the emptying of that sand is our primary job the first day. The sun is brutal and what begins as a cool morning quickly turns into a dry heat. Surprisingly, we don't sweat--or so we think. We learn that our skin remains dry because the desert produces such a dry heat that our sweat immediately evaporates upon production. We all decide to take a quick water break after this lesson.

We all wear hats or kaffiyehs in attempts to keep our heads cool. My kaffiyeh maintains the my head's sweat, which aids greatly in keeping my head cool. I keep it on throughout the day.

We finish at noon to avoid the worst heat as the temperature explodes into the hundred range. We get back back, eat a quick lunch, and take a nap.

Our day today is more of the same. A cool strong breeze keeps us cool, but makes our shoveling and sweeping of sand difficult. By the end of the day today, we had broken through two loci (two levels). We have built a nice baulk in our section and are ready to begin digging through harder ground. We are excited to launch into the dig tomorrow.

Over the past two days we have found an assortment of pottery--the real finds still remain below the surface. We are heading to dinner soon and are currently at a local pub watching a world cup soccer game. I still do not understand how I am so lucky to be doing what I am doing. I have had amazing people--professors, friends, and most of all my parents--to encourage me throughout me love of history. I remember going to the Chicago field museme each year and digging in the dinosaur pit--believing that I was truly helping to excavate something important. Now we are excavating something of importance--something that no one has excavated before. E. T. Lawrence (Lawrence of ARabia) did pass through our site and mention it in one of his journals. Before he fought for the British in WWI, he served the middle east as an ancient near eastern archaeologist. Thanks for reading.

Brad

Day 9: The Red Sea

Sorry for the delay in posts. I have been writing on my computer but unable to post due to our hotel's internet being down. Here is the post from our free day in Aqabah, before we started the dig.

I often forget about the vibrant life that remains unseen around us. The Red Sea was a perfect example of this. After grabbing a quick coffee at a local shop, a group of six of us hopped into two cabs and headed to the Royal Diving Club (a British run diving establishment in Jordan-- possible a throwback to Jordan's earlier times as a British mandate). Upon ariving, we learned that it cost 15 JD (1.40 USD = 1 JD) to enter for they day. Our entry included a locker, a towel and beach entry for the entire day. Most places cost 25 JD, so we managed to save a bit even with the cab ride. We got in and I began talking with one of the dive managers and learned that it cost 65 JD to go SCUBA diving, and if you paid, you got back your 15 JD entry-fee. Even better, the dive would count two dives toward your nine dive requirement for PADI diving certification (something that costs around 170-180 USD at home!). I couldn't pass up the opportunity to I signed up for a slot at 1:30 p.m.

After settteling on the beach, I immediately got my fins and one of the snorkel sets I brought withe me (I had brought three from home) and headed to the sea. What appeared calm above the water proved to be vibrant and astir with life below. Immediately upon lowering my mask into the clear, blue water, I saw a mass of fishs around me--zebra fish, angel fish, clown fish, and more. The coral reef stretched before me, and I followed it closely. Every turn awared me with a new, breathtaking site. I saw dormant snakes, eels, and cat fish type bottom feeders. All this, I hadn't even gone diving yet!

When my time to dive came around, I met my instructor and we went over the basics. After about 15 minutes of practice, we headed to the beach. We only went down around 5 meters, but the fish became larger and the sites became more beautiful. Coral like flowers exploded into my vision--blue, red and the most beautiful--yellow. I wish I could describe some of the fish that I saw, but the capacity to do so continues to escapes me. After 30 more minutes, we came up and my time was done. I wish I could have stayed down longer, but I was pleased with receiving two dive credits for my adventure.

What appeared calm (and, if I may admit, somewhat boring) on the surface, exploded with life only inches below the surface. If you will allow me, I will make a comparison with archaeology at this point. What may appear boring at the surface may only serve as a facade of the excitement that waits below. An entire world exists just under the surface--waiting to be discovered. Thanks for reading.

Day 7-8: Dana Nature Preserve and Aqabah

As our world continues to industrialize in the name of human progress, "pure" nature has begun to recede. We were fortunate enough last night to camp out in a part of Jordan's Dana Nature Reserve where we ventured into some of the purest nature that I have ever experienced. We left early on Friday morning to stop at Karak Castle before heading to the nature preserve.

Karak Castle is a very famous crusaders castle that was assaulted and besieged many times by Salah al-Din (Saladin). A very ruthless Frenchman lived in the castle and abused the local Arabpopulation beyond imagination. Saladin tried and tried to establish piece but could not avail the ruthless invaders. Saladin was ultimately forced to invade and siege the castle, and after several attempts, Karak fell to Saladins troops. The castle itself is incredibly well preserved and we were given free rang to walk and explore. We had one hour to explore, but I was only able to see a fraction of what the castle had to offer.

From the balustrades, on a clear day, one is able to see the city of Jerusalem in the distance. It was however not a clear day, but it did offer a breathtaking view of the dead sea and the surrounding landscapes.

After the castle tour, we traveled to the Dana Nature Reserve and a small group of us immediately embarked upon a mountain hike. It was supposed to take two hours, but we did it in just over one. It is incredible to think that people were afforded the opportunity to live in environments like the one we walked through for their entire lives. It is only in recent history that industrialization and irrigation has deteriorated the natural state of the environment. I have placed some pictures of our hike on Facebook for any who are interested.

We had a nice dinner and then enjoyed some Bedouin tea under a large, open air tent. I stayed up a while to look at the starts--there seemed to be thousands visible, in a mostly dark landscape. I could have stayed out lying on the ground all night but I was eventually forced to turn in (I did not care to meet a hyena or other wild animal). A group of us woke up early from another hike with Byron McCane to a series of caves where a local Byzantine church had been carved out of the sandstone. We awoke early and set out by 6:30 on our quest to find it.

Our slowly began scutling down a dirt trail as we continued to wipe the sleep from our eyes. Just as we rounded the first bend, the son errupted from behind a looming mountain's stony veil. Just as the morning heat began to arrive, we reached the end of the dirt trail and began to scale a series of fmall rock walls leading up to a group of caves 50 or so yards above. We explored many but did not find any that resembled a church. We eventually began to see pottery sherds (not shards!) but still not church. After climbing a rather tricky slanting rock-face, we started the discussion of beginning to head back. Just then a few of us decided to explore one more cave. This cave broke through to another side--something we did not expect. As we began searching, Nick, a student from the University of British Columbia, yelled out that he had found it. He repaired from around a rock and guided us across skinny ledge. I chose not to look down as I crossed.

After crossing the ledge, we began to see holes carved into the wall--places that would have been perfect for placing icons. After another few steps we were greeted with a wide stone opening and an intricately carve structure. An apse (a semi-circular vaulted ceiling) adorned the far side from which arches sprang in order to provide support to the sandstone structure. Indentions adorned several locations, possibly providing a space for a cross bean adorning tapestry. Needless to say, I was overcome with feelings of awe and wonder. We stood in the same location where faithful Christians, Muslim bedouin, and countless travelers had camped or lived in the past.

We left earlier this morning and have recently arrived in Aqabah. Tomorrow, a large group of use are planning to go to the Royal Diving Academy, a private beach just south of Aqabah for snorkeling. Monday, we start our leg of the dig. I can't wait.

Day 6: Desert Castles

This may be my last blog post for a couple of days. We are heading to the Dana Nature Preserve tomorrow to camp before we arrive in Aqabah and begin preparations for our dig. Robert, one of our dig leaders, has been at our dig site all week with Bedouin preparing the site for excavation. Tomorrow will definitely be an experience.

As for today, we have begun to wear down a little. Being in the desert sun and hiking for five days takes a lot out of you. But today was still enjoyable. We began, as usual, at 9 a.m. and headed out to three seperate desert castles from the Umayyad Islamic period. I won't go into much detail about them, because I sadly know close to nothing of this regions history during that time period.

Ben, a Ph.D candidate in the States, joined us today and taught us quite a bit about the sites we visited. The identity of the first castle remains a mystery. I say castle, but it may have served more as a joint castle--administrative-hotel purpose. The comparison that I made, that seemed to work, was with Camp David. In the Umayyad period, this site probably served as a place for the government administrators to visit the local chief leaders and to pamper then in order to retain their loyalty.

The second site was an Umayyad bathhouse that was fascinating, for it reflected the Roman style of bathhouse.

The third site was a castle that Lawrence of Arabia actually visited and studied (he was originally an archaeologist before joining the British army). One of the Jordanian excavators happened to be at the site, and he took us on a personal (and free!) tour of the castle. He showed us a layer of strata that his team excavated and explained to us each separate level of excavation (from the Neolithic to the Ottoman periods!).

On our ride back we saw two dust devils spinning out in the desert. They were pretty big and pretty entertaining.

This is a short entry for I will be going to bed soon hopefully. Tomorrow will be a full adventure as we begin to make our way down south. Thanks for reading.

Brad

P.S.: I apologize for the spelling and grammatical errors. I am writing off the top of my head and am not proofreading it before posting.

Day 5: Iraq al-Amir, Madaba, and Machaerus

Today was powerful, and dare I say it, life-changing. We started out an hour later to allow us to recuperate from our day of intense hiking and playing in the Dead Sea (a hard life, no?). So, we left at 10 a.m. to visit Iraq al-Amir, one of the only Hasmonean (period of Jewish self-rule before Rome took control of the region) site of remains in the Near East. One of our dig director who took us, Dr. Byron McCane (who you might have seen on the Discovery Channel or National Geographic Channel--this guy is amazing!) walked around the site with us and explained different architectural features and encouraged us to ask tough questions about the remains before us. The site is mysterious and no one is really sure what it was used for. Some say as an armory and some say as a palace. Whatever it was, it was incredible. All four of its walls remained standing and intimidating lions adorned many spots along the walls. After exploring the ruins for a while (like many of the other ruins, no one was there and we were able to climb and explore any niche we desired), we headed to our next stop, one that I have been looking forward to since October--Madaba.

Unfortunately, we did not know the way and our van became seperated from our bus and bus driver (who is Jordanian). We tried to call him, but he did not answer so we attempted to find it ourselves. We got a little lost, or should I say we were given a chance to explore teh coutnry side of northern Jordan. We eventually got a hold of the driver, who was very apologetic, and met back up with them.

Madaba is known form a mosaic map on the Greek Orthodox Church of St. Gregory. This church was built in the Fourth Century CE and its floor contained a massive mosaic of the entire Holy Land, stretching from the Mediterranean Sea to the far reaches of Jordan's eastern border. This map is important because it has given archaeologists and idea of where to dig and what to expect. Many places on the map have been embellished or placed on a geographically incorrect spot, but it remains a testament to the geographers and theologians of the Fourth Cetnury. I wish I had more time to describe this trip, but it is late and I would like to spend some time on my last and favorite stop--Machaerus.

Machaerus was one of Herod the Great's massive (and great) stone fortresses. I could write pages about the history surrounding it here (thanks to a long and enjoyable discussion between Dr. McCane and our van), but I will spare the details. One important fact to know is that Herod the Great's son, Herod Agrippa inherite the site, and it is at Machaerus that Agrippa imprisoned and executed John the Baptist (Matthew 14 and both the Jewish Wars and Antiquities of the Jews by Josephus).

Machaerus sits on the edge of the eastern border of the Dead Sea and looks out over the planes of Jordan, near the planes of ancient Moab. It was a lengthy and steep hike to the top, but once we made it, it was well worth it. Once on the top we realized that we could not step anywhere without seeing fragments of Roman pottery. Some pieces were small, some were large--they were all amazing. Machaerus has ben destroyed by the Romans, who did not salvage much from the site but burned it to the ground. The pottery was left inside and came down with a majority of the stone fortress. I found two very interesting pieces, one that was about an inch wide that contained the lip, shoulder and partial base of a small bowl. I took it to Dr. McCane and he told me that with this little piece, the entire bowl could be reconstructed based on the degree of the lip's and base's curve. I stood in awe and could not believe that such a little piece of clay could be so telling of a people who lived 2000 years ago. After talking to him about this, I started to walk around and see things a bit differently. I didn't see the ruins; I saw those who built the fortress, those who inhabited the fortress, and those who fought and died in the fortress. Someone had eaten from the fragment of the bowl that I held in my hand; that someone had a name and that someone had a story to his or her life. It is a hard feeling to describe, so I may mull it over for a few days before trying to put it into words again.

Thanks for reading. If anyone has any questions of comments, please feel free to post them below. The actual dig starts bright and early on Monday. Looking at pottery today gave me a taste of what we will be doing, and I cannot wait.

Brad

Day 4: Jordan, Dead Sea and Wadi Mujib

We began today with a visit to the Jordan River and the baptism site of Jesus. The Jordan has shrunk significantly in the past 2000 years (it used to be 1 km wide but is now no more than 15 feet across at one of its widest places). The site of the baptism is about .5 of a kilometer away from from the actual river site of the original baptist. An interesting characteristic of the site is that there have been several layers of churches excavated from this site with the baptismal fonts all focused on one specific area. The first church was one built in the late Roman period with alread several allusions to John the Baptist baptizing in this exact location. So the evidence, bot biblically and extra-biblically support this site as the actual site of Jesus' baptism. It was powerful to stand in this area, to say the least. After this, we continued to the site of the actual Jordan today. When we got there, just 15 feet away, sat Israel. It was almost eery standing at the Jordan, next to an armed Jordanian military personel, looking at the Israeli flag across the river. We were allowed to go as far as standing in the actual river, which I did with a friend on the trip. I will try to post that pictures later (it is really later here, and we have an early day tomorrow).

Our next stop was to the Dead Sea. It was equally incredible and a more relaxing experience. We paid our entry fee to the public beach, and we were soon running down the salienated and sandy beach toward the water. We got in and immediately began to float. And when I say float, I mean float. I could not even get my legs below the surface to kick--the salt content of the water made us that bouyant. It was also extremely hot. We assumed it was the son, but one of our dig leaders told us it was because we were at the lowest point of land on earth which meaned we were closer to Hell. We all got a good laugh.

After this adventure, we had no idea what lied ahead of us that day. We knew we were hiking, but we could not have comprehended where. We went to the Wadi Mujib nature reserve and went on the Siq trail. This is a trail through creek flowing through a canyon. There was no land, only water and a lot of rocks. We spent a majority of the time hiking in water from our ankles to our waste over trecherous rocks and fallen boulders. After an hour of our precarious hike we reached the end of our trek and were greeted with an incredible water fall that was billowing over a group of fallen rocks in the canyon. The water fall must have been at least 125-150 ft in height. We had great fun trying to run through the powerful torrents as they spilled in to the canyon only to be pushed below the waters surface and shot down stream. After spending close to an hour playing in the waterfall, we began our trek back.

Needless to say, it was an amazing day, and I still cannot quite comprehend the magnitude and importance of the sites that we visited today. I will post pictures soon hopefully (but it may be a few days).

Brad

Day 3: Around Amman

We spent the day today exploring the town in which we are staying: Amman. The streets were packed with cars and pedestrians and vendors were on the sidewalks attempting the usher passersby into their open stores. The first stop of our day was to the King Abdullah Mosque--the center of Muslim worship in Amman (although there are many other centers--this was built to be the most recognizable in the country). We discarded our shoes by the door and were ushered in to view it. Muslims pray five times a day, and during those five times, the mosque is packed. We visited during visiting hours, which is between prayer times. Two of the times for prayer are at dusk and at dawn. The time for prayer is determined not with a clock but by holding a white thread and a black thread next to each other. Once the two threads can no longer be distinguished from one another--night has fallen and prayer is called. Once the two threads can again to distinguished from one another--morning prayer is called. The mosque was incredible and hard to describe with words.

After our visit to the mosque, we again ventured into the jungled web that comprise Amman's network of roads. After driving for some time through the city, we exited a street and saw a vast hill sitting before us. In the middle of this modern, busy city remains the ruins of the ancient Iron Age city of Rabah and the Greco-Roman city of Philadelphia (built on top of the Iron Age ruins). You might remember Rabah from the story of David and Bathsheeba, when David ordered Bathseeba's husband, Uriah, to attack the city of Rabah while David remained safely in Jerusalem with Bathseeba.

The Jordanian Antiquities Authority have maintained the ruins of Philadelphia very well. A Temple to Zeus sprawls across the front entrance of the city, which provides a prime look into the Roman amphitheater below. A somewhat smal museum adorns a hill beside the Zeus's temple, but what this museum lacks in size is definitely made up in substance. I have never been to a museum with richer artifacts or a more interesting presentation of artifacts. I could talk about the museum for pages, but I will skip ahead a little. Out of the back of the museum sits the foundation of a Byzantine church and a later mosque from the Ummayad dynasty. After exploring the ancient ruins for an hour and a half, we got back on our bus and headed to lunch.

We ate lunch in the middle of the old downtown district, which has retained a vibrant Middle East market-town vibe. We sat at a local restaurant and were served freshly made hummus, falafel, and many other traditional dishes (which we have been eating for every meal but have yet to become boring).

After lunch, we continued to the perfectly maintained Greco-Roman amphitheatre. On the way, I stopped with a friend and fellow Duke Diver, Joe Plemmons, and we purchased some kafiyehs (traditional middle-eastern head coverings to protect your head from the sun). The man originally wanted 4 JD per kafiyeh (1 JD = 1.40 US$--not the best conversion rate!). But when I started to put the 5 JD bill back into my pocket, he agreed to sell us 2 for 5 JD (probably not the lowest we could have gone but still not bad). We continued to the amphitheater, then to a group stop at a smoothie shop, and then finally back to where we are staying. We relaxed for a couple of hours, played some cards, and head to dinner. It is now pushing 11 p.m. here and fatigue has begun to drag us a bit. We haven't even started digging yet, which will require a 4:30 a.m. wake-up every morning, so we better shake this feeling now.

Tomorrow we are venturing to the baptism site of Jesus (a site agreed upon which many scholars agree) and to the Dead Sea. Tomorrow like every other day so far, will be unforgettable!

Brad

Day 2: Jerash and Ajloun

Today was incredible. After a mostly full night's rest (a call to prayer at 3:30 a.m. woke some of us), we split up on a bus and van and headed to our first stop of the day: Jerash. Jerash is the most preserved Roman city in the region and includes a hippodrome (no, not an ancient place to keep hippos but a stadium to race chariots), a bath house, two temples--one to Zeus and one to Aphrodite--, and many other structures. One of my favorite things about Jordan is that most of the police are on the outside of archaeological sites around here, so we have free reign to explore wherever we want without someone yelling at us (well, mostly...I'll get to that in a minute). Our dig leader is friends with the leader of an ongoing dig at Jerash, so we were afforded the opportunity to see the current excavations around the site.

While walking through a site, a man selling flutes approached me and became mesmorized with the bandana that I was wearing around my head. He quickly took off his hat, one that says, "Italia" and asked me if I would trade. I was a bit confused but gladly accepted the trade. I am guessing that bandanas are rare around here, due to the fact that most people wear what is called a Kafiyeh--I will explain this more once I purchase one tomorrow.

After a couple of hours at Jerash and a very nice lunch, we headed to our next stop of the day: Ajloun. Ajloun was a Arabic castle, built in the style of the crusaders, to defend against the Crusaders invasion (two Crusader castles are in close proximity to it). Again, li

ke at Jerash, there is not security in the site, so we were able to explore wherever we wanted. Our freedom lead us to climb over a small wooden fence and also around a small blockade to get to the highest point of the castle. A few of us set on the edge and looked out over the city, imagining what it must have been like defending a castle on such a high hill. Our professors, however, upon seeing us, must have imagined what it would be like (both for us and for their careers) if one of us fell over the edge. After a sound yelling, we scurried down the wall and back into the confines of the tourist area.

The day is not quite over. It is only about 7 p.m. here. In 30 minutes, we are heading to dinner and then have the rest of the night free. Eating has become one of my favorite past-times here. Tomorrow we explore Amman (the town in which we are staying this week), which in the ancient world was known as Philadelphia (the book of Revelations contains a letter to the Philadelphians in either chapter 3 or 4). On Tuesday we head to the Dead Sea and to Mount Nebo (where Moses supposedly died). I will try to post some pictures on Facebook as soon as I can.

Brad

Day 1: Arrival

We made it. I don't really know how I got here in one piece, but I did. The flight from Chicago to Amman contained around 20 babies and small children. Luckily though, most of them slept through most of the 12 hour flight. Still, though, there were a few that kept me awake for the flight's duration. But enough about the flight.

We arrived at Amman's airport in one piece and customs was a breeze to pass through. I was supposed to meet a group from Canada who would be participating on the same dig as us once I got my bag from the carousel, but after looking for about 20 minutes, I couldn't find them. I started to get a litte nervous and decided to buy a Jordanian SIM card for my phone so I could call our directors. The man who sold me the SIM card not only sold it to me, but he activated it and also changed the help prompts from Arabic to English. After explaining the calling plan and how phones worked in Jordan, he helped me call the dig leaders. Luckily, they were already at the airport, I just had not yet seen them.

I loaded up with Robert Darby, one of the leaders, and a student / professor combo from Elon. We made our way to the downtown district in Amman where we will be staying for the week. On our ride, we passed by ancient Roman and Nabatean ruins almost on a mile-ly (not a word, but I'm a bit jet-lagged, so it will work for now) basis. also along the road were Bedouin tents, camels and olive tree farms. It was amazing.

Tomorrow we head to Jerash, one of the most (if not the most) pristinely preserved Roman archaeological sites in the world. I will try to write more interesting things tomorrow. We will see.

Brad

Day -1: Off to Jordan

After a very hectic day of packing, I believe that I am ready to head to Jordan. I spent a majority of yesterday’s morning putting the final touches on the academic papers that we had to complete for the class portion of the dig. With all the reading and research that I did for these papers, I feel like I have a decent knowledge of Jordan. My knowledge, however, is based solely on information garnered from books so I am not expecting it to hold true.

Upon arrival in Jordan tomorrow, I will make my way our hotel and research center to eat and freshen up a bit. Jordan is seven hours ahead of CST and six ahead of EST, so the jet-lag shouldn’t be too bad. The trip will span a total of three weeks—one week spent traveling and exploring; two weeks spent on the dig site. While we travel around Jordan, we

will be visiting numerous places, including, Bethany-on-the Jordan (where scholars agree JBap baptized his followers), Madaba, the Dead Sea, Machaerus (where Josephus writes that Herod Antipas imprisoned and executed JBap), and many many more.

The dig itself will span the final two weeks of the trip, with weekend trips

to Wadi Rum—where we will be riding camels to a campsite out in the desert—and a behind-the-scenes look at Petra—the Nabatean treasury (pictured on the right from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade). On the dig site, we will be sifting through different layers of civilizations which will primarily be comprised of Nabatean and Roman remains. Archaeologists from last years preliminary dig classified two structures on the site as a Roman bathhouse and a possible residential structure.

My Aunt Karen made an astute observation the other day: what I was passionate about in the first-grade is what I am still passionate about today: digging holes in the dirt. I am extremely blessed to be able to go on a trip like this. I will do my best to post picture

s and write as often as possible. Thank you for your prayers and support.

Ma’a salama!

Brad