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