JORDAN 2009 GARP Dig

Places still available for the 2010 Season in Jordan

2010-05-09T08:19:00.001-07:00

Places still available on GARP 2010 dig - see main web site for info.

http://www.jordan1914-18archaeology.org/

or click below for the prospectus
http://www.jordan1914-18archaeology.org/prospectus

Thanks

Roger

REMINDER - One Day Special Lawrence Conference

2010-03-12T11:37:00.001-08:00

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Lawrence, the Arabs, and the genesis of modern guerrilla warfare

One day Special Conference

When: Saturday 15 May 2010
Where: Clore Management Centre
   Birkbeck University of London
   Bloomsbury, London

On the 75th anniversary of T E Lawrence’s death, three leading academic specialists assess his role in the desert war of 1916-1918 and his relevance in understanding the conflicts of the last 90 years. Neil Faulkner and Nick Saunders are joint directors of a pioneering new field project that is investigating the archaeological remains of the conflict along the line of the former Hijaz Railway. Jeremy Wilson, author of Lawrence of Arabia: the authorised biography of T E Lawrence, is widely recognised as the world’s leading authority on his subject. Together, on the basis of radically new evidence and interpretation, they offer a day of illustrated talks and discussion that will reassess Lawrence, his role, and his legacy. And they will draw some stark lessons: about the parallels between the failure of the Ottoman Empire in 1918 and the unfolding disaster of the ‘war on terror’ today.

Programme
9.30-10.00 Registration (tea and coffee available)
10.00-10.15 Introduction to the day
10.15-11.30 Jeremy Wilson: A legend on record?
   Researching the archive of Lawrence’s war
11.30-11.45 Short break
11.45-1.00 Nick Saunders: Fire on the desert: conflict archaeology
   of the Great Arab Revolt
1.00-2.15    Lunch (not included)
2.15-3.30       Neil Faulkner: Lawrence: seminal theorist of
   modern guerrilla warfare
3.30-4.00    Tea and coffee
4.00-4.30    Images from Lawrence of Arabia’s war
4.30-5.30    Plenary

The price of the conference for early bookings is £29 (before 15 April 2010). Standard booking price is £39.
Payment can be by cheque in the post (payable to Current Publishing) or credit/debit card over the phone:
Current Publishing, Lamb House, Church Street, London, W4 2PD,
Telephone: 08456 447707 or 0208 819 5580.

www.archaeology.co.uk

Our mailing address is:
Current Publishing, Lamb House, Church Street, London W4 2PD|*
Copyright (C) 2009 Current Publishing All rights reserved.
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GARP 2010 Prospectus

2010-02-24T02:12:00.000-08:00

The Prospectus for this season's work in Jordan is now available - it may be downloaded via the front page of the main GARP web site. (Link to the right of this text).

The Prospectus contains all the most important information about dates, plans for the season, logistics and costs, so please do have a look if you are interested in joining in with this amazing project.

GARP main web site updated

2010-02-06T14:37:00.003-08:00

GARP web site just updated to include the CWA article by Anna Gow and Lisa Corti, (in Reports Section) and three articles by Neil Dearberg (in new History Notes section) giving his Australian perspective.

http://www.jordan1914-18archaeology.org/

Lawrence Conference May 2010

2010-01-07T04:09:00.001-08:00

Current World Archaeology/Great Arab Revolt Project

one-day conference

Lawrence, the Arabs, and the genesis of modern guerrilla warfare

Saturday 15 May 2010

Clore Management Centre

Birkbeck University of London

Bloomsbury

On the 75^th anniversary of T E Lawrence’s death, three leading academic specialists assess his role in the desert war of 1916-1918 and his relevance in understanding the conflicts of the last 90 years. Neil Faulkner and Nick Saunders are joint directors of a pioneering new field project that is investigating the archaeological remains of the conflict along the line of the former Hijaz Railway. Jeremy Wilson, author of Lawrence of Arabia: the authorised biography of T E Lawrence, is widely recognised as the world’s leading authority on his subject. Together, on the basis of radically new evidence and interpretation, they offer a day of illustrated talks and discussion that will reassess Lawrence, his role, and his legacy. And they will draw some stark lessons: about the parallels between the failure of the Ottoman Empire in 1918 and unfolding disaster of the ‘war on terror’ today.

Programme

9.30-10.00: registration (tea and coffee available)

10.00-10.15: introduction to the day

10.15-11.30: Jeremy Wilson: A legend on record? Researching the archive of Lawrence’s war

11.30-11.45: short break

11.45-1.00: Nick Saunders: Fire on the desert: conflict archaeology of the Great Arab

Revolt

1.00-2.15: lunch (not included)

2.15-3.30: Neil Faulkner: Lawrence: seminal theorist of modern guerrilla warfare

3.30-4.00: tea and coffee

4.00-4.30: Images from Lawrence of Arabia’s war

4.30-5.30: Plenary

The price of the conference for early bookings is £29 (before 31 March). Standard booking price (after 31 March) is £39. Payment can be by cheque in the post (payable to Current Publishing) or credit/debit card over the phone: Current Publishing, Lamb House, Church Street, London, W4 2PD, 08456 447707 or 0208 819 5580.

(Note - previous GARP team members, i.e. those who have been part of any of the fieldwork seasons in Jordan, are entitled to a discount. Please contact Angie Hibbitt (angie@gwag.org) for information and to register)

GARP on BBC

2010-01-05T10:35:00.000-08:00

New Lawrence documentary in 2 parts.

Those GARP team members who were in Jordan for the 2008 season will remember the visit of Rory Stewart and a BBC film crew to us whilst working at Fassu-ah. Rory's tv documentary (possibly!) including interviews with some of the team and film of us working is scheduled for Saturday 16th and 23rd of January on BBC TWO at 8.20pm. (BBC schedules can change)

Hopefully the documentary will give a flavour of the work we are doing in Jordan and also provide an interesting perspective on the legacy of Lawrence.

Day 14 - 2009 Season summed up

2009-12-01T11:12:00.000-08:00

What have we learnt this season? Completing the field reconnaisance of the railway from Ma’an to Aqabat Hijaz, and carrying out detailed investigation of selected sites on this stretch of the line, we have discovered much more about how the Ottomans operated in the region. One of two contrasting juxstaposed interpretations is that they attempted to dominate the landscape and prevent guerrilla attacks.

Between stations were a series of intermediate military posts. These posts were intervisible, capable of mutual support and ensured that the entire length of the line was kept under observation. From them, undoubtedly, regular patrols were sent out to check for mines and to discourage guerrilla interventions by their visible presence in the field.

This may have represented a relatively static counter insurgency strategy, but it must be regarded as an intelligent enough attempt to keep the railway line open with the limited resources available.

An alternative interpretation of the various discoveries we have made is that they represent camps for construction labourers in the period preceding WW1. The distribution and location of many of the tented encampments suggests that whilst moving down the line to build it, the camps were still in need of defending. However the defensive locations were a lot weaker than ensuing military occupation of larger sites have revealed, as the ‘enemy’ in the case of line construction workers would have been the local Bedouin tribes rather than an Ottoman force.

This does not of course preclude a degree of military occupation across all sites as and when needed during the war.

As the GARP project progresses and more seasons are undertaken the data provided will enable us to refine the model of occupation of this landscape.

Investigations at Wuheida have revealed different aspects of the war. This site, located close to Ma’an on the road to Aqaba, displays the intensity of the fighting in this sector as the Anglo-Arab forces fought their way northwards from the Red Sea in the second half of 1917. The Ottoman position consisted of three strong hilltop redoubts on the main eastern hill and outworks on the Northern and western hills covering the approaches to that main position. We are not clear as to the strength of the holding force at the time of initial attack. Nonetheless the position was taken and the advancing Arab forces are also then represented on this site by significant numbers both on the hill tops and sides and in the wadi.

The archaeological imprint of the Arab army could not be more different from that of the Ottoman army, consisting of complexes of irregular stone alignments representing, we think, enclosures and tents, each probably reflecting the campsite of a different Arab tribe. A scatter of bullets, cartridges and cartridge clips throughout the site confirmed the Arabs were using munitions supplied by the British.

As usual, we have found new sites faster than we can investigate the old. There is recording still to be undertaken at Wuheida, but we also hope to look at sites deeper into the desert on the line of the Hijaz railway to the East. GARP’s picture of the war between Arab and Ottoman in the deserts of Southern Jordan between June 1917 and September 1918 is yet far from complete.

STOP PRESS...
Next year's Prospectus out soon… Season dates 23rd October - 6th November... Keep checking back for more information and updates…

Thanks to all who have contributed to the blog this season.

Day 13 - Pics from the season and plans...

2009-11-30T11:36:00.000-08:00

Last day in Jordan this season. Trips, packing up, plans...

Here are a few images from this year - more to follow soon.

Keep checking back over the next few weeks for exciting news of upcoming press releases and information regarding the discoveries we have made and all our plans for the future. And many thanks to all of you who have followed us daily on our exciting, exhilarating, challenging and fantastic journey this season. Special thanks to the Edom Hotel Wadi Mousa for providing us with Internet access during our stay, and for making us most welcome. We thank them especially for their hospitality and look forward to coming back to stay with them next season.

Day 12 - Rushed recording and investigation of new sites.

2009-11-29T08:57:00.000-08:00

The last day on site is always frantic. No new work can be started and lots of jobs have to be finished before we depart. There is huge pressure on recording equipment and today it was measuring tapes that ran out with Arab tent complexes on the western hill and Ottoman structures on the eastern hill at Waheida being drawn at the same time. In spite of that all tams worked very hard to get a much done as possible to provide the vital data for the post excavation work back home.

At the same time as this a small team went in search of the site of an RFC (Royal Flying Corps) advanced landing strip about 5 kilometres from Ma'an. This was intended for bombing runs on Ma'an itself, still held by up to 6000 Ottoman troops. The probable site for the strip was at the foot of a hill, adjacent to a significant disused and broken mill, ideal for providing updraft for aircraft take off in the thin air at this altitude. Evidence of military occupation of the site was found by the metal detectorists in the form of incoming WW1 rounds fired into the site - someone was shooting at it - but there was not enough time for a complete survey - something for next year.

We also visited Jerdun - a station on the Hijaz railway which was the site of 4 battles during WW1. In a recently published book (citation to follow) there is a map of the station showing extensive trench systems and defensive positions. Unfortunately our hopes were somewhat dashed on arrival at the site when we discovered the buildings had gone and all of the surrounding area had been heavily trashed by earth moving equipment. Some evidence of battle in in the form of various spent munitions confirmed the site was indeed the correct one. It may be that we go back for some specialist detecting methodological trials next season, to see if we can extract any useful data from the site.

More to follow later and tomorrow together with lots of previously unseen photographs when we have completed all our finds, publications and other meetings tonight.

Day 11 - A Lawrence of Arabia trail?

2009-11-28T08:48:00.000-08:00

Jordan's Minister of Tourism announced plans for a Lawrence of Arabia Heritage trail to be developed in Jordan last year. This year discussions have begun about making it a reality. A representative of the Ministry of Tourism is expected to visit Waheida tomorrow, and the Minister herself is expected to visit in due course.

Waheida, with its Ottoman redoubts and Arab camp site, is now one possibility for new heritage tourism site. This development reflects GARP's discovery this year for the first time of a site with clear evidence for both Ottoman and Anglo/Arab occupation. In redout C the eastern hill fired 303 cartridges were found in one trench and fired Mauser cartridges found in a trench 10 metres behind. Here is a very strong defensive position held at first by on side and then the other.

Other sites likely to be under consideration for the trail include the station and entrenchments at Ma'an, investigated by GARP in 2006 and 2007.

In another foray, one adventurous group set out on foot to walk the 21 kilometres from Wadi Waheida to Jebel Semna and then on to the Hill of the Birds at Ma'an, (see GARP blog season 2007 and 8) roughly following the route that the Arab forces would have taken to launch their successful attack on the Ottoman trenches at Semna in April 1918. Traces of these trenches can still be clearly seen, and the area surrounding looks as if it may contain the original craters from artillery shells. We found one shard of large shell case in this general area.

Arriving eventually at the Hill of the Birds as the sun was setting we explored an intriguing looking mound a couple of hundred metres north of the main road between Ma'an and Aqaba, which turned out to be a fairly well preserved substantial Ottoman redoubt. An area for work in another season probably, and soon if at all possible. The surrounding landscape is increasingly damaged and every year we come back more of the archaeology we are working on has been destroyed forever.

Day 10 - Archaeologists go mad in Jordan

2009-11-27T10:38:00.000-08:00

First day off after 10 days of arriving, planning and digging. The team went in several different directions exploring the historical and scenic sites of the country. One set walked into Petra to see the fantastic ruins of the Nabatean city and it's Roman development. Another group travelled north to Kerek, a huge crusader castle later developed and used by the Mamluks. Following this they visited the Dead Sea and paddled in the sharp intensely salty water. The plan was to also try to take in Shobak, but unfortunately this was too ambitious given the light and distances involved. Images below give a flavour of some of the locations and indicate typical behaviour of archaeologists out of their usual habitat.

Day 9 - Fat boys pants at Makins' fort

2009-11-26T09:29:00.000-08:00

The star find of the season, without a doubt, is the most gigantic pair of pants any of us have ever seen. Riddled with holes, they must have belonged to an enormous Ottoman soldier. Made of fine cream coloured cotton, with a draw string waist, the owner must have had a girth getting on for 2 metres. How this man manoeuvered himself across this difficult landscape in an effort to make himself useful, we can only guess.

Coincidentally, on the same day, we also found in the same area a large number of Ottoman military buttons. This site, Makins' fort, is one of a number of intermediate defended posts between Shedia Station to the North and Aqabat Hijaz Station in the south. These posts are inter visible such that the whole of the line could be observed and each fort could communicate with the next nearest to both north and south. We would like to come back next season and try this method for ourselves.

Further north, at a new site known as the Birds Nests, the three detectorists carried out a preliminary diagnostic sweep of the 20 or so tent rings running in two parallel lines to the west of the modern railway. This resulted in more metallic finds than other recent areas of interest, with an array of buttons including some new types, some Ottoman coins, lamp wick holders and two personal seals. One of the seals was in fairly good condition and we hope to have some analysis done on the name of the owner soon.

After 8 straight days of digging, detecting, sieving, photographing, sorting, cataloging, planning, GPS-ing, blogging and generally staggering all over the deep Jordanian desert all of the team are now very tired and looking forward to some R and R tomorrow, our first day off this season.

Day 8 - Makin's Fort and three small forts on the line.

2009-11-25T09:26:00.000-08:00

Even the local Arabs do not have a name for where we dug today. Therefore GARP has christened the site Makin's Fort after the First World War RFC aviator who first flew over it and recorded the features in 1918.

At Makin's Fort the Hijaz railway crosses a highly vulnerable ten arch viaduct over a wadi. This point is guarded by a fort with a loopholed block house in the centre and a strong perimeter wall and bank around the outside. A further block house and observation posts provide outlying defence.

The team planned the fort, drew the standing buildings, metal detected the site and cleared areas of the buildings in order to recover artifacts.

We found two more examples of what we believe are the tips of the legs of heliographs. A small iron tapered ferrule fits on to a fine wooden rod, and this would have been one of three forming a tripod. These devices used sunlight to transmit messages in code between military positions. This would have been an ideal method of communication in the desert for a relatively low tech army which lacked the telephones and even primitive wireless that were in use on some other fronts.

Elsewhere a lone detectorist accompanied the field walking team to quickly sweep three smaller forts situated either side of Makin's. Metallic finds of any type, including modern or rusty metal, were low in number, although there were a few Ottoman army buttons at the one North of the main area of work today. Were these simply rarely used? This would be odd in the context of their structure.

The phosphate trains rumbled by on the new line as we continued our exploration of this fascinating and puzzling landscape.

Day 7 - Rain and mud on the Arab front

2009-11-24T10:39:00.000-08:00

The mud at the Western Front is notorious. The first world war in the middle east is associated with heat, dust and flies.

Today east met west. The skies darkened in the south, a rainstorm rolled over Wuheida, and the GARP team was drenched.

Without shelter and unprepared for the conditions unfolding, everyone was soaked to the skin and freezing cold within minutes. Another first for GARP!

Thick orange mud on boot soles, clothes gently steaming and hair dripping, the team was ferried back to the hotel to recover.

We learn a lesson: Wuheida is on high ground and receives significant winter rainfall unlike sites on the Hijaz railway further east and south in the true desert. With more bad weather predicted tomorrow the team plans to take a day off from Wuheida and to spend the time working on the Hijaz railway, much further south than Wuheida. Hopefully the weather in that region will be kind to us and we can continue our pioneering work without delay.

Yesterday staff and students from Al Husayn bin Talal university came to visit us in the field to share with us some of the work undertaken this season. Dr Zeyad Al-Salameen, Dr Mansour Shqiarat and archaeology students tried their hands at excavation and metal detecting with enthusiasm. It was great to have the opportunity to share our practices and experience with the local members of the archaeological academic community first hand.

The following selection of images reflects the general work and environment of the project this season to date.

Day 6 - End of the line

2009-11-23T09:05:00.000-08:00

Today was the day that the “walking the line” project was completed. Started in the 2007 season this was a project to walk the Hejaz Railway line from Ma’an in the north to Wadi Rutm in the south a distance of around 80 km or 50 miles.

Yesterday the main field walking team completed the last section of around 35 km from near Bir Shedia to Aqabat Hejaz stations.

Yesterday was a day for tent rings. We recorded over 100 tent rings in 5 encampments. These were arranged in “avenues” of between 9 and 12 tent rings and as usual they were aorund 4.5m in diameter. Some of them were ephemeral features but others were much more substantial structures with large stones around their perimeter.

It has always been something of a puzzle as to the date and function of these remains of tented encampments. Were they used as construction camps during the building of the railroad or were they associated with the defence of the landscape, or perhaps both i.e. re-used by the Ottoman military between 1916-18? We still do not know for certain but we are beginning to understand them a little better. For example we located on encampment close by a stone quarry and we have interpreted this type of tent ring pattern as being associated with construction work.

Today we continued the walk southwards. We were entering a region that saw reconnaissance flights by the Royal Flying Corps in early 1918 and we had with us a sketch map from that period. This showed a large fortified area within a system of trenches adjacent to a 9 span viaduct. At about midday we found what we were looking for, a large fortified enclosure comprising an outer defensive wall and ditch and an inner fortified stone building complete with firing loop holes in the walls. Later in the day we met a Bedouin family who stopped to talk with us and we asked then about the name, which was UMM ALUMED referring to the branches the Ottomans cut from nearby trees to use as tent poles.

We set about to record the basic details of the fort realising that we were not the first to do so; it having been recorded 91 years ago by a lone pilot flying in an open cockpit aeroplane. We were very conscious that we were following on the ground the very path flown by a member of X flight during the early part of 1918.

Later this afternoon we discovered a series of 3 small forts of a type that we have not previously seen. They were small buildings, two being square, about 8 x8m and one circular, 24m diameter, but all set within a square lightly defended enclosure. The round fort also had an elaborate paved area made from uniform black basalt gravel, almost ornamental in appearance, and a well defined footpath leading to the entrance. We suspect that these forts were perhaps built at the time of the railways construction, around 1904 for this area, because they were too lightly defended to be of much use during the 1916 – 1918 period.

So, the find we made today was a great way to end the “walking the line” project. A culmination of 6 days of walking. It not only allowed us to find new features but gave us a chance to engage with the landscape, meet and talk with local Bedouin, cement relationships with our Jordanian colleagues and learn how to brew tea over a thorn bush fire and toast the “Hups” flat breads.

For more on the walking the line aspect of GARP please have a look at the entry under day 10 of last seasons blog.

Day 5 – A vast military landscape emerges

2009-11-22T12:12:00.001-08:00

Wuheida is turning out to be a site extending over several kilometres, dwarfing in size all other sites investigated by GARP so far, with the single exception of Ma’an, the main Ottoman base in southern Jordan.

We have three large redoubts on the eastern hill, and hundreds of metres of separate breastwork trenches on the northern hill. The metal detectorists have recovered spent Ottoman Mauser and Arab 303 rounds and cartridges, over several square kilometres of ground. Why is Wuheida so heavily contested? Almost certainly because it lies close to Ma’an on the road to Aqaba, captured by the Arabs in July 1917, making this area a major theatre of operations until February 1918.

Within the complexes the stone architecture unfolding is quite different from previously viewed Ottoman sites encountered, and is clearly the stone outlines of Arab encampments, distinctly different from those at Bat’n Al Ghul, Fassuah and others. The finds themselves however are a total mix of both German/Ottoman and Arab/Anglo/French origin, particularly in the armaments. Finds have included Mauser cartridges and clips, 303 cartridges and clips, Lebel cartridges, British military buttons, British shirt buttons, spoon fragments, buckles and belt ends, decorated metal box lids, artillery shell case fragments, boot heel plates and more.

The team working on the northern hill have been busy excavating the interiors of 3 square stone built structures inside one of the Ottoman redoubts. At present most of the finds appear to be Arab. Excavators are removing rubble and then troweling and brushing to expose original floor surfaces. The portable material finds from these structures are Arab, resting on the permanent structures, the architecture of which is likely to be Ottoman.

These are exciting times for GARP – more sites unfold every day and the team, although very tired from the daily activities in the desert, are enthused and driven onward by the ever unfolding history of this conflict landscape.

(more pictures to follow)

Day 4 - Waheida - a major Arab forces base.

2009-11-21T11:07:00.001-08:00

Our investigations today at Waheida East started a little shakily. Three 4x4 pick-ups packed with archaeologists and equipment attempted to find a way up the Jebel to the dig sites. We failed on the first five attempts! All apparent obvious tracks lead into blind alleys or back where we had started. But then, finally, we were there, thanks in no small part to a certain Aussie's highway building skills. And what a site we have begun to uncover: A central Ottoman redoubt with semi-subterranean structures that are almost intact; a forward trench line visible to the naked eye after 90 years of wind blown sand and Turkish bullets - all in the burning sun with no shade.

Waheida lies about 10km south west of Ma'an, and was one of the fortified sites on the road between Ma'an and Aqaba, that was captured briefly by Arab forces in June 1917 in the advance on Aqaba. It was then lost again and subsequently re-taken by the arabs in February 1918. From then on it was the main arab base for Faisal's forces. The site consists of two long ridges - what we are calling the eastern hill and the western hill - separated by a wadi. On the eastern hill were three Ottoman redoubts, probably built in late 1917, visible on Google earth and also shown on an air reconnaissance sketch done at the beginning of 1918. We began to draw plans of the three redoubts today.

Another part of the team, meantime, worked on the western hill. Here we have been surveying a strange and complex mixture of stone alignments and features, and metal detecting, finding a mix of Ottoman and Anglo-Arab artifacts.

Some of the interesting metal detecting finds from Waheida include a silver perfume bottle top - a smaller version of the one found last year at Fassuah, five British army buttons - cuff and tunic variety, along with many fired bullets both Mauser, British 303 and a French cartridge case. One of the most interesting finds is what we think is a watch case, heavily engraved in an Ottoman style, providing an example of a high-status artifact coming from the site. We've found heavy calibre artillery shell buffer plates for the base made by Vickers & Son Maxim and a whole host of other small sundry finds, all of which add up to it being higher status site than normal, and we are looking forward eagerly to continuing the detector survey throughout the other areas of the extended site. Work is likely to continue at this very large site for many days.

More images to follow...

Day 3 - The Beast vacated

2009-11-20T11:27:00.000-08:00

Work finished today on the Southern encampment at Bat'n Al Ghul, with hurried last minute recording of the sample tent rings, and hasty investigation of some new ones.

In addition the metal detectorists were surveying to the north and east of the camps, an area of flat land between hills on either side. Looking for the route of the medieval trading and pilgrim caravans, they found a heavy concentration of metal artifacts including coins at the top of the escarpment where the railway now runs between two hillsides in an obvious flattened river bed area which has been used as a pathway for centuries. Coins ranged from ancients and Mamluk issues to Ottoman and more recent. They also found a broader distribution of coins and other metalwork down in the base of the wadi - the Belly of the Beast itself, as the ground opened up into the huge flat plain. We assume this shows the way in which the caravans were funneled through the narrow pass and then widened out as they came into the open part of the wadi below the escarpment.

Our surveying team of three continued their reconnaissance down the line of the railway to the north of Aqabat Hijaz and that survey was completed today, so we have now surveyed the whole length of the line from Ma'an to Wadi Rutm, a distance of about 60 km.

Finally we sent off a small team including two retired officers with a wealth of military experience to carry out a reconnaissance of the entire study area, in order to undertake an overview appreciation of the region, and to think in Military terms as to how the Turks would have tried to seek to defend this stretch of the railway. As the theories and actual discoveries come together we will publish our developing ideas on this blog, and more formally via academic channels in due course.

During the afternoon members of the team who had joined us for the first time this year walked up the high path behind the camp sites to the hugely impressive fortress at Fassuah. (Pictures and description – see last year’s blog. All were greatly impressed by the stunning views and commanding position of this great structure.

This was our final visit to Bat’n Al Ghul, and the team will be sad to leave this place, but happy with the prospect of a much shorter bus/4x4 journey to site for the next few days.

Day 2 - Star in the desert.

2009-11-19T11:43:00.000-08:00

This is how it should be: 32 archaeologists in the chill of a dessert morning heading for the first digging day on site; keffiyahs slung around heads and necks, trowels and mattocks in hand; tent rings beckoning.

The team began work at the southern encampment at Bat'n Al Ghul today. Our working hypothesis is that the southern encampment was used as a construction camp during the building of the Hijaz railway.

The northern encampment, investigated last year, may also originally have been a construction camp, but our assumption is that it was reused by the ottoman army during the war in the defence of Bat'n Al Ghul station.

Our investigation today have revealed an assemblage of finds at least partially different from that in the northern encampment making it likely that our hypothesis is correct. There are fewer finds and the assemblage appears to be different in character.

The southern encampment is commanded by high ground, so it seems unlikely that it was included in the military encampment during the war, whereas the northern encampment which we investigated last year is behind the railway station, which we assume was fortified, although we can't tell this for sure because it has been bulldozed. Also the northern encampment is within the loop of the railway line which would have provided some kind of minimal defence for it.

Finds today included military buttons, a rare officer’s star shaped rank insignia, WW1 fabric, wood and coins.

Tomorrow we plan to finish our work on the southern encampment, and also to give the team an opportunity to walk up to the Ottoman fort on Fassuah ridge, because this season we don't plan to return to Bat'n all Ghul again - jut two days work this year.

Day 1 - Wind, cold and sharp footfall - and an amazing camp.

2009-11-18T12:51:00.000-08:00

Season 4 begins!

First proper day, cut short by the long delays to the main travelling party yesterday, who only arrived and checked into the hotel at 5 am this morning. We set off in the afternoon after not much sleep to begin this season by visiting one of the new sites for investigation this year.

Overall what we are planning to do this year is to begin by revisiting Bat'n Al Ghul where we've found two different encampments, one of which we think was re-used by the military during the war and the other of which was the construction camp not reused.

The third site we are going to look at is Wuheida, which we quickly visited today, and which was originally an Ottoman base that was captured early in 1918 and was then used as a base by the Anglo Arab forces. The terrain is harsh with much sharp and randomly shaped rock making traversing very difficult and hazardous in places.

This will give us an opportunity to have a look at the archaeological imprint of the Anglo Arab forces, which we have not done before, and to compare that with the archeological imprint of the Ottoman army, which we are now very familiar with.

Wuheida is a very impressive site, the high ground dominates the surrounding landscape, and there are three large trench redoubts on the hill side. In addition to that w have been told by local people that the slope of a nearby hill there had actually been a large military camp, and we've seen alignments of stones which may well represent an encampment. We therefore intend to carry out an archaeological investigation there as well as on the main defended hilltop.

The weather today was much colder and windier than we have previously experienced here in Jordan during the last three seasons. Today’s photographs are consequently not as good as they might be. Hopefully the forecast is for better conditions in the coming days as this season's adventure unfolds. Please click on the Follow button if you can to register as a follower of this blog - it will increase our traffic and standing in the ranks and spread the word about our project farther and wider, and you can receive notifications whenever we update the site.

Few days to go!

2009-11-13T01:01:00.000-08:00

The two stage advance party is now either in Jordan or about to leave, with the main group embarking on Tuesday next, 17th November.

With a number of completely new sites to investigate this season anticipation is very high - will we have the same amazing exciting discoveries this season as in prior ones? The chances are that we will, if previous experience is anything to go by.

Check in to this blog every day for pictures and news of the team's activities, live from Jordan.

GARP 2009 Season - prospectus

2009-01-29T14:14:00.000-08:00

The Fourth Fieldwork Season of the Great Arab Revolt Project (GARP) begins in November 2009. As in the previous two seasons this site will host a daily blog from the desert, reporting up to the minute discoveries and finds. More information concerning the project may be found below and from the links on the right.

The Fourth Fieldwork Season
Tuesday 17th November – Tuesday 1st December 2009
Southern Jordan

Introduction

The Great Arab Revolt Project (GARP) is planned as a ten-year project to investigate First World War archaeology in Jordan and develop new heritage sites for visitors. In contrast to the Western Front, where considerable fieldwork has taken place, First World War remains in Jordan have never been systematically investigated. These remains have particular interest for four reasons:

they are associated with the exploits and legend of Lawrence of Arabia, an iconic historical and cultural figure in the English-speaking world
they represent a struggle that was central to the creation of the states and conflicts of the modern Middle East
they represent the archaeological imprint of a distinctive type of irregular or guerrilla warfare which has been of huge historical importance over the last 90 years
they offer a range of military landscapes, sites and artefact assemblages, and a range of memories, associations and modern significances, which contrast with the more familiar archaeology, commemoration and tourism of the Western Front

Our aim, working closely with Jordanian colleagues and local communities, is to catalogue the visible remains (buildings and earthworks), to carry out surveys and trial excavations at a representative sample of sites, to record oral histories and folk memories, and to develop one or more sites for effective public presentation.

Work in the first two seasons (November 2006 and November 2007) focused on two main areas, Ma’an, and Wadi Rutm/Batn Al-Ghoul, supported by extensive survey of the surrounding landscape as far as the Saudi border in the south and Shobek in the north. Ma’an was the principal Ottoman military base in what is now southern Jordan, and we have established that the high ground for miles around the Hijaz railway station was entrenched in 1916–1918, transforming the area into a First World War trench fortress. Wadi Rutm, about 60 km south of Ma’an, is the site of a fortified railway station, an Ottoman army camp, a fortified hilltop redoubt, and various other military features on and close to the former railway line extending in both directions. While Ma’an represents a major, heavily defended base, Wadi Rutm represents the militarization of communication lines and the landscape more generally.

Last season (November 2008), we extended our focus northwards to Fassu’ah Ridge, the possible Ottoman command-and-control base for the entire Batn Al-Ghoul/Wadi Rutm area. This site occupies a stunning location on top of an escarpment overlooking Wadi Rutm and comprises perimeter walls built of dry-stone masonry, many with shallow trenches behind, and a central defensive block-house complex. We carried out a comprehensive record of all the standing remains, and clarified details through surface clearance and shallow excavation in certain areas. We also carried out further survey work to set the fort in its wider context, including recording the bread ovens and discovering the mule lines.

At Batn Al-Ghoul Ottoman Army camp, which comprised about 50 tent rings, we established that there was excellent preservation of in-situ organic remains reflecting the character of Ottoman military occupation in the later stages of the war. (it was from here, that we recovered part of an Ottoman military uniform in 2007). Post excavation analysis of these finds will be carried out to maximise the amount of detail we recover about activity in and around the rings.

The Great Arab Revolt Project is based at the University of Bristol, and is supported by the Jordanian Department of Antiquities, the al-Hussein bin Talal University, the Jordan Museum in Amman, the Council for British Research in the Levant, HRH Prince Hassan, and Current World Archaeology magazine.

The 2009 fieldwork season

As the aim of the project in its first five year phase is to explore the theme of desert warfare between Ma’an and Mudawwara, work will continue in 2009 to investigate other desert fortifications and camps along the line of the Hijaz Railway.

For a full copy of the prospectus for this season and to find out more about the project, please click on the 'Download 2009 prospectus' and 'GARP web site' links in the right hand panel.