Classics professor’s excavation in Jordan offers intriguing insights into Middle East history
BY REBECCA KENDALL
In the desert in southern Jordan, a group of researchers is trying to piece together a puzzle that will bring years of investigation into a long-buried past into focus. One member of the team is Prof. Andrew Sherwood, Languages and Literatures, co- director of the Humayma Excavation Project based in Humayma, Jordan, who will spend the next seven weeks digging in the desert. The group is working at a site that was once home to the Nabataeans, a group whose king was trying to urbanize some of the nomadic tribes sometime between 130 and 80 BC. The Nabataeans were traders who transported goods from the east to the Mediterranean. “They were middlemen who had extensive caravan routes,” says Sherwood. The spot where the researchers are working along the King’s Highway, a major route of commerce, was selected by the Nabataeans as a stopping post for travellers. A water supply was needed to make this viable. A low-level aqueduct accomplished this by bringing water in from 30 kilometres away. Subsequent development of cisterns in the area resulted in an increase in population, and the region began to urbanize and develop. By determining the level of water supply and calculating that against several estimates of water consumption in desert conditions, the team has been able to determine the site’s population. “Based on our calculations over the past three years, we think there was a community of between 600 and 800,” says Sherwood. Last year, they continued excavating bits and pieces of a Roman fort that has been the focus of the excavation since 2000. Dating to about 110 to 117 AD, the fort is the largest in southern Jordan. Sherwood says that, although the fort’s presence changes the dynamics of the area, he and his colleagues are still not certain of its function. It wasn’t simply a matter of safeguarding the region against masses of enemy forces, he says. “This is far enough south in the frontier system that no major armies were going to be marching through here. But a fort is meant to withstand a siege. What were the Romans doing? It makes little sense as a traditional strategy.” The site was part of the Roman Empire, and Sherwood says building forts was a common strategy on the frontiers. The fort’s looming presence in the southern desert may have served more as a deterrent to potential invaders or may simply have been a symbol of administration, he says. “It may be a stamp of authority notifying people that the Romans are here and they’re in control. It’s rather expensive, but this area remained peaceful for several hundred years.” The population had already grown by 20 to 25 per cent by the beginning of the second century, when the fort was built, says Sherwood. With continuous peace came increased trade, freedom of travel and interplay among communities, he says. There is evidence that many international traders, including those from Italy, Syria, France and Egypt, sold their wares here. Last year, through geophysics surveys (magnetometer, resistivity and ground-penetrating radar imaging), the team discovered what are believed to be defensive ditches around the fort, designed to halt enemy forces. Such ditches are common around Roman forts in Europe. “Until that was found, no one had ever thought of looking for them in the Middle East,” says Sherwood. “There are a number of forts in the Middle East, and this discovery might cause others to look to see if this technology was transported from Europe.” Once again, this may be the simple transference of an established military technology to an area that doesn’t need it, he says. The 2½-metre ditches are intended to slow massed attacks against the walls of the fort, not to fend off a few desert raiders. The geophysics surveys also helped the researchers discover potential kiln sites west of the city. If the kilns are verified, it means there was pottery production at Humayma that supplied certain types of pottery throughout the country. The team has also discovered a paved entryway that leads to a shrine that may be some sort of religious structure. “It’s so complex,” says Sherwood. “We can’t quite figure out what it is.” When he gets to Jordan next week, he will work in the commander’s house and in a Roman latrine. The latrine, which functioned with running water, a valuable commodity at the site, is of special interest because it was found during the final days of excavation last year and is expected to provide more clues into the history of the site. “One of the ironies of excavation is that you usually find something totally unexpected in the last week,” he says. Although the team attempts to complete excavation of every feature discovered in a season, hurrying too much can cause evidence to be damaged, he adds. Further investigation of the latrine has the potential to provide more clues about the importation of western and Roman technologies and cultural ideals at Humayma. Sherwood, who works in Jordan through the American Center of Oriental Research, says study of ancient sites like this helps modern society learn how culture has developed. “A lot of our concepts like beauty are concepts the Greeks and Romans came to define. There are real changes in our cultural minds that have come down to the modern period, and the study of history is about learning who we are and why we are the way we are.”
