By Annlee Dolan (co-director)
(Photo by A. Dolan)
I’d like to be able to say that while our students were soaking up some sun on the mid-season break, the directors were hard at work….. but alas, we also headed to a luxury hotel in Aqaba for some R & R. However, the return journey proved to be quite adventurous with a side trip to Bir Madhkur to visit our friends Andrew Smith and Jennifer Ramsay. We arrived at the rest stop in Bir Madhkur and waited for a ride to the site, as our little car would not handle the off-roading. Wearing flip flops and our “holiday clothes”, we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. We realized we might be in trouble when one of the project members came along for the ride in the truck, just to be able to sit in air conditioning! My hopes of sitting and having a pleasant cup of tea quickly diminished when we emerged from the truck into 54°C weather! Our friends were excited to have visitors and so gave us a grand tour of the many archaeological sites in the region including a caravanserai (pictured above), a Byzantine farmhouse and of course the site itself. Bir Madhkur is a Late Roman/ Early Byzantine caravan station strategically located along the ancient Spice Route that connected Petra to the Mediterranean. While the landscape is stunning and the archaeology is amazing, I have to admit that I would not last a week in that weather! Kudos and thanks to the members of the Bir Madhkur project for their hospitality.
After the much-needed break we were all back to work in the lab. In addition to supervising student projects, we have also been working on preparing publications of some of the material from the 2014 field season, specifically focusing on Feature C300, the ritual bath. Please check back soon to read the published article!