Tag: Jordan

Camping Deluxe: Glamp Your Way Around the Ancient World

Safari operators in Africa realised several years ago that there were people who wanted to see the wildlife, but not shake dirt out of a sleeping bag and take a shovel to dig a loo at the end of the day. Now London-based Ancient World Tours, who specialise in ancient sites, is amongst a growing number of companies capitalising on this growing market, and offering camping holidays with a twist of glamour: glamping. I spoke to Managing Director Peter Allingham about the changing face of cultural tourism.

Although the name sounds like something a dodgy pop star would do, glamping(glamour camping)is giving some tour operators the edge in a competitive market. Having gained popularity in parts of Europe, America and Australia, glamping is rapidly becoming a part of a tours itinerary in countries such as Egypt and Jordan.

Innovative operators are actively promoting tours where you can be Indiana Jones during the day, then enjoy a sheiks lifestyle at night. Tours take you to the main sites such as Luxor, but after a day in the desert, hot running water, sit-down flushing toilets, four-poster beds and your own private terrace to watch the sunset are just some of the luxuries on offer when camping in Egypt with London-based Ancient World Tours.

A Big Dose of Arabian Chic

If youre visiting Jordan, Ancient World Tours not only take you to Petra and Jerash, but also offer you a glamp in Wadi Rum. Other tour operators, such as Abercrombie & Kent, claim to make the journey as comfortable as it is enlightening sticking to certain Jordanian traditions like travelling in camel caravans and bedding down in resilient, hand-made Bedouin tents, while making sure guests are taken care of with prepared meals, private toilets, and an inviting atmosphere of Arabian rugs, pillows, and candles.

Luxury travelling in ancient lands isnt exactly a modern phenomenon the pharaohs and high-ranking officials enjoyed a certain amount of opulence as they journeyed around Egypt or indeed, when they were sent off to the afterlife (see some of treats that King Tut had stocked up for the afterlife in this video).

Travel Like a Pharaoh

The difference now is that this style of travel isnt totally elitist. According to Peter Allingham, Managing Director of Ancient World tours, the types of people booking his tours are educated 35 60 year olds with an interest in seeing the country in comfort. “Plus theres modern technology to back you up in the unlikely event of things going wrong; satellite phones, spare tyres and engine parts are now included on the packing list, as well as a few modern health and safety accessories, such as safety belts in vehicles” he adds.

Ancient World Tour glamps in Wadi Rum include proper mattresses, pillows and sufficient space to stand up and store your luggage. “There is a large common tent in Bedouin style with comfortable bolsters and cushions to relax on,” explains Allingham. “In Egypt’s White Desert, we are starting to use our partner’s deluxe camp where there are full-sized beds under larger tents with furniture too”.

Having been a tour leader at the opposite end of the adventure travel scale, a bit of luxury to round off a dusty, tiring day seems very appealing to me. Crawling into a sleeping bag while still encrusted with desert sand or hovering over a hastily-dug hole, acutely aware that sound travels far in the desert night, are not some of the fonder memories of my tour leading days.

An Artificial Experience?

To some hardened explorers, the idea of glamping in places such as Wadi Rum is appalling. Wheres the holistic desert experience, or living like the ancients, when youve got a flush toilet and hot shower? Furthermore, are you really off the beaten track if youve got modern-day luxuries?

There really is something quite magical about escaping modern trappings and getting down to basics. There are no cyberspace viruses or dulcet mobile phone rings to interrupt your thoughts as you contemplate the ancient wonders youve seen that day. The credit crunch suddenly seems insignificant when youve got a full belly and the stillness of the desert gently envelops you with a mantle of unforgiving vastness.

But basics isnt for everyone and off-the-beaten-track places are not as exclusive as they used to be. The adventure travel operators introduced holiday experiences beyond the basic package over 20 years ago, leading tour operators to look for other unique experiences to offer their clients.

VIPTomb Access

Not only do Ancient World Tours offer a degree of luxury and less hardship in down time, but, because of their relationship with the SCA in Egypt,they also give their clients the opportunity of entry to officially closed sites. “Our passengers know that if they want to stand between the paws of theSphinx; enter the tombsof KV5, Amenhotep II & III, Seti or spectacular Nefertari that there are veryfew companies worldwide who can get them there. Our most recent trip included no fewer than 15 special entry permits,” says Allingham. At a time when tombs are being closed to the common tourist over preservation fears, tours like these may be the only chance for travellers to see the incredible tombs of King Tut and the pharaohs.

Ultimately, to survive, tour operators have to look at untapped markets and add new dimensions to classic tour itineraries. The perceived exclusivity and perhaps snobbery of glamping aside, for the paying public, time off is precious and is to be enjoyed. If wearing the little black dress for sunset cocktails on the veranda after a day of learning something new and scrambling round dusty ruins is the preferred choice of holiday, theres now a tour operator offering that exclusive dream getaway.

Of course, the ultimate way to explore ancient Egypt without getting dust in your lens cap or hassled by mosquitos is Heritage Key’s own King Tut Virtual. We don’t offer candles, cushions or a private veranda, but we can certainly offer the thrill of the ancient world, and an excellent chance to dress up.

Looted Artefacts Sold to Tourists in Israel Antiquities Scam

Dr Morag Kersel A researcher has uncovered evidence of a widespread scam in Israel that results in tourists buying recently looted artefacts without their knowledge. Buying antiquities in Israel is legal if they were found before 1978, the year a major antiquities law was passed. There are numerous dealers in Israel, who are required to register with the Israel Antiquities Authority and keep an inventory of the artefacts they have for sale. Dr. Morag Kersel, of Brown University in the United States, has been studying the illegal antiquities trade in Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Territories.

Dr Kersel has been conducting interviews with anyone involved in antiquities who would agree to talk to her, including dealers, collectors, residents engaged in looting, government officials and archaeologists. These interviewees are guaranteed anonymity so that they can speak freely about the situation in the region. Dr. Kersel told me that she interviewed 36 antiquities dealers in Israel. Out of these dealers roughly half admitted to engaging in an elaborate scheme that allows recently looted artefacts to be sold to tourists.

Loophole in the Law

Heres how the scheme works. While dealers have to keep an inventory of everything they sell, those inventories are often kept vague. A listing that says that a dealer owns a pot dated to the Bronze Age doesnt mean very much, since many pots of that era will be in their shop.

A tourist who buys the artefact will get a certificate of authenticity but will often forget something important an export permit.

Lots of people who purchase artefacts dont know that theyre supposed to ask for an export permit the law doesnt require the sellers to offer you an export permit, said Dr. Kersel at a presentation at the University of Toronto in Canada.

Without the export permit the sale isnt officially registered and the dealer can take the registry number and use it on a new and often looted antiquity. Since the inventory descriptions are kept vague it isnt hard to find an artefact that looks similar to the one that was just sold.

Material that was looted as recently as last week was illegally entering the legal market through an exchange of registry numbers, said Dr. Kersel.

The tourist could, of course, be caught trying to take the antiquity out of the country without a permit. But even if they are, it’s hard to fault the dealer. After all they are under no obligation to let tourists know that they need an export permit.

Why Did the Dealers Confess?

Perhaps the most striking thing about this research is how many dealers admitted to it more than a dozen of them. Dr. Kersel told me that the reason they admitted to this is that they are fed up with the practice and the system that makes it easy to carry it out.

Many of them told me they probably wouldnt do it if the guy next door wasnt doing it, she said. As far as they’re concerned the system as it currently stands doesnt really work.

Kersel said that the Israel Antiquities Authority is aware that this scam is taking place but lacks the resources to clamp down on it. She pointed out that therewere 65 registered dealers in Israel while she was in the country andonly 2.5 officers dedicated to enforcing Israels antiquity laws. There simply are not enough people to go around.

The Looters

Dr. Kersel also talked to people engaged in looting andlearned a bit about what theirmotives are. Not surprising is the fact that many of them do it for money.

Poverty is certainly not a stranger in the Middle East. Just recently the Jerusalem Post reported that nearly one in three children in Israel lives below the poverty line. As of 2002 the general poverty rate in Jordan was reported at 14.2%. The West Bank economy has been hit hard by political conflict and poverty is rampant there.

However, there are some other motives for looting that you may not have guessed. One of them is believe it or not recreational.

People are very interested in getting out on the weekend in the land and its just something that they do, Dr. Kersel said in an interview. They take their families out, have a picnic and dig around on their Tell.

A Tell is a man-made hill that many modern day communities, in the Middle East, are situated on. If people have been living in the same place for thousands of years, the debris from that time will pile up, forming this hill.

Kersels research also revealed the presence of something more insidious a practice termed ‘resistance looting’. That is people looting to try and remove evidence of foreign occupation. So far she has found evidence for this in the West Bank, but not in Israel or Jordan.

People looted to find and destroy any evidence of occupation on their land, she said in at the Toronto lecture. Anything with a Jewish motif or anything with a Christian motif… it just so happens that those things are (worth hundreds) of dollars on the market.

She said that she hasnt found evidence that ‘resistance looting’ is being carried out in an organized way in the West Bank. It seems to be more ad-hoc and not so organized.

I also asked her whether there is any evidence of terrorist groups being involved in the trade in Israel/Jordan/Palestine. She said that that she has found no evidence of that so far.

Telling the Truth

The most obvious question this research begs is: how do we know people are telling the truth?

Its something I grappled with, said Dr. Kersel. The anonymous format of the study means that there is no way for other people, such as this reporter, to check with individual people. Even the transcripts cannot be publicly released and must be destroyed after a few years.

Dr. Kersel admits that she cannot be certain that every person told the truth, every time. But there are patterns more than a dozen antiquities dealers in Israel admitted to taking part in this scam, making that find almost impossible to dismiss. Several people said that resistance to occupation played a role in their decision to loot, making this motive difficult toignore as well.

Why Looting Matters

Another question that may be asked is: why does this matter? If people, especially impoverished individuals, choose to loot for money then why should they be stopped?

In short the looting of sites means that archaeologists lose valuable information needed to reconstruct the past. Once an artefact has been removed from context, without proper note-taking, then archaeologists cannot say where it came from and what material it isassociated with. This note-taking is very important and archaeology students have it drummed in their heads to record every relevant detail.

Museums are full of artefacts that were taken without excavation. The Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto Canada has a sculpture which they believe to be of Cleopatra VII – the last ruler of Egypt. They acquired it in the early 20th century but, because they don’t know what site it’s from, didn’t make the identification until just after the year 2000.

Report: Jordan asks Canada to seize the Dead Sea Scrolls

The Globe and Mails Patrick Martin (the papers former Middle East Correspondent), is reporting that Jordan is asking the Canadian government to seize the Dead Sea Scrolls on display in Toronto Canada.

The Royal Ontario Museumis currently displaying seven of them as part of an exhibit on the scrolls.Thelast day of the exhibit isJanuary 3.

Summoning the Canadian charg d’affaires in Amman two weeks ago, Jordan cited the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, to which both Jordan and Canada are signatories, in asking Canada to take custody of the scrolls, said Martin.

It appears highly unlikely that this request will get anywhere. In the same story a spokesperson for the Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that, differences regarding ownership of the Dead Sea scrolls should be addressed by Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority. It would not be appropriate for Canada to intervene as a third party.

Since the scrolls arrival in Toronto last summer, they have been no stranger to controversy.

Heritage Key reported on a street protest that took place outside the museum a few months back. Videos of it have since appeared on Youtube. Also the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority demanded last spring that the museums exhibition be cancelled.

The question of who should handle the Dead Sea Scrolls is a tough one. The site of Qumran is actually in the West Bank. When the scrolls were discovered in the 1940s and 1950s Jordan controlled the territory. Many of the fragile parchments were stored in the Rockefellar Museum in East Jerusalem.

In the 1967 war the Israelis gained control of the whole of Jerusalem. They then assumed custody of the scrolls.

To make things even more complicated the Palestinian Authority formed a government in the West Bank during the 1990s. Its an entity that is independent of Jordan. They too have a claim on the scrolls.

So the question of who should control these ancient writings is a messy one. However, Israel has given no signal so far that it is willing to cede control of the scrolls to Jordan or the Palestinians.

Jordan’s Bronze Age Site Khirbet ez-Zeiraqoun Surprises With Glyphs and Water System

Chances are you have never heard of Khirbet ez-Zeiraqoun, also known as Khirbet ez-Zeraqon. Its a 25 hectare fortified town in Northern Jordan that was occupied during a period known as the Early Bronze III (2700 BC -2300 BC).

This time period was a high water mark for many great civilizations. The royal burials at Ur, the construction of the Pyramids at Giza and the rise of the twin cities of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa in the Indus Valley all these things happened in this narrow stretch of time.

Khirbet ez-Zeiraqoun was excavated in the 1980s and 90s, and the analysis of this site continues today. However, unlike the great finds mentioned above, this site has received little publicity. While there are scholarly articles you will be hard-pressed to find anything in the popular realm.

This is surprising to me since this town has some amazing construction projects of its own. The people created a network of underground tunnels running as deep as 100 meters below ground. They did it to get their water and its a mystery as to how they were able to do it without the system collapsing in on itself.

I went down 100 meters of rope, I went down 70 meters on one shaft, then it levelled off, and then there were branches cutting off in different directions. – Tim Harrison

A few weeks ago the excavator of the site, Professor Moawiyah Ibrahim of Yarmouk University, was in Toronto and gave a presentation at the University of Toronto campus. I attended the presentation and interviewed him afterwards. He also generously granted us permission to publish the pictures that he brought with him.

Professor Ibrahim also serves in a diplomatic role. He is Jordan’s representative to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee. The committee is tasked with helping to protect heritage sites around the world.

Also at the presentation was Professor Tim Harrison. He was a team member at the time of the excavationsandpersonally descended into the ancient tunnel network on a rope.

Crossroads of the Ancient World

As you can see from the map Khirbet ez-Zeiraqoun is up in the north of Jordan. Its position, straddling the ancient stateslocated inEgypt, Syria and Mesopotamia, gave it a unique vantage point when it came to trade. Professor Ibrahim told me that he believes that the people of this town traded olive oil, and possibly wine, with all three areas. These contacts also led to the creation of some unusual glyptic symbols that Ill return to later in the article.

But, while Khirbet ez-Zeiraqoun had some unique trading advantages, the people seemed to be greatly worried about their security. The town is surrounded by a fortification wall that was more than five meters wide at some points.

This wall was ringed with projecting towers, which were 17 meters tall and five meters wide. The only section of the town that was left unprotected was the eastern section. This part faced a steep valley slope, one that no ancient army could hope to climb.

The Underground Tunnel Network

Perhaps the towns most awesome achievement was its underground tunnel network.It was used for something of vital importance in Jordan water.

The team has found three entrances to this network. Professor Tim Harrison has a unique perspective on this network. As a student he descended into it, on a rope, nearly 25 years ago.

I dont really think they were wells as such – they were tunnels that (were) carved as a network, he said. I went down 100 meters of rope, I went down 70 meters on one shaft, then it levelled off, and then there were branches cutting off in different directions.

Professor Ibrahim told me that there was a staircase that would have taken people down into the system. The tunnels were cut into the bedrock and went all the way down to the water table.

Its a, highly sophisticated water system, he said. The people of Zeiraqoun have to secure (their) water supply in critical times. Droughts, invaders, water shortage these threats would have provided encouragement to create such an elaborate system.

Harrison said that he believes there were hundreds of meters of tunnel in ancient times. You could enter in one entrance and pop out of another.

The sophistication of the system has led some scholars to suggest that it was built in much later times. I dont see any reason for that, Ibrahim said, as the bulk of the finds at the site date to the 2700 2300 BC.

I asked Ibrahim how the people were able to build this network without it collapsing in on itself. He replied that he did not know, maybe it did!

People living nearby, in recent times, were aware of this network. Professor Ibrahim said that people in a nearby village, told me that 40 or 50 years ago they were using these shafts to (get) water.

Glyptics

Another important mystery that scholars are investigating is the meaning of the 130 glyptics that were uncovered during excavation.

Writing existed at this time in Mesopotamia, Syria and Egypt. There has, however, not been a single written document found in Jordan. The glyptics found at Khirbet ez-Zeiraqoun show patterns, rituals being enacted and artistic scenes.A few pictures of these glyphs were released and I’m showing one of them here.

Ibrahim says that they dont convey a formal written language. Some of these artefacts were likely imported from Syria, but there might be some which were locally made.

So far scholars have detected influences from Egypt, Syria and Mesopotamia another indication of the widespread contacts these people had.

Khirbet ez-Zeiraqoun is not the only place in Jordan that these glyphs have been found. However Professor Ibrahim said that the finds at this site make up half of the total number in the region.

The Rulers

Archaeologists have identified one building in particular that seems to be a palace or administrative centre. As you can see from the picture here, it is not wildly impressive. Its basically a hallway with rectangular rooms on the side.

Professor Ibrahim used the term city-state to describe what the government would have been like. The town was controlled, probably by a central government that had control over neighbouring settlements.

This would have been necessary to organize the towns defences and build the impressive network of underground tunnels.

Like the more famous entities in Greece, the rulers of Khirbet ez-Zeiraqoun would have controlled the surrounding area (including the all-important agricultural land).

Whether the government was headed by a king, or had a more informal system, is hard to say. Ibrahim pointed out that city states, in the Middle East,are presentuntil modern times. You still have, until recently, some of these city states in the gulf region, something like Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain practically city states.

What Were They Worshipping?

Its difficult to say for sure what the religion of these people was like. Archaeologists have only the temple remains from the site to work with, along with textual records from Mesopotamia and Syria.

A temple complex was found in an elevated part of the settlement (known as the upper town). They appear to have been rectilinear buildings, with round altars – that were clustered together.

An artefact found in another area of the town (pictured here) depicts a person standing beside an altar, with an offering.

I would say that the main deities were the moon god (something like Sin) and the sun god, which are well attested in Mesopotamia as well, said Professor Ibrahim.

Professor Harrison said that the temples found at Khirbet ez-Zeiraqoun have a lot in common with those built in later periods.

I see these temples as being part of a religious architectural tradition that continues down into the middle bronze age and into the later bronze and even into the early Iron Age. The early Iron Age starts around 1200 BC.

He said that he cant say what exactly they were worshipping although something like the god Baal is a possibility.

An Ancient Ghost Town

At some point, ca. 2300 BC, the site turns into a ghost town. All the major buildings were not functioning anymore, there was just a seasonal settlement, said Ibrahim.

Khirbet ez-Zeiraqoun is far from alone. Around this time the Egyptian state starts to decline and eventually collapses, ushering in the First Intermediate Period.

To the north the site of Ebla, in Syria, is destroyed. To the east the Akkadian Empire rises around 2300 BC, but collapses in 2083 BC.

To the far east the Indus Valley Civilization goes into decline and collapses as well. The population of Harappa was cut in half while Mohenjo-daro was abandoned all together.

Climate change on a large scale, and the political effects of it, is an increasingly popular explanation for the widespread calamity. One group of scientists took deep sea cores from the Gulf of Oman.

Our results document a very abrupt increase in eolian dust and Mesopotamian aridity, they said in their abstract, publishedin the year 2000.

I asked Professor Ibrahim whether the town was ever attacked by a large military force. He said that its possible but archaeologists cannot prove it.

After this collapse Zeiraqoun never re-emerged in a significant way. There were some artefacts that date to after the early Bronze Age, but the site wasnt settled permanently.

Without written records, or the ability to better interpret their glyptics, we are not going to be able to hear what it was like for the people to see their town become abandoned.

Leaving their stronghold for the uncertain future of nomadic life, or a new settlement, must have been difficult. Especially when you consider that Zeiraqoun was hundreds of years old.

But, for now at least, were going to have to let the ruins and the artefacts do the talking.

Looted Iraqi Treasures? Covered up report reads Britain must return Schoyen Incantation Bowls

An archaeological mystery may have come to an end, after an enquiry into the origin of 654 Aramaic incantation bowls from the Schyen Collection was finally made public. The report – recently placed in the House of Lords Library – states that bowls currently finding themselves in Britain were likely to have illegally been looted after the Gulf War and should be returned to Iraq.

Commissioned by the University College in London in 2005, the results of the enquiry are that the bowls were stolen from the historical site of Babylon some time after the 1991 Gulf war, and that their provenance is not Jordan, as believed by Norwegian multimillionaire collector Martin Schyen. They should therefore be returned to Iraq or handed over to police. “The bowls are subject to the Iraq United Nations sanctions order 2003,” says the report, “as cultural objects illicitly removed from Iraq after 6 August 1990 and that UCL has therefore a duty to deliver them to a constable.”

The report was finished in 2006, but its findings were suppressed under a legel settlement made between the UCL and the collector when Schyen started legal proceedings over not getting his bowls back. This settlement also led to the payment of an undisclosed compensation sum to the collector. At that time a joint press release was issued by both parties, stating that: “following a searching investigation by an eminent panel of experts, and further inquiries of its own, UCL is pleased to announce that no claims adverse to the Schyen Collections right and title have been made or intimated.”

This statement is quite different from the report which concluded that although Schyen might not have been aware that the bowls were looted when they were purchased, he was guilty of not showing enough interest into their provenance.

A second statement by the Schyen Collection repeated the claim that the bowls were exported from Jordan prior to 1988 and that they were most likely ‘surface finds’. The statement claimed the bowls were part of a private collection built up in Jordan in the 1930s, and that the collection had been granted a valid export license (questions on the validity of this license can be found on the stanford.edu website) by the Jordanian authorities in 1988.

The collection’s website for provenance of the ‘Rihani Collection’ still reads: “Rihani collection, Irbid and Amman, Jordan (before 196588) and London (1988).”

The 5th to 8th century incantation bowls – borrowed from Schyen in 1996 by an UCL Professor Mark Geller – are still in the United Kingdom. Cambridge academic Lord Renfrew of Kaimsthorn, one of the authors of the report, now calls for the Iraqi goverment to demand the return of the bowls and if need be even persue the repatriation of the looted artefacts in court.

The report is now also available on wikileaks: “The file is the report from an expert inquiry into the provenance of 654 Mesopotamian incantation bowls owned by antiquities collector Martin Schoyen and loaned to University College London. The inquiry was begun after allegations were made that the bowls were were looted from Iraq. The report was suppressed as part of the legal settlement in which the bowls were returned to Schoyen.“

This is not the first time the Schyen Collection – which may be the world’s largest collection of ancient manuscripts – has been questioned over the origin of its objects. Shortly after in 2001 Martin Schyen announced he wanted to sell the entire collection for 100 million USD, questions were raised about Buddhist manuscripts smuggled out of Afghanistan that Schyen eventually aquired and the Egyptian ambassador to Norway called for an inquiry into how Schyen came by his Egyptian objects.

World’s Oldest Statue to go on Show in Rome

Ancient artworks from Jordan some of them never before seen outside Petra and Amman – are going on display today at Rome’s Quirinal Palace. The star attraction at the exhibition is a statue found at the site of Ayn Ghazal near Amman dating from 7500 BC, one of the oldest surviving statues of its kind and size.

The exhibition has been organised by the President of the Italian Republic in honour of the state visit of the King Abdullah II and Queen Rania of Jordan. Sixty items will be on display in the ‘Sale delle Bandiere’ at the Palazzo del Quirinale and these will reflect the history of Jordan, from the Neolithic era to the end of the Ottoman empire.

The ‘oldest statue in the world‘, stands 84cm high and is made of white plaster encasing a cane frame. It belongs to a group of cane and plaster statues found in Ayn Ghazal in 1983. Many of the Ayn Ghazal statues, including the one on display in Rome today, have painted clothes, tattoos and features including cowrie shell eyes marked with black bitumen. Ayn Ghazal is a neolithic site in north-eastern Jordan outside Amman and was largely forgotten until development work and subsequent excavations began in the 1970s and 80s.

Other exhibits include a limestone bust of a male with a curly beard and hair wearing a pointed hat. This was found at Petra and dates from the Nabatean era during the first and second centuries AD. The Nabatean culture traded along networks of oases in the area between Syria, Arabia, the Red Sea and the Euphrates river. They were annexed to the Roman empire some time during the rule of Trajan (98-117 AD). A Roman-era pendent or cameo is also on display from the Jordan Archaeological Museum this dates from the second or third centuries AD and is made of gold and gemstone.

Whether the Ayn Ghazal statues are actually the oldest statues known to us may be a matter for debate. Earlier this year a far older ‘statue’ was found in a cave in Germany the ‘Venus’ of Hohle Fels is 35,000 years old and is believed to be the earliest known form of figurative art. However, the figure is less than 10cm high and, in my humble opinion, looks more like a roast chicken (or as Sean points out in his blog, a large molar) than any kind of ideal female form. The Ayn Ghazal figures are much bigger and more complex.

The exhibition – Jordan: a Crossroads of People and Culture is free to the public except on Sundays when the representative rooms of the presidential palace are also open and there is a charge of 5 euros. Opening hours are 10-13 and 15.30-18.30 from Tuesday to Saturday; 8.30-12 on Sundays and closed on Mondays.

An exhibition in the building opposite Palazzo del Quirinale is currently showing an excellent exhibition of Roman paintings, including impressively realistic portraits, frescoes and still-lifes. Roma: La Pittura di un Impero is showing at the Scuderie del Quirinale until January 2010.

Photos courtesy of Jordan Archaeological Museum and Petra Archaeological Museum.

Moving in on Madaba’s Iron Age Squatters

As this blog is being written a Canadian team is renewing excavations at the site of Madaba, a modern day Jordanian city that has at least 5,000 years of history behind it.

The city is well known for its Byzantine mosaics including the 6th century AD ‘Madaba Map’, which is considered to be the oldest known map of the holy land.

The Canadian excavations areled by Dr. Debra Foran and Professor Tim Harrison, both of the University of Toronto. Theyhave been taking place, off and on, for more than a decade. The theme of prosperity and collapse runs through the citys history, as it does with many sites in the Middle East.

There are stretches in the archaeological record when Madaba is a prosperous urban polity (for example, during the Byzantine period when its famous map was made), but there are also stretches when it was in decline andeven abandoned (as during the medieval period).

Perhaps no timeframe inthe city’s history illustrates these challenges better thanthat of theIron Age. The Canadianteamis still uncovering and analyzing artefacts from this era. The picture that these finds are painting is a dramatic one.

During the start of a period that archaeologists call Iron Age IIB, about 2,800 years ago, Madaba was a major city, occupying nearly 16 hectares of land.This madeit one of the largest sites in Jordan at the time. It was surrounded by a five metre high wall, which, at its strongest point, was seven meters thick.

When the Canadian team dug down into these layers they found pillared buildings along with pottery. Evidence, they said in a 2007 report, (which) clearly indicate that Madaba had become a substantial urban center.

The bible also hints at Madabas importance, saying that the Israeli King David defeated two ancient groups, the Ammonites and Aramaeans, near the city.

But, this great settlement wasnt the only thing the team found.

The Iron Age town – with its monumental architecture – appears to have been violently destroyed and then subsequently resettled by a small number of people.

In a period called the late Iron IIB, the team found evidence that hints at a tragic end to this ancient settlement. They found badly constructed structures, made of rocks, in such as a shape that some scholars have used the term “squatters” occupation to describe them.

Professor Harrison told me, in an email last autumn, that the Iron Age town, with its monumental architecture… appears to have been violently destroyed and then subsequently resettled by a small number of people.

The team doesnt know who destroyed it or the identity of the people from the squatters occupation. They may have been survivors from the destroyed town, or newcomers altogether. In any event, one of the largest cities in Iron Age Jordan suffered a great fall, one from which it would not recover for hundreds of years.

A story all too common in the ancient, and even modern, Middle East.

Protesters Take to the Streets (and youtube) in Dead Sea Scrolls Dispute

There are few ancient history exhibitions that actually lead people to take to the streets in protest – but the Dead Sea Scrolls is one of them.

Last Friday a few dozen protesters took to the streets outside the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) in Toronto to protest against the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit.

At the same timea group of supporters of the exhibit staged a counter-protest right across the street.

Videos, from both sides of the protests, have recently migrated onto youtube.

Its the latest chapter in a series of events that have been playing out in the city since the exhibit was announced last autumn.

So What’s Their Beef?

To understand the protests you have to examine the context of the scrolls’ discovery. The scrolls were discovered at the site of Qumran between 1947 and 1956, although it’s not certain why they were there. Now, Qumran is actually in the West Bank, not Israel proper. At the time of the scrolls’ discovery, the area was controlled by Jordan and many of the scrolls were housed in the Rockefeller Museum in East Jerusalem.

The fact that Israel has the scrolls is, needless to say, a sticking point with the Palestinians.

A video from the main protest

Avideo from the “counter-protest” across the street

A second video from the “counter-protest”

After the Six Days War in 1967, Israel took over the West Bank. The scrolls in the Museum, and the site of Qumran, came under the auspices of Israel.

Today the West Bank is controlled by Mahmoud Abbas Palestinian Authority. The fact that Israel has the scrolls is, needless to say, a sticking point with the Palestinians.

So, when the Toronto exhibit was announced the Palestinian Authority objected. Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad wrote to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and demanded that the exhibit be cancelled.

Harper refused and the museum got a legal opinion saying that the exhibit they were showing was in keeping with international law.

But thats not the end of it.

Toronto based Palestinian groups objected. Palestine House, a major GTA cultural centre, sent out a press release denouncing the ROMs position.

The protests racheted up a notch last Friday when a small band of protesters converged on the ROM to protest against the exhibit. In response to the protest a group of supporters of the Dead Sea Scrolls, waving Israeli flags,took to the streets at the same time as the Palestinian protesters to wage what is known as a counter-protest. (Yes, a protest to protest a protest)

Dueling videos of the protests can be seen on youtube and we have embedded them here in this blog.

But, perhaps the strangest turn of events came when the owner of a local restaurant, Le Select Bistro, published a call for a boycott of the scrolls exhibit on his website.

The principle of free speech is more important than anything else, owner Frederic Geisweiller told The National Post, adding that his staff has been harassed and threatened over his words. An effect on my business doesnt have me shaking in my sandals.

The protests have started to receive attention media attention in Israel with the Jerusalem Post publishing a lengthy article just yesterday.

In the end its not likely that the protests will result in any changes to the exhibit. The museum believes that the exhibition is legal. Prime Minister Harper supports it, as does the Premier of Ontario (a position similar to a U.S. governor) Dalton McGuinty, who actually took part in the opening of the exhibit.

But, without a doubt, the protests (and counter-protests) have brought the issue of artefact repatriation a little closer to home for the citizens of Toronto.

Nice figure, a bit toothy though: the Venus of Hohle Fels

She may not be to everyone’s taste, but don’t knock her – this tiny mammoth tusk temptress is looking good for her 35,000 years. Discovered last year in the southwest German cave of Hohle Fels, the somewhat ironically-named Venus is believed to be the earliest form of figurative art – made by the first homo sapiens to settle in Europe. It predates other finds by up to 5,000 years, bringing Europe further in line with engravings found in Africa, which still predate the find. Dr Nicholas Conard of Tubingen University, Germany, told pre-eminent journal Nature that the discovery ‘radically changes our view of the origins of Paleolithic art.’

The 6cm (2.3″) vixen is said to be a fertility symbol – and was found in the cave alongside various tools used by early humans. And if today’s lad’s mags are anything to go by, the Venus of Hohle Fels wouldn’t look out of place alongside glamour girls like Jordan, with her big breasts and pert bottom. Maybe not Paleolithic porn, but certainly a prehistoric princess.