Day 9 : 5/31

Touring Amman was very enjoyable today. The walking around not so much, but only because I really don't like the heat. However, I enjoy walking around cities. I had a wonderful time seeing all of the different shops, souvenirs, and the people. It had a “chinatown” type of feel. Lunch was a delicious pizza and an amazing mango beverage enjoyed on the rooftop of one of the restaurants that overlooked the city. The driving is even more intense and busy compared to Madaba. It's interesting because at home, a narrow road is usually not used as much, if it was, it is only a one way street. Somehow, the drivers here make these narrow roads a two-way street.

A slightly quieter street in Amman. 

Day 8: 5/30

First week of digging is done! Today we visited many different attractions. Though the heat was intense it was exciting to “walk through history” and imagine what these great cities were like.

As I look back on the week and the tours so far, I'm leaning towards more applied anthropology or international relations maybe? As far as careers and higher studying goes, I don't think I would focus on archaeological anthropology. I'm much more interested in the culture and the local people. Taking the ethnography course has definitely forced (in a good way) me to interact with the locals and really “participate” in the culture.

The ancient city of Jerash. 

 Bagpipe players in Jerash, as part of the tourism. 

Day 7: 5/29

We're still peeling off the top soil of the square I'm working in, still digging until we do not see roots. We found more large animal bones so that was an interesting site to see. The best part of the day was going to Yousef's shop. I planned to have an interview/house visit with some local musicians however it fell through. We decided to go to Yousef's shop instead and it turned out to be a great idea because I enjoyed conversation with him and I also got his help with my ethnography project. I asked him a few questions and found out some interesting details relating to Arabic music, and also music in Madaba specifically. He directed us to a music store that had an extensive collection, where I purchased two CDs.

Holding Al-Rababa at Yousef's Shop. It is one of the oldest instruments in Middle Eastern culture.

Day 6: 5/28

The most interesting part of today was sitting with the Shabob (workers) during second breakfast. Two of my other friends from my ethnography class also joined me as an attempt to observe and get to interact with the Jordanians better. It was definitely a success. As always, they offered such kind hospitality by offering us to share their lunch (definitely very tasty). Amer, a wonderful teacher taught us a few Arabic words and even wrote some phrases down for us. Later on, I tried using some of these phrases with the shabob which made the work experience more enjoyable, getting to interact with them.

Day 5: 5/27

Today was an exciting first day of excavation! We began digging in our square, peeling back top soil. We completed digging half of locus 1 so far, and hope to finish that locus tomorrow, and begin a new locus. I realized that there are many technical “behind the scenes” procedures when digging. The measurements, records, organizing, readings, they all have specific protocol. Everybody loves digging and discovering objects, areas, architecture, however, as square supervisor I've gotten the opportunity to see other aspects of excavating. For example, the locus sheets are very detailed and specific. In order to make sure everything is organized and in the proper context, the sheets have to be filled out very accurately. I also witnessed Dr. Walker doing the pottery reading, how quickly she can identify pottery, especially identifying it solely by touching it. It's amazing that she could close her eyes and identify the pottery sherd by how it feels (the time period etc. ).

My work partner, Anna and I halfway through excavating locus 1. (She's smiling behind that mask)

Day 4: 5/26

We went back to work on our square to finish up the cleaning. It was a bit of a struggle because the boundaries of our square changed so we still had quite a bit of cleaning left to do. Today cleaning also included removing huge stones from two areas near our square that are believed to be cisterns. We had to take precautions in removing stones and plants from this area so that it wouldn't collapse. By the end of the day we did make a lot of progress and are set to begin digging tomorrow. I am really excited to start excavating our square. I also ran into a piece of pottery that seemed to be quite different from the rest.

Field O, Square 11

Standing in front of our square during a quick break!

  

Day 3: 5/25

Today was the first work day! Waking up at 5AM was the biggest struggle of the day. However, once I was up I was up and ready to work. We arrived at the work site and took a tour of Hesban. It was incredible to see all of the work that had been done already, such as the massive pits of the water reservoir. However, it was a bit discouraging to see our square in comparison to those that were already “works in progress”. My assigned square was untouched waiting to be opened. Nevertheless, it was still very exciting to get to work. Today was all about cleaning the square from weeds, grass, stone, and collecting any surface pottery. I took a before and after picture to show our progress of the day.

Before cleanup: 

And after: