My Precious Trowel Recovered

Well - clearly all the karma my friends have been sending my way has translated into something good. I finally received my luggage yesterday from Air Canada. I'll be honest...I was amazed I got it. But not without some interesting things happening to it first.

While I was in Jordan, my IPOD broke (all the sand I think toasted it....which is ok, because I wanted to get an IPOD ITouch anyways!). So I put it in my bag to bring home so I could crack it open and see what the insides of an IPOD look like. Well - upon receiving my bag last night....lo and behold....no IPOD.....so the joke is on whoever stole it out of my bag. Gotcha!

Most importantly, however....is the fact that I got my trowel back. I have had that trowel ever since my first excavation in 1988 and aside from all of the other material in my luggage...it was the only thing I was really upset about potentially losing (kinda trivial I know...but all of you archaeologists out there know what I am talking about).

Back Home

I really do have to apologize to all loyal readers of my blog. As you know, my access to the internet in the desert was a bit limited. But now I am home and I will be updating the blog on a more frequent basis with interesting tidbits about my work this summer (pictures and video to come) as well as developments in the world of Archaeology, Classics and History.

Having said all that - I need to get something off my chest. My trip home went flawlessly until Air Canada/Royal Jordanian Airlines lost my luggage. This is the first time I have ever "lost" my bags and I can say that I am very disappointed. This is just the beginning of the saga...so I am sure to have more to say. Bottom line - the person who checked me in at the airport in Amman, decided to only check my bags to Heathrow airport. I advised the person at the Air Canada desk and despite their claims that they would locate my luggage and so on - it seems that I just kept getting "passed along" to the next person - finally arriving in Toronto to find out that the people I spoke to in London basically lied to me. UGH......the bag had all my gifts for my family, my hiking shoes, and so on. But most importantly....it had my TROWEL! The same trowel that I have used on every archaeological project since 1989. Its irreplacable. I am devestated! Anyways, I guess there are worse things that happen....but I am still very much disappointed.

I checked with Air Canada today and so far, no luck. If I don't have my bag by the end of the week...chances are....I never will. Damn! More to come later.

Wind, Wind and More Wind

Greetings all. I am in Amman this morning doing some much needed errands and so have a few minutes to update you all to the happenings at Kharaneh/Azraq. Things are in full swing now on site and we have begun to uncover features. In my area we have come down on what appears to be a huge ash/burn pit or scar. Since I am in Amman today it is up to my teammates to continue to expose the surface of the feature and begin to map its dimensions. Tomorrow we will begin to excavate it - so I'll have more to say on that later. I have a picture of it...but no time to upload - so that will have to come at a later date.

The one thing that I do have to say is that we have been experiencing some rather strong winds...and when I say strong....I mean - its very difficult to sift our dirt as the wind blows the lithics out of our hands...which in a way is great...if they could land in the bag...but alas, it just doesn't happen that way.

Our cook (Ismail) made pizza last night for dinner which was met with great applause and adulation since we are pretty much tired of tomatoes and cucumbers....so this was a much needed change. On the weekend I made everyone my world famous Jerk Chicken...and it seemed to go over well. That was followed up with my now world famous Bananna Fritters....everyone is looking forward to a repeat performance.

Ok, I have to hand the laptop back to Lisa....she has some real work to do....whatever THAT is!!!

Return To Madaba

Well - for once I have been able to provide an update with a little more substance to it - and I am even able to post some pictures. The first is a picture of the "Yo Sushi" bar in Heathrow airport. Its one of those that you sit at and the various dishes pass by on a belt - each dish is in a coloured bowl that has a different price associated with it. You are charged based on the number of bowls you eat. On my way to Jordan I spent about 1.5 hours at this spot sampling the various sushi delights. Actually - I don't like sushi, because for me, its just a wasabi delivery device. Anyways, I had never eaten in one with a conveyer belt delivering the food so I thought I would take a picture. Everyone thought I was such a "tourist"...and in this case, they were right.

Things have been going well on the project. Everyday we get up at 4AM, have a quick breakfast (instant oatmeal for me - see my prevous post on the subject), then head out to site. Its about a 35 minute drive from Azraq to Kharaneh. As a driver of one of the vehicles I am not able to sleep on the way like everyone else - but at least my 4x4 is airconditioned. The other day the temperature was reading 43 degrees at one point. It has been very hot - but that's to be expected. Once we get to site its time to set up our sifts (screens that we pass all our dirt through to find the small artifacts). In the picture I am holding a bit of bone that has some lines etched on to it. There is some debate as to what the nature of these lines are, but they seem to be counting notches in groups of 3 or 4. This bone fragment is over 15,000 years old - so while it may not be a golden cup or other such glamourous object - the fact that somebody was using this that long ago to count something is interesting in its own right.

One of my first tasks this summer was to lay out the excavation grid. This is a picture of Dr. Lisa Maher (the project leader and close friend) putting in the site benchmark. 50 years from now this image will be part of the historical record. The site we are excavating is extremely uniqe for the Epipaleolithic - there is only one or two others in the world that provide the same kind of "window into the past" of this time period. I promised Lisa that this image would be on the back cover of her festschrift when she is famous!

We are excvating in 1x1 meter squares - which for me is unusual, but what the heck. The site has been divided into two areas where we are excavating. Digging is slow going since every trowel swipe turns up a tons of "stone and bone" that we have to sort through and process. Fortunately, the stratigraphy is pretty straight forward. Just yesterady, however, I have come down on what seems to be a pit or a burn scar - immediately complicating things and requiring additional documentation. If anything interesting turns up - I'll let you know.

We generally work until 11:15 when we pack up to head back to Azraq. Our afternoons are filled with processing artifacts, documentation, etc. Eventually we call it a day around 7pm - just enough time for a cold beer and then bed. We are a fairly small crew - only 11 of us, but we all get along and are having fun. As the oldest crew member (ack!). Last night we left Azraq and headed into Amman to see the new Indiana Jones movie. I have a lot to say about it - but I was pleasently suprised by the film and I actually liked it. It wasn't as good as the others - but what can you do! Harrison Ford is looking pretty old...but he's a tough old dude and if I looked half as good as him when I am 50, I'll be happy!

Winds on site have been inconsistant, but I did have the chance the other day to launch my kite and snap a few quick pics. I have attached them to this post so that you can get a sense of what the site actually looks like. I hope to get some more pictures of the site uploaded in the future - provided the wind keeps blowing...and I am sure it will.

I am in Madaba now - the town I have been working in for the past 10 years and its a bit like "coming home". People on the street see me and recognize me and say hi...its great. I am off in a few minutes to go for a swim in the hotel pool and then to do some shopping. We will be returning to Azraq at 4pm this afternoon and then its back to work tomorrow morning at 4am. The next week of excavations should be interesting - as we dig deeper...more interesting artifacts and deposits are sure to appear. Stay tuned.

Stone and Bone

Greetings all. Again - apologies for not uploading any images. I am still having intermittent access to the internet here in the desert (suprise)...so bandwidth is at a premium. I will be in the town of Madaba this Thursday/Friday - so hopefully I'll be able to do a proper update at that time. For now - here is a quick update.

Excavation is proceeding slowly as we all get used to the site and the nature of deposits. One thing I can say about this Epipaleolithic site is the fact that I have never seen so many lithics in one place...the ground is riddled with them and I am hoping to get a picture to you soon. We have finally finished cleaning operations in our various fields of excavation and have begun to excavate down. Today we found a bit of "mother of pearl" which had been carved to have "teeth" along one side. Basically, someone about 15,000 years ago was at the Mediterranean Sea - brought this bit of shell home to Kharaneh (or traded for it) and fashioned it into a piece of jewellery. When you think of it that way - its pretty amazing. As for the other artifacts coming out of the ground - the title of this post says it all - stone and bone.

I had to come into Amman today to pick up some other crew members - its about 1.5 hours from Azraq and along the way I picked up a couple of army hitchikers. Its the thing you do here - those who don't own cars, bum rides from everyone else. It was nice to have someone along for the ride, we were able to communicate in my broken Arabic and his broken English. Like all Jordanians, once he found out I was from Canada he immediately responds with "I want to come to Canada"....well, why wouldn't he....Canada is a great place. I warned him about the cold.....but that had little effect, so who knows?

I have to go - heading back to Azraq via the Jordan Plastic Factory to pick up some red crates for storage.....allways an adventure!

Flat Tires and the Desert

Greetings all. This is my first post from Jordan and I am sorry it has taken so long for me to get to it. The town of Azraq where we are staying DOES have internet...but it is extremely slow - and we have been very busy since we started digging, so this is the first chance I have had to write in the blog and update you all. I am sorry that I don't have any pictures to upload yet - but hopefully soon.

I am writing this post from the comfort of the CBRL (British Research Institute) in Amman. We are here today (Friday) to do some supplies shopping and bring some project members to the airport. Presently the noon call to prayer is happening - there is a mosque right beside the CBRL and it is very loud.

The first week of excavations have gone well. I have finally finished setting up the excavation grid and establishing benchmarks and reference points. It has been very hot (this morning it was 37 degrees!!! and no wind)...but I have been adapting well.

Our living accomodations are great - we have rented a new house that was just built in Azraq (pictures to come later) and I even have my own room. We also have a cook that is doing all the cooking so its pretty comfortable. The only thing we are missing are some proper couches and chairs...so we are going "Jordan Style" and have put mattresses around a room and we recline on those. Its pretty comfortable...but sometimes getting up is a bit tough after a hard days work.

So - about the flat tires. Over the past week I have had to change 3 flat tires on various vehicles we are using. The most difficult one was when we tried to go out into the middle of the desert (ok, maybe not the middle...but you get the idea) to find a remote archaeological site. Needless to say - we never got to it, we turned around since we had used up our last spare tire. So far no keys have been lost (some of you will get that joke).

Since we have just started excavating, I don't have anything new to report on that front. We begin in ernest on Saturday - so I should have something to say in a few days. First observations of the site is that its pretty amazing the amount of lithics that are scattered all over the place....I mean literally hundreds of thousands of them.

Upon arrival in Amman last Saturday night I preceded to Madaba to pick up some of my equipment that was in storage. I was able to track down my old friend Mashur and he was totally suprised to see me in Jordan...he had no idea that I was coming and was very happy to see me.

Everyone on the project is very nice and we are all getting along quite well. Last night we had a bit of a "party" and sat around exchanging stories. Good fun. I am very tired - getting up at 4am every day and then driving 45 minutes to site is exhausting. I am also disappointed that I have been unable to get any aerial photographs as the wind has not been strong enough - which is a complete suprise. Mother Nature is having a good laugh at my expense.

Have to go shopping in Amman now (allways an adventure) - I'll update with some photos in the near future.

Next Stop - Amman, Jordan

Well everyone - its just about that time. As my daughter puts it - "only one more sleep to go"! It has been frantic couple of weeks in getting ready to hit the field - but I think I have remembered everything. Today I did some last minute shopping - in particular, shopping for those items I just can't do without in the field - they are (in no particular order):

- A small bottle of Clamato Juice (for those of you non-Canadian readers out there, this is a drink that consists of tomato and clam juice mixed together). This stuff is used for making "Caesars". Its a drink that you can add either the traditional Vodka - or Gin (for you Brits out there), then you can customize it with Tabasco and other "fixin's".

- Jamaican Jerk Spice. Jordanian fare tends to be rather bland and not very exciting in terms of spice, so I have found that from time to time, preparing a special dish of spicy Caribbean food can have a very postive impact on team morale.

- Instant Oatmeal. Many of you may be surprised that this item is on the list - BUT - at 4:15 in the morning the last thing you want to be doing is cooking up a breakfast - you are on autopilot, so I find that a quick bowl of instant oatmeal is just enough food to get me through to what we call "2nd Breakfast" at 9am on site. 2nd Breakfast can be many different things depending on the project...only time will tell what we'll be eating out in the desert - but I'll be sure to keep you informed.

- Sunblock. Ok, probably an obvious item - but you can't take just ANY sunblock, it has to be a "non-greasy" type....and waterproof. I have found that the cheaper brands of sunblock aren't very good, so I go with Coppertone SPF 50......basically, no tan..but this isn't a vacation folks!

Last but not least is the Marshalltown Trowel 45-5. This is the basic tool of the archaeologist. There are many rules in archaeology and one of them is "Thou Shalt Not Use Any Other Trowel Than A Marshalltown". Archaeologists from the UK disagree with this vehemently (Marshalltown Trowels are made in the USA) and it provides endless debate while on the field. My trowel has been with me ever since my first field school in 1988 back on the Greek island of Lesbos (that's right, I was a Lesbian for a couple of months back in college!!!) - ever since, I have taken it on every project I have ever worked on - I have misplaced it sometimes and even had people hide it from me (a very nerve wracking event) - but it allways turns up. Never mess with an archaeologist's trowel - you are just asking for trouble.

I know this has been a rather trivial post and I haven't really said anything useful - but to be quite honest, I am exhausted and just want to get on the plane at this point. So I must say goodbye for now and I will next post from the beautiful Jordanian oasis town of Azraq early next week.

Indiana Jones Almost Here

I thought some of you might get a kick out of this. Remember - "X, never - ever marks the spot"!!

A Long Time Ago

Scan11237
Originally uploaded by AndrewJGraham

I came across this image and I thought it was interesting enough that I would share it with everyone. What is so neat about this image is that it is a scan of my "One Day Travelcard" of my first visit to London, way back on May 25th, 1988, which of course is EXACTLY 20 years ago. Some of you may know that I have the habit of collecting the oddest of things - old ticket stubs being one of them. The only reason this image is scanned is because I have been on a digital archiving kick at home - and this happened to be something that I kept from that first European adventure so long ago. Its hard to believe that it was 20 years ago....sometimes it seems like just yesterday, and other times it feels like a lifetime ago.

Just for kicks I looked up online what a "One Day Travelcard" costs today - and its a whopping 6.7 British Pounds Sterling. So, simple math means that the cost has gone up 4.7 Pounds in 20 years. BUT, we should figure out what that is in Canadian $ taking into account the historical exchange rates. God bless the internet, its easy to do. The exchange rate for May 25th, 1988 was 2.3179 CDN$ to 1 Pound - so, the Travelcard cost me exactly $4.62 CDN back in the day. If I buy one today - the current exchange rate is 1.9503, so that means it will cost me $13.06 CDN. Bottom line = I will not be buying a "One Day Travelcard" but instead will buy a nice expensive airport beer!!!! Of course, as my friend Luke has pointed out - I am not taking into account the inflation rate. If I did, it would look a whole lot better - but, then - who cares about inflation anyways!

Jordan Desert Castles - Qasr al-Mushatta

While not exactly on the Desert Castle "loop" (the site is located approximately 30km south of Amman - just beside the Airport), Qasr al-Mushatta is was perhaps one of the most beautiful in terms of architectural style and decoration. This was one of the largest Umayyad palaces constructed in Jordan and as you can see from the plan - rather symmetrical. Construction on the palace began around 743 CE by Walid II. Even though the palace was never completed, it was impressive nevertheless. There are a total of 25 semi-circular towers built into the Palace enclosure. Much of the surrounding facade was built of fired bricks that have a definate "orange" colour to them - making the whole structure stand out against the desert landscape.

Looking at these pictures you can get a sense of what travellers (people like Gertrude Bell) saw at the site back in the 18th 19th C. when visiting the site. Unfortunately if you visit the site today you won't see the beautiful carvings as most of the more ornate and preserved ones were sent to Berlin at the turn of the century - a gift from the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid to Kaiser Wilhelm. While I have actually never been to Mushatta, I have had the opportunity to see the carvings in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. The Germans should be commended in how they have presented these remains in a Museum setting - you can certainly appreceiate their beauty, however - your sense of scale is distorted since they have been taken out of their original context. I don't want to engage in the debate regarding the exporting of antiquities and their return to countries of origin - many of you have varied opinions on this subject and its a rather sensitive one. The Mushatta carvings are but one example of this phenomenon - others (like the Eligin Marbles) are equally complex and sensitive situations. Nuff said!

Since this is a site I have never been to I hope I get a chance to see it in a few weeks.

Bored? Try This Game

Ok, so I came across this little game widget on National Geographic's web page and thought that I would share it with you all. Those of you who know me, know how obsessive I can be when it comes to maps (just ask any of my students!). Anyways - I thought this little game was fun. Hope you enjoy it.

National Geographic has lots of different widgets on their site for inclusion into websites and blogs. I think I will add a few more as I go along. I think you need Flash installed on your computer in order to see these widgets....so if you can't see anything below it means that you don't have Flash installed...you can get it from Macromedia here.

Intermisso - Essential Reading

Ok, well, I thought I would take a break and let you all know what book I am going to be reading while I am away in Jordan. Even though we work 6 days a week when we are in the field, there is plenty of opportunity to do some pleasure reading. Usually everyone will bring one book and leave it behind to add to the project "library" for future seasons. So - in this spirit, here is the book that I am going to bring and donate. I found out about it from a friend who works down in the Department of Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations at UofT St. George campus (thanks J.). Since I haven't read it yet - I thought I would just quote what the Publishers Weekly (courtesy of Amazon.ca) has to say about it:

"International bestseller Navarro (The Brotherhood of the Holy Shroud) wades back into the religious artifact suspense pond, but this time she's pretty much dead in the water with too many unpleasant characters, repetitive exposition, a plodding plot and flat unimaginative prose (perhaps the fault of the translator?). In Iraq, shortly before the current war, Iraqi archeologist Clara Tannenberg announces an incredible find: two cuneiform clay tablets that refer to another set of tablets that record the biblical patriarch Abraham's story of the creation of the earth. The twist is that this clay bible with Abraham's narrative was written a thousand years before the papyrus version we know today. This discovery, one character asserts, will "change history, with repercussions in religion and even politics." How this will happen and what the repercussions will be are never really explained, as a group of off-the-shelf evil Nazis vie with C lara's thuggish grandfather and a few other interested parties to find, seize, steal or sell the clay tablets."

I don't know what else to add - other than I am looking forward to reading this book - I mean its got all the cliches associated with archaeology - the bible, tablets and even the vile Nazi's (for another example of Nazi's and archaeology see Indiana Jones - Raiders of the Lost Ark) - how could it be bad? If only our own work at Kharaneh would have similar "repercussions" (sigh). I have also been busy copying DVD's onto my PSP for viewing pleasure (especially on the long plane rides to and from Jordan). I have been fortunate to be able to get my hand on the first 7 episodes of "The Tudors" and look forward to watching Henry.....well.......be Henry! Its apparently good to be the king!

Ok - enough levity. I will return with a new post in due course on another "desert castle" of Jordan - but which one exactly I will leave as a suprise. 11 days until I depart - but who's counting.

Jordan Desert Castles - Qasr al-Hallabat

The picture to the left was taken by Francesca Radcliffe who has done a lot of aerial photography in Jordan alongside David Kennedy. I know that most of you won't know who these people are - but since I am using their photo, I figure I should at least give them credit for the work they have done.

Ok, so back to Qasr al-Hallabat. I chose to lead off with this picture because it gives you a good idea of the scale and shape of this castle. As you can see, there have been significant reconstruction efforts on the go (the crane to the left of the structure is a dead give away. I don't know when this picture was taken, but it must be fairly recent as my own recollections of Hallabat back in 2000 was that the restoration hadn't really begun. Checking with Radcliffe's website (http://www.francesca-radcliffe.com/jordan.htm) it seems as if this picture dates to October 2006, so that confirms my theory.

Just like many of the other "castles" in the area - this site has a fairly long history dating back to the Nabatean period. The shape of the "castle" (with four very pronounced corner towers) is attributable to the Romans. Again, another fort along the eastern fronteir of the Roman Empire. It was originally constructed in the 2nd C. AD. during the reign of Caracalla (if you get a chance - visit his bath complex in Rome - pretty impressive) to guard the Via Nova Traiana - the road that connected Damascus and Aqaba.

After the so-called "fall" of the Roman Empire, it seems that the fort was refurbished by the Byzantines in the 5th/6th C. and functioned as a monestary - eventually abandoning it around 614. Once again - along comes the Umayyad Caliphs who essentially "pimp" the place up to function as another one of their "pleasure palaces". They added frescoes (only the plaster backing of these remains in fragments on the walls), mosaics, friezes, etc. The "bling" may be gone, but you can still get a sense of just how impressive the Umayyad Caliphs could be in terms of interior decorating. In fact, it gives me an idea for a new TV show on HGTV - "Interior Decorating, Ancient World Style"....think it would fly?

Jordan Desert Castles - Qasr al-Azraq

This castle is located in the town where we will be staying for the summer. Azraq is the only permanent source of water in this part of Jordan (the oasis that used to be here is being reclaimed - i'll report more on that later in the summer), and as such - has had a human presence (on and off) for at least the past 20,000 years or so - perhaps longer...but lets not get into that. Anyways - the castle located here was first built by the Romans (Bloody Romans!) back in the 4th C. - shortly after 300 AD. Inscriptions found at the castle dedicate its construction to the Emperors Diocletian and Maximilian. This outpost of Roman power in the eastern desert was about as far from Rome as you could get - it sat on the very edge (or Limes if you want to invoke your Latin) of the Roman Empire.

The present state of the castle was a result of the rebuilding efforts of the Ayyubids around 1230 AD. Perhaps the most famous person to inhabit the walls of Qasr al-Azraq was none other than T.E. Lawrence himself. Many of you may know him as "Lawrence of Arabia" - a very controversial figure in the history and politics of the Middle East in the early 20th C. He used this castle as a base of operations during the so-called Arab Revolt of 1917. I have visited this site before (back in 2000 with my wife, Tara) and had my picture taken in "Lawrences' Room" - his office if you will. I can just imagine the things that went on there...incredible.

The castle itself has many interesting features, but perhaps the most interesting (for me at least) was the HUGE (it weighs over 3 tons!) stone door that leads into the castle. It still swings on its original stone pivots and you can actually move it yourself. Another item of interest is the ruins of a small mosque in the central courtyard - clearly it was a mosque with its mirhab, but apparently it was originally a Byzantine church. I'll certainly be paying Qasr al-Azraq a visit since we will be living within walking distance of the site, so stay tuned for more from Azraq (GF109.3).

Jordan Desert Castles - Qasr Amra

Our next stop on the "Desert Castle Tour" is the site of Qasr Amra. Built early in the 8th century AD, this "castle" (as you can see....it really isn't a castle at all) is in a relatively poor state of preservation - but enough survives to give you a sense of what its function was.

Built by the Umayyad Caliph Walid I - Qasr Amra was apparently used as a "pleasure palace" - or as a hunting lodge. Basically an early Islamic "man-cave". For those of you who don't know what a "man-cave" is - here is a link to a modern day example. Here is MY "man-cave" that I will be missing while I am away.

The complex at Qasr Amra had a bath complex alongside a large central triple-domed room. It is this central room that is the most interesting because it is covered in frescos depicting hunting scenes and even naked women! The sad part about Qasr Amra is the significant damage that has been done to the frescos over the years - particularly grafitti defacing many of the human and animal figures depicted.

Qasr Amra was added to UNESCO's World Heritage list in 1985 which has proven vital to the conservation and preservation efforts of this beautiful building complex. I am sure I will get a chance to revisit this site at some point this summer.

Jordan Desert Castles - Qasr Kharaneh

This is the first of several brief notes regarding the local archaeology of the region I'll be working in this summer. I don't know if I'll have time to visit all of the sites I'll be listing here - but I'll give it the old "college try" as they say.

I thought I would start with Qasr Kharaneh as it is located directly to the north of where we will be working. You'll undoubtedly see more of this stucture as the summer progresses as we'll be going by this site on a daily basis.

I first visited this site back in 2000 when I did the "Desert Castle Tour" (as it is commonly referred to) with my wife, Tara, and a couple of friends (you know who you are - can we ever forget the "Osama Special" I had rented?). If I recall correctly - Tara never made it into the castle because the heat (and the long day - this was one of our last stops) had finally caught up with her - but I digress.

Qasr Kharaneh, or Kharaneh Castle is an Umayyad period building constructed around the 6th C. AD. There are many opinions on the function and use of this building and I am not going to bore you with the details - other than to say - while the building certainly looks like a castle - there are those who say it was just a glorified caravanserai (I can't say that word!) or that it was just a meeting place for Umayyad chief "mucky-mucks" to chat about business - an Umayyad "Camp David" if you will. Either way - its a cool structure, well preserved. Going inside the Qasr is like stepping back in time and you can just imagine all the goings on in the central courtyard. I hope to get a chance to spend some time inside the castle so I can take a bunch of pictures - who knows...maybe I'll even get to do some KAP of the building!

Kids Playing Cricket

So I thought I would take a moment and update you all on the progress of my KAP (remember, that stands for Kite Aerial Photography) experiment in getting ready for heading to Jordan. I am getting a bit better at guiding the kite around - though for this launch (this past Tuesday) I was without any "helpers" (which explains the absence of anyone but myself in the picture to the left) which made things more difficult. The saying "many hands makes light work" is definately true for KAP.

Anyways - I also learned that in order for my pictures to turn out better I need to keep my back to the sun and have a lot of wind. Seems obvious now...but at the time I really thought it wouldn't matter that much. I experimented with attaching the rig higher on the line, lower on the line - putting the camera at various angles and so on. All produced a variety of photos from really good....to really bad. Thank goodness for digital photography. In the course of about 1 hour I shot over 1000 photos...of which only about 10 were really usable. That should give you some idea of the ratio we are working with.

So - getting to the topic of this post "Kids Playing Cricket"...I am fortunate to live across the street from one of the only parks in Mississauga that has a Cricket Pitch. Given the dominant cultural group in my neighbourhood - this is not suprising. Every Sunday afternoon during the summer, this pitch gets used extensively for all-day Cricket matches. This is a great thing. I don't know much about Cricket - but any sport that breaks for tea halfway through can't be all that bad! I even like the clothes they wear! Very civilized.

While I was out doing my KAP stuff, there were a bunch of kids (and a Dad I think) come out to the pitch to practice their skills. It was a great opportunity for me to "document" Cricket activities at what I am now calling the "Churchill Meadows Pitch".

Lets Go Fly a Kite

For many years I have wanted to use a kite to lift a camera into the sky and take pictures of the earth below. This is most often referred to Kite Aerial Photography or KAP for short. After doing a fair bit of research into the subject - I finally went out and purchased a camera mount (called a "rig") and a kite from a company in the States called Into The Wind Kites. There are a variety of different types of rigs you can construct - from ones that incorporate a remote control manuvering system (definately not for me!) to ones that are very basic and just hang from the kite line (definately for me!).

Friday April 19th was the first test of my KAP system, consisting of a Floform 8 kite, the KAP rig and a Nikon Coolpix L14 camera (less than $100 in case it came crashing to the earth). I live across the street from a huge park and so I have easy access to a flying zone on any given day, provided that the wind is sufficient. I don't have a wind meter - so I had to rely on my judgement - which as it turns out was bang on! If I had to guess, the wind was blowing at about 15 - 20 km/h.

Launching the kite and rig is basically a 2 person job. My wife and daughter joined me on the excursion to assist. Basically what you need to do is launch the kite as you normally would. Once the kite is up in the air about 75 feet, then you attach the rig to the kite line. My rig is usually referred to as a pendulum rig - it is configured in such a way as to allow the camera mount part to swing below the kite line, regardless of line angle (gravity....not just a good idea, its the law!). The rig allows you to position the angle the camera is shooting in any direction. For archaeological applications this can either be directly above the item of interest, or on an oblique.

Once the rig is on the line you allow the kite to slowly lift it to the desired altitude. This is the tricky part as wind gusts can be your enemy. My daughter was excellent in making sure the camera didn't come crashing down to earth, but rather into her expert hands! I set the camera to shoot video instead of taking pictures. While its fairly low resolution, it allowed me to focus on technique instead of content. Future test flights will experiment with picture taking. At any rate, you get the idea of what is possible just from the couple of pictures I have posted here. The first one is an "oblique" of the soccer field across from my house. The 2nd is an overhead shot with my daughter and I in frame for scale. So, all in all I am quite happy with my first experiment. I am hoping to use this setup in Jordan this summer to capture overhead images of not just our site (Kharaneh IV), but also Mudayna, Madaba and anywhere else they will let me "fly a kite".

The Archaeology Channel

In my never-ending quest for free and appropriate resources for use in class I came across a website called "The Archaeology Channel". Well, being a HUGE fan of the History Channel (r) I just had to check it out. Sure enough, I wasn't disappointed...and I don't think any of you will be either. The Archaeology Channel has links to a wide variety of "archaeology themed" videos that you can watch. Some are good.....some are cheesy.....and some are just plain B.A.D.

Anyways, I came across one that I thought would be perfect for my blog - its called "Jordan: A Historical Review" and is 15 minutes long. If you get some spare time and you want to see a bit more of what Jordan is like then I suggest you click this link and see for yourself.

http://www.archaeologychannel.org/content/video/jordan.html

It may be 15 minutes you never get back....but you'll be the better for it!

The Middle of Nowhere Revealed

I was thinking about this last night when my daughter asked me - "Daddy, exactly where is the middle of nowhere?". Good point! So, I thought I would put my Google Earth skills to good use and post a picture of the location of Azraq in relationship to other more well known sites (Amman, Jerusalem and Madaba of course!).

Click on the map image to see a larger version. As you can tell - the middle of nowhere actually IS a real place!

The Land Of Blog

Ok, I am not sure exactly what I am trying to say here - but, simply put - I welcome all you readers to my frist attempt at an "in the field" blog. Actually, to be honest - this is the first blog that I have ever written, so we'll have to see how it goes. I thought that blogging would be a more efficient way to communicate with all and sundry about whats going on in Jordan without having to email everyone. Ok, yes....I am lazy....but I prefer to say - I am efficient....(isn't that really the same thing?). So - while I am not yet "in the field", I wanted to get this whole thing started and "advertise" my blog so that everyone knew how to get to it, etc. I will do my best to upload pictures and so on depending on how good the internet is in Azraq. For those of you who don't know - Azraq is pretty much in the "middle of nowhere" in northern Jordan. To put it simply, Azraq is the last stop on the highway before you get to Saudi Arabia - its about a 2.5 hour drive from Amman. When you begin to see the pictures, you'll begin to understand.