The Wadi Arabah Project is an international multi-disciplinary project which aims to establish the key historical role of the Wadi Arabah as a dynamic interface between southern Jordan and the Negev of southern Israel. The project brings together scholars who have been carrying out fieldwork on both sides of the Wadi Arabah, in Israel and Jordan, to co-operate in producing a collaborative overview of an area which was always more of a route than a barrier.
Background The Wadi Arabah, running between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba, and separating the Negev from southern Jordan, marks the line of the modern political border between Israel and Jordan. For the early first millennium BC it is usually regarded as the border between the kingdoms of Judah and Edom. Together with its supposed barrenness, this idea of the Wadi Arabah as a boundary has tended to condition modern interpretation of it as a barrier. However, the Wadi Arabah has a number of springs and dense vegetation in places. Moreover, recent research shows that in most periods southern Jordan and the Negev were part of the same socio-economic system, implying that the Wadi Arabah was a bridge between them. Particular trade routes are known, and ethnographic sources indicate that beduin groups from southern Jordan regularly crossed the Wadi Arabah to reach the Negev and beyond. Parts of the Wadi Arabah have been surveyed archaeologically and some sites have been excavated, particularly Timna and Wadi Faynan on the west and east sides respectively, which form the largest copper production centre of the southern Levant. Nevertheless, archaeological research in the Wadi Arabah has been constrained by three factors:
The Wadi Arabah Project is problem-oriented. Its aims are to study the Wadi Arabah as a historically dynamic area linking southern Jordan with the Negev. Its objectives are:
The Wadi Arabah Project is planned in three phases: Phase 1 has been completed: A Geographic Information System (GIS) of all sites recorded by surveys and excavations (currently 6000+ sites). Unpublished survey data available in Israel and Jordan is included, with the co-operation of the surveyors and excavators. The GIS uses a digital terrain model (DTM) to show the diverse topography of the wadi and to allow three-dimensional manipulation of the data. The area covered by the GIS is the entire Wadi Arabah, including the wadi systems and mountain ranges on both sides, in order to indicate how the wadi interconnected between southern Jordan and the Negev.Phase 2 has been completed: A conference under the title Crossing the Rift: Resources, Routes, Settlement Patterns and Interaction in the Wadi Arabah was held in November 2003 at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta, GA, within the annual meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research. This conference consisted of 26 papers from all those who hold primary data on the resources, archaeology and history of the Wadi Arabah. Its purpose was twofold: firstly, to address the four objectives of the Wadi Arabah Project, listed above, as far as current evidence allows; secondly, to identify the gaps in knowledge and discuss further fieldwork. The discussions provide the framework for Phase 3 of the project. The proceedings of the conference have now been published in the British Academy Monographs in Archaeology series, edited by the project directors, published by Oxford University Press, and funded by the Council for British Research in the Levant. Phase 3 (2004-): A three-pronged strategy to complete archaeological coverage of the entire Wadi Arabah, in cooperation with other projects on both sides of the wadi in Jordan and Israel:
back to top Sponsorship The institutions sponsoring this project are (alphabetically): W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research American Schools of Oriental Research Center for Old World Archaeology and Art, Brown University Council for British Research in the Levant Fernbank Museum of Natural History, Atlanta Manchester Museum School of Archaeology, Classics and Oriental Studies, University of Liverpool Watson Institute for International Studies, Brown University back to top Dr Piotr Bienkowski Deputy Director, Collections and Academic Engagement, Manchester Museum, /University of Manchester, England Professor of Archaeology, University of Manchester email: piotr.a.bienkowski@manchester.ac.uk Dr Eveline J. van der Steen Honorary Research Fellow, School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, University of Liverpool email: evdsteen@liverpool.ac.uk Scholars involved in the Wadi Arabah Project
© Wadi Arabah Project - Eveline van der Steen - last updated 30 December 2009 |
How
old is the Kingdom of Edom: a discussion |