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Galor leads Wadi Arabah gathering
The symposium, titled "Crossing the Rift: Resources,
Routes, Settlement Patterns and Interaction in the Wadi Arabah,"
is the first multidisciplinary conference devoted to the archaeology
and history of the area that forms the modern political border
between Israel and Jordan.
by Mary Jo Curtis
Since the early first millennium B.C., the kingdoms of Judah
and Edom - now Israel and Jordan - have been separated by the
Wadi Arabah, a natural barrier running between the Dead Sea
and the Gulf of Aqaba.
Or so scholars thought. Recent explorations and research indicate
the opposite is true: In most periods southern Jordan and the
Negev of southern Israel were part of the same socioeconomic
system - and the Wadi Arabah likely served as a bridge expediting
trade and commerce between them.
Now Katharina Galor, visiting assistant professor at the Center
for Old World Archaeology and Art, and archaeologist Piotr Bienkowski
of the Liverpool Museum in England have organized a symposium
that will bring together some 40 scholars from Israel, Jordan,
Europe and North America to discuss their research on the Wadi
Arabah. They will present papers on its nature and use from
earliest times to the present at the annual meeting of the American
Schools of Oriental Research Nov. 19-22 at AtlantaÕs Fernbank
Museum of Natural History.
Titled "Crossing the Rift: Resources, Routes, Settlement
Patterns and Interaction in the Wadi Arabah," this will
be the first multidisciplinary conference devoted to the archaeology
and history of the Wadi Arabah, the modern political border
between Israel and Jordan. According to Galor, excavations and
surveys on both sides of the ridge have demonstrated the two
sides had much in common, including copper production.
"Particular trade routes are known, and ethnographic sources
indicate Bedouin groups from southern Jordan regularly crossed
the Wadi Arabah to reach the Negev and beyond," she said.
"It's a desert area, but there's clear evidence of travel
between the fruitful, rich areas."
There have been significant constraints in completing the puzzle,
Galor noted. Fieldwork has been done independently on the east
and west sides, with little crossover or communication between
the Israeli and Jordanian archaeologists. There has been no
overall map of the area, and much of the survey work is unpublished.
Galor and Bienkowski have tackled a major part of that problem
as part of a more global research project. Gathering both published
and unpublished archaeological surveys and excavations of some
6,000 sites, they've compiled a Geographic Information System
map of the Wadi Arabah through the lab here at Brown; in addition
to synthesizing what has already been done, the map identifies
areas for future work.
The political impediments have been more difficult to overcome.
"We started this project three years ago, when there was
more hope for peace and cooperation," she added. "We've
wanted to do further surveys in the region and have the conference
in east Jerusalem, but the political situation worsened - and
with the political tensions it's impossible to have the conference
there now. We were forced to have it in the United States or
Europe."
Aside from the academic questions that could be answered, there
are more urgent issues at hand, Galor said. A $5-billion proposal
to bring water from the Red Sea through a canal or pipeline
along the Wadi Arabah to replenish the ailing Dead Sea - currently
being considered - would have profound archaeological implications.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
wants to turn the area into a nature preserve and protect the
archaeological sites. Galor hopes the conference will influence
the outcome of those considerations.
"This could lay the groundwork for future cross-border
and international cooperation on joint archaeological assessment
and rescue work on both the Israeli and Jordanian sides of the
Wadi Arabah - at a time when all other regional cooperative
projects and discussions have been frozen," she said.
The Watson Institute and the Center for Old World Archaeology
and Art are among the sponsors of the conference.
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