Collateral damage to cultural heritage of the past

Though it is not often the subject of front-page news on the Middle East, a largely unreported tragedy of literally monumental proportions is taking place there. While the world's attention has been quite naturally focused on the catastrophic human toll of the conflict in Syria and surrounding areas and the lives that have been destroyed by political instability in Egypt, economic privation, unrelenting civil war, and irresponsible governments have driven an unprecedented destruction of cultural heritage in those countries. Looted Dahshur, Abusir, Tarknan and the Malawi Museum in Egypt and devastated Aleppo, Apamea and Krak des Chevaliers in Syria provide bleak testimony to this calamity.

In a recent issue of the Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies, six front-line heritage preservation activists come together for the first time to express theirs views and provide an update on what is happening today to Middle Eastern archaeological sites. These six articles are starkly illustrated by photographs -- a number of them taken by the authors and their informants on cell phones at risk of life and limb.

Joris Kila, a heritage specialist and reserve officer in the Royal Netherlands Army undertook cultural rescue missions to Iraq, Macedonia, Egypt, and Libya. Writing unsparingly about the irresponsibility of governments, the callous acts of individuals, and the inexplicable neglect of international organizations, he lements that, despite the number of conflict related heritage disasters that have occurred in the last few decades, "no lessons have been learned about prevention and practical solutions." Emma Cunliffe, who in 2012 brought the cultural costs of the Syrian uprising to the world's attention, cautions academics who steer clear of these issues that "an anti-war/pro-peace stance does not preclude acceptance of the fact that conflict still happens and must be dealt with."

Syrian archaeologists Salam Al Quntar and Ali Cheilmous describe the very human dimensions of damage to heritage. "Not only impressive ancient buildings have values for Syrians," Al Quntar writes, "but the entire setting of the ancient urban landscape, historical and religious buildings, suqs or bazaars, cafes and restaurants, and even the narrow warm streets." Cheikmous concludes, "No political solution to the Syrian conflict can be imagined at the moment…As a result, the nation's heritage is hostage to both sides of the conflict."

Salima Ikram and Monica Hanna, Egyptian archaeologists, discuss the stepped up looting activity and illegal land appropriation that has accompanied Egypt's volatile political situation. Hanna decries the fact that "There is not a single site in Egypt that has not suffered the attack of the land mafia and looters." Ikram, similarly, sees these events, concluding with the dire prediction that "Now, until the rule of law has been re-established, Egypt's heritage will continue to be lost. This is tragic for the whole world, but most of all for Egyptians."
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References:

Science Daily. 2014. “Collateral damage to cultural heritage of the past”. Science Daily. Posted: August 7, 2014. Available online: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/08/140807104705.htm

How I Found the Lost Desert Camp of Lawrence of Arabia (Op-Ed)

A fantastic coincidence, coupled with research, led to my discovery of a wartime camp in the Jordan desert that was occupied in 1918. This was a camp used by T E Lawrence, or “Lawrence of Arabia”, and British mobile units and was somewhat evocatively called “Tooth Hill”.

Earlier, these ancient landscapes of Edom had been thrust into modernity with the arrival of the Hejaz Railway, built by the Ottoman Turks in 1904. Ostensibly a holy railway built to transport pilgrims to the cities of Medina and Mecca, its capacity to transport troops re-militarised the landscape. This threatened British interests in Egypt and the Suez Canal, Britain’s main artery to India.

In July 1917 a young British officer called T E Lawrence captured the key town of Aqaba on the Red Sea, surprising both the British and Turkish high commands, who had considered it impossible. This enabled the Northern Arab Army of Emir Faisal to move northwards and the British to establish a beach-head and mount raids against the Turkish defences along the railway.

The British base expanded. By October, a small flight of aircraft was operating from a desert landing strip. Mobile British forces with Rolls Royce armoured cars and Talbot trucks carrying ten-pounder Indian mountain guns were able to operate in the hinterland.

In April 1918 these forces gathered overnight at the Tooth Hill camp to begin a series of raids on the fortifications at Tel Shahm, Wadi Rutm and Mudawwara. Today these are just north of Jordan’s border with Saudi Arabia.

It was while reading T E Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom that the possibility of finding this camp first occurred to me. The opening lines of chapter 105 read: “Our old camp behind the toothed hill facing Tell Shahm station.” This always caught my imagination. Where was this toothed hill and why did Lawrence make reference to it?

Lawrence’s own elaboration provided the first clue:

It was a wonderful show, for the cars were parked geometrically here, and the armoured cars placed there…

Then other pieces of evidence began to surface. One was found in the war diary entries of X Flight RAF. It was a sketch map drawn after a reconnaissance flight made in early April 1918 in preparation for the raids on Tel Shahm. Flying without maps and with only a compass for navigation the pilots used familiar landmarks to guide them back to their airstrips. Without aerial cameras the pilots had to draw maps from memory. In this case, the pilot had noted the position of a significant landmark, and called it Tooth Hill.

The final clue, oddly, came in a coffee break at a conference. A Lawrence researcher I knew came across to me and asked: “I don’t suppose you know where this is, do you?” He showed me a photograph of several Rolls Royce armoured cars, parked in front of a distinctively shaped hill. My knowledge of the archives, Lawrence’s words and the landscape, combined with the photograph, lead to what can only be described as a eureka moment for me.

Six weeks later, walking across the desert to the site, we encountered broken glass, pot shards and spent cartridge cases lying around what appeared to be the site of a camp fire. The pottery looked like fragments of rum jars, a ubiquitous commodity in the British army on the Western Front, but not seen before in Jordan. Picking up the first piece of stoneware I turned it over and saw the initials SRD, the acronym for Service Ration Depot, a diagnostic inscription for these gallon jars.

Over the next two days a team of archaeologists, lead by my colleagues Nicholas J Saunders and Neil Faulkner, meticulously excavated the camp fire and recorded the many artefacts scattered around. Meanwhile metal detectors scanned the surrounding area and found shell cases and small items such as spark plugs that indicated vehicles had been maintained on this site.

Britain’s recent military deployments have seen its forces engaging insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan; fighting and defending fixed bases such as Camp Bastion against a highly mobile and fluid guerrilla force. But here in Jordan it was the British who were the insurgents in 1918.

Lawrence had given the concept of insurgency much thought. He realised that the small British contingent supporting regular and irregular Arab troops and armed Bedouin could defeat the Turks who outnumbered them significantly.

The forces camped at Tooth Hill with Lawrence were able to move freely. They could race across the desert on hit-and-run raids against the Turks, who were static, tied down to defending fixed locations along the railway. With mobile armour and field guns directed by aerial reconnaissance these raids were among the first combined actions seen in Arabia.

This site we discovered last year is significant because it is the only British campsite to be found in Jordan from the World War I era. Used for perhaps less than ten days its ephemerality and remoteness had concealed it for 94 years. It is fantastic to be able to connect such a place to Lawrence, and I like to think that here too, he was:

Happy with bully-beef and tea and biscuit, with English talk and laughter round the fire, golden with its shower of sparks from the fierce brushwood.

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References:

Winterburn, John B. 2014. “How I Found the Lost Desert Camp of Lawrence of Arabia (Op-Ed)”. Live Science. Posted: April 30, 2014. Available online: http://www.livescience.com/45264-how-i-found-the-lost-desert-camp-of-lawrence-of-arabia.html

Cultural connections with Europe found in ancient Jordanian settlement

Swedish archaeologists in Jordan led by Professor Peter M. Fischer from the University of Gothenburg have excavated a nearly 60-metre long well-preserved building from 1100 B.C. in the ancient settlement Tell Abu al-Kharaz. The building is from an era characterized by major migration. New finds support the theory that groups of the so-called Sea Peoples emigrated to Tell Abu al-Kharaz. They derive from Southern or Eastern Europe and settled in the Eastern Mediterranean region all the way to the Jordan Valley.

"We have evidence that culture from present Europe is represented in Tell Abu al-Kharaz. A group of the Sea Peoples of European descent, Philistines, settled down in the city," says Peter Fischer. "We have, for instance, found pottery resembling corresponding items from Greece and Cyprus in terms of form and decoration, and also cylindrical loom weights for textile production that could be found in central and south-east Europe around the same time."

Tell Abu al-Kharaz is located in the Jordan Valley close to the border to Israel and the West Bank. It most likely corresponds to the biblical city of Jabesh Gilead. The Swedish Jordan Expedition has explored the city, which was founded 3200 B.C. and lasted for almost 5,000 years. The first excavation took place in 1989 and the most recent in autumn 2013. All in all, 16 excavations have been completed.

Peter M. Fischer and his team of archaeologists and students have surveyed an urban settlement that flourished three times over the 5,000 years: around 3100-2900 B.C. (Early Bronze Age), 1600-1300 B.C. (Late Bronze Age) and 1100-700 B.C. (Iron Age). These are the local periods; in Sweden, they occurred much later.

Remarkably well-preserved stone structures have been exposed during the excavations. The finds include defensive walls, buildings and thousands of complete objects produced locally or imported from south-east Europe.

"What surprises me the most is that we have found so many objects from far away. This shows that people were very mobile already thousands of years ago," says Fischer.

The scientists have made several sensational finds in the last three years, especially during the excavation of the building from 1100 B.C. where containers still filled with various seeds were found. There are also finds from Middle Egypt that were exported to Tell Abu al-Kharaz as early as 3100 B.C.

The exploration of the 60-metre long building discovered in 2010 continued during the most recent excavation. It was originally built in two levels of which the bottom level is still standing with walls reaching 2.5 meters in height after more than 3,000 years.

The archaeologists found evidence indicating that the Philistines who lived in the building together with local people around 1100 B.C. utilized a defense structure from 3,000 B.C. in the form of an old city wall by constructing their building on top of it. In this way, they had both easy access to building material and a solid surface to build on.

"One of our conclusions after the excavation is that "Jordanian culture" is clearly a Mediterranean culture even though the country does not border the Mediterranean Sea. There were well-organized societies in the area long before the Egyptian pyramids were built," says Peter M. Fischer.

The excavations in Tell Abu al-Kharaz are funded mainly by the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities. Only about 20 per cent of the city has been exposed so far, and in some places just the top layers. The Swedish Jordan Expedition 2013 consisted of professional archaeologists and students from Sweden, Austria, Germany, Iceland, Poland, Switzerland and Jordan.
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References:

Science Daily. 2014. “Cultural connections with Europe found in ancient Jordanian settlement”. Science Daily. Posted: January 23, 2014. Available online: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140123095108.htm

Harbour fortress of early Islamic power

Archaeologists have long known that Yavneh-Yam, an archaeological site between the Israeli cities of Tel Aviv and Ashdod on the Mediterranean coast, was a functioning harbour from the second millennium BCE right up until the Middle Ages. Now Tel Aviv University researchers have uncovered evidence to suggest that the site was one of the final strongholds of Early Islamic power in the region.

According to Prof. Moshe Fischer of TAU‘s Department of Archaeology and Near Eastern Cultures and head of the Yavneh-Yam dig, the recent discovery of a bath house from the Early Islamic period which made use of Roman techniques such as heated floors and walls, indicates that Arabic rulers maintained control of the site up until the end of the Early Islamic period in the 12th century AD. Considered alongside other datable artefacts — such as pottery, oil lamps and rare glass weights — this architectural feature demonstrates that Arabic control was maintained in Yavneh-Yam at a time when 70 percent of the surrounding land was in the hands of Christian Crusaders.

The fortress was inhabited by military officers but not by high powered rulers, explains Prof. Fischer. Written Arabic sources from the same period, identifying Yavneh-Yam as a harbour, suggest that those who inhabited the fortress were responsible for hostage negotiations between the Arabic powers and the Christian Crusaders, and the harbour itself served as a port for hostages to be transferred to their captors or returned home.

Roman bath technology, Arabic adaptation and style

Working with Ph.D. candidate Itamar Taxel, Director of Excavations, Prof. Fischer has been excavating the site of Yavneh-Yam for the past twenty years. Among the earliest finds were two glass weights, dating from the 12th century and which bore the name of the then-ruling Arabic power, the Fatimid dynasty. The weights themselves were of interest and certainly indicated an Arabic presence at the site, the excavators say. But the extent of this presence has been illuminated by the discovery of a bath dating to this period and built according to Roman principles.

This year for the first time, researchers completed an in-depth analysis of the site’s promontory, the piece of land protruding into the sea that made the site a natural harbour. The main structures, a series of fortification systems including a tower and strong walls that encircle the upper part of the hill, were discovered to be built in the distinctly Early Islamic style. The Roman baths uncovered within the fortress, says Prof. Fischer, leave little doubt that in the 12th century, the fortress was still inhabited by Arabs rather than Christian Crusaders.

“This is an outstanding and rare find,” he says, describing the baths as a scaled-down version of traditional Roman baths, heated by hot air circulating between double floors and pipes along the walls. The crusaders did not build these types of baths, and after the end of the Early Islamic period, they disappear altogether. “You don’t see these installations again until the revival of such techniques by modern technology during the 19th century,” explains Prof. Fischer. “This marked the finale of the use of a traditional Roman bath house in 12th century architecture.”

Most likely, the fortress played host to a changing roster of military captains and their men, installing the baths to provide these men with additional creature comforts. Although the baths themselves are largely destroyed now, researchers found large marble slabs that adorned the walls, and discovered that the view from the baths was a pleasant one across the sea.

A place of business?

The fortress served as more than a strategic look-out point to protect fragile Arab strongholds against the invasion of crusaders. Sources indicate that Yavneh-Yam, like the ports of Ashdod and Yaffa, was a place where Christian Crusaders and Arabs could haggle over hostages.

During this period, both the crusaders and Arabs took prisoners, who could later be exchanged, either for ransom or other prisoners who had been captured. The Crusaders would have come over in boats to negotiate with Arab officials, then send word to the Ramla, the Arabic capital, waiting for orders and to conduct the required transaction.

Researchers will continue to excavate the site, now a national park, says Prof. Fischer. By connecting these new archaeological findings with historical evidence, “We get a good picture of the complex relationship that existed here between a small number of Muslim enclaves, connected with the Arab rule in Cairo, and the surrounding Crusaders.”
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References:

Past Horizons. 2011. "Harbour fortress of early Islamic power". Past Horizons. Posted: September 16, 2011. Available online: http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/09/2011/harbour-fortress-of-early-islamic-power

Middle Eastern Visitation Rights: Is Visiting a Lost Art?

I sat on the formal couch and listened to the Arabic words swirling around me; lightening fast and coming from every direction. I looked at the people surrounding me and took note of their gestures and facial expressions. I tried to piece together the puzzle of what was being said, but I knew that was impossible. Instead I amused myself by simply making up a conversation in my head; I imagined what they were talking about in such a passionate fashion. I was directing a soap opera in my mind, slightly amused by my own imagination; then my dramatic world was interrupted as English words brought me back to reality. I looked around the room and everyone was looking at me in anticipation that I would answer. “Yes, I’d like more coffee.” I replied.

This was a scene I encountered daily in Jordan and Lebanon. The scene was always set in a ‘receiving room’, with little cups of Turkish coffee on the table. This process was the one thing that was for certain in the Middle East…visiting would occur daily.

I was prepared for desert, for camels, for drinking tea; but I wasn’t prepared for the hours of time I would spend sitting and visiting with people in the Middle East. Quite frankly, I don’t think most tourists would really experience this side of the Arabic culture which is an important process to maintaining family and community ties. However, because I was living with locals in both Jordan and Lebanon, I found myself thrust into the local pastime of talking.

The Visitation Process

While in Jordan each day Etidal, my host mom, would ‘accept’ a couple of visitors for coffee and visiting. The neighbors or a family member would stop by, and Etidal would run and make some coffee or tea and then we’d all sit on the couch and talk. Actually I would just listen to the swirl of Arabic around me unless of course the guest knew a little English and then I could be a part of the conversation. The only multi-tasking going on was drinking coffee at the same time; there was no distracting television, music, computer, or cell phone…just the simplicity of a few people sitting and talking.

In the evenings Etidal would put on her nice shoes, get cleaned up and ask me if I wanted to join her and the other family members. “Where are you going?” I’d ask.
“To see my sister/mother/brother/family friend.” I’d consider it for a bit and think if I were home there is no way I would go waste my time with this. However I wasn’t home, and I wasn’t sure if I could even say no. Since most of the family went with her, I felt somewhat obligated to accompany them as ‘part of’ the family. Normally I would close my laptop, put on my shoes and join them. After all, I knew it would be a cultural adventure even though I may not understand the whole conversation. It was in these numerous conversations I learned about the real Arabic culture, politics, religious views, dating, romance, and gossip of the country or city.

Visiting Etiquette

There was an etiquette to visiting. If you were visiting someone you weren’t as close to in friendship, then no doubt you’d be ushered into the ‘receiving room’ which was closer to the front door and much more formal. The good china would often be used to serve tea to guests who weren’t as well-known, and the whole atmosphere of visiting was a bit different; more formal. However if you were family or good friends, then you were able to be more casual. You were brought deeper into the home into the family room. Tea and coffee were still offered, but the everyday cups were used and it took on a really relaxed atmosphere.

In Lebanon the same etiquette to visiting occurred – there was a formal room to receive lesser known guests, and a family room to receive close friends and family. In addition, in both countries it was necessary to always have something more formal to serve as a treat with your coffee/tea. I remember one time when Mira, my host mom in Lebanon, was talking about how relieved she was that she had some chocolate cake on hand as she had an surprise visitor show up and had to have something nice to serve him. I asked her what would have been the consequences if she hadn’t had cake to serve him and she responded that it would have been “terrible”. I tried to probe more and basically got an answer that she would be considered cheap or not a good hostess if she wouldn’t have had the proper snacks to serve. Visiting is serious business and has serious social consequences.

Deciphering the codes

However, how does a foreigner who doesn’t speak Arabic really understand what is going on in such a situation? It was actually quite easy. First I understood the relationship of the visitor to my host family immediately as soon as the visitor was ushered into either the formal room or the family room. Then as soon as Mira walked in with a tray of good china and herbal tea it told me more about her relationship with the guest. If there was cake offered/served that told me even more. When the speaking began, I became very good at reading body language. I watched people intently and caught a few words here and there and could sometimes piece together conversations. Often my host family would stop and explain a bit to me – at least enough of the puzzle pieces to put together understanding of the conversation along with the body language. Sometimes though I would zone out and simply make up my own stories; imagining I knew what they were speaking about.

Is Visiting a Lost Art?

I came to really enjoy the visiting process. After a month, I started to long to have relationships like this, which were frequent, in-person, focused, and close. But quite frankly, this concept of visiting is a dying art in America. It still exists in some parts of the States, and with certain generations (like my parents), but it’s dying. It’s being killed by our constant need to multitask and have relationships with our electronic devices rather than sitting with real people. I can’t really remember a time when I had a surprise visitor show up at my apartment door. First of all, they definitely would have texted me first to let me know they were coming. There are few surprises in this digital world any longer. Our visiting takes place on skype or a chat room, or simply through a series of text messages with shortened words and cryptic abbreviations.

In this world of high tech communication it seems old fashioned and silly to sit and simply talk for an hour or two. I am so used to multi-tasking that I find sitting and talking to be a bit boring; at least I used to think it was boring. The Middle East changed my thoughts on the process. Granted, I don’t think I’m ready to fully convert my weekends to visiting cousins and friends completely, but something a bit more focused and regular would be nice.

Visiting in the Middle East seemed to build a strong family bond and further the idea that families must take care of each other. This is one of my favorite things about traveling – seeing how families operate and interact around the world. And the coffee and cake weren’t bad side benefits either!
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References:

Ott. Sherry. 2011. "Middle Eastern Visitation Rights: Is Visiting a Lost Art?". We Blog the World. Posted: March 25, 2011. Available online: http://www.weblogtheworld.com/formats/featured/middle-eastern-visitation-rights-is-visiting-a-lost-art/

University of Toronto anthropologists discover earliest cemetery in Middle East

Evidence of emotional relationship between human and fox

Anthropologists at the University of Toronto and the University of Cambridge have discovered the oldest cemetery in the Middle East at a site in northern Jordan. The cemetery includes graves containing human remains buried alongside those of a red fox, suggesting that the animal was possibly kept as a pet by humans long before dogs ever were.

The 16,500-year-old site at 'Uyun al-Hammam was discovered in 2000 by an expedition led by University of Toronto professor Edward (Ted) Banning and Lisa Maher, an assistant professor of anthropology at U of T and research associate at the University of Cambridge. "Recent archaeological excavations have uncovered the remains of at least 11 individuals – more than known from all other sites of this kind combined," says Banning, of U of T's Department of Anthropology.

Previous research had identified the earliest cemeteries in the region in a somewhat later period (the Natufian, ca. 15,000-12,000 years ago). These were notable for instances of burials of humans with dogs. One such case involved a woman buried with her hand on a puppy, while another included three humans buried with two dogs along with tortoise shells. However, this new research shows that some of these practices occurred earlier.

Most of the individuals buried at the Jordan site were found with what are known as "grave goods," such as stone tools, a bone spoon, animal parts, and red ochre (an iron mineral). One grave contained the skull and right upper arm bone of a red fox, with red ochre adhered to the skull, along with bones of deer, gazelle and wild cattle. Another nearby grave contained the nearly complete skeleton of a red fox, missing its skull and right upper arm bone, suggesting that portions of a single fox had been moved from one grave to another in prehistoric times.

"What we appear to have found is a case where a fox was killed and buried with its owner," says Maher, who directs excavations at the site. "Later, the grave was reopened for some reason and the human's body was moved. But because the link between the fox and the human had been significant, the fox was moved as well."

The researchers say that it could suggest that foxes were at one time treated in much the same way as dogs, in that there could have been early attempts to tame foxes, but no successful domestication. Studies have shown that foxes can be brought under human control but is not easily done given their skittish and timid nature, which may explain why dogs ultimately achieved "man's best friend" status instead.

"However, it is also noteworthy that the graves contain other animal remains, so we can only take the fox-dog analogy so far," says Banning. "We should remember that some more recent hunter-gatherers consider themselves to have social relationships with a wide range of wild animals, including ones they hunt, and that this sometimes led to prescribed ways to treat the remains of animals, as well as to represent relationships between particular humans and particular animals." Banning says that the "pet" hypothesis is only one among several, which happens to fit with modern preconceptions about human-dog relationships.

Either way, because the same grave that held the fox remains also contained other bones, Banning says that the find holds important clues about burial methods of civilizations past.

"These were unusually dense and diverse concentrations of bones, and indicate very early mortuary practices that involved interring selected animal remains with humans," says Banning. "The site has implications both for our understanding of the development of ideas about death and mortuary practice, and for our understanding of the beginnings of domestication of dog-like animals."

The paper can be viewed here.
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References:

EurekAlert. 2011. "University of Toronto anthropologists discover earliest cemetery in Middle East". EurekAlert. Posted: February 2, 2011. Available online: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-02/uot-uot020211.php