I recently visited the ancient town at Umm Qais in Jordan. Only a fraction of this has been excavated and the head of the museum there showed me an entire forum that had been dug up less than a metre below the surface. Strikes me that this would be the perfect one off special TV show opportunity for the series since there would be amazing stuff for viewers to see, rather than a few shards of pottery in a midden...
Archaeology is NOT about spectacular discoveries which would look good on a TV show. Excavating a site means, effectively, destroying it - OK, some bits of walls or floors might be left, plus some artefacts to exhibit in a museum (eventually!)
But there is only one chance to extract all the information which that site can provide about itself, right down to pollen grains from the plants which once grew there. So it should only be done when the site is at serious risk of being destroyed anyway - whether by human activity such as redevelopment, or by natural causes, e.g. erosion, OR alternatively for research purposes, when there is no other means to obtain the information to be gained from excavating, and it won't just be duplicating things that are already known from elsewhere.
Umm Qais is ancient Gadara, one of the Decapolis league of cities. Admittedly we don't know everything there is to know about the Decapolis, but other cities belonging to it have been extensively excavated - such as Gerasa. So a clear research agenda justifying what new and valuable information it was hoped to obtain would be essential.
Then there's the necessity of obtaining an excavation permit from the Jordanian government - which I reckon would require a minimum financial commitment of several hundred thousand pounds over a period of several years, plus the input of a team of experts from universities and archaeological institutes in more than one country. I can't see the Time Team budget stretching that far.
I'm desperately envious of your visit, I love the Near East and have studied it extensively and done some archaeology and research out there - which is how I know how these things work. Jordan, Syria and the other countries of the region are aware that their archaeological heritage is of world significance and I honestly think that if Time Team did consider undertaking a project out there, the answer would be a definite No.
Sorry to throw cold water - I'd love to see it happen, I'd volunteer to work on it for free....
I mention this because I had lunch with the Jordanian ambassador a while back and we discussed this and he seemed to think that it would be a great thing to do, if channel 4 were up for it. I appreciate the archaeological concerns about this, but with the right kind of care in uncovering a site, it should make for some pretty startling TV. And of course, if you need a lay consultant, I'm all yours.
I think this would have to be a "special", where Time Team don't do the entire excavation themselves but add some input and film someone else's more long-term project.
So who is going to put together a proposal for this excavation, and where's the funding coming from? Have the Jordanian government got money to commit to the project, and what sort of matching grants would they be looking for? I can suggest a possible project director from my University, who has worked extensively on other Decapolis sites in Jordan and also organised a major conference out there, and published it all in the academic press, and he would be able to suggest other contacts. I'm not in that league myself but I do do Hellenistic/Roman stuff in the Near East. And I meant what I said about working on it for free - I'll pay my own travel and living expenses too.
So where do we go from here? I agree it would make excellent TV, and book material of course, so do we try to make this dream a reality?
As far as I can see, there is plenty of excavation going on in Jordan. Open Directory: Archaeology: Jordan. So in theory Time Team could send over a crew to point cameras at some promising dig. Maybe someone could pop a suggestion in the post to TT.
Most of the sites listed are not currently being excavated - a lot of the references are to projects that have been completed. That's not to say that more work won't be done at some of the sites in the future. When you're talikng about whole ancient cities, they take a lot of digging!
Yes we are not at the best time of year to peer into the future. The sites listed under fieldwork opportunities have details of the summer season now past. They probably won't be updated for a while yet.
But The American Expedition to Petra has been digging for 21 years, so I don't suppose it plans to stop. Andrews University (also based in the US), has led archaeological efforts at Tal Hesban since the beginning of excavation in 1968. It definitely plans to continue work on that site.
The Jordanian site I would love to work at is Gerasa - now that really is spectacular! Many of the monumental public buildings have been very well excavated, researched and even reconstructed, but relatively few private houses have been found. It's possible that the main residential area lies under the modern town, but there are also plenty of other locations worth investigating which aren't built over.
It's also a good place from the publicity point of view, being on the tourist trail, and it's well known for the annual international arts festival held in the Roman theatre. Heyyy, a parallel with the Llangollen International Eisteddfod near where I live - oh, sorry, getting a bit carried away....
Originally posted by simon scarrow: I recently visited the ancient town at Umm Qais in Jordan...... Strikes me that this would be the perfect one off special TV show ...
They can't even find the Severn Bridge after all these years let alone Jordan
