Zad 2 and Dhra Field Trip with Phillip Edwards
After meeting Phillip Edwards at the ICHAJ (International Conference on the History and Archaeology of Jordan) conference in Florence in February we ran into each other at the British Institute in Amman (CBRL) where I am currently based for my fieldwork in Jordan. Edwards is a senior lecturer in Archaeology at La Trobe University in Australia. Edwards’s research is also based on investigating the origins of farming and sedentary life and has been working in Jordan for 30 years on sites from the Lower Epipalaeolithic to the Neolithic period. Edwards has excavated a wide range of sites including the Natufian site Wadi Hammeh 27 and the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) site Zahrat Adh-Dhra 2 (Zad 2) which is located on the southeastern shore of the Dead Sea which was excavated as part of the Dead Sea Plain Project.
Edwards invited me on a two day trip to visit the site of Zad 2 where he was returning to collect some geological samples and to make plans for a season of geophysics later in the year. Although I have been working in Jordan for 11 years now, and I have visited many of the sites on the ‘Neolithic Heritage Trail’ (https://bi-abwab.org/new-events/2016/11/22/the-neolithic-heritage-trail, https://www.facebook.com/pg/CBRLAmman/photos/?tab=album&album_id=481967458631032) I have never visited any of the sites around Ghor Al Mazra’a in the Wadi Karak or Wadi Dhra area. Our trip started with a drive from the Dead Sea Highway up the Al-Karak Highway towards the plateau to look down over the area where Zad 2 and other archaeological sites are situated, we viewed the location of various sites in relation to the geological outcrops (Lisan Marls, Basalt Outcrops and Dana Formation). We visited the Neolithic site of Dhra, the larger Middle Bronze Age site of Zahrat adh-Dhra 1 (ZAD 1), and the Early Bronze Age site of Bab adh-Dhra. This area has an amazing landscape and it was great to visit some sites related to my period of study which I hadn’t managed to get to yet. My thanks go to Phillip Edwards for this kind invitation and great couple of days in the field.
