MY ROCK-CUT EXPERIENCE OF ARCHAEOLOGY IN PETRA
By Jake Hubbert, Platt Excavation Fellowship Recipient
This past summer, I had the experience of a lifetime.
I spent six weeks excavating with Brigham Young University in Petra, Jordan. This was part of a field school offered through Brigham Young University. For the first two weeks, I helped excavate in a place called Wadi Mataha where my fellow students and I were taught proper excavation techniques that pertain to graves and osteology. We were lucky enough to have found what we believe is a secondary burial with a variety of bones that will be later analyzed in labs back at Brigham Young University. My time there was amazing and I feel that I learned so much. I learned about the ancient Nabataeans and their burial traditions as well as about the methods and theories of archaeology in the field.
After my two weeks at Wadi Mataha, I was transferred with my group of five other students up to the Ad-Deir Monument where I was assigned to work in the Eastern Cistern B. The objective of this project, as well as that of others on the plateau, is to put back into use the water systems that were once in use by the Nabateans to aid the current Bedouin populations that live and work on the Ad-Deir plateau. Excavations therefore, were focused towards restoration. Excavation is facilitated by the fact that the built up stratigraphy is yearly erosion fill, and therefore provides very little knowledge about the chronology of the site. This has allowed us to conduct mass excavations to remove the erosion fill to make the several areas under excavation accessible. Despite the rapid pace of work and the unusual circumstances of this site, my supervisors made sure that I still learn and master proper excavation techniques such as cutting straight balks and making sure they have the proper right angles where they meet up with other balks or other trenches or pits. Other skills that I have learned include the proper process of taking levels, and the importance of taking correct levels so as to understand the volume of dirt being removed from the overall area.
My favorite part has been the utilization of my art skills. I love art but I never really understood how my art skills could transfer over to archaeology. I was able to do some simple sketches for the official field note book at the Cistern. I have also been able to learn some digital art and its importance in archaeology. Another major factor of this dig has been the opportunity to live with the Bedouin tribe and family where we stayed. Since archaeology is a part of anthropology, I loved being able to study both the dead cultures in Petra but also the living cultures which have occupied the empty shell that has been left behind. For the past year I have also been taking introduction Arabic classes and have loved it and I have loved my opportunity to use what I have learned with the Bedouins. I love what Gertrude Bell once said in relation to the Bedouins, that they are a people who love and enjoy freedom. The way they live of being able to go wherever whenever is amazing. But this will have to come later if I decide that it is in this area that I want to pursue my future in archaeology. Petra has been such an amazing place and I will forever remember it as the place where first learned to be an archaeologist.
Jake Hubbert is an undergraduate student at Brigham Young University studying archaeology. He studies the Near East and has interests in Transcaucasia as well.Â