Tuesday, December 11, 2018

What Could Be Missing in Jordan Archaeology?

Jordan was created by Winston Churchill in 1921.

Given that, it would difficult to find "Jordanian" archaeological artifacts and remains.

However, since Transjordan, besides being part of "historic Palestine" (and thanks to Marc Lamont Hill for resurrecting that term), was also Eastern Eretz-Yisrael, 

the two tribes and the half-tribe have received their inheritance beyond the Jordan at Jericho eastward, toward the sun-rising.'  Numbers 34:15

I would have expected mentions of the territory's Jewish past in an official archaeological report.

I was wrong.

I searched this 104 page document for the terms "Jewish", "Israelites" and "Hebrews". It is entitled "Archaeology in Jordan Newsletter - ACOR, 2016-2017 Seasons". The ACOR is for The American Center of Oriental Research. Its Board of Trustees. It is private and was founded in 1968.

In its Mission Statement, it notes,


ACOR has broad relationships in Jordan as well as deep relationships with key Jordanian national and local governmental agencies and academic institutions. 

I found no mentions of those three terms.

I continued to search.  "Roman" came up 37 times. "Christian" 5 times. "Byzantine" 16 times. "Ottoman" 11 times.

Here is a map of the sites:





To be fair, and honest, I couldn't find "Crusader" or "Canaanite".  But I did not review all past issues.

Still, odd that the Jews were missing.

On page 513 of the 2010 report I found this:


An ostrakon of a storage jar should be mentioned: the partly preserved inscription is in Transjordanian dialect/Old Hebrew

Hebrew is  "a Transjordanian dialect"?  Really?

According to a 1993 publication, ACOR

As a member of ASOR, it has a strict policy of non-involvement in politics and follows their code of archaeological ethics

They seem to have an odd concept of "non-involvement in politics".

P. S.

I emailed them asking for a response or comment.

2 comments:

NancyB said...

Very interesting. Thanks once again, for all your excellent work!

Eliyahu m'Tsiyon said...

In Jerash in Jordan --the ancient city called Gerasa in Greek or Geresh in Hebrew-- several synagogues were found. In one there was --hopefully still is-- a mosaic which begins: Shalom `al Kol Yisrael Amen v'amen.

A pix or sketch of this mosaic was published by Ze'ev Galili in Maqor Rishon of 9-21-2001. The Jordanian authorities had covered up the mosaic as of 2001.