Northern Jordan

Today was the last day of our "weekend", back to the dig tomorrow. It was another day of bus and exploring old ruins in the north of Jordan. We visited three cities of the decapolis, the ten Greek/Roman cities of the transjordan. Actually there are 17 old Greek/Roman sites in Jordan and Israel. The first was Pella and we were lucky enough to be shown around by a dig team from the University of Sydney who have been digging there for 20 years. Pella in the middle bronze age was a contemporay city state with Tall El- Hamman/Sodom, but that level is 8 metres down in very impressive excavations. It was good to see the same kind of stuff we are beginning to find in terms of stone foundations, pottery and general look. Above the MB level are the late bronze, early iron age into Ptolemy (Greek) Egytian, Seleucid Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Islamic Ottoman. At least half the layers are rebuilds after earthquakes, with the Roman architecture knocked flat by a major quake in 749AD. The next stop was the ruins of Gadara that was another Ptolemy city founded in the first century BC until the Romans took it and built some great stuff. The unique thing about the Roman period was their use of black basalt rock mixed with white lime stone. As it turns out this is the area where 2,000 years earlier Sodom sourced the basalt rock for the grind stones like the one in a previous blog. We walked the main street and could see the wheel marks in the Roman road made by chariots over the years. Gardara was abondoned after the 749AD earthquake that also munted Pella. The springs dried up.

We had lunch at Gardara in a restaurant in the rebuilt Ottoman part. The picture is taken from there but it was another hazy day so the long distance isn't clear. We over looked a deep valley that rose to the hills you can see. That is the Golan Heights in Israel. You might be able to make out a white smudge above the hills right in the middle of the photo. That is Tiberias in Israel that is on the shores of Lake Gallilee. Below the smudge is Lake Gallilee. Further to the right of the photo we could make out a large snow covered mountain. Can't remember the mountains name but it is in Syria and Damascus sits under it. As we ate we watched circular con trails from jet aircraft forming over Syria. These were fighterplanes being held in position ready for their bombing runs in ISIS positions. At the moment Jordan is sending 60-70 planes in per sortie twice a day to bomb Raqqa. This was a sobering sight as we reflected on the border with Israel about 2km away, the clearly visible roads used by the United Nation peacekeepers in the DMZ, and the Israeli army positions we could see just across the valley. We were 5km from the Syrian border. The Jordanian army is there area in big numbers with quite a few check points and most high places with a watch tower and soldiers on look out. Then we drove through Jordans number 2 city called Irbid and onto our last set of ruins in Jerash. Jerash is a modern city with the ruins of a Roman city in the middle of it. The ruins they say are the best perserved Roman ruins in the transjordan. They were spectacular. The buildings, streets lined with colums, the shopping precincts, temples, a huge plaza in the middle, and three ampitheaters and 7 bath houses, and the streets groved by chariots and carts, and a hypodrome used for chariot racing. Jerash was the effective capitalof the Roman Empire when Emporer Hadrian spent the year 129-30AD there. He built this humungous arched gateway to mark the stay while he was there. It's still standing. While we were looking through the Temple of Zeus with its inscribed altars to the gods, we started hearing things, and we thought we were hearing things at first. It was the sound of bagpipes playing Amazing Grace. No kidding. Then it stopped. Then we could hear Scotland the Brave. A few minutes later, Scottish Soldier. We followed the sound into one of the well preserved ampitheaters and there was a Jordainian dressed in Bedouin dress playng the bag pipes with another keeping time with a big drum. Hard case.

During todays tour we crossed the three areas of the tribes of Israel who occupied this side of the Jordan, Gad, Reuben and eastern Manaesseh. We drove through the hills of Gilead and somewhere near Gadara down on Gallilee Jesus cast the demons into the pigs. On the way home we crossed the river Jabbok and followed it for a while. It is a free flowing river that is now dammed at one point. It is along the banks where we drove that Jacob hid his family in fear of Esau and where he wrestled with God. Northern Jordan is green and fertile, lots of trees on the rugged hill country (including Australian Gum Trees) and thousands of hectares of wheat planted out on the plateau above the rift valley. Very beautiful.

Tonight a good number of people we have made friends with over the last two weeks fly out, having been replaced by "new flesh" arriving yesterday and today. Tomorrow its back digging for me. Helen is staying at the hotel as she now has a nasty flu that has wiped her out very quickly, a gift from a kind American who brought it with him. Plus she has an infected cut on her hand following a slip over and encounter with a rock. She is tucked up in bed with a half melted coke bottle standing in as a hottie. The weather has been wonderful but there is a storm heading this way with a big drop in temperature and rain and snow forcaste on Wednesday and Thursday.

I am having quite a bit of trouble, as everyone is, with internet connection at the hotel and lack of bandwidth. Hopefully a solution has been found after talking to a team member. If so, got some short videos to put on the blog in the next day or two.