The Promised Land

The rain of last night had stopped by get up time although Amman was covered with dark cloud and fog. We set out for Tall El-Hamman half thinking there would be no digging today, but as we began the descent into the valley we went below the fog and eventually into lovely sunny day. Because it had also rainned down below it was decided to go for a little tour of some of the other city Talls of the cities of the plain until the mud at the site dried out a bit. Photo 1 - Helen smiling at Tall Kafrein which is most likely the site of Gomorrah, about 2km from our dig. It is being excavated on occasion by a Greek University. Photo 2 - The ruins of a town that was contemporary (name escapes me at the moment) with the Sodom era of Tall El-Hamman a few kilometres away. On our site we are uncovering stone walls that are the foundations to the mud brick walls. This picture leaves nothing to the imagination showing the stone foundation walls, but also about 6m of genuine mud brick wall. Photos 3 & 4 Our last stop was at the site of two town ruins seperated by a wadi or stream. There were some camels there watched over by their Bedouin owner with two near new born calfs. View of one of the Talls that has hardly been examined by archeologists. Couldn't take a picture of its neighbour because the Jordanian Army 47th Battalion has it base on it and its dangerous around here to take pictures of army bases and check points.

We started the dig about 9am and worked steadily all day. My only achievement was to discover after removing a 400mm layer of soil in a space 3mx2m that I haven't yet reached the bottom course of the foundation wall I am digging down beside. Another dig day tomorrow that may see us break into the Middle Bronze Age level. Looking ahead to the weather the forecast is for snow right down to our level at the dig, which will mean told the Amman will literally shut down until it melt we are told.

I have always looked forward to the opportunity of visiting the Promised Land and have equated this with visiting Israel. Sitting looking across the Jordan valley during lunch today, seeing the sun glistening off the Dead Sea, the Judean Hills across the way, it suddenly dawned on me that I was in the Promised Land, the territory of Gad, with the border with Reuben in sight probably just 2.5km to the south, and about 90km from the border with East Manesseh up the valley near Lake Gallilee where we were a couple of weekends ago. At the moment Jordan is a green country. Those who have been coming here for years say they have never seen it so green. We passed a storage damn today and it was spilling water because it was full. That is very rare here. Jordan is being blessed this year by the rains, and we are being blessed by Jordan.

Final word. I am glad Helen came to sort things out. Today after arriving back at the hotel the maid was about so we asked her for clean towels and a change of sheets and duvet cover for the bed. When the duvet cover arrived it was wet, not just damp. Helen pointed this fact out to the maid who said it didn't matter as we could hold it in front of the heater to dry it. We don't have a heater but do have an airconditioning duct in the wall up against the ceiling that blows out warm air when we ask it too. However, Helen standing on my shoulders to dry the duvet cover in front of it did not appeal, so Helen sorted it promptly and now we have a nice dry one. Which reminds me. There was another wedding here last night that carried onto 3am keeping people on the 1st floor awake. When we went down for breakfast at 6am all the fine food was laid out for us, except it was cold and the kitchen staff were no where to be seen. Cold scrambled egg! This is Jordan!