The Roman Aqaba Project Final Report, Volume 1
The Regional Environment and the Regional Survey
by S. Thomas Parker and Andrew M. Smith II
Hardback (Published)
(March 2014)
ISBN: 9780897570428
8.58 x 10.98 inches
Price: $20.00
In stock
This first of three projected volumes of the project’s final report focuses on the regional environment and the regional survey. Analysis of the environment employs a wide range of evidence to analyse the physiography, geology, soils, seismic history, climate and natural resources.
Recent scholarship on the Roman Empire has focused on the nature of its economy, including sites that served as nodules of commercial exchange. Aila was such a port city on the Red Sea on the southeastern frontier of the Empire, now within modern Aqaba in Jordan. The city of Aila emerged in the late 1st century BC within the Nabataean kingdom, a client state of the Roman Empire. The port continued to flourish into the early Islamic period, handling trade between the Empire and south Arabia, east Africa, and India. The Roman Aqaba Project aimed to reconstruct Aila’s economy diachronically. The project research design included a regional archaeological and environmental survey, excavation of the ancient city, and analysis of material remains relevant to Aila’s economy. Six field seasons were conducted between 1994 and 2002, providing a detailed picture of the economic history of the city. Excavation revealed major elements of the city, such as domestic quarters, industrial facilities, fortifications, and a monumental building interpreted as an early Christian church. This first of three projected volumes of the project’s final report focuses on the regional environment and the regional survey. Analysis of the environment employs a wide range of evidence to analyze the physiography, geology, soils, seismic history, climate, and natural resources. Various lines of evidence are employed to reconstruct the paleoclimate, which seems to have remained essentially hyperarid since early historical times. The report also includes results of an intensive archaeological survey of Wadi Araba, the shallow valley extending north from Aqaba to the Dead Sea. The project surveyed the southeastern the valley, recording 334 archaeological sites, most previously unrecorded. These of these were small and unobtrusive and ranged in date from Paleolithic to Late Islamic, but especially common were sites of the Chalcolithic/Early Bronze Age and the Early Roman/Nabataean periods, suggesting more intensive occupation in these periods. The volume also includes chapters on artifacts collected by the survey, including chipped stone tools, pottery, and Nabataean inscriptions. Aila apparently lacked any significant agricultural hinterland. The city was largely dependent on imports from more distant sources.
List of Illustrations List of Tables Abbreviations Chapter 1: Introduction
S. Thomas Parker Chapter 2: The Regional Environment
Tina M. Niemi Chapter 3: Fish, Dates, and Flying Machines:Ethno-History and Aerial Photography in the Investigation of Aqaba, Jordan
John D. Rucker & Tina M. Niemi Chapter 4: The Southeast Araba Archaeological Survey SAAS Catalog of Sites
Andrew M. Smith II Chapter 5: Analysis and Interpretation of Lithic Assemblages Recovered from Sites in the Southeast Araba Archaeological Survey
Donald O. Henry, Marni Cochrane, Cassandra Burns & Travis Taverna Chapter 6: The Pottery from the Survey
S. Thomas Parker Chapter 7: Semitic Inscriptions
David F. Graf Chapter 8: The Hinterland of Roman Aila
S. Thomas Parker & Andrew M. Smith II Index
- By (author) S. Thomas Parker
- By (author) Andrew M. Smith
Other Titles in this Series
Cyprus and the Balance of Empires
Art and Archaeology from Justinian I to the Coeur de Lion
Volume 20
University of Michigan and University of Minnesota Excavations at Tel Kedesh I
The Hellenistic Archive and its Sealings
Volume 30
Caesarea Maritima Excavations in the Old City 1989-2003 Conducted by the University of Maryland and the University of Haifa, Final Reports
Volume 1: The Temple Platform (Area TP), Neighboring Quarters (Area TPS and Z), and the Inner Harbor Quays (Area I): Hellenistic Evidence, King Herods Harbor Temple, Intermediate Occupation, and the Octagonal Harbor Church
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The Archaeological Survey of the Desert Roads between Berenike and the Nile Valley
Expeditions by the University of Michigan and the University of Delaware to the Eastern Desert of Egypt, 1987-2015
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