Classics and Ancient History - Aerial_archaeology_in

Overview

The first component of the project consisted of the interpretation of some 4000 vertical survey photographs taken in 1953 of western Jordan (RSAME).

Beginning in 1997 the government of Jordan has supported a programme of active aerial reconnaissance and photography. Since then there have been flights annually. Usually that has been a single ‘season’ of flying; in some years there have been two seasons in different climatic conditions (see Kennedy and Bewley 2009). There has been a total of 14 seasons in the eleven years to date, the most recent was September-November 2008.

The hours flown have varied from year to year (see Record of Flights) but now totals (early 2009), 166 hours. Some flying has been in private aircraft but the great majority has been in helicopters of the Royal Jordanian Air Force. None of this would have been possible without the generous support of Major General Prince Feisal bin Hussein.

Initially photographs were taken entirely on film with several cameras and using different media, films and sizes. Since 2004 there has been increasing use of digital cameras and – beginning in 2008 – almost all photographs are now taken on Nikon D3 cameras equipped with a linked GPS which adds the precise co-ordinates of the camera to the photograph’s metadata at each shutter release.

There is a fuller survey of the flying process elsewhere on this site.

Although a few are near-vertical photographs, all were in fact taken at an oblique angle using a hand-held camera. A few are panoramic views from 2000 feet or higher; most are low-level views from a few hundred feet or less. The photographs are mainly of individual sites of all periods in most parts of Jordan. Some are of multiple sites or landscapes. The total archive of oblique photographs is now some 25,000 images.

Catalogues for each of the seasons have been prepared and are currently being significantly updated. It is intended to provide simple lists for each season on this site, followed by a searchable database.

A duplicate set of colour prints from every season through to the most recent (April 2007) is now lodged at the Council for British Research in the Levant in Amman, another at the Department of Antiquities of Jordan in Amman, and a third set together with the original colour print negatives is with the Palestine Exploration Fund in London. In addition, each of the current collaborators (Kennedy, Bewley and Radcliffe) has a set.

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Objectives

The initial objective of the new flying was to test the methodology and to obtain photographs for a book. The latter has now been published as: D. Kennedy and R. Bewley, Ancient Jordan from the Air, 2004, London (Council for British Research in the Levant).

Since 2000 the project has had several specific objectives in mind. First, the systematic recording of sites in a landscape under serious threat from development. Most sites in Jordan have never been photographed from the ground; an aerial view provides a permanent photographic record of the site and its context. Second, the monitoring of sites and landscapes deemed to be especially threatened. Development is rapid in Jordan and much takes place out of sight of official monitors. Our rapid, cost-effective monitoring can alert the Department of Antiquities to threats. Third, as a research tool, collecting the raw data on the many thousands of sites of all types which are otherwise poorly known. Obvious examples are the hundreds of prehistoric sites in the Basalt Desert of the northeast and the dozens of villages of the Roman period. Fourth, the discovery of previously unknown sites.

Aerial Archaeology in Jordan

Overview

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Objectives