Tuesday 15 April 2014

Workshop: Introduction to Aerial Archaeology March 2014

At the beginning of March this year you may remember that our Bob Bewley was about to hold an Aerial Archaeology Workshop with Dr Fawzi Abudanah at the Department of Archaeology, Al-Hussein Bin Talal University, Petra, Jordan. 

Initially it was intended the workshop would accommodate ten students drawn from the campus’ Archaeology and Tourism courses. Increased interest in the course saw numbers rise at times to twenty students, so the workshop adapted to be delivered in a lecture/seminar style over three days (March 2nd – March 4th).

Students experiencing aerial photography in 3D - thanks to some old-school glasses.
Talks and presentations gave way to seminar and group discussions on air photo interpretation. This included time devoted to ‘photo reading’ where students were given the opportunity to develop their practical skills in interpretation and observation and produce plans in a final mapping exercise. Due to variability in the understanding and speaking of English, Dr Abudanah translated to and from Arabic for the benefit of students and Dr Bewley. This had the added advantage that students had more time to consider what was being said and/or shown to them. The in-depth discussions that followed demonstrated the interest of the students and their developing understanding on the nature and use of aerial survey for archaeology.

Students work on a photo reading and mapping exercise.
It is hoped a small number from this course will now be able to join the Aerial Archaeology in Jordan Project for a day or so in the planned aerial reconnaissance season in October 2014 to continue their training.

Thanks must be given to Dr Fawzi Abudanah for facilitating and helping organise the Workshop, the Department of Archaeology at Al-Hussein Bin Talal University for hosting, the Palestine Exploration Fund’s grant for Dr Bob Bewley’s participation, and the support of the Packhard Humanitites Institute for the continuing Aerial Archaeology in Jordan project.
Workshop participants with Dr Bob Bewley, Dr. Saad Twaissi (Dean of the Petra College for Tourism and Archaeology) and Dr Fawzi Abudanah in the front row (from the right).

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