Monday 13 October 2014

Flight 20141012 - Flying again

October 12th and the first flight of the 2014 season. Bob, Becc and Mat had the usual early start to try to catch the best light, especially as we were hoping for some stunning views of Machaerus, south-west of Amman. However, despite the dawn being very clear and calm there was fog and very poor visibility in that region. The RJAF is brilliant at providing cups to tea and coffee and by 0830 we decided we should change our plans and head north.

Jarash. © APAAME_20141012_RHB-0154.
We photographed some of the more well known sites – Pella in the north, and of course Jerash, both the main city but also looking for some of the smaller features (concerning water management) for Don Boyer (working on his PhD). By chance we also managed to photograph him in the field too.
 
Olive harvest. © APAAME_20141012_MND-0369.
It is also the olive harvest and we saw many sheets (of various colours) underneath olive trees to collect the harvest.

Hayyan al-Mashrif surrounded by quarrying. © APAAME_20141012_RHB-0258.
We photographed over 45 sites, many of which have not been recorded before and may seem to be safe for a few more years. Then as the helicopter orbits a large quarry comes into view and whole hillsides are disappearing for house-building stone. We hope our photographs will be important and useful documents to help understand and preserve many of these archaeological sites in the future.

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