Reimaging Urban Space: Petra in the 1st - 4th centuries A.D. Grant uri icon

abstract

  • Building upon our successful 2014 excavations, we seek to reconstruct the experience of inhabitants of the ancient city of Petra, Jordan during the 1st ? 4th centuries A.D. The predominant perceptions ? both ancient and modern - of life in an ancient urban space focuses on its insalubrious environment resulting from high population density, lack of clean water sources, and rubbish-filled streets. We hypothesize that Petra?s residents ? numbering 30,000 at the city?s peak in the 1st century A.D. ? had a distinctly different urban experience resulting from the city?s unique ecosystem. We will continue to explore Petra?s urban environment through analysis of human health and disease, diet, domestic space, and public health infrastructure. The pedagogical and intellectual components of this project will broadly impact researchers and students from Jordan, the U.S., and other countries as described below. Furthermore this project proposes an anthropological approach that effectively will supplement previous work by archaeologists and ancient historians. Grounded in history and anthropological archaeology, this project?s significance stems from reimagining ancient urban space in a multidisciplinary context, relying on evidence of health and disease from human skeletons, diet and environment from evidence of flora and fauna, and the urban infrastructure through excavation of domestic structures. These data will be generated through continued excavation of 1st ? 4th century domestic complexes and 1st century tombs located on the Petra North Ridge, containing the northern sector of the urban area. Excavation in 2014 of 2 separate domestic structures and 3 tombs, along with previous excavation on the North Ridge from 1995-2002, demonstrates that this sector of the city will provide substantial data on the lives of the average (as opposed to elite) population of Petra. Preliminary results of these and other investigations imply that Petra residents had access to piped-in spring water in many sectors of the city, did not live in close contact with domestic animals or other potential hosts for infectious disease, and died showing little to no evidence of bone pathologies related to disease or malnutrition. The continued support of these data through future excavation will provide an alternate view of ancient urban space and the experiences of urban residents than that presented by ancient sources. This cross-disciplinary, historical and anthropological-archaeological project will integrate information generated from translations of ancient texts with archaeological and bioanthropological data recovered in the field. This project also comprises part of a larger training program for Department of Antiquities of Jordan (DoA) staff in the excavation and analysis of human skeletons, skills that will enhance their ability to protect Jordan?s cultural heritage. Select DoA staff will gain field experience at Petra and, pending funding, bioarchaeological laboratory experience at ECU. The field and laboratory work furthermore provides primary data for U.S. and Jordanian undergraduate and graduate student research. This project therefore establishes a strong partnership not only between the DoA and ECU, but also between Jordanian and U.S. scholars.

date/time interval

  • May 2014 - September 2018