The field season 2004 of the International Wadi Farasa Project (IWFP) lasted from August 22nd to September 16th. The Schmid 2005 was carried out by the Association for the Understanding of Ancient Cultures (AUAC), based in Basel (Switzerland) and the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF, London), generously sponsored by Ghadeer Mineral Waters, a Nestlé Waters Company, and the University of Montpellier III (France). We would like to thank the director general of the Department of Antiquities, Dr. Fawwaz Al-Khraysheh, for his support and for granting the working permit as well as Dr. Fawzi Zayadine (Amman), Prof. David Graf (Miami) and Dr. Bernhard Kolb (Basel) for their continuous interest in the project.
Team of the year 2004 (photo: S. G. Schmid)
The following persons participated in the 2004 season of the IWFP: the archaeologists Stephan G. Schmid, director (Montpellier), André Barmasse, MA (Basel), Caroline Huguenot, MA (Lausanne), Aurélien Amour, BA (Montpellier) and Adeeb Salamin, MA (representative of the Department of Antiquities) whose help and advice were much appreciated, and the anthropologist Sylvie Duchesne, MA (Toulouse). Seventeen workmen and one teawoman from the B’dool and Saydin tribes were employed. We would also like to thank IFAPO Amman for lodging the team during its stay at Amman.
Fig. 1: Wadi Farasa East, general plan (after Bachmann, Watzinger, Wiegand, modified by A. Barmasse)
Following the results of the previous campaigns of the project, the following trenches and soundings were opened (cf. fig. 1): Cistern 1 in front of the Soldier Tomb’s complex that was partially excavated last year, was completed in 2004; within the northern portico of the Soldier Tomb’s complex a trench measuring 5m x 5m was opened in order to expose the next couple of columns and to follow the rock cut water channel partially excavated in 2003 in the adjacent room 3; room 3 had be partially exposed last year and was completed in 2004; in the northern part of the complex rooms 8 and 9 were excavated and cleaning of the rock structures forming the upper level was begun. Since in 2003 we were able to clean and excavate inside the so-called Renaissance Tomb at the lower end of the Wadi Farasa East, this year a small test trench in front of the tomb was opened in order to gather information as to the relationship between the track leading up to the Soldier Tomb’s complex and the presumed courtyard of the Renaissance Tomb.
