TOMATO SEASON IN THE GHOR ES-SAFI: A Lesson in Community Archaeology

From January to March of 2011 the Follow the Pots project embarked on a field project at the Early Bronze Age site of Fifa on the Dead Sea Plain in Jordan. Fieldwork embodied a two-part approach to recording the landscape: archaeological and ethnographic. We had no problem at all carrying out the ar...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Authors: Kersel, Morag M. (Author) ; Chesson, Meredith S. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Journals Online & Print:
Drawer...
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Published: University of Chicago Press 2013
In: Near Eastern archaeology
Year: 2013, Volume: 76, Issue: 3, Pages: 159-165
Online Access: Presumably Free Access
Volltext (JSTOR)
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Parallel Edition:Non-electronic
Description
Summary:From January to March of 2011 the Follow the Pots project embarked on a field project at the Early Bronze Age site of Fifa on the Dead Sea Plain in Jordan. Fieldwork embodied a two-part approach to recording the landscape: archaeological and ethnographic. We had no problem at all carrying out the archaeological groundtruthing and mapping of the looted cemetery at Fifa — producing detailed maps and successfully testing a theory about the uses of Google Earth in monitoring archaeological site looting. As a second prong of this project we sought input from interested communities, those who may be directly or indirectly associated with the looting of the area. We were unsuccessful at engaging with local communities — they were all busy harvesting tomatoes, something we had not factored into our “collaboration.” Our take-home message from this project is that community engagement is situational, context-dependent, and a negotiated process between equal partners.
ISSN:2325-5404
Contains:Enthalten in: Near Eastern archaeology
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.5615/neareastarch.76.3.0159