A New Project:
August 9, 2011
The Oriental Institute announces a new archaeological project: the Jericho Mafjar Project (JMP), the first joint Palestinian-American archaeological excavation, making it a unique milestone for scholarship.
Khirbet al-Mafjar is located north of Jericho in the Palestinian territories. Famed as one of the most important of the "desert castles" of the early Islamic period, the site was excavated by Dimitri Baramki from 1934 to 1948. These excavations revealed a palace and great bath, both of which were intensively decorated with fine mosaics and elaborate stucco figures, as well as stone sculpture and frescoes, placing Mafjar as one of the most important monuments in the history of Islamic Archaeology.
The Oriental Institute was involved in support of the original publication by R. W. Hamilton in 1959. This monograph, and Creswell's repetition of its information, remain the scholarly basis for the fame of these monuments. This was assumed to have been the product of a short period of building and occupation in the early 8th century; in the absence of any final report on the site, the archaeology of Khirbet al-Mafjar stands in serious need of revision and presentation.Help support the project.
See all of The Oriental Institute's Archaeology Projects
Posts
Stumble It!
1 comment:
Actually, this site is in bad need of conservation. It doesn't need any new archaeological excavations to uncover new remains which need conservation interventions as well. I think the American and Palestinian Archaeologists whom are involved in this tragedian project haven't any responsibility towards the cultural heritage conservation. They just want to use the site to be famous.
Post a Comment