Achim Lichtenberger

Revealing text in a complexly rolled silver scroll from Jerash with computed tomography and advanced imaging software

Throughout Antiquity magical amulets written on papyri, lead and silver were used for apotropaic reasons. While papyri often can be unrolled and deciphered, metal scrolls, usually very thin and tightly rolled up, cannot easily be unrolled without damaging the metal. This leaves us with unreadable results due to the damage done or with the decision not to unroll the scroll. The texts vary greatly and tell us about the cultural environment and local as well as individual practices at a variety of locations across the Mediterranean. Here we present the methodology and the results of the digital unfolding of a silver sheet from Jerash in Jordan from the mid-8th century CE. The scroll was inscribed with 17 lines in presumed pseudo-Arabic as well as some magical signs. The successful unfolding shows that it is possible to digitally unfold complexly folded scrolls, but that it requires a combination of the know-how of the software and linguistic knowledge.

Mosaicists at work: the organisation of mosaic production in Early Islamic Jerash

Abstract The city of Jerash in northern Jordan was badly damaged by an earthquake in AD 749. As a result of this, many parts of the city, including the Northwest Quarter, were abandoned and further construction ceased. Archaeological excavations in those parts of the city therefore reveal snapshots in time from the moment at which disaster hit. Of particular interest is the so-called ‘House of the Tesserae’, where archaeologists discovered a trough for the storage of pieces to be used in the construction of mosaics. The find, reported here for the first time, provides a unique insight into the practice of mosaic-laying during the Early Islamic Period.

A newly excavated private house in Jerash. Reconsidering aspects of continuity and change in material culture from Late Antiquity to the early Islamic period

Depuis 2011, le Projet germano-danois du quartier nord-ouest de Gerasa mene des recherches archeologiques sur la zone la plus elevee de l’ancienne ville enceinte. En 2014, les fouilles ont debute sur la « terrasse orientale », qui s’etend sur environ 3 000 m2 et surplombe l’Artemision d’epoque romaine. Cette zone etait recouverte par d’importants deblais qui enfermaient les vestiges d’un habitat domestique du debut de l’epoque islamique, detruit par le tremblement de terre de 749 et jamais reoccupe depuis. Une maison privee a ete en partie fouillee (secteur K). Elle ne recouvre aucune phase ni romaine ni byzantine et a ete abandonnee a la suite du tremblement de terre avec l’ensemble de son mobilier. L’absence de phases chronologiques anterieures, le mobilier ainsi que la destruction soudaine de cette habitation en font un exemple important qui permet d’entreprendre une etude des permanences et des changements de la culture materielle de l’Antiquite tardive au debut de l’epoque islamique. L’habitat et les...

City and wadi: Exploring the environs of Jerash

Archaeological excavations of urban sites in the Mediterranean have a long history, but only recently are geoarchaeology-based landscape studies beginning to provide insight into the complex and dynamic relationships between cities and their hinterlands. Such studies are becoming increasingly important as archaeologists seek to understand how cities sustained themselves, demonstrating resilience to both external shocks and long-term environmental changes, and, conversely, how cities contributed to their own demise through the over-exploitation of environmental resources (Barthel & Isendahl 2013; Butzer et al. 2013; Kintigh et al. 2014; Nelson et al. 2016).

An architectural block with altar-iconography from the North-west Quarter of Jerash

Abstract This article considers a monumental architectural limestone block with altar-iconography that was found during the 2012 campaign of the Danish–German North-west Quarter project. The project, which began in 2011, has mapped the highest area within the walled city, the so-called North-west Quarter, which had hitherto remained largely unexplored. The monumental block, which was in secondary use as a late antique oil press, gives new insight into the local building traditions in Gerasa. The authors suggest that this block originally came from a building with a sacred function. Through comparison with other local sanctuaries from the region, as well as from Gerasa itself where the tradition of the horned altar-motif seems to have been flourishing in the Roman period, it is shown that this block might have belonged to a sanctuary dedicated to a deity of a local character.

Mapping an ancient city with a century of remotely sensed data

Significance Understanding how people in the past adapted to environmental and economic challenges can help us anticipate and meet these challenges in the present. However, these very processes threaten the physical remains embodying this information worldwide: Urban expansion and resource exploitation mean that the quantity and quality of archaeological information are diminishing daily. In this work, we demonstrate how multitemporal aerial photography and modern airborne laser scanning are invaluable tools for mapping the remaining archaeological features extant in the present and for adding context to them from what has been lost. This knowledge enables cultural heritage administrators and archaeologists to actively monitor, understand, and manage the existing remains to make sure important information is not lost to posterity. The rapidly growing global population places cultural heritage at great risk, and the encroachment of modern settlement on archaeological sites means that valuable information about how past societies worked and interacted with the environment is lost. To manage and mitigate these risks, we require knowledge about what has been lost and what remains, so we can actively decide what should be investigated and what should be preserved for the future. Remote sensing provides archaeologists with some of the tools we need to do this. In this paper we explore the application of multitemporal, multisensor data to map features and chart the impacts of urban encroachment on the ancient city of Jerash (in modern Jordan) by combining archives of aerial photography dating back to 1917 with state-of-the-art airborne laser scanning. The combined results revealed details of the water distribution system and the ancient city plan. This demonstrates that by combining historical images with modern aerial and ground-based data we can successfully detect and contextualize these features and thus achieve a better understanding of life in a city in the past. These methods are essential, given that much of the ancient city has been lost to modern development and the historical imagery is often our only source of information.

Ancient fingerprints from Beit Nattif: studying Late Roman clay impressions on oil lamps and figurines

Analysis of oil lamps and clay figurines recovered from a Late Roman ceramics workshop at Beit Nattif in Israel has revealed numerous fragments with evidence of the manufacturers fingerprints preserved on some of the ceramic surfaces. Further study of these fingerprints has provided a unique insight into the production history of the workshop, even showing how particular innovations in technique may be associated with particular individuals.