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Shallow
glimmering seas surround the enchanting island of Jerba located
off of the southeastern coast of Tunisia. Over the millennia
these seductive seas have protected the island and its diverse
inhabitants. Roman ships ran aground during the first Punic
War in the third century B.C.E., while the famed Barbarossa
used the island the during his daring sixteenth century escapades.
This intriguing and unique history of the island recently attracted
the attention of several scholars.
Initiated
in 1996 the Jerba Project sought to understand the complex settlement
history of the island through time. Archaeological field survey,
coupled with select excavations, elucidated the island.s fascinating
history. Famous in antiquity for its purple dye production,
the Roman city of Meninx was a focal point of the Project's
research. While no standing buildings remain, numerous marble
fragments at Meninx indicate the wealth, diversity and polychromatic
nature of the architecture. Over thirty different types of stone
were used to decorate the city! The stunning architecture was
not limited to the ancient world; rather, the medieval and early
modern architecture is equally alluring. |
The
miniature medieval mosques, which ring the island, captivate
the visitor and scholar alike. In contrast to the overwhelming
great mosques in Tunis and Kairouan, the whitewashed mosques
on Jerba are far more intimate - only fifteen or so people could
fit into the mosque at any one time. Since the importance of
Jerba in the Mediterranean economy did not decline during the
medieval and early modern periods and since the mosques were
so small, one wonders upon what did the Jerbis (people from
Jerba) spend their money. Since there are no natural springs
on the island and sweet water is scarce, the creation of a lush
landscape with extensive gardens and cultivated fields, especially
around one.s villa, can be viewed as part of the complex display
culture of the citizens of Jerba during this time.
The
architecture of Meninx, the medieval and early modern mosques,
the gardens, and the sea, are just a few of the things visitors
can experience when the Far Horizons tour to Tunisia stops in
Jerba.
Thomas
J. Morton was the assistant director of the Jerba Project and
will lead a visit to Jerba during the March 2004 tour of Tunisia.
You can read the full itinerary here.
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1974 the new highway built between Jordan's capital of Amman and
the country.s industrial center of Zarqa cut through the edge
of a slumbering giant. For 7,500 years soil and rocks had cloaked
the remains of 'Ain Ghazal, one of the first experiments society
conducted in residential sprawl. Bulldozer cuts exposed the entire
history of the settlement, from its beginnings more than 10,000
years ago to its last whimpers of human occupation at about 5,500
BC. Initially, comfortable single-family dwellings of around 400
sq. ft. floor area were clustered in a density of housing that
would be familiar to residents of row houses in Philadelphia or
pueblos in New Mexico a hundred years ago. A strong connection
of family and homes was reflected in the burial of selected family
members beneath house floors, a burial that was disturbed just
once in order to remove the skull for a special ceremonial reconstruction
of the individual.s face. The newly modeled image was probably
put on display in the house (at least at certain times of the
year) to emphasize the importance of the ties between the living
family members and past ancestors. This profound concern with
genealogy was expressed on a broader scale through statues made
of plaster molded around skeletons of reeds bound with twine,
representing an ancestral line that stretched far back into the
mist-clouded past beyond any time range human memory could deal
with. Dated to 7,750 BC, the meter-tall figures represent the
oldest "monumental" statuary that we know of.
Still early in the new evolving process of producing
their own food instead of hunting and gathering it, the Neolithic
farmers and herders cleared land to support the rapidly growing
number of inhabitants, which appears to have doubled about every
400-500 years, reaching a population of around three thousand
people by 7,000 BC. The size of the settlement was unprecedented,
probably four to five times the size of con temporary Jericho.
But the success of the new way of life was tainted with the
seeds of its downfall: demands on the local environment were
degrading it in increasing measure,
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 and
competition for farmland was as strong between families as between
farmers and flocks of sheep and goats.
The
discordant strains that the exploding size of the population
had on the social fabric of the community must have been tremendous,
so much so that social life and religious rituals changed from
that early emphasis on individual families and far-reaching
ancestral identities to corporate residential groups of related
households that lived in communal, multifamily apartment buildings
and who celebrated rituals and ceremonies in community-focused
"temples", as well as in kin-centered residential
shrines.
Ultimately,
the incessant demands on the ecology became irreversibly devastating,
and by 6,500 BC the number of residents at the once vibrant
town of 'Ain Ghazal plummeted, probably to less than a sixth
of the former size within just a few generations. Fields that
had supplied tons of grain and legumes gave out, and by 5,500
BC even the localized pockets of productive soil could no longer
sustain a community of any size, and 'Ain Ghazal was abandoned
to nomadic groups of herders to use its powerful spring of fresh
water for their sheep and goats.
A
visit to the site of 'Ain Ghazal, led by its principal excavator
Prof. Gary O. Rollefson, will put the size of the settlement
into visual perspective as well as to reveal the changing architectural
features through time, including the shrines and temples used
by the later inhabitants. The National Museum in Amman will
also provide the opportunity to view some of the most impressive
aspects of Stone Age religion that have ever been discovered.
Join Gary Rollefson and tour Jordan, including
'Ain Ghazal, in May 2004.
You can read the full itinerary here. |
