2020-21 Abstract: Desert Paradise: The Petra Terraces Archaeology Project

The ancient city of Petra in Jordan is rightly known for its spectacular funerary architecture and long-distance trade connections. But its inhabitants’ capacity to live in extreme environments was just as important for the city’s success. Sarah Newman’s research will assemble a team of archeaologists, geologists, and architects to investigate the history of human-landscape interactions that made agriculture possible in the semi-arid deserts around Petra. By studying the construction, use, repair, and collapse of ancient terrace walls and dams in a single watershed north of the city, Newman’s research project will bring new comparative and anthropological questions to a region that, although well-known and intensively studied, has been understood primarily in terms of its specific cultural and historical importance. This research builds upon ongoing discussions around ancient landscape modification, both in historically related territories and through cross-cultural comparisons.