2006: Kingdom of Jordan
Venner worked a summer season in the Kingdom of Jordan. The field team was composed of college students from Canada and the U.S. We excavated a Late Bronze Age village site, dating 1500-1200 B.C.E. The settlement consisted of layer upon layer of habitations--one Israelite, the next Sumerrian, the next Ammonite--just culture after culture conquering the one before it. This seemed but a sad story of constant warfare, something continuing in the region even today.
The site -- Tal Umaryi -- had rooms built upon rooms. This team has excavated nearly 3 m down.
Venner was assigned a room to excavate, as well as two Canadian college students, and a Bedouin worker from a nearby tribe.
The field team (nearly 40 people) was housed in a United Nations education compound, protected by armed guards. We ate at a U.N. cafeteria, and slept in concrete barracks, its windows all broken. Our water was heated by the sun.
