Greetings From Oxford 2

C.S. Lewis

Hello

I have been very busy here in Oxford and I have had a hard time getting access to email/internet.

Things are going well here. It is chilling and rainy most days here in Oxford. Both Connie and I had to buy umbellas.

The conference went well. I think my paper was well received. I will revise it and submit it in September and it should be published in the Spring. Connie and I were able to tour some of the colleges here in Oxford and also go on a special C. S. Lewis Tour and a Literary walking tour of Oxford. We also visited Blemheim Palace where Churchhill was born and a van tour of the Cotswalds. Tomorrow we head up to the Lake District and the town of Keswich. We hopw to visit the home of Wadsworth and Beatrix Potter etc. It is also home to the Keswich Conference.

The on Tuesday we travel back to Oxford and drop the car off and then take a bus to London. We fly home a week from today.

We are doing well and seeing some great things. The change in weather is nice after the heat and dryness of Jordan.

More later if I have a chance

John Wineland
Oxford, England

Greetings From Oxford

A view of an Oxford Street

Hello

I arrived safety at Heathrow today and then travelled by coach to Oxford. The weather is quite a change about 60 - 65 degrees and rainy here. I ate some fish and chips and attended Evenesong services this evening at a local church. The conference begins tomorrow morning at 9AM. Connie should arrive about noon at Oxford. I will go to the bus station to greet her and help her get to the guest house where we are staying.

I am quite tired since I got up this morning at 3AM Amman time which would be 1AM Oxford time. (5 hour time difference from here to the US).

Connie and I will be in Oxford until Friday or Saturday and then on to the Lake district and later spend a few nights in London.

John Wineland
Oxford, England

Greetings From Harta

A lifesize statue of Artemis in a similar pose as this was found in Area A during the Summer of 1994.

Hello

This is my last night in camp in Harta. Today we excavated two important probes. One beneath Gerald's mosaic floor and another in John's square under a fine limestone pavement. After checking the pottery from the square we can say that we have Byzantine mosaic floor and a Roman pavement at a lower level. This pavement probably served as the floor for the temenos of a Roman temple probably dedicated to Artemis.

Tomorrow we must draw finish up and draw top plans of the squares and also draw the balks. Then we must take final photos. There is still much work to do at the site but I think that we have answered some questions this season.

Tim and I will leave for Amman and ACOR tomorrow afternoon. I hope to revise my paper for the ARAM conference. Also I hope to visit the Department of Antiquities to check on their library and perhaps see Dr. Fawzi Zayadine. Then I will say good bye to Adnan and I fly out early Sunday morning for England.

John Wineland
Harta, Jordan

Greetings From Abila

Hello,

It is Wednesday evening here in Harta. I am doing well my toe is much better. We have 2 more days left to finish my work in Area A on the Tell. I will be traveling to Amman on Friday and I will spend 2 nights at ACOR before I fly to London on Sunday morning.

We are digging probes adjancent to the wall of the church on the north and south sides. We are hoping to test the dating of the construction of the building. We also are probing beneath the mosaic floor that Gerald found in his square. This is to help us date the construction of the floor.
We have also found a lower floor in a near by square we are going to try and probe beneath it.

We have to make some decisions because since I am leaving there is not much time to continue the work in the area.

I think we will answer some questions but also raise more questions in the process.

Gerald had to break through his mosaic floor so we could pottery beneath the floor in order to date it. It is painful to break through an ancient floor that has been in place since the late 6th century but archaeology is destruction. In order to find out more information we some times have to remove the later material. He place a small probe beneath the floor, 1 meter by about 1/2 meter.

More later,

John Wineland
Harta, Jordan

Back at Abila

This is Gerald Dyson, KCU student in his square today. He has unearthed a mosaic floor which is in front of a 6th century Byzantine church. The object in the lower right hand portion of the picture is a basalt captial from the church reused in a later wall built on top of the mosaic floor.

Greetings from Harta,

I went out to the site today but I only staye about 3 hours then back to camp. I was tired, I think it is a combination of not resting well in the hospital and then working hard on my ARAM conference paper which is now about finished.

ANyway we continued digging and we are making some progess but I keep thinking that I only have 4 more days to finish.

Gerald Dyson is one of my students at Kentucky Christian University (KCU) he found a mosaic floor in his square today see the photo above.

All is well I leave for Amman Friday afternoon. I will stay at ACOR and then fly to London on Sunday morning.

More later,

John Wineland
Harta, Jordan

Greetings From Amman

A Drawing of the ACOR Building in Amman

Hello,

It is Sunday morning in Amman. Here in Jordan Sunday a work day because Friday is the Muslim day of worship. From an American point of view Thursday night is like Friday night, Friday is like Sunday, Saturday is much like Saturday at home, and Sunday is like Monday.

We will have an evening worship at camp tonight in Harta. They have asked me to preach a short sermon. We sing a few songs, Gerald Dyson brought his guitar so leads the songs, we have a prayer time and then a short sermon.

This is my last week in Jordan. I will leave a week from today, flying to London then a bus on to Oxford.

My toe is healing well. I was able to get some good bandages at the Safeway here in Amman.
I will have to be careful in the field this week. I want to go out to field each day but maybe only stay out for 2 or three hours instead of 7 hours. Anyway Tim Snow the photographer is taking some special photos of the squares so I can "see" how things are progressing. I hoping we can answer some questions about the Byzantine church in Area A.

Next Friday I will be back at ACOR for my last two nights in Jordan. Then I will make my way on to England where Connie will meet me. I am lloking forward to seeing England again.

I hope this week is less "eventful" than last week.

I will write again when I get a chance.

John Wineland
Amman, Jordan

Interesting end to the week

Greetings from Amman,

It is Friday afternoon in Jordan. I am current a resident of the American Center of Oriental Research (ACOR).

I will be here for a few days finishing my paper/presentation for the ARAM Conference. ACOR has a wonderful research library and it also has rooms and a kitchen and laundry facilty so it is a home home away from home. I have spent several weekends here over the years.

==============================
Here is the official information about the conference I will be attending:
ARAM Society for Syro-Mesopotamian Studies: Twenty Fifth International Conference
DECAPOLIS: HISTORY & ARCHAEOLOGY
The Oriental Institute
Oxford University
07-10 July 2008

Here is my paper/presentation information:

TUESDAY, JULY 08 (Venue: The Oriental Institute, Pusey Lane)
10:10-10:45 Prof. John Wineland (Kentucky Christian University):
“Byzantine Ecclesiastical Organization in the Decapolis: Evidence from Abila.”

===============================================

Since my last update it has been an unusal few days. It has been quite hot here since we arrive in the high 30's and even the low 40's of course I am talking about centigrade not fahrenheit, 35 is about 95 degrees and 40 is 103 degress. In fact we ended work early on Thursday at noon because of the heat. Today work ended at 10:30 because of the heat.

I left the site on Wednesday about 11am to visit a hospital. It seems my new boots do not agree with my feet. Since it has been hot this was a factor, but also I must have damaged my big toe nail on the interior of the boot. This led to an infection under my big toe nail on my left foot.

I went to a local hosptial in northern Jordan actually it is in Samar, Jordan about 10 miles from the site. I knew I needed antibiotics because I had pain in my left leg coming up from my foot. My toe was quite red. The doctors examined it and xrayed it. They then removed the toenail and cleaned it. When they found I that I have diabetes they became very cautious. They gave me an EKG and then for a reason unknown to me a chest xray. The doctor wanted to admit me so I agreed. They gave me IV antibiotics. I stayed the rest of the day Wednesday and all day Thursday, I finally got out this morning about 9 o'clock.

There are many things I could tell about the hospital. I will limit it to a few. First I was placed in a room with 3 other men. All of them were about 70 or older. One man was blinded from diabetes, another had some type of wound from diabetes and he was receivibg treatment. The third I was told had a bleeding stomach.

It is the custom to have many family member visit so the room was fill until about midnight. One man's son stayed the night in a plastic chair.

I was the only "gringo" (American) in the hospital so I became a minor celebrity. I had a visit from the representative of the Department of Antiquites of Jordan, and also from several police officials even someone who I think is a General in the Jordanian Army. I was attened to by several doctors including the Director of the hospital. So I had the best care they could offer.

They did a good job, the redness is almost gone and I am feeling fine. I have to take antibiotics in pill form now and dress the wound each day.

They have some things that are quite different about their hospital. First you have to provide several things that you would not have to provide in a US hospital. Clothes (there are no gowns etc provided) your own kleenix, and toliet paper (if needed), also your own cup and spoon.

The rooms are not air conditioned and the only ventation is the window. You sleep on a vinyl covered mattress with just a thin sheet over it, so when it is 95 to 100 I tended to stick to the mattress. Also there is no TV or radio or lounge or any vending machines etc., so nothing really to do but look at the other guys in the room. I won't go into the bathroon arrangements they were better than the camp where I stay but not exactly great.

I was on a men's floor and most of the staff was men except for a head nurse that must have been a drill sergeant at one time, also they had younger women wheel in the meals but they did not bring them over to your bed you had to do that. Also they do not provide anything to drink or anyway to drink it. There is a water fountain near the nurses station outside your room.

The food was almost the same each meal. Sliced cucumbers and tomatos, plain yogart, hummus, and bread. Twice I got soup. I was glad to get some other food today.

The hospitals in Jordan expect a persons family to provide most of the "nursing" care; feeding, washing, fetching water etc. Oh, they do not provide any towel or wash cloth or soap either.

I spent my time reading a novel and the Bible and listening to my IPOD. I got to know patient who told me he was a retired health care administion with a PhD from the US. He said hospitals are much like prisons.

Well I have never been in a prison but I will say that I am glad to be out of the hospital. This was the first time I had been in a hospital as a patient since I was about 7 years old and had my tonsils out.

====================
Getting around Jordan is also different than home it can be difficult on Friday especially since this is the Islamic day of worship. Tim and I caught a ride with the cook in his beat up old mini pickup truck. Normally you would ride a local mini-bus about the size of a regulal van. They put about 20 or so people in the minibus which goes on a fixed route from surrounding villages to regional centers.

The cook dropped us at a corner in Irbid and we had to take a taxi to a bus station. Then we took a bus to Amman and a taxi from the bus station to ACOR. Of course taxi drivers usually know very little English, so we have to direct them in Arabic. Amman is a large city about 2.5 million. Irbid has a population of over 272,000 people.

Amman has grown a great deal since I last visited in 2001. There are many refugees from Iraq in the country now.

ACOR has a wonderful library which focuses on the Middle East, history, and archaeology. They have my dissertation and book here too. They have several of the specialized journals I need too. So this a great place for me to do some research and finish up my paper.

Tim and I have already got into our room, dropped off our laundry (which really needs washing) raided the kitchen for a meal and now working on the computer here in the computer lab.

I guess that is it for now.

I will post something else before I leave Amman.

John Wineland
ACOR, Amman Jordan