Showing papers by "David Kennedy published in 2002"

Qaryat al-Hadid: a 'lost' Roman military site in Northern Jordan

Abstract: In modern times the town of Zarqa has been a stopping place on the Pilgrim Road and a halting place on the Hijaz Railway. Today, swollen by refugees and Jordan's rising population, it has spread rapidly. At the heart of old Zarqa is the medieval khan (Qala'at Zarqa) but not far off is another site, apparently Roman and once perhaps more important than Zarqa. Although Qaryat al-Hadid was known to scholars in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it is not well-known today; indeed, it is one of the more elusive archaeological sites of modern Jordan. The rare nineteenth-century accounts suggest a major settlement, perhaps a fort; of the two reports from this century, the most recent cast doubt on the interpretations of these predecessors. The precise location was uncertain and recent research on old air photographs was inconclusive. Now study of an air photograph taken by the German air force in 1918 provides a precise location and allows more recent air photographs to be exploited.