In the Land of the Bible: Don't be oblivious to Livius

My seventeenth day in Jordan and Israel was on a Saturday. Normally, We did not do any archeological work on Saturday, but on this day Dr. Graves planned to try to find the exact route of a Roman Road that went from Heshbon (currently called Hesbon) to Livius. Dr. Scott Stripling was going with him, as was one of the Jordanian workers from the Jordan Department of Antiquities. The rest of the team were taking the day off, but I had decided to go with Dr. Graves, Scott and Quatiba {Ku tee ba}. The Roman Road had been explored at both ends and Dr. Graves had actually walked some of the lower end of the road. To our knowledge, however, no one had walked the entire road since the mid 1930’s. Dr. Graves wanted to walk the road from beginning to end, to see if it really ended at Tall el-Hammam. Secular Archeologists had designated another site as the terminal of the road, but that site did not match what the ruins of a major city like Livius would have to be.
We drove to Heshbon and began our search there. Heshbon was an ancient city ruled by Sihon, King of the Amorites. (Numbers 21:21-26) Sihon had refused to allow the Children of Israel to pass through his territory as they were coming out of Egypt, so the Israelites fought with, and defeated, Sihon and his forces. Later, after the Israelites had captured the Promised Land, Heshbon was included in the inheritance given to the tribe of Reuben. (Joshua 15:15-21) But the city itself was given to the Tribe of Levi as a Levite (priestly) city. Much later, Heshbon was taken by the Romans, and the ruins now show a mixture of pre-Roman and Roman influence. As we stood on a hill looking down into the valley below us, we decided the best way to find the beginning of the Roman Road was to split into two groups. There was a hill on the other side of the valley and we decided to meet on the other side of that hill. Scott and I went one way and Dr. Graves and Quatiba went the other. As we walked, we found several pieces of Roman pottery, a piece of Roman glass, and many tesera (the flooring tiles frequently used by the Romans). Scott and I found evidence that we believe confirmed we were on the Roman Road, and we followed it approximately a mile or a mile and a half. However, as we continued to walk, the advances of civilization obscured any evidence of the road. Dr. Graves and Quatiba joined us and we walked together along a ridge trying to find more evidence that we were on the right track. We walked for at least two hours before we gave up and decided to return to our car at Heshbon. The problem was, at that point we were no longer sure where Heshbon was located!
Upon our return to Amman, Quatiba took us back to the Citadel. He introduced us to the curator of the Museum there, and we had tea with him. Then Quatiba took us to a genuine Jordanian cafe where we had supper. Our attempt to find the Roman Road had only been partially successful, but we would have one more chance to find it before the trip was over.
On day 18, we were back at work at Tall-el-Hammam. We continued to work at excavating the cistern. We found several pottery sherds and one nice piece of Roman glass. The glass appeared to be the handle of a small glass vial. We also found a layer of stone which appeared to be either part of a floor or a collapsed wall. Scott had thought about abandoning the site if we had not found anything, but the stone merited another day. After work on day 18, we went back to Amman and relaxed for a while.
Day 19 was repeat of day 18. I worked on the cistern both days, and we found nothing else significant. The team working with Dr. Graves at the wall continued to make good progress and Dr. Graves is hoping that they will soon begin to uncover some Herodian stone.
Day 20 was one of those days that we should have stayed in bed. Only three of us went to the site that day, and we were quite late. We left early, but had driven only a few blocks when we had a flat tire. It took us almost two hours before we could get back on the road and down to Tall-el-Hammam. I’ll spare you the gruesome details, but we had ample opportunity once again to say “Welcome to Jordan.”  
On day 21, I was again working at the cistern. As we worked, the digging got more and more difficult. We were digging in clay and the clay was becoming gooier and gooier. We continued to dig, and then we finally hit -- water. That made everyone happy except me. I knew it was a cistern all the time, and I had hoped to find something more significant than water, but no such luck. Further digging was not possible, so we photographed and documented everything we had done and everyone else was happy. 
On day 22, we had several “re-reinforcements” helping us excavate the wall. With a large enthusiastic crew, we soon reached a level where we found the corner of the wall. We knew approximately where the corner should be, but several stones had fallen and we had not actually seen the corner of the wall. When we found the actual point of juncture, both Dr. Graves and Scott were very happy. Our joy was dampened somewhat because we had not found any Herodian stones, but maybe next year.
To those readers who have persevered through the reminiscences of my Jordanian and Iraeli wanderings, thank you. This will be the last chapter in a trip that was far more interesting than my words have been able to describe.
Day 23 was a day off, and the entire crew working at Tall-el-Hammam (about 40 of us) met in Madaba for an outing to two different sites. Khirbet Iskander is an ancient city that shows continuous occupancy from the Early Bronze Age through the Intermediate Bronze Age. Most of the sites uncovered in the Jordan River valley do not have Intermediate Bronze Age ruins, because that is the time period in which Sodom was destroyed. Khirbet Iskander, however, is located in the mountains above the area of Tall-el-Hammam and would have escaped the destruction caused by God’s judgment of Sodom and Gomorrrah and the cities of the plain. I found several sherds of pottery there, most of it dating to the Early Bronze Age but some of it only to the Intermediate Bronze Age.
Next we went to Dibon. Dibon was a Nabatean city, from the same time as Petra. Although not a great deal of excavation has been done there, it is still quite an impressive sight. Of course the Romans added to it and Romanized it after they conquered the area. Both Roman and Nabatean pottery sherds were abundant. I found several nice pieces to bring home with me, including a rather large piece of the rim of a jar dating to the Nabateans and a handle from a piece of Roman pottery.
Finally, the next to the last day in Jordan arrived- day 24. Normally it would have been a non-work day, but Dr. Graves had been able to rent a four-wheel drive vehicle and was going to try to find the Roman Road again, this time starting at the bottom. I opted to go with him, and we were again accompanied by Quatiba. Dr. Graves had previously been on a small portion of the lower part of the road, but because of recent construction it took us a while to find it. When we did find it, we were able to follow it for about two miles in the vehicle. Then we came to a place where the road had been washed out, and we couldn’t even get the four-wheel drive vehicle across it. So we walked.
We had a very successful, although difficult hike. We had started near the level of the Dead Sea and climbed nearly 1200 feet in our “hike” along the Roman Road. The trek revealed ample evidence that we were on the right path. We had walked less than a half mile when I found half of a column the Romans used as mile markers. Unfortunately, there were no inscriptions on it. A short distance further up the road, we found another fragment of a column. About a mile further, we found a third, nearly intact, Mile Marker. None of these had inscriptions, but they were obviously placed by Roman hands hundreds of years ago. We also found many pieces of Roman pottery and the ruins of several small forts the Romans built for protection along the Road. Parts of the Road are now used for modern traffic, and other places had been buried under cultivated orchards, but we were able to follow the road several miles. We finally lost it as we approached a village because too much of it had been buried under the cultivated orchards and fields in the area. By our estimation, we were probably within five to eight miles of Hesbon.
After leaving the Hesbon area, we drove back to the Dead Sea and the Movenpick Hotel to have one last dinner with the entire group. We had a wonderful buffet dinner and I had the opportunity to just sit and listen to some of the professional archeologists on the dig. The stories they told of where they had been and what they had done were fascinating. When we finally returned to Amman that night, we went to Google Earth and matched the area which we had walked to the area explored by others in the 1920’s and 30’s. We found that we were either on, or beside, the Roman Road all the way up to the point we lost track of it. We felt very good about that. We had traversed an area that had not been explored for over 75 years.
Although we went back to the Tall -el-Hammam the next day before leaving for the airport, we really did very little that day. The crew working with Dr. Collins in the Sodom area did have a major find, however. One of their group found a little juglet that was intact except for a small chip in the lip. It was no bigger than the palm of a person’s hand and was quite a rarity. Intact pottery is seldom found any longer. Later, just before noon, we stopped for photographs of the entire group. Then we said our “goodbyes” and we were off to Amman to pack up and leave for the airport. We left Amman about 2:30 am., headed for Frankfort, Germany and then home to Bush International in Houston. And so ended an expedition that far exceeded my dreams of what it would be.
The dig is still going on and the next season will begin next December. It is open to anyone who is interested. Although I stayed a total of 26 days (from take-off to return), you can go for any length of time from a week to two months. For more information, Google search Tall-el-Hammam or contact Dr. Scott Stripling at sstripling@aol.com <mailto:sstripling@aol.com>. For pictures of Jordan and of Tall-el-Hammam, go to picasaweb.google.com/rexgeissler. I hope you have enjoyed reading about my travels, and I would be pleased to know that I have inspired some of you readers to make this same journey. God bless, and don’t be oblivious to Livius.