Khirbat as-Sar (Sara), Jordan
Dates of work: 8–28 March 2018
Archaeological and geophysical survey at the site of Khirbat as-Sar (Sara)
Director: Prof. Jolanta Młynarczyk (Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw)
DOA representative: Hanadi al-Taher
Archaeologists: Dr. Mariusz Burdajewicz (Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw),
Marcin Gostkowski (PhD candidate, Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences)
Geophysicist: Robert Ryndziewicz (Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology,
Polish Academy of Sciences)
Archaeological and geophysical prospection of the site of Khirbat as-Sar (Sara) in Jordan, carried out by a team from the Polish Centre of the Mediterranean Archaeology (PCMA), University of Warsaw, has resulted in a comprehensive plan mapping all visible architectural remains. A Roman-period sacred compound appears to be a central feature of this site. Pottery collected from the surface has given a time range for the settlement from the late Iron Age through the Mamluk period. The electrical resistivity method using a probe array that allowed ground penetration to a maximum depth of approximately 1.50 m revealed meaningful information on the spatial organization of the site. Numerous high-resistance anomalies were interpreted as a reflection of building remains.
Acknowledgments:
We are very grateful to Hanadi Al-Taher, our Jordanian partner on behalf of the Department of Antiquities, for her most friendly and fruitful cooperation. We wish also to express our warm gratitude to Director Aktham Oweidi of the DOA Excavations and Surveys section and Eng. Amjad Batayneh of the DOA Irbid Branch for their valuable assistance in our project. The first season of the Project was funded by the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, University of Warsaw. The petrographic examinations were funded from a research grant from the National Science Center, Poland (DEC-2014/15/N/HS3/01776).