ACOR and CBRL’s British Institute in Amman Present: “Islamic Baydha Project: Archaeology of settlement in post-urban Petra” by Micaela Sinibaldi. This lecture took place at ACOR in Amman on April 23, 2019.
About the Lecture:
The Islamic Baydha Project, directed by Micaela Sinibaldi and affiliated with the Council for British Research in the Levant, started in 2014 and concluded its fifth season in 2018. The current project aims to conduct excavations, surveys, conservation, archaeological training, and community engagement at the site of Baydha, which provides evidence of significant Islamic-period material culture in the Petra region. This site is part of a broader study, the Late Petra Project, which investigates the later periods that witnessed numerous settlements, including villages in the Baydha area itself. Although the Petra Valley was never completely abandoned, settlement shifted away from the valley from the Late Byzantine period. In the Islamic period, Baydha became one of the main populated areas of the region. Recent excavation of the Islamic Baydha Project focused on the village habitations and on the study of two mosques, which are the only two fully identified and studied so far in the entire area.
About the Lecturer:
Micaela Sinibaldi is an archaeologist specializing in the Medieval and Ottoman periods and has been conducting fieldwork in Jordan since 1994. Currently, she is an Honorary Research Fellow at Cardiff University, U.K.; the Glassman Holland Research Fellow at the Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem (2018/2019); and the director of the Islamic Baydha Project.
Over the past years, her work has focused on the archaeology of Petra during Islamic times. She has worked in collaboration with numerous projects in Petra led by the Department of Antiquities and international teams.
Additional Links:
To learn more about the Islamic Baydha Project, visit:
Rawashdeh, S. 2019. “Petra region still holds ‘completely untapped potential’ — archaeologist.” The Jordan Times.
http://www.jordantimes.com/news/local/petra-region-still-holds-%E2%80%98completely-untapped-potential%E2%80%99-%E2%80%94-archaeologist
Sinibaldi, M. 2018. “Petra: “Islamic Baydha Project.” Archaeology in Jordan Newsletter: 2016 and 2017 Seasons, pp. 74-75. ACOR: Amman, Jordan. https://acorjordan.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/AIJ-2016-2017-Low-Res.pdf.
Sinibaldi, M. 2018. “Did Petra’s inhabitants really abandon the city?” The British Academy.
https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/blog/did-petras-inhabitants-really-abandon-city.
Rawashdeh, S. 2017. “Archaeological project explores Beidha during Islamic era.” The Jordan Times.
http://www.jordantimes.com/news/local/archaeological-project-explores-beidha-during-islamic-era.
