“Water Use at an Iron Age Capital in a Semi-Arid Zone: Investigating Water Installations and a Unique CeramicAssemblage from Busayra”
The Amman Prize (ABD Doctoral)
University of California, Berkeley
Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures
Jordan Weitzel is a PhD candidate in Middle Eastern art and archaeology in the Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures at University of California, Berkeley. His present research revolves around the politics of water management during three episodes of settlement intensification in the arid zones of southern Jordan during the late 2nd and 1st millennia BCE using a combination of published and unpublished legacy data and newly excavated material from Busayra, the political center of ancient Edom. He has co-authored publications appearing in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, American Journal of Archaeology, and Palestine Exploration Quarterly on the topics of death and burial, exchange, identity, and ritual in the ancient Levant. He is an experienced field archaeologist who currently serves as a staff member on the Dhiban Excavation and Development Project and the Busayra Cultural Heritage Project in Jordan. Since 2023, he has been teaching introductory courses on the ancient Middle East to UC Berkeley undergraduates.