Kyle Knabb

The environmental impact of mining and metallurgy is an issue that has affected societies in the ancient Near East over the past 8000 years. We present the results of a multidisciplinary project using agricultural sediments from ancient terraces as a cultural archive of environmental pollution and land use in the copper ore-rich Faynan valley of southern Jordan. Due to the simultaneous production of agricultural goods and copper metallurgy throughout the last 6000 years in the valley, environmental pollution and its consequences for human health have been considered as a factor in settlement abatement. Sediments from two farming terrace systems adjacent to the major mining and smelting locales were analyzed. The sediment analyses included metal concentrations, lead-isotopes and phytolith analysis, and OSL dating. Although measurable concentrations of lead and other heavy metals persist in ancient metallurgical waste piles, our investigations found minimal evidence for contamination in the adjacent terrace systems. Based on these results, we argue that the occurrence of environmental pollution in the Faynan valley is highly variable, and that the distribution of heavy metals resulted from a combination of natural and cultural factors, including persistent landscape features that helped contain the most polluted metallurgical deposits. These findings are significant for understanding the processes of landscape change and human impacts on desert environments, including the ways in which past human actions have negatively affected the environment, as well as preserved and protected the environment from further degradation.

The environmental impact of mining and metallurgy is an issue that has affected societies in the ancient Near East over the past 8000 years. We present the results of a multidisciplinary project using agricultural sediments from ancient terraces as a cultural archive of environmental pollution and land use in the copper ore-rich Faynan valley of southern Jordan. Due to the simultaneous production of agricultural goods and copper metallurgy throughout the last 6000 years in the valley, environmental pollution and its consequences for human health have been considered as a factor in settlement abatement. Sediments from two farming terrace systems adjacent to the major mining and smelting locales were analyzed. The sediment analyses included metal concentrations, lead-isotopes and phytolith analysis, and OSL dating. Although measurable concentrations of lead and other heavy metals persist in ancient metallurgical waste piles, our investigations found minimal evidence for contamination in the adjacent terrace systems. Based on these results, we argue that the occurrence of environmental pollution in the Faynan valley is highly variable, and that the distribution of heavy metals resulted from a combination of natural and cultural factors, including persistent landscape features that helped contain the most polluted metallurgical deposits. These findings are significant for understanding the processes of landscape change and human impacts on desert environments, including the ways in which past human actions have negatively affected the environment, as well as preserved and protected the environment from further degradation.

The  Faynan region in southern Jordan is the largest copper ore resource zone in the southern Levant and was exploited for  these ores beginning ca. 8000 years BP. We  discuss the relationship between nomadic populations and major copper smelting sites during the Iron Age (ca. 1200-500 BCE) based on  mortuary excavations and toxic metal analyses at the Wadi Fidan 40  cemetery,  the largest Iron Age  mortuary complex in  southern Jordan. The  Iron Age  represents the first industrial revolution in  this part of  the Middle East.  The  study presented here is the first to employ chemical and isotopic measurements from a systematically excavated Iron Age  mortuary population to determine exposure to Cu  and Pb  pollution and mobility patterns (based on Sr isotopes). We  describe a methodology to control for post-depositional diagenetic uptake of  chemical elements  in  human teeth recovered from the cemetery that has not previously been applied in  Faynan  in  ancient pollution studies. The  results suggest that most of  the excess of Pb  and Cu measured in  tooth enamel samples were a product of post-depositional diagenetic addition. Our  findings suggest that the majority of people buried at the Wadi Fidan 40 cemetery were not exposed to metal pollution during their lives. The  few  individuals who were exposed to metal pollution exhibited a spectrum of traits indicative of lifestyle and social status. The  results bring into question how severe the ancient pollution impacted the lives of the Iron Age  population living in  Faynan.

Describes preliminary soundings at Khirbat Faynan, adjacent agricultural field systems (Iron Age), Survey in the Buwayridah springs, sounds at Khirbat Nuqayb al-Asaymir middle Islamic copper production site, small sounding at Khirbat Hamra Idan (Early Bronze Age) copper manufactory, Portable XRF field studies, Terrestrial Laser Scanning,

Archaeological surveys in the southern Levant have traditionally focused on areas with favorable climates and flat terrain where large urban sites are found, corresponding with a research focus on social complex- ity and state formation. Fewer surveys have explored the rocky, difficult-to-reach areas where large-scale agriculture was rare. This article uses survey data from the 2009 survey of Wadi al-Feidh, southern Jordan, to demonstrate the importance of exploring these environmentally marginal areas. Employing an intensive survey methodology, we recorded a range of sites and features previously unrecognized in this region. These findings suggest that subsistence patterns shifted from small-scale, mixed agro-pastoralism in the Iron Age (1200–586 B.C.) to a more intensive, top-down strategy of agricultural production by the Roman period (ca. 100 B.C.–A.D. 400). The results provide new insight into regional socioeconomic change in the southern Levant from the perspective of peripheral communities.

Scientific visualization allows researchers to examine their data in high definition 2D and 3D environments. Field research conducted in the Middle East by the UC San Diego Levantine and Cyber-Archaeology Lab, in collaboration with the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Art, Architecture and Archaeology (CISA3) takes full advantage of a suite of state-of-the-art visualization platforms at the UC San Diego Qualcomm Institute. Research interests include terascale scientific visualization and virtual reality, image-based modeling and rendering, as well as distributed and remote visualization. The Qualcomm Institute's team has been active in virtual reality research for over a decade and the stringent VR requirements have served as important performance criteria for our large-scale distributed data analysis and visualization projects. Through collaborative work both on campus and abroad, our group has contributed to making a significant transformative impact to both diagnostics and the preservation of cultural heritage. Here we briefly summarize a range of 3D applications using data from our research in Jordan and Saudi Arabia.