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| Jujube tree |
Today (14OCT2011) me-n-the-mates are off for a walk-about in the lower part of the Dana Biosphere Reserve. Managed by the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN), we’ll be staying at the Feynan Ecolodge, which is solar powered by day and candlelight at night. We visited the upper part of Dana on the 2nd of April (see April 3rd blog post), but this time we’ll be approaching from the Wadi Araba side (home to the Jujube: Ziziphus spinas-christi; my teeth ache from even thinking about youthful encounters with the candy).
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| Dana Reserve |
The area is considered second only to Petra for the density of archaeological sites & resources, with field work continuing to ask those troubling research questions pertaining to: “who are we?” – “where did we come from?” – “have we been here (figuratively) before?”
FYI, potential researchers still flock to Petra Archaeological Park (PAP): there are 16 institutions this year doing or proposing work. Projects are vetted by the staff at PAP, Jordon’s Dept. of Antiquities and UNESCO. A major university, from a country that will remain un-named (but they were allies of the Ottoman Empire in WW I), have constructed scaffolds in front of monument facades in pursuit of their desire to take core samples of sandstone from facades to measure salinity, humidity, etc. impacts on the cultural resources. They asked officials to be able to take 25cm cores, but were told to limit it to 5cm; this was approved by the legal Jordanian authorities, but apparently UNESCO has said “no” and failed to attend meetings or consult on the issue. One wonders why they need to take cores directly from the facades instead of the adjacent stone, but I’m sure they have their reasons. So, as I do some yoga this morning I’ll be chanting: “non-intrusive protection-in-place.”
Ciao for now…
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