Jennie completed her PhD entitled “Landscapes of Burial? The Homs Basalt in the 4th-3rd millennia BC” at Durham University in 2011. Her thesis examined the thousands of hitherto un-recognized burial cairns, and related settlements provisionally dated to the 4th/3rd millennia BC from a basalt region located to the northwest of the modern city of Homs, Syria. Rather than adopting a typological approach to the study of cairn monuments her research examined cairns and settlements from the standpoint of topography, land-use, and seasonality, questioning whether such monuments represent a unified phenomenon. Accordingly, her research was also concerned with the re-incorporation of these monuments within changing landscape and settlement structures during later periods.

Throughout 2011-12 Jennie will be carrying out research as part of a CBRL Visiting Fellowship which aims to determine the potential of using new technologies to explore the diversity of human activity across the ‘non-optimal’ landscapes of the Levant. Her research will focus on regions where ancient settlement patterns were NOT characterised by mounded settlement sites (tells) but by other forms of activity. These so-called ‘non-optimal’ regions, located outside the primary agricultural zones, are likely to have represented a significant proportion of the population and economic potential of the later prehistoric and historic Levant. However, until recently they have been largely overlooked. It is only with the advent of high resolution satellite imagery within archaeological agendas that the mapping and interpretation of such areas has become feasible. By using new technology alongside traditional survey techniques and the collation of existing literature such regions will no longer be an invisible ‘nomadic’ blur, but instead a textured and vital part of our understanding of the major processes pertinent to the history of the Levant.

Jennie’s research interests fall into four broad categories: Society and Social Complexity within the 4th-3rd millennia BC; Landscape Archaeology and GIS; ‘Sub-optimal’ zones and the role of mobility within the archaeological record and Traditions of Burial in the Ancient Near East. During her CBRL Fellowship Jennie will also be working on papers from her PhD thesis as well as a workshop she recently co-organized at Durham University examining the role of the human body in funerary ritual from the Neolithic to the 21st century. Jennie has directed several seasons of fieldwork in the Homs region of Syria and has been involved with a number of projects which have developed groundbreaking approaches towards the use of satellite imagery and databases within archaeological survey and prospection. As part of the Vanishing Landscape and Fragile Crescent research groups she has been involved in the development of a Database/GIS system designed to collate and interpret data concerning archaeological sites across the entire Northern Levant. She has also been involved with fieldwork projects in Jordan, Kuwait and the UK.

Publications

• Bradbury, J. & Philip, G. (in press). ‘The World Beyond Tells: Pre-classical activity in the basalt landscape of the Homs region, Syria.’ In T. Steimer (ed.), Standing stones, anthropomorphic stelae, cultic aspects of the 4th and 3rd millennia BC in Arabia and the Southern Levant. Institut du Français du Proche Orient 2007 colloquium publication. Maison de l'Orient/British Archaeological Reports: 169-179
• Philip, G., Bradbury, J. & Jabbour, F. (2011). ‘The Archaeology of the Homs Basalt, Syria: the Main Site Types’. Studia Orontica, IX: 38-55
• Philip, G. & Bradbury, J. (2010). ‘Pre-classical activity in the basalt landscape of the Homs region, Syria: the development of “sub-optimal” zones in the Levant during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age’. Levant, 42 (2): 137-170
• Bradbury, J. (2010). ‘Space, Place and Burial: An examination of the importance of interdisciplinary approaches within the investigation of burial monuments in the ancient Near East.’ In Matthiae, P., Pinnock, F., Nigro, L., Marchetti, N. (eds.). Proceedings of the 6th International Congress of the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East 5 May-10 May 2009, Sapienza, Università di Roma. Volume 1. Wiesbaden: Hattassowitz Verlag: 205-217
• Bradbury, J. (2009). ‘The Homs Cairn Survey, 1st June–13th July 2008’. Palestine Exploration Quarterly, 141 (1): 67–71
• Bradbury, J. (2009). ‘Beyond a Landscape of Tells: Subsistence, Society and Interaction within the Basalt Environs of Homs, Syria’. The Bulletin of the Council for British Research in the Levant: 38-41

Lucy Wadeson recently completed her DPhil thesis (“The Façade Tombs of Petra: from Exterior to Interior”) at the University of Oxford. She holds a BA (Hons) in Classics from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, and an MPhil in Classical Archaeology from the University of Oxford. Her thesis focused on the Nabataean façade tombs at Petra, specifically their chronology, the funerary practices that took place in them and their relation to rock-cut funerary architecture of neighbouring cultures. This work involved detailed documentation and study of c. 500 unpublished tomb interiors on site, and also incorporated new contextual analyses of the little remaining burial remains from Petra, and Nabataean funerary epigraphy (mostly from Petra and Mada’in Salih).

As a CBRL Visiting Research Fellow and the G.A. Wainwright Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Oxford, Lucy is undertaking a new project on the topographical setting of the façade tombs (‘The Funerary Topography of Petra Project,’ FTPP). This work explores the area and rock-cut structures outside the façade tombs to determine the sorts of activities taking place there, and looks at the effect of the natural environment on the form and function of the tombs. It also uses the new chronological sequence for the tombs, established in her DPhil thesis, to determine the development of Petra’s necropoleis. Furthermore, the funerary landscape of Petra is compared to that of Palymra, Jerusalem and Alexandria in order to determine the effect of the natural topography on the development of these important cities and their funerary architecture during the Greco-Roman period. The results of this project will be incorporated with those from Lucy’s thesis to produce a monograph on The Façade Tombs of Petra.

Lucy also directs the ‘International Khubtha Tombs Project’ (IKTP) at Petra, which involves the clearance and excavation of Tombs 779 and 781 on the west flank of el-Khubtha. This project aims to discover further material that could enhance knowledge of Nabataean burial practices and enable a more secure date for the use of these important tombs. Another aim is to determine more precisely how tomb complexes functioned at Petra, and to establish the relationship between the interior burial chambers and exterior structures of the façade tombs. Lucy has also excavated in Jerash and Rome, and currently serves as the editor of the Bulletin of the Society for Arabian Studies.

Lucy’s general research interests lie in the archaeology of the Greco-Roman Near East, with a particular focus on the reception and adaptation of Classical culture in the creation of local cultural identities. She is especially interested in the art and architecture of the Levant and Egypt from the late Hellenistic to early Islamic periods, and has published on religious mosaics from Late Antique Palestine. She is also preparing the publication of a Palmyrene funerary bust of a priest held at Canterbury Museum (NZ).

Publications

• Wadeson, L. 2011. “Nabataean façade tombs: a new chronology.” Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan 11: forthcoming.
• Wadeson, L. 2010. “The chronology of the façade tombs at Petra: a structural and metrical analysis.” Levant 42.1: 48-69.
• Schmid, S.G., Amour, A., Barmasse, A., Duchesne, S., Huguenot, C. and Wadeson, L. 2009. “New Insights into Nabataean Funerary Practices.” In Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, (Madrid) 5, edited by J.M. Córdoba et al., 135-160.
• Wadeson, L. 2008. “Chariots of fire: Elijah and the zodiac in synagogue floor mosaics of Late Antique Palestine.” ARAM 20: 1-41. (awarded the Sean W. Dever Prize for best published article by a PhD student in Syro-Palestinian archaeology)


Reviews

• Wadeson, L. 2010. Review of B. Alpert Nakhai (ed.), The World of Women in the Ancient and Classical Near East. Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 2008. Levant 42.2: forthcoming.
• Wadeson, L. 2009. Review of H. al-Fassi, The Role of Women in Pre-Islamic Arabia: Nabataea. Oxford, 2007. Levant 41.1: 119-120.

Marta is currently a PhD candidate at the Centre for Gender Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, in London, UK. Her proposed project aims to investigate the concept of gender mainstreaming in relation to activities of International and Non-Governmental organizations that operate in Jordan. As visiting research fellow at the British Institute in Amman she is involved in her fieldwork experience. Her specific research interest lies in women's political participation in Jordan. She is looking at the impact of the agenda of such organizations on the Jordanian society, and specifically on women: how do women receive and perceive the policies of such organizations, with a reference to political participation.

Marta has a background in Law (BA, University of Padova, Italy, 2006) and International Law (MA, Bocconi University, Milan, Italy, 2008). She has worked as research assistant at the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy, University of Massachusetts, Boston (MA), USA where she is still involved in the organization and creation of trainings and activities for women’s empowerment.

Vanessa's main area of study is forced migration and development in the Middle East, a young interdisciplinary field of research that links geography, sociology, international relations and human rights. She is a PhD research student in Migration Studies at the University of Sussex, Brighton. Her doctoral research project 'Iraqi refugees' assisted and self-repatriation from Syria and Jordan' reflects her broader interest in exploring the impact of refugee circular and return migration on the socio-economic development of host and home countries. The investigation also looks into processes of production, dissemination and democratisation of knowledge and information in humanitarian crises. The influence of international politics and economic relations on relief and development interventions in conflict-affected societies and fragile states is another fundamental question addressed in the study.

As part of her BA in Languages and International Communication at Rome 3 University (2006), Vanessa has extensively studied Arabic, English and Spanish language and literature. The Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs granted her a scholarship to complete an empirical research project concerning the functional-structural differences between the numerous varieties of Jordanian colloquial Arabic. She has further developed her linguistic and communication skills in Arabic living for three years in the Middle East, where she worked as a volunteer with different humanitarian and development agencies in Amman, in Cairo and in Damascus. She completed a MA in Migration Studies (2008) and an MSc in Comparative and Cross-cultural Research Methods (2009) at the University of Sussex. She is presently conducting the second part of a multi-sited field research in Amman, sponsored and supported by the British Institute for the Study of Iraq (BISI) and the Council for British Research in the Levant (CBRL).