THE LATE ANTIQUE JARASH PROJECT Director: Louise Blanke, Khalili Research Centre and Wolfson College, Oxford Project duration: 2015-ongoing BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Since the beginning of the twentieth century, archaeological projects have uncovered an impressive cityscape in Jarash, Northern Jordan. Most excavations have focused on the remains of the Roman period, revealing a monumental urban landscape comprising a network of colonnaded thoroughfares, temples, churches, theatres and bathhouses. These extensive examinations have placed Jarash as one of the most intensively excavated towns in the Eastern Mediterranean and among the best-known archaeological sites in Jordan. The monuments are important. Their presence allows us to study urban building strategies, civic euergetism, religious demography, and the monuments themselves can be seen as an index of the city’s economic vitality. However, past excavators’ biases have created a discrepancy in which our understanding of the infrastructure and logistics of urban life is minimal and very little is known about the people who once called Jarash their home. At the same time, the focus on monuments of the Roman and Byzantine periods and the clearance strategies, which until recent decades characterised most archaeological work, means that our understanding of the city’s longue durée is inadequate. The Late Antique Jarash Project (LAJP) aims to rectify this situation and to construct a more holistic picture of life in the ancient city. On a micro level, the project investigates the infrastructure of daily life focussing on street systems (access and traffic), the supply and distribution of water, garbage disposal and the organisation of, and the activities within, domestic houses. On a macro level, LAJP examines shifting demographics, urban economy and the changing attitudes towards life in the city as expressed through the organisation of both public and private space. PROJECT SPONSORS The Barakat Trust Lorne Thyssen Research Fund for Ancient World Topics The Gerald Averay Wainwright Fund The Danish Institute in Damascus H.P. Hjerl Hansen Mindefondet for Dansk Palæstina Forskning Julie von Müllens Fond, The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters C.L. Davids Fond Ingeniør Svend G. Fidlers og Hustrus legat til fremme af botanisk og arkæologisk forskning Elisabeth Munksgaards Fonden, National Museum of Denmark PROJECT PUBLICATIONS AND PUBLIC LECTURES FORTHCOMING • Pappalardo, R. The Late Antique Jerash Project: preliminary results of the pottery data. In A. Lichtenberger, H. Möller and R. Raja (eds.) Proceedings of Conspicuous productions: Gerasa's pottery finds from Byzantine to Umayyad times in context. • Blanke, L. with H. Barnes, K. Brunner, M. Broendgaard, A. Mellah, R. Pappalardo and A. Vernet. Report on the first season of excavation of the Late Antique Jarash Project. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan. PUBLISHED 2018 • Blanke, L. The Late Antique Jarash Project. American Centre of Oriental Research.