Photo Gallery

This page contains images of our more light-hearted moments, and pictures of the dig-house, Tabaqat Fahl, our closest town Mesharia, and the area of our study project.

This is the Pella dig-house compound, on the tell at Pella, next to the village of Tabaqat Fahl. The view is from the south, before the rains come, which is why it looks so brown and dusty.

This is the dining area. We were more excited about the birthday cake than it might look in this photo.

This is the Bar. The fridge stopped working a long time ago, but archaeologists never throw anything out, so it stays so the bar-book has something to rest on.

There is never enough room to store everything. This is the "Middle Kingdom", the centre room of three, which holds animal bones (in white boxes) and flotation samples waiting to be floated in plastic bags on the floor.

Because there isn't really much room inside, and the dining chairs get uncomfortable after awhile, there are two sitting areas in the compound courtyard. This shot, in 2006 after lunch one day, is of Jaimie Lovell, Director of the Ritual Landscapes project (we shared the dig-house in 2006) and one of her team, Kat McCrea, with Mel Kennedy and Lily Withycombe Taperell.

Over the years, a number of architectural fragments have been brought back to the courtyard for safe-keeping. These are Byzantine capitals from the Civic Complex Church.

Entertainment possibilities in Tabaqat Fahl and Mesharia are limited, so apart from cards, board-games, charades and other traditional evening pastimes, Pipe-cleaner Critter Competitions were popular in 2006.

If you venture out onto the tell, just south of the dighouse is the main excavation area of the current Pella Excavation Project, directed by Stephen Bourke, University of Sydney. This is a series of superimposed Bronze and Iron Age temples. You can just see the Civic Complex in the background, closer down to the spring area.

The Civic church is one of three so far excavated at the site. It is next to the Odeon and Bathhouse, and was extensively remodelled in the Umayyad period. An Umayyad caravanserai stood immediately to its north. Here we are looking from the narthex into the church, with the Pella Rest House high up on the hill behind.

Sunset over the Jordan Valley is one of the most spectacular in the world, as the sun goes down behind the hills of Samaria.

Most of the photos on this page are by Lily Withycombe Taperell and Jacque Venesjarvi, student team members 2006.

We love it in Jordan!