Brown University Petra Archaeological Project: Home

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About BUPAP

The Brown University Petra Archaeological Project (BUPAP) is a multi-disciplinary archaeological research project designed to understand the development of Petra and its surrounding landscapes diachronically, throughout the region and at multiple individual sites. This research is meant to build upon almost two decades of fieldwork by Brown University archaeologists at Petra, which focused primarily on the excavation of the Great Temple, directed by Martha Sharp Joukowsky. The beginnings of BUPAP in 2009 and its first full field seasons in 2010 and 2011 mark a sort of second phase of Brown's involvement at Petra. Directed by Susan E. Alcock, the current project aims to both contextualize previous work and to answer new questions, often about periods and places that have received relatively little attention at and around the Nabataean capital. Fieldwork is comprised of four separate but interrelated projects: The Petra Upper Market Area Project (PUMA), which involves excavation, geophysical survey, and architectural studies in the city center; the Petra Area and Wadi Silaysil Survey (PAWS), an intensive, systematic regional survey focused on the area north of the city center; excavation and mapping at the Bayda Islamic Village (BIV); and the Petra Routes Project (PRP), which investigates local and regional routes of communication and travel. Please follow the links to the individual sub-projects and reports on the 2010 and 2011 field seasons for more information.

This wiki is designed to be a resource for anyone involved or interested in BUPAP. Links on the left side of the page, below, and embedded in the text lead to more information about the various aspects of the project, the people involved, and bibliography relevant to or produced by the project. We will try to keep the information as up to date and accurate as possible, and of course welcome suggestions about how we might improve this website.

From the outset we would like to acknowledge our gratitude to several groups that provide various types of support, namely the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World and Brown University, the Loeb Classical Library Foundation, the American Center for Oriental Research in Amman, the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, and all the residents of the Petra region for their kind hospitality.

Brown's Previous Archaeological Research at Petra

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The Great Temple Excavations, directed by Martha Sharp Joukowsky, were a landmark project for archaeology at both Petra and Brown University. BUPAP in its current form seeks to build upon and add new directions to Brown's already strong tradition of research at Petra. Follow this link: Great Temple Excavations for the project's website and detailed information on its excavations and other activities.

News and Current Activities

We are currently planning for the 2012 field season, to take place in June and July. More soon!

Tommy Urban, Sue Alcock, and Chris Tuttle have just published a new article about BUPAP's geophysical work at Petra in Antiquity's Project Gallery: http://antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/urban331/.