I am very grateful to the American Schools of Oriental Research for awarding me a Platt Fellowship in 2009. The fellowship contributed towards my costs in participating in a pottery study season for the Humayma Excavation Project. I was an Assistant Director at Humayma from 1998-2005 (while Dr. John Oleson was Director), and took over as the Director for new Nabatean and Roman period excavations in 2008. The goals of the 2009 study season were to complete the reading and drawing of pottery from the 1998-2005 seasons, to re-examine important loci from the 2008 season in light of subsequent analyses, and to re-evaluate the phasing of structures across the site by reconsidering the data from the ceramics vis-a-vis other sources. The participants in the one-month long project were myself and past-Director John Oleson, the cermicists for the 1998-2005 and 2008 seasons (Yvonne Gerber and Andi Shelton) and a pottery draughtsperson (Sherry Hardin). Khairieh' Amr (the project ceramicist for 1991-1996) and Robert Schick (an expert on the site's Byzantine churches) were also in Jordan and on hand frequently to lend their expertise. During the course of the study season, over 900 locus bags were carefully studied, over 300 pottery drawings and over 150 pottery documentation photos were produced, a report on the 2008 season was completed for the Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, and many other important conversations were held about the site's phasing. All of this research took place at the American Center of Oriental Research in Amman, and I would also like to thank all of ACOR's staff (and especially Barbara Porter and Christopher Tuttle) for providing us with excellent workspaces and assistance during the project.
~ Dr. M. Barbara Reeves, Queen's University
