The eastern frontier of the Roman Empire – its network of roads, trade routes, towns and forts – is often conceived of as an “edge” of both empire and civilisation, but this “borderland” is also part of a rich cultural landscape. Our awareness and appreciation of these cultures has increased dramatically over the course of the last century. Scholarship has deepened, methods have advanced, and perspectives have shifted.
Across 20 chapters, Reframing the “Desert Frontier” offers new insights into the rich cultural history of this region through the re-examination of existing material – such as archives, historical accounts, and previous surveys – and through the use of novel archaeological approaches. The bringing together of different methodological approaches to the archaeology of the region in a single volume highlights synergies and offers important comparisons for archaeologists to consider.
This volume highlights the work of Emeritus Professor David Kennedy, whose contribution to the study of the Roman army, the archaeology of Jordan, and aerial archaeology has inspired and enhanced multiple projects that have reframed this so-called “desert frontier”.
Reframing the “Desert Frontier” encapsulates the enriched view of this ancient region generated by new techniques of survey and analysis, changed perspectives on older materials, a more intense engagement with the rural landscapes surrounding ancient towns, and the addition of new discoveries that alter previous consensus.
Table of Contents:
List of figures
List of plates
List of tables
Foreword by HRH Prince El Hassan bin Talal
Chapter 1. Introduction: Reframing the “Desert Frontier”
Part 1: Revisiting the Roman record
Chapter 2. The identity of Roman Isauria: An archaeological approach by Hugh Elton
Chapter 3. Freedmen in Roman Hegra by Zbigniew T. Fiema
Chapter 4. Every cloud has a silver lining: Revisiting the “military” coin hoards from Dura by Peter Edwell
Chapter 5. Unmasking Roman Pella by Margaret O’Hea
Chapter 6. Brünnow and Domaszewski’s Die Provincia Arabia (1904–1909): The why and the how by Phil Freeman, with a contribution, “Looking for Marguerite Brünnow”, by Naomi Aliza Rubinstein
Part 2: Reframing the record
Chapter 7. An early archaeological landscape map of the Azraq lava fields by Michael Fradley
Chapter 8. Origins, legacy and recent developments in aerial archaeology in the Middle East by Robert Bewley
Chapter 9. Looking back to Kennedy and Riley’s Rome’s Desert Frontier from the Air (1990) by Ross Burns
Chapter 10. Gottlieb Schumacher and Pella by Stephen Bourke and Sandra Gordon
Chapter 11. From survey to further research: Several sites of the Roman (Nabataean) period in southern Jordan by Burton MacDonald
Chapter 12. Early visitors to the site of Ḥumayma: Their contributions to our understanding of the region and its people by John Peter Oleson
Part 3: Hinterland studies
Chapter 13. Changes in settlement patterns in the territory of Gerasa (Jarash): A synthesis by David (Don) Boyer
Chapter 14. Vignettes of sprawling townships of Roman Gerasa revealed by pottery clusters from the periphery of the walled city by Ina Kehrberg-Ostrasz
Chapter 15. Private estates or private villages? Land tenure in the Byzantine and Early Islamic Jordan by Basema Hamarneh
Chapter 16. The archaeology of the Safa region, southern Syria by Karin Bartl
Chapter 17. Al-Bādiyah landscapes in fifth- to tenth-century Jordan: A barometer of change by Alan Walmsley
Part 4: Sky, sand and basalt
Chapter 18. Understanding Ḥumayma from aerial photographs by M. Barbara Reeves
Chapter 19. Field survey and aerial reconnaissance: The mutual interaction of survey methods in the Jawa Hinterland Project by Bernd Müller-Neuhof
Chapter 20. The multifaceted site of Wisād Pools, Black Desert by G. Rollefson, A. Wasse, Y. Rowan, W. Abu-Azizeh and A.C. Hill
Chapter 21. The AAKSA Project: A multi-scalar methodology for documenting the archaeological landscapes of AlUla and Ḥarrat Khaybar, Saudi Arabia by Melissa Kennedy, Rebecca Repper, Hugh Thomas, Matthew Dalton, Jane McMahon, David Boyer and Lauren Swift
Index
About the Author :
Dr Rebecca Repper is a research associate working with archaeological and cultural heritage collections at the University of Western Australia. She has previously worked
with the Aerial Archaeology in Jordan project, the Aerial Photographic Archive for Archaeology in the Middle East, Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa, and Aerial Archaeology in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia projects.
Dr Mike Bishop is a freelance writer, publisher, and archaeologist, and has worked in legacy post-excavation, commercial field archaeology, archaeological publishing and research. He is a specialist in the Roman army, and founding editor of the Journal of Roman Military Equipment Studies.
Dr Robert Bewley is a prehistorian, an aerial archaeologist, and former Director of the Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa project (2015–2020) University of Oxford. He is Director of the Aerial Archaeology project in Jordan and the Aerial Archaeology in Oman project, and manages the Aerial Photographic Archive of Archaeology in the Middle East.
Review :
“By showcasing the rich diversity of archaeology, the editors and contributors flesh out a complex region that lay on an empire’s edge, but also at the centre of many other cultural landscapes.”
– Matthew Symonds, Current World Archaeology issue 134, November 2025
