Fieldwork in an Increasingly Variable Climate: The Kites in Context Project 2023 Field Season

Abstract

ABSTRACT Archaeologists commonly include climatic data in their analyses of living in the past, but rarely do current weather conditions achieve mention in our professional considerations. The Kites in Context Project (KiC) focuses on a multi-scalar investigation of desert kites in the eastern badia region of Jordan. During the Neolithic (7000–5000 b.c.) period, people began building large animal traps, known as desert kites, across a wide swath of southwestern Asia. This multi-year project is designed to provide novel insights into the chronology and function of these animal traps through an intensive study incorporating remote sensing with boots-on-the-ground excavation and survey. The 2023 season began like any other—a combination of aerial survey using drones, walking the landscape in a pedestrian survey, and excavation under sunny skies. During our 2023 field season in Jordan, we experienced dramatic, atypical weather, likely driven by climate change. In this photo essay, we present images from this surprising rain and flooding event in the Black Desert of eastern Jordan that caused us to consider on a more personal level the challenges that may have faced the hunters and herders who constructed the kites and who managed the water thousands of years ago.