Co-funded by Rome «La Sapienza» University
and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation
The Pilot Project announced by Rome «La Sapienza» Expedition during the 2005 Workshop, called PADIS Project (="The Palestine Archaeological Databank and Information System"), aimed at creating a reliable and accurate catalogue of archaeological sites in the West Bank is to achieve a comprehensive catalogue of historical and archaeological sites in the Jericho Oasis. The vast majority of scrutinized sites were already known in geographic and archaeological literature, as well as in ancient accounts of pilgrims and voyagers, so that the work consisted in a systematic collection of such references, and in careful check of the situation on the ground. Many sites unfortunately disappeared under modern edification or due to infrastructures and building activities; many other are simply concealed under modern layers of debris. Only a few sites are still visible and, even less, are safe under the MOTA-DACH control. All of them have been included in the catalogue, intended as a scientific complete data bank concerning human occupation in the Jericho Oasis from prehistoric up modern times. Since the aim of the PADIS/Jericho Oasis was to contribute to cultural Heritage safeguard and to offer a valid scientific tool to archaeologists and historians, a specific attention was devoted to site dating, re-examining when possible material and remains available. This means, of course, that sites were enlisted using a unique periodization, which is based upon the stratigraphy and chronology of major key sites in the oasis (Geography and Chronology ).
The method and database:
A study group including PhD, PhD students and MA students was constituted and research was carried on in archaeological, epigraphic and literary sources, successively checked directly on the field, in at least ten years of surveys investigations, made possible by the cooperation of the personnel of the MOTA-DACH and local Authorities. During this work we came across several unknown data, which were included into the databank. Data were filed in a database, who subsequently worked as basis for the catalogue of sites listed in this book. Moreover, in years 1997-1998 the MOTA-DACH carried out a survey of the Jericho Oasis in cooperation with the German Protestant Institute of Archaeology in Jerusalem.
Acknowledgements:
The PADIS Project was made possible by the strict cooperation with the MOTA-DACH, and especially a group of Palestinian archaeologists who contributed to the description and monitoring of sites in the Jericho Oasis: Iyad Hamdan (responsible of Jericho Office, MOTA-DACH), Jehad Yasin (archaeologist, MOTA-DACH), Mohammed Ghayyada (archaeologist, MOTA-DACH) and Wael Hamamreh (archaeologist, MOTA-DACH).