Surveying Khirbet al-Khalde: Global trade and ancient mobility in southern Jordan

This article is from World Archaeology issue 123

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It is 4am when alarm clocks go off in darkened rooms at a hotel south of Aqaba, close to the Saudi Arabian border. It is July 2023 and our small team of nine people is staying there, enduring temperatures that do not drop below 28°C at night. Inevitably, the rising sun stokes this furnace, with the mercury often reaching 44°C while the team is in the field. It is dry, hot work, with the sun blazing and what feels like no shade for kilometres. Instead, as we survey the southern Jordanian desert, we are surrounded by tumbled walls and stony terrain for as far as the eye – or drone – can see. A remarkable archaeological site is responsible for luring us out into these sweltering conditions. Today, it lies far from the beaten track, but this was not always the case. Once these ruins were located directly on the Via Nova Traiana, a major Roman frontier road that was constructed during the reign of Emperor Trajan (r. AD 98-117). This thoroughfare ran for about 400km from the Red Sea, up through modern Jordan, and into parts of what is now Syria. The site, which today goes by the name of Khirbet al-Khalde, was known in antiquity as Praesidium. It appears as such on the Peutinger Table, a map of the Roman road network that appears to be a later copy of a Roman original. Praesidium also receives a mention in the Notitia Dignitatum, a document probably dating to the late 4th century AD, which gives a list of civil and military officials in the Roman Empire, providing us with valuable insights into its organisation in Late Antiquity.

Our team is, then, just the latest in what was once a steady stream of travellers venturing to Khirbet al-Khalde. At 4am, we have a cup of Nescafé and maybe a bit of bread, but it is too early for a serious breakfast. Then we drive for about an hour to get to the site, which is located north of Aqaba, well off the main highway to Amman. Several kilometres after the customs checkpoint between the tax-free zone of Aqaba and the rest of Jordan, we make a turn to the right and, thanks to our four-wheel-drive vehicles, head on to tracks that we can barely see in the creeping light of dawn. The tracks are not often used and, this year, the entire stretch of the broad wadi was flooded until recently. This inundation blurred long stretches of the track and, in parts, washed it clean away. As a consequence, according to people who know the area well, the desert is greener than it has been for many years – to our eyes, it remains devoid of vegetation. On a few mornings, camels block the tracks, and the cars have to wait until the animals decide to amble off. It is hard not to feel that the camels look almost as tired as the team members. Most mornings, though, the way to the site is entirely desolate, inviting contemplation about what it must have been like to travel here in antiquity. Work at the site begins around 5.45am – if the camels allow it – when there is just enough light to begin our survey. This is the first such campaign of work undertaken at the cluster of archaeological remains visible at Khirbet al-Khalde, which include a small Roman fort, fortlet, or castellum, and what may have been a roadside inn of some sort, usually termed a caravanserai. Our goals are to understand better the site chronology, its material culture, and the nature of the buildings, which today are no more than ruins.

In some aspects, our team reflects the sort of global society that we might imagine passed by the site in antiquity, or stayed over in the caravanserai, or was even stationed in the military base established there. Our project is a new international collaboration headed by directors from Canada, Denmark, and Italy. The team members come from those countries, as well as Germany, Slovenia, and the United States. A truly multinational undertaking – just like Khirbet al-Khalde was for centuries.

Trade and mobility

Khirbet al-Khalde is situated in the Wadi al-Yutm, a wide, rocky gorge mostly composed of granite and basalt. The archaeological site is surrounded by low hills and is barely visible from the modern highway. In total, the archaeological remains encompass the castellum and the presumed caravanserai, as well as watchtowers, cisterns, an aqueduct, and cemeteries. These visible remains have suffered extensive damage from modern disturbances over the last century or so, which include looting and even the bulldozing of parts of the ruins when the Ma‘an-Aqaba railroad was built, running right past the site, in the 1980s.

Khirbet al-Khalde’s ancient name – Praesidium – has been known for decades, after being placed back on the map by Aurel Stein in the late 1930s. It is located only 26km from the Red Sea and the important harbour of ancient Aila, today’s Aqaba. In antiquity, Red Sea trade travelled in both directions from this major maritime entrepôt. From Aila, these goods could be sent on to many parts of the ancient world – including lands that lay far beyond the dominion of the Roman Empire. Indeed, Khirbet al-Khalde itself was founded on the fringes of that empire. We must imagine it and Aila as bustling places that once played host to caravans brimming with spices, incense, and textiles.