Ancient and modern inscriptions in the basalt desert: News from the 2023 season of the Badia Epigraphic Survey in north-east Jordan

Abstract

The Badia Epigraphic Survey (BES) Project was launched in 2015 by Ali Al-Manaser and Michael C. A. Macdonald and, with two gaps, has been conducting annual surveys in the ḥarra of north-eastern Jordan ever since. The 2023 survey, like that of 2018, set out to rediscover the cairns at the border between the ḥarra and the ḥamād at which, in the late 1950s, Professor Fred V. Winnett and Gerald Lankester Harding (WH) discovered over 4000 inscriptions. The purpose was to identify the WH cairns by the inscriptions on them, to give them exact locations using Global Positioning System and to photograph all the inscriptions, most of which WH had had to record in hand copies. In the process, numerous inscriptions at other cairns were also recorded, as well as large numbers of modern Arabic inscriptions carved in the 65 years since the WH expedition. This article describes some of the finds made, gives the exact locations of the WH cairns rediscovered and discusses some of the interesting ancient and modern inscriptions and drawings which were found.