Islamic Baydha Project
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The Islamic Baydha Project is a project of archaeological investigations, archaeological training and engagement of the local communities in cultural heritage, directed by Micaela Sinibaldi. The project has been launched in 2014.
The Islamic Baydha Project is part of a broader project, the Late Petra Project, which aims at reconstructing the history of the still largely neglected Islamic period in Petra by focusing research on archaeological investigations in the region. The Islamic village at Baydha consists of the most substantial, accessible evidence of the Islamic period in the Petra region; this village includes the only two mosques ever identified and excavated in the area, as well as clusters of habitations which suggest that the village included a few hundreds of inhabitants .
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Archaeological training is an important component of the Islamic Baydha Project, and is offered to Jordanian and international archaeologists and to Baydha team members. It is aimed at providing the archaeologists with a complete set of archaeological fieldwork skills, including the discipline of Buildings Archaeology, which is an important aspect of the project, and to train local community members in specialised archaeological tasks.
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The community engagement programme includes, since its first season in 2014, the Schools Day. This initiative involves schools of the Petra region and it is organised every year in partnership with the Petra Development and Tourism Region Authority . This successful initiative offers school children and their teachers the possibility to hear about the history of the site and the importance of archaeological fieldwork for reconstructing local history, and to try some of our fieldwork activities with us.
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The relationship of the Islamic Baydha Project with the local community is a core aspect of the project. It is through the local community in Baydha that the components of research, training and community engagement work in synergy, in the framework of the holistic approach taken by the project. Local team members develop a set of skills which can be used for the purpose of employment in archaeological excavation projects. The local community is also actively taking part, during the Schools Day, in communicating the schools students and teachers about our recent finds and about the methodology used in the excavation, and they do, in this way, contribute with their new knowledge towards their own community. Finally, the local community takes active part in the project's research. An important aspect of the archaeology of Petra during the Islamic period is the longevity of many characteristics of the local material culture, some of which have lasted until the 20th century or even the present moment. By looking at the recent and contemporary local material culture, with the helpful suggestions of the local community, we can better record and understand the products of this tradition when we find them in the context of the excavation.