The Shkarat Msaied Neolithic Excavation and Survey Project is a salvage project kindly offered by The Dept. of Antiquities in Amman to The Carsten Niebuhr Institute of Near Eastern Studies, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. The project has been running since 1999. From 1999-2001 the excavation operated as a multi-level educational field school during which it was funded by The University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Humanities. Since 2003 the excavation has been generously supported by the Carlsberg Foundation.

Dr. Ingolf Thuesen is project director and coordinator assisted by Dr. Charlott Hoffmann Jensen and Bo Dahl Hermansen as in-field directors since 2002.

In-field directors of the 1999 season were Dr. Lea Rehhoff Kaliszan and Dr. Charlott Hoffmann Jensen. The 2000 season was directed by Dr. Susanne Kerner, and the 2001 by Dr. Lea Rehhoff Kaliszan. During the first two seasons the excavation was supplemented by a survey in the immediate surroundings conducted by Bo Dahl Hermansen.

The name of the site

The site name has been written in different versions throughout the publications of Kirkbride (1966), Gebel (1986, 1988; Gebel & Starck 1985) and our team due to a variation in the Arabic spelling as well as in the transcription. With the kind assistance of our representative of the 2004 season Mr. Hani Falahat, inspector of the Department of Antiquities, Ma´an region, we now expect to have the correct transcription of the name as it is used here. The meaning of the site name is a small plot of land assigned to a poor man by the local land owner.

References

Gebel H.G. 1986
Die Jungsteinzeit im Petra-Gebiet. In: M. Lindner (ed.) Petra. Neue Ausgrabungen und Entdeckungen . Pp. 273-308 München, Delp Verlag.

1988
Late Epipalaeolithic - Aceramic Neolithic sites in the Petra area. In: A. Garrard and H.G. Gebel (eds.) The Prehistory of Jordan. The State of Research in 1986 . British Archaeological Reports - International Series 396.1: 67-100. Oxford, B.A.R.

Gebel H.G. & J.H. Starck 1985
Investigations into the Stone Age of the Petra Area (Early Holocene Research) A Preliminary Report on the 1984 Campaigns. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 19: 89-114.

Kirkbride, D. 1966
Five Seasons at the Pre-pottery Neolithic Village of Beidha in Jordan. Palestine Exploration Quarterly 98: 5-61.