More on finding wood in the desert

I’ve mentioned my collaboration on Islamic period charcoal with the incredible Brita Lorentzen on this blog before. That time was to point to a short post on the PEF Blog. Note, incidentally, that the most recent entries are about Islamic Bayda, near Petra, and Islamic metalwork in the southern Levant. Told you that you should read the PEF Blog. Anyway, I recently found out that a short report I wrote on the charcoal project has been published in the latest issue of Palestine Exploration Quarterly. The report is only four pages long, but includes some interesting preliminary data on radiocarbon dating results and the charcoal species identification from Khirbat Nuqayb al-Asaymir and Khirbat Faynan. Excitingly, this report has come out right as we’re getting ready to submit a paper that, among other things, will include more of the charcoal results. I’ll post updates as that starts moving along.

If that doesn’t convince you to check out the latest PEQ, there’s also an interesting (open-access!) editorial by Philip Davies — that Philip Davies?! No, not that kind of “interesting.” This Philip Davies — on the political neutrality of the PEF. Definitely worth a quick read. And it’s free!