Guest
Abstract: The southern Levant was one of the first places to domesticate the olive, and olive oil would play a key role in the development of civilisations that followed. But what does olive oil production look like in the prehistoric archaeological record? This talk presents British Museum excavations at Khirbet Ghozlan in north Jordan, BC. This small, rural site served as a specialised oil production and storage site during a period of urban recession, when the region’s earliest cities were abandoned. These excavations help us understand the resilience of the region's olive oil industry, and its role as a springboard for urban recovery in the 2nd millennium BCE. Bio: Jamie Fraser is Director at the AIAR. He received his PhD from the University of Sydney (2016), and his monograph “Dolmens in the Levant” was awarded the G. Ernest Wright Award (2018). Previously British Museum Curator for the Ancient Levant, Jamie curated the exhibition “Luxury and power: Persia to Greece” (2023). He directs an excavation project at Khirbet Ghozlan in Jordan. Opening Track: Music promoted by
