An Early Islamic Homicide at Qasr Hallabat, Jordan [PODCAST]

PODCAST

In a recent special Near Eastern Archaeology issue on crime and punishment in the Bible and the Near East, Dr. Megan Perry co-authored the article “An Early Islamic Homicide at Cahser Hallabat, Jordan” with Kathryn Parker and R. Taylor Montgomery. We had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Perry about six 8th to 10th century C.E. individuals who were murdered in northern Badia of Jordan and hidden at the bottom of a well at Qasr Hallabat. The authors used forensic and bioarchaeological analyses to uncover evidence surrounding the crime and to shed some light on how these individuals may have ended up meeting their deaths at Hallabat.

Megan Perry is an Associate Professor of Biological Anthropology in the Department of Anthropology at East Carolina University. She is the co-director of the Petra North Ridge Project and currently is researching Nabataean mortuary practices as well as human skeletal material from Petra, Khirbet Qazone, Hesban, and other sites in Jordan. She also is involved in forensic anthropological investigations in eastern North Carolina.

Kathryn Parker is a graduate student in the Department of Anthropology at East Carolina University. Her research focuses on bioarchaeology in the Near East, with special interest in the Neolithic and Early Islamic periods. Her current research project is using isotopic signatures in human dental enamel to determine if the six individuals originated from Qasr Hallabat.

R. Taylor Montgomery received his M.A. from East Carolina University in 2009 and went on to further his studies at the University of Arkansas. His research interests focus primarily on paleopathology and paleodemography with an emphasis on the underlying socio-political context. He has applied this focus to studies on Qasr Hallabat in Jordan and the Amarna period in Egypt.