15past horizons One of four Roman milestones that were rescued from an orchard in Wadi Deir Decorated sarcophagus fragment embedded in the ground Greek inscription found in City Walls Finding a tiny stone child's sarcophagus in a residential garden A Roman pillar base built into a later terraced wall continued ? ? the Department of Antiquities of Jordan for protection and further research. Beyond the immediate vicinity of the city, the survey team began to discover an agricultural landscape that consisted of olive presses and rock cut wine production areas. One such example, excavated 20 years before is still in an excellent state of preservation and comes complete with a mosaic floor, sadly now beginning to suffer from erosion. Some of the team also came across a site that they christened ' the black cave' because of its soot- blackened interior. This large cave, consisting of around 10 separate areas, was extremely difficult to interpret without further investigation as it had possibly started off life as a tomb, then functioned as a wine or olive production area and much later on as a dwelling, hence the soot. Water had always been important to settlements in this area and the collection and storage of every drop was a big pre- occupation to the inhabitants of Jerash. An impression of this intricate and widespread water management system has begun to emerge from this survey, with larger cisterns and reservoirs feeding A well preserved Roman olive press

past horizons16 Traditional Circassian building Don Boyers draws the " black cave" Andrew Card prepares to photograph a rock cut tomb David Kennedy examines a tomb entrance A twisted column lies amongst a bulldozed pile down rock cut channels or ceramic pipes either directly into the city or diverted into smaller domestic cisterns. In one such case, piping discovered in a residential garden was still intact along with a perforated lead cover to strain the water as it flowed into a rock cut subterranean tank. A narrow circular opening would have allowed buckets of clean water to be lifted to the surface which were then poured into a white plaster- lined basin for domestic use. These systems seem to have been used and maintained from the Roman period right up to the final abandonment of Jerash some time in the middle ages. Jerash became ruinous as a result of earthquakes, plagues and a change in trading routes. From the 16th century onwards the Ottomans ruled Jordan but had very little control over the outlying areas of the country as they were only interested in protecting pilgrimage routes to Mecca. By the late 19th century the Ottomans decided to settle Circassian people from south eastern Russia into Jerash to help protect against attack from the local Bedouin tribes. These people, who were also Muslim and seeking to escape religious persecution, set about building houses for themselves within the crumbling city walls and established the field systems that can still be seen today. There are still a few remaining Circassian buildings dotted around the city but these will quickly disappear unless they are given some sort of protected status. Some of the field systems that the Circassians turned from Bedouin grazing land to crop production are now under immediate threat of development in the Wadi Deir to the north of Broken storage jars and light- coloured soil are some of the telltale signs