Bert de Vries

Bert de Vries is director of the Umm el-Jimal Project, as well Professor Emeritus of History at Calvin College in cloudy Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA. Dr. de Vries’ current research interests include society and religion at Umm el-Jimal in the transitions from paganism to Christianity and Islam; the archaeology and history of Arab settlement in South Syria in the centuries before Islam; and archaeological heritage and modern communities at Umm el-Jimal and other sites in the southern Levant.

Inside the 'Nabataean' Temple

Phase II of the Umm el-Jimal Project’s 2014 AFCP preservation field work capitalized on the Phase I clearing of the House XVII-XVIII Complex courtyards, with excavation ten small trenches to […]

Teamwork in the House XVIII Courtyard

Having received a renewal grant for 2014 from the U.S. State Department’s Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation, Phase I work this spring has focused on further conservation and presentation of […]

Shoring Up

Several rooms in the House XVII were restored and reused by the Druze and Masa’eid Arabs early in the 20th century. A central goal of AFCP Preservation and Presentation Project […]

Conservation Staff

On Thursday morning, April 19, US Ambassador Stuart Jones and his entourage visited Umm el-Jimal to celebrate the official opening of the House XVII-XVIII Preservation Project, for which the main […]