Deep-Time at Tall Hisban

Deep-Time at Tall Hisban is a short 17-minute film that introduces the mission and scientific goals of the Hisban Cultural Heritage Project. Deep-Time was shot on location during three weeks in May and June 2010 by Paul Reid, an independent filmmaker. It presents two inter-twined stories–the story of the coming and goings of empires throughout the past three millennia in Jordan and the story of how the local population has survived under this march of empires. The principal narrator is Oystein S. LaBianca, senior director of the Hisban Cultural Heritage Project. Narrations are also provided by several of his field staff. While the complete story of Tall Hisban’s and how it interacts with the present day deserves a complete feature film, this short film is intended as a teaser to a wider story. Some shots are from the surrounding regions, such as Madaba, Jerash, and Wadi Musa. The film has received well over 1000 viewings on Vimeo. It has been shown at several scholarly conference and workshops and has also been downloaded by a number of instructors and students interested in learning more about the work at Hisban. The film can be downloaded from Vimeo.