Dr Robert Bewley

The Aerial Archaeology in Jordan project (AAJ) has conducted an annual programme of aerial reconnaissance in Jordan, including the badia region, since 1997 (Kennedy and Bewley 2004). This project was inspired by and built on the ground-breaking but isolated aerial surveys conducted by Antoine Poidebard and Sir Aurel Stein in the region half a century prior, and the stunning photographs captured by the Royal Air Force that inspired the '"father" of aerial archaeology, O. G. S. Crawford. It took many more years for the significance of these discoveries to become apparent, and even now we are only beginning to understand the depth and breadth of the archaeology of this region (see Kennedy 2011 and Kennedy, Banks, and Houghton 2014). The annual programme of photography has gradually captured a record of a landscape crowded with features from multiple periods. As aerial archaeologists we see and record many more landscapes and sites than we could ever hope to follow up by field visits or excavations. Therefore our work, by its very nature, is collaborative, and anything we record is shared (responsibly) for others to use. This article highlights not only the achievements of aerial reconnaissance in understanding the complex and concentrated archaeology of the badia, but also the importance of collaboration with other archaeologists. Moreover, access to information through resources such as the Aerial Photographic Archive for the Archaeology of the Middle East (APAAME) website (www.apaame.org), is imperative in making sure the importance of these landscapes and what is captured through the camera, survey or research, is not lost, overlooked, or forgotten.