Forts, Stations, and Ancestors

This chapter focuses on Wadi Rutm Station and Tel Shahm Station. Tel Shahm Station and its landscape is characterized by several types of militarization—tent-ring campsites, a fortified hilltop and blockhouse, shadowy remains of defensive trenches around the station, and a karakoll strong-point further south. It is possible that the anomalous northernmost tent-ring campsite is a mix of prehistoric, railway construction-era, and Arab Revolt-period occupation, and that the southern construction camp saw later re-occupation between 1917 and 1918. The hilltop blockhouse, its perimeter wall, and the observation posts are clear examples of Turkish militarization, reinforced by the munitions found at those posts facing the railway, indicative of outgoing Turkish rifle or machine-gun fire. Together with the shattered railway tracks down on the desert, it is likely that much of the archaeology of this multi-component site belongs to the Arab Revolt.