Dealing with the dealers and tomb robbers: the realities of the archaeology of the Ghor es-Safi in Jordan

After the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and the political upheavals of the early 1970s in Jordan, the area south-east of the Dead Sea, modern Ghor es-Safi which was ancient Zoar, became enclosed in a military zone. Many years passed before civilians could safely return and even then economic development came slowly to this geographically isolated area. Agricultural lands were laid to waste and the only resource which could be extracted from the shores of the Dead Sea was salt, which had a relatively low value and so contributed little to the local economy.