By invitation by from Matthew Whincop. We did a 1 month survey of the Majnoon oil field. Only time I had to wear bullet proof armour to do archaeology. And we were assigned to the unexploded ordinance team to keep up safe. The area where were surveyed was the heart of the Iran-Iraq conflict during the in1980s so Chalcolithic ceramics were mixed with bomb casings and scrapnel. Desert temperatures were low despite the sun so we were layered up. The results were fascinating, illustrating a palimpsest of eras from Neolithic, Chalcolithic and punctuated with medival glass from Basara, that was a rival to Venice in 1500s. my geoarch skills were put to the test doing landscape reconstructions and later analytical work of multiple drill cores stored at the Shell offices in Dubai.