BEYOND the RIVER JORDAN a Late Iron Age Sanctuary at Tell Damiyah
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BEYOND THE RIVER JORDAN A Late Iron Age Sanctuary at Tell Damiyah Excavation work on the summit in 2015, looking northeast. Photograph by Lucas Petit. Lucas Petit and Zeidan Kafafi ell Damiyah, located in the Central Jordan Valley, is iden- all Iron Age sites here, with a possible exception of Tell Damiyah tified by most scholars with the historical city of Adama, (Table 1), show a discontinuous occupation history with mul- an important town destroyed by Pharaoh Shoshenq I in tiple abatement phases (Van der Kooij 2001; Petit 2009a). The Tthe late tenth century b.c.e. It is mentioned in the Old Testament underlying motives of the inhabitants for migrating temporarily along with sites like Sodom and Gomorra, and was ruled by a still remains obscure and forms one of the main research ques- king. However, the minute dimensions of Tell Damiyah – only a tions of the project Recycling the Valley initiated by the NMA in few hectares at its greatest extent – make this identification and 2012 (Petit 2013a). description, at least at first sight, not very likely. A joint team of the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities (NMA) and the Commanding a Ford of the Jordan River Jordanian Yarmouk University (YU) have recently discovered The Central Jordan Valley consists of a flat valley floor, the Ghor, the remains of a late Iron Age sanctuary built on the summit and a gorge cut out by the Jordan River, called the Zor. This rug- of Tell Damiyah. The objects under study offer an alternative ged valley is almost 50 m lower than the Ghor and was in the explanation for the important international role the site must past regularly flooded by the Jordan River. Tell Damiyah is one have played during the Iron Age. of the very few sites located in these lower flood plains, close to Since the 1960’s the east bank of the Central Jordan Valley (fig. one of the few fords and directly south of the confluence of the 1) has been investigated thoroughly by different excavation and az-Zerqa River and the Jordan River. The site covers, at its great- survey teams (Kaptijn 2009). These investigations have shown est extent, an area of only 2.9 ha, and it has relatively steep slopes that this semi-arid part of the valley was not a border zone dur- all around, rising ca. 17 m above the recent walking surface (fig. ing the Iron Age, as is commonly thought, but an important area 2). It consists of two parts: the upper Tell, and a lower terrace for Levantine society (see, for example, the Bala’am Son of Be’or that occupies the western and southern slopes. This lower ter- Inscription at Tell Deir ‘Alla). Interesting as well is the fact that race seems to have been used only temporarily (fig. 3). The upper 18 NEAR EASTERN ARCHAEOLOGY 79:1 (2016) This journal was published by the American Schools of Oriental Research and is available on JSTOR at http://www.jstor.org/journal/neareastarch. You may receive the journal through an ASOR membership or subscription. See http://www.asor.org/membership/individual.html for more information. Tell has a strategic position, commanding the ford of the Jordan a more substantial number of sherds from the Late Bronze Age, River, and direct visual contact with Tell es-Sa’idiyeh, one of the and the authors suggest that permanent occupation started dur- most important and largest contemporaneous sites of the Ghor. ing this period and lasted at least up to the Late Iron Age. During Victor Guérin was the first the Persian and Hellenistic to recognize the importance Periods, Tell Damiyah was of Tell Damiyah, in the 19th used as a storage place for century (Guérin 1869: 238– semi-nomadic or nomadic 40); however, it took decades groups (Stratum III). Similar before the site was eventu- finds were excavated at other ally surveyed (e.g., Yassine et sites in the area, like Tell es- al. 1988: 191). Pottery sherds Sa’idiyeh, Tell Deir ‘Alla, and found during those sur- Tell al-Mazar (Petit 2013b). veys dated to the LB II, Iron Two cemeteries represent Age I, Iron Age II, Persian, the latest occupation at Tell Roman, Byzantine, and Damiyah: one is dated to the Islamic Periods. In response Byzantine Period and the to mechanical destruction other to the Ottoman Period in the early 2000’s, Lucas (Strata I-II). Investigations Petit (Leiden University) and of the burials are ongoing Omar al-Ghul (YU) carried and will be published in the out small test excavations in near future. 2004 and 2005 with intrigu- Tell Damiyah is identified ing results (Petit 2009a). by most scholars as Adama, Archaeological research was a place name mentioned in continued on a larger scale two sources. According to the from 2012 onwards (fig. 4). OT (e.g., Gen. 14:2; Joshua The earliest pottery sherds 3:16), Adama is attested as found at Tell Damiyah during an important royal town the more recent excavations near one of the few fords of date to the Early Bronze Age, the Jordan River and close although the number of these to Zarethan, Sodom, and sherds is very small; they Gomorra. Although the ex- could have been brought to istence of the last two cities the site together with build- remains obscure, the bibli- ing material. An intensive site cal city of Zarethan has most survey in 2004 has resulted in Figure 1 (above). Map of the Central Jordan Valley and the location of frequently been located at Tell Tell Damiyah. Drawing by Lucas Petit. Table 1. Stratification of Tell Damiyah Period Site Strata Absolute Date Description Ottoman Period I 2nd millennium C.E. Cemetery Byzantine Period II 1st millennium C.E. Cemetery Persian-Hellenistic Period III 5th–3rd century B.C.E. Storage facilities Iron Age IIc IV–VI 7th–6th century B.C.E. Meager occupation remains th th Sanctuary and domestic Iron Age IIc VII 8 –7 century B.C.E. architecture. Destroyed. th th Sanctuary and domestic Iron Age IIa/b VIII–X 9 –8 century B.C.E. architecture? Not excavated NEAR EASTERN ARCHAEOLOGY 79:1 (2016) 19 This journal was published by the American Schools of Oriental Research and is available on JSTOR at http://www.jstor.org/journal/neareastarch. You may receive the journal through an ASOR membership or subscription. See http://www.asor.org/membership/individual.html for more information. Figure 2 (top left). Contour map of Tell Damiyah with excavation areas. Drawing by Muwaffaq Bataineh. Figure 3 (top right). Trenches on the lower terrace, looking northeast. Photograph by Lucas Petit. Figure 4 (middle left). Excavation work on the summit in 2014, looking north. Photograph by Lucas Petit. Figure 5 (middle right). Top plan of the Iron Age IIc occupation (Stratum VII) at Tell Damiyah. Drawing by Lucas Petit. Figure 6 (bottom left). The sanctuary, looking northeast (walls are red, the western podium is blue). A Persian-Hellenistic pit with mud brick lining is visible in the upper right corner. Photograph by Lucas Petit. Figure 7 (bottom right). The sanctuary, looking northeast (walls are red, the eastern podium is blue). Photograph by Lucas Petit. 20 NEAR EASTERN ARCHAEOLOGY 79:1 (2016) This journal was published by the American Schools of Oriental Research and is available on JSTOR at http://www.jstor.org/journal/neareastarch. You may receive the journal through an ASOR membership or subscription. See http://www.asor.org/membership/individual.html for more information. es-Sa’idiyeh (fig. 1). Adama is by most scholars is wrong, or also mentioned on the victory the character of the site was stele of Shoshenq I in Karnak. different to what biblical and This topographic list from Egyptian sources described. the late tenth century b.c.e. enumerates the names of an- Platforms and nexed towns in the Southern Cultic Objects Levant (Kitchen 1973: 293– The most extensively excavat- 300). One of these towns hap- ed occupation phase on the pens to be ỉdmỉ, which is gen- summit (Stratum VII) dates erally accepted to be Adama. provisionally to Iron Age IIc Together with neighboring – around 700 b.c.e. – and sites like Succoth, Penuel, consists of at least two mud and Mahanaim – all of these brick buildings (fig. 5). Both places are said to be located structures were completely in the area immediately north destroyed by a very intense of Tell Damiyah – this appar- fire, and a thick debris layer ent town was captured and sealed off all utensils on the possibly destroyed. However, floors and surfaces. The rea- looking at the size of Tell son for this seemingly site- Damiyah, one could question wide destruction is unclear, its identification as Adama. but a similar event seems to On the Tell itself, there seems have been detected at Tell to be only space for a few Deir ‘Alla (Phase VII) and houses, let alone a city with a Tell al-Mazar (Phase V). The royal palace, and recent exca- remains at Tell Damiyah were vations at the foot of the Tell unfortunately heavily dam- has not yet revealed evidence aged in post Iron Age times, of a lower city. Thus, either the latest disturbance being the identification supported by a bulldozer in the early Figure 8 (above). Jar-like pottery stand with figurines, looking northeast. Photograph by Lucas Petit. Figure 9 (bottom left). Two-headed horse figurine. Photograph by Yousef al-Zu’bi. Figure 10 (bottom right). Two-headed horse figurine from a Persian-Hellenistic pit. Photograph by Yousef al-Zu’bi. NEAR EASTERN ARCHAEOLOGY 79:1 (2016) 21 This journal was published by the American Schools of Oriental Research and is available on JSTOR at http://www.jstor.org/journal/neareastarch.