2018 and 2019 Seasons Volume 2 2020

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2018 and 2019 Volume 2 Seasons 2020 Archaeology in Jordan 2: 2018 and 2019 Seasons Pearce Paul Creasman, John D. M. Green, and China Shelton, editors

ACOR ACOR 209 Commerce Street PO Box 2470 Alexandria, VA 22314-2909 Amman 11181 USA Jordan publications.acorjordan.org/aij

Original design by Jawad Hijazi, original layout by Starling Carter Amended and typeset by Noreen Doyle

Arabic site and project names compiled by Samya Kafafi

Cover image: Khirbet al-Batrawy (Zarqa): General view of the northern multiple fortification line in Area B north at the end of the 14th season (2018) of excavations and restorations, seen from the northeast. © Rome “La Sapienza” University Expedition to Palestine & Jordan.

Archaeology in Jordan is an open access (OA) online publication by ACOR. All the original reports published in this journal are free to access immediately from the time of publication. We do not charge fees for any reader to download articles for their own scholarly or educational use.

Archaeology in Jordan operates under the Creative Commons Licence CC-BY-NC-ND. This allows for the reproduction of articles, free of charge, for non-commercial use only and with the appropriate citation information. All authors publishing with Archaeology in Jordan accept these as the terms of publication. Please contact individual authors for further information on their contributions or for images under copyright or requiring additional permissions. Contents Map of Sites and Projects vi Introduction 1 Mafraq Badia Epigraphic Survey 2 Eastern Badia Archaeological Project 4 Western Harra Survey Project 7 Umm el-Jimal Archaeological Project 10 Umm el-Jimal Comparative Churches Project 13 Irbid Abila 16 Gadara/Umm Qays Hinterland Survey 19 Gadara Intra Muros 21 Tall Zira‘a 24 Tall Zira‘a: Gadara Regional Project Publications 27 Bayt Ras 29 Tell Ushayer 32 Pella 35 Khirbet Ghozlan 38 Jerash Jerash East Baths 41 Zarqa Jebel Qurma Archaeological Landscape Project 43 Jebel al-Mutawwaq 46 Khirbet al-Batrawy 49 Balqa Tall Damiyah 52 Wadi Shu’aiba: Tell Bleibil 55 Hisban Cultural Heritage Project 57 Tall el-Hammam 59 Amman Kharaneh IV 62 Amman: The Roman Nymphaeum 65 Amman: The Rescue Excavation of ‘Ayn Ghazal 67 The Great Cistern on Amman’s Citadel Hill 69 Madaba Plains Project: Tall al-‘Umayri Publication Project 72 Madaba Khirbat al-Mukhayyat 74 Madaba Regional Archaeological Museum Project 77 Murayghat 80 Khirbat Safra 83 Machaerus 86 Khirbat Iskandar 89 Dhiban Excavation and Development Project 92 Maan Petra: Islamic Baydha Project 95 Petra: Umm Saysaban 98 Petra: Al Wu‘ayra and the Survey of Monastic/Hermitic Settlements 100 Petra: Wadi Mataha 103 Petra: Temple of the Winged Lions 105 Petra: Colonnaded Street Flood Deposit Analysis 108 Petra: Qasr al-Bint 111 Petra: Khirbat Braq 113 Petra: Khirbat Sabra 115 Western Rajif Survey 117 Khirbat al-Balu’a 119 Late Neolithic on the Karak Plateau 122 Ghawr as-Safi 125 Tafila Harrat Juhayra 2 128 Tafila: Matan Heritage Village 131 Ain Difla 134 Aqaba Barqa Landscape Project 136 ‘Ayn Gharandal 139 Wadi Rum: Community-Based Rock Art and Epigraphic Recording 142

iii Map of Sites and Projects

Visualization by Thomas Paradise

iv Archaeology in Jordan 2 2018–2019 seasons

Introduction

Pearce Paul Creasman Jack Green China P. Shelton ACOR ACOR ACOR [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

The 2018 volume of Archaeology in Jordan Jimal (pp. 10–12), and the development of the new marked the successful introduction of ACOR’s new archaeological museum in Madaba (pp. 77–79). initiative to summarize recent fieldwork in Jordan, Several projects relate experiences with the practical an outgrowth from 22 previous “editions” that were concerns surrounding looting, development, or published in the American Journal of Archaeology. All neglect: for example, salvage/rescue archaeology at prior content is freely available online. Here we move Barqa (pp. 136–138), ‘Ayn Ghazal (pp. 67–68), the forward with the next iteration of this publication Ghawr as-Safi Project (pp. 125–127), Khirbat Braq with the hope that AIJ will remain a valuable (pp. 113–114), Murayghat (pp. 80–82), and Khirbat Al- resource to the archaeological and cultural heritage Balu’a (pp. 119–121); conservation, re-presentation, communities for comparative study throughout and publication of the Nymphaeum in Amman (pp. Jordan and the Middle East more broadly. 65–66) and the Temple of the Winged Lions in Petra The volume in hand presents reports on projects (pp. 105–107); and site recording work on the Karak that took place from January 2018 to December Plateau (pp. 122–124). The Nymphaeum project and 2019. These are newly organized by governorate, the TWL project, among others, have been working to approximately from north to south (see the map on advance the publication of data that has accumulated p. iv). More than 100 contributors have provided over many years. their most recent assessments of 53 projects, The editors recognize that all authors wish to including ongoing and new excavations, settlement acknowledge the support and partnership of the and landscape surveys, and cultural heritage Jordanian Department of Antiquities. Due to the short studies. These projects are multi-component both length of these entries, many expressions of thanks methodologically and temporally, often including and acknowledgment are omitted for the sake of both survey and excavation and investigating in project content. During the time these field projects a single region or site time periods ranging from were undertaken, the director-general was Dr. the early Paleolithic to the Ottoman era. The Monther Jamhawi, succeeded by Mr. Yazid Elayyan, projects encapsulated here employed increasingly to whom the contributors expressed their thanks. sophisticated techniques of recovery, technological Similarly, not all specific funding agencies mentioned evaluation, and scientific investigation. They have by project directors are acknowledged for the sake of turned up new evidence of the ingenuity and skill of concision. Of course, every project relies on funding the past populations of Jordan, such as the evocative and various sources of direct and indirect support, Late Bronze Age ivory face mask inlay from Pella (pp. often from their own institutions as well as from other 33–36), many new classical-era sculptural finds at sources. It is appropriate here to thank all who support Jerash (pp. 41–42), and the Neolithic mother-of-pearl these endeavors. Specific acknowledgements can be plaque from Wisad Pools (pp. 4–6). Some discoveries expected in the article- or book-length manuscripts have raised new questions about behavior and belief that these projects publish elsewhere. systems, such as the approximately 75 Hellenistic This edition of the AIJ was produced by ACOR and pots buried upright at the town of Nebo (pp. 74–75) funded through the ACOR Cultural Heritage Fund and and the Iron Age female and equid figurines at Tall ACOR’s Publication Fund. Layout and editing were Damiyah (p. 54), finalized by ACOR’s grant support and publications The projects are asking and addressing exciting specialist, Noreen Doyle. Samya Khalaf Kafafi questions, testing new approaches, and re-evaluating confirmed all Arabic included here, and Tom Paradise research priorities. Of particular interest is an prepared the map. Further information about increasing engagement of local communities with many of these projects is available online via project the restoration and presentation processes in order websites (links are provided where possible); for to achieve both their own economic sustainability and additional information on individual projects, please preservation of their cultural heritage. Community contact the authors directly. All figures are courtesy engagement is represented by the restoration of the of the individual project directors and authors, unless Matan Heritage Village (pp. 131–133), the CBRAER otherwise noted. program in Wadi Rum (pp. 142–143), Umm el-

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1 Archaeology in Jordan 2 2018–2019 seasons

Fig. 1. Digital elevation model generated from drone photographs of site 1745. Note the path abutting the site at two locations (black arrows) and its newly identified continuation within the structure itself, cutting through pre-existing stone walls (white arrows).

During 2019, the Western Harra Survey conducted two fieldwork seasons, continuing the work of recording and Western Harra analyzing stone structures on the western edge of the Survey Project Harra desert between Azraq and Safawi. The first, in April, focused on the aerial recording of sites, specifically a Stefan L. Smith representative selection of “wheels” and “encircled University of Ghent enclosure clusters.” By collaborating with the Royal [email protected] Film Commission, we were able to import and fly a DJI Phantom IV drone for detailed two- and three-dimensional Marie-Laure Chambrade documentation of sites and their environments. Ten Centre national de la recherche locations were mapped using vertical images for scientifique, Archéorient orthomosaics, digital elevation models (DEMs), and [email protected] 3-D modeling. Following software processing, these data revealed detailed information on the palimpsest Imad Alhussain of anthropogenic use of several sites. For example, at Centre national de la recherche the “wheel” site 1745, satellite imagery already shows a scientifique, Archéorient path coming from a nearby wadi abutting the structure’s [email protected] northeastern side and emerging along the same trajectory from its southwestern side. The DEM confirms that this is indeed a continuation of the same path and furthermore

7 AIJ 2 Western Harra Survey Project

Fig. 2. Aerial image showing the course of the prehistoric pathway, focused on in our September 2019 fieldwork season, and its location within the survey area.

that it cuts across several internal walls without corresponding gaps, indicating that it post-dates the structure (Fig. 1). We also continued the collection of soil samples for analysis by optically stimulated luminescence (OSL). Specifically, we revisited sites where we had upturned stones from the bottom courses of structures in 2017 in order to access the soil underneath. Taking samples from these stones of precise known exposure time to sunlight (19 months) provided valuable control data for our colleagues at Ghent University’s Geology Department to be able to process accurate dating results, expected in the near future.

8 AIJ 2 Western Harra Survey Project

The second 2019 season was conducted in September, and in addition to continuing the work detailed above it focused on analyses of probable prehistoric pathways formed by the anthropogenic clearing of rocks and the lithic artifact assemblages at several key sites. Specifically, we walked the length of one prominent pathway running almost exactly north–south for around 6 km from Qa’a Hamda to Wadi Rajil (Fig. 2). We measured an average walking speed of 4.33 km/h along a section of this path, whereas walking the same section across the basalt rocks next to it was around 20% slower. This advantage of speed and ease would be even more noticeable when carrying loads. Where this path meets Wadi Rajil, we identified large amounts of raw lithic material not available anywhere near Qa’a Hamda, indicating at least one of the likely purposes for its construction. Furthermore, awdiya (wadis) and qe’an (flats) provide natural access corridors into the Harra; therefore this path by proxy connects the Azraq Basin with a series of large qe’an that reach 13 km east to Dhuweila. Several sites along this path were found to feature faunal rock art, as well as Safaitic inscriptions, indicating a long period of use. We also excavated a small sondage across the path, which showed that its depression and resultant compacted silt was discernible in a trench section. For the lithics study, we collected 1,236 artifacts from 25 locations, which were preliminarily analyzed in the field. The homogeneous material comprised knapped blades, bladelets, and flakes, and shaped axes, adzes, bifacial points, and knives. The majority were dated to the late/final Pre-Pottery Neolithic or Chalcolithic period. Some sites dated to the Final Pre-Pottery Neolithic B featured abundant “desert burins.” At one location in Wadi Salhoub (see Fig. 2), Levallois flakes and points characteristic of the middle Palaeolithic were identified. This period is attested to on the edges of the Harra ( Jabal Qurma, Burqu’, Azraq Basin), but this discovery significantly pushes back the earliest documented date of occupation deeper in the basalt plain of the Black Desert.

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