Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry, Vol. 15, No 2 (2015), pp. 11-25 Copyright © 2015 MAA Open Access. Printed in Greece. All rights reserved. 10.5281/zenodo.16597 THE ABBASID OCCUPATION AT GADARA (UMM QAIS), 2011 EXCAVATION SEASON Lamia El Khouri, Ma'en Omoush Yarmouk University, Faculty of Archaeology and Anthropology, Department of Archaeology, Jordan Received: 19/01/2015 Accepted: 01/03/2015 Corresponding author: Ma'en Omoush ([email protected]) ABSTRACT This paper focuses on the Abbasid remains that were uncovered during the season of 2011 excavation in Gadara, Jordan. It describes the architectural remains and the main types, shapes, and characters of the groups of pottery findings. Part of the paper is a comparative study for the pottery types. It is clarified the Abbasid settlement in the site through studying the pottery objects, and provides clues on the relations and trade bounds that link the site with the centers of pottery production of the Abbasid period. Especially more light is shed on settlement patterns in the Islamic Umm Qais and attest to the intensive development of the site over a period of the Abbasids. KEYWORDS: Abbasid, Occupation, Gadara (Umm Qais), Excavation, Jordan, Pottery. 12 L. EL KHOURI, M. OMOUSH cultural purposes. Therefore it was a neces- 1. INTRODUCTION sity to cut tunnels, dig water wells and West of the Ottoman village, within the carved reservoirs. It is a fact that Umm Qais borders of the ancient city of Gadara witnessed a human settlement in the Ro- (Umm Qais), and along the southern side of man, Byzantine and Islamic times (Whit- the main colonnaded street (Decumanus comb, 1992: 387). However, the main Maximus), a season of excavation was held springs in Umm Qais did not meet the need in summer 2011 to reveal the archaeological of the Roman city, because most of those features of that part of the city (Figure 1). springs were much lower than the level of Seventeen squares were excavated and at the site. Those springs: Ein Umm Qais and least six strata were detected. The results of Umm Magoug and Umm Al-Turab served the excavation showed different periods of agricultural purposes directly, where the occupation, the most recent is dated to the average annual rainfall in Umm Qais (400- Mamluk period (late 14th century) followed 500 mm) (El- Gohary and Al-Shorman by two phases of the Abbasid occupation 2009: 147). The rain water was stored in (747 AD-10th century), and phases of the wells and reservoirs, and in order to take Umayyad, the Byzantine, and the Roman advantage of the rainwater number of occupations in consequence. channels has been erected in the agricul- The region of Umm Qais can be divided tural areas to collect water in the wells into two main parts: the ancient city of and small pools for watering agricultural Umm Qais, including the Greco-Roman, terraces scattered on the slopes (Awad, Byzantine and Islamic occupation levels, 1998: 45-43). and the modern village of Umm Qais and the rural landscape including farms and green spaces within the region (Segal 1988). The Greco-Roman remains are of great importance and are especially inter- esting for they show the main features of an integrated Roman city in terms of city planning, monuments, and artistic works, as well as its distinctive type of basalt stone (Kerner 1994). Umm Qais locations' gave it the ability to compete with other sites on Bilad al-sham not only on trade and agricultural fields, but also on the transferring of pottery pro- duction techniques; as Umm Qais located on the road from Damascus to Tiberias and hence to the Palestinian seaports, over- Figure 1: Map of Jordan, location of Gadara. looking Lake Tiberias and the Golan Heights, (Figure 1). The main spring which had supplied Umm Qais is Ein Umm Al-Turab to the 2. THE IRRIGATION SYSTEM OF UMM east of Umm Qais about 12 km. The water QAIS reaches the city through a tunnel which ex- It was very common in the classical cities tends from the Ein Al-Turab spring to the to transfer water from the springs to the site. Such tunnels were not plastered and it city; even if it was a far distance, and the is possible that the reason for this is that the fact that the inhabitants of the city need flowing water which reaches Umm Qais water for their daily use; so the provision city, will not seep inside the ground, to be of water is necessary in order to meet stored in reservoirs and wells on the site the needs of humans, animals and for agri- (Kerner, 1994: 77-76). Mediterranean Archaeology & Archaeometry, 15, 2 (2015) 11-25 THE ABBASID OCCUPATION AT GADARA 13 Some reservoirs in Umm Qais were cut in Main traditional crops have been culti- the rock, and others were built of trimmed vated since the Roman- Byzantine period basalt stones. There are three reservoirs to such as olives, vines. Besides, other crops serve the inhabitants of the archeological were planted among the trees such as on- site, two of which were dependent on rain ion, garlic and radishes; the Early Islamic water and the other depends of the sup- period (Umayyad and Abbasid) saw the ported system of water channels which was introduction of numerous new crops into extending within the Roman- Byzantine city the Middle East area, ushering in an agri- (Awad, 1998: 83). As for the wells, they cultural revolution (Amar 1996; Watson have been used heavily and they mainly 1983; al-Hassan and Hill 1986:203-208). rely on rainwater harvesting storage and Many of these new crops, such as sorghum, the water entering the well by channel Asiatic rice, wheat, barley, sugar cane, cot- carved on the part of the slope of the ton, citrus fruits, banana, watermelon, and ground. According to (Awad, 1998) the spinach, among others, are from the tropical number of wells in Umm Qais in the ar- climate of South Asia and were not well chaeological site up to 110 wells, with a suited for the cooler and drier climates of depth ranges between 5-10 m for each. Each the Middle East; but, all of these plants well has been plastered with two layers; faced success in Jordan area with failure in the first is of rough plastering so as to rice planting. be installed on the walls of the well soft It is useful to note here that many of the rock, then it comes above a soft plastering Islamic historical sources dealt with many layer to prevent contamination and leakage of these plantings in detail and identified of water into the ground (Awad, 1998: 79). the methods of cultivation, with reference It is worth to note that, Umm Qais is not to the appropriate environment and the a pure Umayyad-Abbasid site. Most of the suitable season of cultivation according to installations were reused from the Roman the nature of climate and rainfall. So; it is and Byzantine periods. As for the irrigation beyond the scope here to discuss the meth- system, as the area which has been exca- ods and techniques to grow these crops and vated was a residential area only, not ded- other various plants. Therefore, it is appro- icated as an agricultural fields. the inhabit- priate here to mention some examples of ants of the site during the Abbasid era must these references and writings of the histori- have been using the Roman cisterns for ans, chroniclers, and geographers of the 1 their water supply, even fragments of the Muslim world . pottery water pipes of the Roman and Byz- antine periods were found almost every- where in the squares, during 2011 season; 4. THE ABBASID OCCUPATION, 747 especially in the 6th century and the Mam- AD-10th CENTURY (MAYBE LATER, 2 luk levels. For instance, a huge Roman cis- PHASES) tern was found on the north-eastern corner The Abbasid occupation in Gadara was of the excavated squares. So, there were no mentioned by the Arab geographers (cited visible Abbasid water pipes, even the floors in Walmsley 1987: 281-282). It has been also were mostly a kind of compact soil and some were even destroyed. 1 See for example Al-Baladhuri, Futuh al-Buldan, Cairo, 1957, pp. 291,351-353, 356, 359f; Abu Yusuf, 3. RURAL ACTIVITIES OF THE INHAB- Kitab al-Kharaj, Cairo, third edition, 1382 H, pp. 57, ITANTS OF UMM QAIS 94; Falih Hussain, Al-Hayat al-Ziraiyyah fi Belad al- Sham fi al-Asr al-Umawi, Amman, 1978, pp. 43-63; Umm Qais is a rural area, and its inhabit- Mustafa Abbas al- Musawi, Al-'Awamil al-Tarikhiyyah ants – even today- used to raise goats, sheep Li-Nash'at wa-Tatawwur al-Mudun al-Islamiyyah, Bagh- and other domesticated birds such as chick- dad, 1982, pp. 300-320; Awwad Majid Al-Azami, Al- Zira'a wa-'l-Islah al-ZiraI fi 'Sadr al- Islam wal-Khilaphah ens, and pigeons. al-Umawiyyah, Baghdad, 1978, pp. 30 ff., 53,73, 79, 123, 144. Mediterranean Archaeology & Archaeometry, 15, 2 (2015) 11-25 14 L. EL KHOURI, M. OMOUSH indicated recently in the excavations of the The Abbasid shift of the center of the Byzantine bath structures and their vicinity Caliphate from Syria to Iraq led to a rap- in the city (Holm-Nielsen et al. 1986; An- id economic decline and drop in popula- dersen and Strange 1987). During the Ab- tion, especially in the cities; such an attribu- basid period the whole region experienced tion of large-scale urban decline and aban- a number of severe earthquakes that had a donment of archaeological sites to the Ab- strong effect on the architectural remains.