Archaeology in Jordan Author(S): Bert De Vries and Pierre Bikai Source: American Journal of Archaeology, Vol

Archaeology in Jordan Author(s): Bert de Vries and Pierre Bikai Source: American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 97, No. 3 (Jul., 1993), pp. 457-520 Published by: Archaeological Institute of America Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/506366 Accessed: 16/07/2009 15:03

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http://www.jstor.org Archaeology in Jordan BERT DE VRIES AND PIERRE BIKAI

This installment of the annual newsletter on ar- chronologicaloverlap to achieve a ranking. All eras chaeology in Jordan reports comprehensivelyon cur- from the Palaeolithic to the 20th century are well rent activities. These activities include not only represented. fieldworkconducted last year (December 1991 to Oc- Several institutionsare cited frequently below and tober 1992), but also new laboratoryand interpretive are abbreviatedas follows: American Center of Ori- work on projects previously in the field. The 1993 ental Research(ACOR), American Schools of Oriental edition of the newsletter is fully representativeof the Research (ASOR), British Institute at Amman for archaeologicalresearch conducted in the Hashemite Archaeologyand History (BIAAH), the CulturalRe- Kingdom by scholars from North America, Europe, source Management division of ACOR (CRM), the Australia,and Jordan itself. Publicationof "Archae- Department of Antiquitiesof Jordan (DAJ), and the ology in Jordan" in AJA has been funded in part this United States Agency for InternationalDevelopment year, as last year, by generous matching subventions (USAID). from the Jordan Societyin Washington,D.C., and the Endowmentfor BiblicalResearch, Boston. PALAEOLITHIC, NEOLITHIC, CHALCOLITHIC This newsletter includes 44 reports on research Wadi Hasa. G.A. Clark, Department of Anthro- involving 39 sites (fig. 1). It includes 37 projects that pology, Arizona State University,reports: were active in the field during the first nine months The third season of excavation and survey of the of 1992. This high number testifies in part to the Wadi Hasa Palaeolithic Project (WHPP) took place normal business of archaeologyin Jordan. The num- between 11 Februaryand 8 April 1992 and was di- ber is unusually high, however, because several proj- rected by G.A. Clark.There were three majoraspects ects delayed by war in the Gulf took 1992 as the first of the work: 1) continued excavationof the Ain Difla opportunity for rescheduling. rockshelter(WHS 634) in the Wadi Ali, 2) horizontal As before, the archaeologists who have done the expansion of the 44 m trench (WHS 1065) at el-Hasa, fieldwork,usually projectdirectors or codirectors,re- and 3) initiationof a multiseasonsurvey program on port herein on their own work. We thank all the the north bank of the Wadi Hasa, the Wadi Hasa contributorsfor taking the time to write and send us North Bank Survey (WHNBS). The survey is in- their essays,and editorialassistantJane Haney for the tended to complement Burton MacDonald's Wadi countless hours spent on the manuscript. Hasa Survey(WHS), which was restrictedto the south These reports, though technical in nature, are in- bank. tended as news items, and do not replace the more The Ain Difla rockshelter(fig. 2) was located by the elaborate scholarly reporting in the Annual of the Wadi Hasa Survey in 1982 and tested previously by Department of Antiquities of Jordan (ADAJ) and the Clarkin 1984 and by Clarkand G. Rollefson in 1986. journals of the various national societies. Regular re- The earlierexcavations produced some 8,000 artifacts ports on fieldworkin Jordan also appear in the ACOR pertaining to a Tabun Type D, elongated Levallois Newsletter and Ancient Jordan, the newsletter of the Mousterianassemblage, but did not penetrate below Jordanian Friends of ArchaeologySociety. For multi- 1 m from the surface of the deposits (which was season projects with a research history prior to 1990, variablebecause of irregularitieson the original floor bibliographyand comprehensivefield reports may be of the rockshelter).Burnt flint samples from the 1986 found in Archaeology of Jordan, prepared by D. excavations produced a thermoluminescence (TL) Homes-Fredericqand J.B. Hennessy in supplements date of 105,000 + 15,000 B.P. (Oxford University III, VII, and VIII of Akkadica. Laboratoryfor Isotope Geochemistry).It should be In order to convey a historicaloverview, the reports noted that this date is at the top of the deposit and are arranged in chronological order. Reports on can be considered to date only the latest phases of multiperiod sites are placed with the period where Mousterian occupation. No archaeological remains the project appears to be making its greatest contri- later than the Mousterian (Middle Palaeolithic)are bution currently. We accept full responsibility for preserved at the site. faulty judgments here! In the section on the Helle- The 1992 excavationsextended tests begun in 1984 nistic to Medievalperiods, however, the arrangement and 1986 to a depth of nearly 3 m and uncovered the is geographical because there is generally too much remainsof dozens of smallhearths and firepits,which 457 AmericanJournal of Archaeology97 (1993) 458 BERT DE VRIES AND PIERRE BIKAI [AJA 97

/ A

24 25

' .. , " ,1 wadi hasa 15 13 2 tabaqat el-bt uma 3 beidha 212 31 4 iraq ed-dubb dead, '-^~ 325 tell esh-shur na deseaa;d/ 32 , 6 e wadi el-yabis ,*/^^ --<7 abu snesleh V^^/*17\8 pella Jgi74 3 99 lehun 3 3: r10 baqa 'ah vall(ey kerak*hS) 11 tell el- 'umeiiri 12 tell jalul 4~ T^ r)13 tell iktanu 14 tell abu al- kharaz ~/18 ~- '~c\ v 15 tell jawa (r/(r\ <~'> ,. 16 khilda /) L35>'-3J 17 el- balu ,/ X t A 18 feifa / -Js^ ^y__ 19 petra I/ J {?^ 20 tell el-fukha r f~I,)f~/ f~- {21 umm qais I 43 1200m 900 m 22 abila /I 19p} m / 23 dohaleh ma'an \ 9t Z4 umm el- jima iI 39 37 \ 25 umm el - qutt(ein x/ yj \N)26 burqu' / ruw(eishid (< / \ \, 27 jerash I g^ y^~ ,~C28]~ tell abu sart )ut 6 I 29 'amman: ten nple of hercules -u/?>S^~ + < ? s/i \30 'amman: khilrbet salameh 31 madaba 32 machaerus 33 khirbet faris qaba ) 34 deir 'ain 'abalta J t/ c5 ,'35 t uwaneh t ) 36 humeima /,_A"/_ <,37 ma'an / ~..7 , 0,-- .38 'aqaba 39 taibeh Fig. 1. Sketch map of archaeologicalsites in Jordan referred to in the text. Not to scale. 1993] ARCHAEOLOGYIN JORDAN 459

Fig. 2. 'AinDifla rockshelter(WHS 634). Viewed from the 27 m high terraceof the WadiAli system,looking northwest. should yield more dates from what is Jordan's earliest minations to about 16,000 years ago. The overall Palaeolithic site. Thousands of artifacts were recov- objectiveof the researchwas to get a pictureof human ered along with poorly preserved animal bone. Many life in the waning millennia of the Pleistocenein the of the artifacts showed signs of having been burned intervaljust prior to the appearance of the earliest in fires-certain evidence of the systematic use of fire domesticatedplants and animals.The aim of the 1992 by these early, pre-modern humans. Some 3-4 m of excavationwas to open up some horizontal areas of archaeological deposit still remain to be sampled, with the site, with the possibilityof identifying living sur- the exciting prospect of uncovering stratified evidence faces or structural remains. Additional excavation of early humans extending back 250,000 years or might also enable us to isolate discrete phases of Epi- more. The site is located on top of an ancient river palaeolithicoccupation. Kebaranand Natufian com- terrace, one of three preserved in the valley, and is in ponents were identifiedby means offossiles directeurs close proximity to an enormous fossil spring, which in the 1984 tests. can also be dated using uranium series methods. The Our objectives were only partially met. We were aim of the research is to shed light on early Middle unable to identify unequivocalliving surfaces or ar- Palaeolithic adaptations prior to the emergence of chitecture,but a Kebarancomponent may have been modern man. isolated in the complex occupation sequence at the We also expanded earlier tests at WHS 1065, an site, which evidently"moved" up and down the slope 800 m2 Epipalaeolithic site associated with a fossil lake over the long term probablyin response to changes in the eastern part of the Wadi Hasa. This site had in the level of the lake. We also noted differences in been tested in 1984 by a series of eight 5 m and one lithic technology,which should be further elucidated 4 m step trenches that bisected the site and ran from by laboratoryanalysis at ArizonaState Universitydur- the marls below it to the collapsed rockshelter and ing the summer and fall of 1992. If these stand up to fossil spring with which it is associated. These exca- further scrutiny,they could have a substantialimpact vations produced enormous quantities of stone tools on the traditional notions of the Kebaran and of and animal bones dated by five radiocarbon deter- Epipalaeolithicindustries in general. 460 BERTDE VRIESAND PIERREBIKAI [AJA97 Finally,since human adaptationsare regional phe- do not postdatethe Natufian(ca. 12,500-10,000 B.P.). nomena, isolated sites can provide only "snapshots" The high elevations of the Jebel el'Misqare covered of the panorama of human adjustmentto a series of in a flint-richgravel scree in which there is a contin- changing Upper and Post-Pleistoceneenvironments. uous light scatterof deflated, heavilypatinated, wind- In order to develop a more adequate regional picture polished artifacts. These tend to be ancient (i.e., of these adaptations, we initiated an intensive (ca. Lowerand Middle Palaeolithic,sometimes Upper Pa- 100%) survey of the north bank of the Wadi Hasa laeolithic), and were associated with vanished land beginning at its eastern terminus just west of the surfaces that existed some 10-20 m above those of Desert Highway. Our intention was to survey com- the present day. pletely a 16 km2area extending westwardsome 8 km This researchis supported by the National Science from the road and north at least 2 km. This effort Foundation, the National Geographic Society, Ari- revealedseven sites dominated by Stone Age material. zona State University,and the Chase Bank of Arizona, Only 18 sites (23%) produced ceramics and/or had with the logisticalassistance of ACOR and under the distinctive architecturalremains. These were domi- aegis of ASOR'sCommittee on ArchaeologicalPolicy nated by Late Byzantine/EarlyIslamic sites (7 sites, (CAP)and the DAJ. 39% of ceramic total) and a scattering of Roman (2, Tabaqat al-Buma, Wadi Ziqlab. E.B. Banning, 11%),Nabataean (1, 5%),Ayyubid/Mamluk (5, 28%), Departmentof Anthropology,University of Toronto, and Ottoman (3, 17%) sites. Many sites with and reports: without architecturehad more than one component. The third season of excavationsat Tabaqatal-Buma The remaining 60 sites (67%), as well as some of (WZ200) was funded by the Social Sciences and Hu- those with ceramics, yielded collections of lithic arti- manities ResearchCouncil of Canada and took place facts ranging in time from the Lower Palaeolithic from May to July 1992. The work concentrated (Acheulean)to the MetalAges. Of considerableinter- mainly on the Neolithic occupation of the site, to est is a respectablenumber of Upper Palaeolithicsites complete excavation of a structure that was partially (25, 27%), which were not reported in Jordan until exposed in 1990 (Banning, AJA 96 [1992] 506-507) MacDonald's1979-1983 survey but which have sub- and to test for the presence of other structures (fig. sequently been shown to be well represented in the 3). There was also work on Kebarandeposits in areas Hasa drainage and in the Wadi Hisma (southwest E34 and F34, and a small excavation at nearby site Jordan). The Stone Age sites are generally found on WZ 310. Previous (uncalibrated)radiocarbon dates top of alluvialfans extending down from the southern on the site have ranged from 14,850 ? 160 B.P. to slopes of the Jebel el'Misq,although they sometimes 11,170 ? 100 B.P. for the Kebaran deposits (four occur eroding out of the lacustrine marls formed by dates), 7800 ? 70 B.P. to 5740 ? 110 B.P. for the PleistoceneLake Hasa, which appearsto have reached Neolithicoccupation (four dates), and 1680 ? 60 B.P. a maximum elevation of ca. 815 masl, probably at (calibratedage, A.D. 254-299 or A.D. 322-421) for some point early in its formation. The lake is thought a camping episode on the site associatedwith fourth- to have been in existence between ca. 70,000 and century pottery. 12,000 B.P. and was essentiallycontemporaneous with Work in areas G34, G35, H34, and H35 revealed the Lisan Lake. Like the Lisan Lake it was alkaline the remainder of a large Late Neolithic structure, 4 throughout much of its existence and evidently be- m wide and 8 m long, with its northeastern wall came more alkaline over time. Its end was different missing.Its interiorfloor had a large, circular,plaster- than that of Lisan, however, since it was probably lined hearth, and a burialof two individualshad been breached and drained by headward erosion of the placed and covered by stones in the south corner after developing Wadi Hasa at some point about 15,000- the room's abandonment, much like a similar burial B.P. 12,000 Its disappearancewas likely to have been found in the west corner in 1990. The neighboring more of an "event"than a "process,"and drainage areasG35 and H35 also contained a later parallelwall, could have occurred fairly rapidly, possibly aided by almost 1.5 m thick; pits had been dug into both it and faulting (a number of shear faults can be observed in the southeasternwall of the large structureafter aban- the eastern end of the wadi in what would have been donment of the room. In one case, a carefully slab- the northeastern corner of the lake). Although an- lined pit contained a child burial. cient stone artifactssometimes occur on alluvial fans Two structures, one in areas E33, F33, and D31, at elevations below 815 m, sites with some degree of the other in areas D32 and E32, date near the very compositionalintegrity appear to be found only at or end of the Late Neolithic in the fifth millennium B.C. above that elevation. Moreover, those tested in 1984 The earlier eastern room during its last use had a 1993] ARCHAEOLOGY IN JORDAN 461

0- 0

J34

J33 I

133 134 Od~~~~~r-L?)'

- i ? I I

Fig. 3. Tabaqatal-Buma, Wadi Ziqlab. Late Neolithic architecture,excavated areas, 1992.

cobble floor associatedwith an extremely large stone deposits in other excavation areas includes a hard mortar. Like the earlier room to the northeast, it black-burnishedware with occasional combed deco- appears to have measured some 4 x 7 m, possibly ration (fig. 4). It seems to be identical to much of the with a similar placement of the hearth. An earlier ceramicrepertoire of site WZ 310, some 600 m away, plaster floor or feature within this room seems to be and has parallelsin "WadiRabah" sites. associatedwith an earlier demolished structurein this A stone feature in area F34 proved to be another area. The smaller later structurehad an unusual fea- large slab-linedand slab-coveredcist grave, very sim- ture in one corner that incorporated a large ceramic ilar to the one excavated in 1987 (Banning, AJA 95 plaque and a cracked basalt quern. The pottery as- [1991] 257-58). Inside were the skeletal remains of a sociated with these structures and some of the later 15-year-oldand a six-month-oldchild wearing a den- 462 BERTDE VRIESAND PIERREBIKAI [AJA 97 with two rooms, built with smaller chert blocks and wadi cobbles. Their walls, which often incorporate earlier walls into parts of their foundations, themselves show considerable alteration, rebuilding, and reuse in later times along the northeast edge of the site. The last major Neolithic phase of occupation on the site has three well-built rectangular rooms, typi- cally with cobbled floors, associated with dark-burnished pottery and incised, combed, or impressed decoration. This pottery also appears at nearby site WZ 310. Beidha. Brian F. Byrd, San Diego, California, reports: The second volume of Excavationsat Beidha: The Neolithic Village of Beidha: Architecture,Occupation History and Spatial Organization,by Brian Byrd, is now complete and in press. It is part of the Beidha PublicationProject, a cooperative venture by Diana Kirkbride(director of the excavations), Peder Mor- tensen (director of the ForhistoriskMuseum, Moes- gaard, Denmark),and Brian Byrd, with four volumes projected. The first volume, also by Byrd, is entitled The Natufian Encampmentat Beidha:Late Pleistocene Adaptationin theSouthern Levant (Aarhus 1989). This project is only possible due to the extensive and sub- stantial nature of Kirkbride'seight seasons of field research. Her excavations,over 2,200 m2 in area and up to 3 m in depth, uncovered over 65 buildings within a long sequence of Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) habitationdating to the seventh millennium B.C. Beidha 2 examines the stratigraphic history, the character and distinctiveness of the built environ- and the nature of dur- Fig.4. Tabaqatal-Buma, Wadi Ziqlab. Late Neolithic bur- ment, communityorganization nishedand impressed pot. (J. Pfaff) ing the Early Neolithic. The Neolithic settlement appears to have been continuously occupied, during talium-shell necklace when interred. The grave ap- which time an indigenous architecturalprogression pears to belong to the earliest Neolithic phase took place from clustersof oval post-houses, through identified so far at the site but awaits radiocarbon individualoval and subrectangularbuildings, and ul- determinationfor an absolute date. Unfortunatelyno timately to full rectangular buildings complete with pottery occurred as grave goods. two stories.The villagehistory is modeled stratigraph- It now appears that we have at least three major icallyby distinguishingthree major phases: A, B, and phases of the Late Neolithic at the site, each with C (with two spatially restricted subphases during distinctivearchitecture, pottery, and lithics. The low- phases A and C). The tell is considered to have built est phase, with single-leaf walls built of massive up steadily, albeit unevenly, and in certain instances squared limestone blocks, remains exposed only in a there may have been overlap in the habitation span few areas, and we have little materialto associatewith of individual buildings between subphases and pos- the architecture, which appears to be fragments of sibly phases (particularlybetween phases B and C). three or four structures. A single small sherd with There is no evidence to suggest that the village was typical "Yarmoukian"incised decoration, if it is not ever abandoned for any period of time and then intrusive, may belong to this phase. The next phase, reoccupied. with predominantly friable salmon-coloredceramics The settlement grew and spread during each sub- and expedient lithics, has at least two structures,one phase and phase by the founding of new structures 1993] ARCHAEOLOGYIN JORDAN 463 and the decay and desertion of old ones. Both mul- focused on expanding areas excavated in 1989 and tiple and individual construction events were preva- 1990. Funded by the National Science Foundation, lent, and considerablevariability in habitationpattern the Departmentof Anthropologyat HarvardUniver- exists between phases. Trends in individual building sity, the Peabody Museum, the Social Sciences and abandonment also vary greatly between phases. HumanitiesResearch Council of Canada,ASOR, and Throughout the settlement's history its organization the Sigma Xi Foundation, the ongoing excavationsat appears to have been relativelyunplanned, with only 'Iraq ed-Dubb (Cave of the Bear) have provided evi- a series of limiting rules affecting the random spread dence for the year-round Early Neolithic occupation and distributionof dwellings. No formal or planned of this cave and the use of forested upland areas village community emerges, but changes are discern- above the Jordan Valley. ible in the elaborationand refinement of privateand With the 1991 field season, excavations have now public space. The distributionof structuresbecomes led to the identificationof three oval stone structures, more compacted and public space more spatiallyre- multiple pit features, four fire hearths, and several stricted either to the margins of the settlement or to subfloor burials, all situated within cultural deposits an elongated east-west central area. Individualdwell- of less than 1.5 m in depth and on top of bedrock. ings become less open in plan and more restrictedin These stone structures,some 4 m or greater in size, access. Furthermore,the entrances to adjacentbuild- were constructed with upright stone walls and had ings become more spatiallydiscrete over time. plasteredmud floors. In the two fully excavatedstruc- I have hypothesized that small, individual house- tures, evidence was recovered for multiple floor-plas- holds (perhaps best considered nuclear families)con- tering events (structure 1), an internal fire hearth stituted the primary residential and economic unit (structure 1), large grinding and anvil stones set into throughout the occupation of Beidha. This inference the floor with a stone collar foundation (structure2), is based on rigorous comparativeanalysis of patterns and a central 10-15 cm circularmud platform (struc- in interior floor area, the distribution and range of ture 2). Also uncovered were several adult and ado- features, and the nature of in situ floor artifactassem- lescent burialslocated in extramuralareas. Typical of blages. In addition, significantly larger corporate the EarlyNeolithic period, these burialslacked grave structures,with a distinctset of attributes,coexist with goods and the deceased had had their craniaremoved the domestic units throughout most of the settle- (fig. 5). ment's history (except possibly during the earliest Despite the restrictedsize of the excavationsat 'Iraq subphase). Over time their size increases along with ed-Dubb (less than 36 m2), large quantitiesof faunal, the domestic units, as does their structuralelabora- archaeobotanical,and lithic materialswere recovered. tion. These non-domestic units are inferred to have Preservationof archaeozoologicaland palaeobotani- been the venue of supra-householddecision-making cal materialswas excellent and, with the completion and related ceremonial activities. Over time there of laboratoryanalysis, these will provide us with one appearsto have been an increaseddistinction between of the most comprehensive overviews of subsistence privateand public space, along with greater evidence and economicpractices for the EarlyNeolithic period. of production activitieswithin individualhouseholds. Among the other materials recovered were over This is particularlytrue with respect to the probable 50,000 pieces of chipped stone, some 30 items of location of household storage and production areas. ground stone, some 30 pieces of ground and polished The Neolithic settlementof Beidha is significantfor bone, over 25 complete or partial seashells, and sev- its sequence of changes in architecturalstyle and tech- eral clay objects.Conventional and acceleratorradio- and the nique organization and layout of the com- carbon dates from the site indicate that the majority munity. These developments provide considerable of the culturaldeposits, and all of the structures,date insights into how one small community attempted to to the EarlyNeolithic period (10,500-9300 B.P.), and embracethe socialand economic changes taking place that deposits below this level date to the terminal with the establishmentof sedentary food-producing stages of the Late Natufian period (12,800-10,500 communities throughout southwest Asia. B.P.). In light of the paucityof known Early Neolithic ed-Dubb. Ian 'Iraq Kuijt, Harvard University,re- sites in the Levant, let alone small, single-component ports: cave sites located in the highlands, this site provides As of the part wider surveyand excavationprogram an important,if not unique, opportunity to focus on centered on the Wadi el-Yabisunder the direction of several largely unresolved aspects of Early Neolithic G. Palumbo andJ. Mabry,the 1991 excavationsat the palaeoeconomy,settlement systems, and subsistence Early Neolithic (PPNA) cave of 'Iraq ed-Dubb were practicesin the Levant. 464 BERT DE VRIES AND PIERRE BIKAI [AJA 97

Fig. 5. 'Iraq ed-Dubb. Plan of burial II and stone wall of structure II. Charcoalto the north yielded radiocarbondate of 10,785?285 B.P. (GX-17399).

Wadi el-Yabis. Gaetano Palumbo, Universita di The second sounding was conducted at the Neo- Roma, and Jonathan Mabry, University of Arizona, lithic village site of er-Rahib,near 'Irjan. This village report: is dated by the materials found to the late PPNB A fourth season of fieldwork was conducted be- period, approximately 8500-8000 B.P. The corner tween June and July 1992 in the area of Wadi el- and side wall of a house with a thick plastered floor Yabis, north of Ajlun, by a team of archaeologists led were found during the excavations.In a possible"gar- by Gaetano Palumbo and Jonathan Mabry. This work bage dump"found outside of the house, many animal was financed by grants from the Italian Ministry of bones and chipped flint tools were recovered. Among Foreign Affairs and the Italian National Research the retouched stone tools, Byblos, Jericho, and Hel- Council (CNR). wan projectile point types were represented. Four Four projects were conducted during this year's pieces of obsidian were also found. fieldwork. Soundings were conducted at Tell el- The third project was the intensive survey of three Meqbereh in the Jordan Valley, where excavations areas in the Wadi el-Yabis basin, which led to the revealed almost 5 m of archaeological layers charac- discoveryof 61 new archaeologicalsites. Most of them terized by domestic structures with well-preserved date to the Middle Palaeolithicperiod (50,000-30,000 walls, floors, and hearths, dated between the 12th and B.P.), while other sites found date to the Roman, ninth centuries B.C. (Iron Age I to Iron Age II). The Byzantine, Islamic, or Ottoman periods. A Roman site was fortified, as evidenced by a wide stone wall fort was located on a hill near the village of Ba'un. It exposed on the north side of the tell. The long se- probablycontrolled the road from Pella to Gerasa.A quence of Iron Age occupation was quite unexpected, large Early Bronze Age cemetery was found on the considering that the nearby large site of Tell Abu el- hills above the Ghor. A survey was also conducted to Kharaz does not show a similar occupational history. identify the 19th-centurywater mills between the vil- 1993] ARCHAEOLOGYIN JORDAN 465

N 512E A 494N

TELLESH-SHUNA NORTH LEGEH AREA A Edsf Tch - - 1992 . 2

Fig.6. Tellesh-Shuna North. Areas A andF.

lages of Rasun and Judeitta, along 8 km of the Wadi at least 2.3 m wide (wall 139), was uncovered to the el-Yabisstream. east of and parallelto the three large stone walls (23, The fourth project has been the architecturaland 24, and 36) exposed in 1991. The resulting symmet- ethnographicsurvey of the village of Kurkuma,near ricalarrangement (fig. 6) suggests that the walls form the Jordan Valley; a small traditional village mostly part of a large building, measuringat least 18 m east- abandoned today, but still used by the villagersof the west. The construction of this edifice cannot yet be nearbyvillage of Hashemiyain the wintercrop season. securely dated. The deep fills between the walls have The village is characterizedby different types of tra- produced no pottery postdatingthe EB I period. Two ditionalrural houses, from the common arched house plaster floors, however, were found running up to a to the more rare pillared house, with pillars reused vertical plaster face abutting a rubble and mud su- from the Roman-Byzantine ruins still preserved un- perstructureon wall 139. These overlay the various der part of the modern village. As part of the project fillsbetween the walls,and were 1.1-1.2 m above their the village was mapped, and some houses were se- base. Both floors are cut by at least one Late Helle- lected for detailed plans and elevations.Ethnographic nistic grave. A small, isolated fragment of one of the research included interviews with families still using plasterfloors (most likely the upper one) runs up the the village,and researchinto the agriculturalpractices lip of a large, dressed limestone block sitting on wall of the area. 36 (slab 39), which seals another Hellenistic grave. Therefore, the surface itself must be of Hellenistic BRONZE AGE, IRON AGE date. The slabs and the plaster floor may belong to Tell esh-Shuna. Graham Philip, Institute of Ar- the same phase of use. Given their symmetricalar- chaeology, London, and Douglas Baird, Edinburgh rangement on what is now seen to be the central pair University,report: of walls, the three slabs may well have done double The present report covers the second season of duty as roof supports and grave markers. excavationat Tell esh-Shuna in March-May 1992. A Areas E (8 x 5 m) and F (4 x 3 m) were opened in third season is planned for February-May1993. The an attempt to follow these walls to the north and overallaim of the projectis to reach an understanding south, respectively. A possible robber trench was of the development of major centers from the fifth to noted on the correct alignment for a northerly con- the third millennium B.C. (calibrated). tinuation of wall 36. The upper plaster floor contin- Upper Tell. Area A was extended 5 m to the east ued right into the north section of area E, along the this season (now 18 x 5 m). A fourth large stone wall, east side of this robber trench, a total length of 11 m. 466 BERTDE VRIESAND PIERREBIKAI [AJA 97 The wallsdid not continue directly into area F, which aim of the 1992 season was to uncover more details will require more excavation before it can be under- about the Middle Bronze Age and Chalcolithicsettle- stood. This area produced EB III pottery including ments, the connection between both occupations,and KhirbetKerak ware, the firstsuch found in the central the dating and layout of the dam. area of Shuna. It may be significant that no EB III E12. Only one trench was laid out in the square. pottery was found in the fills between the four large An already existing section, cut by the modern road, stone walls. was cleaned and further excavated. The trench was There were no convincing occupation surfaces as- laid out between the western and eastern wall of a sociated with the bottoms of the walls because it re- house (probablydating to the MBA). The floor was mains uncertain whether we are dealing with the found and beneath the floor three more walls, which foundation of a Hellenistic building sitting in a large seem to date to the Chalcolithicperiod. These build- cut with derived EB I fills between the walls,or if the ings were heavilydisturbed by the road. walls are originallyof EBA date, partly reused in the F12. This squarerevealed a large courtyardin 1990 Hellenisticperiod. and had been chosen for the stratigraphicaltrench In the western part of area A, walls 23 and 24 were this year. In 3.5 m of occupationallayers were found removed. Immediatelybelow were a series of largely artifactsfrom the MBA, Chalcolithic,Neolithic, and featureless fills ca. 0.6-0.8 m in depth. These layers Epipalaeolithicperiods. Sterile soil was not reached. produced no pottery later than late EB I. Below these Gl . In 1990 work was begun on a huge structure lay partsof two EB I structures,one stone-built,build- in this square. In this season it became clear that it is ing 2; the other with mudbrickwalls around 1.0 m in a large double-stone curved wall with a tower on the width, building 3. A large black-polished (Crackled outside. We found only the lowest courses of this wall, ware) platter-bowlwith upturned horned handles lay with some lining on the inner side. The construction immediatelyto the outside of building 3. To the east seems to date to the MBA. of these buildings lay a rich midden deposit, which G13. The main work was done on a Chalcolithic produced a ceramic vessel with traces of copper ad- house (house 2). We found all four walls and the hering to the walls, fragmentsof ostricheggshell, and entrance. The entrance was decorated with promi- several restorablevessel profiles. nent pilasters.The wallsare very evenly set with well- Area D. Area D at the base of a modern cut was hewn stones. On the floor of the house was a complete expanded (6 x 4 m) and excavated to greater depth. tool-kitof stone tools and pottery.The roof construc- A series of fills similarto those excavatedin 1991 were tion was revealed by many long, slim, stone slabs, removed. Below these the area was heavily pocked which had probably been used for corbeling. The with pits, evidence of its use as an outdoor working house is 1.90 x 3.20 m and the walls are standing up area. Two infant burials placed below fragments of to 1.10 m. Other parts of the square were excavated broken pots belong to this phase. Below this phase around the house; the surrounding area seems to be but cut by the bottoms of the later pits were found Chalcolithicas well and showed an outdoor area as- partsof at least two rectilinearstructures on the same sociatedwith house 2. alignment and built of bun-shaped mudbricks. HI3. In the squares G12, G13, H12, and H13 is a Patchesof plaster surface were associatedwith these large MBA house (house 1). The northern, southern, structures. The pits and overlying fills are probably and eastern walls are nearly completely excavated. of Chalcolithicdate. The pottery associatedwith the The house was 13.20 m long and 4.20 m wide, and earlier structureshas not yet been analyzed. had been divided into (at least) two rooms. The east- Two reports are currently in press: the first season ernmost room was very small and contained several in ADAJ 1992 and the second in Levant 1993. human skulls and long bones with a few grave goods Abu Snesleh. Susanne Kerner,German Protestant (such as beads and pottery). The large room had two Institute for Archaeology,Amman, reports: high upright stones (1.30 m over floor level), which The site is on the confluence of Wadi Qattar and most probablysupported the ceiling (fig. 7). Nothing Wadi Irmedan, some 30 km east of Amman. The else is known about the roof construction. The wall second season in Abu Snesleh took place in June 1992 between the rooms had spaced large upstanding with two weeks of documentation work. Permission stones, while the intervals were filled by smaller was kindly given by the DAJ. stones, which gave a "window-like"impression. The The work continued mainly in the areas where we entrance to the south has also been excavated. had started in 1990. We excavated in five squares- Dam. A dam is situated some 100 m to the east of E12, F12, G 1, G13, and H 13-and at the dam. The the site of Abu Snesleh, which closes the exit of a 1993] ARCHAEOLOGYIN JORDAN 467

Fig. 7. Abu Snesleh.Area H13, house 1. small wadi toward Wadi Irmedan. A trench on the second derived from the unexpected discovery of inside of the dam revealed only one course of stones. an earliernorth-south fortificationwall, dating to EB The material is still in the process of examination. I/II (ca. 2900 B.C.), slightlybelow and to the west of The combined evidence suggests an MBA village the MBAlevels reachedat the end of the 1990 season. with long, narrow houses around an open space on This earlier fortification wall, rebuilt at least once top of a not much smaller Chalcolithic village of during its lifetime, is likely to delineate the eastern smaller houses. Underneath at least one part of the margins of the EBA city. Below this two-phase wall Chalcolithic village are several layers of earlier occu- the trenches reached naturalsoil. pation. Upslope and to the west of trench IIIC, in trench Pella. Stephen J. Bourke, Department of Archae- IIIN/IIIS, the southern half of a large LBA palatial ology, University of Sydney, reports: residencewas uncovered. This structurewas first de- The 14th season of excavation at Pella took place tected in trench IIIC in 1980, and the nearlycomplete during January and February 1992. Excavations con- plan has been gradually uncovered over the last 10 centrated on three areas (fig. 8) situated along the years. The complex, approximately 15 x 15 m in southern edge of the main tell of Khirbet Fahl (areas extent, finds similarly dated close parallels in the III, XXVIII, and XXXII) and in the MB/LB cemetery "Governor'sResidence" type of administrationbuild- (area XI) situated on the north face of Tell Husn. ing. Our example, the earliest of its type uncovered In trench IIIC/IIID two main issues were investi- in Jordan, resembles that from Beit Shean closely, gated. The first centered on the date of the massive although not exactly. mudbrick city wall that encircled Canaanite Pella. We A new 4 x 6 m trench, XXXIID, was opened some have been investigating this fortification for some 10 10 m to the west of the previouswestern limits of area years now, and this season in a small sondage (2 x 2 XXXII and an EB IB/II (ca. 3000 B.C.) residence/ m) we reached the bottom of the wall and confirmed fortresswas uncovered slightlybelow the tell surface. its MB IIA (ca. 1950 B.C.) construction date. The Beneath this EBA material a series of Late Chalco- 468 BERTDE VRIESAND PIERREBIKAI [AJA 97

100 y o I m m Fig.8. Pella.Plan of KhirbetFahl showing locations of excavatedareas.

lithic (ca. 3500-3300 B.C.) pits and large storage ves- cavations are undertaken in cooperation with the sels were uncovered, cut into the natural soil of the DAJ. We extend our thanks to SafwanTell, Director- tell; the material culture is close to that represented General of DAJ, and his staff, particularlyour two in Hanbury-Tenison'sarea XIV excavations. Slight Antiquitiesrepresentatives, Sultan Shraideh and Wa- indications of architecture were uncovered in the jeeth Karasnah,for their active support in what was northern balk of the trench. the coldest, wettestwinter in recentJordanian history. In trench XXVIIIA the northeastern corner of a El-Lehun. D. Homes-Fredericq,Royal Museums very large MBA building was uncovered. This three- of Art and History,Free University,Brussels, reports: phase construction represents one of the most mon- The Lehun excavationis a long-term project,study- umental of our MBA residences. It dates to MB IIB ing the environment and agriculturalsettlement of a (ca. 1700 B.C.). Two intramuralburials, adding to the Moabite village in the neighborhood of the "King's three previouslydiscovered, positioned beneath later Highway."The project is sponsored jointly by the dividing walls within the complex, produced storage Belgian Committee of Excavations in Jordan. The jars, small carinated bowls and juglets, and the com- excavationwas codirected by P. Naster between 1977 plete skeleton of a canine as well as the bodies of two and 1984, and D. Homes-Fredericqfrom 1977 until small children. the present, in collaboration with the DAJ. It is In the MB/LB cemetery, area XI, situated on the plannedthat the dighouse willbecome a local museum north face of Tell Husn, work continued in the en- in the year 2000. trancedromos of tomb 106 where the "ShackledMan" Lehun is located on the northern plateau of the was discovered in 1990. This year's work confirmed Wadi Mujib(Arnon of the Bible). It lies 7 km east of the LB IIA date (ca. 1350-1300 B.C.) of the tomb Dhiban (the capital of the MoabiteKing Mesha) and, and resulted in the recovery of important alabaster, respectively,4 km and 3 km east of the archaeological metal, and ceramic finds. sites of Aqrabaand Ara'ir (the Aroer fortress of King The University of Sydney excavations at Pella in Mesha), along an antique track, following the south- 1992 were funded by the AustralianResearch Coun- ern border of the plateau. cil, the AustralianNational Gallery,the Universityof The site is 1,100 m north-south by 600 m east-west Sydney, and a substantialprivate donation. The ex- (fig. 9). The altitude ranges from 719-748 masl. The 469 1993] ARCHAEOLOGYIN JORDAN

Fig. 9. Lehun. Generalmap of the site.

Wadi Lehun and various seasonal rivers divide the settlements(sector C-D). In sector E, surface flints of hilly landscape north-south and east-west, into nat- prehistoricperiods were found. (For a complete plan ural areas (sectors A-D) that influenced the ancient of the site [1978-1986] see the topographical map, settlements:on the northern part are Nabataean(sec- scale 1:1,000, Louvain 1988). tor Al, B1-B2), Roman, Byzantine (?), and Islamic Palaeolithic.G.O. Rollefson and G. Funkhauserun- remains (sector A2). On the southern part are the dertook a lithic surveyof the whole site in 1980. From Early Bronze (sector C2) and Late Bronze/Iron Age an area of 225,000 m2 they collected nearly 1,000 470 BERT DE VRIES AND PIERRE BIKAI [AJA 97

samples from the Lower and Middle Palaeolithicand the rain and wind blowing from the Dead Sea valley. the Bronze Age, but none from the Neolithic period. The Iron Age fortress (33-37 m east-west by 43 m The oldest examples go back 150,000 to 80,000 years. north-south) was probablybuilt at the same time as A wide range of tools has been assembled: racloirs, the settlements of el-Balu', Ader, and Medeniyeh. burins, scrapers,flakes (some typicalLevallois flakes), The need of the Moabitekings to protect their terri- nuclei, and core fragments. tories from the invasionsmentioned in the Bible and Neolithicand Chalcolithic.These remains are rep- from the nomad tribes from the Eastern Desert ex- resented by a number of surface flints and a few plains the choice of this location. On the other hand, ceramics,some of which have typicalmat impressions. Lehun was also probably selected for its fertile soil Early Bronze Age. A very eroded EB IA-B tomb and its excellent weather at the intersectionof Medi- was discovered in 1982. It was delimited in the south terraneanand semiaridclimates. by the deep cliffs of the Wadi Mujiband in the west To date, very few fortresses of this period have by the Wadi Lehun. More than 130 specimens of been investigated in Jordan. They often show the (often undamaged) ceramics were found in a 40-60 same architecturalcharacteristics for defensive pur- cm thick layer above the bedrock:large jars with ledge poses: a strategic location overlooking a valley (the handles, middle-sized jars, amphoriskoi, jugs with Wadi Mujibat Lehun); and fortificationwalls follow- high vertical handles (with some stamp-seal impres- ing the contour line of a hill (in sector D) with rein- sions), cups, and miniature "thumb bowls"were of- forcement of the weaker sections (here, a northern fered to the four deceased (two women, two children). and eastern double wall, corner towers, and facade The ceramicscan be dated by comparisonwith those tower). The strengthening of the corner with watch of Bab edh-Dhra'. A study of the pottery'stechnical towersbuilt inside the precinctwall at Lehun appears background by H. Franken shows that despite basic to be peculiar to the site and can be explained by the similarities in manufacture, shape, and decoration, natural topography. The slope at this point was too the examples of Lehun originate from a local village steep to construct extra muros as was traditionally tradition. done. LateBronze-Iron Age TransitionalPeriod. The 1986 The long and narrowrooms of the LB houses were sector D excavation suggested that the Iron Age for- reused in the southern and western parts of the tress had been built in its northern and eastern part stronghold to become part of a defensive system of above Late Bronze houses (dated by typicalsherds of casemates in the event of attack. They were used as cooking pots included in its foundation walls). The living rooms in the meantime: kilns, grain silos, and 1987 work showed that at the end of the LBA, an ovens have been excavated inside, but the northern extensive village was located in area D. It followed the casemate rooms were once filled with large stones in contours of the plateau; four houses with clay ovens, wartimeto make a good defensive wall. Breaks in the silos, grinding stones, cooking pots, and storagejars eastern precinct wall attest to different attacksof the were excavated.A scarabof the XXth Dynasty(1186- stronghold. The wheelmade pottery found in the 1070 B.C.) in faience was found north of a large stone stronghold is typicalof the period. The huge storage bench. The base of the seal shows a sphinx with a jars suggest an agriculturalfunction. For both periods ram'shead, and atef-crownbefore a poised ureusand (Late Bronze and Iron Age) we have an assemblage an open lotus-flower(?). The design is also completed of cooking pots, storagejars, bowls, and jugs. A few with inverse hieroglyphic signs, spelling poorly the painted pots with geometric motifs (represented by name of the god Amen-Re. The scarabbelongs to the sherds) seem to have been imported during LB II same transitionalLate Bronze/Iron Age period as the and are comparable to Mycenaean painted wares. ceramicsfound in the house. Other potsherds of the Iron I and II assemblage In the southern part of the plateau, chosen for its belong to a local tradition known as Moabite (alter- strategicposition, overlookingthe Arnon valleyto the nativelylabeled "Ammonite"or "Cypro-Phoenician"). Dead Sea, the LB houses were leveled to a height of The large number of jars suggests that the fortress 45-55 cm and reused as foundation walls at the be- had been conceived as a storage building for grain, ginning of the Iron Age. possiblyto supply Ara'ir,the Aroer garrison of King Iron Age. A fortress, with a large central courtyard, Mesha. It should therefore have the same function as was partiallyexcavated from 1980 to 1986. Its walls the examples found in the Negev region. rested directly on the bedrock or above the LB walls. A New Year'sbottle fragment of the Saite Dynasty The western and southern outer faces of the precinct (seventh/sixthcentury B.C.) was found in the fortress. wallhad been carefullyplastered to protectthem from It was imported from Egypt like other examples 1993] ARCHAEOLOGY IN JORDAN 471 found all over the Mediterraneanbasin and the Near artifactualremains that would help to date the build- East (Palestine, Phoenicia, Anatolia, and Mesopota- ing. Thus, the eastern half of the mosque was exca- mia) and is another example of the trade contacts vated to a line from the westernjamb of the door to among these different regions. the western edge of the mihrab niche. Nabataean Period. Lehun seems to have been an Artifactsfrom the mosque confirm the preliminary agriculturalmarket village during the Nabataeanpe- indications from 1985. The majorityof sherds were riod, located on a byroad of the "King's Highway" handmade, painted wares, often called "Arab-geo- passing through Ara'ir, Mesheirfe, Jumeil, Salijeh, metric."Though this style begins in the Late Fatimid and Museitba.Thus, it may have been a caravanhalt and continues into the Ottoman period, it is likely for trade and for religious purposes. A small sanctu- that the present assemblagedates to the 15th century. ary in area B2 supports this suggestion. A tomb of The slow accumulationof those secondary deposits the same period has been found in sector D. occurred necessarilyafter the use of the mosque. A The small square temple (6.25 x 6.25 m) was con- burned floor deposit, from soon after the use of the structedin local embossed limestone blocks. Its foun- building as a mosque, contained a small bronze coin dation rested on the bedrock and a monolithic door that apparently dates to Late Mamluk and gives a threshold stepped down to the cella. Its quite elemen- terminus post quem for the mosque of the late 14th tary plan (just one room with an altar on the eastern century. Thus, the structure may be considered a side) correspondsto the single-chamberedNabataean small, rural mosque of the Late Mamlukperiod, one sanctuariesof Oriental origin. Its ceramic fragments of the only such structuresexcavated in this region. date back to the first century A.C. and are represen- Four houses acrossa small road west of the mosque tative of the smooth or ribbed common pottery, to- are presumed to belong to the Islamic village. This gether with some sherds of beautifully painted part of area C 1 should be excavated in the future. In fineware. sector Al an agricultural settlement, with mixed The temple was restored in the 1988 season to a sherds dating from the Umayyad to the Ayyubid pe- height of 3.40 m. It was impossibleto reconstructthe riods, has been recognized and partiallyexcavated. sanctuaryto its originalheight (presumedheight: 4.30 Later Periods. Remains of Late Islamic walls and m) becausemany stones were lost or reused in modern Ottomanhouses and pipes show that Lehun has been times by the villagers. continually occupied until now. Three collapsed An intrusiveNabataean grave was found in a house houses in area C2 were built probablyat the end of of area D. It was dated by the pottery (a cooking pot the 19th or beginning of the 20th century. The main and a juglet), a necklace, a bronze fibula, earrings, room is alwaysconstructed in a cave, probablycut out and bracelets. The skeleton of a woman was badly in antiquity.These houses correspond to a type de- disturbedby collapsed stones. scribed by A. Khammash in the Sumia region. If Byzantine(?) Period. A Byzantine or Early Islamic restored they would represent good examples of the bell-shaped cistern was discovered near an Islamic recent village architectureof the region. settlement in area C 1, but has not yet been cleaned. The region seems to have been fertile in antiquity, IslamicPeriod. The Islamic remains of Lehun (sec- as attestedby ancient literarysources, the storagejars, tor C1) were examined by D. Whitcomb during the and the numerous grinding stones found during the 1985 and 1987 seasons. We reproduce here part of excavations. Today, since irrigation has been intro- his report: duced, the village has developed into an agricultural The main excavation was concentrated on the center with farming and herding of sheep and goats. on the mosque west slope of the Wadi Lehun identi- Baq'ah Valley. PatrickE. McGovern,Museum Ap- in fied 1985. Previous work had uncovered the exte- plied ScienceCenter for Archaeology(MASCA), Uni- rior construction of the mihrab, the interior of the versity Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, mihrabdown to the flagstone paving, and the thresh- Universityof Pennsylvania,reports: old of the in doorway the north wall. While the Mus- The Baq'ahValley, a fertileand well-watereddepres- lim religious purpose of this building was confirmed, sion 15 km northwestof Amman, has been the focus there remained the possibilitythat the building was a of a UniversityMuseum expedition since 1977, con- tomb shrine rather than a mosque. tinuing up to the present. The project is directed by The of purpose the further excavation was to un- P.E. McGovern,and has been funded by the Museum cover more than half of the mosque, checking for the and MASCA, the National Geographic Society, the existence of a sarcophagus or other evidence of a Jordanian Ministry of Tourism and DAJ, ASOR/ tomb and, secondarily,to gather a larger collectionof ACOR, and several private foundations. 472 BERT DE VRIES AND PIERRE BIKAI [AJA 97

Fig. 10. Khirbet Umm ad-Dananir.Excavation of middle terrace, looking northwest.The Wadi Umm ad-Dananiris visiblein the background.(Photo P. McGovern)

The goal of recovering a stratified sequence of the surface, a building dating to LB IB-II (approxi- occupation at Khirbet Umm ad-Dananirand a link mately 1450-1200 B.C.) was partly uncovered. Its between this settlement and Late Bronze-Early Iron ground plan and construction are very similar to those Age cemeterieson nearbyJebel al-Hawayahand Jebel of the contemporaneous Amman airport building 15 al-Qesirwas achieved during the most recent seasons km to the southeast, with its narrow 2 m wide side- in 1981 and 1987. The occupationsite (fig. 10), which room defined by walls over 1 m thick and a room with also has later Iron IIC/Persian,Hellenistic, Early Ro- a massive centrally located column comprised of three man, and Mamluklevels, is strategicallylocated on a drums, the upper two measuring 1.0 x 1.0 x 0.7 m cliff overlookingthe pass into the Baq'ahthrough the and the lowest one a hewn 1 m outcrop of bedrock. southernbranch of the WadiUmm ad-Dananir.Work The three doorways leading from the northern side- was concentrated on seven 4 x 4 m squares on a room into the central room are spaced almost the middle terrace of the site. Approximately4 m below same distance apart (4.5 and 2.5 m) as those between 1993] ARCHAEOLOGYIN JORDAN 473

Fig. 11. Al-Qesir.An EB II-III Breitbaubuilding is exposed on the surface.The Baq'ahValley can be seen in the background.Looking south. (Photo P. McGovern) the corresponding rooms in the airport building. The The walls of the structure are preserved 2 m high. Amman airport building belongs to the Quadratbau Carbonized roof beams were found on the floor of architectural type, which, as the name implies, has a the building-an upper group with squared-off square layout with a central unit ("courtyard") sur- beams 0.20 x 0.20 m in section, and mortise joints rounded by outer rooms. still visible, and a smaller lower group ran parallel to Like the airport building, the Umm ad-Dananir each other between the two walls. The building was structure was not an ordinary residence, since special destroyed sometime in LB II, since pits of the latter artifacts and masses of burnt and unburnt animal period, containing LB II pottery, animal bones of the bones and whole body parts had been deposited in a same species as those in the "dedicatory fill" and "dedicatory fill" beneath the plaster floor of the build- foundation trenches, and some special artifacts (for ing, as well as in the foundation trenches of the build- example, a ceramic bull rhyton similar to that from ing. The latter had been dug into the animal bone an LBA burial cave on Jebel al-Hawayah), had been fill, which lay directly over bedrock (like the outer dug into the destruction debris. Only about a quarter walls of the airport building). The special artifacts of the building has thus far been excavated. Since the included miniature pottery vessels (for example, an Amman airport building has no evidence of upper imitation Cypriot black-shaved juglet) and jewelry walls and roofing and has now been demolished, com- (glass, Egyptian blue frit, carnelian beads, and a red plete excavation of the Umm ad-Dananir structure slate pendant). Among the animal bones were cattle, provides a unique opportunity to understand better sheep/goat, and donkey, together with carnivores and this architectural type and its function. herbivores no longer living in the region. A probable The 1987 season also shed more light on the begin- altar, a 0.60 x 0.60 x 0.60 m freestanding feature nings of urban settlement in the region. At least by with a limestone capstone, was found near the center EB II (ca. 2900 B.C.), the settlement of al-Qesir ("the of the building, also built on bedrock. Between the fortress") had been partly constructed on the 12 ha altar and the column was a fireplace, predating the summit of the hill of the same name, uphill from building, which was probably used to roast the animals Khirbet Umm ad-Dananir and 200 m above the valley that went into the fill. floor. An encircling stone fortification wall further 474 BERTDE VRIESAND PIERREBIKAI [AJA97

E II -I 1 w

0 5M

Fig. 12. Tell el-'Umeiri.Sketch of a sectionof the EarlyIron Age I remainsfrom field B, lookingsouth, including the fortificationsystem and domesticbuildings to the east. enhanced the site's defensive position. Al-Qesiris one with Atlantic Union College, Canadian Union Col- of a number of large hilltop EarlyBronze settlements lege, and WallaWalla College. in central Transjordan,and the first to be excavated. Tell el-'Umeiri.Previous seasons uncovered a com- Aerial photography revealed the ground plans of plex of domestic structures from the EB III on the many circular stone features and rectangularbuild- southern shelf. This season, the objective was to ex- ings (fig. 11). Cisterns up to several hundred meters cavate beneath the houses to expose possible EB II in diameter, which were hewn out of the bedrock, and earlier remains. Bedrock was reached in all four were located on the sides of the summit. Systematic excavation units, and two new phases of domestic sherding of the area within the walls showed that the architecturewere uncovered. While diagnostic EB II site had been most intensively settled during EB II- pottery appeared in higher quantities in these lower III. A marked decrease in occupationoccurred in the phases, a small amount of EB III pottery continued subsequent transitionalperiod of EB IV, after which to be found, including two fragments of Khirbet the site was abandoned. Kerakware. We have, therefore, a total of six EB III Excavationof one of the medium-sized (approxi- phases. The first four reused the walls of the first mately 8 m diameter) circularstone features or "hill- phase, but always with new alignments. They were ocks," under the direction of Elene Nicholas of not simply rebuilt versions of the same structure. WilliamSmith College, eliminated the possibilitythat These phases included a small storage cave dug out it was a "beehive house," because no walls were dis- of bedrock. The last two phases, from near the end covered. Rather, it proved to be a mound of earth of EB III, were represented by sparse remains from and stones. A concentrationof large boulders toward settlementsin abatement.A few EB I sherds were also the center covered smashed and whole vessels of EB found, but were not connected with in situ remains. II-III types and grinding stones and pounders, near On the western slope where the fortificationsystem a large solution cavity in the bedrock. A sounding in is being tested, the MB IIC rampart (or "glacis,"no. a rectangularroom near what appears to be the main 9 in fig. 12) was excavated to bedrock (no. 10). The gateway to the site went down through 2 m of fill, rampart was constructed of a series of thin, wedge- alongside an inner wall, without reachinga surface or shaped layers of dark earth, gradually steepening to bedrock. 30?and ca. 3 m abovebedrock. The top of the rampart Madaba Plains. Lawrence T. Geraty, Atlantic was coated with a thin layer of crushed limestone. At Union College, Larry G. Herr, Canadian Union Col- the base of the slope was a flat-bottomeddry moat lege, 0ystein S. LaBianca, Andrews University, and (no. 12) dug out of the bedrock ridge that adjoined RandallW. Younker, Andrews University,report: the site to the west (no. 15). The bottom of the moat The fourth season of excavation of the Madaba was at least 5 m wide but the eastern edge has not yet PlainsProject took place from 16June to 31 July 1992 been found. and consistedof three subprojects:excavations at Tell The most extensive remains excavated this season el-'Umeiri, 15 km south of Amman; a regional survey were from the Early Iron I period, the 12th century in a 5 km radius around 'Umeiri; and new excavations B.C. They included one of the most coherent Iron I at Tell Jalul, ca. 5 km east of Madaba. The project fortificationsystems in Palestine. Immediately above was sponsored by Andrews University in consortium the MB IIC rampart(no. 9 in fig. 12), another rampart 1993] ARCHAEOLOGY IN JORDAN 475

(no. 8), 1.5 m thick,was constructed against a casemate team visited all occupational sites discovered in pre- wall (nos. 5 and 7). At the bottom of the rampart,ca. vious seasons to update the data to a more detailed 16 m to the west of and below the outer casematewall recordingsystem. A second team conducted ethnoar- (no. 7), the MB IIC dry moat (no. 13) was reused with chaeologicalresearch among the villagers regarding a thin layer of MB IIC debris remainingat the bottom water use and seasonaloccupation in caves. One sen- (no. 14). The moat was separated from the rampart sational discovery of this team was a monumental above by a sloping retaining wall ca. 5 m high (no. Safaitic/Thammudic(and, to a lesser extent, Naba- 11). The western side of the moat was not sheer, but taean) inscriptionof over 1,000 large letters chiseled stepped (no. 15). It seems the moat was not intended into the cement lining of an ancient cistern within a to restrictentrance but to make climbing the slope to black-paintedpanel ca. 1.5 m high encircling the cis- the city more difficult. tern. Situated about 2 km south of Tell Jawa, the Inside the casemate wall, portions of two domestic inscription seems to contain names and symbols of houses were uncovered (fig. 12, nos. 1-5). In one, a tribes and dates to the Roman period. This is one of row of pillar bases (no. 3, running perpendicularto the largest such inscriptions known, and is located the sketch)separated a cobbled floor lying against the much fartherwest than expected, a fact that may lead inner casemate wall (no. 5) from an earth surface scholarsto reconsider how closely nomadic tribes in- (courtyard?),which included a stone bin and a hearth. teracted with the settled Greek-languagecivilization In the cobbled room, leaning against the inner case- in Jordan. The cave complex in which the inscription mate wall was a carefully made standing stone (no. 4). was found may have served as a tribal meeting place. No inscriptionor image was visible. Lying flat on the Plans are to publish high-qualityphotographs of the cobbles in front of the standing stone was another inscriptionin full by the time this AJAreport appears. flat, but thicker,stone. To the north, acrossa wall that A third survey team excavated selected small agri- reached almost 2.5 m high (not visible in fig. 12), was cultural features, while a fourth team began the ex- the second house with only one room so far discov- cavationof an EB IV cemetery ca. 2 km south of Tell ered. The room was paved with flagstones and the el-'Umeiri. Three shaft tombs were excavated, and mudbrick destruction debris from the upper floors one robbed tomb was cleared. Two of the tombs had containedover 20 cratesof pottery,mostly from large, been reused in MB IIA and contained pottery from collared-rim storejars. The destruction debris from both periods. A fifth team used ground-penetrating this town was found in two other locationson the site, radar to search for underground features at Tell el- covering beaten-earthfloors. 'Umeiri and the EB IV cemetery. The site was only slightly reoccupied in the ninth TellJalul. Because of our diachronic focus on the century for a short span. A much more serious settle- social, cultural,and politicalevolution of the inhabit- ment was constructed, probably to serve the admin- ants of this region, one of our first objectivesfor the istrativeneeds of the Ammonite central government, new excavationsat Jalul was to establisha chronolog- in the seventh century. Three large public buildings ical frameworkfor the occupation of the site. There- were discovered on the western edge of the site in fore, it was decided to open a trench at the northeast previous seasons, while this year two rooms from corner of the tell (field A) where it was obvious that a another large building (possiblya "four-roomhouse") considerableamount of occupational debris had ac- with cobbled floors was found on the eastern side, cumulated and where the incline of the slope was near the probable gateway to the site. This seventh- great enough that an excavationtrench could quickly centuryoccupation continued into the Persianperiod, expose a vertical section through the occupational perhaps as late as the end of the fifth century, sug- levels. A second field was opened on the eastern side gested by the presence of two Attic potsherds. Two of the tell (field B) where surface remains pointed to Aramaic seal impressions of the Persian provincial the possible presence of a monumental gateway. government from ca. 500 B.C. contained the name of Eight phases of occupationwere uncovered in field an official (Shuba) and the name of the province of A. Phase 1 was a recent accumulationof topsoil and "Ammon." This is the first solid evidence for the subsurface debris. Phase 2 comprised a series of existence of a Persian province of Ammon. graves that locals believed to be of Beni Sakr slaves Regional Survey.This was the final season for the from the 19th century. The remains of the burials survey in the Tell el-'Umeiri vicinity (5 km radius). were reinterred on the acropolis to the west in the During subsequent seasons, the survey will move to modern cemetery. Phase 3 was a plastered threshing the Tell Jalul region. As in previous seasons, several floor (?) of uncertain date-later than Iron Age II different survey operations were conducted. One (and III), but stratigraphicallypredating the ceme- 476 BERTDE VRIESAND PIERREBIKAI [AJA97 tery. Phase 4 was a Late Iron II pit (seventh/sixth The aim to reconstructcrop husbandrypractices in centuriesB.C.). Severalbone spatulas,a bone pendant ancient Tell Iktanu and Tell al-Hammam made it shaped like a hammer, and a ceramic figurine head necessaryto monitor the present-daysegetal, ruderal, of a horse came from this pit. Phase 5 was an Iron II and pasturelandflora in the area. destruction/abandonmentphase. Phase 6 contained Most astonishing is the fact that fields contain the upper portion of an Iron II wall (ninth/eighth hardly any weeds at all. In areas where dry field centuries B.C.), while phase 7 included the lower (all agriculture is practiced, weeds occur only in those pottery from the foundation trench was Iron I, but stony places within the fields where no cereals or we suspect it may ultimately date to Early Iron II- legumes were sown. Dominant weeds here are Ana- ninth century B.C.). Phase 8 was a series of ashy layers gallis arvensis,Filago pyramidate,Anthemis parviflora, containing Iron I sherds, including collared-rim Urospermumpicroides, Crepis cf. sancta, Centaureacf. storejarsand carinated bowls. Some LB pottery was hyalolepis,Hypecoum imberbe, Trigonella stellata, Emex also found in these layers. spinosa,Schismus cf. arabicus,and Lophochloacf. bery- Field B produced evidence of seven phases. Phase thea. Limiting factors for weed growth here are un- 1 was the topsoil and subsurface layers, and phase 2 doubtedly the lack of water and the very effective consisted of graves from the same period as those in alternateplowing and grazingsystem widely practiced field A. Phase 3 contained abandonment/destruction in Jordan (the drab-bur system, W. Lancaster, per- debris dating to the middle of Iron II (eighth century sonal communication). B.C.). Phase 4 was an extensive Iron II pavement All these species also occur (in somewhat different consisting of large flagstones. It extends upslope at a frequency) on the surrounding hills, where seasonal north/northeast-south/southwestangle and appears grazing is practiced. In addition, south-facing slopes to be part of a paved approach to a city gate. Parallels are rich in Asphodelustenuifolius, Matthiola parviflora, can be found to the west at sites such as Tel Beersheba Salviahorminum and Lamarckiaaurea, while on north- and Tel Dan. A retaining wall for the ramp on its facing slopes Anemonecoronaria, Chaetosciadium tri- western side (upslope) was found. Phase 5 comprised chospermumand Herniariahirsuta are dominant. another abandonment/destructionlayer from earlier On the alluvium, fields are so densely sown with Iron II (probablythe ninth century B.C.). Phase 6 was cereals that weeds seem to have no chance. On these a second paved approach, possiblyto an earlier gate. nutrient-richsoils nitrogen-loving plants like Cheno- It dated from EarlyIron II (earlyninth centuryB.C.). podiummurale, Sonchus oleraceus, Eruca sativa, Malva Phase 7 included ash lenses identical to those found parviflora,Sinapis arvenis and Diplotaxiserucifolius are in field A. The lenses ran under the lower and earlier dominant on waste ground. pavement and contained Iron I and LBA sherds, Ethnoarchaeological work was pursued during includingcollared-rim storejars, carinated bowls, and April, with the assistance of A. McQuitty, Oxford, conicalvessels. The presence of identicalash layers in who carried out a brief survey of the vernacularar- both fields suggests a massive destruction sometime chitecture in the nearby village of Rawda. The con- during the Late Iron I period, but no definite occu- struction techniques of simple rectangularhouses in pationallevels from this city have yet been detected. traditional styles, using locally available materials, Tell Iktanu. Kay Prag, Manchester,reports: have been superseded in the town by the building of Two brief field seasons in the vicinity of Iktanu in concrete structures.A number of traditional houses the south Jordan Valley were completed in March that have been abandoned in recent years were re- and April 1992, under the auspices of the BIAAH. corded, including details of their collapse patterns. The preceding cold and wet winter produced ideal Several different traditions were indicated. Demo- conditions for a survey of the flora in the vicinity of graphicand dynamic trends, based on statistics,town the the site, including adjacent Wadi Hisban, Wadi planning and air photographs, including the enclo- and Kafrain, Wadi Shu'aib, a varied geographical sure of yards, the development of roads, and the zone representative of the modern economic catch- tendency for older mudbrickhouses to be abandoned ment area. The relates to survey the analysis of the or reused as stables for donkeys, cattle, and goats, plant remains retrieved from soil samples collected were also brieflyrecorded. The sudden establishment during the 1987-1990 excavation seasons at Iktanu and rapid growth of Rawda and other unfortified and Hammam. U. Thanheiser (palaeobotanist)and J. villages in the vicinityof Iktanu offers rich sources of Walter (botanist),Vienna, who conducted the survey, comparativestudy for the late third-millenniumvil- report as follows: lage at Iktanu. 1993] ARCHAEOLOGYIN JORDAN 477

Fig. 13. Tell Abu al-Kharaz.Area 2/1991. EarlyBronze Age II destructionlayer. Tell Abu al-Kharaz. Peter M. Fischer, Goteborg different phases of the LB period. The dimensionsof University,Sweden, reports: the uppermost wall (W 9) may point to a function Tell Abu al-Kharazis situated north of WadiYabis other than merely the wall of a building, perhaps an and about 4 km east of the Jordan River.According upper town wall. It was tentativelydated to the tran- to the Palestine Grid Coordinate System the coordi- sition between LB I and II. The lower wall (W 19) nates of the summit are, to an accuracyof ca. 100 m, was probablythe corner of a building, and together 206.2 E and 200.6 N. Two seasons of excavation in with the opposite corner of another building to the 1989 and 1991 have been completed by the Swedish south it can be dated within LB I. Within area 2 Jordan Expedition. (possibly outside a contemporary town wall) was a Although a series of surface surveyshad been pre- large room (room 5) with a variety of fine pottery, viously carried out, the trial soundings of 1989, the includinga standwith four rectangularwindows. Ves- first at Tell Abu al-Kharaz,established to a certain sels with monochromeor bichromedecorations often extent the chronologicalsequences in two areas (area in the metope stylewere uncovered.Cypriot imported 1, upper part of the tell, and area 2, lower part). wares consisted of a complete White Slip II "milk" Early BronzeAge. Mudbrickwalls on stone foun- bowl, with a possibleKalavasos provenance, and Base dations were exposed in both areas. EB I/II pottery Ring I ware. Room 5 seems to have had a sacral is well representedin all strata.Stratified pottery from function.A probabledate is the very beginning of LB both areas consisted of mainly the Grain-wash/Band- II. Chocolate-on-Whiteware was the most frequently slip ware and burnished and net-paintedwares. found ware in the following stratum,which does not Middle Bronze Age. No architecturalremains but contain any interpretablearchitectural features. An unstratifiedsherds could be ascribedto MB I (possibly LB I date is plausible. transitionalEB IV/MB I) and II. IronAge. The soundingsin the southwestcorner of LateBronze Age. Massivestone constructionsin area the upper part of the tell (area 1) exposed a wall (W 1 and a large room in area 2 belong to the LBA. In 4), which may have encircled the entire upper tell. area 1 two wallswith diverging orientationsbelong to The date of the wall has been proven to be the end 478 BERTDE VRIESAND PIERREBIKAI [AJA97 of the Iron Age II period. In connection with the Tell Jawa. P.M. Michele Daviau, Wilfrid Laurier above wall several rooms containing objects of daily University,reports: life were found. A blue faience scarabhas been shown In 1992, the third season of excavationat Tell Jawa to be from Naukratis, Egypt. No structures could, produced a new understandingof the Iron Age case- with any certainty,be ascribedto the beginning of the mate wall system and an outstanding collection of Iron Age, although some loose sherds may derive painted Umayyad pottery. Six weeks of fieldwork, from this period. under the direction of P.M. Michele Daviau, took The 1991 excavations at Tell Abu al-Kharazcon- place from 19 June to 28 July. The excavations,pre- ducted on the lower western part of the tell (area 2) viouslyaffiliated with the MadabaPlains Project, were confirmed the results from the 1989 trial soundings. sponsored by Wilfrid Laurier Universityand funded Additional finds from the Chalcolithicand Late Ro- by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities man period were made but no MBA features were ResearchCouncil of Canada. found. The tell, located 10 km south of Amman, was oc- ChalcolithicPeriod. The period is represented by cupied periodicallyfrom the Middle Bronze Age to stray sherds but no architecturalremains so far. the Early Islamic period. During the 1992 season, EarlyBronze Age. The well-stratifiedsettlement lay- investigationcentered on the Iron Age casemate wall ers make different periods distinguishable.The EB system that is visible at ground level. The wall was II period is represented by the bulk of findings ex- sampled in four areas on the south (fields B, C), west cavated during the 1991 campaign. Squatteroccupa- (field B), and north sides (field E) of the tell. While tions cover an ashy, thick destruction layer (fig. 13), three well-preservedcasemate rooms were exposed both dated within EB II. Within the destructionlayer in fields B south, C west, and E, there was no evidence a rich repertoireof vessels was excavatedin a number for a room on the west side. Instead, the outer wall of storeroomsbordered by mudbrickwalls with stone was strengthened by a tower that was built of un- foundations. Many of the walls were carefully plas- usually large boulders and plastered on all sides. Be- tered. Approximately 1 m3 of grain was found both tween the towerand the west wall, 28 iron arrowheads in situ within storage vessels and in a wooden con- were found embedded in earthen layers underneath tainer. There is no break between this and the pre- the wall collapse. Unfortunately,it was not possibleto ceding EB I period. The distinctionbetween the two determine whether the points were those of the de- periods is based on the presence of different Abydos fenders of the town or of its enemy because no con- shapes including the MetallicBurnished ware in the necting wall has yet been found that would establish latter period. The Band-slip and Grain-washwares the relationshipof these structuresto each other. were found in both periods and could consequently A similar situation existed on the south where a not be used as indicatorsof the former period. second tower was located beyond the limits of the Late BronzeAge. The temple from the very begin- casemate system. This second tower consisted of two ning of LB IIA was further excavated.The repertoire units; the outer unit was a buttresstwo rows thick and of the excavated pottery from 1991 does not change preserved to five courses high, which leaned against the preliminarydating done in 1989. The preceding the tower, while the foundation of the tower proper LB I period is well represented by pottery but only was also two rows thick and 15.3 m long. Both units by scanty architecturalremains. An ash layer mani- were plasteredon their outer faces. fests the end of LB I. Between the south tower and the casematewall was Iron Age. Eight subphases were found stretching a well-builtfour-room house with at least one row of from the transition of Iron Age IIB/C throughout limestone pillarsthat supported the roof. High-status IIC. The number of subphases points to an intensive artifactsand black-burnishedceramic vessels, recov- occupation. The architectural remains include two ered from the flagstone floor of the southernmost waterchannels, an outflowand a channel for the water parallelroom, constituted a food preparationassem- supply, which leads to a possible cistern lower down blage. In front of the house was an entryway that the slope. contained a stone-carvedbasin with a drain hole. The LateRoman. This two-phasedperiod is represented precise function of the basin is uncertain because of by scattered walls and typical pottery. It seems that the limits of excavation. the area was occupied by squatters. A second domestic area located inside the fortifi- During the next season we plan to open an area on cationson the north (field E) was exposed in a limited the upper part of the tell west of the summit in order area. Here a room contained a shelf/benchset parallel to establishthe chronologicalsequences there. to the inner casemate wall. On the shelf was a very 1993] ARCHAEOLOGY IN JORDAN 479 fine collection of Middle Iron Age II ceramic vessels and ground stone tools. Some of these tools were almost miniature while others were full size. The broken base of a pillar figurine was among the finds. Outside the fortificationsystem was a complete roof- roller apparently fallen from the casemate room above. The roller was embedded in the plaster glacis that sloped away from the wall. The date of the final Iron Age occupation at Tell Jawa,whose ancient name remainsunknown, can only be determined by additional study of the ceramic corpus. While an initial study suggested the end of the ninth century B.C. as a likely chronologicalposi- tion for the red-slipped bowlsandjuglets and the bag- OVW--Odl shaped storejars, additional exposure this season of the four-room house produced a large amount of 4%hlm.- black-burnishedpottery, which has been thought to w date to the seventh century B.C. Included within this Iron Age matrix was a fine example of a Thutmosis 5cm III scarabrecovered among the stones of the casemate wall. Fig. 15. Tell Jawa. Late Umayyad-EarlyAbbasid lamp from Additional work in the Late Byzantine-Early Is- fieldD. lamic building (field D) revealed a basement-level room with a cooking area, considerable painted pottery, bones, charcoal, and smashed glass vessels. In a eral lamps with grape leaf and cluster design appear neighboring room, over 500 tesserae were recovered to date to the Late Umayyador EarlyAbbasid period probably from a destroyed floor. In modern times, (fig. 15). These lamps correlate well with the un- both rooms had been filled with terra rosa soil to the slipped, red-painted sherds recovered in large num- level of the upper thresholds. In a third room, the ber. In fact, the finds from this building seem to collapsed vaulting stones were still in place. The plan suggest usage over a considerableperiod of time dur- of the building continues to suggest a courtyard or ing the seventh-eighth centuries A.C. atrium-style house surrounded by rooms on three Khilda, Amman. Mohammad Najjar, DAJ, re- sides. In order to complete the plan of this building, ports: additionalexcavation will continue next season. Architecture.The small complex consists of two The most unusual find from the field D building joined structures:one circularand 10 m in diameter, wasan Umayyadostracon (fig. 14) that bore an incised the other square, 10 x 10 m (fig. 16). Each structure prayer for forgiveness from Ahmed bin Muqled.Sev- has a central hall with four rooms of different sizes and heights up to 3 m. The rooms were partitioned by thin walls extending from the external walls. The rooms have doorwaysmade of roughly cut stone. The complex has been entirely exposed, and it is clear that it consisted of at least two stories. The level of the upper story was marked by a number of stones corbeled from the walls. The corbels were intended to support limestone slabs, a very common technique in Jordan during the Roman period. The construction technique consisted of blocks laid in rough courses. To make them even, smaller stones were used in between. Lumps of plaster were found inside the circularstructure, which may indicatethat the interior of the external wall was plastered. Exposed to the - - -~ 5cm bedrock from the outside, the lower two courses of the external wall revealed well-preserved plaster in Fig. 14. Tell Jawa. Early Umayyadostracon. situ. No evidence of foundation trenches could be 480 BERT DE VRIES AND PIERRE BIKAI [AJA97

Fig. 16. Khilda.Sketch of architecture.

detected for either the square or the adjacentround The building material seems to have come from the structureindicating that both were set on bedrock. immediate vicinity. It is commonly limestone, but flint The central hall of the square building was defi- blocks are also present. nitely used for storage in view of the large amount of History of Occupation. The 1992 excavations of storage pottery found. Although there need not be a Khilda have shown that it was first occupied in the fixed relationship between architecturallayout and seventh century B.C. This phase of occupation was function, it is of interest to note that the thicknessof attested by a cave, and many shallow pits and channels the walls exceeded 1 m in many cases. This fact may cut in the bedrock, but no traces of building activity indicate that storage was not the sole function. Most were found. During the second phase of occupation, probably, farmers used the structures primarily for which was dated to the seventh-sixth centuries B.C., storage and for refuge in times of danger. the circular and square buildings were built. Later in 1993] ARCHAEOLOGYIN JORDAN 481 this phase, some of the entrances to the rooms were Beside this entrance a small tabun (oven) was found. blocked, and small storage rooms were added. There were only a few objects in this room: loom- The last phase of occupation was Roman and is weights, one kohl-stick,and a possible phallic symbol. represented by a big pit filled with debris. The debris In the "kitchen,"which lies north of the "reception comprised a mixture of very loose or lightly packed room,"loomweights, spindle whorls,sherds of storage brown soil that had fallen around pieces of chert and jars and kraters,as well as a bin and a tabun indicate limestone of varying sizes. The bottom of the pit was that this room was primarilyused as a working area. severelyburnt, but the fire did not reach the bedrock, A flat stone table and a triangularlyshaped weight of which was covered by a 1 m layer of soil revealing 7.5 kg with a hole may hint at an olive press installa- pure Iron Age II pottery. tion. A door leads from this room into the courtyard El-Balu'. Udo Worschech,Darmstadt, reports: or into another room north of the court. The site of el-Balu' is located south of the Wadi el- In room 3 two large grinding stones were found. Mujiband about 5 km east ofJebel Shihan, which is But this room also contained sherds of the finer Moa- the highest elevation in the Ard el-Kerak of Central bite and Samarianwares. Room 3 could be entered Jordan. The excavation at el-Balu' owes its impor- through a door whose lintel is still in situ. From the tance to the fact that it is the largest Iron Age ruin in smallerobjects found here (a bracelet,two small mor- Central Jordan, covering almost all the periods of tars for the preparation of cosmetics, a spatula) it occupation from the Early Bronze to Mamluktimes. appearsthat this may have been the women'squarter. With the exception of the EB and MB periods, how- The northern defense wall of el-Balu' can be fol- ever, as well as the Iron Age occupationwhen the city lowed westwardfrom the house complex. Although was at its prime, the Classicalepochs are poorly rep- this casemate wall has not been excavated entirely its resented at el-Balu'. Evidenceof this only comes from dimensionsare impressive.Especially the easternstor- pottery,especially in the southwesternquarters of the age area is worthy of note because here the casemate hirbe,where there are also the remains of the large room seems to have been used to house big storage Mamluk village that was called Shihan by medieval jars and kraters. An abundance of sherds has come Arab travelers. to light, but unfortunately no complete vessel. This A surface survey of el-Balu' in 1986 revealed that room was destroyedby fire as shown by the thick layer the older part of the city is the area immediatelyeast of ashy debris on the floor. and west of the impressiveqasr, which may have seen Of special interest is the find of three collared-rim some rebuilding activitiesin Nabataeanor Early Ro- jars in the debris. Since this type of jar is thought to man times. Here also Late Bronze and EarlyIron Age have originated in western Palestine and spread into sherds were picked up. The city had a defense wall the Ammonite territoryas far as Sahab, it is remark- of the casematetype with a small gate towardthe east. able that this type of jar also appeared south of the During the Iron IA-B period the city limits were Wadi el-Mujib,and in an Iron II context. extended eastwardand another defense wallwas built In 1986 and 1987 a wallwas uncovered that extends that enlarged the city by about 200 m. The entire from below the inner-citywall to the eastern quarters east-west extension of the city was about 450-500 m of the Iron IIC extension of el-Balu'. This wall has in the Iron II period. been excavatedto a length of 10 m. In the area north In area C1 there is an "Assyro-Babyloniancourt- of the wall, however, a substantialamount of sherds yard-house."The pottery found in the hitherto ex- (Iron I-IIC), several lamp fragments, grinders and cavated rooms (rooms 1-4) is of the Iron IIB-C mortars, and a t-m-l-k inscription on the rim of a period, thus linking the house type with the Assyrian mortar (for cosmetics?)have come to light. Unfortu- or Babylonianpresence in Palestine in the eighth to nately, only half of the mortar has been found. The sixth centuries B.C. inscription cannot be reconstructed entirely. It has In the so-called "receptionhall" a bulla was found been suggested that the wall and the room to the west with the motif of a man-eating lion. On the back of are part of a forum- or market-likearea since there the lion there are Egyptian hieroglyphics reading are no traceablewall lines in the near vicinity.Market mn-k'-r' (Menkare), the name of a pharaoh of the areas like these in front of city walls and gates were IVth Dynasty. This name became popular again be- not uncommon in ancient times. This observation is tween 750 and 525 B.C. as can be demonstrated by further substantiatedby the gateway,leading into the bullae from Phoeniciaand Egypt. The room in which older part of the city. this bulla has been found is about 8 m long and about Area AI (the farmhouse) is located west of the qasr 4 m wide. A door leads into the unexcavated court. of el-Balu'. Here the same situationhas been encoun- 482 BERT DE VRIES AND PIERRE BIKAI [AJA 97

rn-----. Feifa. Nancy Lapp, Pittsburgh Theological Semi- nary, reports: The surveys of Rast and Schaub (1974), Glueck (1935), and MacDonald (1987) in the southern Ghor area of the Dead Sea Plain indicated occupation of Feifa during the Early Bronze, Iron, and Roman periods. Besides the numerous sherds picked up in the area, a wall around the natural hillock can be traced, including a tower and ramp or roadway to an entrance on the north. In the final season of the present series of excavations of the Expedition to the Dead Sea Plain (1990- 1991), the walled site of Feifa was investigated and the EB cemetery that stretched to its east was excavated. The most recent surveys suggested that the visible structures of the walled site belonged to the Iron Age or Roman period. It was hoped that a small sounding could date the encompassing wall and determine the nature of the town settlement. An area was chosen near the southeast corner of the town wall. The Roman and even Byzantine occupation seemed to be concentrated toward the west Fig. 17. Feifa. Typical Iron II jug rims and handles from where there are remnants of the tower; on the east, Feifa (above),similar in form to the from complete example earlier occupation might be indicated fairly near the Tell el-Kheleifeh (below). surface. Two-meter wide squares were excavated to varying levels from 3 m west of the wall to 4 m east tered as in areas CI-III: the walls of the building of it. complexes are still standing to a height of about 1.80 The principal feature in the 2 m wide trench was m. Basalt stones filled the rooms. There is no stratig- the perimeter town wall, plastered on the exterior. raphy in the accumulatedsand fill. Rock tumble was present everywhere on the surface The excavated complex was part of a farmhouse. along with mudbrick debris to a depth of about 1.25 One room, two chambers, and the courtyard repre- m. The surface layers contained Iron II pottery and sent the most recent occupational stratum. In the a few Roman and Byzantine sherds. The latest pottery large room (about 16 m2), the east wall of which is in in the brick and sandy layers below, some silt layers the balk, no specific objects have been found that outside the wall, and brick-like material inside the would allow determinationof function. In the court- town wall date to Iron II. At about 1.60 m below the yard area, however, the v-shaped enclosure was ap- surface, fairly flat levels with a few diagnostic Iron II parently for keeping goats and sheep during the sherds were reached on both sides of the town wall. night. A tabun was located in the yard where two There is little doubt that the wall was constructed chamberswere also built adjacentto the north wall of during the Iron Age, probably the seventh century the house. The chamber to the east contained many B.C. (see below). work stones, one grinder, and one trough. The cham- Early Bronze sherds had begun to appear in the ber to the west was empty. It could have served as a upper levels as excavation continued below the storage area. packed levels. Although no more Iron II pottery ap- In conclusion, it can be said that the verdict that peared, EB sherds, some from domestic wares were W.F. Crowfoot passed upon the site of el-Balu' in also uncovered. Parts of three EB tombs appeared in 1933-"for future excavations Balu'ah does not ap- the small excavated area. Further excavation might pear to the writer to be attractive... the prospectsof also indicate Early Bronze domestic structures. important finds are not obviously promising"-cer- Although the area excavated is small, about 40 tainly does not hold true and has already been dis- diagnostic Iron II sherds make it possible to give a proved. It is hoped that excavations adding to our tentative date to the Iron Age occupation and town knowledgeof the Iron Age period in ancient Moabitis wall. These sherds show strong affinity to the other can be continued at el-Balu' in the near future. excavated Iron II sites of Edom, Buseirah, Tawilan, 1993] ARCHAEOLOGYIN JORDAN 483

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Fig. 18. Kh.Mu'allaq. The ruinfield with the mountainssouth of Petrain background. and Um el-Biyara, all of which have been dated by of Nabataeanpottery in Munich and Nuremberg, a inscriptionsand parallelmaterial to primarilythe sev- primer for subsequentexhibitions all over the world. enth and early sixth centuriesB.C. The most common Since 1973 Germanand Austrianteams of the Natur- form, and the most helpful chronologically,comes historischeGesellschaft have explored and excavated from a jug now known in southern Transjordan(fig. in the Petra region. The results have been published 17). The rim is sometimesdescribed as "rectangular." in several books and in ADAJ and other journals. It is thickened and slightly grooved on the outside, Among the salient discoveries were two Iron II rather similar in form to the typical Late Iron II (Edomite) sites (Ba'ja, Umm el-Ala), three Early cooking pot. From the rim the neck is rather straight Bronze sites (Sabra 5, Sabra N/Ras Dakhilallah,es- and only slightly outsloping. The flattened handle Sadeh), and a Nabataean temple site (Sahir al-Bag- goes from the rim to the shoulder.A wholejug of this gar).Several Nabataean-Roman sites were more thor- type is publishedfrom Tell el-Kheleifeh.This was the oughly examined (Abu Khusheiba,es-Sadeh, ed-Deir, most common "jar"form at Kheleifeh, and most ex- Sabra).Eventually, the Atargatis eye idol, originally amples have a Qaws'analstamp on the handle. describedand sketchedby J. Euting,was rediscovered The small sounding witnesses the first known in the Siyagh gorge of Petra. Edomite settlement in the southern Ghor. It shows Two archaeologicalprojects are underwayat pres- importantlinks with larger Edomite towns and prob- ent. First,the continuedexcavation of dwellinghouses ably indicates some direct communicationwith Khel- and shaft tombs below the Urn Tomb in Petra to- eifeh on the Gulf of 'Aqaba. gether with a new assessment of the architectural Petra, Kh. Mu'allaq. Manfred Lindner,Naturhis- remains of temples in the ancient city and at Sabra torischeGesellschaft, Nuremberg, reports: under the direction of J.P. Zeitler; second, a survey The archaeologicalwork of the Naturhistorische at the esh-Sheraescarpment with a limited excavation Gesellschaftstarted in Jordan in 1970 with exhibitions in the ruin field of Kh. Mu'allaqbetween Wadi Musa '. 1~

484 BERT DE VRIES AND PIERRE BIKAI [AJA 97

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Fig. 19. Kh. Mu'allaq.Fragments of plattersfrom area A. and et-Taiyiba (fig. 18). There, Lindner found Iron will be able to bring to our attention similar finds from II (Edomite) pottery and examples of a ware that elsewhere in Jordan. somewhat resembles Early Bronze material but is ob- Tell el-Fukhar. John Strange, University of Co- viously of a later origin (figs. 19-20). Because no exact penhagen, reports: parallels are yet known, it is preliminarily called The Scandinavian Expedition to Tell el-Fukhar in "Mu'allaq ware." It is hoped that one of AJA's readers the Wadi esh-Shellale carried out its third season from

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Fig. 20. Kh. Mu'allaq.Cooking pot from area A. 1993] ARCHAEOLOGY IN JORDAN 485 dump gate

dump

Fig. 21. Tell el-Fukhar.Provisional plan of Hellenisticvilla. Not to scale.

25 July to 24 August 1992. A Danish team under the flat stones. The walls were heavily robbed, probably direction of John Strange concentrated their work in in the Early Roman period, and disturbed by later areas C and D at the top of the tell, where part of a Muslim burials and had to a large extent to be recon- Hellenistic villa had been uncovered together with structed from the robbers' trenches. The existence of some parallel walls. Numerous Hellenistic imported a probable Persian-Hellenistic wall around the top of ceramic vessels, primarily dinnerware (e.g., plates, the tell, encircling approximately 10 dunams, and platters, and jugs), together with a silver tetradrachm Hellenistic walls in other trenches, uncovered earlier, of Ptolemy III Euergetes (246-211 B.C.), date the suggests that more Hellenistic buildings remain to be building to the late third century B.C. discovered. An important find is the coexistence of The main object of this year's campaign was to find Iron IIC pottery together with imported Hellenistic the connection between the walls and the villa. Based pottery in the same stratum. This association indicates on the existing walls, Patrick E. McGovern, the pottery the need to revise the dates for at least a number of specialist of the team, suggested that we would find a Iron IIC types. square structure of approximately 22 m2, with 4 m A deep sounding confirmed the major phases of and 6 m wide rooms around a courtyard. In effect occupation revealed in the previous seasons: Early the building at the end of the dig turned out to Bronze, Late Bronze/Early Iron, Persian (silos), and measure 22 x 23 m and has 14 rooms around a Hellenistic periods. A particularly noteworthy find in courtyard. As may be seen on the plan (fig. 21), the the LB levels was part of a crucible containing iron building is not quite regular at its northwestern part. metallurgical debris, probably from refining the This is probably because the builders in this part of metal. The crucible was found in connection with a the building took advantage of earlier walls from the fine ashlar and boulder wall in the makeup for a thick Persian period, which are slightly askew to the other plaster floor, possibly a courtyard of a temple or pal- walls in the building. In the eastern part of the build- ace. The find has important implications for placing ing a number of floors made of cobbled stones with a the beginnings of iron/steel metallurgy in Transjor- clay surface were found, and one room even with fine dan among the earliest iron industries in the world. 486 BERT DE VRIES AND PIERRE BIKAI [AJA 97

Fig. 22. Gadara.Monumental Gate from the west, 1991.

Fig. 23. Gadara.Western gate and foundationsof demolishedtomb buildingsfrom the west, 1991. 1993] ARCHAEOLOGYIN JORDAN 487

Above the wall there was a destruction layer 1.5 m thick with fallen mudbrick walls and carbonized roof beams from the Late Bronze/Early Iron transitional period, a time of major upheaval in the Near East.

HELLENISTIC, ROMAN, MEDIEVAL Umm Qeis/Gadara. Adolf Hoffmann, Deutsches Archaologisches Institut, Berlin, reports: Four seasons of excavation at the Monumental Gate (fig. 22) extra muros of Gadara (modern Umm Qeis) were completed in 1991. The building is preserved to a maximum height of nearly 4 m. Unfortunately, due to its poor building technique the gate is in rather bad shape. Nevertheless, a large number of building blocks of basalt (mainly for the walls) and limestone (mainly for the decorated parts) enable a hypothetical reconstruction. The central part of this triple-arched monument follows the type of Roman triumphal arches with facades of colossal columns on high ped- estals. It was flanked by semicircular towers protrud- ing on the outer side. On the other hand, it is evident that no adjoining city wall existed. Thus the Monu- mental Gate had the character of a fortification building, although it had no defensive function. The gate may be dated to the beginning of the third century A.C. on the basis of stylistic analysis of the decorative components (e.g., the Corinthian capitals). No inscription has been found. Fig. 24. Gadara. Qanawatal-Phara'oun, the water supply A few remnants of a road that the paved passes system. Monumental Gate and links the town with the Jordan Valley can be discerned. Along this road, between the main colonnade of Gadara running east-west was the Monumental Gate and the city's western gate, the backbone of this development (and is still used for remains of a hippodrome are visible. Actually, only modern traffic). two layers of the substructure walls of its northern Excavations on the southern slope of the city's acrop- tribune are preserved. It seems that this building was olis carried out in 1989 revealed a big dump area never finished since the construction of its southern outside the city wall dating to the Late Hellenistic tribune was never started. The foundation walls at its period. eastern part, however, point to a plan similar to that Susanne Kerner, German Protestant Institute for of the hippodrome at Gerasa. Archaeology, Amman, reports further on Umm Qeis/ Further investigations were carried out at the west- Gadara: ern gate (fig. 23) of Gadara. Here various tomb build- The excavation work was planned to reveal parts ings existed but only their foundation walls have been of the urban structure of Gadara, especially the do- preserved, since they had been demolished for the mestic quarters of the earlier periods of the city and construction of the gate. The latter was a simple build- the water system. Permission for fieldwork was kindly ing of basalt with square towers and a narrow gateway, granted by the DAJ. which probably once stood as a freestanding building The Qanawat al-Phar'oun, the water supply system too. Later, a city wall of limestone ashlar was attached for the area, had been found in 1989 by Weber and to it. The three gate buildings excavated to date (the was briefly discussed in last year's newsletter (AJA 96 third-the "Tiberias-Gate" of the first century A.C.- [1992] 536). In 1992 the eastern end of the tunnel was excavated during the last few years by T. Weber was cleaned and further excavation to the east con- of the German Protestant Institute for Archaeology, ducted. At this point the natural hill slopes down and Amman) give a good impression of the city's gradual the tunnel changes into an open channel, cut out of enlargement in the Roman Imperial period. The the bedrock. The open channel continues for 15 m 488 BERTDE VRIESAND PIERREBIKAI [AJA 97 toward the east, cut into the bedrock and sometimes Abundant pottery, glass, some marble fragments, supported and repaired by walls (fig. 24). It is not yet and terracottas were found in area XLIV. All the clear where the tunnel leads and what its shape is buildingsfound so far are oriented in accordancewith after the end of the hill. This will be clarified in the the street system, although we are at the edge of next campaign. The eastern entrance to the tunnel is ancient Gadaraand cannot yet link them directlywith completely man-made. The tunnel crosses through a the road pattern. naturalcave and the wallsand floor are built of stones Abila. W. Harold Mare, Covenant Theological and concrete. The concrete plaster along the natural Seminary,reports: bedrockcontinues for ca. 50 m to the west. The whole The seventh season of excavation at Abila of the tunnel was surveyedand intensivelyinvestigated. The Decapolis (modern Quailibah), in northern Jordan, westernend is also an outlet of the tunnel at the slope was conducted from 14June to 1 August 1992, under of the natural hill. A carefully hewn entrance with a the direction of W. Harold Mare, and with the gra- little tunnel at the bottom of the qanawdtwas revealed. cious permission and assistanceof the DAJ and Saf- The system of water distribution from the qanawdt wan Tell, Director-General.Mare was joined in the toward the city needs further clarification,because it excavation by an American staff of 30 and a hired was hidden under a modern building. The water crew of 45 local workmen. tunnel was probably not finished, because the floor The staff conducted excavation on all parts of the was not leveled and the walls and floor were not site (ca. one mile long and half a mile wide)-on the sufficientlyprepared to retain water.While a crossing north and south tells, in the saddle depression be- channel is completely plastered and has even a small tween the two tells, and in the extensive cemetery conduit in the middle, the main channel shows no located along the slopes of the Wadi Quailibah (fig. sign of these. The finds in the qanawdtinclude a great 25). The main objectives for the season were 1) to deal of pottery (some of it very well made, such as salvage tomb materials;and 2) to study cultural ma- West-slopeware and pieces of Megarianbowls), glass, terials found on various parts of the site. and amphora handles, which makes it probable that The North Tell: Tell Abila. On Tell Abila, we con- the systemwas constructedduring the Romanperiod. centrated on the sixth-century A.C. basilica located The excavations in the town itself were at the city on the acropolisand on the deep trenches to the east wall (area XL) and in the domestic quarters (area and north of the basilica.In the sixth-centurybasilica XLIV). In area XL we have worked since 1989 slightly (area A) new squares (A37-A45) were opened in the north of a Hellenistic rubbish dump from the third atrium to the west of the basilica'smonumental stair- or second century B.C. The old city wall is at the edge way;excavation in a numberof these squaresexposed of the acropolishill at that point and was heavilyused additional areas of mosaic floors of red, black, and by the Ottoman villagers as the foundation for their white in diamond motif and crosses in the center. In buildings. A building was excavated, which is more the west sector of the atrium the mosaic was cut probablya tower of the city wall, although the con- through, seemingly for building of additional walls nection with the wall is not yet clear because the tower and other structures.In the midst of some secondary has been robbed out in later times on two sides. The wallsbuilt on the mosaicfloor (A39) a whole Byzantine excavatedparts of the tower now stand to a height of jar and a whole Byzantine glass juglet were found. 3 m, six stones deep, but the foundations have not yet Out near the west edge of the acropolisother second- been reached. On the surface around the tower are ary walls were probed, but there was no evidence frequent signs of use in later times. The finds in the found of a monumentalstairway leading to the atrium area include pottery (Hellenistic-Roman),glass, some nor any evidence pointing to a connection between terracottas,and a few coins. the atriumand the cardo maximus,which ran north- Area XLIV starts at a section cut by the modern south along the west edge of the tell. The fact that road into the old settlement at the bottom of the there were no opus sectile floors found in the atrium acropolis. A large terrace wall (4 m high and 10 m led to the conclusion that opus sectile floors were long) was revealed, which seems to have been the back reserved in both this basilicaand the area D basilica wall of some rooms in an early phase. These rooms on the south tell for the nave and side aisles, and that have walls (partlystone walls, partly cut into the bed- floor mosaics were reserved for auxiliary rooms, the rock)that were plasteredand painted (sometimeswith porch/narthexand the atrium. Probing at the acrop- ornamentalmotifs). In one of these walls an opening olis wall (areaA46) to the south of the atriumrevealed to draw water from a large cistern underneath the that this wall was comparablein size to the segment building had been installed. The cistern is 17 x 6 m on the north of the tell (the area F wall, excavated in and partly plastered to hold the water. 1988 and 1990); this A46 wall was 1.80 m wide and, 1993] ARCHAEOLOGY IN JORDAN 489

? \ \ \

i I AREA I UMM 'EL .: At , AMAD Siyh Century R,aJi)i AREA D SuYn.gh Fentury TEL ABILA AREA Basilica AA Test Trench

PROPOSED PLAN OF ANCIENT ABILA

DERIVED 'FROM SURVEYS AND EXCAVATIONS, Basilica 1980 - 1990

Feld Sketch: W.H. Mare Map Making: H.G. Stiqers OCT., is*O

L Fig. 25. Abila. Plan based on work from 1980 to 1990.

in preliminary estimate, 5 m high, the same dimen- (we now have domestic architecture in EB I and IV). sions as the north wall. In addition to the limestone North of the EB wall in AA1, further probing pro- bases, column drums, and capitals already found in duced an MBA domestic floor surface with a second- the area A basilica, an additional number of basalt phase mudbrick layer, and a white crushed limestone bases and capitalswere unearthed in 1992, suggesting surface (with large quantities of EB IV pottery) below that the north and south stylobatessupported rows of the mudbrick floor, indicating a third phase of occu- alternating limestone and basalt columns, similar in pation. Farther to the east in area AA, the Byzantine arrangement to the rows of columns in the Umm el- water channel in AA8 was abruptly interrupted by 'Amadarea D basilicaon the south tell. installations from four phases of Byzantine occupa- Excavationin area AA, east and north of the area tion. A basilica, produced continued evidence of earlier The Saddle Depression and Areas B, C, and E. At the Roman, Hellenistic, Iron Age, and Bronze Age pot- theater cavea (area B), located on the northeast slope tery and building structures. In the area AA1 deep of the south tell, Umm el-Amad, the 1992 excavation probe (12 m deep), pure EB I material was found, uncovered more evidence of Roman and Byzantine and a domestic living area was encountered ca. 7 m occupation and of the extensive Umayyad building beneath the surface to complete the EB I-IV sequence that also had later Abassid and Ayyubid/Mamluk 490 BERT DE VRIES AND PIERRE BIKAI [AJA 97

Fig. 26. Dohaleh. Portionof church floor with mosaic. reuse. At the western edge of the Umayyadbuilding face water channel indicated that it extended south we uncovered a finely cut corner stairwayfor which to the corner of the bath/nymphaeum and then there is at present no architecturalcontext. Just to the turned east and continued along the south of the north of the Umayyad building, excavation at the structureuntil it emptied through a sluice into large Byzantine street, which was extensively explored in vaultsthere; the presence of sluices opening into the 1990, showed that it continues northwest at its west south face of one of these vaults suggests that these end and then proceeds north across the terraced were orificesthrough which water from the Umm el- depression to meet the east-west decumanus, which 'Amadunderground aqueducts and other auxiliary ran along the south foot of Tell Abila. At its east aqueductsemptied into the vaults. Probingalong the excavated end, near the earlier Roman road/plaza east wall of the bath/nymphaeumrevealed a complex over which the Byzantinebasalt street runs, the street of walls,and also a domed underground vault. makesa 50? left turn at the corner of the Romanwall In 1992 we excavatedmore of the ruins of the large and column that border the east side of the earlier Christianbasilica in area E, which incorporatedbasalt Roman street/plaza.In light of this new evidence we columns and Ionic capitals in its construction. Pier projectthat the Byzantinestreet continues to run east column drums and two Ionic capitals had been un- of the theater cavea along the foot of the small hill covered in 1990, and we uncovered several more of upon which the ruins of a small Christianchurch are each in 1992. We excavated the single apse on the to be seen. east and the foundation structure of the church's Further investigation of the Abila road system iconostasis.We also found a number of north and shows that the decumanus descends from the east south stylobate plinth blocks together with column slope of Wadi Quailibah,over the Roman bridge, on bases in situ in two rows on either side of the nave; past the north side of the area D basilica(there are this evidence indicates that the structure was a five- stubs of columns visible along the street here), and aisle basilica.We were able to excavate a significant continues along the foot of Tell Abila until it exits part of the east section of the church, and near the under the vault of the cardo maximus, which runs end of the 1992 season we erected all of the columns south from the acropolisof Tell Abilaon to the south and capitalsexcavated to date. tell, about 100 m west of the area D basilica(fig. 25). The South Tell: Umm el-Amad. In excavating the In area C, the bath/nymphaeumcomplex north of seventh-centuryA.C. basilicaon Umm el-'Amad(area the theater cavea, further investigationof the subsur- D), we continued to uncover the remains of the opus 1993] ARCHAEOLOGYIN JORDAN 491

Fig. 27. Dohaleh. Byzantinerock-cut tomb. sectile floor in the north aisle of the church and also the first ancient kiln to be found at Abila. The tombs found another threshold opening from the north into excavated were of the standard type, usually equipped this aisle and an additional threshold leading from with central chambers and radiating loculi; the graves the narthex on the west into this north aisle; all of the were shaft graves. evidence thus far shows that the basilica had three Dohaleh. Salih Kh. Sari, Institute of Archaeology entrances on the west and at least two each on the and Anthropology, Yarmouk University, reports: side aisles. Excavation across the modern dirt road to Dohaleh, an agricultural settlement, is located in the west of the porch and of the four monumental northern Jordan ca. 25 km southeast of the city Irbid columns did not bring to light any evidence of a and ca. 4 km to the west of the town of Nu'aymeh. A monumental stairway but did produce another series survey of the area by S. Mittmann in 1989 revealed of walls with an embedded Roman-Byzantine clay several features such as wells, burial caves, and archi- drainpipe and, on a lower level, another apse with a tectural remains on the western and eastern slopes of mosaic floor of geometric design and to the south of the site. This launched a long-term project directed it another section of mosaic of similar design. Exca- by Salih Sari and sponsored by Yarmouk University. vation outside the south wall of the Umm el-Amad Three campaigns have already been conducted in basilica produced a large mosaic floor of floral and cooperation with the DAJ since the summer of 1990. animal design. Near the end of the season, with the Although the area had been surveyed, the site of help of the DAJ crane, we were able to erect at the Dohaleh itself was not recognized until 1990. At pres- entrance of the porch of the basilica the remaining ent the collected data indicate a continuous occupa- excavated monumental column drums and the re- tional sequence from the Early Roman period to the maining capital. Ottoman period. Tomb Excavations. Work concentrated mainly on A mosaic floor, unearthed in the 1990 season, was the tombs and graves found in area H, located on the notable for the intensive destruction of its iconogra- ledges along the east bank of Wadi Quailibah, just to phy (fig. 26). It is believed that the floor belonged to the northeast of Tell Abila. Besides excavating 10 a small Christian church under the Umayyads. The Roman-Byzantine tombs and graves here (some mosaic style of the floor is almost fully geometrical robbed and some undisturbed), the team also uncov- including the figure of a decorative vase. Adjacent to ered two terrace enclosure walls connected with the the floor on the east, several walls were found to have tombs, and a Roman-Byzantine pottery kiln (H36), two architectural phases. The earlier probably related 492 BERT DE VRIES AND PIERRE BIKAI [AJA97

Fig. 28. Umm el-Jimal.Map of village and town. (B. de Vries and R. Sayegh) to the Byzantine period. The reconstructionof these tomb is different from the others in terms of dispo- walls was for residential reuse during the Islamic sition and interior decoration.The tombs also vary in period, mainly the Ayyubid/Mamluk. the number of chamberspresent, ranging from three Further research in 1991 brought to light the re- to 16 units cut in the wall or in the ground of the mains of an Umayyad mosque measuring 11.50 x cave. The clearance of the tombs allowed the collec- 4.00 m, constructedof regular and well-dressedlime- tion of important material: pottery, glassware, per- stone blocks. In the deliberatemass destructionof the fumed vessels, and metal artifacts,mainly decorative mosque, the eastern wall was entirely demolished. A feminine material dating back to the Early Roman part of the southern wall connecting the mihrabwith and Byzantineperiods. the eastern wall was also destroyed, but one course of The graves (loculi) were constructed with well- well-cut stones from another section survives. The dressed limestone blocks(fig. 27) and oriented south- Bayt al-Salat (Prayer Hall) and the concave mihrab north and/or east-west. The tombs were heavilyplun- are still partiallystanding. The mihrab was presum- dered and the graves were destroyed. Many of the ably located at the center of the southern "Qiblah smashedbones were widely scatteredon the floor. Wall."Work in the mosque area is still going on. Umm el-Jimal. Bert de Vries, Calvin College, re- An Islamictomb to the west of the mosque was also ports: uncovered. Artifacts including braceletsof glass and From 15 June to 10 July 1992 Bert de Vries con- debased metals, beads, rings, and pierced coins were ducted fieldworkat Umm el-Jimalwith a staff of 12 abundant and found associated with the skeletons. specialistsin architecture, surveying, and photogra- Since this is an unusual phenomenon in Islam, the phy. Deepest appreciation goes to the Ambassador gravesmay have contained the remainsof immigrants Foundation and the Calvin College Alumni Associa- from foreign ethnic groups who arrived in Bilad ash- tion for financial support and the DAJ for logistical Sham during the Mongol invasion. support and cooperation. On the eastern side of the site, three tombs from a The season's goals included precise mapping, ar- large rock-cut necropolis have been excavated. Each chitectural drawing of selected buildings, extensive 1993] ARCHAEOLOGYIN JORDAN 493

Fig.29. Ummel-Jimal. Interior of greatroom in house35, lookingnorth. (Tania Hobbs)

photographyon the ground, and low-levelaerial pho- incorporatedan earlier public building into this do- tography with cameras suspended from a balloon. mestic environment, but also because it contains an These recording activities were intended to provide L-shaped stable arrangement with a plan that pro- illustrationsfor the publicationof previousfieldwork, vided the standard structuralcore for several other as well as detailed plans and maps for a major exca- Byzantine houses on the site. The larger room was vation seasons to take place in 1993 and 1994. used to house untethered animals; it has a cubicle- The surveyorsmade precise control measurements like bathroomstall built into its northeastcorner. The on the Late Roman fort using an electronic distance other room is long and narrowwith a row of mangers meter. This fort, a structureapproximately 90 x 100 running down the side connecting it to the first room. m located on the east side of Umm el-Jimal,was built Here, animals could be tethered one per stall. The ca. A.D. 300 and already lay in ruins when the Byz- whole arrangement indicates that careful attention antine town was flourishing in the fifth/sixth centu- was given to the sheltering of animals. The doors of ries. They also laid out a triangulation grid for the rooms opened onto a central courtyard, from mapping controls in the Early Roman-Late Roman whichexterior stairsgive accessto upper rooms where village discovered in the 1984 season, a site about animal fodder was stored and human residents slept. 300 x 500 m in size, just to the east of the standing House 35, located in the same quarter,was studied Byzantineruins (fig. 28). to compare the building methods of the fifth/sixth The architects studied four building complexes, century Byzantineinhabitants to those of their Druze includinghouse 119, a simple domestic structurewith successorsca. 1925. The great room of this house (fig. two well-preserved stables with interesting rows of 29) is preserved to ceiling level. Its corbeled roof was mangers. This house is located at the entry to Umm supportedon a wonderfullyfinished central arch that el-Jimaland is an ideal candidate for conversion into allowed the ceiling to soar over 5 m above the floor. a visitors'center and site museum. A second room had an intactceiling supported on the House 49, which includes the so-called Nabataean walls and an arch built by the Druze. This arch was Temple, cleared by the DAJ, was also carefully mea- relativelylow-slung and constructed of reused build- sured and drawn. It is important not only because it ing blocks of various sizes, aligned on the entry-side 494 BERT DE VRIES AND PIERRE BIKAI [AJA 97

Fig. 30. Umm el-Jimal.Balloon aerial photograph of southwestthird of the Byzantinetown. The praetoriumis at the upper right, house 49 at the center,house 35 left of center,and house 119 at the lower right. (Photo Wilsonand EleanorMyers)

of the room. Although the makeup of this arch and All threatened walls were then drawn and photo- the associated corbel-beam roofing system was much graphed. As soon as a crane and other equipment more irregular than its Byzantine predecessor, it is become available, the affected masonry can be dis- clear that the Druze of the 20th century had adopted mantled and reconstructed by master stonemasons the Roman-Byzantine building system with great ex- under the supervision of a restoration architect. pertise. Thanks to them, many houses at Umm el- A highlight of the season was the aerial balloon Jimal have been preserved remarkably in their ancient photography undertaken by Wilson and Eleanor style. Myers. Low-altitude aerial photographs were taken The highest wall of the Praetorium with a bit of by suspending cameras from a balloon, with the shut- remaining gable roof at the southwest corner of the ter trigger and film advance operated by remote radio atrium has long been in extremely precarious condi- control. At the site of the earlier village, photographs tion. While the DAJ cleared previously excavated were taken from heights of 100 and 225 m. From rooms, the project team systematically numbered all these heights the photographs show every stone of the stones in the walls that are threatened by collapse. this badly destroyed area. Because the surveyors' 1993] ARCHAEOLOGYIN JORDAN 495

Fig. 31. Southern Hauran.Aerial photograph(1953). A is site 11 (Khirbetes-Saada), B is site 10, C is site 12, and D is the Roman road from Quttein to Bostra. (Photo Hunting Surveys61.077) triangulation grid can be located on the photographs, Recording these was a major component of the proj- it will be possible to produce scale maps of distinguish- ect. Over 50 inscriptions and five decorative frag- able features, such as exposed wall lines, in prepara- ments were drawn and photographed. Most of these tion for the coming excavation. The Late Roman inscriptions were tombstones in Greek using the fol- castellum was photographed at 300 m in order to lowing formula: X (son or daughter) of Y of the age have the entire structure appear in a single photo- Z. Two were Nabataean. graph from which a scale plan may be produced using All the buildings studied were photographed in the ground control measurements. detail, and illustrative sketches were made to supple- The tall buildings of Byzantine Umm el-Jimal were ment precise plans and elevations. The results of this photographed in five sections from a height of 300 m season's work will greatly aid the publication of pre- (fig. 30). Then a Hasselblad camera with a wide-angle vious fieldwork and major restoration and excavation lens was raised to 600 and 700 m to take the whole planned for the next several years. site in a single photograph. Umm el-Quttein, Southern Hauran. David Ken- This is the first time that balloon photography has nedy, University of Western Australia, reports: been used in Jordan. It is expected that this method The region encompassed by the Southern Hauran of remote sensing will add significant data to those Survey includes a rich variety of archaeological ma- gathered on the ground and from airplanes and sat- terial. Even after a single season (1985) it was clear ellites. The photographic and map data are being that most broad periods in prehistory and history entered into a Geographic Information System for were represented. The survey was enormously as- spatial and quantitative analysis of the archaeological sisted by the employment of air photographs; many data. of the sites recorded in and around Umm el-Quttein, Both the clearing by the DAJ and the close exami- the focus of our attention at that time, were discovered nation of specific buildings resulted in the discovery or at least illuminated by scrutiny of the aerial cov- of a number of inscriptions and decorative stones. erage. 496 BERT DE VRIES AND PIERRE BIKAI [AJA 97

Fig. 32. Southern Hauran.Aerial photograph (1953). A and B are areasof fossilizedfield boundaries, and C is the Roman roadjust northwestof Quttein. (Photo Hunting Surveys61.130)

The modern village of Umm el-Quttein itself over- west of the town in situ beside the Roman road whose lies the extensive but now very battered and reduced clear trace can now be followed for 2 km toward the traces of the Roman-Byzantine town seen by the provincial capital of Bostra (see fig. 31, D; fig. 32, C). Princeton University Expedition to Syria at the turn Numerous other smaller sites of various periods of the century. The tall towers are no longer standing, were recorded in the vicinity of Umm el-Quttein, but most of the religious and other buildings noted including sites 10, 11, and 12, some 4 km northwest by them can still be discerned; in the case of the of Quttein, close to the Syrian border. Abundant pot- "Monastery," the location was rediscovered amid the tery from site 10, studied by Rob Faulkner, spanned modern buildings by means of an air photograph of the period from the first to eighth centuries and 1953. Also visible on the same photograph-a new included several fragments of Eastern Sigillata. Un- discovery-is the outline of what seems to be a Roman expectedly, the tally also included a seventh (?) cen- fort. Scattered throughout the town are deep cisterns tury Sassano-Islamic sherd, thought to originate on attached to ancient houses, and the northern part of the Tigris. At site 11 (Khirbet es-Saada), surface pot- the town includes two square reservoirs, one with a tery included first- and second-century Nabataean capacity of some 20,000 m3. and Eastern Sigillata wares from amid the ruins of The fourth-seventh century date implied by the well-built structures, as well as a sixth-eighth century churches is complemented and extended by the evi- Jerash-type lamp from nearby. At site 12 the identi- dence of numerous inscriptions, mainly tombstones, fiable pottery was mainly third century with a medi- in both Greek and Nabataean; one provides the pro- eval "presence." Most striking and exciting, however, vincial date of 160 (A.D. 265/6). Other inscriptions is the extensive trace of fossilized field boundaries. from beyond the town attest to the Roman presence; Once again it is on old (1953) air photographs that a a military building inscription naming a detachment range of systems of differing shapes and sizes appear, of the Legio III Cyrenaica was recovered from beside some seemingly overlying others (fig. 31). Despite the a ruin on the volcanic peak to the southwest, and part current farming in the region, some of these bound- of an early fourth-century milestone was found north- aries can still be discovered on the ground. 1993] ARCHAEOLOGY IN JORDAN 497

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In general, the period most frequently attested is gions of North Arabia through detailed study of a the Nabataean-Roman-Byzantine.In terms of scale, sample area in easternJordan. too, the structures,roads, and inscriptionsof the same In the first two seasons, work was concentrated on period all suggest that the peak period of human excavationof sites around the lake at Burqu' (fig. 33, activityin the region was between the firstand seventh no. 1). In these firstseasons, we also carriedout survey centuries. work in the areas east and south of Burqu'. In 1991 The renewed fieldwork in 1992 (codirected with we looked in more detail at the regions beyond the Philip Freeman) will include some test-trenching in Burqu' lake. Work included soundings and intensive Umm el-Quttein. The active survey area will be ex- survey in a number of selected areas. tended and more use made of the aerialcoverage and Our main prioritythis season was to study mahdfir, of satellite imagery. water catchment systems, of which several groups Burqu'/Ruwayshid. Alison Betts, University of have been found in the Ruwayshidarea. The largest Sydney, reports: of these is Mahafiral-Shahami,just north of the Bagh- The third and final season of the Burqu'/Ruwayshid dad highway. The complex is on a small internal Project took place in September and October 1991. drainage system and consists of 10 artificiallyexca- The projectis jointly sponsored by BIAAH and Edin- vated pools. The pools are reinforced by roughly laid burgh University. Fieldwork is conducted by kind stone walls,and their downstreamsides, although now permission of the DAJ. The aim of the project is to largely washed out, appear originally to have been examine land use through time in the semiarid re- low enough to permit surplus water to flow over the 498 BERTDE VRIESAND PIERREBIKAI [AJA 97

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W41VAL; oL- FOuV#;Arl Wa5 ',.~i'?u'~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~PM~PWEFtRiED dBOlEVAK:NG/rICK LfYCL hif77 tS~t A.L:S,j5v?P Fig.34. Gerasa.Ground plan of the hippodrome. top and into the next pool. There are two multi- herders exploiting the spring growth of annual veg- roomed courtyardhouses on the southeastside of the etation in the Wadi Ruwayshid. complex, which appear to have been associatedwith In addition to excavation,surveys were carried out its use. A limited amount of pottery was recovered in the wadi systems of the Ruwaysdatsouth of the from the site and from ancient campsitesnearby. On Baghdad Highway.Two areaswere selected and field- the basis of comparisons with nearby al-Risha, it is walked intensively. All sites within the areas were likelythat Mahafiral-Shahami is dated sometimedur- mapped, surface material was collected, and sounding the seventh to ninth centuries. ings were made at two locations. The first sounding A second water catchment system was investigated involved clearanceof a tumulus. The structureof the near the settlement of upper al-Risha.The site, Ma- tumulus and the enclosed chamber were preserved, hafir al-Rishat Anwar, is located in a small upland but the tomb had been robbed in antiquity, and no drainage basin and comprises one rectangularmulti- remains of skeletal material or artifacts were recov- roomed structure overlooking a small wadi system ered. The second sounding was in a complex of an- and mudflat. Preliminaryanalysis suggests that this cient corrals, but excavation failed to produce any system too may have been constructed during the evidence for the date of the site. EarlyIslamic period. The Burqu'/RuwayshidProject is now complete. A second focus of work in 1991 was the investiga- The results will provide an analysis of the nature of tion of prehistoricsites in the open plains east of the land use in the region from the Neolithic to the pres- harra.Excavations were conducted at the site of Mah- ent day. It will also provide detailed studies of partic- fur al-Ruwayshid,about 10 km northeast of Burqu'. ular periods, specifically the Neolithic/Chalcolithic The site is one of a series of stone corrals strung out and the Late Antique/EarlyIslamic periods. Integra- in a limestone outcrop within the bed of the Wadi al- tion of ethnographic data with archaeological evi- Ruwayshid.The site has seen at least two periods of dence will provide a fresh perspective on the signifi- use. There was evidence for an initial settlementwith cance of the North Arabian badiyain ancient times. hearths, occupation levels, and stone walls, followed Gerasa, Hippodrome. Antoni A. Ostrasz,Warsaw by the construction of a subcircularstone enclosure. University,reports: Finds from the site included flint implements, basalt The excavationand restorationof the hippodrome grinding tools, and some bone. The flint assemblage at Gerasa (modern Jerash), sponsored by the DAJ, is comparable to material from sites at Burqu' and has been carriedout almost year-roundsince January suggests that the original foundation of the site was 1985 (fig. 34). The aim is to expose all extant remains in the Late Neolithic period. The site in both phases of the building, to recover material pertaining to its may have been used as a spring camp for hunter/ history, and to display the restored monument both 1993] ARCHAEOLOGYIN JORDAN 499 to scholarsand laymen.The restorationwill take more an earthquake. The fact that the bodies of the de- time, but the first two goals may be reached by the ceased had not been recovered from the debris for end of 1993. proper burial suggests a lack of communal organiza- The excavation (preceded by excavations of 1933 tion at the site of Gerasaat the time of the occurrence. and 1982-1983) revealed most of the extant parts of As there was considerable organization in the Early the building. What has been exposed shows that this Abbasidperiod, the event must have taken place at a monument is one of the few very well preserved later date. Several Mamluksherds were found in the Romancircuses (along with Lepcis Magna,Tyre, Mer- tumble close to one lot of the skeletal remains. The ida, and the Circusof Maxentiusin Rome) among the sherds may point to the time of the disaster. The 40 examples known. Although the smallestcircus on excavationhas not yet reached the level of occupancy record (arena only 245 m long), this hippodrome of the chamber. Finds at this level may confirm, or displays evidence for all relevant architectural fea- disprove, the suggested date of the occurrence. Re- tures of this building type. The evidence for the car- sults of the study of the skeletal remains will be pub- ceresis unique in that the architectureof the structure lished by Stephen Bourke of Sydney University. is restorablein detail. While the excavationyielded rich material pertain- The materialrecovered (inscriptions,coins, ceram- ing to the architectureand history of the monument ics) provides solid evidence for tracing the history of itself, it also proved exceptionallyrewarding in larger the monument. The hippodrome was built between aspects of the archaeology of the area. The building the middle of the second century and A.D. 209-212. of the hippodrome emerged as the main (perhaps the The building ceased to serve the primary purpose only) center of ceramic production at Gerasa from after only about 100 years because of the disintegra- the end of the Roman throughout the Byzantine pe- tion of a large part of its masonry and of the arena. riod. The misfiredartifacts, deliberately crushed (only The disintegrationwas caused by the extremely poor a few survived intact) and dumped, form a huge foundations of the structure. deposit representing all types of pottery and lamps Beginning in the late third/earlyfourth century,the produced at the site over a period of more than three building and its site were reoccupied for mainly in- centuries. The whole body of material consisted of dustrialpurposes, producing ceramics,a gypsum-like separate deposits accumulated in particular cham- substance (calcium carbonate), lime, and possibly bers. Some of these deposits are datable to a level of glass. Architecturalremains or traces of seven kilns accuracywithin decades. The following selected ex- inside the building and three kilns outside and close amples illustratethe point. to it have been found. A large lime kiln was revealed The dump of misfired pottery in chamber E2 con- in the southwest part of the former arena. Many tained two small hoards of coins-one hoard of five chambers of the building were used as places for coins of ConstantineI (307-337), one coin minted in dumping misfired pottery and lamps. Others were or shortlyafter 307/8, and another hoard of six coins adapted for dwellings. of Licinius I (308-324). The coins firmly date the The industrial activity continued throughout the pottery found in the chamber to the first decades of Byzantine period and possibly into the early decades the fourth century. of Umayyad times. There is no evidence for contin- Remains of a kiln and a dump of misfired pottery uous occupancy of the building in the following cen- and lamps accumulatedaround the kiln were found turies. in chamber E8. This deposit contained tens of thou- The building was affected by earthquakes.There sands of potsherds, 809 lamp handles (each handle is circumstantialevidence for the earthquakeof 551, representing one misfired lamp), thousands of frag- not firmly attested at Gerasa,and for the earthquake ments of the upper and lower body of lamps, and of 659/60, attested at other sites. The most disastrous three complete lamps. Seventy-eightcoins were found for the hippodrome seems to have been the earth- within the deposit, among which were one hoard of quake of 747/8. This earthquake destroyed the car- 15 and another of 36 coins. Upon preliminary ex- ceresand the southeast part of the building. amination, the coins of the hoards and some of the After 747 the building was occupied only intermit- 27 others appear to have been minted in the reign of tently. One such instance of occupancy is evidenced Constantius II (337-361), seemingly in the post-re- by finds in chamber W2. Human skeletal remains of form period (346-361). The coins date the pottery a dozen individuals were found between tumbled and lamps found in the dump to the later part of the stones of the roofing of the chamber.The collapse of first half and into the early part of the second half of the roofing that killed them was evidently caused by the fourth century. 500 BERTDE VRIESAND PIERREBIKAI [AJA 97 Traces of a kiln and a very large dump of misfired planning solutions that considerably broaden our potteryrepresenting all kinds of vesselswere revealed understanding of the history of architectureof that in chamber E32. The varietyof vessels and the quan- epoch. tity of sherds show that the deposit must have accu- From 1978 to 1981 a new topographic survey of mulated over a relativelylong period, but the whole the entire city wascarried out with particularattention is datable to the fifth century. to the colonnaded streets and sanctuaryof Artemis. In many chambers the uppermost stratum of the The position of the sanctuarywas a determining fac- fill (directly under the tumble of masonry) consisted tor in the redesigning of the city layout under Trajan of a dump of misfired ceramicsdating from the sixth and later developed by Hadrian and the Antonines century. In some chambers (e.g., E8) this dump lay (fig. 35). on top of the dump of earlier periods. Colonnadedstreets, which from the second century The ceramicsof the fourth and fifth centuries are represent the most characteristicfeature of Roman particularlyimportant. Contraryto the types known cities, assume a peculiar form in Gerasa:the entabla- at Gerasaand reliablydated to the first centuries A.C. ture of the order is reduced to the architraveonly. and from the sixth century on, the dating of the This reduction suggests the absence of porticoes.The pottery and lamp types allegedly produced in those colonnades can be considered as a kind of screen two centuries is rather vague and requires much lining the street, which is thus transformed from an strictertemporal definition. It may be noted that the open to an "envelopedspace," and therefore planned ceramics of that period are usually referred to as as an autonomousarchitectural entity. The temple of belonging to the "fourth/fifth"centuries. The finds Zeus and the temple of Artemis, both rebuilt in An- from the hippodrome provided abundant material tonine times, are visible from the North Gate and the for a much stricterdating. Triumphal Arch, respectively(fig. 35). The layout of Finally, yet another discovery must be reported. the quarterseast of the wadi is aligned with this second Within the dump of misfired pottery and lamps in axis. The development of Gerasacan thus be seen as chamber E8 were found two fired clay molds of a synoikisticblending of two distinct settlements re- fourth-century lamps and 34 molds (and scores of lated to the temples. Gerasa was not walled in as a fragments of molds) for the same type of lamps but single settlement until the fourth century. made of a gypsum-like substance that was produced Excavationsin the area of the sanctuaryof Artemis at the site (cf. above). Fired lamp molds are common have brought to light the remains of a Byzantine finds, but the gypsum lamp molds seem to be unique. religiouscomplex in the thickearth fill in the southern These molds are probablytransitional products of the part of the intermediateterrace. In the area in front technology developed for producing the clay molds of the temple, an industrial installationfor the pro- ultimately used for the production of lamps. The duction of domestic pottery was excavated, dating ceramic material is being recorded and studied, and from the fifth to the eighth century. will be publishedby Ina Kehrbergof the hippodrome Since 1984, also with the support of the Italian team. government, we have undertaken restoration work, Gerasa, Town Plan. Roberto Parapetti, Centro beginning with the Artemis sanctuary. The recon- Scavo di Torino, Rome, reports: struction of the transverse walls supporting the re- Since 1977, the Centro Scavo di Torino has been taining wall of the intermediate terrace will soon be active in Jordan with the objective of clarifying the completed. This will enable the consolidation of the nature of architectureand town planning in the Ro- remains at the north and south sides of the Propy- man East. Architects and planners of the Seleucid laeum. These were first restored in the 1930s, causing tradition are thought to have played a determining misinterpretationof the original design; the relieving role in the development of Roman Imperial achieve- arch above the doors of the rooms at the sides of the ments. The revolutionarycontribution of Apollodo- Propylaeumshould have been a flat arch instead. The rus of Damascusto Trajanicbuilding policy in Rome giganticcolumns in front of the same monument were and the work of Syrianarchitects and builders under incorrectlyreassembled in the 1960s. The spring of Septimius Severus in replanning the civic center at 1992 was devoted to their dismantling for a new Lepcis Magna support this thesis. Due to its excep- anastylosisof the remaining parts of entablatureand tional preservation, Gerasa attracted our attention. pediment. In 1981 the detached columns of the Pro- There, public building from the beginning of the pylaeum's east front were incorrectly reerected by second to the middle of the fourth century involved inserting steel bars down to the foundations. Their 1993] ARCHAEOLOGYIN JORDAN 501

Fig. 35. Gerasa. Aerial photograph, R.A.F. 1926. 1) Temple of Zeus, 2) Artemis temple, 3) hippodrome, 4) north tetrapylon,5) south tetrapylon,6) north gate, 7) south gate, and 8) triumphalarch. dismantling,even though technicallydifficult, will be Tell Abu Sarbut is located in the CentralJordan next year's task, permitting the recovery of an out- Valley,Jordan, about 1.5 km west/northwestfrom Tell standingexample of Roman architecture. Deir 'Alla.It is located amid agriculturalfields, which Tell Abu Sarbut. H.E. LaGro, Netherlands Insti- are irrigated by the Ghor Canal. The tell measures tute for the Near East, and M.L. Steiner, Leiden about 250 m east-west by 125 m north-south. From University,report: 1988 to 1992 four seasonsof excavationswere carried 502 BERT DE VRIES AND PIERRE BIKAI [AJA 97 Only part of this complex is excavated (fig. 36). It consistsof several large rooms, which were rebuilt at least three times. From the most recent phase of the complex a thick wall with an ashlar stone foundation and a paved entry were excavated. One room con- taineda numberof conicalsugar pots into whichsugar syrup was probably poured. The pots were still embedded in a plastered bench. Connected with the complex are thick layers of burnt vegetable matter, alternatingwith yellow clay, which at some time must have covered large areas of the tell. The pottery from these phases consists nearly ex- clusivelyof sugar pots. No traces of houses or living quarters for the workers in the factory were found, and we assumethat they lived in nearbyvillages. After the factory fell into disuse, the surface was leveled again, this time to build houses, which can be dated to the Mamlukperiod. Apart from the normal household repertoire,sugar pots were still used during this period, suggesting that the inhabitantscontinued to cultivatesugarcane and produce sugar. This production could have taken place at a site 2 km to the east where the remnantsof a sugar mill were found. Remarkablefinds are the many fragments of glass braceletsand a dozen ostraca,which come from the sugar factorybut do not, unfortunately,contain com- Fig. 36. Tell Abu Sarbut. Entrance to factory formed by plete messages. ashlar stones; measuring rod rests on pavement of sugar- Amman, Temple of Hercules. ChryssanthosKa- pot sherds. nellopoulos,ACOR, reports: Excavationsat the Temple of Herculeswere contin- out by a Dutch team under the direction of H.E. ued into January of 1992 by MohammadNajjar of LaGro, M.L. Steiner, and H. de Haas. Funding was the DAJ and the late Kenneth Russell of ACOR, provided by the Tell Abu Sarbut Foundation and the funded by a grant from USAID. The excavationsare Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research. currentlyin publicationphase. The Temple of Her- The purpose of the project was to conduct a small- cules Restoration Project commenced in July 1991 scale excavation in order to determine the ceramic under the direction of ChryssanthosKanellopoulos sequence and types for the Islamic periods. and MohammadTayyem of ACOR, again with the The earliest occupation layers were found in a aid of funds provided by USAID. trench in which parts of burnt and collapsed rooms The first component of the project was a detailed were excavated. The rooms contained a number of compilation of information regarding the scattered complete pots, which could be dated preliminarily to architecturalelements of the temple. According to the third/fourth centuries. Occupation in that period the architraveinscription, the temple dates from the was concentrated on the east and the south of the tell. term of the Roman governor of the Provinceof Ara- The extent to which the tell was occupied during the bia, P. Julius Geminius Marcianus(A.D. 161-166), Umayyad and Abbasid periods is unclear. A small during the reign of MarcusAurelius and Lucius Ve- amount of sherds from these periods was found, but rus. The restoredground plan of the temple has been no occupation layers could be ascribed to them. A proposed on the basis of the dimensions of the po- reason for this could be the large-scale leveling of the dium, the interaxialspaces between the columns, and tell carried out in the Ayyubid period. This leveling the ancient remains (in particular,the length of the went well into the Roman layers and obliterated all inscription as deduced from the existing architrave possible remains of Early Islamic occupation. The fragmentsand informationobtained from the archi- area cleared measured at least 50 x 50 m and was travebackings). The proposedwidth of the architrave used for the building of a sugar-production plant. suggeststhe existence of six columns along the width 1993] ARCHAEOLOGYIN JORDAN 503 of the podium. Detailed calculationsof the length of Temple of Herculesis being carriedout in accordance the podium relative to the interaxial spaces between with the spiritand guidelinesembodied in the Charter the columns, together with a significant absence of of Venice. As such, the principles of minimal inter- original material, preclude the possibilityof a colon- vention and reversibilityare considered integral as- nade along the length of the podium. Thus, the res- pects of the restoration.The restoration project will toration proposes a hexastyle prostasis without a be concluded in August 1993. pteroma, i.e., a T-shaped plan consisting of a cella Khirbet Salameh. Pierre Bikai, ACOR, reports: with a front portico of six columns. Khirbet Salameh is located in greater Amman ca. The first phase of the restorationproject consisted 15 km from the city center (Palestine Grid 252.2 E; of the anastylosisof the northwest corner of the po- 147.5 N). The site is situated at the center of a gentle dium. This has been achieved by the use of as much slope overlooking a shallow valley and is included in ancient material as possible. Where necessary, new an area of agriculturalland. The elevation is 1020 stone has been used after careful selection, in order masl and yearlyrainfall averages 600 mm. The site is to ensure that it is geologicallysound and aesthetically ca. 500 m from the spring of Ain el-Beida, which is suitable in relation to the original material.Care has at present dry in summer. Before excavationthe out- been taken to match the dressing and finishing of the lines of a rectangular structure measuring 22.75 m new stone blocks to the ancient craftsmanship;in this north-south by 23.50 m east-west were visible. The regard, tools were fabricated according to Roman facade of the eastern wall could be seen to consist of design and the masons were taught ancient masonry roughly cut stones of various sizes with an opening at techniques.This approachhas not, however,excluded the center, indicatinga possible doorway (fig. 37). the use of modern technology; a bridge crane has The site was selected for the location of a field been constructed over the northwest corner of the school by Nabil Khairy,chairman of the Department podium and a mobile crane has been employed for of Archaeologyat the Universityof Jordan. The class the removal, transport, and placement of the stone consisted of 25 B.A. students and six M.A. students, blocks. who acted as trench supervisors. The foreman was Concurrent with the reconstructionof the north- Ayesh Abou Hilal, who began work in archaeology west corner of the podium has been the development with Kathleen Kenyon at Jericho. of a detailed seismic analysis, using an earthquake Khirbet Salameh was apparently unknown to the simulation computer program. This projects the be- early explorers. In 1976, however, M. Muheisen sur- haviorof the columns during a majorearthquake. On veyed the site. In 1983-1984, C.J. Lenzen and A.M. the basis of that analysis,only those restorationtech- McQuittyconducted a salvageexcavation immediately niques will be employed that would enable the struc- to the east of the rectangularstructure, an area that ture to withstandthe enormous stressesthat are likely would thereafter be covered by the ACOR building; to develop during a major seismic event. While the they also made two probes into the structure itself. restorationof the podium has been in progress,seven The 1992 field school began with a survey of the column drums were recovered from the Abbasidfor- areas around the structure, and in the subsequent tification wall, following its destruction during the excavation,13 squareswere opened, almost all within stormsof 1991-1992. These column drums, together the perimeter of the structure. In six of the squares, with those already scattered on site, were carefully a soft calcareousbedrock was reached at an average measured in order to determine their original place- depth of 1.75 m below the present surface. The debris ment. A fortuitous discovery has been that of a fairly above bedrockconsisted mainlyof small stones, inter- complete numbering system of alphabeticalcharac- preted as the collapse of a vaulted superstructure. ters carved on the upper surfaces of most column Three cisterns were found just outside of the rect- drums. This identification system has proved to be angular structure. Within the structure, four bins extremely useful in verifying the fit of successivecol- were found cut into bedrock; one of them contained umn drums based on their dimensions and eroded a Hellenisticcoin. Wallsof a later period were found Based on profiles. the matchingof the column drums, built across some of the bins, confirming at least two tested on site with the aid of a crane, it will be possible phases of use. Other evidence points to further to restore three columns of the portico to their full phases: in one small area (1 x 1.5 m), debris of the with the minimal of height use new material.Prior to Iron Age was found. Two architecturalphases in the any work being undertaken on the reerection of the structure itself can now be discerned. The first is a the foundation of the columns, prostasiswill be sta- phase of usage (if not of construction) during the bilized structural The restoration by supports. of the Byzantine period in which the walls are of rough 504 BERT DE VRIES AND PIERRE BIKAI [AJA 97

Fig. 37. KhirbetSalameh. View of excavationlooking southwest. calcareous stones with ashlar blocks around the door- archaeological park that has as its focal point the ways and in bases that are thought to have been for Roman street system; however, all of the occupational arches suppoiting the roof. Three doorways were periods evidenced in the excavation will ultimately be found leading to a courtyard at the center of the represented in the park. structure. The rooms around the courtyard vary in Several years ago, during the construction of a size and apparently in function. In one room, two modern office building, approximately 23 m of the spindle whorls and a loomweight were found; in an- decumanus were exposed to the west of the main other room, seven storage jars were found leaning modern road, to the north of the Church of El-Kha- against the wall. dir, and to the southwest of the "burnt palace." The A later phase of use dated to the Ayyubid/Mamluk present excavations were started here. The current period. In this phase, parts of the Byzantine walls excavations represent the first time that the social were used as foundations, but the architecture has history of the site is being researched and a determi- been mostly destroyed by agricultural disturbance. nation based on archaeological data made concerning There will be further excavations in the summer of the ancient city plan. 1993. To date, another section, approximately 20 m long, Madaba. CJ. Lenzen, ACOR, reports: of the decumanus has been excavated. There is a 40? As of June 1992, the Ministry of Tourism and shift in the angle of the patterning of the stones, Antiquities of Jordan started a long-term project for indicating perhaps either a plaza or an intersection. the economic development of Madaba through ar- Further excavation will determine which is the case. chaeological excavation and research. The project has The road is constructed of large, hard limestone several facets and is funded by the Jordanian govern- blocks with considerable variations in size. The pat- ment and several other agencies. This brief report terning of the blocks differs from that of contempo- concerns one aspect: the archaeological excavation of rary streets at other Jordanian sites. Between the an approximately two-block area west of the Church southern stylobate and the Church of El-Khadir, a of the Virgin. Following the assumed line of the ex- probe was excavated in order to determine the rela- cavated portion of the decumanus to the south of the tionship between the church and the road. The re- Church of the Virgin, excavations were started in sults, although preliminary in nature, have shown that June. The goal of this project is the creation of an 1) part of the pavement of the road was removed in 1993] ARCHAEOLOGYIN JORDAN 505 order to create space for the church; 2) the stylobate stones were reset, with the effect that the street became narrower;3) the church was constructedearlier than previously reported, i.e., at the end of the fifth century; 4) architecturalelements of the earlier city were used in the foundation for the north wall of the church; and 5) the constructionaltechniques for the church differ from those reported at other contemporary churches. This Byzantine period realignment of the city has also been found to the south of the road; at the time of writing, however, it remains un- clearwhether or not buildingsother than the so-called burnt palace were constructed. From the present data, it would appear that during the Umayyad period the same alignment of this part of the ancient city was used. It was not until the Mamlukperiod that the integrityof the plan was lost. Although pottery from all of the historical periods following the eighth century has been found, and potteryfrom pre-Romanoccupational periods as well, the Mamlukand Ottoman are only periods associated r with architecturalremains. "? ti ; t`i'iil?i?li?- ' within the area ?? ii;t?i- Standing project are Late Ottoman I?. j houses built within the last 100 years. These have been or are being excavated stratigraphically.Con- ?L struction do not seem to techniques varyconsiderably Fig.38. Machaerus.Plan for restoration,maintenance, and from other Late Ottoman structures studied in Jor- touristdevelopment. dan. The buildings consist primarily of rooms with double archs supporting a roof of beams, reeds, and mud. Storage niches are placed along the walls and a Studium Biblicum Franciscanum,and the University large courtyard area is in front. As expected, archi- of Florence. It involves not only the fort (fig. 38) but tectural elements from the Roman/Byzantine/Early also the village of Meqawer where a rich building Islamiccity have been found in these houses. complex including the church of the Bishop Alexius To the east of the modern road and part of the has been brought to light. The state of conservation complex surrounding the Church of the Virgin is the is not good, typical of sites left for a long period Church of the Prophet Elijah with the famous crypt without any form of protection. In an open-air ar- dedicated to Elianos. Although the crypt has re- chaeologicalarea like Machaerusthe degree of deg- mained in good repair since its excavationat the end radationvaries greatly.The aspects of ruination thus of the last century,the church itself was reused several far found and studied are 1) widespreadcracking due times, most recently as the site of a concrete block to naturalaging of the materialsand ancient building factory. During this first phase of the project, exca- errors; 2) localized damage with recognizable crack- vations have been started in the church. To date, a ing; 3) landslidesand potential landslides;4) walls in fragment of the north aisle mosaic has been found danger of collapse; 5) breaking up due to thermal with an animalrepresented. Although the church was changes helped by wind action; 6) pooling of rain- dated by inscriptionaldata, it is anticipatedthat other water;7) disruptiveroots of vegetation;and 8) human dating evidence will be acquired through these exca- acts of vandalism. vations. An intervention plan has been drawn up to act on Machaerus. Luigi Marino, Universita degli Studi, several fronts. Building site operations have been set Florence, reports: up to solve the particularly serious aspects of the A for plan restoring and maintaining the site of degradation with the care and caution required by Machaerus and developing it for tourism was for- the archaeologicalcontext. As a matter of principle, mulated in July 1991 and implementationbegan six intervention using modern materials has been re- months later. The plan is a collaborationbetween the jected in favor of local traditional procedures. The Jordanian Ministryof Tourism and Archaeology,the operations on stratified layers are in no case to be 506 BERT DE VRIES AND PIERRE BIKAI [AJA 97

Fig. 39. KhirbetFaris. Overhead view of a 13th-centurybuilding reusing earlierwalls. irreversible.One of the most importantaspects of the small Muslim cemetery including the tomb of Faris plan is Machaerus'srole as an educational building Majali after whom the site is named and who died at site for local technicians and workers who will be the beginning of this century. Various architectural trained for future employment in other restoration fragments, for example a Roman capital and Roman projects. milestones, are scattered on the site or have been Khirbet Faris. Alison McQuitty,St. Antony'sCol- reused for cistern heads and drinking troughs. lege, Oxford, reports: Excavations have taken place since 1988 in con- The FarisProject is a multidisciplinarystudy of the junction with a survey of the oral history and eth- settlementstrategy and land exploitationof the Kerak noarchaeology of the area (conducted by W. and F. Plateauin general and in particularone rural settle- Lancaster) and a study of the recent 19th- and 20th- ment, KhirbetFaris, since Byzantinetimes. The proj- century vernacular architecture of the surrounding ect is sponsored by the BIAAH and the Oriental villages (directed by M. Biewers, R. Kana'an, and A. Institute,Oxford University,and directedby J. Johns McQuitty). Detailed reports on the results of past and A. McQuitty. seasons can be found in Levant 21 (1989) and 25 KhirbetFaris is situated about 25 km northeast of (1993) but a brief summary is given below. Keraknear the ancient King's Highway and the Na- Khirbet Faris has been occupied since at least the bataeansite of al-Qasr.The site lies on the edge of a MBA. The excavations have concentrated on the later wadi, Wadi ibn Hammad, on a plateau of rich arable sequences and have revealed the buildings of a rural land withinthe 300 mm isohyet.The site itself is about settlement that was thriving in the Nabataean, Byz- 200 m east-west by 300 m north-south with a consid- antine, and Early/Middle to Later Islamic periods. erable spread of structuralremains and occupational The buildings of the Classical period are arched with debris disturbed by cultivation on the north, south, paving floors and show considerable reuse (fig. 39). and west slopes. Two standing farmhouses of 19th- A nucleus of barrel-vaulted buildings was built on the century date and a Classicalvaulted building survive western edge of the site, probably in the Mamluk in the center of the city. In the southeast corner is a period, although it too was substantially reused in 1993] ARCHAEOLOGY IN JORDAN 507

Fig. 40. Deir Ain Abata.Basilica church and cave of St. Lot from northwest.(Photo K.D. Politis) later times. The material culture remains include fine the biblicalstory of Lot and his two daughters after Nabataean and Byzantine ceramics, and glass tesserae their flight from the destructionof Sodom (Gen. 19). and marble wall-cladding, which suggest the presence The east end of the buildingsurvives to the full height of a Byzantine church. From the post-Abbasid levels of the walls and in places above the cornice where a the domestic, mixed-farming nature of the commu- vaulted roof was evident (fig. 40). nity is reflected in the material culture. The pottery Three mosaic floors were uncovered that were is handmade and shows great variety with very few adorned by geometric, floral, and animal depictions imported or glazed examples. Although this pottery (fig. 41). Eachhad a Byzantine-Greekinscription. The is traditionally interpreted as Ayyubid/Mamluk, it oc- one in the chancel had the words TEAOZ KAAON curs much later. Numerous unglazed lamps, tobacco (literally,Good End) withina crossjustbelow the altar. pipes, grinding stones, and metal artifacts associated This wish, which may be translatedas a wish for our with farming occur (e.g., a sickle-blade, a horseshoe). last days on earth to be good ones, is unique. The The farming nature of the community is also reflected second inscription in the nave is six lines long and in the faunal and botanical evidence-bones of camel, lists names of officials associated with the church, cattle, and sheep/goat, and large amounts of material ending with the date of construction,May A.D. 691. from crop-processing. The last inscriptionis found in front of the entrance Excavation will continue in 1993 while study and to the cave in the northern aisle. It is enclosed by a analysis of the material continues in both Britain and tabulaansata and is four lines long, naming the bishop Jordan. and abbot of the time and dated April A.D. 606. Deir 'Ain 'Abata. Konstantinos D. Politis, Depart- The material found below the mosaic floors be- ment of Medieval and Later Antiquities, British Mu- longed to the fifth and sixth centuries.This evidence, seum, London, reports: along with a number of reused architecturalblocks, Following the discovery of Deir Ain Abata in 1986, some with inscriptions(including one mentioning Lot excavations were carried out in 1988 and 1990-1992 himself), lead to the conclusion that there was an by K.D. Politis, sponsored by the British Museum. earlier building on the same spot. This would have The latest work brought to light a triple-apsed ba- been the church depicted on the sixth-centurymosaic silican church built around the cave associated with map at Madaba.The latest occupation at Deir 'Ain 508 BERT DE VRIES AND PIERRE BIKAI [AJA 97

O iPR IUNF BATA 191s 0 AEA F BASIUCA

Fig. 41. Deir Ain Abata.Basilica floor mosaic.

'Abata,in the late eighth century, was only in the Director-General of Antiquities of Jordan, the Direc- church and adjacent reservoir, which also showed tor of ACOR, the Director of the Middle East Center, evidence of repair and rebuilding. and the Inspector of Ma'an District. During the final season of work on the site in 1992, In addition to the layout of new site areas, field excavations were conducted in the cave where the preparation included the cleanup of damage from tomb lies, in a larger domestic area north of the the 1991 flood and 1992 spring rains and of distur- church and in the late MBA cairn tombs. Conserva- bance (a doorway and several walls) from vandalism. tion and preservation work was also carried out, in- All displaced ashlar blocks were either replaced or cluding the removalof some of the mosaicpavements. stacked for future restoration. Excavation continued A permanent exhibition of the finds was also set up on sites 11.7, V.9, V.6, and VII.7; new excavation was in the Kerak Museum. begun at the eastern wall of the temple proper, in Petra, Temple of the Winged Lions. Philip C. squares designated site VI. 1 and site VI.4. Hammond, Universityof Utah, and DavidJ.Johnson, Site 11.7. This square had been excavated to the Brigham Young University,report: A.D. 363 earthquake destruction level in 1990, and The American Expedition to Petra arrived on site initial effort was expended in that square in the re- on 18 June 1992 for the 15th season of excavationof moval of the heavy fallen debris, down to the next the Temple of the Winged Lions and departed on 4 archaeological soil stratum. August 1992. Acknowledgment of facilitationof the The western sector of site 11.7 produced one of the work of the Expedition is gratefully made to the major architectural finds of the season. A small, orig- 1993] ARCHAEOLOGYIN JORDAN 509

inally arched room appears to have been a shrine, aged walls and other stone structures were under- with a well-built podium surmounted by an oblong taken. The tops of the exposed wallsin the residential plasterobject. The plasterobject retained some traces areas were covered with dry cement and watered, so of paint, but the collapse of the roof after the earth- that cement could penetrate between blocks. Several quake had resulted in complete obliteration of the loose blocks were also cemented in place. original design and painting of the object itself. The The arches in the "liwan"area were also stabilized "shrine"area was subdivided from the main part of by the insertion of small stones and cement covering. room 5 by outset imposts for the arching. This fea- In the slots originally containing ancient wooden ture, although reported from other Nabataeansites, beams for earthquake protection this cement and is unique in the temple architecture thus far recov- stone will be removed and preserved wooden beams ered. again inserted. Numerous column drums were mea- Excavationwas continued below the floors of rooms sured and ashlar blocks laid out in organized fashion 5 and 6 to investigate the dirt floor constructionand in preparationfor future excavation activity. the nature of the original fill. The same Early Naba- Petra, Byzantine Church. Zbigniew T. Fiema, taean fine, thin, red-painted ware appeared in that ACOR, reports: fill as in soundings made below floor strataelsewhere Petra Church Project fieldwork began in late May in the temple complex. This suggests the contempora- 1992, sponsored by ACOR under a grant from neity of construction of the site 11.7 rooms and their USAID. The object of the excavation is a Byzantine use from ca. A.D. 25 until the destructionof 363. The church that was discovered in 1990 by Kenneth W. pottery vessels from those strata were mainly domes- Russell, the first director of the project. His untimely tic, including the usual cooking pots, jars, storejars, death on 10 May 1992 was a shock to the scholarly and lamps. Registered items from this site included community in Jordan and he is much grieved by all 43 objects and 10 coins. The ceramic materialswere who knew him. Subsequently,leadership of the proj- generally in fragmentarycondition as a result of the ect was assumed by Pierre Bikai, with Zbigniew T. earthquake destruction. The American Expedition Fiema, Khairieh Amr, and Robert Schick serving as excavated 41.97 m2 this season. codirectorsin the field. This report covers the results SitesV.9/V.6. Excavation was resumed in the "liwan" of the fieldwork in Petra between late May and late area on the southwesternside of the temple complex, September 1992. During that time, the church, which where massive earthquake fall from the walls and is located on a ridge to the southeast of Jabal Qabr arches continued to be uncovered. This clearance Jumay'ah and overlooks the main colonnaded street continued the exposure of more imposts of the arch- in Petra, was surveyed, mapped, and excavated in 16 ing, over an area of 130 m2. 5 m2 trenches. The following is a short descriptionof Sites VI.I/VI.4. Excavation east of wall 3, outside discoveriesto date. the temple's cella and pronaos areas, uncovered a The church is a tripartite structure, 26.1 m long paved corridor running between the east temple wall (internal) and 15.2 m wide (internal), and has three and a newly excavated wall parallel to it. A drainage apses inscribedin its easternwall with the correspond- canal under the pavement ran under both walls and ing nave and two side aisles. This internal division is drained to the east, though no spout was found. The created by two parallel rows of columns topped with faces of both walls were well dressed, and cement Corinthian, Composite, and Doric capitals, most of outlines preserved the pavement pattern in plan. which had been robbed from Classical-periodstruc- Site VII.7. Dump material from previous excava- tures in Petra. The southern and northern walls of tions was removed from the southeast end of the the church are relativelywell preserved,in some parts newly found corridor in a partial sector of site VII.7, up to 3.5 m above the lowermost foundation courses. in order to define the east wall of the pronaos. This Access to the church proper was effected by three also clarified the design of the pronaos, since cement doors in the western wall, corresponding to the tri- traces along the east side of wall 3 east indicated that partite internal division. Clearance of the southern the corridor floor apparentlyended in a rubble-filled door revealed a swinging-door system with bronze platform, and rose to the floor level of the pronaos, hinges still in situ. The doorway consists of a charred which was paved with thick rectangularpaving slabs. wooden threshold and a marble pavement. The cen- Excavationin this area opened 24 m2. tral entrance is flanked, at least on its northern side, Stabilizationand ReconstructionActivities. Pending by two cornerstones beautifully decorated with initiation of total reconstruction of the temple com- crosses, floral motifs, and five medallions containing plex, preliminary stabilizationof wall tops, pointing human heads enface, all in low relief, evidentlyreused of wall faces, and reconstruction of the major dam- from a Classicalbuilding in Petra. Three side doors 510 BERTDE VRIESAND PIERREBIKAI [AJA 97 in the northern wall allow access to the area north of tory at least in the area of the central apse. It is the church proper. probablethat in its first phase the central apse was a On the western end there is an atrium, probablya wide semicirclepaved with a mosaicfloor, an arrange- partiallyopen court paved with stone slabs, and with ment that was later substantiallymodified by the ad- a colonnade to the interior on at least three sides, dition of a stepped bench (synthronon)and the raising probably supporting a roof along the sides of the of the floor in the front of the apse. That second- atrium. The atrium is at least 13.14 m long (east- phase floor was paved with marble slabs in opus sec- west), and probably 15.2 m wide. On the western side tile, which is also mostly robbed out. Almost all of the of the atrium a large arched building is being exca- upper part of the northern half of the synthrononwas vated; its relationship to the atrium and the church removed after the church'sdestruction. proper is still being investigated. The structure suffered a violent end, possibly de- The internal decoration of the church, as found to stroyed by one of the earthquakesthat occurred dur- date, supportsthe initialassessment made by Kenneth ing the fourth through seventh centuries A.C. The Russell. The mosaics, found in the side aisles, were interior of the church and its atrium are filled with made of multicolored tesserae, and are of both geo- collapse material, including column drums, capitals, metric and figural designs. A fragment uncovered in ashlarblocks, rooftiles, and charredwooden members one square portraysa man with a basket on his back, of the ceiling and roof superstructure.In some areas, a bird on his shoulder,and a staff in his hand, perhaps however, the stone tumble and the associated soil a personificationof Autumn. Although the uncover- matrix seem to continue all the way from the surface ing of the rest of the mosaics awaits completion of down to the floor level, while in other areasthe tumble excavationsin the church's interior, it seems that the can be easily divided into two layers separated by a mosaicsare in a good state of preservation. thick sand layer.The atrium is almost entirely devoid The arches between the columns of the interior, of charred wood or ash. Similarly,the deposition of and/or the ceiling, were probablydecorated with mo- rooftiles and charred wooden beams suggests a dif- saics, made entirely of glass tesserae (some gilded) or ferent collapsescenario from one part of the structure of mixed glass and stone/marblecubes. A particularly to another. It is probable that in some parts of the dense scatter of glass mosaic cubes was found in the church the initial destruction effected a partial col- area immediatelyin front of the centralapse, probably lapse of the wooden superstructure and associated resulting from the collapse of a semi-dome decorated rooftiles, and of the columns and upper parts of the with mosaics. The central and lower parts of the walls. In other places, the abundance of rooftiles is church walls were covered with light grayish-cream notable throughout the entire depth of collapse, and wall plaster. Although all plaster fragments found to the tiles are surprisinglyclose to the modern surface date in situ are unpainted, numerous fragments level. It is possiblethat after the initial destructionthe painted in red, blue, brown, and yellow were found church was left derelict, with a partialskeleton of the in the collapse fill of the church interior. superstructurestill above the walls; a subsequent di- At least some parts of the nave floor were originally saster and/or a gradual process of natural decay paved with rectangular marble slabs. In one of the brought down the remaining roof and ceiling parts squares, however, which includes the northern side together with the wallsof the church. The differential of the central nave, the pavement had been robbed deposition of the material inside the church proper out, perhaps immediatelyafter the initial destruction may be associatedwith extensive subsequentscaveng- of the church, although the marble stylobate of the ing for reusable materials. row of columns separating the nave from the north- There may have been a limited squatteroccupation ern aisle is still in situ. Immediatelyabove the level of of the churchafter the initialcollapse, especially along the mortar bedding for the marble slabs, which had the southern wall of the southern aisle. Notable are been robbed out, is a layer of ashy deposit mixed with several large storage vessels, the remains of which fragmentsof mortar,chunks of the mosaicsthat must were found againstthe wall, ca. 30 cm above the floor have fallen from the ceiling or from arches between level; these are either an original part of the church the columns, and fragments of charred wood. endowment or evidence of subsequent squatter oc- Although dates for the church's construction and cupation. The presence of four horizontal holes destructionand/or abandonmentrequire full analysis through the surface of the southern wall in one area, of the excavated material, it is already clear that a which could have had horizontal supports inserted, majorremodeling took place during the church'shis- as well as the existence of charred wooden material 1993] ARCHAEOLOGYIN JORDAN 511

Fig. 42. Wu'eira.Perspective view of fortress.

(planks rather than beams or trusses?)directly over volves a historian(F. Cardini),archaeologist (G. Van- the mosaic floor in the squares of the southern aisle, nini), petrologist (R. Franchi), and architect (L. may point to some sort of benches or shelves initially Marino). built alongside the southern wall of the church. The fortress was analyzed from the point of view The small finds, to date, include at least 40 coins, of the various specialistsworking together as a team. hundreds of iron nails, some of them still joined to The site's topography is characterizedby calcareous pieces of wood, numerous metal objects, and many cliffs of varying height, which provided a naturally fragments of glass flasks and window panes. An out- defensive location attractive to settlers even before standing find from the area south of the church wall Crusadertimes (fig. 42). Although the internal func- is an engraved amethyst portraying a bearded head tional relationships of the elements of the fortress (of a deity?)in profile, accompaniedby an abbreviated remain to some extent still uncertain, it is possible to inscription.Large numbers of marble fragments, in- identify some of the settlement's characteristicsand cluding several of a large panel decorated with clas- particularlytrace its militarylayout. sicizing motifs in low relief, were also collected. Topographical surveys have been carried out also Excavationsin squares south of the southern wall on other forts in the area. Analysisof the morpholog- of the structure have revealed evidence of extensive ical featuresof the sites by recording the relationships occupationof the site prior to the constructionof the between the naturalrock outcrops and the settlement church; there are well-defined floors and walls asso- structures has demonstrated sophisticated and effi- ciated with painted Nabataean pottery of the first cacioussolutions to the requirementsof militarystrat- through third centuries. Below those, and on the same egy. An importantaspect of investigationin the field level as the church's lowermost foundation courses, was the systematic surveying and recording of the an occupational surface is associated with Late Hel- surviving standing structures (towers, fortress walls, lenistic imported wares. The area immediatelyto the chapel ruins, service rooms), of those cut directly out north of the church is occupied by an enormous stone of the rock (walkwaysand flat areas, cut ditches and tumble within which upper courses of walls can be barriers, bunkers, canals and reservoirs), and the recognized. The excavation of that area should pro- traces that emerged during excavation. The general vide evidence of structureseither associatedwith the plan, not yet complete, differs from the plans of church or preceding it in date. Musil and of Savignacand highlights the creativede- Petra, Wu'eira. Luigi Marino, Universita degli sign of the settlement systemand its adaptationto the Studi, Florence, reports: local terrain. The project was started in 1987, sponsored by the The fortress of Wu'eira presents an elaborate case universities of Florence, Bari, and Urbino, and in- study of watersystems (collection, transport, and stor- 512 BERTDE VRIESAND PIERREBIKAI [AJA97 age), which must have represented a great challenge irregularbasalt boulders to roughly hewn stones and to the inhabitants, given the nature of the site. We well-madeashlar lime- and sandstoneblocks. The site have found and surveyed very interestingtraces of an measuresroughly 800 m (east-west)by 450 m (north- aqueduct hewn out of the cliffside, collection wells south), and thus belongs to the group of largest sites (sometimeswith a sophisticatedoverflow system), sed- in Jordan. The whole area has been divided into iment tanks for rainwater,cisterns wholly or partially "complexes,"i.e., distinguishable intra-site units or hewn out of the rock, and tanks used for urban and isolated structures (46 in total). Each complex has agriculturaldistribution of water. been described, photographed, and the surface ce- Of primaryimportance is the recording of the var- ramics collected (1,238 sherds in total). The most ious phenomena of deterioration and the numerous importantcomplexes include C 14/15, probablya large instances of structuraldegeneration. Such investiga- caravanseraipreviously identified as a "temple";C16, tions will serve to formulate conservation and site a Roman bathhouse; C36, a city quarter occupied by development plans for the ruins of the fortress. several monumental structures;and C2, which con- Tuwaneh. ZbigniewT. Fiema, ACOR, reports: tains a superbly preserved subterraneanmulticham- BetweenJanuary and June 1992, the author, as the bered tomb. ACOR Senior Fellow, conducted archaeological re- Tuwaneh and its environs were already frequented search in Jordan, funded through a USIA grant. The or inhabitedduring prehistorictimes. Severalsamples explicit goals of the researchwere to assess the spatial of Middle Palaeolithic(ca. 40,000 B.P.) through Neo- and temporal occupation at Tuwaneh, a Nabataean lithic-period stone implements have been collected through Byzantine-periodsite in southernJordan, to from the surface. The site shows little pre-Hellenistic analyze architecturalremains on the site, to survey urban evidence, and Iron Age pottery collected is the local road network, and to interpret the finds much less than 1%of the total sample. The urbanistic within a broad framework of the culture history of beginnings of Tuwaneh can probablybe dated to the southernJordan during the Classicalperiod. firstcentury B.C., and the prosperityof the settlement Despite its impressive appearance, Tuwaneh has could have indeed been a result of its location and received only a few scholarlyvisits and brief descrip- the inhabitants'participation in long-distance trade, tions, namely by Brunnow and Domaszewski,A. Mu- further enhanced by the constructionof the Via Nova sil, N. Glueck,and S. Hart. The settlementis generally Traiana. Numerous Nabataean painted ware sherds identified with Thana/Thoana of Ptolemy, and with of that century were found in lower deposits exposed Thornia of the Tabula Peutingeriana, as the major by the road construction and bulldozer slope-cuts. Roman highway in Jordan, the Via Nova Traiana, Fine examples of the first- through fourth-century passesthrough the site. Thana/Thorniawas not men- A.C. Nabataean painted and plain wares are also tioned by either the Notitia Dignitatumor the Bir es- abundant. Imported wares include Eastern terra sig- SabaEdict. The early Arab historiansdo not mention illata A and B, Western terra sigillata (Arezzo ware), Tuwaneh in their post-seventh century accounts of and Late Roman Red ware. Syria-Palestine. The settlement prospered in the Byzantineperiod, The site of Tuwaneh is located ca. 5 km south of although Late Byzantinewares are very few, and tran- the road between Tafila and Jurf ed-Darawish,on the sitionaltypes into the Umayyadperiod are practically slopes of two hills separatedby the Wadiet-Tuwaneh. non-existent. Although the final demise of the Clas- Although no natural springs were located during the sical town cannot be fully understood without exca- site survey,numerous cisternson the site imply exten- vation, it is highly probable that the settlement sive water conservation methods employed by the considerablydeclined or ceased to exist toward the inhabitants of ancient Thana. No modern housing end of the Late Byzantine period. The evidence of constructionexists on the site, yet great damage was Ayyubid-Mamluk pottery on the site indicates that done by the constructionof a new road leading south, some partsof the Classicaltown had been reinhabited toward Gharandal,with a total disregard for archae- and some ruins consolidated. The later periods are ological remains. poorly attested on the site. An interesting feature is an almost complete lack of Via Nova Traiana Survey.The surveyed section of architecturalpieces at Tuwaneh, which so often "lit- the Roman road is one of the best preserved in Jor- ter" surfaces of Classicalsettlements. Only three col- dan. Yet, the road and archaeologicalremains along umn drums, an architravepart and severaldoorjambs it face almost certain extinction through modern (in addition to those in situ) were noticed. The archi- human activities. Many sections of the road were tecture of the site is almost entirely of stone-from exposed unexpectedly through bulldozing, and mile- 1993] ARCHAEOLOGY IN JORDAN 513

stones displaced and overturned. At least in two cases taean through Late Romanperiod (firstcentury B.C.- the author was able to record more milestoneson the late third century A.C.), associatedwith an intensive ground than the German scholars did at the turn of long-distancecommercial traffic and reflected in the the century. urban growth of Tuwaneh, with evidence of imports To ensure a full junction with the area surveyed by and the well-maintainedand guarded road system. the Wadi el-Hasa Project,which had tracked the Via The EarlyByzantine period (fourth/fifthcentury) was Nova down to ca. 10 km south of the Wadi el-Hasa, also marked by well-developed settlement patterns, several sites already visited by B. MacDonald were reflecting the unparalleled expansion into marginal resurveyed.The survey was completed at a point ca. lands and intensive agriculturalproduction as well as 5 km south of Tuwaneh, in the area of Jebel Daba. the continuityof interregionaltrade. During the later The total length of the Via Nova surveyed by our Byzantine period (fifth/seventh century), however, team was ca. 21 km, with still ca. 10 km of the Roman southern Jordan experienced an economic decline road to be surveyedin the future, all the way to Dosak marked by a gradual decline in urbanism, growing to the south. All sites located within ca. 100 m of isolation of settlement clusters, the abandonment of either side of the road were described and photo- militaryinfrastructure, and a gradual disappearance graphed, and surface material (including lithics) was of interregionalmeans of communication.Some sec- collected. tions of Trajan'sroad had probablybecome defunct, The ancient engineers clearly preferred straight while others (closer to the still existing larger settle- sections; the road has a more northerly course than ments like Tuwaneh) were still used in traffic, main- the modern track that closely follows it, yet all facili- tained and guarded by attendant militarystructures. tating terrainfeatures were skillfullyutilized. In many Future studies to be conducted by the author on the places the width of the road is clearly marked by its site and in the environs of Tuwaneh are expected to curbstonesand varies from 5.90 to 6.20 m. The cen- strengthen these conclusions. tral ridge line and/or the original pavement, consist- Humeima. John P. Oleson, Universityof Victoria, ing of flat basalt or limestone boulders, is often well Khairieh Amr, DAJ, and Robert Schick, ACOR, re- preserved too. port: In total, 42 sites were recorded. Besides Tuwaneh The second season of the Humeima Excavation and three larger forts, the majority (14) were small Projecttook place from 20 June through 30 July 1992. structures (watchtowers).Also, 49 milestones were The project was once again funded by the Social recorded,in associationwith 21 shaft fragments.Most Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Can- of the milestone inscriptions were badly weathered ada, and support for excavation of the church was and illegible. An interesting find was a painted mile- provided by Dumbarton Oaks. The project director stone, dated to Constantine, thus probablythe latest was John P. Oleson, and codirectors were Khairieh in the whole area. The letters of the inscriptionwere Amr and Robert Schick. directly painted on the surface instead of being chis- Excavationin field B100 in 1991 had uncovered eled out first and painted over, as was the usual prac- the eastern end of a large Early Islamic complex tice. centered around an earlier apse. Further excavation The pottery collected is predominantlyNabataean and surface clearing in 1992 revealed a great many through Late Byzantine. Numerous sherds date to more details of the plan of the complex and provided the first century A.C., indicating that this route was information concerning chronology. It now seems alreadyused prior to the constructionof Trajan'sroad likely that the apse in room E formed part of a Byz- (i.e., well before A.D. 106-114). The Late Romanand antine church, one of the nave piers of which is visible Early Byzantine periods are best represented. Al- in room F. This structure was cleared out in the though Late Byzantine sherds were also found, their Umayyadperiod and subdividedinto a large structure frequency seems to decrease with increasingdistance with a south-facing courtyard, 20 m wide by 30 m from the main settlementof the area (Tuwaneh).The long. At some later date, this complex was extended watchtowerslocated farthest north and south of Tu- 10 m to the west, and two more rooms were added waneh, within the survey area, did not produce any along the north wall. Later still, another room was Late Byzantine sherds. added outside the west wall. All the constructionsub- Conclusions.The results of the survey of Tuwaneh sequent to the Byzantineperiod seems to be Umayyad and the Via Nova Traiana in the area generally sup- or Abbasid in date, although there is some ceramic the port author's prior theoretical assumptions.The evidence that parts of the complex were occupied as area experienced relative prosperity from the Naba- late as Ottoman times. The function of this complex 514 BERT DE VRIES AND PIERRE BIKAI [AJA 97 remains uncertain, although the numerous small Byzantineperiod and provided evidence for intensive rooms, the large amount of mammal and fish bones, occupation even of this peripheral area of Auara in and the recovery of coarse wares and tabun ovens the Middle Nabataeanperiod. It is hoped that further suggest domestic habitation. excavation in 1993 will reveal the character of this The question still remains of the character of the earlier occupation and the relationship between the structuresthat formed the core of the mound at the later structureand the cistern to the east. east end of the B100 complex. Probes in room B in The clearing of the surface of the so-called "Cara- 1991 and in room G in 1992 revealed the presence of vanserai"in F103, and three probes in the structure very substantialwalls deep below the surface, possibly yielded very unexpected information. The structure Byzantine in date, but extending into Nabataeanlev- is much larger than firstthought (approximately46 x els. In addition, excavation through the Islamiclevels 61 m, instead of ca. 45 x 45 m), with several rows of in the apse exposed a Nabataean level with a zigzag small rooms organized around a central courtyard. mudbrickwall, adjacentto an enigmaticcross-shaped In addition, the complex now appears to be Umayyad feature built of well-cut but reused blocks. The func- or Abbasidin date, and the presence of painted wall tion of the structuresto which these walls belonged is plaster suggests that it may not have been purely still to be determined. It is hoped that excavation in utilitarianin character.It is at least possible that this 1993 will answer some of these questions. structure-located on a very prominent ridge above Excavationin the church (C101) in 1992 provided the settlement center, close to the hypothetical path a great deal of new information about that structure. of the Via Nova-may be the Abbasid palace known The nave has now been entirely cleared, the founda- from texts to have been located at Humeima. A major tion has been probed in the Northeast Room (sac- effort will be made in 1993 to elucidate the character risty?),and the entrance room along the north side and phasing of this building, which at the very least wall has been opened up. It is now clear that there was one of the larger at Early Islamic Auara. wasan importantupper story made accessibleby stairs Although excavationin the habitationarea has not immediately adjacent to the north door, and at the uncovered any well-defined Nabataean structures southwest corner of the south nave. In addition, other than the cisterns, aqueduct, and reservoirs,the probes through the pavement in the nave revealed sampling of the rock-cut tombs carried out in 1992 that the six crosses carved on several floor slabs indi- revealed that there was indeed occupation at the site cated the presence of burials. Five undisturbedsixth- in the first century B.C. and A.C., as the literarytexts century burials were recovered-including a very tall suggest. No undisturbedburials were found, but rich and heavilybuilt male in a wooden coffin, and a young samples of ceramicsand other burial goods-includ- girl buried with her ivory doll and other toys. A ing the first Nabataeancoin found in the Humeima shrunken but otherwise well-preserved brain was excavations-provided useful evidence for the chro- found within the skull of one of the interments. The nology of the tombs. Some distinctionscan alreadybe human and cultural remains will provide valuable made between Early Nabataean and Late Byzantine information on the character of the Christianpopu- tomb design, but further sampling in 1993 should lation of Auara (ancient Humeima) in the sixth cen- elucidate the chronologicaldevelopment of tomb de- tury. This year's excavations also revealed the pres- sign and burial habits, and the evolution of the ne- ence of a series of rooms built along the south flank cropolis. of the church at a period subsequent to the original Finally, Wil and Ellie Myers visited the site for a construction. These rooms seem to have been used week and made aerial photographs with their teth- for non-ecclesiasticalfunctions such as tool storage ered balloon system.The photographshave provided and animal barns. Excavation in 1993 will focus on data invaluablefor the production of a detailed plan defining the character of the entrance room on the of the site and of the structuresvisible on the surface. north of the church and of the other rooms around A third season of excavationis planned for 1993. the periphery of the structure. 'Aqaba-Ma'anSurvey. WilliamJobling, University In field F102, this season's excavation has revealed of Sydney, reports: further details of the complicated construction and Researchand analysisof the 10 years of fieldwork occupation history of the large, Early Islamic dwell- completed in the Aqaba-Ma'anArchaeological and ing. The interiorof the structureunderwent extensive Epigraphic Survey have continued at the University subdivisionand rebuilding in the later phases of oc- of Sydney. Analysis of the Pre-pottery Neolithic site cupation, including some renovations as late as the of Jebel Umm el-Muqur has produced a preliminary Ottoman period. Penetration to the lower levels of study of a blade-based assemblage, which indicates occupationrevealed several unexpected burialsof the that the site is similar to PPN sites from other arid 1993] ARCHAEOLOGY IN JORDAN 515

Fig. 43. Aqaba-Ma'ansurvey. Thamudic inscription. regions in the Sinai and Negev. The analysisof finds light on the occupation of the Hisma in the Roman atJebel Umm el-Muqur,which is situatedto the south through Early Islamic periods. In conjunction with of Wadi Ramm, shows that it is similar to the docu- the Video Archive, a preliminary version of a font mented site of 'Ain Abu Nekheileh in Wadi Ramm, suitable for recording Thamudic inscriptions for use and to 20 other small stone-circlesites datable to the on Macintosh computers has been created. PPN. It also compares favorably with a large PPN As a tool for the study of Nabataean inscriptions of stone-circlesite at Jebel Rabigh to the north of Wadi the Hisma and at neighboring Petra, a provisional Ramm describedby Vianello. lexicon of Nabataean Aramaic was compiled. The Further work has been done on the lithic technol- lexicon is based on the pioneering work of Cantineau ogy of the area, specificallyethnoarchaeological anal- (1930-1932) and other glossaries of Nabataean pub- ysis of grinding stones. The repertoire of grinding lished since then. This computer-based study, entitled stones recorded throughout the area was studied in Nablex, is now in draft form. the light of the range of types of grinders and their The preparation of inscriptions recorded during respective uses by the modern Howeitat Bedouin of the decade of fieldwork resulted in the discovery of a the Hisma basin. These domestic artifacts play an new addition to the list of divine names of the pre- importantpart in the preparationof cereals for ani- Islamic North Arabian pantheon. At least 23 inscrip- mal consumption and indirectly shed light on the tions are addressed to the deity RB SQM, "Rab Saqm." discussionsof the history of the ecology of the area. These inscriptions follow what appears to be an estab- Informationgathered indicatesa significantvariation lished formulaic pattern. An example of this is the in the types of grinding stones and their uses. Patterns following: of use and discardof grinding stones in such pastoral societies appear to be quite complex. This study will RB . SQM . SRR. B. MTMN . HTT. KLL present the detailsof this aspectof human subsistence strategies in the marginal desert areas of southern A tentative translation of this inscription is: Lord Jordan. SQM gladden MTMN, he engraved it all. Of the 23 Research into the North Arabian-Thamudic(fig. inscriptions recorded nearly all follow the formulaic 43) and Nabataean epigraphic remains of the area pattern RB SQM SRR B.... A couple of inscriptions has continued with the aid of the Aqaba-Ma'anVideo vary the formula with the insertion of PN before the Archive (1980-1988). These archives preserve new verb form. The title RB is well attested in North lexical and onomastic items that shed considerable Arabian and Nabataean inscriptions. The root SQM, 516 BERT DE VRIES AND PIERRE BIKAI [AJA 97

Fig. 44. Ayla. Area F, looking to the southeast.Room A is in the foreground. however, still eludes a definite identification. It is The trenches reveal the complexities introduced by possiblya plural form of the Semiticroot SWQ,which modern disturbances. The recent fence marks the means "leg"or "shank,"as well as "street"or "mar- edge of the sidewalk and street. About 2 m from the ketplace."Because all these inscriptions have been fence is a modern pipeline (ca. 80 cm wide and 1-1.2 found on the walls or screes around the inselbergsof m deep); antecedent to the pipeline was a broad ditch, the Hisma, it could be a geographical term for the again running parallel to the street. Both features passages between them. A tentative translation may contained thoroughly modern artifacts. be "Lordof the narrowplaces." This may suggest that The 1992 season excavated a 10 x 20 m trench the title RB SQM was a desert sobriquetfor Dushara. from late April into May (fig. 44). The team consisted of five students from the University of Jordan and EARLY MODERN, MODERN Yarmouk University and Romel Greyb as DAJ rep- Aqaba/'Ayla.Donald Whitcomb,The Oriental In- resentative. This small season could not have been stitute, Universityof Chicago, reports: accomplished without the active assistance of Safwan One of the results of the 1987 excavationson the Tell of the DAJ, Pierre and Patricia Bikai of ACOR, site of EarlyIslamic Ayla was a city plan that included and Bassam Kakish and Bassam Noueiran of the four gates. The northeast,or Syrian,gate was posited Aqaba Region Authority. Funding was provided un- to lie beneath the modern street and sidewalkof the der a USAID grant. Corniche Road. The Ayla OrientationCenter will be The 1992 excavations produced detailed strati- constructedalmost on the exact location of the ruins graphic information in the context of an important of the original Syrian Gate. It is to be a replica of the architectural sector of the city of Early Islamic Ayla. gate and two flanking towers and will introduce the The chronological framework for this occupation is visitor to the history and archaeology of Aqaba. In from ca. 650 to the early 12th century (ca. 1116). A preparationfor its construction the DAJ and ACOR historical reconstruction is possible due to the detailed began archaeologicalinvestigations in the fall of 1990. studies of the ceramics from earlier seasons. It should The need to complete these prompted the 1992 ex- be emphasized that other artifacts, particularly some cavationsreported on here. 40 coins, possibly non-auric, remain to be analyzed. 1993] ARCHAEOLOGY IN JORDAN 517

Fig. 45. Ayla. Area F, plan of excavations.

Phase A (650-750/Rashidun and Umayyad). Exca- ceramics, the Mahesh wares (post-700). There are vation uncovered the inner face of the doorway and clear architectural manifestations: new walls, floors, flanking tower entrances of the Syrian Gate just inside and occasionally complete reorganization of architec- the north balk of the trenches (figs. 44-45). Although tural space. The two sides of the Syrian street have this leaves most of the gate and tower covered under radically differing histories. While the northwest side the modern sidewalk and streets, numerous parallels remained virtually unaffected, the southeast side was with other gates allow an increasingly detailed recon- totally razed and two new rooms built upon the re- struction. Most dramatically, the line of the inner face mains of the original walls. On this latter side, the city of the city wall is now known. Furthermore, its con- wall ceased to exist, at least on its inner face. Not only struction details correspond to the city wall elsewhere, do rooms B and C apparently cross the city wall but particularly the wide footing of the foundation. The their doorways, facing to the north, indicate an ar- arch of the doorway into tower 7 gives, for the first chitectural complex built without regard to the for- time, the height of the passageway (surprisingly low, mer limits of the city. This reinforces the implications ca. 1.5 m). The jamb indicates the precise positioning of the Square Tower of the Sea Gate, excavated in of the Syrian Gate. 1989, that the Early Abbasid period was a period of The Syrian street was limited by a stone wall to expansion and vigorous reorganization. either side and behind each tower was a large room. Phase C (850-950/Middle Abbasid). This century is An interior arch may have provided a transition from difficult to distinguish from the preceding phase. Ar- a vestibule into the town itself (an architectural par- chitectural evidence suggests continuities from earlier allel for such an arch may be seen near the Egyptian patterns. On the other hand, ceramic assemblages are Gate). marked by the presence of more sophisticated, im- Phase B (750-850/Early Abbasid). This phase is ported glazed wares; ceramics thus presage attributes anticipated by the introduction of a new corpus of of the subsequent century. 518 BERTDE VRIESAND PIERREBIKAI [AJA97 Phase D (950-1050/Late Abbasidor Fatimid).The Sonpc Mkdul highest layer of the Syrianstreet contained, amid late ceramics, a hoard of 32 dinars. Preliminaryanalysis of these coins Fatimid and North African suggests \ I issues datable to the first of the (Sijilmasa?) quarter K----- E K A 11th century. One might speculatethat this purse was lost by a Maghrebipilgrim, possiblyduring the attacks $E z~~~~~~~~A on Aylaby the BanuJarrah in 1024. The rooms southeast of the gate have hearths and midden debris suggesting a change in function of this building. This parallels developments in room A, where midden debris underlies late walls, also in I associationwith a hearth. These in the char- changes A acter of deposition suggest two possible interpreta- L. > )4 K : :: - "A tions: the area was more residential in nature, and

the level of prosperity (implied in sanitationand or- EVOLUTIONOF NEW MNIODELS der) had abated. Not only was the street increasingly narrow,but a portion was given over to a drain. The

0. to the and 1., . ) archaeology may be said reflect political .r ( social vagariesof this troubled century. Phase E (1050-1116/Fatimid). This last period is the most difficult to assess, due to the combined fac- SlbiPrL COUTYVARDIIOUSK tors of the street, pipeline, ditch, and 1991 excavations. Wallsattributable to this period, chiefly in and near room A, show a tendency to tilt dramatically. This may be due to subsidence(and poor construction techniques),but it may also be evidence of the impact of the 1068 earthquake. The 1992 excavations in area F have provided the precise location of the northeast city wall, the Syrian Gate,and its two flankingtowers. Although the Syrian '-_, L(--, i Ct I\ Gate may have functioned as a gate only in the earliest O--' RTARDO-SE period, the Syrian street remained an important av- COURTVAROHOUSE enue for the city. This was one of four axial streets TlirC .AIIOV 'lKSE that led to the Central Pavilion. This urban directly Fig.46. Taibeh.Evolution of housemodels. plan changed radically,probably in phase B (the Early Abbasid). The Syrian street was blocked by an im- in spite of speculationsthat this might have been the mense structure, the Large Enclosure, itself appar- CongregationalMosque and Dar al-Imara.Only fur- ently surrounded by open passages.The Syrianstreet ther excavationwill confirm this hypothesis. led directly to one of the entrances to this building, MODERN approached by stairs and a platform. After the excavations in 1987, it was clear that the Taibeh. Leen Fakhoury,University of Jordan, re- location of the Syrian Gate had been seriously dis- ports: turbed by modern activities.The gate and its towers Taibeh was chosen for a scheme of vitalizationsince remainobscured by the CornicheRoad; we now know it represents a prototype of a fading national vernac- that the gate has been destroyed since the eighth ular heritage,threatened to be lost. An intactexample century. Aside from the benefit of a record of its of a Late Ottoman mountain village in southern Jor- precise location, further evidence confirms architec- dan, Taibeh provides a splendid opportunity for cre- tural and stratigraphicpatterns alreadylearned from ating a tourist village attraction near the ancient the other three gates excavated. The Syrian street Nabataeancity of Petra. held its treasure; but, more importantly,it indicates The el-Liathneh first came to Taibeh some 120 the promise of the secrets of the Large Enclosure. years ago and settled in the caves, El-Tor. They built This neutral label was given to the building in 1987, simple stone houses to house themselves and their 1993] ARCHAEOLOGYIN JORDAN 519 stockduring the winter and to store their crops during in the lives of settled and nomadic populations alike the summer.The resulting village plan resemblesthat were considered in detail. Researchis now being con- of many small villages spread across the mountainsof ducted for a study tentativelytitled Transjordan'sHis- rural lands, the nucleus being near the fields. toryduring the 19th Century. Typical farmhouses were constructed of local ma- GENERAL terials-stone, hay, and mud. The simple module of a villager'shouse evolved accordingto new needs and Museum Exchange Program. Joseph A. Greene, the prosperityof the villagers (fig. 46). New patterns HarvardSemitic Museum, reports: evolved: the two-bayhouse, in which two arched walls In October through December 1991, the Jordan were used to enlarge the space; and the courtyard ArchaeologicalMuseum in Amman and the Semitic house (hosh),which is a later development influenced Museumof HarvardUniversity participated in a staff by relationswith surrounding villagesand towns. The exchange program sponsored by the American As- hosh,or the courtyard, became the transitionalspace sociation of Museums/InternationalCouncil of Mu- away from the public pathway.The arcade house is a seums. This Jordanian-Americanexchange was part special case of a "grandhouse," in which a partly of the 1990-1991 round of AAM/ICOM-sponsored covered transitionalspace (arcade)is designed to con- museum personnel exchanges conducted under nect the rooms opening onto the hosh.Another vari- the "International Partnerships among Museums" ation, the three-bay house, is characterizedby rooms (IPAM) exchange program. The exchange partners aligned along both sides of a longitudinal centralized were Joseph A. Greene, from the Harvard Semitic outdoor space. Museum, and Siham Balqar of the Jordan Archaeo- The clustering of houses was a direct response to logical Museum.Each spent in turn approximatelysix scarcityof level space in the mountainousterrain and weeks at their respective partner'sinstitution. to social patterns and modes of privacy.Related fac- In Amman, in conjunction with an ongoing coop- tors are an economic system based on agriculture, erative project between the DAJ and the Jordanian availabilityof constructionmaterials, traditional tech- Friends of Archaeology to revise and reinstall labels nologies, and climate. for the Jordan Archaeological Museum exhibits, Mud-walled and roofed houses can be very effi- Greene worked with the museum staff on the reor- cient, but need continuous maintenance.The deteri- ganizationof the Bronze and Iron Age display cases. oration of the roof and its collapse lead to further This involved verifying the provenance and descrip- deterioration of the walls. Another major factor tion of every artifact on display and cross-checking threatening the traditional buildings is the fact that publishedreferences of the artifacts.The EBA exhib- villagers have deserted the old part and moved out- its were rearrangedto reunite finds from various EB ward to create the new village of Taibeh. This move tomb groups from Jericho and El Husn that had was accompaniedby the introduction of poured con- previously not been displayed together. New labels crete walls and roofs, and has been facilitatedby the were prepared for these cases. In addition, a full recent addition of concrete blocksto the local building dossier of published information about all the dis- technology. played artifactsin the Bronze and Iron Age cases was Majorintervention is needed to preserve the older compiled from excavationreports and other sources. village. Development of the area for tourism could This dossier was deposited at the museum where it involve rehabilitation of the earlier houses in Taibeh. will be availablefor consultationby researchersusing Pioneer Farmers. Raouf S. Abujaber,Amman, re- the museum'sdisplay collections. ports: At Harvard, Balqar devoted her time chiefly to a Information was gathered by R. Abujaber during preliminary cataloguing of the Semitic Museum's the '60s and '70s about the agriculturalcycle, crops large Near Easternethnographic collection, which was and their yield in relation to seed, the effect of yearly accumulatedin the late 19th and early 20th centuries. rainfall on these crops, and water collection and use Except for a portion of the costume collection, the in areas of dry-farming Jordan. During the late '70s museum's Near Eastern ethnographic holdings had a survey of the lands of al-Yaduda, the Abujaber never before been surveyed. 10 km estate, south of Amman, was carried out in Conservation of Sites. Luigi Marino, Universita close cooperation with Henk Franken of the Univer- degli Studi, Florence, reports: of Leiden. Pioneers sity ofJordan (Diss. Oxford Univ.) The main aim of the research is to clarify the in- was in published 1989, in which the historical,social, vestigative methodology and the procedures for in- and economic factors that played an important role tervening in buildings, especially those reduced to a 520 B. DE VRIES AND P. BIKAI, ARCHAEOLOGY IN JORDAN

I Lw

P-a

- 11

7., ,f.

. ' 4

t:;;F

Fig. 47. Elevationsof tower at Umm Er-Rasasshowing condition of masonry.

ruined state. We have used the general term "inter- which to carry out systematicand repeated analysis vention" to include all kinds of activity such as con- over time, with a view to defining reliable diagnostic servation, cleaning, integration of parts, symbolic criteria valid not only in individual cases but also reconstruction, replacement, abandonment, replica- applicableto a wide range of sites. From analysis of tion, temporary and permanent strengthening, pro- the data gathered to date, the general state of conser- tection during digging, water and vegetation control, vation may be considered adequate, but worsening of protection from atmospheric agents, museum devel- local conditionsalso gives rise to serious concern. The opment both on and off site, reuse, pollution control, lack of systematic maintenance of sites gives most and protection from vandalism.These investigations cause for concern in Jordan. form part of a more general research project into The most frequent interventionshave concentrated "archaeologicalrestoration" embarked upon in 1984 on the large-scalereplacement of a few ancient fea- by some universitiesand culturalheritage institutions. tures, which in the majority of cases seem entirely The conservation of ruined buildings is part of the unjustified.Only broad-rangingand coordinatedpro- wider discipline of restoration but with its own re- grams of "ordinarymaintenance" preceded by pre- quirements of specializedexpertise. ventive measurescould avoid or at least limit the risk Of particular importance to our research, which of degenerative processes reemerging in the future. ranges over a very wide geographical area, are the Attention to such efforts has been absent from almost investigationscarried out in Jordan. The main rea- all of the past archaeologicalprojects in Jordan, con- sons for this are 1) the presence of very important stitutinga dangerous threat to the Kingdom'scultural sites and buildings, even though little is sometimes heritage. known outside their local area (fig. 47); 2) the existence of environmental conditions that hasten dete- DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY rioration; 3) the continuance of nomadic and per- CALVIN COLLEGE manent settlement, using traditional materials and GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN 49546 building techniques;and 4) the presence of numerous [email protected] foreign archaeologicalexpeditions, each with its own characteristicsand methodology of intervention. AMERICAN CENTER OF ORIENTAL RESEARCH After general reconnaissancewe chose some areas BOX 2470 to be considered as privileged "observatories"in AMMAN, JORDAN