OCCIDENT & ORIENT NecosLeCfen of the Genman Pnotestant Institute of. AachaeoLogy in Amman THE GERMAN PROTESTANT INSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGY IN AMMAN (DEI) News and Changes This is the sixth volume of our News­ Goethe-Institute, Amman, the Vorder- Vol. 6, No. 1&2, September 2001 letter Occident &. Orient, but the first asiatisches Museum, Berlin, the Depart­ CONTENTS volume under a new editorship. As ment of Antiquities of Jordan, Amman, most of our valued readers already and Yarmouk University, Irbid. • Late Roman Belt Buckles 2 know, Dr. Hans-Dieter Bienert left the The annual "Lehrkurs" (a group of institute and Jordan at the end of March • Qanawat 3 scholars holding a travel scholarship 2001. He was succeeded by Dr. Ro­ from the DEI) spent three weeks in Jor­ • Words of Appreciation to land Lamprichs, who took office in April dan. They were guided to many ar­ Dr. Hans-Dieter Bienert 6 and was introduced by the church on chaeological sites by the director of the • Welcome to Dr. Roland Lamprichs 7 September, 16th 2001. DEI-Amman and enjoyed the assistance • Fellows in residence 8 The institute's varied activities since and support of several organizations, • Farewell to Mr. Achilles 9 then have included, for example, lo­ authorities and institutes within Jordan. • Resafa (Syria) 9 gistical support for several visiting scho­ A further, very important event in • Digital terrain models examples 12 lars and excavation teams working in recent months was the participation of • Celebrating the Amman Institute 13 Tell Zera" a and Umm Qais, among the institute in the Eighth International • The Jordan Valley Village Project 1 5 others. In cooperation with the Orient Conference on the History and Archae­ • The Biblical Archaeological Section of the German Archaeological Institute of Wuppertal 18 ology of Jordan. It was held at the Uni­ Institute (DAI) and the Department of versity of Sydney under the patronage • Finnish Jabal Harun Project 2000 19 Antiquities (DoA), the signposting in of HRH Prince al-Hassan Bin Talal and • Early Neolithic Gobekli Tepe 21 Umm Qais was al­ HE Dr. Marie Bashir, • Al-Bassah Give near Iraq al-Amir 23 most completed by Governor of New • Conference: Fifth Millenium of the the time of printing South Wales. The Invention of Writing 24 this newsletter. conference was truly • Tell Khanasiri Cave Sounding 25 Thanks to the finan­ international in scope • From Gadara to Tall Knedij 26 cial support of the German embassy in with around 90 pre­ Amman, a new sentations and 125 Published twice a year by the signpost for the so participants from 15 German Protestant Institute called "Rujm al-Mal- countries. The Ger­ of Archaeology in Amman. man Protestant Insti­ POBox 183, Amman 11118, fuf, situated just op­ Jordan. posite the Depart­ tute in Amman was represented by its Tel.5342924, Fax 5336924. ment (DoA) building E-mail: [email protected]. in Amman, is also new director, Dr. Ro­ due to be inaugura­ land Lamprichs, who Editors: Roland Lamprichs and Bernd Miiller-Neuhof. ted shortly. presented a paper Technical and editorial assis­ A workshop con­ entitled Tell Johfiyeh tance: Al Kutba Publishers, cerning scientific and neighbouring Amman, Jordan. Production restoration of diffe­ sites. Part of an Iron by Jean-Claude Eltas. rent materials was The Sydney Conference: Dr. Fawwaz Age defence, trade Newsletter logo above by Khraysheh (left) and Dr. Roland prepared in close Lamprichs in front of the Power or communication Samir Shraydeh. cooperation with the House Museum, Sydney. network?" • 2 OCCIDENT &. ORIENT - SeptemberZOO I Late Roman Belt Buckles frzom Gadaua/Umm Qais By: Christoph Eger, German Archaeological Institute, Madrid (Spain) Jewellery and metal dress-accessories the tongue. At the base like brooches and belt buckles are im• of the loop, a flat, wide, portant aspects of late Roman and By• lightly roof-shaped zantine study, yet they have very rare• tongue is secured; the rec• ly been taken into account up to now. tangular tongue-neck is As grave-goods or - less common - as notched (Fig. 1 b and 2). settlement-waste, these finds provide 2. Belt buckle with hinged, important chronological evidence; also, triangular plate. The fitting they have to be considered as signifi• ends in a circular "appen• cant elements of late Roman and By• dix", on which a rivet is zantine culture. secured. The loop is D- In the course of a two-year research- shaped. The tongue is flat- Fig. 1: a< (right to left) Gadara/Umm Qais (By scholarship from the Deutsche Forsch- wide and like no. 1, it is courtesy of the Department of Antiquities, ungsgemeinschaft (DFG), finds from Jor• rectangularly shaped and Amman). dan, particularly belt buckles, will be bent (Fig. lc). studied and registered. The Depart• 3. Belt buckle with hinged narrow tri• angular plate are specified within the ment of Antiquities Amman kindly angular plate and a rounded loop Roman empire (Schnurbein I977,91f.; gave its agreement to this project. My that was renewed at the tongue base. occurrence in North Africa: Boube-Pic• gratitude goes especially to its Direc• The plate is broken at the base of the cot 1994; to the variants with the firm tor General, Dr. Fawwaz Khraysheh. strap, probably recently. Flat-wide fitting: Swoboda 1986). In Umm Qais Taking stock of the collection in the tongue (Fig. la). itself an unpublished fitting-fragment of that type was found (kind information store-room of the Department of An• Apart from general provenance, more of PD Dr. Th. Weber, Mainz). tiquities in Amman, I came across some information on the finds context is not old finds from Umm Qais that reached available at the moment. All three straps Both belt-buckle forms can be dated the National Museum of Amman in the are in exceptional state of preservation, by numerous other burials found on the first half of the 20th century. Particular• disregarding the usual grade of corro• ly noteworthy are two crossbow- sion and the recently broken fitting in brooches and the three belt buckles the third strip. The reason for the good described below: condition of these buckles is probably 1. Belt buckle with hinged, wide rec• that they were originally found in tangular plate. At the back of the fit• graves. ting are two rivets. The loop is The buckle with wide rectangular grooved to accomodate the tip of plate and bent bow (no. 1) is a widely spread type that covers the whole Ro• man empire. This type is found in the European part of the empire (i. e. Kel• ler 1971; Vago/Bona 1977) as well as in North Africa, where parallels to the I C T I buckle with bent bow and rectangular i I J7\ plate, are known from Tamuda. Moroc• 1 ' /\ i co. (Boube-Piccot 1994, table 17, 171- J. ^-f&atb 174). The evidence in the Near East is less frequent. Two examples of this buckle-type were found, for example, in the excavations of the place of pil• grimage "dominus flevit" in Jerusalem Fig. 3: Intercisa, south-west cemetery, Fig. 2: Gadara/Umm Qais. Strap with (Bagatti/Milik 1958). Widely spread tomb 49. M. 2:3. (Vago/Bona 1976, 215 rectangular fitting and bent bow. counter-pieces to the buckle with tri- table 5). OCCIDENTS. ORIENT - September2001 Rhine Valley and the Danubian pro• per is part of an article about late Ro• 91-124. vinces. Straps with hinged triangular fit• man and Byzantine costume accesso• Prottel, Ph.M., "Zur Chronologie der tings were combined with coins of the ries in Jordan which will be published Zwiebelknopffibeln." In: Jahrb. RGZM 3rd and 4th centuries A.D. and also with in ADAJ. 35, 1988(1991)347-372. crossbow brooches of Keller type 2 (Schnurbein 1977, 92; for brooches References von Schnurbein, S. "Das romische Keller type 2 see also Prottel 1991). The Graberfeld von Regensburg." Kallmunz/ form belongs mainly to the first half and Bagatti, P.B. and Milik, J.T., "Gil scavi Opf. 1977. del Dominus flevit. " Jerusalem 1958. the middle of the 4th century. The strap Swoboda, R.M., "Zu den spatantiken with the rectangular fitting is also a form Boube-Piccot, Ch. "Les bronzes an• Bronzeschnallen mit festem, dreieck- of the 4th century A.D. Regarding the tiques du Maroc IV. L'equipement mil- igem Beschlag." In: Germania 64/1, variants with bent bows there are com• itaire et l armement." Paris 1994. 1986,91-103. binations with crossbow brooches of Keller, E., "Die spatromischen Grab- types 4 and 5, for example, in the late Tejral, J., "Zur Chronologie und Deu- funde in Sudbayern." Miinchen 1971. Roman cemetery of Intercisa, Hungary tung der sudostlichen Kulturelemente (Fig. 3). These strap-forms accordingly Konrad, M., "Das romische Graber- in der friihen Volkerwanderungszeit can be dated mainly to the second half feld von Bregenz-Brigantium I." Mitteleuropas." In: Die Volkerwan• of the 4th century and early 5th centu- Miinchen 1997. derungszeit im Karpatenbecken. Niirn- berg 1988, 11-46. ry(Keller 1971,61f.;Konrad 1997,47). Kuhnen, H.-P, "Zwiebelknopffibeln It is rather more difficult to classify the aus Palaestina und Arabia. Uberlegun- Vago, E.B. und Bona, I., "Die Graber- last mentioned belt-buckle no. 3, for gen zur Interpretation einer spatro• felder von Intercisa. Der spatromische which only some single parallels came mischen Fibelform." In: ZDPV 104, 1988, Siidostfriedhof." Budapest 1976. • to my attention. One example was found in Volubilis, Morocco (Boube-Pic- cot 1994, table 78.180); similar pieces with oval bow and wider plates were published by Konrad (1997, 45f). In Qanazvat terms of typology these examples ap• pear to be forerunners of the belt-buck• les with round, thickened bows and By: Klaus Stefan Freyberger, German Archaeological dub-like tongues, which are typical fea• Institute - Damascus (Syria) tures of the first half of the 5th century and certainly of barbaric context, espe• The sixth excavation campaign of the sis of this finding it appears that the cially in the Carpatic basin (Tejral 1988, Syro-German joint expedition to Qana- crypt had been covered by a north- 18f.