Reviews
The book is essential not only archaeological libraries, but also those dedicated to the Bible.Revue Biblique
Walking Through Jordan
Essays in Honor of Burton MacDonald
Edited by
Michael Neeley [+–]
Montana State University
Michael Neeley is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Montana State University. He has conducted archaeological research (both survey and excavation) in Jordan over the past 25 years.
Geoffrey Clark [+–]
Arizona State University
Geoffrey A. Clark is Regents’ Professor Emeritus, School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University. He has done fieldwork in Arizona, France, Spain, Cyprus, Turkey, Sudan and Jordan and is the author, co-author or editor of over 300 articles, notes, reviews and comments, and 12 monographs and books on human biological and cultural evolution in “deep time”—the past four million years.
P. M. Michele Daviau [+–]
Wilfrid Laurier University
P. M. Michèle Daviau is retired professor of Near Eastern Archaeology from the Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, ON Canada. She directed excavations at Tall Jawa in central Jordan and as project director of the Wadi ath-Thamad Project, she completed excavation at WT-13 and is continuing with work at Khirbat al-Mudayna. Her publications include four volumes on the excavations at Tall Jawa and numerous articles on figurines and Iron Age religious practices. She edited The World of the Aramaeans (3 vols.) and, with others, edited Crossing Jordan.
The objective of Walking through Jordan is to acknowledge and honor the singular achievements and wider impacts of Jordan’s most prominent survey archaeologist, Burton MacDonald. MacDonald is a biblical scholar by training who has written extensively about the Iron Age and early Christianity. However, unlike many biblical scholars, MacDonald has also undertaken large regional survey projects which encompass the entire gamut of Jordanian prehistory and history. Thus, his work is unique in that it attracts the interest of a wide range of scholars.
Scholars from around the world reflect on three important areas of MacDonald’s archaeological contributions: on archaeological survey in general, including those focusing on methodology and/or field projects that depend to a large extent on surveys, MacDonald’s five major surveys— papers that incorporate data from his field projects and sites tested or excavated by others that were first identified by his work, and the archaeology of the Bronze and Iron Ages, as well as the Roman Period and the early Christian era. Despite his important contributions to prehistoric archaeology, the early historical periods constitute the main emphasis of Burton’s scholarly output.
Table of Contents
Preliminaries
List of Figures [+–] ix-xiii
Montana State University
Michael Neeley is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Montana State University. He has conducted archaeological research (both survey and excavation) in Jordan over the past 25 years.
The objective of Walking through Jordan is to acknowledge and honor the singular achievements and wider impacts of Jordan’s most prominent survey archaeologist, Burton MacDonald. MacDonald is a biblical scholar by training who has written extensively about the Iron Age and early Christianity. However, unlike many biblical scholars, MacDonald has also undertaken large regional survey projects which encompass the entire gamut of Jordanian prehistory and history. Thus, his work is unique in that it attracts the interest of a wide range of scholars. Scholars from around the world reflect on three important areas of MacDonald’s archaeological contributions: on archaeological survey in general, including those focusing on methodology and/or field projects that depend to a large extent on surveys, MacDonald’s five major surveys— papers that incorporate data from his field projects and sites tested or excavated by others that were first identified by his work, and the archaeology of the Bronze and Iron Ages, as well as the Roman Period and the early Christian era. Despite his important contributions to prehistoric archaeology, the early historical periods constitute the main emphasis of Burton’s scholarly output.
List of Tables [+–] xiv-xv
Montana State University
Michael Neeley is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Montana State University. He has conducted archaeological research (both survey and excavation) in Jordan over the past 25 years.
The objective of Walking through Jordan is to acknowledge and honor the singular achievements and wider impacts of Jordan’s most prominent survey archaeologist, Burton MacDonald. MacDonald is a biblical scholar by training who has written extensively about the Iron Age and early Christianity. However, unlike many biblical scholars, MacDonald has also undertaken large regional survey projects which encompass the entire gamut of Jordanian prehistory and history. Thus, his work is unique in that it attracts the interest of a wide range of scholars. Scholars from around the world reflect on three important areas of MacDonald’s archaeological contributions: on archaeological survey in general, including those focusing on methodology and/or field projects that depend to a large extent on surveys, MacDonald’s five major surveys— papers that incorporate data from his field projects and sites tested or excavated by others that were first identified by his work, and the archaeology of the Bronze and Iron Ages, as well as the Roman Period and the early Christian era. Despite his important contributions to prehistoric archaeology, the early historical periods constitute the main emphasis of Burton’s scholarly output.
A Note about Place Names [+–] xvi
Montana State University
Michael Neeley is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Montana State University. He has conducted archaeological research (both survey and excavation) in Jordan over the past 25 years.
The objective of Walking through Jordan is to acknowledge and honor the singular achievements and wider impacts of Jordan’s most prominent survey archaeologist, Burton MacDonald. MacDonald is a biblical scholar by training who has written extensively about the Iron Age and early Christianity. However, unlike many biblical scholars, MacDonald has also undertaken large regional survey projects which encompass the entire gamut of Jordanian prehistory and history. Thus, his work is unique in that it attracts the interest of a wide range of scholars. Scholars from around the world reflect on three important areas of MacDonald’s archaeological contributions: on archaeological survey in general, including those focusing on methodology and/or field projects that depend to a large extent on surveys, MacDonald’s five major surveys— papers that incorporate data from his field projects and sites tested or excavated by others that were first identified by his work, and the archaeology of the Bronze and Iron Ages, as well as the Roman Period and the early Christian era. Despite his important contributions to prehistoric archaeology, the early historical periods constitute the main emphasis of Burton’s scholarly output.
Chapter 1
Introduction [+–] 1-12
Montana State University
Michael Neeley is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Montana State University. He has conducted archaeological research (both survey and excavation) in Jordan over the past 25 years.
Arizona State University
Geoffrey A. Clark is Regents’ Professor Emeritus, School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University. He has done fieldwork in Arizona, France, Spain, Cyprus, Turkey, Sudan and Jordan and is the author, co-author or editor of over 300 articles, notes, reviews and comments, and 12 monographs and books on human biological and cultural evolution in “deep time”—the past four million years.
Wilfrid Laurier University
P. M. Michèle Daviau is retired professor of Near Eastern Archaeology from the Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, ON Canada. She directed excavations at Tall Jawa in central Jordan and as project director of the Wadi ath-Thamad Project, she completed excavation at WT-13 and is continuing with work at Khirbat al-Mudayna. Her publications include four volumes on the excavations at Tall Jawa and numerous articles on figurines and Iron Age religious practices. She edited The World of the Aramaeans (3 vols.) and, with others, edited Crossing Jordan.
The objective of Walking through Jordan is to acknowledge and honor the singular achievements and wider impacts of Jordan’s most prominent survey archaeologist, the redoubtable Burton MacDonald. There are three aspects or foci in the book: (1) papers on archaeological survey in general, including those focusing on methodology and/or field projects that depend to a large extent on surveys, (2) MacDonald’s five major surveys— papers that incorporate data from his field projects and sites tested or excavated by others that were first identified by his work (MacDonald 1988, 1992; MacDonald et al. 2004, 2012, n.d.), and (3) the archaeology of the Bronze and Iron Ages, as well as the Roman Period and the early Christian era. Despite his important contributions to prehistoric archaeology, the early historical periods constitute the main emphasis of Burton’s scholarly output.
Chapter 2
University of Toronto
Steven Edwards is a Ph.D. candidate in Near Eastern Archaeology at the University of Toronto, and has worked on excavations and surveys in Jordan since 2004. He is currently a surveyor and field supervisor for the Khirbat al-Mukhayyat Archaeological Project, Jordan.
During the 2010 and 2011 seasons at Khirbat al-Mudayna ath-Thamad, an Early Bronze Age basalt bowl and a piriform macehead were recovered from an Iron Age domestic context. The best parallels for these objects come from the EB I tomb assemblages at Bab adh-Dhraʿ. Given the lack of Early Bronze Age tombs in the vicinity of Mudayna Thamad, it is proposed that these objects are the product of tomb looting from the Dead Sea Plain in antiquity.
Chapter 3
Bishop’s University
Robert Chadwick is the co-director of the Wadi ath-Thamad Project and currently teaches in the Religion Department at Bishops University, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada.
Although excavations had been ongoing at Khirbat al-Mudayna and elsewhere along the Wadi ath-Thamad since 1996, no Iron Age II tombs or burials had been found until the 2012 season when cave tomb, WT-200 was located and excavated. The use of caves as places of interment in regions of karstic limestone is well known in the Transjordan and it is likely that other caves in along the Wadi ath-Thamad were also used for burial purposes. This chapter will discuss some of the modifications made to cave chamber of WT-200 allowing it to serve as a place of interment, and present an overview of some of the excavated material found therein. Although badly damaged by ceiling collapse and erosion WT-200 yielded much valuable data. Pottery forms and objects of personal adornment allow a number of comparisons to be made with tombs at Mount Nebo and Dhībân.
Chapter 4
Wilfrid Laurier University
P. M. Michèle Daviau is retired professor of Near Eastern Archaeology from the Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, ON Canada. She directed excavations at Tall Jawa in central Jordan and as project director of the Wadi ath-Thamad Project, she completed excavation at WT-13 and is continuing with work at Khirbat al-Mudayna. Her publications include four volumes on the excavations at Tall Jawa and numerous articles on figurines and Iron Age religious practices. She edited The World of the Aramaeans (3 vols.) and, with others, edited Crossing Jordan.
In our attempts to understand the economic and political relations between peoples and kingdoms in the ancient world, the location of ancient sites and the study of the evidence for their crafts and industries offer numerous insights. Excavation of town and industrial sites yields numerous tools, installations, and refuse related to specific stages of complex procedures in the processing of natural resources and manufacture of finished products. Well-preserved Egyptian tomb paintings and Assyrian wall reliefs illustrate a wide variety of tools and equipment used by ancient men and women in their daily lives. But in both of these resources, there are gaps in the kinds of activities that are represented and the full spectrum of related tools and equipment. The result is that the archaeologist may find items for which there are no known parallels from sites in their region and little correlation with neighboring cultures. Thirteen seasons of excavations at Khirbat al-Mudayna ath-Thamad have produced a number of mystery items. This paper is a study of low stone “tables” and stone supports recovered from several Iron Age buildings at the site. Such furnishings are rare at contemporary sites in the Levant and their functions have not yet been defined. A study of their distribution and the objects with which they were associated is a first step in understanding these features. Clues from Egyptian tomb paintings and finds from Egyptian houses suggest that comparable objects were furnishings used in the production of textiles. While this is a starting point, the Egyptian finds are also a challenge to our understanding of certain crafts, the status of craft specialists, and the economic implications of the products manufactured for local consumption, trade and tribute.
Chapter 5
Yarmouk University
Zeidan Kafafi is Professor of Archaeology in the Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, Yarmouk University, Jordan. He is a leading archaeologist who has directed numerous excavations in Jordan and is widely published. He also served as acting director of the Jordan Museum and serves as Dean of Graduate Studies at Yarmouk.
The beginning of the Iron Age (ca. 1200 BC) saw the collapse of the Egyptian and Hittite Empires, events that had repercussions for social and political systems throughout the Levant as late Bronze Age city-states were transformed into various kinds of ethno-political structures. So far as early Iron Age Jordan is concerned, the area south of Wadi az-Zarqa has been relatively well-studied and is known from archaeological and literary sources (e.g., the Bible) to have comprised three small kingdoms (Ammon, Moab and Edom) that extended for about 275 km from north to south along the eastern escarpment of the Jordan Rift. In contrast, the region north of the Wadi az-Zarqa is poorly known. The aim of this paper is to shed light on the Iron Age history of this area based on relatively sparse archaeological data augmented by more fine-grained Assyrian literary sources. Two political entities have been identified (Zobah/Beth-Rehob and Gil’ad/Gil’az?) and are discussed below.
Chapter 6
University of Toronto
Jonathan Ferguson holds degrees in Classical Archaeology (BA, Wilfrid Laurier University), Classics (MA, McMaster University) and Syro-Palestinian Archaeology (MA, University of Toronto). He is currently completing his dissertation, Madaba Between Judaea and Nabataea, on the late Hellenistic and early Roman phases at Madaba in Jordan with the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto. He also serves as a lecturer at Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Toronto and works as a teacher at the Royal Ontario Museum. He is affiliated with the University of Toronto’s Tall Madaba Archaeological Project and Wilfrid Laurier University’s Wadi ath-Thamad Project. His main research interests include Classical pottery, Roman frontiers and landscape archaeology.
In his survey of Transjordan, Nelson Glueck noted that the fine wares so characteristic of the Nabataean kingdom were generally absent from the territories north and west of Madaba, and he later referred to this ceramic watershed as the “Madaba line.” This paper demonstrates that Glueck’s “Madaba line” reflects a real gradient in the frequency of Nabataean fine wares, which generally follows the kingdom’s historical border in the first centuries BC and AD. This distribution can be visualized on a regional level by using GIS software to plot Thiessen polygons around sites recorded as Hellenistic or Nabataean in the Jordan Antiquities Database and Information System. Moreover, excavations on Madaba’s western acropolis have helped to demonstrate the Nabataean cultural presence there. While the common wares from Madaba followed the same developments seen in Judaea and the Peraea, the fine wares reflected the fashions current in Petra. Similar assemblages have been found at the contemporary Nabataean site of Dhiban to the south, but the fine wares from Hesban to the north and Machaerus to the west (both in the Judaean Peraea) reflect Cisjordanian ceramic traditions.
Chapter 7
The Finnish Jabal Hārūn Project: An Assessment [+–] 97-112
University of Helsinki
Zbigniew T. Fiema is the Docent in Classical Archaeology, University of Helsinki, with more than 25 years of experience in Near Eastern archaeology. His research interests include the Roman-Byzantine Near East, and ancient urbanism, technology and settlement patterns. Currently, he is co-director of the Northeastern Petra Project, Jordan as well as the director of al-‘Ula–al-Wajh Survey in Saudi Arabia.
The Finnish Jabal Haroun Project (FJHP) was a multidisciplinary investigation at Jabal Haroun (the Mountain of the Prophet Aaron) located near the ancient Nabataean city of Petra in southern Jordan. According to Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions, the mountain is the burial place of Aaron, Moses’ brother. Between 1997 and 2013, the FJHP has carried out archaeological excavations at a Byzantine monastery located on the plateau of the mountain and dedicated to St. Aaron. The fieldwork has revealed that the sanctity of the mountain preceded the Byzantine period as the site was initially occupied by a Nabataean sanctuary of the 1st century BC/AD date. In the later 5th century, a basilica with adjacent chapel and the associated monastic infrastructure were built at the site. The Byzantine monastery which incorporated the earlier Nabataean remains, had a memorial character clearly associated with pilgrimages. The church was richly decorated with marble furnishings, glass wall mosaics and a mosaic floor in the narthex. The ecclesiastical occupation of the church had ended by the late 8th century but other structures were probably still in use in the Crusader period.
Chapter 8
Suzanne Richard is Professor of History and Archaeology at Gannon University, Director of the Collins Institute for Archaeological Research and the Archaeology Museum Gallery. She is the Principal Investigator and co-Director of the Expedition to Khirbat Iskandar, Jordan, and its environs.
This paper offers a preliminary look at a regional survey conducted in the environs of Khirbat Iskandar, Jordan in 1982. The work followed upon a pilot season of survey and soundings in 1981. The primary goals were to recheck Nelson Glueck’s 1939 survey and to document any additional sites in the area, with a view toward understanding the history of occupation in the Wadi al-Wala basin. Our particular focus was to determine if there were Early Bronze Age sites in the vicinity of Khirbat Iskandar besides the one discovered by Glueck. For comparative purposes, included in the article is a discussion of the 15 sites documented by our team, as well as a summary of Glueck’s work. When placed in the context of surveys in the wider region, the 1982 survey, albeit limited, adds important data about the occupational history of the area, especially for the Early Bronze Age.
Chapter 9
The EB IV Pottery from the Southern Ghors and Northeast ‘Arabah Survey: Regionalism Re-examined [+–] 131-150
University of Toronto
Stanley Klassen is Collections Manager and Lab Technician of the Archaeology Laboratory in the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto. He has excavated in Israel, Jordan, and Turkey, and has published numerous studies on the Bronze and Iron Age pottery of the southern Levant and Egypt, with a special focus on their technological, mineralogical, and chemical properties.
In this paper, I argue that much of the Early Bronze IV pottery from the Southern Ghors and Northeast ‘Arabah Survey (SGNAS) is unique in comparison to other EB IV pottery in region. Although the SGNAS corpus shows morphological similarities with pottery typical of south-central Jordan, as well as that found in the northern Negev, and the Shephelah, much of the slip applied as surface treatment to the SGNAS pottery is atypical. Recent attempts to establish a regional chronology during the Early Bronze IV period in south-central Transjordan highlight the development of the ceramic manufacturing processes during the period and identifies a number of regional “repertoires”. While the Southern Ghors and Northeast ‘Arabah would appear to be part of a larger regional or provincial grouping, I emphasize that the dominant application of light coloured slips to the pottery from the SGNAS highlights its distinctiveness. The unique surface treatment may suggest the occurrence of distinct social boundaries in the region, emphasizing the heterogeneous nature of the potting industry and regionalism during the EB IV period.
Chapter 10
The Iron Age Pottery from Burton MacDonald’s Last Three Surveys in the Highlands of Southern Jordan [+–] 151-182
Burman University
Larry G. Herr (PhD Harvard 1977) has taken part in 30 excavations in Jordan, Israel, and Tunisia, co-directing the Madaba Plains Project excavations at Tall al-ʿUmayri, Jordan—first with Larry Geraty and then Douglas Clark. After completing his doctorate, he taught near Manila in the Philippines from 1978 to 1984, and at Burman University in Alberta, Canada since 1985. He has produced 24 volumes, 216 articles, 17 book reviews, and has made 86 presentations at professional conferences. In addition, he was Associate Editor of the Bulletin of the American Society of Overseas Research (BASOR) for 17 years. His research interests include the development of ancient pottery in Jordan. Two of his edited volumes won awards from the American Society of Overseas Research (ASOR) and the Biblical Archaeology Society. He has also won two awards from ASOR for publications and field archaeology. He has worked as a consultant for several excavations, primarily in ceramic chronology.
This paper attempts to outline the development of the Iron Age pottery in the highlands of Jordan south of the Wadi al-Ḥasa, the region often called “Edom” during the Iron Age. The corpus discussed here was gathered during the last three archaeological surveys conducted by Burton MacDonald in this region: The Tafila-Busayra Archaeological Survey (TBAS), the Ayl to Ras an-Naqab Archaeological Survey (ARNAS), and the Shammakh to Ayl Archaeological Survey (SAAS). Because ceramic styles were similar over large areas during Iron I and because there are no Iron I excavated sites in our area, parallels from territories north of the Ḥasa are used to help establish the assemblage of that period. Parallels from closer to home during the Iron II period are used, because of increasing territorialism in ceramic forms at that time. As a result, we are able to suggest broad lines of development for the Iron Age.
Chapter 11
Pliny, Petra and the Aromatics Trade [+–] 183-203
George Washington University
Andrew M. Smith II is an Associate Professor of Classics and History in the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences at the George Washington University. Smith specializes in the history and archaeology of the Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine Near East, and he recently completed a monograph on Roman Palmyra (Syria) for the Oxford University Press (2014). Currently, Smith directs the Bir Madhkur Project, which involves both excavation and intensive survey, and has as its main goal to examine the role of Petra in the ancient economy from a rural, landscape perspective. This project also focuses on the challenge of preserving Petra’s regional, cultural heritage through community engagement practices.
This paper provides a survey of the overland trade in frankincense and myrrh that passed through Nabataean and Roman Arabia, with special attention given to the various trade routes that converged on Petra from the south and those west of Petra that crossed the Wadi Araba. This includes the renowned Incense Route that linked Petra with Gaza as the Roman author Pliny describes. The opportunity will be taken here to summarize what we know about the regional trade patterns associated with Petra as well as to present new evidence derived from recent archaeological fieldwork in the central Wadi Araba. The focus will be on assessing Pliny’s account of the Incense Route with the available geographical, historical, and archaeological evidence.
Chapter 12
Wilfrid Laurier University
Debra Foran is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University. Her research focuses on Byzantine pilgrimage and trade and the role that landscape played in the religious and economic development of Transjordan during this period. She established the Khirbat al-Mukhayyat Archaeological Project in order to explore these subjects and their effect on the material record of the Mount Nebo region.
Archaeological investigations in central Jordan have revealed numerous settlements dating to the Byzantine period (4th to 8th centuries AD). The city of Madaba was an important urban center upon which many smaller settlements relied. Mount Nebo was the site of a large monastery that acted as the core of a monastic network that included both communal and ascetic monasteries. At the site of Maʽin, these two systems intersect in the form of a small ascetic monastery (the Church of al-Dayr) built on a hilltop adjacent to the Byzantine village. In 2006, the Tall Maʽin Archaeological Survey was initiated in order to elucidate the connection between these two groups. Results of two seasons of topographic and collection survey indicate that the highest concentration of Byzantine material is located on the areas of the tall closest to the monastery. This, coupled with the results of previous archaeological work at the site, suggest that the relationship between Maʽin’s lay and monastic communities allowed a reciprocal exchange of valuable resources. In addition, their mutual prosperity was ensured by the influx of pilgrims that is characteristic of central Jordan during the Byzantine period.
Chapter 13
Independent Scholar
Eveline van der Steen is an independent scholar. She has worked extensively in Jordan, excavating and publishing on the Late Bronze and Iron Ages. Presently her main academic interests focus on the political, social and economic interaction between 19th century Near Eastern tribal societies, as a model for Bronze and Iron age societies in the region. Her latest book on the subject, Near Eastern Tribal Societies During the 19th Century was published in 2013.
Nelson Glueck’s Explorations in Eastern Palestine were a watershed in Near Eastern archaeology and for a long time they were the main source of information for the archaeology of Jordan. However, over time they have been subjected to an increasing amount of critique, and are sometimes considered outdated. This paper provides a comparison of Glueck’s surveys with published material that is available now, and shows that, firstly, for a large part of Jordan Glueck’s results are still the only information that we have, and secondly, much of the critique directed at Glueck’s surveys and the way he described the sites which he visited, is based on misidentifications. Therefore, Glueck’s results are still vital for present scholarship.
Chapter 14
The Barqa Landscape Project, 2009 [+–] 247-264
Russell B. Adams,Hannah A. Friedman,James D. Anderson,Michael M. Homan,John Grattan,Lynne M. Rouse £17.50
University of Waterloo
Russell Adams is an anthropological archaeologist with primary research interests in the emergence of complex societies and early states and the interface between the development of social complexity and the adoption and development of industrial processes and technology during prehistory. His current research focuses upon early metal producing communities in southern Jordan and understanding how the growth and spread of metal production impacted upon social organization, regional interaction and the environment. He has directed archaeological projects in Jordan since 1989, and specializes in archaeological method and theory, ancient technology and the archaeometric study ceramics and metals. He received his BA and MA (Near Eastern Archaeology) from Wilfrid Laurier University, and his PhD in Archaeology and Prehistory from Sheffield University. He has been a SSHRC post-doctoral fellow at McMaster University and has taught at universities in the UK, Canada and the United States.
Texas Tech University
Hannah Friedman is Associate Director of the Barqa Landscape Project. Her research includes research on the ancient economy, metal production, archaeological theory as well as Roman trade. She is an Assistant Professor of Classics at Texas Tech University in the department of Classical & Modern Languages & Literature.
North Island College, Canada
James D. Anderson is a member of the Humanities and Social Sciences faculty at North Island College, British Columbia, Canada. An archaeologist specializing in the Roman world, Jim is also a qualified land surveyor and has pioneered the development of both survey and digital data recording during several years of research at Faynan.
Xavier University of Louisiana
Michael M. Homan lives in New Orleans where he is a professor of Theology at Xavier University of Louisiana. He is a scholar of Ancient Near Eastern civilizations, the Hebrew Bible and an active field archaeologist, working in both Jordan and Israel.
Aberystwyth University
John Grattan is Professor and Pro Vice-Chancellor of Student Experience and International at Aberystwyth University. He specializes in Environmental and Archaeological Science, is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and an expert member of the International Volcanic Health Hazard Network.
Independent Scholar
Lynne M. Rouse is an anthropological archaeologist with research focus on prehistoric Central Asia. Her research specializations include nomadic pastoralism, socio-political complexity, exchange networks, settlement patterns and resource-use strategies, spatial analysis (GIS), landscape archaeology, and adaptive network approaches. She is Project Director for The Project for the Ancient Murghab, Turkmenistan.
For more than 25 years, the Faynan region of southern Jordan, one of the oldest, largest and best preserved industrial landscapes of the ancient world has been the focus of multiple archaeological and scientific excavations. The Faynan Basin is a unique geological zone, caused in large part by the active Arabah rift valley and tectonic forces, which have not only made it a principal source of copper for the ancient world, but one plentiful in water resources, despite being located in an otherwise desert landscape. For these reasons human populations have frequented this unique landscape since the end of the Pleistocene, and investigation of the numerous well preserved archaeological sites here have yielded significant insights into the evolution of human society. Despite all of this research, the southern-most part of the Faynan Basin had, until 2009, received comparatively little investigation. In 2009 the Barqa Landscape Project undertook the first large-scale survey of this part of the Faynan Basin using both pedestrian and advanced survey techniques. This paper outlines the rationale for the project, the survey design, logistics and early results of the survey, which have formed the basis for three subsequent seasons of research in this part of the Faynan.
Chapter 15
University of Toronto
Edward Banning is a professor and Chair of the Anthropology Department at University of Toronto, where he also obtained his PhD in Near Eastern Studies in 1985. In addition to serving on the Wadi Tumilat Project, Wadi al-Hasa Survey, and excavations at the Neolithic site of ‘Ain Ghazal, he has directed the Wadi Ziqlab Project and the Wadi Quseiba Project, which have focused mainly on the late prehistory of northern Jordan through archaeological surveys and targeted excavations. He has also been deeply involved in research on the theory and method of archaeological survey, including his book, Archaeological Survey (Banning 2002).
When Burton Macdonald began the Wadi al-Hasa Survey in 1979, the methods and theory of archaeological survey were undergoing substantial revision in light of innovations first explored in North America, but beginning to gain ground in Mediterranean regions. The Wadi al-Hasa Survey was one of the first in Jordan to experiment with explicit sampling frames and more intensive fieldwalking at a time when most surveys there were still “windshield surveys” conducted mainly from vehicles. Soon most Jordanian surveys were employing similar sampling and fieldwalking methods so that they became the new standard as a stream of projects documented thousands of previously unrecorded sites. However, consumers of data from these surveys should be using them critically, with attention to variations in intensity, coverage, and visibility. Recent advances in survey theory and some recent field-tests of these theories demonstrate that post-fieldwork evaluation is necessary if we are to draw convincing conclusions about settlement patterns and especially about alleged absences of archaeological resources.
Chapter 16
Changing Perspectives on the Pre-‐Pottery Neolithic: The Wadi al-‐Hasa after Burton MacDonald [+–] 281-302
Marquette University
Jane Peterson is a professor of anthropology at Marquette University. Her research interests focus on questions of social organization among early farming groups. Her current field site is Khirbet Hammam in west-central Jordan.
The systematic documentation of Neolithic settlement in the Wadi al-Hasa began with Burton MacDonald’s 1979–1983 survey. Since then, additional survey and excavation projects have been carried out producing data and analytical results broadening our perspectives on the local Neolithic within the drainage. Paleo-landscape reconstructions have also begun to provide much needed contextual information within which to interpret the archaeological patterns. This chapter outlines the present state of knowledge concerning the Pre-Pottery Neolithic in the Wadi al-Hasa. It includes a broad overview of what we currently know about the settlement patterns, material culture, architecture, subsistence, and mortuary practices of the groups who began experimenting with various modes of food production in the area. Based on this summary, it is suggested that early agropastoral developments in the Wadi al-Hasa display a diversity indicative of mosaic patterns of interaction and influence. In this way, Neolithic research in the Wadi al-Hasa contributes to the growing appreciation for the importance of interpreting the rise of agropastoralism from a multi-scalar perspective that includes local developmental trajectories.
Chapter 17
Montana State University
Michael Neeley is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Montana State University. He has conducted archaeological research (both survey and excavation) in Jordan over the past 25 years.
Hendrix College, Conway, Arkansas
Brett Hill has conducted archaeological research in Jordan and the American Southwest over the last 25 years. He has focused especially on human ecology in desert environments and the consequences of the transition to agriculture. He employs Geographic Information Systems and geoarchaeological analyses of the relationships among settlement patterns and landforms to better understand demography and environmental degradation. He is currently an associated professor of anthropology at Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas.
As a result of extensive archaeological survey, the west-central portion of Jordan contains a rich archaeological record. This is especially the case for the Paleolithic time frames as a series of wetland environments have been identified for the Wadi al-Hasa and the nearby Jurf ad-Darawish region. These prominent landscape features were hubs of activity for Pleistocene hunter-gatherers prior to the decline of these habitats at the Pleistocene/Holocene boundary. However, the Late Epipaleolithic (Natufian) is less well-represented in these landscapes. This paper focuses on one of these Late Epipaleolithic sites, TBAS 212, situated along a small wetland setting south of Jurf ad-Darawish. At a local level, TBAS 212 is unique as the only large, repeatedly occupied base camp in this area. This site is in contrast to several nearby smaller, Late Epipaleolithic occupations. At the regional level, the only other large Late Epipaleolithic occupation (Tabaqa) is located in the Wadi al-Hasa. Based on archaeological and geoarchaeological evidence we argue that similar environmental settings in both areas made them conducive to these larger-scale occupations. Limited evidence for large-scale settlement outside of these habitats is likely due to issues of resource availability and site preservation/geomorphological processes.
Chapter 18
University of Pennsylvania and Penn Museum
Deborah I. Olszewski specializes in the Upper Paleolithic and Epipaleolithic of the Middle East, where she has been involved in several projects in Jordan, including the Wadi Hasa Paleolithic Project (directed by G.A. Clark), the Eastern Hasa Late Pleistocene Project (co-directed with N.R. Coinman), and the Western Highlands Early Epipaleolithic Project (co-directed with M. al-Nahar). Her interests include the origins of food production economies and the application of interpretations of lithic assemblages to understanding hunter-gatherer-forager settlement systems. She is Adjunct Professor in the Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania.
University of Connecticut
Natalie D. Munro is a professor of Anthropology at the University of Connecticut. Her research concerns on the transition from foraging to farming societies in the greater Mediterranean Basin using ancient animal remains. Munro has a special interest in the formative conditions of agriculture, the process of animal domestication and the spread of agriculture from the Near East to southeastern Europe. She has active research projects in Turkey, Israel, Jordan and Greece.
Georgia Dept of Audits & Accounts
Michael Kennerty’s research included zooarchaeological analysis of hunting and animal husbandry in both prehistoric and historic periods. He participated with excavations in Israel and the Eastern United States, and has worked with faunal assemblages from these areas, as well as Jordan.
Excavations in 1984, 1992, and 2000 by two separate projects in Area C at the open-air site of Tor at-Tareeq (WHS 1065) in the Wadi al-Hasa region of Jordan yielded assemblages attributable to the Middle Epipaleolithic period. The lithic assemblage is characterized by very wide geometrics, with lunate or trapeze morphology; the only known parallels to these in Jordan are surface collections from Wadi Jilat 28 and excavated materials from Phase D/Area A at Kharaneh IV in the Azraq Basin region. Tor at-Tareeq was situated near Pleistocene marshes and possibly a lake, with Middle Epipaleolithic occupations occurring during a period of warmer and wetter climatic conditions after the Last Glacial Maximum. The small faunal assemblage includes gazelle, aurochs, equid, and tortoise. This paper discusses the cultural materials recovered during these three field seasons, clarifies several erroneous attributions made in previous publications, and compares Tor at-Tareeq to Kharaneh IV Phase D/Area A.
Chapter 19
Burton MacDonald and the Stone Age in Jordan [+–] 347-382
Arizona State University
Geoffrey A. Clark is Regents’ Professor Emeritus, School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University. He has done fieldwork in Arizona, France, Spain, Cyprus, Turkey, Sudan and Jordan and is the author, co-author or editor of over 300 articles, notes, reviews and comments, and 12 monographs and books on human biological and cultural evolution in “deep time”—the past four million years.
Although a classical scholar, Burton MacDonald has done more than any other single individual to improve our understanding of the Stone Age in Jordan. Beginning in 1979 he directed surveys in the (1) Wadi al-Hasa (1979–83), (2) the Southern Ghors and Northeast Wadi Araba (1985–86), (3) from Tafila to Busayra (1999–2001), (4) Ayl to Ras en’Naqb (2005–07) and (5) from Shamakh to Ayl (2010–12). While these projects produced much new data on town sites, hamlets, farmsteads and fortifications dating to the Neolithic, Metal Ages, classical antiquity and the Islamic caliphates, dozens of Lower, Middle, Upper and Epipaleolithic sites were also discovered, many of them subsequently investigated by other workers. MacDonald always sought to include paleolithic archaeologists in his surveys and the projects were an incubator for many younger scholars who went on to productive careers in the profession. The results of these projects are summarized here.
End Matter
Index [+–] 383-398
Montana State University
Michael Neeley is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Montana State University. He has conducted archaeological research (both survey and excavation) in Jordan over the past 25 years.
The objective of Walking through Jordan is to acknowledge and honor the singular achievements and wider impacts of Jordan’s most prominent survey archaeologist, Burton MacDonald. MacDonald is a biblical scholar by training who has written extensively about the Iron Age and early Christianity. However, unlike many biblical scholars, MacDonald has also undertaken large regional survey projects which encompass the entire gamut of Jordanian prehistory and history. Thus, his work is unique in that it attracts the interest of a wide range of scholars. Scholars from around the world reflect on three important areas of MacDonald’s archaeological contributions: on archaeological survey in general, including those focusing on methodology and/or field projects that depend to a large extent on surveys, MacDonald’s five major surveys— papers that incorporate data from his field projects and sites tested or excavated by others that were first identified by his work, and the archaeology of the Bronze and Iron Ages, as well as the Roman Period and the early Christian era. Despite his important contributions to prehistoric archaeology, the early historical periods constitute the main emphasis of Burton’s scholarly output.
Index of Place Names [+–] 399-405
Montana State University
Michael Neeley is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Montana State University. He has conducted archaeological research (both survey and excavation) in Jordan over the past 25 years.
The objective of Walking through Jordan is to acknowledge and honor the singular achievements and wider impacts of Jordan’s most prominent survey archaeologist, Burton MacDonald. MacDonald is a biblical scholar by training who has written extensively about the Iron Age and early Christianity. However, unlike many biblical scholars, MacDonald has also undertaken large regional survey projects which encompass the entire gamut of Jordanian prehistory and history. Thus, his work is unique in that it attracts the interest of a wide range of scholars. Scholars from around the world reflect on three important areas of MacDonald’s archaeological contributions: on archaeological survey in general, including those focusing on methodology and/or field projects that depend to a large extent on surveys, MacDonald’s five major surveys— papers that incorporate data from his field projects and sites tested or excavated by others that were first identified by his work, and the archaeology of the Bronze and Iron Ages, as well as the Roman Period and the early Christian era. Despite his important contributions to prehistoric archaeology, the early historical periods constitute the main emphasis of Burton’s scholarly output.
Revue Biblique
