A Node on a Global Canvas: Tall Ḥisbān in Global History
Narrating Archaeological Sites and Places - Fifty Years of the Madaba Plains Project at Tall Hisban, Tall al-`Umayri, and Tall Jalul - Douglas R. Clark
Øystein S. LaBianca [+]
Andrews University
Description
This chapter makes the case for a global history approach to framing and interpreting the long-term history of Tall Ḥisbān and its vicinity in Jordan. Drawing on theoretical underpinnings from various natural and social sciences disciplines, the chapter offers avenues for researching the role and interaction of macro- and micro-level drivers of long-term cultural production and change at Tall Ḥisbān. To this end, endemic polycentrism is introduced as a key component of a Southern Levantine cultural paradigm whose shaping influence provides the guardrails within which the path-dependent unfolding of successive cultural programs takes place. Examples of these programs include the tribal kingdom program of the Iron Age Era, the poleis of the ensuing Classical Era, and during the succeeding Islamic Era: Arabization, Islamization, and Nascent Capitalism. Out of these multi-millennial processes emerged the Modern Era in the region, including local versions of the Great Acceleration and the Anthropocene. Finally, these processes are examined in terms of their relevance as means to heighten public awareness of the contribution that archaeology can make to advancing understanding of the root causes of the climate disaster and despair we face and a way forward toward a sustainable future.