Contextualizing the Madaba Plains Project at Tall al-ʿUmayri: The Early Iron Age

Narrating Archaeological Sites and Places - Fifty Years of the Madaba Plains Project at Tall Hisban, Tall al-`Umayri, and Tall Jalul - Douglas R. Clark

Douglas R. Clark [+-]
La Sierra University
Douglas R. Clark (PhD Vanderbilt 1984) is Director of the Lawrence T. Geraty & Douglas R. Clark Center for Near Eastern Archaeology at La Sierra University in Riverside, California. He also co-directs the Madaba Plains Project excavations at Tall al-ʿUmayri, Jordan, currently in publication phases. He has taught and held administrative positions at several universities and has also authored, edited, or co-edited 18 volumes and nearly 200 articles, and has made 230 presentations worldwide. Volumes include The Madaba Plains Project: Forty Years of Archaeological Research into Jordan’s Past, for which he was lead editor, and the Madaba Plains Project, ʿUmayri series, for which he is co-editor and author. He first excavated in 1973 at Tall Ḥisbān, also part of the Madaba Plains Project. Along with colleagues from the US, Italy, and Jordan, he began in 2015 a multi-year project of establishing the Madaba Regional Archaeological Museum in Mādabā, Jordan.

Description

In what ways and to what extent do the archaeological finds from the Early Iron Age at Tall al-ʿUmayri fit conventional wisdom surrounding the socio-political dynamics in the shift from tribal societies to emerging states in the Southern Levant during this period? The chapter will focus on finds that support this meta-narrative (e.g., the “four-room” house and neighboring domestic structures and remains, and the defense system) and finds that diverge from it (such as some of the elite goods represented early in this period). The chapter will also inquire into the backstories behind excavations into the Early Iron Age at both ʿUmayri and Tall Ḥisbān and the biblical/historical issues driving excavations at the beginning and how these transformed dramatically over time on the project.

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Citation

Clark, Douglas R.. Contextualizing the Madaba Plains Project at Tall al-ʿUmayri: The Early Iron Age. Narrating Archaeological Sites and Places - Fifty Years of the Madaba Plains Project at Tall Hisban, Tall al-`Umayri, and Tall Jalul. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. Oct 2025. ISBN 9781800506558. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=46565. Date accessed: 21 Nov 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.46565. Oct 2025

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