ABSTRACT

Jordan is a key area of migration within the Levantine corridor that links the continents of Africa and Asia. 'Crossing Jordan' examines the peoples and cultures that have travelled across Jordan from antiquity to the present. The book offers a critical analysis of recent discoveries and archaeological models in Jordan and highlights the significant contribution of North American archaeologists to the field. Leading archaeologists explore the theory and methodology of archaeology in Jordan in essays which range across prehistory, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, the Hellenistic and Roman periods, Nabatean civilization, the Byzantine period, and Islamic civilization. The volume provides an up-to-date guide to the archaeological heritage of Jordan, being an important resource for scholars and students of Jordan's history, as well as citizens, non-governmental organizations and tourists.

part |11 pages

Theory

chapter 1|9 pages

Thinking Globally and also Locally

Anthropology, History and Archaeology in the Study of Jordan's Past *

part |11 pages

History

part |70 pages

Methodologies

chapter 3|9 pages

Archaeological Site Surveying in Jordan

The North American Contribution

chapter 4|10 pages

Controlling Space at the Regional Level

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and JADIS in Jordan

chapter 5|12 pages

On-Site GIS Digital Archaeology

GIS-based Excavation Recording in Southern Jordan

chapter 7|10 pages

The Evolving Landscape of Jordan

The Contributions of Geoarchaeology and Paleoecology

chapter 9|8 pages

Conservation and Preservation of Archaeological Sites in Jordan Archaeology

Initiatives of the American Center of Oriental Research

part |73 pages

Regional Archaeology—Deep-Time Studies Across Jordan

chapter 10|9 pages

Ancient Metal Production and Social Change in Southern Jordan

The Edom Lowlands Regional Archaeology Project and Hope for a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Faynan

chapter 11|4 pages

How Crossing Jordan made the Difference

The Case of the Madaba Plains Project, 1967–2007

chapter 12|10 pages

Tall Hisban

Palimpsest of Great and Little Traditions of Transjordan and the Ancient Near East *

chapter 16|10 pages

Investigating 5,000 Years of Urban History

The Tall Madaba Archaeological Project

chapter 17|7 pages

Crossing Jordan

By Way of the Karak Plateau

part |73 pages

Prehistoric Perspectives

chapter 19|7 pages

Searching for Neanderthals and Finding Ourselves

Research at Tor Faraj

chapter 20|7 pages

Neanderthals at the Crossroads

Middle Paleolithic Sites on the Madaba Plateau, Jordan

chapter 21|8 pages

Midnight at the Oasis*

The End of the Pleistocene in Wadi al-Hasa

chapter 22|8 pages

Microliths and Mortuary Practices

New Perspectives on the Epipalaeolithic in Northern and Eastern Jordan

chapter 23|8 pages

Crossing the Boundary to Domestication Economies

A Case Study from West-central Jordan

chapter 25|5 pages

Late Prehistory in Wadi Ziqlab, al-Kura, Jordan

From Sedentism to Olive Oil Factories

chapter 26|8 pages

Living on the Edge

Settlement and Abandonment in the Dead Sea Plain

chapter 27|9 pages

Is Big Really Better?

Life in the Resort Corridor—Ghwair I, a Small but Elaborate Neolithic Community in Southern Jordan

part |55 pages

Bronze Age—Earliest Urbanism

chapter 28|8 pages

Life in the Earliest Walled Towns on the Dead Sea Plain

Bab adh-Dhra‘ and an-Numayra

chapter 29|8 pages

Death and Dying on the Dead Sea Plain

Fifa, Khirbat al-Khanazir, and Bab adh-Dhra‘ Cemeteries

chapter 30|8 pages

Life at the Foundation of Bronze Age Civilization

Agrarian Villages in the Jordan Valley

chapter 31|8 pages

Khirbet Iskander

A City in Collapse at the End of the Early Bronze Age *

chapter 32|8 pages

A Landscape Approach to Craft and Agricultural Production

Tracking the Location of Early Bronze Age Manufacturing at al-Lajjun, Jordan

part |31 pages

Early States and the Iron Age

chapter 34|7 pages

Independent and Well-Connected

The Ammonite Territorial Kingdom in Iron Age II

chapter 35|6 pages

Shepherds and Weavers in a ‘Global Economy'

Moab in Late Iron Age II–Wadi ath-Thamad Project (Khirbat al-Mudayna)

chapter 36|8 pages

The Power of Place

The Dhiban Community through the Ages

chapter 37|7 pages

A Place In-Between

Khirbat al-Mudayna al-‘Aliya in the Early Iron Age

part |36 pages

The Edge of Empire—Hellenistic and Roman Period

chapter 38|7 pages

In Search of Hellenistic Petra

Excavations in the City Center

chapter 39|7 pages

Shifting Places, Changing Faces

The Civic Statuary of Roman Jordan

chapter 40|9 pages

Projecting Power on the Periphery

Rome's Arabian Frontier East of the Dead Sea

chapter 41|8 pages

Beyond Frankincense and Myrrh

Reconstructing the Economy of Roman ‘Aqaba

part |50 pages

Nabatean Civilization and its Jordanian Heartland

chapter 43|9 pages

Nabataean Landscape and Power

Evidence from the Petra Garden and Pool Complex

chapter 45|8 pages

Beyond the Nabataean and Roman City

Surveying the Central and Southern Wadi ‘Arabah

chapter 46|7 pages

Luxury in the Desert

A Nabataean Palatial Residence at Wadi Ramm

chapter 47|8 pages

Torn Asunder

Earthquakes at Qasr at-Tilah

part |27 pages

Theocratic Empire—The Byzantine Period

chapter 48|8 pages

Bioarchaeology of North Jordan

A Decade of Cooperative American and Jordanian Student Research

chapter 49|7 pages

Beyond the Rock

Petra in the Sixth Century ce in the Light of the Papyri

chapter 50|9 pages

Petra's Churches

The Byzantines and Beyond

part |36 pages

Islamic Civilization in Jordan

chapter 51|9 pages

From Nabataean King to Abbasid Caliph

The Enduring Attraction of Hawara/al-Humayma, a Multi-cultural Site in Arabia Petraea

chapter 52|9 pages

From Residence to Revolutionary Headquarters

The Early Islamic Qasr and Mosque Complex at al-Humayma and its 8th-century Context

chapter 53|6 pages

Paradox of Power

Between Local and Imperial at Umm Al-Jimal

chapter 54|8 pages

Peasants, Pilgrims, and the Body Politic

The Northern Jordan Project and the Landscapes of the Islamic Periods