ABSTRACT
During his survey of Transjordan (1933–37), Nelson Glueck collected potsherds from more than 1000 sites in order to identify their periods of use and their cultural affiliation. In the region that extends from Khirbat al-Mudayna and ar-Rumayl (Glueck 1970: Figs. 85–87, 84) on Wadi ath-Thamad to Wadi al-Hasa in the south, Glueck identified as Moabite a type of painted pottery that was distinct from the pottery found in the region of ‘Amman. This distinction set the stage for systematic excavation of Moab. The first major excavation project was the Canadian expedition to Dhiban under the supervision of F. Winnett and W. Reed in 1950, followed in 1952 by A.D. Tushingham from the University of Toronto/Royal Ontario Museum, and by W. Morton in 1955, 1956, and 1965 (preliminary publication, 1989). Although most of the architectural remains on the mound dated to the Roman period, a number of Iron Age tombs (850–650 bc) yielded several assemblages of well-preserved ceramic vessels. While this material sheds light on the burial customs of the people of Dibon, it tells us little about the social structure and political organization of Moab as a whole, or of the extent of the kingdom and its economy (Dion and Daviau 2006).
