Ch. 10: Excavation of the Area D, H, and J Cemeteries

Khirbat Iskandar: Final Report on the Early Bronze IV Area C "Gateway" and Cemeteries, 2010

American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 2010

. In this volume, Ortner and Frohlich (OF) provide an excellent synthesis of the Early Bronze Age (EB) tomb excavations at Bâ b edh-Dhrâ ', Jordan, which represents the culmination of many years of bioarchaeological research by the authors as well as the numerous contributors. Their extensive efforts are evident in this informative and richly illustrated volume. The publication summarizes data from the 1977, 1979, and 1981 excavation seasons. These investigations resulted in the recovery of over 700 burials from 28 tombs, dating from the EB IA (3300-3200 BCE) and IB (3200-3200 BCE) as well as one EB IB charnel house. OF present these data in great detail and provide the reader with valuable information concerning the osteological analysis, cultural history, and bioarchaeological interpretations of the Bâ b edh-Dhrâ ' EB I tombs. The primary authors organize the volume's 14 chapters into three sections: 1) background and setting, 2) tomb and burial data, and 3) analysis and interpretation. The first section covers the Bâ b edh-Dhrâ ' project background, regional setting, methodology, and EB I cultural history. These chapters offer a wealth of information concerning Near Eastern and Bronze Age archaeology and contextualize the later descriptive and interpretive chapters. Chapter 3 deals with tomb identification and excavation methods. Although the field work for this volume began over 30 years before this publication, the authors demonstrated innovative approaches to problems they faced during the Bâ b edh-Dhrâ ' excavations. For example, the use of near-surface conductivity proved valuable in prioritizing tombs for excavation. OF also discuss the need for consistent osteological standards in dealing with the large burial samples and highlight some of the assumptions osteologists working with such collections must make. Chapter 4, by R. Thomas Schaub, is a key resource for the material culture associated with the tombs and should prove to be a concise reference for archaeologists working in the region. The second section of the book includes four chapters describing the results of the three excavation seasons with the results of the 1977 excavation season being divided between two chapters. Chapter 6 (OF with Garofalo) details the 1977 excavations of EB IA shaft tombs. This chapter is the book's longest and describes 18 separate tombs. Chapters 6 through 9 include high-quality illustrations and photographs of each tomb. These images highlight the extraordinary preservation and archaeological complexity encountered by the authors during their investigations. Chapter 7 (OF with Meier) describes salvage excavation and osteological analysis of an EB IB charnel house. Chapters 8 and 9 (OF with Garofalo) describe the tombs excavated during the 1979 and 1981 seasons, respectively. The final five chapters cover osteology, paleodemography, health, dental remains, and summary interpretations. These chapters synthesize the information presented in previous sections and provide valuable insights into the EB IA and EB IB populations at Bâ b edh-Dhrâ '. Chapter 10 (FO with Froment) summarizes the burial sample by age, sex, season, location, tomb, and chamber. In addition, the authors tabulate basic summary statistics for osteometrical and morphological data. The chapter concludes with a comparison of published craniometric data from contemporaneous regional sites. The authors correctly acknowledge the analytical limitations of samples with missing data, but I wish they had given a better explanation of the ''missing data replacement'' procedures and data thresholds used. They also referenced the availability of the Bâ b edh-Dhrâ ' data online, but the provided hyperlink failed at the time of this review. Finally, the addition of a map showing the locations of the reference samples and a canonical plot of their relationships might have helped the reader through this section. Chapter 11 (OF) examines the paleodemographic parameters of the Bâ b edh-Dhrâ ' burial sample. Some sections of this chapter are quite informative but others, I feel, are problematic. The authors begin the chapter with a nod to the recent literature on estimation of age-at-death distributions, but they provide only a marginal discussion of the likely bias in the Bâ b edh-Dhrâ ' adult estimates. In the chapter's first half, the authors focus on life-table construction, life expectancy, and mortality differences by sex. I felt that this section would have benefited from some methodological updates (see, for example, the works of Boldsen, Konigsberg, and Wood). The latter half of the chapter is an insightful discussion of fertility and mortality in the EB IA culture of the region. The authors examine issues surrounding fetal and infant mortality and the impact of these events on the overall population structure. Chapter 12 (OF with Garofalo) details the paleopathology of the Bâ b edh-Dhrâ ' sample. This chapter is organized by general disease categories, and the authors provide an excellent summary of the bone lesions observed in the EB IA and EB IB burial samples. Valuable information is presented on bone disorders ranging from osteoarthritis to scurvy and rickets to bone infections. The authors readily contextualize these observations relative to subsistence patterns, lifeways, and cultural interactions of the EB I populations of Bâ b edh-Dhrâ '. Chapter 13 (Bentley and Perry) examines dental remains from the EB IA tombs. Their analysis specifically addresses the biological relationships of the burial sample based on dental morphology and attempts to assess the population's overall health via select dental health indicators. Because of commingling and the fragmentary nature of the Bâ b edh-Dhrâ ' burial sample, Bentley and Perry perform univariate nonparametric tests on the morphological trait data. They conclude that the burial sample is homogeneous and that only a few morphological traits exhibit spatial concentrations across the site, hinting at a limited level of biological structuring in the burial distribution. Examination of dental metrics may have strengthened this analysis, but these data are not discussed in the volume. The authors also found no discernible pattern of association by sex or location in linear enamel hypoplasias. Bentley and Perry conclude that the homogeneous pattern of dental disease and mor-

Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 55, 2011

2002

During the years 1995–99 five field seasons were conducted at Ismant el-Kharab, ancient Kellis. Brief reports on this work have been published in the Bulletin of the Australian Centre for Egyptology (Hope 1995, 1999a; Hope and Bowen 1997). In presenting a summary of the results of those excavations here it was decided to base this upon the published reports, with modifications and additions, thus facilitating access to their contents. The format of the reports will be changed to bring together the various discussions of the different excavation areas; however, in these sections the work conducted during each season will be outlined sequentially. This report focuses upon the results of the excavations conducted within the Main Temple Complex and present only brief summaries of the work elsewhere, while separate discussions of the site’s various churches by Gillian Bowen and the results of the first excavations in Area C by Kevin Hickson appear in this volume. Preliminary observations...

American Journal of Archaeology, 2016

'Atiqot, 2022

Khirbat et-Tira (Bareqet) In March 2015, a salvage excavation was conducted at Moshav Bareqet, which is located within the boundaries of the site of Khirbat et-Tira (Permit No. A-7366; map ref. 194810/658240; Fig. 1), after ancient remains were damaged. The excavation, undertaken on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority and financed by Moshav Bareqet, was directed by G. Itach, with the assistance of Y. Amrani (administration), M. Kahan and R. Mishayev (surveying and drafting), A. Fadida (field photography), A. Dagot and C. Ben-Ari (GPS), M. Shuiskaya (pottery drawing), H. Torgë (pottery reading), N. Zak (plans), R. Zuckerman-Cooper (archaeozoology), A. Gorzalczany (consultation) and A. 'Azab (IAA Central District archaeologist). Khirbat et-Tira was documented in the survey of the Map of Lod (Gophna and Beit-Arieh 1997:24, Site 19). Remains from the Early Bronze Age, and from the Iron Age II to the Byzantine period were identified. Archaeological excavations were conducted in and around the site, and remains from the Hellenistic, Byzantine and Mamluk periods were discovered, including architectural remains, burial caves, lime kilns, cisterns and winepresses (Masarwa 2012 (http://www.hadashot-esi.org.il/Report_Detail_Eng.aspx? id=2091&mag_id=119), and see references cited therein).

writing developed during the second half of the 4th millennium BC, Jordan did not use writing until over a thousand years later. In addition, it has been proposed that the South Levantine Early Bronze Age polities, which have been identifi ed as citysates, were neither cities nor states.However, the prevailing views in recent years of the origin of the Bronze Ages have been thoroughly modifi ed. Some scholars see that urbanisation was introduced to this part of the world by newcomers, while others argue for local development and do not exclude external infl uences. The appearance of self-suffi cient towns in the Early Bronze II is parallel to the First Dynasty in Egypt, and the subsequent period the Early Bronze III was marked by the growth of numerous sedentary communities. Moreover, the Early Bronze II-III periods are considered as the fi rst major expression of the Canaanite urbanism. The Early Bronze Age IV (ca. 2300-2000 BC) has been referred to as an interlude of non-sedentary pastoral life between the town urbanism in the Early Bronze II-III and the cities in the Middle Bronze Ages. The tell sites in Jordan had been abandoned, with the exception of very rare sites such as Khirbet Iskander, and regional Early Bronze IV settlement patterns imply extensive use of dry farming land. It has also been proposed that the inhabitants of the Early Bronze IV adopted a new economic strategy and turned to be seminomadic pastoralists. This hypothesis has been combined with the literary evidence documenting the expansion of the semi-nomadic “Amorites”, but has been denied by some scholars. Paul Lapp suggested that the source of the newcomers to Palestine during the Early Bronze IV is the North. The aim of this paper is at presenting a study to the Early Bronze Age major sites either surveyed or excavated in the are

Iraq, 2017

Excavations at the 109 hectare site of Kurd Qaburstan on the Erbil plain in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq were conducted by the Johns Hopkins University in 2013 and 2014. The Middle Bronze Age (Old Babylonian period) is the main period of occupation evident on the site, and the project therefore aims to study the character of a north Mesopotamian urban centre of the early second millenniumb.c. On the high mound, excavations revealed three phases of Mittani (Late Bronze) period occupation, including evidence of elite residential architecture. On the low mound and the south slope of the high mound, Middle Bronze evidence included domestic remains with numerous ceramic vessels left in situ. Also dating to the Middle Bronze period is evidence of a city wall on the site edges. Later occupations include a cemetery, perhaps of Achaemenid date, on the south slope of the high mound and a Middle Islamic settlement on the southern lower town. Faunal and archaeobotanical analysis provide informa...

American Journal of Archaeology 118/4, 2014