Press Release for DAJ – 2004 Excavation Season, MPP-Tall Hisban
Senior Director, Dr. Oystein S. LaBianca, Andrews University
Report written by Dr. Bethany J. Walker, Oklahoma State University

Andrews University, with the support of students and staff from Oklahoma State University and other academic institutions, conducted its 2004 season at Tall Hisban from 24 May through 23 June. Reconstructing Arch This year’s project was an ambitious one in terms of its scale and research objectives and focused, as in 2001, on Hisban’s Islamic-period history. Fieldwork consisted of four areas with ten excavation units, three cleaning and restoration projects, a walking survey of Wadi Majar, and continued ethnographic work in the modern village of Hisban. The project is led by Senior Director Dr. Oystein S. LaBianca of Andrews University, Co-Director and Chief Archaeologist Dr. Bethany J. Walker of Oklahoma State University, and Administrative Director Dr. Keith Mattingly, also of Andrews.
This year’s excavation and survey teams included some forty students form the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Europe, and Jordan and fifty local workmen, in addition to the leadership and support of two representatives from the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, Mrs. Sabah Abu Hedaib (excavation) and Mr. Adnan Arrafaiah (survey). The four excavation fields produced excellent architectural documentation for the development of the medieval village through the nineteenth century. The 1998 and 2001 seasons uncovered the remains on the summit of what is believed to be the residence of the Mamluk governor of the Balqa’ in the fourteenth century C.E. Further investigations of this field (Field L) in 2004 produced the floor plan of a series of rooms connecting this residence to the defensive structures of the fortification wall. Excavation units on the western slope of the tell (Field C) were also opened to explore the structure of the Middle Islamic village.
A large stone building, 11 meters long and originally barrel-vaulted, was discovered and identified as a Byzantine farmhouse. The structure was significantly re-built and reused as a stable in the Mamluk period (fourteenth century) and further re-fashioned in the nineteenth century for a similar purpose. The team opened up a new field of excavation (Field O), on the southeastern slopes of the tell, to further investigate a masonry structure found at the end of the 2001 season. This turned out to be a heavily constructed, one-room, single-floor building measuring 9.6 by 6.2 meters, covered by a stone barrel vault, and enclosed by large walls (one meter to one and a half meters thick and preserved to a height of eight courses). This apparent farmhouse has been tentatively dated to the early nineteenth century and appears to occupy the original site of the modern village of Hisban. Excavation also continued on the northwest slope of the tell, where a Mamluk storage facility, built above the remains of a Roman quarry and cistern, was documented. In terms of small finds, these fields produced evidence of local production of Islamic glazed wares in the late Mamluk period in the form of firing tripods (used to separate vessels from one another when stacking them in a kiln) and wasters (poorly fired vessels, usually thrown away and never used).
There was also a large quantity of medieval glass vessels and metal objects recovered, most related to animal husbandry.
The goal of the survey in the Wadi Majar was to trace the development of agriculture in the Hisban region by identifying Mamluk and Ottoman “farmsteads” and gather data on environment, cropping patterns, and agricultural markets in these periods. Six large sites of the period related to planting and food preparation were mapped and recorded in detail. Several of the sites were Late Ottoman water mills, which attest to the “grain boom” of the nineteenth century that played a pivotal role in the revival of villages in the Madaba Plains.
As part of its continuing commitment to site preservation, Andrews University reinforced and restored several key architectural components on the summit, including the northeast tower, the northern gate of the Roman fortification wall, and an arched doorway in the Mamluk governor’s residence. Several viewing platforms and walkways were constructed and signs and trash cans installed for visitor accessibility and comfort. The Municipality of Hisban and the Department of Antiquities have partnered with Andrews University in these projects.