Final weekly “Report From the Field”
Week of July 8-15, 2007
This is our final “report from the field” for the 2007 season, as this Friday brought to a close our last full week of excavation. We are pleased with the progress we made toward addressing our original research goals for this season, which were to determine a date for the original construction of the bathhouse and better understand its structural and functional relationship with the rest of the Mamluk complex on the summit (Field Q); to document the transformation of the fortification system of the citadel through from the Iron Age (or earlier) through the Late Islamic period (Field M); to trace the history of occupation of the medieval village below the tell (Field C); and to describe more fully the emergence of the modern village from the late Ottoman era through archaeological, historical, and ethnographical analyses (Field O). Our stratigraphic operations this season targeted these questions and resulted in many surprises, which we briefly describe below.
During the removal of an insubstantial field wall and its supporting rubble platform adjacent to the plaster-paved Mamluk-era room in Q.1 (discovered last week), we uncovered a series of four additional plaster floors, the lowest of which was laid above a cobblestone wall (the date of which we hope to determine on Monday). This wall, in turn, was placed on a well preserved flagstone pavement and the lowest three steps of the entrance to the Citadel, suggesting the appearance of the southern entrance during the Early Byzantine period. The adjacent Mamluk-era southwest corner tower of the Citadel (in Q.2) was deceptive in its construction, appearing on the exterior face to be defensive but of poor construction, a mere skin of masonry wrapped around a preexisting wall. Excavation of a second room running parallel to that discovered in Q.1 continued this week, confirming the designation of this space as a Mamluk-period storeroom, perhaps an extension of the large storeroom (L.1-3) identified in 1998 and 2001. We reached a beaten earth floor in this room on Friday. Cumulative seasons of excavation in these squares and the surrounding area suggest at least 3 phases of construction and reconfiguration of the Citadel’s northern approach and tower system over the course of the Mamluk period, transforming domestic space into something more defensive. The implications of this rebuilding for the history of fortification of the summit will be the goal of post-season research upon our return to Michigan.
Exploration of the foundation levels of the bathhouse in Q.3 produced somewhat surprising results. Excavations in 1976 uncovered an Early Islamic pavement, upon which was built the bathhouse and which was at some later date (post-Mamluk) partially destroyed by a robber’s trench. We excavated a shallow balk between the robber’s trench and the extant inner face of the south wall of the bathhouse in order to explore foundation levels potentially unaffected by this trench. The plaster layer associated with the lowest courses of this wall produced mostly Early Islamic (in fact, early Umayyad) sherds, providing further evidence for an Umayyad date for the bathhouse. We also opened a small probe at the lowest level of the robber’s trench between the bathhouse and the Mamluk storeroom and found a wall of apparent Byzantine date. In short, Square Q.3 this week yielded data for an Umayyad date for the original construction of the bath, as well as evidence of a Byzantine structure, potentially independent from the basilica, upon which the 14th-century storeroom was built. Monday we will further explore remnants of a possible flagstone pavement associated with this underlying Byzantine structure, as well as excavate the small space between a doorway adjacent to the bath and the rubble platform supporting the rooms of Q.1 and Q.2.
Some eight courses of the northeastern Citadel tower have been made visible during excavation in M.6 (the tower interior). The method of construction – large boulders with chink stones between them and set in courses of their own – can be seen on the exterior of the wall (seen in M.7) and elsewhere around the enceinte of the tell, suggesting the original form of fortification of the summit. While it is not possible at this point to establish the date of the tower and the original wall, its antiquity is not in doubt. Visitors have suggested parallels from the Iron and Bronze Ages, and Iron II pottery has been consistently identified in strata in M.6 and M.7. We hope to reach the founding level of the tower on its exterior face in M.7 on Monday and will see then whether a foundation trench exists. The tower is built over a cave, which seems to have been adapted for human burial, perhaps during the Roman period, although further exploration of this space is needed for confirmation. The tower also exhibits phases of reconstruction, now made visible by the removal this week of the southern balk of M.7.
After removal of the hearth and cobblestone floor of the “Byzantine kitchen” of M.4 we uncovered a well constructed, plastered water channel. Potentially Roman in date, the channel was originally capped by stone and would logically lead to the collapsed cistern discovered in M.5 in 2004, although the gradient of the channel challenges this theory. We closed this square on Thursday and have begun final drawings.
After weeks of breaking boulders and removal of meters of rubble, clearly defined wall lines and rooms have emerged in Field C, allowing us to define at least three architectural spaces: a storeroom (holding restorable vessels) in C. 106, an Early Byzantine building in C.108 with plastered walls and floors, and a large room in C.107 that occupied the entire space of the 5x5 meter square and is interrupted by a partially collapsed wall in its western half. The narrow room in C.106 has been identified, in at least its latest phase of use, as a Mamluk-era storeroom, as at least three restorable vessels (a large HMGP jar and two green-glazed bowls) were recovered. The pottery from levels immediately above the stone floor of C.108 (finally located below ten standing courses of wall) have been Early Byzantine, as were sherds from collapse of wall plaster. This building was apparently reused in the Mamluk period and the floor resurfaced several times in lime plaster, in a pattern repeated in the farmhouse of C.102 (which now appears to be an Early Byzantine structure). Among the surprising finds in this room this week was an abundance of corroded metal, much of it bonded with Mamluk-era sherds, the results of a major conflagration. The metal included two large crossbow bolts, the first evidence of substantial medieval weaponry identified thus far at Tall Hisban. The identity and floor plan of the room/structure in C.107 and its relationship to the other structures remains unclear. Further fieldwork will be required to determine the date, function, and general layout of this building.
Excavation of Field O has faced the same logistical challenges of Field C: extensive removal of large rocks have been required to determine wall lines and general floor plan. The plan of the buildings in this field became much clearer this week, with the opening of two new squares (O.9 and O.10) and removal of their collapsed stone vaults. It now appears that this field has two late Ottoman-era, single-room farmhouses, of the construction style and scale of the farmhouse uncovered in the same field in 2004. Walls of the two building abut in the center of C.7 and were built over what appears to be an earlier Byzantine farmhouse, a date obtained from the pottery and construction style. Associated objects confirm the identification of these building as farmhouses (a sickle, large numbers of storage jars, tabun fragments, numerous basalt grinding stones), as well as a late Ottoman date for use and construction (19th-century “Gaza Ware” jars, HMGP jars and bowls, and smoking pipes [chibouk]). Surface finds indicate that a series of such houses were built against one another and around cisterns, in a system of shared courtyards and “family cisterns” encountered in villages throughout Jordan and Palestine. Investigating these social patterns architecturally will be an objective of future fieldwork in this field.
The academic program this week included a “Town House meeting” Thursday evening on cultural issues and informal weekend trips to the Bethany baptismal site, the Dead Sea, and the Crusader castles of Kerak and Shobak organized, in part, by our own students. We were visited this week in the field by the Norwegian Ambassador, Her Excellency Mette Ravn, as well as the Canadian archaeological team from the Wadi Thamud Project.
Next week will be a busy one for the Hisban team, as we finish formal fieldwork on Monday (the 16th); complete drawings, survey, inventories, and division of finds with the Jordanian Department of Antiquities; and prepare for our return to the U.S. In addition, our students have been invited to numerous mansefs (a traditional Jordanian banquet) by families in the village of Hisban next week. We will hold our annual end-of-season lecture (by Walker and LaBianca) on Tuesday evening and celebration Wednesday night, with a formal dinner at Kan Zaman, a beautifully restored Ottoman complex in Yaduda near Amman.
Submitted jointly by Walker and LaBianca,
July 15, 2007
