Gary A. Byers
One of the longest running archaeological excavations in the region of ancient Palestine has been conducted just south of Amman, Jordan, by Andrews University. Called the Madaba Plains Project, it has quietly become one of the most thorough and integrative of American excavations in the Middle East.
Heshbon Expedition
Initiated as the Heshbon Expedition and directed by Seigfried Horn in 1968 at Tell Hesban, the original goals of the excavation were in conjunction with research into the Israelite Conquest of Canaan. In particular, they intended to determine whether the modern site could be identified with the Biblical Late Bronze city of Heshbon (Nm 21:21–26). Tell Hesban’s mound of 15 acres appeared to be the most likely candidate in the region. Unfortunately, after five seasons of excavations concluded in 1976, results did not verify that identification.
What excavators did find among the 19 strata on the tell was fragmentary remains for a small unfortified village of the 12th-11th centuries BC (Iron Age I),the earliest stratum on the site. Later remains were also identified from the Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Early Arab, Ayyubid and Mameluke periods.
Madaba Plains Project
After the conclusion of the Heshbon Expedition, excavations in the region continued as the expanded Madaba Plains Project, with ongoing excavations at Tell el-ʿUmeiri (starting 1984) and Tell Jalul (starting 1992). Excavations at ʿUmeiri, located halfway between Tell Hesban and Amman, the capital of modern Jordan, were jointly directed by Lawrence Geraty and Larry Herr, with Horn as a senior adviser. The site consists of three mounds, 250 m apart, separated by a wadi and the freeway from Amman to the international airport. The northeast tell dates to the Islamic period and the southeast to the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine periods.
The western tell of ʿUmeiri is 16 acres in area and sits 60 m above the wadi. Here excavations have uncovered remains from the Early Bronze Age (ca. 2500 BC) through the beginning of the Persian period (6th century BC). In addition, the ʿUmeiri project includes a regional study of the area within a 5 km radius from the site.
BSP 8:4 (Autumn 1995) p. 107
Tell Jalul, a site of 18.5 acres, began as a special project in 1982. In 1992 it became a major project, with excavations conducted biannually under the direction of Randall Younker. Thus far, a city dating to the 9th-8th centuries BC (Iron Age II) has been uncovered, as well as evidence of a 12th century BC (Iron I) city. Especially significant were two flagstone-paved approach ramps, one above the other, outside the ancient city wall and presumably leading to the city gate.
Cultural anthropologist Øystein LaBianca directs the Madaba Plains Project Hinterland survey, investigating cycles of intensification in land use and settlement. Research methods employed in this study include an environmental survey, ethnographical research and an archaeological survey in the area around the tells.
Unlike the majority of Middle Eastern excavations, the Madaba Plains Project has distinguished itself by the prompt and thorough publication of its excavation results. From the Heshbon Expedition, they have published three volumes of preliminary reports and four volumes of final reports in a proposed 14 volume series.
In addition, the first volume of the expanded Madaba Plains Project has also been published. As noted by Bill Dever, considered the dean of American Syro-Palestinian archaeologists, “This combined project has long since become one of the most sophisticated and truly interdisciplinary of all American archaeological excavations in the Middle East” (Dever 1993:127).
One of the major factors in the success of the Madaba Plains Project has been LaBianca’s highly original concept of “food systems” which became one of the fundamental theoretical models for the project’s research design. LaBianca defines food systems as “a complex unity consisting of all the purposive, patterned (institutionalized), and interconnected activities carried out by a group of individuals to procure, process, distribute, prepare or consume food, and dispose of food remains” (La Bianca 1990:9).
Simply stated, in the ancient world the procurement, processing and consumption of “their daily bread” occupied the majority of a typical family’s time and energy. As the basic element of subsistence, food affects every dimension of human life. Incorporated into all aspects of their field work, the food systems model has allowed the Madaba Plains Project staff to ask and answer questions of their archaeological material which most other excavations have not yet considered.
References
Dever, W. D.
1993 Syro-Palestinian Archaeology “Comes of Age”: The Inaugural Volume of the Hesban Series — A Review Article. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 290–291: 127–30.
La Bianca, Ø. S.
1990 Hesban 1. Sedentarization and Nomadization: Food System Cycles at Hesban and Vicinity in Transjordan. Berrien Springs MI: Andrews University.