This Handbook aims to serve as a research guide to the archaeology of the Levant, an area situated at the crossroads of the ancient world that linked the eastern Mediterranean, Anatolia, Mesopotamia, and Egypt. The Levant as used here is a historical geographical term referring to a large area which today comprises the modern states of Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, western Syria, and Cyprus, as well as the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and the Sinai Peninsula. Unique in its treatment of the entire region, it offers a comprehensive overview and analysis of the current state of the archaeology of the Levant within its larger cultural, historical, and socio-economic contexts. The Handbook also attempts to bridge the modern scholarly and political divide between archaeologists working in this highly contested region. Written by leading international scholars in the field, it focuses chronologically on the Neolithic through Persian periods - a time span during which the Levant was often in close contact with the imperial powers of Egypt, Anatolia, Assyria, Babylon, and Persia. This volume will serve as an invaluable reference work for those interested in a contextualised archaeological account of this region, beginning with the 'agricultural revolution' until the conquest of Alexander the Great that marked the end of the Persian period.

A critical transition period in the archaeology and history of Palestine—the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age—is described in detail from the perspective of a group of sites in the Baq'ah Valley. A major emphasis is on how scientific techniques, including magnetic location of undisturbed burial deposits and analytical reconstruction of very early industries, can be effectively integrated into an archaeological project. Contrary to traditional views, the evidence supports a relatively peaceful development within a single cultural tradition rather than the intrusion of a new people or segment of the existing population, by invasion, migration, or revolt. University Museum Monograph, 65

This study analyzes several passages in the Former Prophets (2 Sam 19:12-44; 2 Kgs 2:1-18; Judg 8:4-28) from a literary perspective, and argues that the text presents Transjordan as liminal in Israel's history, a place from which Israel's leaders return with inaugurated or renewed authority. It then traces the redactional development of Samuel-Kings that led to this literary symbolism, and proposes a hypothesis of continual updating and combination of texts, beginning early in Israel's monarchy and continuing until the final formation of the Deuteronomistic History. Several source documents may be isolated, including three narratives of Saul's rise, two distinct histories of David's rise, and a court history that was subsequently revised with pro-Solomonic additions. These texts had been combined already in a Prophetic Record during the 9th c. B.C.E. (with A. F. Campbell), which was received as an integrated unit by the Deuteronomistic Historian. The symbolic geography of the Jordan River and Transjordan, which even extends into the New Testament, was therefore not the product of a deliberate theological formulation, but rather the accidental by-product of the contingency of textual redaction that had as its main goal the historical presentation of Israel's life in the land.

Much of the archaeology of Late Antique period remains in Jordan has concentrated on public buildings: churches, mosques, theatres, baths, and their major architectural features, such as mosaic floors. In this fourth report of the excavations at Tall Jawa in central Jordan, a single house with a rich repertoire of pottery, mould-made lamps, glass, and a small coin hoard, appears to span the transition period from the Late Byzantine to the Early Islamic period. Details of the construction of the building itself and of its mosaic pavements, the technology of its ceramic corpus, analysis of its inscribed lamps, painted plaster, objects and a small coin hoard all contribute to an understanding of village life for people during a period of linguistic, religious, and political transition. "The publication of Excavations at Tall Jawa, Jordan, Volume 4: The Early Islamic House is an important contribution that adds not only to the growing body of evidence for central Transjordan, but also to our understanding of non-urban Islamic archaeology and the seventh- to eighth-century transition." - Asa Eger, University of North Carolina at Greensboro

This book focuses on the utilitarian ceramic traditions during the socio-political transition from the late Byzantine into the early Islamic Umayyad and ‘Abbasid periods, in southern Transjordan and the Negev. Production clusters, manufacturing techniques, distribution patterns, and material links between communities are analysed.

In Excavations at Tall Jawa, Jordan, Volume 5, the authors present their research in the areas of regional survey, salvage excavation, zooarchaeology, ceramic typology, experimental archaeology and ethnoarchaeology. This work illustrates areas threatened and later destroyed by modern development and is a contribution to heritage documentation. These studies illuminate aspects of family and town life in the Iron Age, Roman, Byzantine and Late Ottoman–Early Mandate periods in central Jordan.

In Excavations at Tall Jawa, Jordan: Volume 3, The Iron Age Pottery, Michèle Daviau presents a detailed typology of the Iron Age pottery excavated from 1989 to 1995. She looks beyond the formal changes to an in-depth analysis of the forming techniques employed to make each type of vessel from bowls to colanders, cooking pots to pithoi. The changes in fabric composition from Iron I to Iron II were more significant than those from Iron IIB to IIC, although changes in surface treatment, especially slip color, were noticeable. Petrographic analysis of Iron I pottery by Stanley Klassen contributes to our growing corpus of fabric types, while Peter Epler documents typical Ammonite painted patterns and Elaine Kirby and Marianne Kraft present a typology of potters’ marks.

Presents papers presented at an international workshop dedicated to the study of Roman common ware pottery in the Near East held in Berlin on 18th and 19th February 2010.

A state-of-the-art presentation on a people/nation of Transjordan known to readers of the Bible as a neighbor, and often an enemy, of first millennium B.C. Israel. Topics covered in the book's ten chapters include a review of archaeological research in Ammon (R.W. Younker); the emergence of the Ammonites (R.W. Younker); Ammonite territory and sites (B. MacDonald); Ammonite "monumental" and domestic architecture (M. Najjar and P.M.M. Daviau respectively), as well as burial customs and practices (K. Yassine); the ceramic traditions of Central Transjordan (G. London); Ammonite texts and language (W. E. Aufrecht); the religion of the Ammonites (W.E. Aufrecht); and the Ammonites in the late Iron Age and the Persian period (L.G. Herr). Figures and Tables accompany each chapter. In addition, the publication includes an "Excursus" on the salient features of Iron Age tribal kingdoms (O. LaBianca). Each chapter of Ancient Ammon includes extensive reference material. The publication is fully indexed.