Archaeology Magazine - January/February 1979 - 11

A hoard of bronzeand silver Mamlúkcoinsfound in
a clay lamp buriedbeneaththe dirt floor of a home.

Lookingdown the long axis of a Roman cistern
whichhas continuedin use until the present

cisterns and reservoirs which today still form a
major source of the water for modern herds of
sheep and goats. During antiquity, dry farming was
an alternative economic source. Still a popular
technique in these arid regions today, dry farming
is agriculture without the benefit of irrigation. In
this fashion, some grains, perhaps vegetables as well
as grapes and figs could be grown despite limited
natural rainfall. After the decline of the ancient city
around approximately a.d. 1450, the town was
relatively uninhabited until just after World War I
when the ancestors of the present villagers settled
on the south slope of the tell as farm hands.
The Andrews University Expeditions to Tell
Hesbân have completed five seasons of fieldwork
on the site. The excavation was conducted under
the auspices of the American Schools of Oriental
Research and constituted the largest American
archaeological operation in Jordan after the war of
1967. Two seasons were postponed because of
hostilities; the initial season of 1968 had been
planned for 1967 and the 1970 season was
postponed by civil disturbances until 1971. The first
three seasons during 1968, 1971 and 1973 were
directed by Siegfried H. Horn and the 1974 and
1976 seasons were conducted by Lawrence T.
Geraty, both of Andrews University. Roger Boraas
of Upsala College served as Chief Archaeologist for
the duration of the project. Ceramic, numismatic,
architectural, geologic and osteologie analyses were
maintained from the beginning, as was the study of
the epigraphic, glass and other materials. The zones
of work were initially limited to government-owned
land; as political tensions eased, work was expanded

to include a search for tombs in the adjacent slopes
and a regional survey of occupation sites. During
subsequent test excavations, a series of squares was
dug at the base of the tell on the north, east and
south sides to determine whether there was also
evidence of occupation periods in these areas not to
be found on the tell itself. Physical anthropologists
were supplemented by teams of ethnographists,
zooarchaeologists, meteorologists, pollen analysts or
palynologists, ornithologists and seed and shell
analysts. Laboratory studies included assistance
from the Natural Resources Authority laboratories
in 'Amman as well as specialized work in a number
of locations in the United States and Europe.

^^uring the first season of excavation the site was
marked off by a major north-south and east-west
pair of axes centered in the acropolis. The initial
strategy was to cut a series of squares along the
west and south lines of the intersection, providing a
continuous stratigraphie connection from materials
at the west perimeter of the tell up to the acropolis
center, then down the south slope to the edge. This
division into four work areas was subsequendy
augmented by three areas of tomb research and
another area consisting of investigations scattered
around the perimeter of the site. During five
seasons a series of twenty-four distinguishable strata
was identified with two primary gaps in occupation
evidence. The earlier gap corresponds to the Late
Persian Period (ca. 500-250 b.c.) and the later one
to part of the Ottoman Period (ca. a.d. 1456-1870).
11
Archaeology Magazine - January/February 1979

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - January/February 1979
