Community, Polity, and Temple in a Middle Bronze Age Levantine Village

Abstract

The social and economic implications of rural ritual behavior during the development of early urbanized society are inferred from material evidence from households and temple compounds at Tell el-Hayyat, Jordan. Textual sources, primarily from the second millennium BC Syria, show that some temples were dependent upon institutional support (e.g. from palaces), while others were firmly embedded in the domestic economy of their surrounding community. Spatial and temporal patterning of animal bones, plant fragments, ceramics and symbolic objects during Middle Bronze Age IIA and B (ca. 2000-1650 BC) at Tell el-Hayyat reflect some specific ritual prescriptions (e.g. in ovicaprid and fig consumption, and deposition of metal objects). However, a variety of congruences between domestic and temple assemblages (e.g. in sheep:goat management, cattle consumption, cooking pot and storage jar manufacture and use) suggest that Hayyat's temple economy generally reflects immediate community support, rather than the intervention of external institutional authority.

A Radiocarbon Sequence from Tell Abu en-Ni‘aj, Jordan and its Implications for Early Bronze IV Chronology in the Southern Levant

“…Basal Phase 6 produced Early Bronze IV ceramics from archaeological deposits just above sterile sediment. Phases 5-2 reveal a Middle Bronze Age settlement centered on four temples in antis surrounded by houses, courtyards, and alleys (Magness-Gardiner and Falconer 1994;Falconer and Fall 2006: Figure 3.1). Hand-built versions of Middle Bronze I vessel forms suggest that Phase 5 dates early in this period, while classic wheel-thrown pottery documents Middle Bronze I, II, and III habitation in Phases 4-2 (Falconer and Fall 2006: Middle Bronze Age Zahrat adh-Dhra' 1 on the Dead Sea Plain is distinguished by the remains of more than 25 semi-subterranean stone built structures spread over 6 ha atop a ridge between two tributaries of the Wadi al-Karak (see Figure 1; Edwards et al 2001Edwards et al , 2002Fall et al 2007).…”

“…Basal Phase 6 produced Early Bronze IV ceramics from archaeological deposits just above sterile sediment. Phases 5–2 reveal a Middle Bronze Age settlement centered on four temples in antis surrounded by houses, courtyards, and alleys (Magness-Gardiner and Falconer 1994; Falconer and Fall 2006: Figure 3.1). Hand-built versions of Middle Bronze I vessel forms suggest that Phase 5 dates early in this period, while classic wheel-thrown pottery documents Middle Bronze I, II, and III habitation in Phases 4–2 (Falconer and Fall 2006: Table 4.1).…”

Radiocarbon Dates from the Oxford Ams System: Archaeometry Datelist 31

“…Chernoff (1988; Chernoff and Paley 1998) during the excavations at Tel Ifshar produced voluminous and regular assemblages of single‐year cultigens from well stratified layers of an MBIIa settlement that has demonstrable contacts with Egypt and the northern Levant (Paley and Porath 1993; 1997). Samples from Tell el‐Hayyat derive from two MBIIa phases of a series of four temples (Falconer and Magness‐Gardiner 1984, 1989a, 1989b, 1993; Magness‐Gardiner and Falconer 1994; Falconer 1995). The samples from Tell Abu en‐Niaj belong to an Intermediate Bronze Age/Early Bronze IV/Middle Bronze I settlement near Tell el‐Hayyat (Falconer 1987).…”