Pub Date : 2022-09-02DOI: 10.1080/00758914.2022.2107852
David D. Boyer
The Decapolis town of Gerasa became a sizeable urban centre in the province of Arabia in the 2nd century CE. The study of its monumental fountain, the so-called Nymphaeum, has been neglected despite its excellent state of preservation. This small but imposing late 2nd-century monument functioned as an aesthetic display and public water supply, although public access was restricted to the frontal spouts. This article comprehensively reappraises the evidence, identifying new material and providing a diachronic analysis of the monument’s function and hydraulic operation. It is proposed that the original monument was also designed to supply secondary fountain installations. The later extension of this role to supply the expanded Cardo fountain network, marked a change to a wholly utilitarian function. Later changes included the removal of a previously added wall to the parapet and spout modifications. Subsequent earthquakes severely damaged the monument, and it remained in a ruinous state until cleared in the mid-1920s.
{"title":"Gerasa’s ‘Nymphaeum’: a reappraisal of its history and function","authors":"David D. Boyer","doi":"10.1080/00758914.2022.2107852","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00758914.2022.2107852","url":null,"abstract":"The Decapolis town of Gerasa became a sizeable urban centre in the province of Arabia in the 2nd century CE. The study of its monumental fountain, the so-called Nymphaeum, has been neglected despite its excellent state of preservation. This small but imposing late 2nd-century monument functioned as an aesthetic display and public water supply, although public access was restricted to the frontal spouts. This article comprehensively reappraises the evidence, identifying new material and providing a diachronic analysis of the monument’s function and hydraulic operation. It is proposed that the original monument was also designed to supply secondary fountain installations. The later extension of this role to supply the expanded Cardo fountain network, marked a change to a wholly utilitarian function. Later changes included the removal of a previously added wall to the parapet and spout modifications. Subsequent earthquakes severely damaged the monument, and it remained in a ruinous state until cleared in the mid-1920s.","PeriodicalId":45348,"journal":{"name":"Levant","volume":"54 1","pages":"406 - 429"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44883145","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-02DOI: 10.1080/00758914.2023.2165362
Alexandra Uscatescu
The study of the so-called masons’ marks found on some architectural elements of the macellum of Gerasa (Jerash, Jordan) is presented; these unpublished archaeological data, recovered from excavations conducted in the 1983−90s at the site, shed light on the day-to-day construction process of the macellum Roman building, dated before mid−2nd century AD.
{"title":"Assembling columns: construction process through the masons’ marks from the Macellum of Gerasa (Jerash, Jordan)","authors":"Alexandra Uscatescu","doi":"10.1080/00758914.2023.2165362","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00758914.2023.2165362","url":null,"abstract":"The study of the so-called masons’ marks found on some architectural elements of the macellum of Gerasa (Jerash, Jordan) is presented; these unpublished archaeological data, recovered from excavations conducted in the 1983−90s at the site, shed light on the day-to-day construction process of the macellum Roman building, dated before mid−2nd century AD.","PeriodicalId":45348,"journal":{"name":"Levant","volume":"54 1","pages":"378 - 405"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42966689","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-02DOI: 10.1080/00758914.2022.2154067
K. Fowler, Jon Ross, Christian Barritt-Cleary, Zvi Lederman, Shlomo Bunimovitz, H. Greenfield
Who made figurines for ritual feasting in the Late Bronze Age (LBA) palace at Tel Beth-Shemesh? This article attempts to answer this question by determining the age and sex of fingerprints on five zoomorphic figurines and a lamp from a unique room in the LBA IB–IIA palace that contains an assemblage normally associated with feasting. The age and sex determinations of 59 preserved epidermal print impressions, based upon the analysis of ridge breadth and ridge density, are reported. Accounting for 2–6% clay shrinkage, the results show that at each respective rate, 37–46% of the prints were made by adults, 46–53% by adults or adolescents, 9–10% by children, while 51–60% were male and 49–40% were female. The discussion explores these results in relation to understanding manufacturing practices, the distinction between toys and ritual objects, and the visibility and role of children in LBA I–II society.
{"title":"Age and sex determination of fingerprints on ceramic objects from the Late Bronze Age Palace at Tel Beth-Shemesh, Israel","authors":"K. Fowler, Jon Ross, Christian Barritt-Cleary, Zvi Lederman, Shlomo Bunimovitz, H. Greenfield","doi":"10.1080/00758914.2022.2154067","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00758914.2022.2154067","url":null,"abstract":"Who made figurines for ritual feasting in the Late Bronze Age (LBA) palace at Tel Beth-Shemesh? This article attempts to answer this question by determining the age and sex of fingerprints on five zoomorphic figurines and a lamp from a unique room in the LBA IB–IIA palace that contains an assemblage normally associated with feasting. The age and sex determinations of 59 preserved epidermal print impressions, based upon the analysis of ridge breadth and ridge density, are reported. Accounting for 2–6% clay shrinkage, the results show that at each respective rate, 37–46% of the prints were made by adults, 46–53% by adults or adolescents, 9–10% by children, while 51–60% were male and 49–40% were female. The discussion explores these results in relation to understanding manufacturing practices, the distinction between toys and ritual objects, and the visibility and role of children in LBA I–II society.","PeriodicalId":45348,"journal":{"name":"Levant","volume":"54 1","pages":"331 - 346"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44963406","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-02DOI: 10.1080/00758914.2022.2145779
A. Betts
William Lancaster, in many senses, rewrote the book on interdisciplinary research in the archaeology of nomadic peoples in the Middle East. And not just the Middle East, as his work, together with that of his wife, Fidelity, has resonance across Inner Asia, inspiring and encouraging broader thinking on the nature of pastoral peoples. William’s involvement in Middle Eastern archaeology began early, when Kathleen Kenyon arranged a position for him as a photographer for Peter Parr on his Petra excavations, and later for Diana Kirkbride at Beidha. He enjoyed this introduction to the Middle East, but found himself somewhat more interested in the living populations than those of the dead. To pursue this further, he enrolled as a language student at the Middle East Centre for Arabic Studies in Lebanon. His practical studies took him across the Middle East, engaging with a variety of different communities and reading histories and travellers’ accounts of the region in earlier times. After he returned to England, he followed up his interests further by enrolling for a degree in Archaeology and Anthropology at Cambridge. In 1972, William, Fidelity and their children came to Jordan, and for the next eight years lived for protracted periods of time with the Rwala Bedouin in north-eastern Jordan and at the northern end of the Nefudh in Saudi Arabia, drawing on Burckhardt’s (1831) and Musil’s (1928) works as background, but with the aim of understanding the subtleties and complexities of the living population. In preparation for this work, William went to study for a short time under Frederik Barth at the University of Bergen. The insights he gained from Barth were deeply influential on the Lancasters’ subsequent work with the Rwala (Lancaster 2022). The volume arising from this work, The Rwala Bedouin Today (Lancaster 1981), is regarded as a landmark study in the field. In the 1980s William taught anthropology for a year at Yarmouk University and became involved with several of the British archaeological field projects active at the time. In 1991, following the first Gulf War, and a difficult time for Jordan, he took on the Directorship of the British Institute at Amman for Archaeology and History (BIAAH), now the Council for British Research in the Levant (CBRL), a position he held until 1994. William brought to the job a close relationship with the Jordanian Royal Family, particularly HRH Prince Hassan. He also strengthened ties with the British Embassy, obtaining sub-diplomatic status for the CBRL and welcome access to the Embassy Commissary. Through his deep involvement with the
{"title":"William Lancaster: anthropologist and ethnographic mentor","authors":"A. Betts","doi":"10.1080/00758914.2022.2145779","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00758914.2022.2145779","url":null,"abstract":"William Lancaster, in many senses, rewrote the book on interdisciplinary research in the archaeology of nomadic peoples in the Middle East. And not just the Middle East, as his work, together with that of his wife, Fidelity, has resonance across Inner Asia, inspiring and encouraging broader thinking on the nature of pastoral peoples. William’s involvement in Middle Eastern archaeology began early, when Kathleen Kenyon arranged a position for him as a photographer for Peter Parr on his Petra excavations, and later for Diana Kirkbride at Beidha. He enjoyed this introduction to the Middle East, but found himself somewhat more interested in the living populations than those of the dead. To pursue this further, he enrolled as a language student at the Middle East Centre for Arabic Studies in Lebanon. His practical studies took him across the Middle East, engaging with a variety of different communities and reading histories and travellers’ accounts of the region in earlier times. After he returned to England, he followed up his interests further by enrolling for a degree in Archaeology and Anthropology at Cambridge. In 1972, William, Fidelity and their children came to Jordan, and for the next eight years lived for protracted periods of time with the Rwala Bedouin in north-eastern Jordan and at the northern end of the Nefudh in Saudi Arabia, drawing on Burckhardt’s (1831) and Musil’s (1928) works as background, but with the aim of understanding the subtleties and complexities of the living population. In preparation for this work, William went to study for a short time under Frederik Barth at the University of Bergen. The insights he gained from Barth were deeply influential on the Lancasters’ subsequent work with the Rwala (Lancaster 2022). The volume arising from this work, The Rwala Bedouin Today (Lancaster 1981), is regarded as a landmark study in the field. In the 1980s William taught anthropology for a year at Yarmouk University and became involved with several of the British archaeological field projects active at the time. In 1991, following the first Gulf War, and a difficult time for Jordan, he took on the Directorship of the British Institute at Amman for Archaeology and History (BIAAH), now the Council for British Research in the Levant (CBRL), a position he held until 1994. William brought to the job a close relationship with the Jordanian Royal Family, particularly HRH Prince Hassan. He also strengthened ties with the British Embassy, obtaining sub-diplomatic status for the CBRL and welcome access to the Embassy Commissary. Through his deep involvement with the","PeriodicalId":45348,"journal":{"name":"Levant","volume":"54 1","pages":"291 - 294"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45768637","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-02DOI: 10.1080/00758914.2022.2160550
Gwendoline Maurer, R. Greenberg
Kura-Araxes animal management strategies in the core regions of the tradition and in areas of its 3rd millennium expansion have seen only sporadic study. Recently excavated contexts at Tel Bet Yerah were occupied in the first part of the Early Bronze Age III (c. 2850–2700 BCE) by people using Khirbet Kerak Ware and accompanying artifacts associated with a diasporic Kura-Araxes cultural tradition; they provide a rich zooarchaeological assemblage that may be contrasted with that of the local Levantine population, underscoring social and cultural distinctions maintained by the diasporic community. Focusing on the cattle assemblages in Kura-Araxes sites, their use for traction and transport is explored, as well as their role in maintaining cultural identity.
库拉Araxes在传统核心地区和其第三个千年扩张地区的动物管理策略只有零星的研究。Tel Bet Yerah最近挖掘的环境在青铜时代早期III（约公元前2850年至2700年）的第一部分被使用Khirbet Kerak陶器和与流散的库拉-阿拉克斯文化传统相关的文物的人占据；它们提供了丰富的动物考古组合，可能与当地的黎凡特人形成对比，突显了流散群体所保持的社会和文化差异。以库拉-阿拉克斯遗址的牛群为重点，探讨了它们在牵引和运输方面的用途，以及它们在维护文化认同方面的作用。
{"title":"Cattle drivers from the north? Animal economy of a diasporic Kura-Araxes community at Tel Bet Yerah","authors":"Gwendoline Maurer, R. Greenberg","doi":"10.1080/00758914.2022.2160550","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00758914.2022.2160550","url":null,"abstract":"Kura-Araxes animal management strategies in the core regions of the tradition and in areas of its 3rd millennium expansion have seen only sporadic study. Recently excavated contexts at Tel Bet Yerah were occupied in the first part of the Early Bronze Age III (c. 2850–2700 BCE) by people using Khirbet Kerak Ware and accompanying artifacts associated with a diasporic Kura-Araxes cultural tradition; they provide a rich zooarchaeological assemblage that may be contrasted with that of the local Levantine population, underscoring social and cultural distinctions maintained by the diasporic community. Focusing on the cattle assemblages in Kura-Araxes sites, their use for traction and transport is explored, as well as their role in maintaining cultural identity.","PeriodicalId":45348,"journal":{"name":"Levant","volume":"54 1","pages":"309 - 330"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47803607","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-02DOI: 10.1080/00758914.2022.2115697
Ali Al‐Manaser, Jérôme Norris
This paper publishes six new inscriptions discovered at three different sites within the Ḥarrah desert in north-eastern Jordan during the 2017 and 2018 seasons of the BES (Badia Epigraphic Survey). The first text is a five-line Greek inscription referring to the god Zeus Kyrios ‘Zeus the Lord’ a form of Zeus whose cult was popular in the Ḥawrān and whose name is recognized as masking that of Baalshamin. The text is authored by a person bearing the Arabic theophoric name of Amrosamsos (Mrʾs²ms¹), who describes himself as ‘the Goareian’, in reference to a district of ‘Arabia’ mentioned in Greek literary sources. The five Safaitic inscriptions are by nomadic tribesmen from the kin groups of the ʿwḏ and Qmr, some of whom are already known from other Safaitic inscriptions. These texts provide us with two new Safaitic verbs (ytm ‘to become an orphan’ and ndy ‘to invoke’), as well as with the first example of a member of the ʿwḏ tribe who refers to his service in a ms¹rt ‘military unit’.
{"title":"The Ḥarrah’s epigraphic heritage: new safaitic inscriptions from the Black Desert in north-eastern Jordan and a Greek inscription referring to Zeus Kyrios","authors":"Ali Al‐Manaser, Jérôme Norris","doi":"10.1080/00758914.2022.2115697","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00758914.2022.2115697","url":null,"abstract":"This paper publishes six new inscriptions discovered at three different sites within the Ḥarrah desert in north-eastern Jordan during the 2017 and 2018 seasons of the BES (Badia Epigraphic Survey). The first text is a five-line Greek inscription referring to the god Zeus Kyrios ‘Zeus the Lord’ a form of Zeus whose cult was popular in the Ḥawrān and whose name is recognized as masking that of Baalshamin. The text is authored by a person bearing the Arabic theophoric name of Amrosamsos (Mrʾs²ms¹), who describes himself as ‘the Goareian’, in reference to a district of ‘Arabia’ mentioned in Greek literary sources. The five Safaitic inscriptions are by nomadic tribesmen from the kin groups of the ʿwḏ and Qmr, some of whom are already known from other Safaitic inscriptions. These texts provide us with two new Safaitic verbs (ytm ‘to become an orphan’ and ndy ‘to invoke’), as well as with the first example of a member of the ʿwḏ tribe who refers to his service in a ms¹rt ‘military unit’.","PeriodicalId":45348,"journal":{"name":"Levant","volume":"54 1","pages":"430 - 443"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45558447","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-02DOI: 10.1080/00758914.2022.2158649
Øystein S. Labianca, E. Ronza
The article introduces Sela/Alraqeem, a Jordanian grass-roots organization dedicated to building capacity for local-level engagement with officialdom and professional archaeologists when planning for the protection and development of archaeological sites. The article is based on Øystein LaBianca’s embedding, during two weeks in October 2021, with the Sela/Alraqeem leadership team in the town of Madaba — observing, listening and asking questions to gain an understanding of their vision, mission and way of working. The organization occupies a space between the academy and government officialdom, on the one hand, and the local community on the other. From this space they are challenging the existing order with regard to prevailing notions re the place and role of the local community — as providers, primarily, of cheap, menial labour. Under this old order, no respectable archaeologist would ever deign to produce children’s books about archaeology, mount heritage-themed summer camps for local families, or design and deliver heritage-related vocational training for local young people. But such are precisely the ways of Sela/Alraqeem, and, in the process, they are changing not only archaeological practice in Jordan at every level — that of officialdom, that of the academy and that of local communities — they are also showing the way forward, with a funding model for sustained, local engagement with protection and development of their host country’s rich archaeological heritage.
{"title":"Site custody activism in Jordan: introducing Sela and Alraqeem","authors":"Øystein S. Labianca, E. Ronza","doi":"10.1080/00758914.2022.2158649","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00758914.2022.2158649","url":null,"abstract":"The article introduces Sela/Alraqeem, a Jordanian grass-roots organization dedicated to building capacity for local-level engagement with officialdom and professional archaeologists when planning for the protection and development of archaeological sites. The article is based on Øystein LaBianca’s embedding, during two weeks in October 2021, with the Sela/Alraqeem leadership team in the town of Madaba — observing, listening and asking questions to gain an understanding of their vision, mission and way of working. The organization occupies a space between the academy and government officialdom, on the one hand, and the local community on the other. From this space they are challenging the existing order with regard to prevailing notions re the place and role of the local community — as providers, primarily, of cheap, menial labour. Under this old order, no respectable archaeologist would ever deign to produce children’s books about archaeology, mount heritage-themed summer camps for local families, or design and deliver heritage-related vocational training for local young people. But such are precisely the ways of Sela/Alraqeem, and, in the process, they are changing not only archaeological practice in Jordan at every level — that of officialdom, that of the academy and that of local communities — they are also showing the way forward, with a funding model for sustained, local engagement with protection and development of their host country’s rich archaeological heritage.","PeriodicalId":45348,"journal":{"name":"Levant","volume":"54 1","pages":"444 - 450"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46744514","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-04DOI: 10.1080/00758914.2022.2104559
S. Mithen
Shamanism is a pervasive form of ritual practice documented within hunter-gathering and farming societies throughout the world, and continuing within some present-day urban communities. Despite exhibiting considerable variation, shamanism has several recurrent features, notably the role of the shaman as a mediator between the spirit and human worlds. Shamanism has been cited to explain aspects of the Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic archaeological records in Southwest Asia and Anatolia. Building on that work, this contribution explores whether shamanism might account for intriguing finds from the early Neolithic settlement of WF16 in southern Jordan, notably a large quantity of bird bones, zoomorphic artefacts and architectural features. A range of interpretations for the evidence are considered with shamanism emerging as the most compelling, suggesting that shamanic thought and practice pervaded daily life at WF16. The paper concludes by proposing that shamanism played a key role in the Early Holocene transition from hunting and gathering to farming in Southwest Asia, as it provided a means for coping with the uncertainty arising from climate and economic change.
{"title":"Shamanism at the transition from foraging to farming in Southwest Asia: sacra, ritual, and performance at Neolithic WF16 (southern Jordan)","authors":"S. Mithen","doi":"10.1080/00758914.2022.2104559","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00758914.2022.2104559","url":null,"abstract":"Shamanism is a pervasive form of ritual practice documented within hunter-gathering and farming societies throughout the world, and continuing within some present-day urban communities. Despite exhibiting considerable variation, shamanism has several recurrent features, notably the role of the shaman as a mediator between the spirit and human worlds. Shamanism has been cited to explain aspects of the Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic archaeological records in Southwest Asia and Anatolia. Building on that work, this contribution explores whether shamanism might account for intriguing finds from the early Neolithic settlement of WF16 in southern Jordan, notably a large quantity of bird bones, zoomorphic artefacts and architectural features. A range of interpretations for the evidence are considered with shamanism emerging as the most compelling, suggesting that shamanic thought and practice pervaded daily life at WF16. The paper concludes by proposing that shamanism played a key role in the Early Holocene transition from hunting and gathering to farming in Southwest Asia, as it provided a means for coping with the uncertainty arising from climate and economic change.","PeriodicalId":45348,"journal":{"name":"Levant","volume":"54 1","pages":"158 - 189"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46246267","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-04DOI: 10.1080/00758914.2022.2068875
K. Al-Bashaireh
This research investigates the archaeometric characteristics of the marble sarcophagus displayed in the Umm Qeis Museum of Antiquities, Gadara (Umm Qais), north Jordan. Marble sarcophagi are very rarely found at archaeological sites in Jordan; the Gadara marble sarcophagus is, therefore, unique. This sarcophagus, dated to the 3rd century AD, presents only the base and the lid; the lid shows remnants and traces of the chiton and himation of two effigies, while the pedestal shows remnants of a foot and a weapon, both probably indicate an Attic sarcophagus. The research undertaken aims to determine the quarry origins of the box and the lid, while also considering the notion of some scholars that the boxes of Attic sarcophagi were carved of Pentelic marble, while the lids were carved of Hymettian marble. The results of the mineralogical, petrographic, chemical and isotopic analyses showed that the most likely quarry origin of the two marble parts is Pentelikon Mountain, Athens, Greece. The sarcophagus’s high quality, elaborate decorations, large volume and heavy weight, along with the inland location of Gadara, suggest that it was ordered by a wealthy and/or a high-status Gadarene citizen.
{"title":"A marble Sarcophagus of Gadara (Umm Qais), Jordan: insights on its provenance","authors":"K. Al-Bashaireh","doi":"10.1080/00758914.2022.2068875","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00758914.2022.2068875","url":null,"abstract":"This research investigates the archaeometric characteristics of the marble sarcophagus displayed in the Umm Qeis Museum of Antiquities, Gadara (Umm Qais), north Jordan. Marble sarcophagi are very rarely found at archaeological sites in Jordan; the Gadara marble sarcophagus is, therefore, unique. This sarcophagus, dated to the 3rd century AD, presents only the base and the lid; the lid shows remnants and traces of the chiton and himation of two effigies, while the pedestal shows remnants of a foot and a weapon, both probably indicate an Attic sarcophagus. The research undertaken aims to determine the quarry origins of the box and the lid, while also considering the notion of some scholars that the boxes of Attic sarcophagi were carved of Pentelic marble, while the lids were carved of Hymettian marble. The results of the mineralogical, petrographic, chemical and isotopic analyses showed that the most likely quarry origin of the two marble parts is Pentelikon Mountain, Athens, Greece. The sarcophagus’s high quality, elaborate decorations, large volume and heavy weight, along with the inland location of Gadara, suggest that it was ordered by a wealthy and/or a high-status Gadarene citizen.","PeriodicalId":45348,"journal":{"name":"Levant","volume":"54 1","pages":"247 - 256"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49411292","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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