(Deir 'Ain 'Abata, An Naq' and Tuleilat Qasr Moussa Hamid)
Konstantinos D. Politis
Special Assistant Curator, Department of Medieval & Modern Europe, British Museum
Three sites in the Ghor es-Safi which have recently been excavated have revealed important new information about the Bronze and Iron ages of southern Jordan.
First, at Deir 'Ain 'Abata, Early Bronze I multiple burials and an occupation in a natural cave, later associated to the Old Testament "Lot's Cave", had dozens of pots, flint scrappers and beads. In the same cave, as well as in over a dozen stone cairn tombs on the slopes to the north, Middle Bronze II pottery, metal work, worked bone and beads were found. These are the first such finds of the period, and have inspired a reassessment of our understanding of Southern Jordan.
The huge EBI cemetery at An Naq' has been estimated to have 100s of thousands burials, many looted. Recent archaeological work has only uncovered a few dozen unrobbed burials, but they have been rich in pottery and other valuable finds; perhaps more important were two huge chamber tombs, which are the largest known of the period. They may have belonged to leaders of the community.
During the quest for the settlement related to the An Naq' cemetery, a sprawling Moabite site was discovered to the west, previously unknown, named Tuleilat Qasr Moussa Hamid. Dozens of over a metre long saddle querns stones where recovered alluding to a major agricultural production centre (not dissimilar to the modern Ghor es-Safi). Pottery and other finds were characteristic of the later Iron Age II period and uncovered in only two phases.
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