Tell Abu al-Kharaz in the Jordan Valley, Vol III: Iron Age

Tell Abu al-Kharaz is situated in the central Transjordanian Jordan Valley. The author directed the excavations of this settlement from 1989 to 2012. The town flourished in the Early Bronze, and after an occupational lacuna of more than thousand years the site was re-occupied in the second half of the Middle Bronze Age and remained permanently occupied until the end of the Iron Age. The new volume is No. III in a series of three (The Early Bronze Age Vol. I, published by the Austrian Academy of Sciences Press in 2008, and the Middle and Late Bronze Ages Vol. II, in 2006). Chapter 1 describes excavation and processing methods. In Chapter 2 the stratigraphy, the architecture, the ceramics and small finds are presented as an integrated part of the publication. Chapter 3 deals with the typology and chronology of the ceramics which include numerous imports. Chapter 4 is devoted to the evaluation of the 42 radiocarbon dates from Iron Age contexts. The general conclusion and discussion is in Chapter 5 which deals with discussions on the climate, type of settlement, number of people, administration, the seven settlement phases, architecture, pottery and small finds, and trade and trade routes. There are finds which are unmistakably related to the Philistines/Sea Peoples which is unique for the Transjordanian Jordan Valley. Other finds are related to the Phoenician and Egyptian sphere of culture. Special attention is devoted to relative and absolute chronological enquiries based on the considerable number of radiocarbon dates and parallels from other sites. The four appendices deal with the figurines, an unique carved bone handle, cosmetic palettes of stone and alabaster and glyptic and ostraka.