MODERN HUMAN ACTIVITIES IMPACT

ON THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL HERITAGE:

AN EXAMPLE FROM THE SITE

JEBEL ABU THAWWAB

ZEIDAN A. KAFAFI

ABSTRACT

Jordan is a country rich in archaeological sites; however, as a result of normal devel-opment, several of them are threatened by being demolished or partially destroyed byhuman activities. One of these demolished sites is ‘Jebel Abu Thawwab’, which hasbeen bulldozed due to the widening of the main Amman-Irbid highway. The rescue ar-chaeological excavations yielded archaeological material dated to the Pottery Ne-olithic and Early Bronze Age I.

THE DISCOVERY OF THE SITE

The archaeological site, Jebel abu Thawwab, was discovered by chance during the be-

ginning of the eighties of the last century, when Elizabeth and Colin Gillet were driv-

ing back to Amman after a visit to the archaeological city Jerash. It happened that

Elizabeth noticed a young donkey, which had been asleep in the middle of the main

road, and gave directions to her husband, Colin, to stop and to drive it off the street and

into the field, for safety. During this operation, the man, Colin, noticed pottery sherds

and flint tools spread over the surface of the site, which invited him to collect some of

them and show them to the late James A. Sauer (at the time, the director of ACOR in

Amman). Sauer dated the surface sherds to the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age

I periods (Gillet and Gillet 1983).

During that time, Zeidan Kafafi was working on the Neolithic of Jordan for

his Ph. D. and had been informed by J. Sauer about the site. Thus, during the winter

of 1983, Zeidan Kafafi and Robert Gordon (at the time, from the Department of Hu-

manities and Social Sciences, Yarmouk University) revisited the site and also noticed

its importance. This is due to the fact that it was the first Late Neolithic (Pottery Ne-

olithic) site to be discovered in Jordan. As a result of this, it was decided that the site

must first be sounded, and this is what happened in 1984.

THE LOCATION OF THE SITE

The Site of Jebel Abu Thawwab is located in hill country, on the main Amman-Jerash

highway, c. 18km from the town of Sweileh (Fig. 1). It is situated on the western slope

of Jebel Abu Thawwab, where Philadelphia University was recently founded. The site

originally extended about 200m from east to west, and at least 300m from north to

south.

To the west edge of the site lies Wadi er-Rumman, which empties into the az-Zarqa

River. Natural caves and shelters are visible alongside the wadi. In addition, there is a

perennial water source throughout the year. Many springs are located in the vicinity of

the site, such as ‘Ain ras el-Ma’ and ‘Ain Safsafeh.

The old Amman-Jerash main road, which was opened during the fifties of the last

century, divides the site into two parts, the eastern and the western (Fig. 2). The Giletts

described the site as they visited it in early 1980s as follows: ‘On the east side is a

bank with a belt of planted trees, and beyond, ploughed fields. The greatest number of

sherds was found in the bank and in this belt of trees. On the west side of the road, the

ground is lightly covered with bushes and small trees and slopes away to a ploughed

field’ (Gillet and Gillet 1983: 187).

HISTORY OF FIELDWORK

The Ministry of Public Works and Housing announced in the early eighties the inten-

tion of widening the Amman and Irbid main road, which meant bulldozing the rest of

the site. Thus, in 1984, Yarmouk University decided to undertake the first season of res-

cue excavations at the site under the directorship of the author of this presentation. A

small team was formed (Nabil Qadi, Fuad Haurani and Fayez Tarwneh) and started

digging a few squares alongside both sides of the main street (Kafafi 1985).

As a result of this season, architectural remains and several other objects dated to

the Late Neolithic and the beginning of the Early Bronze age I were uncovered.

During the second season of excavations, a large team, including M.A. students of

the Yarmouk University and another sixteen American exchange students, joined the

dig as volunteers. As a result, a large area of the site extending over three areas was ex-

cavated. In addition, it was decided to start an archaeological survey in the surround-

ing areas measuring c. 10km east-west by 10km north-south. The results of the survey

proved that the area had been densely and continuously occupied all through the ages

(Gordon and Knauf 1987). Moreover, the team was able during this season to sound

another site, namely Dhaher el-Madinah, very close to the town Suf in the vicinity of

Jerash.

In 1989, a third season of excavations continued at the site with a team consisting

of M.A. students of the Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology. During this sea-

son, in addition to the regular excavations in Areas A, C, and D, test trenches were

20 Zeidan A. Kafafi

carried out in Area B. In the latter area, a very small amount of Middle Bronze Age III

pottery sherds (Chocolate-on-white) were uncovered. Moreover, a unique building

dated to the Early Bronze Age I was uncovered (Kafafi 1999).

In 1990, the Ministry of Public Works and Housing started bulldozing the site (Fig.

3), and the author of this presentation, accompanied by Mo’awiyah Ibrahim (the Di-

rector of the Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology at Yarmouk University at that

time) and the late Nabil Qadi, visited the site to look at several cuts made by the bull-

dozer and determined that rescue excavations should continue with the participation of

M.A students during the summer of that year. This season represented the last effort to-

wards registering, recording and studying the site before a huge bridge was built over

the remains of the site.

It must be mentioned here that the results of the rescue excavations were published

in a monograph entitled: ‘Jebel Abu Thawwab (er-Rumman), Central Jordan. The Late

Neolithic and Early Bronze Age I Occupation’, by the ex oriente publishers in Berlin,

while the German ‘Alexander von Humboldt Foundation’ covered the whole expenses

of the publication. In addition, a Ph. D. thesis entitled: ‘Die neolitische Keramik aus

Abu Thawwab, Jordan’ written by Deif All Obeidat (1995) has already been published

about the Late Neolithic pottery excavated at the site. Moreover, the Early Bronze Age

I excavated pottery assemblage was the subject of two M.A theses submitted to the

departments of archaeology and geology at the Yarmouk University (Douglas 1993;

Quraan1996); and a co-authored article was published in the proceedings of a confer-

ence (Douglas and Kafafi 2000).

THE SITE AFTER 1990

For the purpose of enlarging the main road between the capital Amman and the city

Irbid, north of Jordan, a very large portion of the site was completely bulldozed (Fig.

4). This included all that had been excavated in Areas A, B and D. Only Area C was

left out of all of the sites, located on the western slope of the site overlooking the Wadi

er-Rumman. Nevertheless, this part of the site had also been bulldozed earlier as a re-

sult of opening a narrow road connecting the main road with the village er-Rumman.

A bridge has been constructed over the bulldozed area of the site that covered the

majority of the whole area (Fig. 5). In addition, a gas station was founded on top of the

‘Ain Safsafeh spring (Fig. 6).

As a result of this operation, all uncovered Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age I

architectural remains have been demolished (Fig. 7). One of these structures is a

rounded building, which looks like a Halafian Tholos, that may be considered the only

one of its examples to be excavated in Jordan (Kafafi 1999; 2001).

At the most southern part of the site, there was a spring called ‘Ain Safsafeh. Due

to the results of our survey conducted in 1985, it has been noticed that this location had

also been occupied during the Late Neolithic, Early Bronze Age I and the Iron Ages

Modern Human Activities Impact on the Archaeological heritage 21

(Gordon and Knauf 1987). Recently, a gas station has also been erected in this area.

In addition to the above mentioned recent constructions, the Philadelphia Univer-

sity was built on top of Mount Jebel Abu Thawwab. In 1975, Robert A. Coughenour

(1976) also sounded three ancient caves in this area. The aim of this operation was to

locate the Iron Age smelting area mentioned in Nelson Glueck’s survey report (Glueck

1951:225, 238).

However, Coughenour rejected the information published by Glueck, especially

concerning the location and identification of the site as ‘Ain Trab (Coughenour 1976:

74). The excavator added that the distinctive features of the site included three small

caves and an area of slag and sherd remains covering around 300 square meters.

Coughenour recognized that the caves were mainly used during the Ayyubid/Mamluk

period, but Iron Age I, Roman, Byzantine, and Umayyad pottery sherds were also ex-

cavated.

One of the main springs located at the southern edge of the site and called ’Ras el-

Ma’, which was probably one of the main reasons that attracted people to settle in Abu

Thawwab in ancient times, is still in use. During the eighties of the last century, it was

noticed that shepherds brought their flocks from adjacent areas to the spring for water.

However, more recently this spring remains in use but for different purposes. The

whole area surrounding the spring has been turned into farmland and farmers have

constructed cement canals to divert water from the spring to their farms (Fig. 8). In ad-

dition, a plant nursery has been founded on the eastern side of the spring. This means

that even the social function of this spring has been changing over the ages, from a

place where shepherds used to gather with their colleagues to a spring diverting water

to surrounding farms.

The west bank of the wadi has been completely appropriated for agricultural pur-

poses (Fig. 9). After bulldozing the archaeological site on the eastern side of the wadi,

people started terracing the western bank of the Wadi er-Rumman either for agricul-

tural purposes or even building modern houses.

A few years ago the author and some other colleagues (Dr. Jacque Seign) revisited

the site and decided to check the profile of the cuts made by the bulldozer. To our sur-

prise, it was noticed that the site from the Early Bronze Age I extended also into this

area. Several walls sticking out of the profile are still visible (Fig. 10 a and b). Unfor-

tunately, most of them were destroyed by the bulldozer.

This is the story of a Jordanian archaeological site that was established 8000 years

ago, and unfortunately demolished 20 years ago. This raises a question directed to the

stakeholders of Jordanian archaeological heritage concerning what should come first

in order to save this heritage: is it documenting and studying or conservation, preser-

vation and presentation?

22 Zeidan A. Kafafi

CONCLUSION

In our discussion, we have presented an archaeological site which existed for around

8000 years, but alas it has been demolished due to modern human activities. It must

be pointed out that archaeology should not stand as a hindrance to modern develop-

ment. Quite the opposite: it should help in one way or another towards reaching this

goal. However, as a matter of fact, this cultural heritage comprises the identity and

history of people and countries and has to be saved for generations to come. Was it not

better for the planners of the Amman-Irbid highway to change the direction of the road

and move it a little further away rather than destroying the site? However, it should be

mentioned here that the Ministry of Public Works and Housing in Jordan graciously

contributed 500 JDs during the first season of the rescue excavations.

Acknowledgment

Thanks are due to Dr. Barbara Porter, Director of the American Center of Oriental

Research in Amman, for reading and editing the English language.

Bibliography

Coughenour, R. A.

1976 Preliminary report on the exploration and excavations of Mugharat el-

Wardeh and Abu Thawab: in Annual of the Department of Antiquitiesof Jordan 21, pp. 71-79.

Gillet, E. and Gillet, C.

1983 Archaeological notes, Jebel abu Thawwab, Jordan: in Levant 15, pp.

187-190.

Gordon, R. and Knauf, E. A.

1987 Er-Rumman Survey: in Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jor-dan 31, pp. 289- 298.

Douglas, K. and Kafafi, Z.

2000 The main aspects of the Early Bronze Age I Pottery from Jebel Abu

Thawwab: in G. Philip and B. Douglas (eds), Ceramic and Change inthe Early Bronze Age of the Southern Levant. Levantine Archaeology2. Sheffield, pp. 101-113.

Kafafi, Z.

1985 First season of excavations at Jebel Abu Thawwab (er-Rumman). Pre-

liminary report: in Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan29, pp. 31-41.

Modern Human Activities Impact on the Archaeological heritage 23

1986 Second season of excavations at Jebel Abu Thawwab (er-Rumman).

Preliminary report: in Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jor-dan 30, pp. 57-69.

1999 Early Bronze Age 1 domestic architecture from Jebel Abu Thawwab,

Jordan: in H. Kühne, R. Bernbeck, and K. Bartl (eds), FluchtpunktUruk: Archäologische Einheit aus methodischer vielfalt. Schriften fürHans-Jörg Nissen: Rahden/Westf., pp. 215-222.

2001 Jebel Abu Thawwab (er-Rumman), Central Jordan. The Late Neolithicand Early Bronze Age I Occupation, Berlin.

Obeidat, D.

1995 Die neolitische Keramik aus Abu Thawwab, Jordan: in Studies in EarlyNear Eastern Production, Subsistence, and Environment 2, Berlin.

Quraan, R.

1996 Archaeogeology of the EBI Pottery from Jabal Abu Thawwab Site, Jor-dan. Unpublished M. Sc. Thesis submitted to the Department of Ge-

ology, Yarmouk University, Irbid.

24 Zeidan A. Kafafi

Modern Human Activities Impact on the Archaeological heritage 25

Fig. 1: Map showing Abu Thawwab’s location

Fig. 3: The Abu Thawwab Site

during bulldozing operations

in 1990

Fig. 2: Old Amman-Jerash main road

26 Zeidan A. Kafafi

Modern Human Activities Impact on the Archaeological heritage 27

Fig. 5: A modern bridge replacing the archaeological site

Fig. 4: The rest of Abu Thawwab after being bulldozed in 1990

28 Zeidan A. Kafafi

Fig. 6: A gas station built on the eastern part of the site

Fig. 7: Early Bronze Age

I demolished building

Modern Human Activities Impact on the Archaeological heritage 29

Fig. 8: a) and b) Modern water canals

and plastic pipes diverting water from

’Ain Ras Al-Ma to the surrounding

fields

30 Zeidan A. Kafafi

Fig. 10: a) and b) A general view of the bulldozer cut in the western side of the Jebel Abu

Thawwab Site

Fig. 9: General view of the west side of Jebel Abu Thawwab