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The Moabite king Mesha eventually captured the settlement and removed its cultic presence.
“Although the term "Nebo" is commonly associated with Siyagha, or Mount Nebo, located 2.5 km northwest of Mukhayyat, the Mesha Inscription suggests that the original Nebo was actually a small town,” said Steven Edwards, an archaeologist who studies the history and material culture of the Near Eastern states.
Edwards added that excavations at Mount Nebo have not revealed significant Iron Age occupation levels.
Mukhayyat is the most likely candidate for such a settlement, as evidenced by the presence of considerable quantities of Iron Age material collected in 2001, the visible architecture at the site, and the previously excavated Iron Age tombs, the scholar continued, noting that the Mesha Inscription points to a strong cultic function for the site.
Mukhayyat may have been at the centre of a sacred landscape, which has its roots in much earlier periods.
A large stone circle dating to the Early Bronze I (ca. 3300-3000 BC) was first documented by Conder during his survey east of the Jordan River in the 1880s and later investigated by Peder Mortensen while Mortensen was conducting his study of the Mount Nebo region.
"This prominent feature highlights the ritual role of this area from the ancient era. Apart from its possible role as the focal point of a sacred landscape, Mukhayyat also played an important part in monitoring movement from the Dead Sea and Jordan Valley to the Madaba Plain,” he said.
“Coupled with the stone tower at Rujm Al Mukhayyat , the site commanded an important position along the east-west wadi systems that served as access points between the valley and the plain," Edwards elaborated.
The archaeologist added that Mukhayyat would have been crucial not only to local cultic activity, but also to controlling trade goods and population movements along certain key routes in central Jordan.
Mount Nebo and the region surrounding it, feature prominently in a variety of historical sources dating to the Late Hellenistic and Early Roman periods. Most of these texts reiterate that this area is the location of the death and burial of the Prophet Moses.
Some texts refer to inquiries about the tomb of Moses made by the Romans in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD and their inability to locate it.
Before 2014, only scant remains dating to the Hellenistic period had been recovered. Excavations conducted in the late 1990s exposed a large double cistern on the site’s acropolis that dates to this period, Edwards said.
He noted that a large collection of Late Hellenistic ceramics was also recovered. In addition to its association with the Mesha Inscription and the Late Hellenistic / Early Roman literature, Mukhayyat is perhaps best known for its cultural material dating to the Byzantine Period.
The town housed several churches that catered to the local Christian population and the growing influx of pilgrims during the 6th through 8th centuries AD.
"Monasteries in and around Mukhayyat include the Monastery of Al-Kanisah in the Wadi Afrit, the Monastery of the Theotokos in the Wadi Ayn Al Kanisah, and, of course, the Monastery of the Memorial of Moses on Mount Nebo,” the archaeologist said.
“The Monastery of Al Kanisah, dating to the mid-6th century AD, is located east of Mukhayyat, on a ridge overlooking the Wadi Afrit," Edwards underlined, noting that this complex contained several tombs, a possible reliquary, and a bedrock-carved wine press.
He said that the Monastery of the Theotokos is 3 kilometres west of Mukhayyat and contains a small chapel decorated with mosaics and inscriptions that reference the holy men of this region. The monastery at Mount Nebo is the largest in the area and formed the core of a network of monasteries east of the Jordan.
"It was certainly the main destination for pilgrims and travellers in this region. The Byzantine structures at Mukhayyat were abandoned in the 7th century AD,” the archaeologist said.
“Occupation at Mukhayyat only resumed during the Late Ottoman period, sometime in the late 19th century, and this new settlement was confined to the slopes on the north-eastern side of the mound," Edwards underscored.