Tell Shuneh Shamaliyyeh in Irbid speaks of ancient civilizations on both banks of River Jordan

AMMAN — Tell Shuneh Shamaliyyeh is located in the northern part of the eastern side of the Jordan Valley in Irbid Governorate. 

The Jordan Valley connected East and West Banks and is an area with many archaeological sites from both sides. The site overlooks the Wadi Arab at about 4km southeast of the confluence of the Yarmuk and the Jordan rivers.

“In 1953 Henri de Contenson [1926-2019]and James Mellaart [1925-2012] started an archaeological survey in the area extending from the Yarmuk River in the north, to the plains of Moab in the south,” said Professor Emeritus Zeidan Kafafi, adding that other two sites were sounded and surveyed Tell Abu Habil and Tell es-Sa‘idiyyeh Al Tahta.

The pottery vessels from level I at Shuneh Shamaliyyeh are handmade and the ware is crude and poorly fired and small inclusions are found; red slip or paint is used for decoration, Kafafi said, adding that one rim sherd in the collection is slightly burnished, while another has a red burnished slip covering the entire surface. 

Thumb intended bands or straight horizontal incisions made with fingernail are also found. Very few forms were distinguished within the sherds found in level I, but they include cups, bowls, hole-mouth jars, straight-necked jars and jars with swelling neck (bow-rim), Kafafi elaborated.

“Handles are large loophandles with elongated attachment. They are occasionally decorated with painted vertical bands of red paint. Lug handles are also found. Bases are flat, with either a sharp join at the base and angular sharp, or with a smooth, curving join,” Kafafi said, noting that the earliest phase of occupation at Tell Shuneh Shamaliyyeh is related to the Early Chalcolithic which yielded pottery sherds parallel to those excavated at Jericho.

 Moreover, it has already been published that the excavations conducted by Mellaart near the western edge of Tell Shuneh Shamaliyyeh did not show any archaeological evidence earlier than the Early Bronze Age. 

“Several forms of clay pots were recognised amongst the assemblages excavated at the three sites under study. For example, the sites of Tell Shuneh Shamaliyyeh and es-Sa‘idiyyeh yielded small cups  and V-shaped bowls  with a red-painted band on the rim similar to those excavated at Teleilat Ghassul and dated from the Late. In addition, parallel cups and V-shaped bowls were encountered at Abu Hamid/upper levels,”Kafafi underlined, adding that during the Jordan Valley Survey in 1975, the collected pottery sherds assemblage from Abu Habil included spoons, V-Shaped bowls and jars and were considered to be parallel to the Jericho PNB and the Chalcolithic period.

However, it should be noted that based on a parallel study with those excavated in stratigraphical contexts such as Abu Hamid, they should be dated from the Late Chalcolithic period.