Early Bronze Age in Jordan: From villages to fortified urban centres

AMMAN — The major settlement shift that took place in both East and West banks when 12 clusters of around 100 sites indicated an agglomeration of population in fewer, but larger (and fortified) sites, particularly in optimal agricultural areas, but clusters in the south centred on Bab adh-Dhra and on the Faynan continue. 

“This shift also reveals distinctions among neighbouring sites, indicative of a developing intraregional complexity, for example, at Khirbet Batrawy, Tell Madaba and Khirbet Zeraqun,” said American archaeologist Suzanne Richard, adding that the level of integration is debated. 

"The discontinuous occupational pattern at some sites, e.g. gap at Pella, Tell Shuna [in Cisjordan: Megiddo and Beth Shean], and abandonment of sites at the end of EB II, e.g. Tell Sa‘adiya [in Cisjordan: Arad], could reflect a lack of urban integration or simply a diverse [or non-linear] evolution as at Beth Shean," said Richard. 

The archaeologist added that the uniformity of Canaanite material culture throughout the southern Levant is striking, especially the red slipped and burnished wares, in comparison with the preceding regionalised cultures. 

As evidence for growing social complexity and a developing stratified society, note the dramatic transformation of the landscape from dispersed villages to agglomerative fortified sites with square towers in Jordan, specialised crafts and industries, special purpose buildings, intensification of metals production in the Faynan, and what is evidently a notation system of cylinder seals, sealings, and potmarks, indicative of a level of administrative control or ownership.

“The late EB I/EB II is the floruit of agricultural and metals trade with Egypt via entrepots in Cisjordan. Egyptian imports and/or storage facilities continue to evidence this international trade. In the Faynan, a shift takes place from village workshops to specialised smelting sites near the mines,” Richard said, adding that fifty-six of the latter affirm the intensification of metal production. 

Study of the sophisticated production process suggests a highly organised, labour-intensive industry hinting a fairly high level of centralisation. This transformation is coeval with a reorganisation of trade at the epicentre in the southern West Bank, where Arad is the centre. 

Faynan, as seen at Barqa Hatiya, now exhibits a typical ‘Canaanite’ culture found throughout the southern Levant beginning in EB II. In northern Jordan, imports of fine Galilean metallic ware found at Abu Kharaz, Tell Shuna, Khirbet Batrawy, and Pella indicate that interregional exchange networks continue to operate. 

"Extensive evidence for the production of olive oil and wine are confirmed by the stone presses, vats and storage vessels [combed ware coated with lime], as well as special rooms and buildings and transport vessels [the Abydos jug]," the archaeologist said. 

Richard added that these evidences, when combined with the greater frequency of seals, sealings, and pot marks, are suggestive of centres exhibiting either ownership or some form of centralised control. 

It is difficult not to posit elites controlling the specialised areas devoted to olive oil, wine, or textiles in a building thought to be a palace at Tall Sa‘adiya.

The Chalcolithic/Early Bronze broad room architectural tradition continues in the domestic and public spheres, Richard stressed. 

The archaeologist said that organisational changes normally interpreted as reflecting the presence of social elites include: fortifications (gates and towers), public sectors, including an upper site or acropolis, palatial/special-purpose buildings (Tell Sa‘adiya and Khirbet Zaraqun, Arad in Cisjordan); granaries/storage (Pella, Tell Sa‘adiya, and Tell Abu e-Kharaz), and sophisticated water installations (Tell Handaquq N, Tall Lahun, Tell Zaraqun, and Tell Jalul).

"There are craft specialisations of olive oil/wine industries, copper, and pottery. Other indications are the spindle whorls and associated weaving equipment found in workshops, the ‘Canaanean’ flint knives, and high-status dining ware found at Tell Sa‘adiya," Richard concluded.