Tell Abu al-Kharaz Overview

Peter Fischer

This grant will be used to publish the final report entitled "Tell Abu al-Kharaz in the Jordan Valley, Volume III: The Iron Age". The site was excavated by Peter M. Fischer between 1989 and 1998.

Tell Abu al-Kharaz, "the Mound of the Father of the Beads", lies in the ancient landscape of Gilead in the Central Jordan Valley. It has been claimed, by Nelson Glueck for example, that the fortified Iron Age city can be identified as the Jabesh Gilead of the Old Testament. The site is located in the Jordan Valley, north of the perennial Wadi al-Yabis, overlooking and controlling areas around the Cisjordanian Central Jordan Valley including Mount Tabor, Beth Shan, Tel Rehov and the eastern part of Samaria, and in Transjordan, from Pella down to Tell es-Sacidiyeh. In the Palestine Grid Coordinate System the coordinates of the summit are E 206 196.54 and N 200 623.07 (summit is 116 m below mean sea level).

Tell Abu al-Kharaz has had three major occupational periods: Early Bronze Age IB-II, Middle Bronze Age III-Late Bronze Age II, and Iron Age I-II. These periods cover approximately 3200-600 BCE, with the exception of an occupational lacuna of roughly 1200 years. The final reports on the Early Bronze Age and Middle/Late Bronze Age occupations of Tell Abu al-Kharaz, which are the first complete reports of a Transjordanian Jordan Valley site, appeared in 2008 (Volume I, 415 pp) and in 2006 (Volume II, 385 pp); in addition a report on the Chronology of the Jordan Valley during the Middle and Late Bronze Ages also appeared in 2006 (261 pp). All the reports were published or edited by the applicant.

The strategic position of Tell Abu al-Kharaz was of crucial importance during all the periods and in particular during the Iron Age. The Iron Age settlement was guarded by a city wall and the summit was dominated by a huge watchtower. There are a number of complete and fairly intact “four-room houses”, and industrial complexes including workshops for the production of iron tools and weapons. There might also have been a workshop for the production of finely carved bone objects. Imported objects include – in addition to numerous items from Cisjordan – cylinder seals from Assyria, scarabs from Egypt, and pottery from Cyprus, Phoenicia and Mesopotamia. The find assemblages from Tell Abu al-Kharaz represent a valuable contribution to the ongoing, sensitive discussion on the chronology of the Iron Age I/II.

The basis for the final Iron Age report is provided by numerous interim reports and special studies published between 1991 and 2001. These reports must be rewritten and synthesized. Most of the plans, sections and object drawings have been digitalised, but extensive processing in Photoshop remains to be done. Photographs must be scanned and processed. Isometric drawings and illustrations of additional reconstructions must be prepared. The report will be published in the Tell Abu al-Kharaz series of the Austrian Academy of Sciences Press, Vienna.