Sahab

Moawiyah M. Ibrahim

Sahab lies ca. 12 km southeast of Amman on the modern and ancient road to the desert castles of the early Islamic period, including Muwaqqar, Kharraneh, Quseir Amrah, Azraq and others. The location of Sahab in a transitional zone between the highland of Jordan and the desert was evidently a lucrative choice: it has a long history of occupation extending from the Late Neolithic/Chalcolithic period (5th and 4th millennia BC) to the Late Iron Age (6th century BC). The site was apparently abandoned and then reoccupied in the Medieval Arabic period (11th-13th century AD), as evidenced by Ayyubid/Mamluk pottery sherds. Another occupational gap ran from the 13th century to the 19th century, when the present inhabitants moved to the site.

The modern town of Sahab was founded on the ancient tell and spread from there to the surrounding area, destroying parts of the ancient settlement in the process. The cutting of three main streets through the occupation material left two large trenches which revealed the stratigraphy of the upper part of the mound.

The ancient mound occupies an area of about 500 dunums and is 873 m. above sea level. The highest point of the mound is ca. 22 m. above the western plains, but on other sides of the sites its area above the surrounding fiels is much less.. The area around Sahab is well cultivated with the actual desert about 15 to 20 km. to the east.

In spite of financial problems and other difficulties such as the location of squares in modern back yards of houses and among residential buildings, four seasons of excavations were carried out under the supervision of the present applicant. The first three seasons (1972-1975) were sponsored by the Jordanian Department of Antiquities and the fourth season of 1980 was carried out jointly with Yarmouk University.

Prior to these seasons of excavation, Sahab was known to scholars through a number of tombs, the first of which was reported to the Department of Antiquities in 1929 and was later published by W. F. Albright (American Journal of Archaeology 1936). A second tomb was later excavated and published by G. L. Harding in 1948 (Quarterly of the Department of Antiquities of Palestine). Both of these tombs were dated by the authors within the Iron Age II period (9th-7th century BC). Two other tombs were cleared by members of the Department of Antiquities in Amman and one of them was published by R. Dajani (Annual of the Department of Antiquities 1970).

In spite of these important tomb discoveries, no attention was paid to the mound of the ancient settlement. It seems that Nelson Glueck and others, who made surface explorations for much of the country, did not examine the site nor its surrounding area. In 1983 a joint survey was undertaken on behalf of Yarmouk University by M. Ibrahim, Carrie Gustavsen-Gaube and Heinz Gaube.