Tell es-Sa’idiyeh 2005 Overview

Tell es-Sa’idiyeh Volume III: Excavations in the Lower Tell Cemetery
by Jonathan N. Tubb and John D.M. Green.

Tell es-Sa’idiyeh, thought to be ancient Zarethan, is located 35° 35" East, 32° 16" North in Jordan, two kilometres East of the River Jordan and immediately South of Wadi Kufrinjeh (map: p8). This 10 hectare site on the edge of the fertile Ghor in the Central Jordan Valley, consists of an Upper Tell and adjacent Lower Tell, with occupational evidence from the Early Bronze Age, and Late Bronze Age to Early Islamic periods. The Lower Tell was used extensively as a cemetery, yielding one of the largest excavated burial samples (over 500 burials) in the Northern region of Israel-Palestine and Transjordan. Burial types include pit graves, cist tombs, double-pithos burials and infant jar burials. Approximately two thirds of the burials date to the LBIIB and Iron I periods, with smaller proportions of burials dated to the Iron IIC/Persian and late Islamic periods. The University of Pennsylvania Museum excavated the cemetery between 1964-1965, uncovering 44 burials (Pritchard 1980). The British Museum excavations subsequently uncovered c.460 burials on the Lower Tell between 1985-1996 (published in preliminary form only – see references). This project intends to make the British Museum cemetery excavations fully available through final publication.

The Sa’idiyeh cemetery is crucial to our understanding of the culture-history, social organisation and demography of the Jordan Valley and wider region over time. Published findings highlight the social and cultural diversity of populations buried in the cemetery, especially given the mixture of Aegean, Anatolian, Egyptian and local Canaanite features found in Late Bronze and Iron I phases, and the possible role of Sa’idiyeh as a 20th Dynasty Egyptian outpost. The social, political and economic impact of imperial powers upon local populations, and local responses to foreign domination (e.g. Egyptian, Persian), are central themes that cross-cut the different periods represented in the Sa’idiyeh cemetery, with burial customs being a sensitive indicator of such influences. The Sa’idiyeh burials provide an opportunity for examining features such as body treatment, age and gender distinctions, wealth and status expression, and local ritual practices of Jordan Valley populations over time.

Much of the basic preparation of the cemetery archive is complete. Information and references for each burial are entered into a single database. Approximately three-quarters of the object and grave-drawings are inked and ready for plate setting. Work on phasing and the development of a ceramic typology is at an advanced stage. Several specialist reports await final editing and synthesising, and others are in preparation. Many tasks need to be completed prior to publication. This project will be carried out over a period of two years in the British Museum Department of the Ancient Near East. The final volume will be published by the British Museum Press.