Teleilat Ghassul 2002 Overview

Teleilat Ghassul, Jordan
StephenBourke
The grant will be used to publish J.B. Hennessy's excavations at Teleilat Ghassul (1967-1977) in three volumes (Vol. l Area A: The Stratigraphic Soundings, Vol. 2 Area E.' The Sanctuary Complex, and Vol.3 Areas B-M: Other Probes and Soundings).

Teleilat Ghassul is the largest and most important Chalcolithic period (ca.5000-3500 BC) site in the southern Levant, and has been the type site for the Ghassulian culture since the first Pontifical Biblical Institute excavations began in 1929. J. Basil Hennessy's four seasons of excavation at Ghassul (1967, 1975, 1976/77 and late 1977) revolutionized our understanding of the history of occupation at the site, and succeeded in isolating ten (A-J) discrete phased assemblages. The signal importance of Hennessy's excavations lay in their demonstration that the Ghassulian culture, long thought to be an intrusive assemblage from elsewhere (Syria or Mesopotamia), was indigenous to the southern Levant, having developed out of the well known Late Neolithic culture documented by Kenyon at Jericho. Other spectacular discoveries made by Hennessy include a carefully laid out sanctuary complex with in-situ cult vessels (Hennessy Area E), an elaborate polychrome wall painting of a cultic procession (now in the Amman Museum) and a complete flint knapping floor (Hennessy Area A), and a painter's workshop (Hennessy Area E). Hennessy's seminal excavations have never been published. One preliminary report (on the 1967 season), two short articles and a privately published pamphlet (on the 1975-77 campaigns), are all that the archaeological community has access to.