Tall Damiyah (also spelled Tell or Tall Damiyeh) is an
Iron-Age
The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progr ...
archaeological site in
Jordan
Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...
. It is located in the Central
Jordan Valley in the
Balqa Governorate
Balqa' ( ''Al Balqā’'') is one of the governorates of Jordan. It is located northwest of Amman, Jordan's capital.
The governorate has the fourth largest population of the 12 governorates of Jordan, and is ranked 10th by area. It has the thir ...
and is identified by most scholars with the historical and
biblical
The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) biblical languages ...
city of
Adama
Adama ( Oromo: ', Amharic: አዳማ), formerly Nazreth (), is one of the cities of Oromia Region of Ethiopia. Located in the East Shewa Zone southeast of the capital, Addis Ababa, the city sits between the base of an escarpment to the west, ...
.
Tall Damiyah is nearby to, but distinct from, the
Damiyah Dolmen Fields.
Archaeological excavations
Tall Damiyah is a small settlement mound with evidence of continuous occupation throughout the Iron Age, located in the
flood plain
A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river. Floodplains stretch from the banks of a river channel to the base of the enclosing valley, and experience flooding during periods of high Discharge (hydrolog ...
s of the Jordan Valley. Other archaeological evidence, such as pottery sherds, indicate additional human presence during the Late Bronze
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...
, Persian-
Hellenistic period
In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...
s, the
Byzantine period
The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...
, and the
Ottoman period
The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Central Euro ...
. Though recognized in travel writings as early as the 19th century, large-scale archaeological investigations only began to take place since 2012. Among the finds at this site are two-headed horse-figurines dating to the Late Iron Age—common to the broader region, though somewhat more unique in the
Levant
The Levant ( ) is the subregion that borders the Eastern Mediterranean, Eastern Mediterranean sea to the west, and forms the core of West Asia and the political term, Middle East, ''Middle East''. In its narrowest sense, which is in use toda ...
specifically.
[ Remains of at least two buildings have been investigated, including adjacent areas of differing elevations, thought to be used for strategic ends.]"Previously unknown in Near Eastern
The Near East () is a transcontinental region around the Eastern Mediterranean encompassing the historical Fertile Crescent, the Levant, Anatolia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and coastal areas of the Arabian Peninsula. The term was invented in the 20th ...
archaeology and even beyond, this systematic sedentary occupation forces scientists to widen their geographic scope, in order to understand how these people interacted with the surrounding area. Inhabitants of the Central Jordan Valley during Iron Age II and the Persian Period were unequivocally engaged in a continuing cycle of migration, returning to previously settled sites; in other words, searching for preferred areas but leading a sedentary way of life."
Archaeologists surmise that the site was a "regional and interregional cultic place of gathering."[
Recent excavations at Tall Damiyah have been led by Lucas P. Petit of the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities and Zeidan Kafafi of Jordan's ]Yarmouk University
Yarmouk University (), also abbreviated YU, is a comprehensive public and state supported university located near the city centre of Irbid in northern Jordan. Since its establishment in 1976, it has been at the forefront of Jordanian and Middle E ...
.[ Studies have also included ]luminescence dating
Luminescence dating refers to a group of chronological dating methods of determining how long ago mineral grains were last exposed to sunlight or sufficient heating. It is useful to geologists and archaeologists who want to know when such an event ...
of Iron Age deposits.
Related sites
* Nearby archaeological sites in the Jordan Valley: Tell el-Mazar on the west bank;[ for the spelling ''Mazar'' and West Bank location.] Tell Deir 'Alla and on the east bank.
References
{{Reflist
External links
Tell Damiyah, Jordan: Reconstructing the Iron Age site
(April 18, 2019), at learningsites.com. Accessed 19 August 2022.
Photos of Damiyah
at the American Center of Research
The American Center of Research (ACOR) is a private, not-for-profit scholarly and educational organization. Based in Alexandria, Virginia, with a facility in Amman, Jordan, ACOR promotes knowledge of Jordan and the interconnected region, past an ...
Archaeological sites in Jordan