Overview

Recent excavations on the border between Jordan and Syria have uncovered ancient building ruins that provide interesting materials revealing the domestic and working lives of the people who settled within the valley of Tall al Fukhãr in Wadi ash-Shallale. The volume provides a detailed and thorough examination of the excavations conducted between 1990 and 2002. The Scandinavian expedition, located on a 375m natural spur, revealed a rare quantity of pottery, antiques and ancient building structures that provided archaeologists with an insight into the social, economic and material developments that emerged from the Early Bronze Age 3600 BC. Tall al-Fukhãr commemorates centuries of historical artefacts that document the alternations mankind made to improve living standards, constructing modern day life as we know it.

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Reviews

The initial reason for the selection of Tall al-Fukh-ar for investigation was to throw light uponthe wars between the kingdoms of northern Israel and Aram-Damaskus (p. 9)a historical problem with a strong Biblical allure. Has this particular motivation negatively influenced the results? I think not. For not only did the expedition implement a rigorous archaeological method, involving skilled scholars from several institutions, but also because the archaeological evidence uncovered concerns multiple periods and relates to a range of wider questions;moreover, the investigators did not discover any evidence for the specific period that they set out to find. The results of the excavations are thoroughly documented in Volume I, while Volume II collates photographs, plans, pottery and finds drawings,colour plates and charts. The Introduction starts with an explanation of the intricate history of the expedition and then presents the site in the wider context of the Wadi Shallalah and an evaluation of the settlement patterns of this (often neglected) district. It is noteworthy that the occupation of Tall al-Fukh-ar alternated with activity at neighbouring single-period sites, such as Early Bronze Khirbet ez-Zeraqon or Middle Bronze Tell es-Subba. Tall al-Fukh-ar was, infact, the main regional site during the Late Bronze IIand Iron I, as originally suggested by S. Mittmann.The volume presents an overall stratigraphy of the site,which, even if a little synthetic, is now an essential tool for the full historical evaluation of Tall al-Fukh-ar. - Lorenzo Nigro, Dipartimento Studie Prientali, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, ANTIQUITY 90 351 (2016): 817-818

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