Tell el-Mazar II: Excavations on the Mound 1977-1981. Field I

Tell el-Mazar (central east Jordan valley, c. 3km north of Tell Deir Alla and 5.5km south of Tell es-Sa’idiyeh) forms part of a complex of sites in the East Jordan Valley that were all occupied in the Late Bronze and Iron Ages: the regional density of nearby occupation testifies to the importance of the locality. It was not only economically important because of its climate, but it was also a crossroads, connecting north and south, as well as east and west. Towards the end of the Late Bronze Age an Egyptian trade route ran from Beth Shean towards the Amman Plain, crossing the river first by Pella, and later by Tell es-Sa’idiyeh. This route must have passed Tell Mazar, which was inhabited during the late Bronze Age, as shown by the large number of Late Bronze Age sherds that were found by successive surveys. This volume contains the final publication of the four seasons of excavations on the main mound and the sanctuary on mound ‘A’. Contents includes: Tell el-Mazar Field I: Stratigraphy; Tell el-Mazar Mound ‘A’: the Open Court Sanctuary of the Iron Age; The pottery of Field I; Production and exchange of ceramics in the Central Jordan Valley during Iron Age IIc (Niels Groot); A find of a beer jug with a female head (Régine Hunziker-Rodewald); Ammonite and Aramaic inscriptions (Khair Yassine and Javier Teixidor); Weaving at Tell el-Mazar: the loom-weights (Jeannette Boertien); Chipped stones from Tell el-Mazar (Muhammad Jaradat); Pottery plates; Catalogue of Complete Pottery; Catalogue of objects; Appendix: plant remains found at Tell el-Mazar (Reinder Neef).