New Insights into the Iron Age Archaeology of Edom, Southern Jordan [2-vol set]


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Series: Monumenta Archaeologica 35
ISBN: 978-1-931745-99-4
Publication Date: Nov 2014
Price: Hb $169 (2 vols), eBook $135
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Thomas E. Levy, Mohammad Najjar, and Erez Ben-Yosef

“This two volume report is not only an outstanding benchmark for integrating the wide range of high tech anthropological tools now available to the excavator, it also strongly affirms the important role that ancient texts, such as the Hebrew Bible, fulfill when interpreting artifacts and data from an Levantine site.”
  — Jeffrey P. Hudon, Near East Archaeological Society Bulletin, 2015

Situated south of the Dead Sea, near the famous Nabataean capital of Petra, the Faynan region in Jordan contains the largest deposits of copper ore in the southern Levant. The Edom Lowlands Regional Archaeology Project (ELRAP) takes an anthropological archaeology approach to the deep-time study of culture change in one of the Old World’s most important locales for studying technological Scarabdevelopment. Using innovative digital tools for data recording, curation, analyses and dissemination, the researchers focused on ancient mining and metallurgy as the subject of surveys and excavations related to the Iron Age (ca. 1200–500 BCE), when the first local, historical state-level societies appeared in this part of the eastern Mediterranean basin.

Camel

This comprehensive and important volume challenges the current scholarly consensus concerning the emergence and historicity of the Iron Age polity of biblical Edom and some of its neighbors, such as ancient Israel. Excavations and radiometric dating establish a new chronology for Edom, adding almost 500 more years to the Iron Age, including key periods of biblical history when David, Solomon, and the Egyptian pharaoh Shoshenq I are alleged to have interacted with Edom.

Included is a 7 gigabyte DVD with over 55,000 files of additional data and photographs from the project. 

"an outstanding benchmark for integrating the wide range of high tech anthropological tools now available to the excavator, it also strongly affirms the important role that ancient texts, such as the Hebrew Bible, fulfill when interpreting artifacts and data from an Levantine site."

— Jeffrey P. Hudon, Bethel College
Mishawaka, Indiana

"Insights into the Iron Age Archaeology of Edom is a ground-breaking study of one of the most important areas of the Levant...Insights will become a must-read book for anyone interested in the history and archaeology of the first millennium BCE Levant, northern Arabia and the anicent Near East, and in the archaeology of early mining and metallurgy in general."

— Juan Manual Tebes, Catholic University of Arentina
University of Buenos Aires, National Research Council
Table of Contents

Chapter 1. The Iron Age Edom Lowlands Regional Archaeology Project by Thomas E. Levy, Erez Ben-Yosef, and Mohammad Najjar
Chapter 2. Excavations at Khirbat en-Nahas 2002–2009 by Thomas E. Levy, Mohammad Najjar, Thomas Higham, Yoav Arbel, Adolfo Muniz, Erez Ben-Yosef, Neil G. Smith, Marc Beherec, Aaron Gidding, Ian W. Jones, Daniel Frese, Craig Smitheram, and Mark Robinson
Chapter 3. New Perspectives on the Iron Age Edom Steppe and Highlands by Neil G. Smith, Mohammad Najjar, and Thomas E. Levy
Chapter 4. Iron Age Ceramics from Edom by Neil G. Smith and Thomas E. Levy
Chapter 5. The Petrography of Iron Age Edom by Neil G. Smith, Yuval Goren, and Thomas E. Levy
Chapter 6. Local Iron Age Trade Routes in Northern Edom by Erez Ben-Yosef, Mohammad Najjar, and Thomas E. Levy
Chapter 7. Patterns of Iron Age Mining and Settlement in Jordan’s Faynan District by Kyle A. Knabb, Ian W. N. Jones, Mohammad Najjar, and Thomas E. Levy
Chapter 8. Feeding the Iron Age Metalworkers at Khirbat en-Nahas by Adolfo Muniz and Thomas E. Levy
Chapter 9. Wadi Fidan 40 and Mortuary Archaeology in the Edom Lowlands by Marc A. Beherec, Mohammad Najjar, and Thomas E. Levy
Chapter 10. A Picture of the Early and Late Iron Age II in the Lowlands by Neil G. Smith, Mohammad Najjar, and Thomas E. Levy
Chapter 11. The Iron Age Egyptian Amulet Assemblage by Stefan Münger and Thomas E. Levy
Chapter 12. New Iron Age Excavations at Copper Production Sites, Mines, and Fortresses in Faynan by Erez Ben-Yosef, Mohammad Najjar, and Thomas E. Levy
Chapter 13. The Material Culture of Iron Age Copper Production in Faynan by Erez Ben-Yosef and Thomas E. Levy
Chapter 14. The Iron Age Edomite Script and Language by Christopher A. Rollston
Chapter 15. Conclusion by Thomas E. Levy, Mohammad Najjar, and Erez Ben-Yosef