March - April 2004 Season II; Excavation season

SUMMARY

In 2004 we opened six areas, each with approximately two - three squares. At the end of the season we had revealed an exposure of over 350 square metres.

Excavations at el-Khawarij present an opportunity to systematically examine the connections between settlement in the area and horticultural activity. Whilst other sites have produced some archaeobotanical data it is our aim to intensively sample for archaeobotanical and ceramic residues. Our archaeobotanical studies (conducted by John Meadows, English Heritage) have already yielded evidence for olive (from all excavated areas) and laboratory work in the off season will tell us something about the relative abundance of these to other taxa. We will also be conducting systematic residue analyses for lipid residue on ceramic and other artefacts.

SOME HIGHLIGHTS FROM 2004

The brief information below gives some of the highlights from our 2004 excavations. Please email the director for further details. A preliminary report will appear shortly in the Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan. See References

Area C

Area C, located on the top of a spur overlooking the terrace itself, is dominated by what is likely to be a modern corral. Inside this corral we had planned and plotted several extant walls during the 2003 season.

Accordingly we placed squares to investigate this architecture and we were lucky to hit a relatively well-preserved structure not 20 cm below the surface (pictured left).

Although ploughing continues in the area, and it has certainly damaged the archaeological remains, we were surprised to find that, despite this, artefacts were still lying, probably in situ, on the floors of these structures (pictured right).

Area D

Area D, located right in the centre of the flat of the terrace itself, was the area where we had perhaps the greatest number of finds.

In this area there were some remains of structures with single course walls, but again, despite the shallow deposits and the damage to the walls, the deposits inside the walls did yield semi complete vessels including ceramic churns, basalt V-shaped bowls and a diorite macehead (pictured left, in situ).

A number of the vessels had significant numbers of refits suggesting that these will go together to form complete vessels after further study.

Area E

Area E produced the largest complex of architecture and promises to be an area of focus for 2005. Here we revealed a large rectilinear structure with rooms running off the edges.

The large room has internal dimensions of 3.8 x 10.6 m, which is in similar size and form to Chalcolithic structures in the Jaulan and elsewhere.

There were actually two large structures of this type in this area, the second, in E4 and E6 (pictured right) revealed floor surfaces with good preservation of archaeobotanical remains.