Inventing Towns, Reshaping Places: Life and Death in Early Bronze Age of the southern Levant

Meredith S. Chesson University of Notre Dame

Southern Levant Early Bronze Age I - III: 3600 - 2350 B.C.E. Intermediate Bronze / EBA IV: 2350 - 2000 B.C.E.

Early Bronze Age Transformations

Slab-built Tomb at Safi/Naqa

Population aggregation in walled communities

West Gate at Bab edhedh-Dhra Dhra

Increasing social differentiation (individual and group) seen in mortuary practices Intensification of agricultural production (irrigation technology, water management, ownership, use, surplus storage and management)

Why build large walls with towers and gates around a community? Why at this point in time?
Granary at Bet Yerah

Non-residential storage facilities

Irrigated fields on Wadi Zarqa

How can we relate emergence of walled towns to intensified agricultural and pastoral production? How can we trace new ideas about community, property, ownership, and obligations with the invention of walled towns?
Practice Theory and Agency Studies

Look to connections in the land

Landscape and Place-making Performance and Lived Experience

Early EB II slab tomb, Naq Naq a /Safi

Reconstruction of Mortuary Practices in Early EB II slab tomb, Naq Naq a /Safi

Rituals, traditions, and identity Daily and Seasonal Rhythms

community comes into being through enculturation of people to a local history embedded in places places (Whitridge 2004: 220-1)
Reconstruction of EB II-III Walled Town of Numeira

Local knowledge and regional dynamics

Permanence, durability, and visibility

body as a metaphor for society, as instrument of lived experience, and as surface of inscription inscription (Joyce 2005: 140)

Experience of Living and Dying (and being studied) at Bab edh-Dhra`

EB PLACES: EB II-III Town of Bab edhDhra Dhra, Jordan

Enclosed residential compound Gate

Residential and Non-Residential Space at Khirbet es-Zeraqon

Street Enclosed administrative complex

Cemetery Fortification Walls

Sanctuary A

Enclosed residential compounds

Enclosed ritual complex

Fortification walls

Street

West Gate

Terraced Houses East Gate and Plaza Area

Fortification Walls

Agricultural Fields in Wadi

Numeira houses
Winnowing / threshing area

Residential Structures Metallurgical activities

Residential Places
Reconstruction of terraced residential area, Bab edhedh- Dhra Dhra` `

Ritual Space at Khirbet esZeraqon

Wooden beam with notching on floor of Sanctuary A, Bab edh-Dhra edh-Dhra

Cresset

Seal Impression

Cresset

Mudbrick courtyard floor near altar Sanctuary A, Bab edhedh - Dhra Dhra

Pillared White Building at Yarmouth

Architectural Vocabularies for Sacred Space?

Bet Yerah Granary: Agricultural Production in a Staple Finance Economy

EBA sites with olive and grape fruit, pits, or wood

Irrigated fields

EB Olive oil processing site in Wadi Ziqlab, Ziqlab, northern Jordan

Water collection pools

Deflection wall

Water collection pools

Water management at Jawa

Large deposit of grapes at Numeira

Fortification systems

Collective Civic Projects

Water as key resource in towns and fields

Administrative complexes

Irrigation systems

Dolmen field, Wadi elel-Yabis Yabis, , Jordan

New Walled Towns and New Viewscapes Staple Finance Economy Collective Labor and Civic Projects Property, Ownership, and Access

EB Mortuary Evidence

 Excavations 1965, 1967 (P. Lapp); survey/excavations 1973-1983, 1989-90 (W. Rast and T. Schaub Schaub); ); mapping 2004 (T. Schaub and M. Chesson) Early Bronze Age sites on the southeastern Dead Sea Plain (c. 3150 - 2000 bce uncal uncal) ) 2 walled town sites (Bab (Bab edhDhra Dhra and Numeira Numeira) ) 4 cemeteries (Bab (Bab edh-Dhra edh-Dhra, Feifa, Feifa , Safi/Naqa Safi/Naqa, , Kh Kh. . Khanazir Khanazir) ) Publication ongoing: Numeira is current focus

Early Bronze Age Occupation on southeastern Dead Sea Plain

EB IB / early II

EB IA
EB IA: c. 3150-3050 bce EB IB / early II: c. 3050-2900 bce EB II / III: c. 2900-2300 bce EB IV: c 2300-2000 bce Shaft tombs and campsites at Bab edhedhDhra`; Dhra `; cist tombs at Feifa and Safi Safi/ /Naqa Village, shaft tombs, circular Ch. Houses at Bab edhedh-Dhra Dhra`; `; cist, slab tombs at Safi Safi/ / Naqa Walled town, charnel houses at Bab edhedhDhra`; Dhra `; walled town at Numeira Village, shaft tombs at Bab edhedh- Dhra Dhra`; `; stone shaft tombs at Khanazir

EB II / III

Bab edh-Dhra edh-Dhra Cemetery in 1979

EB IV

Shifting Settlement and Mortuary Practices: Social Memory, Identity, and Changing Ideas about Community and Place

Tomb A78W

EB IA Shaft Tombs at Bab edhedh- Dhra Dhra

EB IA Campsites >> Shaft or Cist Tombs EBIB / II Village >> Slab tombs, Circular Charnel Houses

EB II / III Walled Town >> Charnel Houses

EB IV Village >> Stone Shaft Tombs

EB IA MORTUARY PATTERNS AT BAB EDH-DHRA`

Excavated Cist tomb, Feifa

Robbed Cemetery of Feifa in 2001

Shaft tombs: 1-5 chambers per shaft MNI: 5-25 individuals Secondary practices: skeletal elements sorted, placed on matting Ceramic and stone vessels placed to right of entrance Beads and other goods placed in and amongst vessels

EB IA cemeteries of Feifa, Feifa , Safi/Naqa

EB IB/EARLY II Transitions at Bab edhedh-Dhra` Dhra`

Shaft tomb A110NE

Charnel House A4

Charnel House A53

EB IB/early II cemetery at Bab edhedh- Dhra Dhra` `

Charnel House A56

Sex Unknown

Age Prenatal Infants Children Adolescents Adults Adolescents Adults Adolescents Adults

Total 5 57 97 16 36 1 77 4 80 373

% 1.3% 15.3% 26.0% 4.3% 9.7% 0.3% 20.6% 1.1% 21.4% 100.0%

Transitional ritual landscapes: Above and Below Primary and secondary burials

Males Females TOTALS

Ortner and Frhlich in press: Table 2

EB IA life expectancy: 21.36 yo

EB IB/early II cemetery at Safi/ Safi /Naq Naq a
Excavated Chamber Tomb, Safi

Average male/female heights: 164 cm/154 cm High infant mortality: 47% deaths before 15 yo Trauma uncommon Infectious diseases: TB (n=2) and brucellosis (n=4)

Aerial view of excavated charnel houses

Charnel House A55

EB II-III cemetery at Bab edhedh- Dhra Dhra` `

Excavated Charnel House A41

Charnel Houses at Bab edhedh- Dhra`: Dhra`: Libraries of the Dead Visible & Visitable Secondary Mortuary Ceremonies Emphasis on Membership and Collective
Smaller Charnel Houses Larger Charnel Houses

Differentiation in Bab edh-Dhra` Charnel Houses

Area (m2) 15.1 15.5 35.3 120.9 MNI Unk. No. of Vessels 20-30 Weapons None Stone Palettes None Costume Items

A55 materials in situ

Beads: stone and bone

41-200

46-783

Maceheads and Metal Daggers, Knives, Axes

1-4 found in four charnel houses

Pendants: shell, bone, stone and carnelian Beads: metal, ostrich egg, faience, alabaster, carnelian, lapis, crystal, calcite, shell, stone, bone, and gold

A55 during excavation A51 during excavation

EBA Transformations: Durability, Visibility, and Place made-to-order made-to-order body libraries for groups Visible and visitable Differing access to resources represented in grave goods by charnel house Secondary mortuary rituals (until final use of A22) Reshaping of landscape and making different kind of Place

Larger charnel houses contain larger MNI, greater numbers and types of local and non-local goods Tendency >> evidence for social differentiation of groups with fluid border

Shaft Tombs A52 and A54

Village on ruins of walled town

Moving dead below ground again at Bab edhedhDhra` Dhra `

EB IV cemetery at Bab edhedhDhra` Dhra `

EB IV cemetery at Khirbet Khanazir

Charnel House A22

Change in living places accompanied by change in places for the dead Shifts between visible (aboveground) and less visible (subterranean) burial contexts Moderately increasing social differentiation with invention of towns (group and individual scales) Membership in groups tied to where you are buried (kinship in EB IA contexts) In some ways, health of EB IIIII town dwellers decreases (both male and female) MANY QUESTIONS LEFT!

Fortification Walls, Numeira

How can we relate emergence of walled towns to intensified agricultural and pastoral production? How can we trace new ideas about community, property, ownership, and obligations with the invention of walled towns?
Look to connections in the land

Material Wealth, Resources, and Property

Immaterial Wealth, Resources, and Property

How are these relationships inscribed on the physical and social landscapes?

Which and how many human and material resources do you / your group members claim or control?

Who are your dead and your living?

Thanks to Tom Schaub and Walt Rast Bob Chapman, Roger Matthews, Wendy Matthews, Rafi Greenberg, David Ilan, Ilan, Rosemary Joyce, Susan Kus, Kus, and Ian Kuijt