ISKANDER, KHIRBET, 7.5-acre site on the northern bank of Wadi el-Wala, in modern Jordan, strategically located on the ancient King’s Highway, approximately 24 km (15 mi.) south of Madaba, in what was once northern Moab.
In surveys (Gltieck, 1939) and excavations (Parr, i960) important remains from the Early Bronze IV period (c. 2350-2000 BCE) had been noted at the site. In 1981, 1982, 1984, and 1987, the American Schools of Oriental Research sponsored an excavation at Khirbet Iskander directed by Suzanne Richard, with Drew University, Upsala College, and Seton Hall University as affiliates. Roger Boraas served as associate director in 1982 and 1984. The project’s primary research objective was to test the hypothesis that sedentism was an alternative subsistence choice to pastoralism in tire Early Bronze Age. Excavation affirmed the hypothesis, even expanding the parameters of sedentism in this alleged “nomadic interlude” to include small fortified towns.
The stratigraphic profile that emerged is tentative and awaits additional excavation and final publication. The best stratigraphic sequence (seven phases thus far) comes from area B at the northwest corner of the site. The earliest, phase G, represented by fragmentary house walls, dates to EB I. Phase F house walls represent the basal EB IV setdement. Phases E-B constitute the EB TV setdement widiin fortifications. Phase A, therefore, is the final, postfortification EB IV setdement, after which die site was abandoned.
Four distinct phases of tite site’s fortifications are currently discernible: an inner wall (E), outer wall (D), and two domestic use phases (C-B). The inner wall, of stone and mud brick, was found in a collapsed state. The phase D rebuilding included the inner wall, a new outer wall, a rubble fill, and a square tower witir steps, creating a 2.5-meter defense system. Excavation has revealed two interior-use phases thus far, a building complex in phase B and a limited sounding into an earlier domestic level (C). Two contiguous broadrooms formed part of a larger building complex in phase B. In one of the rooms benches line the walls and in the other a stone-lined bin (possibly afavissa, or repository for discarded cultic objects) is associated with a fire pit, hearth, decorated offering plate (with the foot of a bovine incised inside), and miniature vessels. These remains as well as file quality and quantity of vessels uncovered in situ suggest a public, possibly cultic function. Also discovered was a range of vessels, including large storejars containing grain, a vat, amphoriskoi, teapots, cups, and jugs.
Destruction debris encased the vessels in phase B, but tire reuse of walls in phase A suggests an immediate recovery for the site. The settlement pattern changes from a fortified public complex to a domestic complex of interconnected long - and broadroom houses.
Several houses had blocked pillar walls that were once freestanding. Such pillar construction ties Khirbet Iskander to Negev desert sites such as Har Yeroham and Be’er Re-sisim. [5ee Be’er Resisim.] The style revives in the Iron Age I period. A study of three tabuns, querns, grinders, a mortar, and stone tables/benches witlrin these buildings should provide insight into the still enigmatic domestic activities in EB
In Area C, three phases (A-C) of the Gateway were investigated at the southeastern crest. After the destruction of the fortifications, setdement patterning changed here as well, but the transformation was from domestic to public. The excavation exposed twelve squares in the latest phase (C), which comprised monumental, well-constructed guardrooms on either side of a 2.25-meter-wide bench-lined entryway. There were two rows of steps at each end of the plaster-coated passage. This passage was the only access point into the interior of the town, which was discovered when the wall lines were traced that connect tliis area with the domestic quarter uncovered in area A to the west. The northern steps led to a courtyard and partially paved storage bin. Connected to the guardrooms on both sides is a series of rooms, one of which contained three stone platforms and extensive flint debitage, indicative of a specialized work area. Broadroom houses below, in phases B and A, testify to the area’s previous domestic nature.
All of tire EB IV tombs excavated were of the typical single-shaft, round or square chamber variety, and all contained secondary burials. The surprise discovery was a two-chambered EB I tomb containing tliirteen skulls and a variety of pottery (e. g., false-spouted jars, dipper juglets, and duck-handled vessels). When combined with the omphalos base and band-slipped fragments found in phase G in area B, this new and tantalizing tell and tomb data serve to underscore the gap in occupation at Khirbet Iskander during the urban EB II-III periods.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Glueck, Nelson. Explorations in Eastern Palestine. Vol. 3. Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 18/19. New Haven, 1939. Parr, Peter J. “Excavations at Kliirbet Iskander.” Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 4S (i960): 128-133.
Richard, Suzanne. “Toward a Consensus of Opinion on the End of the Early Bronze Age in Palestine-Transjordan.” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, no. 237 (1980): 5-34.
Richard, Suzanne, and Roger S. Boraas. “Preliminary Report of the 1981-82 Seasons of the Expedition to Kliirbet Iskander and Its Vicinity.” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, no. 254 (1984): 63-87.
Richard, Suzanne. “Excavations at Khirbet Iskander, Jordan: A Glimpse at Settled Life during the ‘Dark Age’ in Palestinian hr-chaeology.’’28.1 (1986): 3-12.
Richard, Suzanne. “The Early Bronze Age: The Rise and Collapse of Urbanism.” Biblical Archaeologist 50 (1987): 22-43.
Richard, Suzanne, and Roger S. Boraas. “The Early Bronze IV Fortified Site of Khirbet Iskander, Jordan: Third Preliminary Report, 1984 Season.” In Preliminary Reports of ASOR-Sponsored Excavations, ip82-8s, edited by Walter E. Rast, pp. 107-130. Bulletin of the
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