YABIS, WADI EL - (Ar., “dry valley”), perennial wadi located in nortliern Jordan, with a total catchment of almost 200 sq km (124 sq. mi.). The wadi descends westward a distance of 18 km (ii mi.) from tire hills of Jebel ‘Ajlun at 1,200 m above sea level, to tire central Jordan Valley, which is 300 m below sea level. The great topographic and climatic range within tliis short distance results in a steep environmental gradient, with remnants of dense pine, oak, and pistachio forest at the highest elevations yielding to open scrub oak forest in the middle reaches and tlren to steppic grasses, weeds, and Acacia st. arboreal species in the valley. Tamarisk and oleander grow thicldy along the banks of tire wadi and the Jordan River. Terra rossa soils mantle the limestone highlands, while colluvial and alluvial soils accumulate on hill slopes and in wadi bottoms. Permanent springs are common along the eastern escarpment of the Jordan Valley, at tire confluences of small tributaries, and at the headwaters of the Wadi el-Yabis catchment. [5ee Jordan Valley.]
The first Westerners to explore the antiquities of the region were early twentietlr-century biblical geographers and classical art historian (Steuernagel, 1925, 1926; Augusti-novic and Bagatti, 1952). In the 1940s, and again in the 1960s, the area was included in extensive surveys of northern Transjordan that identified the most prominent ancient tells (Glueck, 1951; Mittmann, 1970). The central Jordan Valley has been surveyed several times (Glueck, 1951; Mel-laart, 1962; de Contenson, 1964; Ibrahim, Saner, and Yas-sine, 1976J Miiheisen, 1988). Since the 1950s, limited excavations have been conducted at several valley sites near the wadi mouth, dating variously to tire Lower Paleolithic (Huclcriede, 1966; Muheisen, 1988), tlie Neolitliic (Kirk-bride, 1956), the Chalcolitliic (de Contenson, i960; Leonard, 1992), tlie Early Bronze Age (Fischer, 1991), and die Middle Bronze Age (Falconer and Magness-Gardiner, 1989). Between 1987 and 1992, a series of intensive archaeological surveys and test excavations was conducted throughout the wadi catchment (Mabry and Palumbo, 1988, 1992; Palumbo, Mabry, and Kuijt, 1990; Kuijt, Mabry, and Palumbo, 1991; Palumbo, 1992; Palumbo and Mabry, 1993). Almost 250 sites dating from Lower Paleolithic through Ottoman times were recorded within this area by 1992, and soundings had been excavated at six sites dating from tlte Kebaran period to the Iron Age.
The oldest clues of human use of the wadi are Lower Paleolithic handaxes, at least 100,000 years old, found at the edge of tlie Jordan Valley buried in wadi banks, cemented in limestone outcrops, and on the surface at flint quarries on the first ridges above tlie valley floor. Open-air and buried Middle Paleolithic sites are found at all elevations, but particularly on ridges near the valley, at the former margin of a lake that filled the central Jordan Rift during the late Pleistocene. Upper Paleolithic and Epipaleolithic sites are rare, but their presence attests to continued use of the wadi during the dramatic climatic fluctuations of the final Pleistocene.
In a cliff above tlie wadi, about halfway to the valley, a cave was inhabited by about 9200 bc, the beginning of both the Holocene and the early Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPNA) period. A large (6 ha; 15 acres) village developed nearby between 8200 and 7000 bc, tlie late Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPNB) period. Pottery Neolithic camps and villages were restricted to the valley. In addition to smaller settlements in the valley, large villages (up to 20 ha, or 49 acres) were occupied in the lower highlands during tlie Late Chalcolithic period (c. 4500-3500 bc). Extensive fields of piled stone m-muli and megalithic dolmens, both interpreted as tombs, are found in their vicinity and may date to that time.
At the beginning of the Early Bronze Age (c. 3500 bc), villages were established throughout the wadi highlands, implying extensive forest clearance for dry farming and herding. After 3000 BC many of tliese open villages developed into fortified towns, evenly spaced throughout tlie watershed to command roughly equal territories. Most of tliese were abandoned in the mid-third millennium and settlement dispersed into smaller villages and seasonal camps. Only the largest villages in tlie valley may have had protective enclosures during tlie Early Bronze IV (EB-MB) period (24002000 bc), a transitional interval between urban phases. A cemetery of rock-hewn EB shaft tombs covers an isolated ridge above the valley.
A new pattern again developed at tlie beginning of tlie Middle Bronze Age (c. 2000 bc), tlie start of tlie historic record in tliis region, when settlements were reestablished at a number of abandoned protohistoric tells. Sedentary settlement in the wadi declined, however, during tlie later Middle and Late Bronze Ages. Rural villages flourished again throughout the region during the Iron Age (1200-586 bc), when the hillsides were first terraced for agriculture. A large fortified town developed at Tell Maqlub, which has been identified by some scholars as biblical Jabesh Gilead.
Only a few sites dating to the Persian and Hellenistic periods have yet been recognized, but this may be because of gaps in the ceramic chronology. Rural setdement greatly expanded during the Roman period though, when tiiis region became a hinterland between the large urban centers at Pella in tire Jordan Valley and Gerasa on the plateau. A road with mile markers was built to connect Pella, ‘Ajlun, and Gerasa, crossing tlie Wadi el-Yabis near Tell Maqlub, and a second road was constructed along the eastern floor of the valley. Expansion of tlie areas of agricultural and pastoral production and timber harvesting for these urban centers led to rapid deforestation of tlie ‘Ajlun highlands, and the resulting erosion led to the abandonment of some villages. This erosion was controlled by tlie intensive terracing of hillsides during the Byzantine period, when population and rural settlement in the area reached an all-time peak. On isolated hills, early Christian churches and monasteries were surrounded by their own terraced fields. In several still-occupied villages in the wadi, elaborate Byzantine mosaics are preserved in buildings that were once churches.
The Islamic conquest of Palestine was completed in AD 636 with the Arab defeat of the Byzantine army at the Yar-muk River, and the balanced relationships between urban, rural, and nomadic populations in the region were disrupted. A large number of settlements were abandoned during the period of Umayyad rule from Damascus. This decline accelerated after the ‘Abbasids moved tlie capital of tlie Arab Empire to Baghdad in ad 762, and the region became peripheral to major trade routes. Economic stagnation and village abandonment led to the neglect of agricultural terraces, resulting in another phase of soil erosion in the hills of Jebel ‘Ajlun. During the twelfth century, the Jordan Valley was the frontier between areas controlled by European Christians and Arab Muslims, but the higlilands of nortliern Jordan were protected by the Islamic fortress built at ‘Ajlun.
After the Ayyubid general Salah edh-Din defeated the Crusaders at Hittin, near Lake Tiberias, in ad 1187, the region prospered as a result of its position between a united Egypt and Syria under the control of the Mamluks, a Turk-ish-Circassian military class. Many new settlements were established in the southern Levant, and the rural population of nortliern Jordan increased almost to the peak level of the Byzantine period. Along with the other major streams entering the Jordan Valley, Wadi el-Yabis was used to irrigate sugarcane plantations and to power mills processing the sugar for export.
After the beginning of Ottoman rule in 1516, repeated nomadic incursions into the cultivated lands of northern Jordan, along with the heavy taxation of the peasants, led to the abandonment of many villages. Only pockets of settlement remained in the liighlands by the early nineteenth century, when the regions briefly returned to Egyptian control under the Balltan prince Muliammad ‘Ali. Most of these remaining villages continued to be occupied into the twentietli century. Today, rapid population growth, intensifying land use, and illicit digging for antiquities increasingly impact the region’s rich archaeological heritage.
[Most of the sites mentioned are the subject of independent entries.]
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Abel, Felix-Marie. Giographie de la Palestine. Vol. 2. Paris, 1938. Augustinovic, Augostino, and Bellarmino Bagatti. “Escursioni nei din-torni di Aglun (Nord di Transgiordiana).” Studium Biblicum Fran-ciscanumlLiber Annuus 2 (1952): 227-314.
Contenson, Henri de. “Three Soundings in tire Jordan Valley.” Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 4-5 (i960); 12-98. Contenson, Henri de. “The 1953 Survey of the Yarmouk and Jordan Valleys.” Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 8-9 (1964): 30-46.
Falconer, Steven E., and Bonnie Magness-Gardiner. “Tell el-Hayyat.” In Archaeology of Jordan, vol. 2, Field Reports, edited by Denyse Ho-mes-Fredericq and J. Basil Hennessy, pp. 254-261. Louvain, 1989. Fischer, Peter M. “Tell Abu al-Kliaraz: The Swedish Jordan Expedition 1989, First Season Preliminary Report from Trial Soundings.” Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 35 (1991); 67-104. Glueck, Nelson. Explorations in Eastern Palestine. Vol. 4. Annual of tlie American Schools of Oriental Research, 25/28. New Haven, 1951. Huckriede, R. “Das Quartaer des arabischen Jordan-Thales und Beo-bachtungen liber ‘Pebble Culture’ und ‘Pra-Aurignac.’” Eiszeitalter und Gegenwan 17 (1966): 211-212.
Ibrahim, Mo'awiyah, et al. “The East Jordan Valley Survey, 1975.” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, no. 222 (1976): 41-66.
Kirkbride, Diana. “A Neolithic Site at Wadi el-Yabis.” Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 3 (1956): 56-60.
Kuijt, L, et al. “Early Neolithic Use of Upland Areas of Wadi el-Yabis: Preliminary Evidence from the Excavations of ’Iraq ed-Dubb, Jordan.” Paleorient 17.1 (1991); 99-108.
Leonard, Albert, Jr., ed. The Jordan Valley Survey: Some Unpublished Soundings Conducted by James Mellaart. Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 50. Winona Lake, Ind., 1992.
Mabry, Jonathan, and Gaetano Palumbo. “The 1987 Wadi el-Yabis Survey.” Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 32 (1988): 275-305.
Mabry, Jonathan, and Gaetano Palumbo. “Environmental, Economic, and Political Constraints on Ancient Settlement Patterns in tlie Wadi el-Yabis Region.” In Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan, vol. 4, edited by Ghazi Bisheh, pp. 67-72. Amman, 1992.
McCown, Chester C. “Spring Field Trip, 1930.” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, no. 39 (1930): 10-27.
Mellaart, James. “Preliminary Report of the Archaeological Survey in the Yarmouk and Jordan Valley for the Point Four Irrigation Scheme.” Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 6-7 (1962): 126-157.
Mittmann, Siegfried. Beitrdge zur Siedlungs - und Territorialgeschichte des nordlichen Ostjordanlandes. Wiesbaden, 1970.
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