Tell Ya’amun 2002 Excavations

Church mosaic

Location map

Site map

Contact Dr. Rose for full-size maps.

Click here to read the Ya’amun 2002 report.

Co-directors:
Prof. Jerome Rose, University of Arkansas
Prof. Mahmoud el-Najjar, Yarmouk University

Staff: Inspectors Department of Antiquities: Mr. Salameh Fayyad and Mrs. Woroud Samarah
Archaeologists: Dr. Nizar Turshan and Dr. Jeff Mitchem
Registrar: Dr. Dolores Burke
Photographer:  Husein Debajeh
Surveyors: Muafaq Batteyneh and Naser Al-Hinai Field
Supervisors: Faris Bdeir, Bryan Renfro, and Nour Al-Deen.
Student members of the team:  Catherine Alston, Alaric Cole, John Cooksey, Mohammad al-Duwakat, Abdulla Hersh,
Charles Hunton, Rawhi Jawarneh, Adrah Ismail Kalile, Husam al-Masry, Suika Rivett, Kimberly Rolf, Ehab Shatnawi,
Mohammad al-Shdouh, and Shaffiq Welji

The Great workers of Ya’amun

Next to the church excavated during previous seasons a paved walkway was found separating it from walls of an adjacent building.  Here the walkway can be seen on the left as well as one room in the right foreground and second in the right background.

Here we see the paved walkway and the door into the room with a mosaic floor constructed at the same time as that of the church.

Here we see the second mosaic floor with the double fish motif in the middle of the room.  The door to the paved walk can be seen in the upper center of the picture.  The irregularities in the surface contour of the mosaic floor were cause by the huge stone blocks that made up the wall (to the right) falling and denting the floor.  This was the final use of these rooms and was probably caused by an earthquake.

Lamps (even when broken) and coins provide dates for the construction and use of these rooms adjacent to the church.

A total of 12 tombs were excavated in Necropolis III.  All of these tombs has been constructed (carved out of the rock) by individuals with few skills in rock carving and thus were proabably the tombs of the lower classes.

Coins found with the tombs provide our best evidence for dating.  Here a Byzantine coin clearly dates the tomb to early Byzantine or early Christian period at the site.

In the northeast corner of the tell, continuing work revealed a number of rooms, paved corridors, stairs and a courtyard dating to the Late Bronze Age.  Here we see a paved corridor running from upper left to lower right underneath the meter stick.  Then, just to the right of the meter stick there are three steps that lead down into a sunken courtyard not visible behind the earth left unexcavated for recording stratigraphy.

Here are the steps not visible in the picture above leading to the sunken courtyard.

Here is the sunken courtyard with the floor of bedrock.  The stairs are just in the next square directly to the right of the meter stick.  Most of the courtyard is to the left just outside the picture.  Also in the foreground is a corridor wall that leads out of the courtyard.

In the opposite corner of the tell (southeast) from the Late Bronze Age buildings massive walls dated to the Iron Age II period were found just below the surface.  In the upper left hand excavation square two round stone lined storage pits are visible.

Acknowledgments:

The field school is a joint project of the University of Arkansas and Yarmouk University. Funding and sponsorship are provided by the King Fahd Center for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies and the Anthropology Department of the University of Arkansas; and Yarmouk University and the Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology and its Anthropology, Archaeology and Epigraphy Departments.
The excavation was carried out with the ready support of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan and we are grateful to its Director General, Dr. Fawwaz Khraysheh. We also thank Mr. Nasser Khassawneh, head of the Department of Antiquities, Irbid Office, and our representatives Mr. Salameh Fayyad and Mrs. Woroud Samarah who faithfully attended us in the field. We thank the staff from both universities, our students and our workers whose efforts provided for our success in the field.

READ THE YA’AMUN 2002 REPORT

Visit the Ya’amun Field School Page