Conceptualizing Bronze Age Seascapes
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Book Series
LEMA, vol. 3
Jebel al-Mutawwaq
A Fourth Millennium BCE Village and Dolmen Field. Six Years of Spanish–Italian Excavations (2012–2018)
Andrea Polcaro, Juan Ramon Muniz, Alessandra Caselli (eds)
- Pages: approx. 200 p.
- Size:216 x 280 mm
- Illustrations:140 b/w, 8 col., 52 tables b/w., 2 maps b/w
- Language(s):English
- Publication Year:2024
- € 95,00 EXCL. VAT RETAIL PRICE
- ISBN: 978-2-503-60939-3
- Paperback
- Forthcoming (Apr/24)
- € 95,00 EXCL. VAT RETAIL PRICE
- ISBN: 978-2-503-60940-9
- E-book
- Forthcoming
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A new analysis of a crucial period in history, tracing the birth of the first urbanized cultures of the Southern Levant during the fourth millennium BCE.
Subject(s)
BIO
The editors of the volume are the co-directors and the vice-director of the Spanish-Italian Archaeological Expedition to Jebel al-Mutawwaq, since 2012.
Andrea Polcaro, MA, PhD, is Associate Professor in Near Eastern Archaeology at Perugia University, Italy.
Juan Ramon Muniz, MA, is researcher at Pontificia Facultad San Esteban of Salamanca, Spain, working at the site with prof. Fernandez-Tresguerres since 1998.
Alessandra Caselli, MA, PhD, is a research fellow in Near Eastern Archaeology at Perugia University, Italy.
Collaborators of the expedition will also participate to the volume.
Summary
The Early Bronze Age site of Jebel al-Mutawwaq, located on a hill overlooking the Zarqa River in Jordan, was a thriving centre of population from the second half of the fourth millennium into the third millennium BCE. During this time, the settlement developed both in population and social complexity, undergoing the beginnings of an urbanization process that fundamentally changed the relationship between this community of the Transjordanian Highlands with the surrounding landscape, until it was completely abandoned around 2900 BCE. This volume offers a new assessment of the site by combining data from the first surveys of the site, under a Spanish team led by J. A. Fernandez- Tresguerres, with the new results from six seasons of excavations led by teams from Perugia in Italy, and San Esteban in Spain. In doing so, this work sheds new light on this walled settlement and its huge megalithic necropolises, and offers a fresh understanding of the site.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Illustrations
An Introduction to the Volume
Andrea Polcaro and Juan J.R. Muniz
Chapter 1. Jebel al-Mutawwaq. History of Investigations
Juan Ramon Muniz
Chapter 2. The Historical Framework. The EB I in Jordan
Andrea Polcaro
Chapter 3. The Site of Jebel al-Mutawwaq. Architecture, Settlement Planning and Space Organization
Andrea Polcaro and Juan Ramon Muniz
Chapter 4. The Pottery. Function and Typologies
E. Casadei and J. Del Rio
Chapter 5. The Lithics. Function and Typologies
A. Caselli
Chapter 6. Biomolecular Archaeology. Preliminary DNA Analysis of Skeletal Remains from Jebel al-Mutawwaq
C. Panicucci, S. Silvestrini, G. Gruppioni, D. Luiselli, E. Cilli, and P. Serventi
Chapter 7. The Development of Olive Growing at the Jebel al-Mutawwaq Site. Preliminary Data
A. D’Auria and G. Di Pasquale
Chapter 8. Conclusions. The Importance of the Jebel al-Mutawwaq Settlement at the Beginning of the First Urbanization in the Southern Levant
Andrea Polcaro
Works cited
