Umeiri, Tell El
1:
˓UMEIRI, TELL EL- (M.R. 234142). Neither the biblical nor ANE identification for this Transjordanian tell some 10 km S of Amman is yet known for sure. Ibach has suggested it to be the Amorite Heshbon (1978: 209–13; cf. Num 21:21–30) while Redford (1982: 66–70; cf. Judg 11:33) considers it to be biblical Abel-keramim. Geraty (1985: 87) has wondered if it might be one of the towns mentioned in Jer 48:21–25. Its linguistic root can be related to the meaning “to be plentiful, copious, abundant, abound (water); to overflow” (Geraty 1985: n. 6). If so, the name would obviously have reference to the tell’s spring, the only natural water source between Amman and Madaba.
The name ˓Umeiri actually applies to three tells roughly 250 m apart, now divided not only by a wadi but also the freeway from Amman to its international airport to the S. These tells lie on a major ancient N -S route at the point where the Madaba Plains join the Ammonite hill country. In fact Tell el-˓Umeiri (West) is the first fortifiable hill (with water) on this route N of the plains. The NE tell is the latest in terms of its occupation history: Islamic Period. The SE tell is smaller and earlier in terms of occupation: Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine Periods. The W tell is largest, approximately 16 acres in size and higher—ca. 900 m in elevation, some 60 m above the wadi. At its base is the major natural water source. The slopes of the tell incorporate several terraces but rise steeply on all sides except the W where the hill joins a ridge. Considerable evidence of architecture is to be seen on the site, especially on the summit. The summit, though irregular, is fairly flat. It drops off abruptly on all sides along a scarp which has proved to be the line of a defensive wall. Huge quantities of sherds can be found on the surface of the site. These range in date from Chalcolithic through the EB, MB, and LB (especially on the slopes) to Iron Ages I and II (primarily on the summit), and a very few Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine.
Andrews University initiated the excavation of Tell el-˓Umeiri in 1984 both as a successor to the excavation of Tell Hesban and as part of a more comprehensive Madaba Plains Project that has included the excavation of three other sites as well as a regional survey within some 5 km radius of the tell (designed in part to provide understanding of changes over time in the food system of the region). This was the first excavation of the tell though a few explorers and archaeologists had previously visited the region, notably Ibach (1978; 1987), Franken and Abujaber (1979), and Redford (1982). Successive seasons of excavation have taken place in 1987 and 1989.
The excavations at Tell el-˓Umeiri have taken place in seven Fields and have discovered stratified remains from EB III (ca. 2500 b.c.) to the Early Roman Period (ca. 1st century a.d.).
1. Early Bronze Age. The earliest remains found were on the S and N shelves of the mound and indicate that an EB town covered the complete site. The most extensive of these remains came from the S shelf (Field D) where three broad terraces organized roads and domestic dwellings. The most coherent of these remains came from the middle terrace where a street ca. 1.5 m wide separated two housing units, along one wall of which was a line of stones, perhaps intended to hold fodder for a tethered beast of burden. On the other side of the street three walled spaces produced significant remains with bins and a cobbled hearth suggesting food processing and perhaps animal sheltering. A large storeroom contained the remains of 28 storage vessels of various types, mostly jars. Protected by the debris from the superstructure of the house which fell on top of the jars during its destruction and preserved by the fire that ravaged the building, the vessels still contained carbonized seeds of the foods used by the ancient family that lived there. These included legumes (lentils and garbanzos), fruits (grapes and figs), and grains (wheat and barley). Two jugs may have contained oil. Many of the vessels were the bottoms of jars reused as large bowls; apparently nothing was discarded that had a use.
On the N slope (Field G), a “V”-shaped topographic feature suggested wall lines descending the slope but excavations uncovered no such feature. Instead an unstratified dump seemed to sit on top of EB tumble.
The EB Age was the age of urbanization when people first settled in large groups, many times with massive fortification walls surrounding the settlement. Tell el-˓Umeiri seems to represent a modest expression of this process. The housing complexes were made up of livingrooms, storerooms, courtyards, and animal shelters. Each complex was a series of structures built around courtyards, unlike the coherent, single-house structures of later periods. It is almost as if, in this early period of urbanization, people had simply moved their farms tightly together. No fortification wall for the town has been found as yet and, because the southernmost materials have been strongly eroded, it would appear that none existed on the S slope. However, the town was apparently well-planned with housing units separated by narrow, straight streets, and built on well organized terraces climbing up the slope of the hill. The finds suggest an orderly, neat, and efficient use of space and resources for a population that was perhaps the largest Tell el-˓Umeiri ever saw. All subsequent settlements were smaller in size.
2. Middle Bronze Age. The site seems to have been resettled toward the end of the MB Age. The inhabitants abandoned the S shelf and reduced the intensity of occupation on the N slope and E shelf. However, the excavations in Field B, on the W slope of the summit, have probed ca. 1 m into an earthen rampart containing a few potsherds from MB II. The top layer of the rampart sloped at ca. 30° and was made of beaten earth with a few thin lenses of crushed lime.
3. Late Bronze Age. The first earth layers from the LB were uncovered in 1989 at Tell el-˓Umeiri, in Field F, on the eastern shelf. Although no architectural remains could be isolated, the layers produced a Cypriot Base Ring sherd and a well-preserved Astarte fertility plaque common to the period.
4. Iron I Period. In 1989 it became clear that the casemate fortification system found previously in Field B on the W side of the summit was of Iron I date. Outside the casemate wall, an earthen rampart almost 2 m thick was constructed immediately on top of the MB rampart. The relationship of the layers in the rampart to the courses in the casemate outer wall, suggests that the rampart was to provide support against the weight of debris building up inside the wall. All three layers of the rampart produced Iron I pottery. At the bottom of the rampart a revetment wall supported the rampart where a dry moat plunged into bedrock ca. 4 m. The rock and clay that was excavated from the dry moat went to lay the first layer of the rampart. The W slope was the most vulnerable to attack and the occupants of the site apparently wanted a strong fortification system—perhaps the first so far found in Palestine that included a casemate wall, a rampart, and a dry moat.
Excavations inside the casemate room and further inside the town revealed a deep destruction layer ca. 2 m thick which marked the end of Iron I in this field. The destruction layer consisted primarily of burned mudbricks and stones, but also included burned wooden roofing beams. The fire was so hot that it turned some of the wall stones to lime. Beneath the destruction debris in the casemate room were smashed storage jars, most of which had collared rims, typical of Iron I throughout Palestine. Several of these large jars contained the same potter’s mark on the handles, but none sported precisely the same type of collar.
Over this destruction the remains of an early Iron II storeroom were found. In Fields A and F an ash layer provided the stratigraphic boundary between Iron I and Iron II as well. It would thus seem that the destruction which ended Iron I at Tell el-˓Umeiri was sitewide. Is it possible that this destruction was caused by the army of King David attacking the Ammonites? Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah the Hittite, was killed at the walls of nearby Rabbath-ammon when David conquered that city (2 Sam 11). Could ˓Umeiri, probably one of the Ammonite border towns, have been destroyed during this same campaign? Although the pottery in the casemate room would seem to be somewhat earlier than the early 10th century b.c., when David lived, it is possible that such large storejars lasted for long periods of time.
5. Iron II and Early Persian Periods. Field A (at the W end of the summit) produced extensive remains from at least two phases stretching from the Late Iron II period into the beginning of the Persian Period. Three large buildings dominated the excavated area during the earliest phase. Only two or three rooms of a large building with very thick walls have been found in the S, but the central building has been completely exposed. It consisted of four rooms—three long rooms abutting a broad room, a style typical in W Palestine, but now found more frequently in Transjordan as Iron Age sites are excavated. The third building (on the N) was oriented at a right angle to the four-room house and included a broad room with at least five long rooms abutting it. One of the rooms was formed with a row of pillars. This third house had doorways connecting all the rooms. It appears that at least the first two buildings were basement structures, that is, the walls were built into a large pit dug for the whole structure. No individual foundation trenches were found for any wall and immediately outside the buildings Iron I layers were found. Surfaces were found only in the N building where a typical domestic repertoire of objects, such as grinding tools, was found. However, the thick walls, the basements, and the large size of the two S buildings suggest they were used for non-domestic, administrative activities. Perhaps they should be connected with the royal seal found in this area in 1984.
On a ceramic cone found in the sift from soil near the mound’s surface was a seal impression depicting a winged scarab flanked by two standards surmounted by sun discs and crescent moons and the Ammonite letters: lmlkm-˒wr ˓bd b˓l-ys˓ (“belonging to Mikom-˒ur, servant of Ba˓al-yasha˓”The design is typical of the 7th/6th century b.c. (Younker 1985) and the script dates to ca. 600 b.c. (Herr 1985: 172). Both of the personal names in the inscription constitute “firsts” in biblical archaeology. The name of the owner, Milkom-˒ur, is the first known occurrence of the well-known Ammonite divine name Milkom as one of the elements in an Ammonite proper name. Obviously, the person with this name was a prominent government official, because in these Iron Age seals, the name which follows the one identified as “servant of” is invariably royal. In this inscription, the royal name, too, is a “first”: Ba˓al-yasha˓ is the first extra-biblical confirmation of the Ammonite king BAALIS mentioned in Jer 40:14. The slight difference in spelling between Jeremiah and the seal impression can be explained linguistically (Geraty 1985: 100; Herr 1985: 172).
Other important inscriptional finds from the Iron Age include a seal impression of Thutmose III found on an Iron I jar handle (Redford 1990); an early 6th century b.c. seal reading lsm˓z, “belonging to Shem˓az”(Geraty, Herr, LaBianca 1988: 250); an early 7th century b.c. scaraboid seal inscribed on both sides with the name of the owner, l˒l˒ms bn tmk˒l, “belonging to ˒El˒amas son of Tamak˒el”; and two seal impressions from different jar handles but apparently made by the same seal, reading, lb˒r˓mn, “belonging to Be˒er˓ammon,” where it is likely that the national name ˓Ammon was used as the theophoric element.
Other major structures from Iron II were found in Field F on the eastern shelf. Three parallel walls may have made up a small gate structure with a narrow passageway between the eastern two walls. A later phase of structures was built over the walls of Field A, seemingly ignoring the earlier walls completely. Unfortunately, the surfaces that went with these walls have been destroyed by agricultural activities on top of the mound in the Middle Ages, but the pottery associated with them was Early Persian.
6. Early Roman Period. A small plastered pool or ritual bath with steps was excavated at the N edge of Field A. If there were associated structures, these were destroyed in subsequent use of the tell summit. The pool was dated by two Early Roman sherds which were found in the foundation of the structure which otherwise exhibited only Persian pottery.
7. Middle Ages. Because the pool mentioned above is normally subterranean and no associated buildings or pottery of the Roman Period were found anywhere in the immediate region, it appears that the Roman buildings have disappeared and that the present day surface of the mound has been lowered considerably since Roman times. It may be suggested that agricultural activity combined with wind erosion has lowered the top of the tell by as much as a meter. This may account for the large quantities of pottery and objects found in topsoil in Field A—wind erosion removed the soil but left stones, pottery and objects. Farmers removed the stones to the many large rock mounds scattered over the site.
8. Water Source. An important water source for the whole region lies at the base of the tell to the N. The Madaba Plains Project is attempting to date the construction associated with this source in Field E. So far it has been found that earth layers from Iron I were cut by a plaster and cobble installation built during Iron II times. The Iron II remains were, in turn, cut by an Early Roman plastered channel. Then, during Byzantine times, all structures were cut by a deep foundation pit for a tunnel leading to the well house.
Bibliography
Franken, H. J., and Abujaber, R. S. 1979. Yadoudeh: The History of a Land. Amman.
Geraty, L. T. 1985. The Andrews University Madaba Plains Project: A Preliminary Report on the First Season at Tell el-˓Umeiri (June 18 to August 8, 1984). AUSS 23: 85–110.
Geraty, L. T. et al. 1989. Madaba Plains Project, 1. Berrien Springs, MI.
———. 1990. Madaba Plains Project, 2. Berrien Springs, MI.
Geraty, L. T.; Herr, L. G.; and LaBianca, Ø. S. 1988. The Joint Madaba Plains Project: A Preliminary Report on the Second Season at Tell el-˓Umeiri and Vicinity (June 18 to August 6, 1987). AUSS 26: 217–52.
Herr, L. G. 1985. The Servant of Baalis. BA 48: 169–72.
Ibach, R. D., Jr. 1978. Expanded Archaeological Survey of the Hesban Region. AUSS 16: 201–13.
———. 1987. Hesban 5. Berrien Springs, MI.
Redford, D. B. 1982. A Bronze Age Itinerary in Transjordan. JSSEA 12: 55–74.
———. 1990. The Scarab Seat Impression of Tutmoses III. In Geraty et al. 1990.
Younker, R. W. 1985. Israel, Judah, and Ammon and the Motifs on the Baalis Seal from Tell el-˓Umeiri. BA 48: 173–80.
Lawrence T. Geraty
Larry G. Herr
Freedman, D. N. (1996, c1992). The Anchor Bible Dictionary (6:722). New York: Doubleday.
