Neeley et al./Walking through Jordan, 10. The Iron Age Pottery from Burton MacDonald's Last Three Surveys

This paper attempts to outline the development of the Iron Age pottery in the highlands of Jordan south of the Wadi al-Ḥasa, the region often called “Edom” during the Iron Age. The corpus discussed here was gathered during the last three archaeological surveys conducted by Burton MacDonald in this region: The Tafila-Busayra Archaeological Survey (TBAS), the Ayl to Ras an-Naqab Archaeological Survey (ARNAS), and the Shammakh to Ayl Archaeological Survey (SAAS). Because ceramic styles were similar over large areas during Iron I and because there are no Iron I excavated sites in our area, parallels from territories north of the Ḥasa are used to help establish the assemblage of that period. Parallels from closer to home during the Iron II period are used, because of increasing territorialism in ceramic forms at that time. As a result, we are able to suggest broad lines of development for the Iron Age.