Narrating Archaeological Sites and Places

Forthcoming Summer, 2025

In celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Madaba Plains Project, this volume reflects on the decades of archaeological fieldwork experience at Tall Hisban, Tall al-Umayri and Tall Jalul. In addition to lessons learned and issues addressed, the volume presents the backstories that represent the heart and soul of the MPP, focusing on those that illuminate the efforts to interpret and narrate these archaeological sites. Founding directors, co-directors, and a selection of the core staff and veterans explain the trajectory of their efforts to understand and narrate the place where they have been working by discussing their professional ties, sources of inspiration, personal aspirations and ambitions, regrets and triumphs, accumulative understandings, and remaining questions. They then offer reflective accounts of how their long-term interactions with the local communities have not only helped to build bridges of friendship and cooperation, but shape and inform their understanding of the goals and limitations of their scientific mission and future potential.

Hisban,Umayri and Jalul the three archaeological sites currently being excavated by the Madaba Plains Project are located to the east of the Jordan River in the fertile highlands overlooking the Dead Sea. The region, home to various people groups for millennia, was rich in agricultural capacity. Major settlements occupied Umayri and Jalul in the Bronze Ages, including a massive defense system atUmayri in 1600 BC which reflects the need to protect people and property. An `Umayri temple from 1400 BC signals the importance of religion to the ancients. The Iron Ages (1200-500 BC), extremely well represented at all three sites by architecture and other material cultural remains, saw tribal groups settling down and the rise of small kingdoms, known in the Bible as Ammonites and Moabites. Hisban revealed remains from later periods including temples and reservoirs from Greek and Roman times; mosaic floors and church architecture from the Byzantine period of the sixth and seventh centuries; rich building remains from the Middle Islamic period, especially Mamluk times in the 12th and 13th centuries AD; and structures and artifacts from the Late Islamic periods.