-  1INTRODUCTION

The site of Tell al-Mashhad (Jordan) (fgs. 1-3) lies in the Mount Nebo region, not far from the town of Madaba. It is in the vicinity of a perennial spring (‘Ayun Musa; fg. 4) giving it a great importance since prehistory (fg.14). The site was visited for the first time by the american archaeologist Nelson Glueck (fg. 5), the father of the transjordanian archaeology, who collected, in 1932, many potsherds and fragments of small clay figurines, dated to the Iron Age II (c.a. 900-600 b. C.; fg. 7. The fragment of another female figurines was found by the german scholar H. Henke in 1958.
The last systematic reconnaissance at Tell al-Mashhad was carried out in 1995 within the framework of the "Mount Nebo Survey, organized by the Danish Palestine Foundation led by Prof. P. Mortensen, with the participation of the present author. On that occasion the presence was detected of several outcropping masonry structures on the hillside south of the squared fortress at the top of the hill (fgs. 8-13), and the main period of occupation of the site was identified as Iron II (ca. between 900 and 600 B.C.).
Tell al-Mashhad can be identified with the ancient city of Bet-Peor (occasionally referred to as Baal-Peor), mentioned in several Old Testament passages (Nm. 25,3.5; Dt. 3,29; Dt. 4,3.46; Dt. 34,6; Gs. 13,20; Psalms 106,28; Os 9,10) and in the Onomasticon of Eusebius; not far from this city, according to the biblical account, Moses was buried when he died after contemplating the Promised Land from the peak of Pisga (the present-day peak of Siyagha, on the nearby Mount Nebo).
 

  2IRON AGE IN TRANSJORDAN AND IN THE TELL AL-MASHHAD REGION

Iron Age in the Near East covers a very long period included between 1200 b. C. (when several nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes started to sedentarize, new peoples arrived from outside and new kingdoms, tribally based, emerged: it’s the case, in Transjordan, of the kingdoms of ‘Ammon, Moab and Edom) and 586 b. C. (when the whole region became part of the Babylonian empire).
The site of Tell al-Mashhad absumes, since the Early Iron Age, a very important role, because of its strategic position, in a very fertile and rich of water region, and not far from the boundary of the Ammonite (fg. 6) and Moabite kingdoms, to be situated between the modern villages of Madaba and Hesban, the ancient Heshbon of the Old Testament. Probably, Tell al-Mashhad was ruled alternatively by Moabites (in the second half of the IX century b. C. the famous Mesha Stone referred that the king Mesha of Moab ruled over the town of Madaba and Nebo –probably Khirbet al-Mukhayyat, very close to tell al-Mashhad-) and Ammonites (the Ammonite inscriptions from Tell Hesban are dated between VIII and VI centuries B.C.).
 

   GEOPHYSICAL INVESTIGATIONS

A geophysical prospecting campaign, directed by Dr. Paola Conti (Fondazione “Ing. C. M. Lerici”) has been carried out in the season 2000 with the aim of both giving further information about the site and possibly giving some indications for the purpose of planning the future seasons of excavations.
Three areas were chosen for prospecting, denoted as A, B, and C; areas A and C were chosen for the existence of stone structure traces in the surface, possibly related to archaeological remains. Both of them are inside the site defined by field survey. Area B was chosen because it consists in a large, flat area in a predominant position immediately behind the squared structure on the top of the hill.
Since the soil is characterized by sand and limes with frequent limestone stones, it was decided to use geoelectric and georadar methods.
In area A (fgs. 1 e 2), a 30x40 meter surface, the north-east area and a western sector are characterized by high resistivity values, due to the almost total lack of soil: in fact, at the edge of the investigated area, limestone outcrops begin. Values decrease along a long strip with approximate north-south direction, where at least one meter of soil above the limestone is likely to be found. Inside this area some evident discontinuities are detectable (fg. 1). Considering the shape, the clear change in resistivity values and their direction, perpendicular to the slope, like excavated structures, it is reasonable to hypothesise that these anomalies are due to buried masonry structures. In the eastern area it is more difficult to interpret the results, because of the high resistivity that characterizes all this sector: in this case possible anomalies connected with stone structures are much less evident.
Also area B was investigated both with geoelectric and with georadar method (fgs. 3 – 5). In this case the effect of the geological setting is particularly clear, as values decrease moving from west (where, immediately behind the surveyed area, limestone outcrops are present) to east. It was possible to detect this bedrock trend also through georadar profiles, that becomes deeper eastward.The clearest anomaly is a possible rectangular shaped stone structure, buried in the south-western sector, about 5x7 metres.
In area C, at the border of the archaeological site, only geoelectric prospecting (fg. 6) was carried out, as the strong slope and the frequent stones on the surface made georadar prospecting more complicated.
Also in this case some possible archaeological features have been detected, while alignments of surface stones don’t seem to continue below the surface.
 

  4EXCAVATIONS

The excavation activities were concentrated on a series of rooms identified in the southern area of the site.
The most significant structure in the area is a massive wall preserved for a length of about 20 metres and emerging from the ground to a height of at least 1.5 m. It runs in an E-W direction and is built of large, roughly-dressed dry-laid stones. On the south side it supports the walls of at least three rooms (fgs. 1 e 2).
The rooms reveal two different occupational phases.
The earliest phase was characterized by a yellowish coloured beaten silt/clay floor about 20/30 centimetres thick laid over rubble foundation to even out the roughness of the original ground (fg. 2).
The upper level had a friable consistency and was grey/black in colour, owing to the presence of traces of ash. Its average thickness was about 60 centimetres (fg. 1).
Room 1 (about 6x3 metres in size) had a square fire-place in the north-west corner (fg. 1, red area), near which, along the north wall, the remains of an charred oval olive wood container some 25 centimetres in diameter were found (fg. 3). The latter contained the remains of a large amount of charred cereals, above all, barley. On the eastern side of the room there were several pseudo-circular structures made of medium and large size stone, identified as silos (fg. 1, violet area, nr. 1-6 and fg. 5), in which ovoidal shaped jar, were placed. In silo 3, near the north wall, there was a jar containing the remains of many leguminous seeds (fg. 4).
In room 2, the same floor was associated with the presence of at least three fire-places (fg. 1, red area).
Also room 2 contained food vases, some of which in situ, although in a fragmentary state. There were at least two kraters, one of which had a large mouth (about 50 centimetres in diameter) with a large number of vertical handles, certainly not less than 8.
However, in this room, the most significant finds consist of a lamp of a still unknown type and a fragment of vertical handle with inscription (fg. 6).
If rooms 1 and 2 revealed the presence of a very important occupation, room 3 (fg. 7) had not great traces of a human occupation. Pavements and fixed structures, like fire-places, were completely absent; a possible fire-place was probably in the north-eastern corner, but it should have been used very occasionally.
The very scarce pottery collected is datable to the latest phase of Iron Age II. The most interesting object was a small carinated bowl (fg. 8), found in fragments at the bottom of the northern wall. This typology is very well represented also in the pottery from the rooms 1 and 2.
On the basis of the total number of finds made, the way the two rooms were used in this phase may be determined fairly accurately: the presence of the silos containing jars and the wooden vessel containing barley indicates that room 1 was in all likelihood used mainly as a food store; room 2, on the other hand, owing to the presence of a large number of fire-places, may be identified as a kitchen.
 

THE FORTRESS

The remains of a large structure, almost squared in shape (fg. 1), are visible on the top of Tell al-Mashhad. This building should probably be extremely important in the frame of the village activities, because of its preminent position, dominating the first sector of the ‘Ayun Musa valley, starting just from the perennial spring. Moreover, from its top, it’s possible to have a beautiful view of the Jordan Valley.
Such a building has been object of a preliminary architectonical survey during the 2003 campaign (directed by Francesco M Benedettucci, with the partecipation of Andrea Schiappelli, Fiammetta Sforza, Giovanna Verde and Dario Scarpati), a very difficult work, because of the presence of a large amount of collapsed stones. The building shows an almost squared plan, whose side is about 20 meters, and with the highly possible presence of bastions at the corners. It’s possible to recognize the remains of one of these bastions at the south-eastern corner.On the contrary, it’s not possible, until now, recognize the presence of a central courtyard, as one can expect. The walls of the fortress are very well preserved; they’re made of large stones, roughly squared, but still in situ for non less than four lines on the northern site (extimated height of North wall: 2.20 m.). In any case, the buiding shows great similarities, in the plan, with the very well known typology of the “Hofbau”, with a large diffusion, for several purposes, in the entire Palestinian region. Exemples of such a type are the famous Late Bronze Age temple of the old Amman airport, or the residential buildings discovered in the sites of Tell es-Sa’idiyeh and Tell al-Mazar, both in the Jordan Valley, and the al-Mabrak edifice, probably connected with agricultural purposes. In the vicinity of Tell al-Mashhad, the most similar edifice is the Rujm al-Mukhayyat fortress (fg. 2), dominating the Wadi al-‘Afrit, just in front of Khirbet el-Mukhayyat; in this case, however, is visible the presence of a squared courtyard and several rooms surrounding it.
 

6

POTTERY

The pottery from Tell al-Mashhad is mainly dated to the end of the Iron Age (Iron Age IIc: c.a. 722-586 B.C.), when the region was dominated by the Assyrians and the Babylonians. The products are usually not very precious, without large traces of decorations (paint, slip, burnish).
The most important types are the small carinated bowls (fg. 1:1-4), whose diameter is usually 10-12 cm. This type has a large diffusion after the Assyrians arrival.
Very important are also the “ridged neck jars” (fg. 1:6-9); this type appears immediately after the start of Iron Age.
The most important object is the lamp (fg. 2) from room 2; it has three peculiar vertical elements in the tub, the purpose of which is uncertain. This characteristic finds no parallel in the Syro-Palestinian production of the Iron Age and makes the object particularly precious as it belongs to a completely new typology.
 

7

INSCRIPTIONS

During the 1999 campaign two very important inscriptions were founded.
The handle fragment found in room 2 and belonging to a krater or jar bears the inscription "SMN" ("oil"; fg. 3), incised in the still soft clay, before the vase was fired. The preliminary palaeographic study dated the object to the period between the late 7th and early 6th century B.C.. In particular, the three letters show palaeographic similarities not only with the epigraphs on several Moabite and Ammonite seals but also with some contemporary Phoenician and Aramaic inscriptions. In particular, the most probable dating seems to be the early 6th century B.C., when the influence of Aramaic cursive script was predominant. The practice of writing on a vase the name of a product contained in it was apparently quite frequent in Syria-Palestine. Evidence of this is found on several fragments from Tell Keisan and, more recently, from Beirut, on which the same word "SMN" appears. The only difference is, however, that of the known specimens on which the inscriptions were painted on the kiln-fired vase, the handle fragment from Tell al-Mashhad seems to be the only one in which this was done before baking. This is the first certain evidence in the region of the existence of several pottery types specifically designed for the conservation of a given product.
The ostracon was found on the tell surface. In this case, it’s possible to read the letters “LPN...” (fg. 4), but appears very difficult to give a meaning at this word.
 

8

 ARCHAEOBOTANICAL REMAINS

Several charred grain and legume specimens, as well as charcoal from the wooden container in which the remains of these grains were conserved, all of which were found in the upper level of room 1, were subjected to a battery of preliminary tests.
In particular, the wood charcoal specimens were subjected to a type of analysis that, by using effective identification methods (microscopic examination of cross, tangential and longitudinal sections of the finds) yields an overall picture of the vegetation of a given environment of archaeological interest and highlights the type of selection of tree species made by man. The remains analysed were found to belong to olive tree wood (Olea europaea), which presumably indicates the presence of olive growing in the Tell al-Mashhad region. In this period, the whole Near East region underwent intensive deforestation; it is thus likely that the branches pruned from the cultivated trees were used as firewood, or to make charcoal and tools. The practice of tree cultivation may be assumed from the exceptional relative abundance of fruit trees found on the archaeological site between the Iron Age and the classical periods. The massive use of pruning residues as firewood is a strong indication of the gradual decrease in the forest areas due to the need for farmland and the exploitation of timber. In the course of time, therefore, the landscape became more open and more permanently determined.
Seed remains were subjected to carpological analysis. Two particularly abundant species were identified, Hordeum vulgare (4-6 rowed unhusked barley; fg. 5), in the sub-sample of which caryopses of one-seeded grain, probably Triticum aestivum/durum, Hordeum distichum (two-rowed barley) and an oat grain (the latter two may be considered as weeds vis-a-vis barley), and Lens culinaris (lentil; fg. 6), the sub-sample of which contained several seeds of a weed of the Galium aparine type, which could provide interesting data concerning the cultivation of leguminous crops around Tell al-Mashhad. Also of interest is the practice of food conservation, particularly in the case of barley, the seeds of which were enveloped in their gluma at the time of charring.