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FOUR SEASONS OF EXCAVATIONS AT KHIRBAT AL-MUDAYNAON WADI ATH-THAMAD, 1996-1999 byRobert Chadwick, P. M. Michele Daviau and Margreet Steiner Introduction WBdi ath-Thamad is the designation of theeastern end of WBdi Heidan that flows southinto W2dI al-Majib. A major river system incentral Jordan, W2dl ath-Thamad is borderedby a number of interesting talls, none ofwhich have not been explored since the timeof Glueck (in 1933 and 1938; 1934: 13-32).On the south bank are ar-Rumayl and Khir-bat al-Mudayna (=Khirbet el-Medeiyineh,Glueck Site 68), while on the north, are Khir-bat al-Heri and two fortresses called Qasr az- Zafaran (Fig. 1; Abel 1967: 11, 38; Glueck1934: PI. 5). The site of Khirbat al-Mudaynais located to the south of a loop of Wid1 ath-Thamad, southeast of MBdabB and northeastof DhibBn. Its position on the PalestinianGrid is 236.2 east11 10.9 north. The site is reg-istered in JADIS as site 231 1.014, with amaximum height of 629 m asl.The Wadi ath-Thamad Project began in1995 with a four day surface survey of Khir-bat al-Mudayna.1 The tall itself is oval,measuring 85 x 140 m inside a casematewall system that is visible on the surfaceabove an earthen embankment.2 Known forits Moabite style pottery and figurines whichwere reported by Glueck (1934), Khirbat al- I. Map of Wiidi ath-Thamad region 1. This mound is the northernmost of six sites with 2. The initial topographical map was prepared by R. the same name (Miller 1989). Force, Land Surveyor, Oakville, ON, Canada. ADAJ XLIV (2000)Mudayna is a major Iron Age site in the re-gion that had not been previously excavated.With this information, an excavation andsurvey project was designed to investigatethe distribution of Iron Age sites and situateKhirbat al-Mudayna in its regional context.3This report presents the results of four sea-sons of excavation of Iron Age remains onthe tall;4 a preliminary report of the regionalsurvey is in press (Daviau, in pressla, Ib). The North Gate Complex 5 Introduction Excavation began at the north end of themound where three walls, visible at groundlevel, suggested the presence of a monu-mental structure. During the first two fieldseasons, all six rooms of a large (15.80 x 16.35 m) gate were uncovered (B100; Da-viau 1997). Excavation reached foundationlevel in four of the six rooms, while the re-maining two rooms were completely ex-posed during the 1999 season (Fig. 2). In 1998, all excavation concentrated on thestreet running through the centre of the gatecomplex, including the north entrance. Thestrategy for 1999 was to completely exposethe central street and to locate an outer road-way that connected the gate to the sur-rounding plain, 25.00 m below. Tlze 1 996 Season Excavation began in a north-south trench in Field A (Squares A 13-A20; Fig. 2), whichcontained the foundation of a tower (1013), afront bastion (B 1000), and the three easterngate rooms (R101-R103). Tower 1013, anearly square structure (4.00 x 4.20 x 4.20 x 4.30 m), was attached to the north face ofBastion 1000 by a short wall, 1.60 m long.Because the slope of the mound increases in this area from 5" to 20°, Tower I01 3 was con-structed on a stone foundation that appears asa series of stepped, quarter circles whichserved as fill to compensate for the changinglevel of the underlying bedrock. Collapsedmud brick on the north and east sides of thetower suggests a brick superstructure.hBastion 1000 and north pier Wall 1001were integrated into a single, massive, stoneunit 3.65 m thick.' The four principal (pier)walls (W 100 , 1003, 1004, W 1005) of theeastern gate rooms, as well as Bastion 1000and Tower 101 3, were all formed of small tolarge, unhewn limestone boulders, meas-uring on average 0.40-0.60 m, that were drylaid in boulder-and-chink style. The cornersof the pier walls were formed of large (0.50-0.75 cm) semi-hewn cherty limestone boul-ders, with a few large boulders up to 1.40 min length. These pier walls measured 1.50-1.65 m thick, and were bonded to the backwalls of the gate rooms (W 1002, W 1010).Of special interest was the presence of Wall1006, only 0.50-0.70 m thick, that closedRoom 103 on the west, with only a smalldoorway into the street that was capped by astone lintel. Here the walls were well pre-served up to the second storey leveLx All 3. Preliminary studies of the settlement patterns inWadi ath-Thamad were presented at the 1st Inter-national Congress on the Archaeology of the An-cient Near East, Rome (May 19-22, 1998; Daviau,in presstb) and at the First International Confer-ence of Studies on the Nabataeans, Petra (June 2 1 - 23. 1999; Daviau. in pressfa). 4. A report of the excavations of Nabataeanlearly Ro-man period remains at the foot of the tall are re-ported elsewhere. 5. Funding for excavation of the gate and fortifica-tion system was provided by Wilfrid Laurier Uni-versity in the form of annual short term grants andstudent training funds. 6. The presence of building stones with Iron Agechisel marks in the Nabntaean buildings at the footof the tall indicates extensive stone robbing. As aresult, the srcinal extent of the stone constructionin Tower 10 13 cannot be determined. 7. The Bastion actually begins 1.60 m east of thewest end of Pier Wall 1001, forming an inset alongthe north face of W 1001. Bastion 1500 on the westis similar in size and construction. 8. The topography of the mound is such that the eastend of each gate room was close to the eastern edgeof the tall. Both the back walls of the gate and thecasemate walls suffered severely from collapse anderosion, due to their position on the slope. ADAJ XLIV (2000)the interior wall faces of Room 103 wereplastered with yellow plaster (10 YR 8/2),containing organic inclusions.Although only one of the three easternchambers (R 103) was excavated belowfloor level during the 1996 season, it wasclear that all three rooms contained sub-stantial quantities of fallen ceiling material,wall plaster, calcined wall stones, andcharred beams (of olive, carob, and possiblycarob; personal communication, Dr J. Han-sen, July 1996), indicating severe burning.The most interesting find from room R103was a large limestone basin (MT 160), 1.60m long by 0.70 m wide. Wooden beams andceiling material found both above and be-low the basin indicate that it fell from thesecond floor.Along the east side of Gate 100, the outercasemate fortification wall (W2001) wasbonded with the northeast comer of Bastion1000, at the point where the wall turnssharply to the south. During the 1997 sea-son, a similar casemate wall system was lo-cated on the west side, although here OuterWall 15 14 abuts the western face of Bastion1500, and Inner Casemate Wall 15 13 abutsnorth-south gate Wall 1502. The 1997 Season The strategy for the 1997 season was toexcavate Bastion 1500 and the three westernrooms (R151-153) of Gate 100. Here, themajor pier walls (W 1501, W 1503, W 1504,W 1505) were footed on bedrock. Wherebedrock was not level, cobblestones andsmall boulders were used to fill the de-pressions and create solid foundations. Thenarrow (0.80-0.85 m wide), eastern walls ofRooms 15 1 and 152 were constructed ofsmall (0.25-0.50 m) boulders and cobblesize chink stones. These wall units flankednarrow (0.65-0.75 m) doorways (G and J)the same type of yellow plaster (10 YR 812) found in Room 103 on the east. In Room15 I, there was a limestone basin (1.26 mlong, 1 .OOm wide, and 0.45-0.58 m deep) in the upper storey collapse, along with unfiredclay loom weights.Within Room 152, the pattern of collapsewas similar, consisting of tumbled wallstones from the first and second storeys,hardened mud roofing material, chunks ofyellow and red wall plaster, charred beamsand ash pockets, all of which attest to in- tensive fire damage in the room. Charred re-mains of a woven mat were found scatteredacross a yellow sand floor (C96: 30) withconcentrations along the base of the walland in the corners (Fig. 3), indicating thatthe mat had been made specifically to fit theinterior dimensions of the room. The charredfragments retained the pattern of weaving.Enough organic material was recovered toobtain C14 samples which gave a date ofthat led out into the central street. A layer ofhard plaster floor surface extended acrossmost of Room 15 1 and into the opening ofDoorway G. The interior walls had traces of 3. Pieccs of woven mat from Room 152. .Sa'A-MJs 3 8 au [ J v O a y . J 'A0 ! UOO8 8 W~a UO '6 payT W %qp-yp(deM aa I pa -auypL-sMlS11a J u-O8-1sM -aa O - L aaMja1 L paMca'a -M U wMa-MeM1~ apa- 1 xp I ap x u a u m1aML~ '~31 ~ ~ 'y1~lM? Sp-ea W 4-p- u uasa P ppau 0 O 8 8 -p WM %ausx U U ' 'quSes-Mj P y~u1ql( : 1- O M-ppaapap0 uM 1 S 1 MPMsMM~yapy ' N L p'1M U 7 pU O S 1 M I ' I pS 1 SCM.Mxmq~a u jaMMs ' ap M uLa£uu1a uaLs 63 0( A r
