Histria antiqua, Vol. 20 No. 20, 2011.
Professional paper
A Four-room House in Tell al Umayri: An Example of a Dwelling in the Levant in the Iron Age
Eva Katarina Glazer
; Hrvatski studiji Sveučilišta u Zagrebu Borongajska cesta 83d HR - 10000 Zagreb
Abstract
Tell Al Umayri is an archaeological site in central Jordan, near the capital city of Amman. The site has been researched since 1984, and 22 observed layers corroborate the fact that the site was inhabited from the Chalcolithic to the Islamic periods. The thirteen seasons of investigation undertaken so far indicate that the two main dwelling periods occurred in the Bronze Age and in the early Iron Age. According to current information, the settlement dated in 2500 BC is the largest settlement from that time that has been discovered in Jordan, although the settlement did not have the fortification system at that point in history. In the middle of the Bronze Age, the inhabitants built a massive fortification system. In addition, there are numerous finds dated in the late Bronze Age, which is exceptional for this area. At the beginning of the Iron Age, somewhere around 1150 BC, the inhabitants of Umayri reconstructed their town, which had been destroyed in an earthquake. In this regard, layer 12 is precisely the layer in which the remains of a four-room house have been discovered. This family house marked the lifestyle of the Levant in the Iron Age. It has been observed that the very ideas behind the dwelling and the lifestyle of today’s families in the area have very deep historical roots. The house in question is extremely important because it is regarded as the first such house, or more precisely, the oldest such house so far discovered. It is also the best preserved fourroom house observed in the South Levant. Consequently, it is crucial that its remains and reconstruction phases be studied, because they hold the keys not only to a better understanding of the family lifestyle, culture of living, civilization and society of the inhabitants who lived in Umayri in the Iron Age, but also give a clue to the dwelling tradition and the way of building houses which have survived and can still be observed, and which explain many aspects of the culture and civilisation of today’s inhabitants of the Middle East.
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Hrčak ID:
79753
URI
Publication date:
1.10.2011.
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