Tall Zira'a

The Tall Zirāʿa in spring 2010

Coordinates: 32 ° 37 ′ 15 ″  N , 35 ° 39 ′ 22 ″  E

Tall Zira'a​

Jordan

The Tall Zirāʿa (تل زرعة / Tall Zarʿa ; Tell Zerāʿa in the Jordanian-Arabic dialect; German about " hill of agriculture ") is an important historical settlement in the north of Jordan at the border triangle with Syria and Israel . The hill has been inhabited again and again for over 5000 years, with layers of culture up to 16 meters high. Since 2001, the history of the Tall and the region has been archaeologically researched as part of the Gadara Region Project .

topography

The Wadi el-ʿArab with the Tall Zirāʿa 2007

The Tall Zirāʿa is located in northern Jordan about 20 km northwest of the city of Irbid and 10 km southeast of the Sea of ​​Galilee . In the Bronze and Iron Ages, the settlement mound had an economically favorable location in the Wadi el-ʿArab , which stretches from the heights of the East Bank to the Jordan . As part of an old trade route from Egypt to Mesopotamia , its comfortable ascent made it possible to overcome the height difference from 290 meters below sea level in the Jordan Valley to 550 meters above sea ​​level in the East Jordanian highlands. The region was populated from the Paleolithic to the Islamic period . More than a hundred sites (canals, water mills, cisterns , oil presses , wine presses , watchtowers, tombs and settlements) bear witness to this.

The Tall is an almost circular settlement hill with a diameter of around 240 meters at its base and around 160 meters on its plateau. Its surface is 17 meters below sea level. It rises (depending on the direction of the compass 22 to 45 meters) over the surrounding landscape and dominates the entire rugged valley of the Wadi el-ʿArab at the confluence of the neighboring Wadi ez-Zaḥar. There is an artesian spring in the center of the hill . This provided a particularly good prerequisite for a settlement early on and in the long term.

Surname

In the recent past, the Tall Zirāʿa was only used for agriculture, from which it got its name: zaraʿa means sowing, cultivating, planting, Tall Zirāʿa means hill of agriculture , agriculture. Grain cultivation on the plateau has ceased since the excavations began. In spring it is grazed by herds of sheep and goats from the Bedouin families who traditionally live in their tents at the foot of the valley .

During the New Kingdom , the region ( Canaan ) was under Egyptian rule. Therefore, references to the name of the late Bronze Age city on the valley in Egyptian inscriptions were examined. Pharaoh Sethos I (1290-1279 BC) had a scenic report with place names attached to the temple in Karnak about his campaigns in Palestine, during which he captured Bet She'an , 20 km southwest of the Tall Zirāʿa right side of the Jordan. Another source with place names of the region is a stele discovered in Bet She'an. In this context a city is called qa-dú-rù , which corresponds to "Gadara" in sound. During excavations in the Hellenistic foundation of Gadara , a good four kilometers north of the valley , no previous Bronze Age settlement was found. Some researchers therefore suspect that qa-dú-rù referred to the fortified city on the Tall Zirāʿa in the Bronze Age and that the name was retained in the region.

Research history

In 1885 the engineer Gottlieb Schumacher explored the East Bank and recognized the archaeological importance of the Wadi el-ʿArab. He describes the valley as very rich in water and reports of several ruins of water-powered mills. During this time, the region was only sparsely populated and, as Bedouins reported, the wadi had degenerated into "a popular refuge for all kinds of refugees and criminal rabble". Schumacher gave the first information about the Tall Zirāʿa, its location and the source in its center. He also describes the walls and remains of a fortification on the plateau.

Nelson Glueck came through the Wadi el-ʿArab in 1942. He calls the “ singularly imposing and completely isolated hill of Tell Zera'ah ... ” (German: “uniquely imposing and completely isolated hill of Tell Zerāʿa”) and mentions the source on the plateau as the “ result of a natural siphon phenomenon leading the underground flow of the water from the higher level of the hills beyond down to below the bottom and, as through a pipe piercing its center, up to the top of Tell Zera'ah. "(German:" Result of a natural siphon phenomenon that leads the groundwater flow from the higher level of the surrounding hills down under the base and, as if through a tube that pierces its center, onto the surface of Tell Zerāʿa. ")

In the course of the establishment of the state of Israel and the Six Day War in 1967, parts of the valley became a restricted military area. It was only accessible to the general public again in 1994 after the peace treaty concluded between Jordan and Israel . Since 2001, the Tall Zirāʿa has been explored as part of the Gadara Region Project , which is scheduled to run over a period of around 20 years.

The first archaeological excavations on the Tall Zirāʿa were carried out by a Dutch team under the direction of Karel Vriezen in 2001 and 2002. A test cut of six by seven meters was opened on the western edge of the hill. On the surface, walls from the Islamic Middle Ages could be exposed, then a Roman-Byzantine stratum with two bread ovens and underneath an Iron Age layer, in which several construction phases were determined. In the spatially narrow probe there were numerous garbage pits, each of which reached down from younger strata to older ones and made it difficult to assess the stratigraphy .

In a detailed survey in 2001, the entire surface of the valley was divided into 127 squares with an edge length of 20 meters, each of which was thoroughly searched for ceramic shards and other surface finds. All shards were timed. The allocation of the quantities of cullet from the different epochs to the square grid resulted in clear clusters for the pottery of one epoch at certain points . This enabled predictions to be made about the architectural remains to be expected . The geophysical prospecting also provided information about structures in the earth via resistance measurements in the ground. Both were used to plan the excavations.

In autumn 2003 the Biblical-Archaeological Institute Wuppertal (BAI) began its first excavation campaign. The extensive results achieved in this way induced the BAI and the German Evangelical Institute for Classical Studies of the Holy Land (DEIAHL) in Amman to enter into a cooperation in 2004 in order to continue the project together on a larger scale in the following years. The DEIAHL in Jerusalem joined this work in 2006 . The project has been under the joint management of Dieter Vieweger and Jutta Häser since 2004 . Excavation campaigns lasting several weeks took place in spring and summer.

From 2009 to 2013 an environmental survey explored the Wadi el-ʿArab and the Wadi ez-Zaḥar.

The excavations were brought to a preliminary end in autumn 2011 in order to enable a comprehensive publication of the results so far. Since then, the excavation team has published its findings, many initially in the form of doctoral theses. Of the 8 planned volumes of the final publication of the excavation and the survey, the first was published online in 2017.

Archaeological importance

The history of Northern Jordan from the Early Bronze Age to the Islamic Modern Age - and thus a period of more than five millennia (3200 BC – 1900 AD) - can be examined for the first time at a single settlement at Tall Zirāʿa. The settlement mound provides an insight into the early Bronze Age urban culture as well as the period of re-urbanization after the decline of the urban way of life towards the end of the Early Bronze Age (around 2150 BC). The urban culture of the middle (2150–1550 BC) and late (1550–1200 BC) Bronze Age is here - as the stepped section on the western slope (Area I) shows - consistently tangible in the northern Jordan area for the first time. According to biblical and extra-biblical information, this time is usually referred to as the " Canaanite epoch ".

In terms of time, the deep turning point at Tall Zirāʿa can be traced back to the disintegration of the late Bronze Age city-state system triggered by the Sea Peoples in Palestine. The new beginning after this upheaval changed the type of settlement on the Tall Zirāʿa during the Iron Age I and II. While in the Iron Age I (1200–1000 BC) only loose buildings suggest a small settlement, in the Iron Age II (1000–520 BC) a walled city was built again.

Following the destruction of this city, according to the excavation results so far, there seems to have been a pause in settlement before the Romans rebuilt a closed settlement. Later in the Byzantine period, not the entire surface of the valley was inhabited; in the Islamic period, according to the surface findings - especially in the area of ​​the spring - there were still individual buildings.

When it comes to archaeological research into the valley, what is fundamentally interested is how the inhabitants, over the course of the millennia, with very different climatic conditions, have adapted their survival strategies to the natural conditions of the valley, or how they reacted to changes in their resources. This includes an investigation of the technical possibilities of the inhabitants of the valley through the 5000 years of its settlement, especially in the field of the production of ceramics, glass, faience and quartz frit as well as metal processing. In addition, the agricultural conditions, flora and fauna as well as the geology (water, rock formations and soil types) of the wadi system are researched.

Excavations since 2003

Area I in spring 2008

First, excavation area I was created in 2003 in the northwest of Tall Zirāʿa . The preliminary investigations had found particularly good conditions for the exposure of a long stratigraphic sequence and the prospect of significant architectural remains. The topographical conditions also seemed particularly suitable at this point. In this place the natural protection of the inhabitants was not as great as on the other flanks of the valley. Only 22 to 25 m difference in altitude remain in this area up to the foot of the hill. For this reason, it was to be expected that the former residents had built a settlement fortification here . This was also assumed by the geophysical prospecting . It was also to be assumed that at this point there was an entrance to the lower towns, which were located to the west and north at the foot of the hill. Another aspect that gave rise to hope for dense residential development was the climatic conditions. On this side of the settlement hill, the thermally induced onshore winds coming from the Mediterranean meet the valley from noon until well into the evening and create a particularly pleasant living environment.

Area II in spring 2008 (825 m²)

By the summer of 2010, 1750 m² of excavation area in Area I had been removed in stages to a maximum depth of 11 meters. The archaeological exploration thus advanced into the Middle Bronze Age . Since the excavation is on the slope, older architectural remains, which date back to the Early Bronze Age (from 3200 BC) , could already be recorded in the external areas on the slope .

During the spring campaign 2006, excavation area II was created in the north of Tall Zirāʿa . An area of ​​1500 m² was opened there by spring 2010. It is one of the highest areas on the plateau of the valley, which is also protected in the north by a 44 meter high drop. Because of this prominent location, representative buildings are expected here.

In the summer of 2008, excavation area III was opened in the south of the valley plateau on an area of ​​600 m². An already accessible cistern with a length of 12 m, a width of 6 m and a clearance height of 5.75 m was included and it was found that it is located in the courtyard of a Byzantine building complex. A partially intact mosaic floor and several rooms adjacent to the courtyard were exposed. The building had been built over at least three times in the following period. Special architectural findings are the Byzantine gate construction, a water collector in the courtyard area and an oil mill .

Results by epoch

The entire stratigraphy of the valley is being explored in Area I. Of the approximately 16 meters of the culture layer, up to eleven meters have already been explored over an area of ​​1750 m ² . Remnants of Omayyad buildings (stratum 1), including the classical epochs (strata 2–3), were found near the surface. This is followed by two phases of Iron Age II (stratum 4a / b) and one of Iron Age I (stratum 5). The Bronze Age is represented by several Middle to Late Bronze Age Strata (6–13) and at least one Early Bronze Age phase (Stratum 14).

Early and Middle Bronze Age

Stratum 14 has so far only been developed on the slope of the valley. A glacis-shaped , Early Bronze Age fortification was excavated there at a height of 4.85 meters. The massive stone wall is penetrated by a vertical water disposal shaft from the Middle or Late Bronze Age, which, after a height of 5 meters, bends outwards to the slope and ends as a brick tunnel.

In the step section of Area I, 3 Middle Bronze Age strata (11–13) were exposed. Two of them showed remnants of residential architecture that had been badly eroded on the slope side so that no outer walls could be identified.

Late Bronze Age (1550–1200 BC)

Strata 6 to 10 are assigned to the late Bronze Age, Canaanite epoch on the Tall. The most recent Late Bronze Age stratum (6) has already been extensively researched. It shows a well-secured settlement with strong fortifications. The extensive residential buildings, a functioning sewage system and the wealth of finds suggest that the Tall was a city complex in the Late Bronze Age that served as a regional center.

Area I in spring 2008 (1100 m²), late Bronze Age development with casemate wall

On the northwest flank, the city was protected by a huge casemate wall. It was exposed over a length of 23 meters and consisted of an outer wall two meters thick and an inner wall about one and a half meters thick. The two-meter-wide space was divided into small rooms at three-meter intervals with transverse walls. In times of peace, these were suitable, for example, for storing supplies. If there was a threat of attack, they could be filled with earth and stones, which strengthened the entire wall to almost six meters.

House architecture from the late Bronze Age was discovered within the casemate wall. In contrast to later in the younger Iron Age, their ground plans extended over considerable areas. The wall thickness of the extremely solidly built buildings suggest that these houses originally had an upper floor. So far, three courtyard houses have been excavated. One of them has a large courtyard with three flat stone-covered canals running through it. These directed the water that collected behind the city wall when it rained into one of the casemates. There it was first caught in a semicircular stilling basin made of uncut field stones and finally flowed into a deep, not completely circular, vertical drop shaft of about 45 cm diameter, also made of uncut field stones. The drop shaft has so far been explored to a depth of approximately 2.6 m without reaching the lower edge.

At the southern end of the casemate wall, strong foundations of a tower facing the city were exposed. It was divided into two parts: the northern room was completely paved; the southern side shows a large room that has been rebuilt several times. A low wall divides this room and leaves a passage free, the two carefully hewn column bases of basalt is flanked. The special character of this subdivided long room is reminiscent of a gate sanctuary, i.e. a cult room near the city gate, where one could make offerings or light smoke offerings when entering or leaving the city . In the context of comparable finds from Palestine, a huge limestone that was hewn to a point and tapered towards the top and was found next to the two pillars can be interpreted as a mazzebe ( cult stone ). In front of the entrance to the sanctuary, an altar was found within a paved temenos .

A 2.75 m wide gate passage was found south of the “Torheiligtums”. As expected, this is the shortest accessible connection between the lower towns in the north and west and the fortified city. The casemate wall does not continue further south, but the small rooms of the courtyard houses with a continuous outer wall form a similar structure.

Two further house complexes discovered in the north and south of Areal I in spring 2008 are monumental. Due to their construction and geoelectric prospecting , it is expected that they will occupy a large area and also be much larger in their reconstructed height than the later buildings. The house in the north, which can be thoroughly examined during the excavations, contained 23 cylinder seals in one room - and five other cylinder seals in adjoining rooms, one of which remained unengraved and another was only half engraved.

The older strata of the Late Bronze Age are being explored in the central area of ​​Area I. After removing the casemate wall, the excavators came across at least ten layers of 30–45 cm of earth, which were always covered with stone paving. On the slope side, the stone paving ended in a retaining wall. The layers (stratum 7) turned out to be repair measures after a landslide at the beginning of the 14th century BC. Chr., Because on the mountain side, destroyed house foundations came to light in Strata 8-10, where outer walls were missing and floors were torn. Strata 12 and 13 of the Middle Bronze Age also seem to have been affected.

The elaborate terracing through the numerous earth / stone layers was carried out with interruptions over the course of several years, so that the earth layers could settle sufficiently. This is indicated by smaller structures - like a bread oven - on the stone layers. Since 75% of the ceramics within the bedding layers came from the Early Bronze Age, it is assumed that the earth was carried up by the inhabitants from the foot of the valley.

Iron Age I (1200–1000 BC)

Excavation work on Tall Zirāʿa 2006

The upheavals between the Bronze and Iron Ages can be seen in Stratum 5. Before Israelite tribes settled on the West Bank mountains , the late Bronze Age city found on the Tall Zirāʿa around 1200 BC. Their end. Whether this happened as a result of an earthquake , an enemy conquest or an accidental fire disaster cannot be said. The builders of the new settlement no longer reached the cultural level of their predecessors. Instead of an urban complex, an open village was created, no longer protected by a wall, inhabited by arable farmers and ranchers.

In the center of excavation area I, it is noticeable that the inhabitants of the early Iron Age used the remains of the walls of the late Bronze Age settlement. From this it can be concluded that there could not have been many years between the destruction of the city and the new settlement. Therefore the foundations of the late Bronze Age city wall that were still preserved could be fitted with new fixtures or new houses built on the crumbling walls of the Canaanite house ruins. The central part of the excavation is dominated by flat stone-lined grain silos and various agricultural devices, stables with built-ins and simple huts with thin walls. One could speak of an agricultural work, living and storage area. This finding fits the traditional research opinion that at the beginning of the Iron Age, Israelite and Judean settlements emerged in the West Jordan mountainous regions.

In the southern section of excavation area I, solid architecture is encountered at the same time. There is a large double building with walls made of carefully placed field stones. The late Bronze Age ruins also used its walls as foundations. The entrance to the house had a paved entrance area. The door hinge was still in its original position. The northern part of the house was conceived as a courtyard house and so architecturally illustrates the very close connection to the construction of the late Bronze Age. In the center of the courtyard there was a large water vessel, in one corner a bread oven and a grinding stone . The house also had a large oven built with layers of clay, lime and large ceramic shards. A (grain?) Silo, made of adobe bricks and with a capacity of about 10 m ³ , completed the facility. Special ceramic finds from this area were an almost complete kernos and a house of gods for private cult.

Another large house was found in the north of Area I. Its floor plan largely corresponds to the Iron Age four-room house . Overall, the findings in stratum 5 indicate a rapid repopulation of the valley in the early Iron Age after the destruction of the late Bronze Age city. The excavators suspect that "it was the autochthonous population".

Iron Age II (1000–700 BC)

Experimental archeology at Tall Zirāʿa 2006

When the territorial kingdoms of Ammon , Moab and (a little later) Edom developed further south during the classic Old Testament period , the area around the Tall Zirāʿa belonged to the sphere of influence of the kingdom of Israel ruled from Samaria . During this time - the Iron Age IIA / B - the Israelite kings ruled “sixty great cities, walled and with iron bolts” in Gilead , according to the Bible ( 1 Kings 4:13  LUT ) . Gilead is the name of the East Bank north of the Jabbok in the Old Testament and in Neo-Assyrian texts (cf. also Num 32,39–42  LUT ; Dtn 3,13–15  LUT ; Jos 13,29–31  LUT ; Ri 10,3–5  LUT ; 1 Chr 2,21-23  LUT ).

Many buildings in this stratum have two phases of construction. Therefore, it is believed that parts of the city were built towards the end of the 10th century BC. By earthquake, fire or an enemy attack. If it was a military event, it would coincide with the time of the Israelite-Aramaic battles documented in the Old Testament books of kings and on the Tel Dan stele . So far there is no evidence for this thesis . When the settlement was rebuilt, some changes were made to the house units. Thus, the Iron Age settlement can be divided into two phases (stratum 4a / 4b).

For both Strata of Iron Age II, four to five houses and an area that is probably used by the public have been identified in Area I. Double foundation walls show the boundaries of the houses built directly next to each other. Towards the slope, the house walls formed the city wall or flowed into it. The dense development indicates population growth and, in contrast to the Iron Age I, shows again an urban character without reaching the massive construction of the Late Bronze Age.

Various manual activities had been carried out in the houses. For example, one room contained four bread ovens that could be operated simultaneously. A still-filled melting vessel on a stone-paved fireplace shows that metal was processed. Other thick-walled "industrial vessels" and finds of raw glass also indicate glass production or at least processing. In the north of Area I, over twelve simple bread ovens and two large ovens with multi-layered, well-insulating walls were excavated in an area without typical building structures. In one of the two was a ceramic pot with several handles. It is not yet clear whether these ovens were used for manual work or for cooking.

In one area of ​​the house, three column bases made of solid field stones stood in a row and in front of them exactly aligned with the row, a mazzebe in situ . The cult stone was thus included in everyday life. Other references to religious and cultic life are some small finds: a bronze figurine in the form of a seated god ( El type) with gold and silver plating, the upper part of a female terracotta figurine with a Hathor hairstyle and an impression of a seal with a god from Baal Type (see individual finds ).

After the conquest of the region by the Arameans (in the 9th century BC) and especially after the area-wide conquest by the Assyrians (in the 8th century BC), the entire area was only characterized by village settlements. Some ceramic shards from the Persian period were found in Area I, but no architecture.

Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine eras

In the Hellenistic period, the appearance of the settlement changed completely again. The Wadi el-ʿArab with its settlements became the area around the Hellenistic foundation of Gadara , which belonged to the Decapolis in Roman times and flourished. Even the Roman road layout was aligned against the topographical conditions to the new center of the greater area - to Gadara. A Hellenistic settlement emerged on the valley , later a densely built-up Roman- Byzantine settlement - which was even walled. The Roman- Byzantine settlement passed seamlessly into the Omayyad period.

In Area I, the Hellenistic phase left behind typical ceramic shards, numerous waste pits and in the north of the area several carefully bricked storage silos. The center of the settlement area in the Hellenistic and Roman times is in Areal II.

In (late Roman-) Byzantine times, Tall Zirāʿa can be addressed as a city again. In Area I, a single-layer closed development was uncovered. There were several construction and renovation phases in Area II. Numerous coin finds there provide good clues for dating ( post quem ). In area III, a large courtyard with a cistern and surrounding rooms was found from the Byzantine period.

Islamic time

The courtyard house in Area III underwent several renovations in Umayyad times. In Area II, too, Byzantine buildings were reused in the Umayyad phase and adapted to the needs of the residents. Original Umayyad architecture was exposed in the south of Area I. A scattered settlement of the Tall at this time is proven.

Ceramics from the time of the Mamluks were found in several pits in Areal II, but no architectural remains from that time. Since the survey found an accumulation of late Islamic ceramics in the area of ​​the source, settlement remains are expected there.

The prosperity of the city of Gadara, which came under Arab influence after the battle of Yarmuk in 636, ended with a devastating earthquake in the 8th century AD. In addition, there were fundamental political changes in the early Islamic period. The Wadi el-ʿArab gained in importance due to its excellent conditions for agriculture, but this remained regionally limited. During the ups and downs of the Islamic Middle Ages and Ottoman times, Tall Zirāʿa remained a village settlement.

Selected individual finds

Finds from Tall Zirāʿa from 2007

In a house from the late Bronze Age, the excavators discovered an unusually dense collection of finds. On an area of ​​just over two square meters, 23 cylinder seals and dozen of glass beads were recovered, as well as a scarab and an oval 3.4 cm × 5.8 cm silver pendant with a relief image of a woman. The special importance of the house and the wealth of the Bronze Age city can be seen from this accumulation of finds.

Another important find from the same stratum is a painted, two-handled jug that was restored from over 200 pieces. Animal scenes are depicted on it between ornamentally arranged sand vipers . A person sits on a four-legged stool and plays a kind of lyre . The representation is reminiscent of the Greek Orpheus myth , but it can be for the 14th century BC. Not to be interpreted. No comparable images are known from this period.

In a residential building from Iron Age II, a 5 cm × 5 cm fragment of a terracotta statuette was excavated, which shows the shoulder and head area of ​​a female figure from above. It represents the fertility goddess Astarte or Aschera with the hairstyle of the Egyptian Hathor . In the side view, the head of a lioness can be seen and thus the Egyptian goddess Sachmet is also shown in the figure. The statuette must therefore have been a powerful pocket deity .

Representations of male deities were also discovered in the Iron Age II stratum. A small bronze figure with gold plating was found as a construction sacrifice at the foot of a house wall, depicting the seated god El with a gesture of blessing. Not far from there was a clay imprint of a seal with the weather god Ba'al or Hadad - standing on a bull. The traces of the lacing can still be seen on the back of the print, which was sealed with the sign of God.

Visualization and pedagogical preparation

Virtual reconstruction

An archaeological excavation, especially on a multi-layered hill like the Tall Zirāʿa, is always associated with the destruction of findings . The scientific publications contain numerous drawings and photos, but it takes the constructive imagination of specialists to recreate the image of an ancient city. In cooperation with architects and archaeologists, a virtual, three-dimensional reconstruction was created using the example of the late Bronze Age city . As the excavation progresses, it will be adapted to the new findings.

Children's book

The Tall Zirāʿa was also the inspiration for the children's book The Secret of Tell , written by excavation manager Vieweger and a student in collaboration with a sixth class. Two children from Cologne visit their grandfather's archaeological site in the Orient, which, not by chance, looks very similar to Tall Zirāʿa. Based on an exposed Iron Age four-room house and other typical architecture from this era, the book gives an introduction to life during the Israeli royal era (Iron Age II). Detailed illustrations illustrate this with reconstructions of findings from other valleys west of the Jordan.

literature

• Jan Dijkstra, Meindest Dijkstra, Dieter Vieweger, Karel Vriezen: Regionaal Archaeologischer Onderzoek Nabij Umm Qes (Ant. Gadara) De Opgravingen op Tell Zera'a en de Ligging van Laatbrons Gadara . In: Phoenix 51/1, 2005, pp. 5-26.
• Jutta Häser , Dieter Vieweger : Preliminary Report on the Archaeological Investigations of the Wadi al-'Arab and the Tall Zar'a, 2003 and 2004 . In: Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 49, 2005, pp. 135-146.
• Jutta Häser, Dieter Vieweger: The 'Gadara Region Project' in Northern Jordan: The spring Campaign 2006 on Tall Zar'a . In: Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 50, 2006, pp. 135-146.
• Jutta Häser, Dieter Vieweger: The 'Gadara Region Project' in Northern Jordan. The spring campaign 2007 on Tall Zir'a . In: Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 51, 2007, pp. 21-34.
• Dieter Vieweger: Tell Zera'a in the Wadi el-'Arab. The region south of Gadara. A contribution to the methodology of the tell survey . In: The ancient world. 48, 2003, ISSN  0002-6646 , pp. 191-216.
• Dieter Vieweger, Jutta Häser: The Tell Zerā'a in Wādī el-'Arab . The 'Gadara Region Project' from 2001 to 2004. In: Journal of the German Palestine Association 121, 2005, pp. 1–30.
• Dieter Vieweger, Jutta Häser: Jordan: Tell Zera'a. An ancient settlement - layer by layer . In: World and Environment of the Bible 36, 2005, ISSN  1431-2379 , pp. 62–64.
• Dieter Vieweger, Jutta Häser: The “Gadara Region Project”. The Tell Zerā'a in 2005 and 2006 . In: Journal of the German Palestine Association 123, 2007, pp. 1–27.
• Dieter Vieweger, Jutta Häser: ... sixty large cities, walled and with iron bolts . In: Ancient World . 38/1, 2007, ISSN  0003-570X , pp. 63-69.
• Dieter Vieweger, Jutta Häser: Tall Zira'a. Five Thousand Years of Palestinian History on a Single-Settlement Mound . In: Near Eastern Archeology . 70/3, 2007, ISSN  1094-2076 , pp. 147-167.
• Dieter Vieweger, Jutta Häser: The “Gadara Region Project”. The Tell Zerā'a in 2007 and 2009 . In: Journal of the German Palestine Association 126, 2010, pp. 1–28.
• Andrea Gropp: The religious-historical development of northern Palestine from the Early Bronze Age to the end of the Iron Age using the example of Tall Zira'a . 2014. Available at: http://elpub.bib.uni-wuppertal.de/edocs/dokumente/fba/evtheologie/diss2013/gropp

Web links

Commons : Tall Zira'a  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Homepage of the research project

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Dieter Vieweger, Jutta Häser: Tall Zira'a. Five Thousand Years of Palestinian History on a Single-Settlement Mound . In: Near Eastern Archeology . 70/3, 2007, pp. 147-148.
2. ↑ Dieter Vieweger, Jutta Häser: ... sixty large cities, walled and with iron bolts . In: Ancient World . 38/1, 2007, p. 66.
3. ^ Jan Dijkstra, Meindest Dijkstra, Karel Vriezen: The Gadara-Region-Project: Preliminary report of the Sondage on Tall Zar'a (2001-2002) and the Identification of Late Bronze Age Gadara. In: Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan . 49, 2005, pp. 182-187.
4. ^ According to: Carl Steueragel: Der 'Adschlun. In: Journal of the German Palestine Association . 49, 1926, pp. 80-83.
5. ^ Nelson Glueck: Exploration in Eastern Palestine, IV . In: Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research . 25-28, New Haven 1951, pp. 182-183.
6. ↑ Jan Dijkstra; Meindest Dijkstra; Karel Vriezen: The Gadara-Region-Project: Preliminary report of the Sondage on Tall Zar'a (2001-2002) and the Identification of Late Bronze Age Gadara. In: Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan . 49, 2005, pp. 177-179.
7. ↑ Dieter Vieweger, Jutta Häser: Tell Zera'a in the Wadi el-'Arab. The “Gadara Region Project” from 2001 to 2004 . In: Journal of the German Palestine Association . 121, 2005, pp. 4-11.
8. ^ Tall Zirāʿa homepage, excavation campaigns.
9. ↑ Final publication of the research project
10. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Bronze and Iron Age dates for Palestine according to: Dieter Vieweger: Archeology of the Biblical World . 1st edition Göttingen 2003, ISBN 3-8252-2394-9 , pp. 382-392.
11. ↑ Dieter Vieweger, Jutta Häser: Settlements from five millennia . In: World and Environment of the Bible . No. 42, 2006, pp. 64-65.
12. ^ Tall Zirāʿa homepage, 2008 summer campaign.
13. ↑ Dieter Vieweger, Jutta Häser: The "Gadara Region Project". Tell Zera'a from 2007 to 2009 . In: Journal of the German Palestine Association 126, 2010, p. 3.
14. ↑ ^{a b} Dieter Vieweger, Jutta Häser: Tall Zira'a. Five Thousand Years of Palestinian History on a Single-Settlement Mound . In: Near Eastern Archeology . 70/3, 2007, pp. 151-155.
15. ↑ Dieter Vieweger, Jutta Häser: Tall Zirāʿa and Wadi al-ʿArab, Annual Report 2010 of the DAI. Archäologischer Anzeiger 2011/1 supplement, 373–382.
16. ↑ Dieter Vieweger, Jutta Häser: The "Gadara Region Project". Tell Zera'a from 2007 to 2009 . In: Journal of the German Palestine Association 126, 2010, pp. 4–5.
17. ^ Dieter Vieweger, Jutta Häser: Tall Zira'a. Five Thousand Years of Palestinian History on a Single-Settlement Mound . In: Near Eastern Archeology . 70/3, 2007, pp. 155-159.
18. ↑ Kernos, illustration
19. ^ House of Gods, illustration
20. ↑ Dieter Vieweger, Jutta Häser: The "Gadara Region Project". Tell Zera'a from 2007 to 2009 . In: Journal of the German Palestine Association 126, 2010, p. 13.
21. ↑ Dieter Vieweger, Jutta Häser: The "Gadara Region Project". Tell Zera'a from 2007 to 2009 . In: Journal of the German Palestine Association 126, 2010, p. 17.
22. ^ Dieter Vieweger, Jutta Häser: Tall Zira'a. Five Thousand Years of Palestinian History on a Single-Settlement Mound . In: Near Eastern Archeology . 70/3, 2007, pp. 159-165.
23. ^ Dieter Vieweger, Jutta Häser: Tall Zira'a. Five Thousand Years of Palestinian History on a Single-Settlement Mound . In: Near Eastern Archeology . 70/3, 2007, pp. 165-166.
24. ↑ Dieter Vieweger, Jutta Häser: Tall Zirāʿa and Wadi al-ʿArab, Annual Report 2010 of the DAI. Archäologischer Anzeiger 2011/1 supplement, p. 376. online
25. ^ Dieter Vieweger, Jutta Häser: Tall Zira'a. Five Thousand Years of Palestinian History on a Single-Settlement Mound . In: Near Eastern Archeology . 70/3, 2007, pp. 166-167.
26. ↑ Dieter Vieweger, Jutta Häser: An extraordinary complex of finds . In: World and Environment of the Bible . No. 48, 2008, p. 64.
27. ↑ Dieter Vieweger, Jutta Häser: ... sixty large cities, walled and with iron bolts . In: Ancient World . 38/1, 2007, p. 67.
28. ↑ ^{a b} Dieter Vieweger, Jutta Häser: ... sixty large cities, walled and with iron bolts . In: Ancient World . 38/1, 2007, p. 68.
29. ^ This is how a castle emerges from ruins . Neue Zürcher Zeitung from June 1, 2008.
30. ↑ Dieter Vieweger, Claudia Vogt: The secret of the tell. An archaeological journey to the Orient . with drawings by Friederike Rave. Zabern, Mainz 2005, ISBN 3-8053-3519-9 [1] .

This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on March 7, 2009 .