Umm Ubtulah

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Umm Ubtulah
limes Limes Arabiae et Palestinae
section Limes Arabicus
(front Limes line)
Dating (occupancy) Nabatean , Roman
size irregular floor plan, approx. 520 m × 250 m
(= 13 ha)
Construction stone
State of preservation A site enclosed by a strong wall and structured development, which was used again and again from the Early Bronze Age to Late Antiquity and probably beyond. Most likely the Roman-era buildings are visible today. As was already shown in 1982/1983, the place is threatened by robbery.
place Umm Ubtulah
Geographical location 30 ° 53 '20.4 "  N , 35 ° 52' 14.6"  E
height 777  m
Previous Qasr Bshir
(front Limes line) (north)
Subsequently Er-Ruweihi
(front Limes line) (southeast)
Backwards Rujm el-Faridiyyeh
(Via Nova Traiana) (west)

Umm Ubtulah is a site that has been used repeatedly for thousands of years and is in an impressive location on a large loop of the deeply cut Wadi el-Hasa in Jordan , al-Karak governorate . The city of Kerak is 14 kilometers to the southeast; the rear Roman fort Rujm el-Faridiyyeh on the Via Nova Traiana lies to the east and is around 11 kilometers away. Most of the structural remains visible today are interpreted as parts of a large Roman military camp that may have been part of the Limes Arabicus .

Surname

The site owes its current name to the Bedouins living in the region . The Wadi el Hasa Archaeological Survey (WHS - "Archaeological Investigations in the Wadi el-Hasa"), which worked in cooperation with the Jordanian Antiquities Service and which succeeded in discovering Umm Ubtulah, carried out a systematic archaeological investigation of the southern flank with an interdisciplinary team from 1979 to 1983 of Wadi el-Hasa under the direction of the Canadian Biblical Archaeologist Burton MacDonald . As MacDonald emphasized, the scientists had initially given the site the name "Umm Umtulah". This was based on what they had heard from the Bedouins. But, as they found out for themselves, this name made no sense in Arabic . Later, in Amman , Arabists suggested that the site could be called "Umm Ubtulah", as the local Bedouins exchanged the letter "b" for "m". Now the name made sense and referred to a plant that probably grew or is still growing in connection with the waters of the Wadi el-Hasa at the site.

location

The loop, deeply cut by fluvial erosion on the north side of the strongly meandering Wadi el-Hasa , is covered in its center by the fortification that dominates the steep rise of the sliding slope . The system then extends upwards over the crest of the ridge that dominates the river bend. In early June 1982, when MacDonald first explored Umm Ubtulah, the surrounding land was surrounded by fertile agricultural land on three sides: to the south, east and west. The crop that was grown in the immediate vicinity of the site was wheat . In their investigations in 1982 and 1983, the scientists were able to determine that the wadi was abundant in water. As Glueck had already described in 1936, the WHS scientists found a large watering hole to the east of the site in the wadi, which was called "Birkat Umm Ubtulah" by the farm workers who worked there at the time. The vegetation along both sides of the wadi was very lush, partly impenetrable in 1982/1983 and the bird life was very rich. The Bedouins of the region tended both sheep and goats and the scientists were able to observe a large herd of camels on the plateau on the south bank of the wadi when they visited the site.

Research history

Umm Ubtulah may have been discovered on November 5, 1936 by the American biblical archaeologist Nelson Glueck (1900–1971) during a reconnaissance flight over the Wadi el-Hasa. He described the place he was observing quite precisely and estimated that the site could be assigned to the Early Bronze and Early Iron Ages .

The first actually verifiable archaeological discovery by Umm Ubtulah dates back to May 22, 1982, when scientists from the WHS were able to photograph the site. It was not yet possible to enter the site at this point. The agriculturally important, around 40 kilometers long wadi, which never dries up in the annual cycle, is possibly identical to the valley or the stream of Sered known from the Old Testament . The fact is that the erosion base and thus the mouth of the Wadi el-Hasa is on the Dead Sea . At the time of discovery, the WHS expeditions were devoted to the northern edge of the so-called Edomite Plateau in southern Jordan. The aim of the years of field work was to gain a comprehensive understanding of the study area, with the most varied of sites from the early Paleolithic to the end of the Ottoman rule . It was only at the end of May and again at the beginning of June 1982 that the archaeologists were actually able to examine the site. On their second visit, the scientists carried out an initial field inspection at two different points in the extensive site to analyze ceramic samples. The size and presumed historical significance of the archaeological site, which had apparently remained unknown until then, justified a return to Umm Ubtulah for three days in May 1983. Now the creation of a topographical plan was on the agenda. In addition, an attempt should be made to find out more information about the history of the place by means of field inspections.

Building history

The entire archaeological site is enclosed by an impressive limestone wall. The area enclosed in this way is 520 meters from north to south and 250 meters from east to west. The perimeter wall, which is 1.50 meters wide on average, had mostly collapsed completely in 1982/1983, but in some places on the east and west side parts that were more than one meter high could still be studied. In the process, a double-shell dry masonry was discovered, which was filled with rubble inside.

Upper section attachment

Overall topographic plan of the site

Interior development

The enclosure that completely surrounds the site has two clearly separated areas, which are formed by a natural ledge. There the fortification is around 115 meters wide from east to west. In both sub-areas there are regularly planned, adjacent building structures that are reminiscent of elongated barracks. Those in the upper section differ significantly from those in the lower section attachment. The former are made wider and each have two rooms one behind the other. These 2.70 to 3.00 meters wide and around 4.80 to 6.40 meters long structures all point to the north-south oriented ridge line of the mountain and are therefore mostly aligned in a west-east direction up the mountainside. While the buildings in the eastern area of ​​the upper section fortification were built from roughly hewn limestone blocks, those in the southern area were built from large field stones that stood upright as pillars. Between these pillars, some of which were almost three feet high, there were smaller stones as filling material. The fencing of this sector built on the ridge is irregular and its contours are based on the natural features of the mountain. In the west as well as in the northern ridge position, a tower can perhaps be expected. A single rectangular building structure seems to jump out of line in this fastening section. This building is located in the southern area on the eastern slope and consists of six rooms, three of which are arranged side by side. Its long side is not oriented towards the ridge, but along the contour lines. Since no structural remains were observed on the west side, it could be that these have become aberrant or that no buildings have been erected at all due to the strong northwest winds prevailing there. In June 1983, MacDonald in Amman was able to find out more about the then current excavations in Umm al-Tawabin , an archaeological site east of Ghor as-Safi on the south side of Wadi el-Hasa, and it was pointed out that the results there, the similar structural Structures showed clearly referenced to the Roman era.

Graves

During the investigations of the WHS, many graves that were not defined in more detail in time were found in the area of ​​the highest point of the upper section fortification. These younger graves, which apparently at least partially also include body burials, overlay the ancient or prehistoric structures and were most likely built from stones that were previously part of the buildings described above. Between the two WHS visits in 1982 and 1983, one of these burials was robbed.

Enclosing wall

The upper fortification section surrounds part of the ridge and extends from its edge to the wadi in the south to around 270 meters to the north. At the northern end point of the surrounding wall, which tapers to a rounded point, a tower could have stood at around 809 meters above sea level. A pile of stone debris was found there that was around 20 meters in diameter. The scientists of the WHS suspected the second tower on the west side of this part of the section fortification. Here the enclosure bulges out particularly far and thus expands the surrounding wall to around 120 meters. The next tower could be assumed to be at a height of around 791 meters. At the presumed location there was another large pile of stones around 12 meters in diameter. The western fortification of the upper section had already been largely destroyed in the study period 1982/1983. However, since the terrain there slopes particularly steeply towards the wadi, the wall at this point could possibly not have been planned very strongly from the house. The only known gate of the upper fortification section has been documented on the east side of the fence. This gate building has a 1.90 meter wide driveway and is flanked on the inside of the fence by two structures, each taking up 2.70 square meters and possibly interpreted as towers. the Birkat Umm Ubtulah waterhole is located directly below this section of the wall in the wadi. Remnants of a path into the valley could not be found in 1982/1983.

Lower section attachment

The lower section has an irregular trapezoid in its outline. The furthest extent in the east-west direction is 250 meters and from north to south 230 meters. At the upper end, towards the ledge, the east-west width is only 115 meters.

Interior development

The elongated, rectangular structures that can be identified here are mostly much longer, each with only one separated room arrangement one behind the other. All buildings are oriented up the slope and are therefore oriented with their long sides north-south. The number of structures encountered here is significantly larger than in the upper section fortification. The walls of the buildings are around 0.90 meters wide and the interior spaces are between 2.60 and 3.20 meters wide. Towards the southeast corner of the site is a natural gully leading to the wadi. In the lower area of ​​this channel, a structure could be identified that could possibly be interpreted as a cistern. During the investigations in 1982 and 1983, no traces of a gate could be found in the fencing of the lower section fortifications. But the surrounding wall is partly badly damaged and partly completely eroded. As already described above, the buildings shown here can also be assigned to the Roman era.

Ceramics

The archaeological investigations and the evaluation of the ceramic material secured by field inspections suggest that the use of this site was interrupted again and again, but for a very long time, with the two sections of the fortification perhaps being used at different times. Only early Bronze Age ceramics were found in the upper part, while the lower section also shows early Bronze Age sherds in addition to recent material. However, goods from the Nabatean , Nabatean-Roman and late Roman epochs predominate there . It can therefore be assumed that Umm Ubtulah was used and expanded again after an early Bronze Age phase in the Nabatean and until the late Roman period. The British Provincial Roman archaeologist David Leslie Kennedy came to the speculative consideration in 2004, to consider Umm Ubtulah, among other things, as a short-term Roman camp that was part of one of the military expeditions to the Nabatean Kingdom, at the end of which the Roman general Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (106 BC-48 BC) in 63 BC. BC emerged victorious.

literature

  • David Leslie Kennedy , Derrick Newton Riley: Rome's Desert Frontier from the Air BT Batsford Limited, London 2004, ISBN 0-203-78927-X , pp. 223-224.
  • Burton MacDonald: Umm Ubtulah: A Nabataean and / or Roman Military Site Along the North Side of the Wadi el Hasa in Southern Jordan . In: Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 28, 1984, pp. 183-189.
  • Burton MacDonald: A Nabataean and / or Roman Military Monitoring Zone Along the South Bank of the Wadi El Ḥasā in Southern Jordan . In: Echos du monde classique: Classical views 2, Vol. 28, 1984, pp. 219-234.
  • Burton MacDonald: Umm Ubtulah: An Early Bronze and / or Nabataean Roman Site Along the Wadi el Hasa in Southern Jordan . In: Liber Annuus 23, 1983, pp. 402-404.
  • Nelson Glueck : An Aerial Reconnaissance in Southern Transjordan . In: Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 67, 1937, pp. 19-26; here: p. 24.

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g David Leslie Kennedy, Derrick Newton Riley: Rome's Desert Frontier from the Air BT Batsford Limited, London 2004, ISBN 0-203-78927-X , pp. 223-224; here: p. 223.
  2. ^ Duane W. Roller: Newsletter from the Levant (Southern Section), 1982 . In: American Journal of Archeology 2, 88, 1984, pp. 217-228; here: p. 219.
  3. ↑ a b c Burton MacDonald: Umm Ubtulah: A Nabataean and / or Roman Military Site Along the North Side of the Wadi el Hasa in Southern Jordan . In: Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 28, 1984, pp. 183-189; here: p. 183.
  4. ↑ a b Burton MacDonald: Umm Ubtulah: A Nabataean and / or Roman Military Site Along the North Side of the Wadi el Hasa in Southern Jordan . In: Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 28, 1984, pp. 183-189; here: p. 184.
  5. ↑ a b Nelson Glueck: An Aerial Reconnaissance in Southern Transjordan . In: Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 67, 1937, pp. 19-26; here: p. 24.
  6. ↑ Burton MacDonald: Umm Ubtulah: A Nabataean and / or Roman Military Site Along the North Side of the Wadi el Hasa in Southern Jordan . In: Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 28, 1984, pp. 183-189; here: p. 185.
  7. ↑ In the Elberfeld Bible : Numbers 21:12 and Deuteronomy 2:13, 14
  8. ^ Burton MacDonald: Wadi el Hasa Archaeological Survey 1979–1931, West-Central Jordan . Wilfrid Laurier University Press, Waterloo, Ontario 1212, ISBN 1-55458-522-8 .
  9. ↑ a b c d Burton MacDonald: Umm Ubtulah: A Nabataean and / or Roman Military Site Along the North Side of the Wadi el Hasa in Southern Jordan . In: Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 28, 1984, pp. 183-189; here: p. 186.
  10. ↑ a b c d e Burton MacDonald: Umm Ubtulah: A Nabataean and / or Roman Military Site Along the North Side of the Wadi el Hasa in Southern Jordan . In: Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 28, 1984, pp. 183-189; here: p. 187.
  11. ↑ a b Burton MacDonald: Umm Ubtulah: A Nabataean and / or Roman Military Site Along the North Side of the Wadi el Hasa in Southern Jordan . In: Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 28, 1984, pp. 183-189; here: pp. 188–189.
  12. ^ David Leslie Kennedy, Derrick Newton Riley: Rome's Desert Frontier from the Air BT Batsford Limited, London 2004, ISBN 0-203-78927-X , pp. 223-224; here: p. 224.