Archaeological Views: Tall Jalul: A Look from Behind the Jordan

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The largest ancient site in the central Jordanian plateau, Tall Jalul commands the highest point in the Madaba region in modern-day Jordan. Covering more than 18 acres, the tell seems to have been continuously occupied from the Early Bronze Age through the Persian (perhaps even Hellenistic) period, after which the occupation spilled over to the plain below and south of the tell. The settlement was well established already in the Early Bronze Age (third millennium B.C.E.), but its peak came during the Iron Age (1200–500 B.C.E.). It is for this period that Andrews University’s ongoing excavations of Jalul—together with […]

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Footnotes

1. For Hisban, see Larry G. Herr, “The Search for Biblical Heshbon,” BAR, 19:06; Larry G. Herr, ““>Whatever Happened to the Ammonites?” BAR, 19:06.

2. For Tall ‘Umayri, see Larry G. Herr and Douglas R. Clark, “Excavating the Tribe of Reuben,” BAR, 27:02.

Endnotes

1.
Cf. Numbers 32; Deuteronomy 3:12–13, 16; and Joshua 13; 22.

2.
Randall Younker, “Highlights from the Heights of Jalul,” in Thomas E. Levy et al., eds., Crossing Jordan: North American Contributions to the Archaeology of Jordan (London: Routledge, 2007), p. 134; Randall Younker, “Tall Jalul: Biblical Bezer, a City of Refuge?” in Jiří Moskala, ed., Meeting with God on the Mountains (Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews University, 2016), pp. 306–322; Randall Younker, “Bezer,” in D.N. Freedman and A.C. Myers, eds., Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000), p. 178.

3.
During three centuries of continual use, the reservoir basin was replastered at least three times.