Open this page in a new tab

Khirbet er-Ruseifeh

 Khirbet er-Ruseifeh (JW: I think this is the site)

click on image to explore this site on a new tab in Google Earth


Names

Transliterated Name Source Name
Khirbet er-Ruseifeh Arabic
Introduction
Introduction

The site, located on the hills (around 675 a.s.l.) 15 kilometers north-east of Amman on the left bank of Wadi az-Zarqa (fig. 5), and thoroughly excavated by Romil Ghrayib on the behalf of the Department of Antiquities, was already visited in the 1930s by N. Glueck7, who recognized an extensive Early Bronze Age occupation in the area. Heavily threatened nowadays by modern urban expansion, Khirbet er-Ruseifeh has been drastically damaged by bulldozer cuts, which reduced its dimensions to almost one fifth of its original extension (probably up to 10 he. in the late Middle Bronze Age)8. It had substantial occupations in the Early Bronze II-III (figs. 6-7; pl. I)9 and Middle Bronze II-III/Late Bronze I: a MB III/LB I monumental building (possibly a governor’s residency; fig. 8), which provided a rich set of materials (deep bowls and jugs, painted vessels, and storage jars), hints at the role of central place for this town in the Zarqa/er-Ruseifeh district during the II millennium BC, when the city of Batrawy was definitively deserted. A significant EB IV occupation was, instead, detected in the nearby site of er Ruseifeh (fig. 4)10, directly arisen aside the river, but nowadays completely destroyed due to the growth of the modern village of Ruseifeh11.

Khirbet er-Ruseifeh shows also substantial Roman12 and Byzantine occupations (fig. 9)13, and it continued to play a central role in the region even in the later Islamic and Ottoman Periods due to its strategic position at the ford connecting to southern Amman district with the northern area. Finally, since 1902 the railway (fig. 10) built to connect Hijaz with Damascus and Istanbul (the capital of Ottoman Khalifah), passing through its land, gave an additional importance to the site, as well as the Yajouz road, the main artery of the area which, since ancient times, connected the Zarqa district with Amman through er-Ruseifeh.
Footnotes

7 Glueck 1939, 206-207, site 261.

8 Nigro ed. 2006, 5, note 4.

9 A 2 m thick wall was deemed by the excavator Romil Ghrayib a fortification line of the Early Bronze III.

10 Glueck 1939, 205-206, site 260.

11 Palumbo 1990, 58; 2001, 241-242.

12 During the Roman Period the site played an important role as a commercial center on the road from Amman (Philadelphia) to Jerash (Gerasa), one of the most important road for trading in the period of the Decapolis cities (Freeman 2001, 440-445). Numerous copper coins of this period were retrieved.

13 Only pottery sherds and scattered architectural features were, instead, ascribed to the Hellenistic and Iron Age Periods.

Maps, Aerial Views, Plans, and Photos
Maps, Aerial Views, Plans, and Photos

Maps

  • Fig. 2 Map of Upper and Middle Wadi az-Zarqa with visited Early Bronze Age sites, dolmens and archaeological feature from Nigro (2008)

Aerial Views

  • Khirbet er-Ruseifeh in Google Earth

Plans

Site Plans

Normal Size

  • Fig. 5 Topographical map of Khirbet er-Ruseifah and its surroundingsfrom Nigro (2008)

Magnified

  • Fig. 5 Topographical map of Khirbet er-Ruseifah and its surroundingsfrom Nigro (2008)

Photos

  • Fig. 7 EB III Destruction layer from Nigro (2008)
  • Fig. 8 Collapsed mudbricks (probable MB III/LB I) from Nigro (2008)

Chronology
Time Periods

Time periods from Stern et al (1993)

Age Dates Comments
Early Bronze IA-B 3300-3000 BCE
Early Bronze II 3000-2700 BCE
Early Bronze III 2700-2200 BCE
Middle Bronze I 2200-2000 BCE ‎EB IV - Intermediate Bronze
Middle Bronze IIA 2000-1750 BCE
Middle Bronze IIB 1750-1550 BCE
Late Bronze I 1550-1400 BCE
Late Bronze IIA 1400-1300 BCE
Late Bronze IIB 1300-1200 BCE
Iron IA 1200-1150 BCE
Iron IB 1150-1100 BCE
Iron IIA 1000-900 BCE
Iron IIB 900-700 BCE
Iron IIC 700-586 BCE
Babylonian & Persian 586-332 BCE
Early Hellenistic 332-167 BCE
Late Hellenistic 167-37 BCE
Early Roman 37 BCE - 132 CE
Herodian 37 BCE - 70 CE
Late Roman 132-324 CE
Byzantine 324-638 CE
Early Arab 638-1099 CE Umayyad & Abbasid‎
Crusader & Ayyubid 1099-1291 CE
Late Arab 1291-1516 CE Fatimid & Mameluke‎
Ottoman 1516-1917 CE

Time periods from Meyers et al (1997)

Phase Dates Variants
Early Bronze IA-B 3400-3100 BCE
Early Bronze II 3100-2650 BCE
Early Bronze III 2650-2300 BCE
Early Bronze IVA-C 2300-2000 BCE Intermediate Early-Middle Bronze, Middle Bronze I‎
Middle Bronze I 2000-1800 BCE ‎Middle Bronze IIA
Middle Bronze II 1800-1650 BCE ‎Middle Bronze IIB‎
Middle Bronze III 1650-1500 BCE ‎‎Middle Bronze IIC
Late Bronze IA 1500-1450 BCE
Late Bronze IIB 1450-1400 BCE
Late Bronze IIA 1400-1300 BCE
Late Bronze IIB 1300-1200 BCE
Iron IA 1200-1125 BCE
Iron IB 1125-1000 BCE
Iron IC 1000-925 BCE Iron IIA‎
Iron IIA 925-722 BCE Iron IIB‎
Iron IIB 722-586 BCE ‎Iron IIC
Iron III 586-520 BCE Neo-Babylonian‎
Early Persian 520-450 BCE
Late Persian 450-332 BCE
Early Hellenistic 332-200 BCE
Late Hellenistic 200-63 BCE
Early Roman 63 BCE - 135 CE
Middle Roman 135-250 CE
Late Roman 250-363 CE
Early Byzantine 363-460 CE
Late Byzantine 460-638 CE
Early Arab 638-1099 CE
Crusader & Ayyubid 1099-1291 CE
Late Arab 1291-1516 CE
Ottoman 1516-1917 CE

MB III/LB Earthquake

Maura Sala in Nigro (2008:364-365) highlighted an EBIII destruction layer with charcoals and collapsed mudbricks in Khirbet er-Ruseifeh.

Seismic Effects
MB III/LB Earthquake

Effect Location Image(s) Description
  • Collapsed Wall                     
  • Fire ? (Charcoal)
SW Side of the Site
EB III destruction layer with charcoals and collapsed reddish mud-bricks visible in the section cut on the SW side of the site. - Maura Sala in Nigro (2008:364)
  • Collapsed Wall                     
MB III/LB I governor’s residency visible underneath the northern hall of the monumental Byzantine building on the top of the site
The collapsed mud-bricks of a probable MB III/LB I governor’s residency visible underneath the northern hall of the monumental Byzantine building on the top of the site. - Maura Sala in Nigro (2008:365)

Intensity Estimates
MB III/LB Earthquake

Effect Location Image(s) Description Intensity
  • Collapsed Wall                     
  • Fire ? (Charcoal)
SW Side of the Site
EB III destruction layer with charcoals and collapsed reddish mud-bricks visible in the section cut on the SW side of the site. - Maura Sala in Nigro (2008:364)
  • VIII+
  • ?
  • Collapsed Wall                     
MB III/LB I governor’s residency visible underneath the northern hall of the monumental Byzantine building on the top of the site
The collapsed mud-bricks of a probable MB III/LB I governor’s residency visible underneath the northern hall of the monumental Byzantine building on the top of the site. - Maura Sala in Nigro (2008:365)
  • VIII+
The archeoseismic evidence requires a minimum Intensity of VIII (8) when using the Earthquake Archeological Effects chart of Rodríguez-Pascua et al (2013: 221-224).

Notes and Further Reading
References
Wikipedia pages

Russeifa, Jordan