Project Aims

I. The Tell Madaba Archaeological Project (TMAP) represents part of a larger, ongoing regional research effort that is investigating the range of adaptive strategies and social institutions developed by human communities in the semi-arid Highlands of central Jordan, a geographical area distinguished by its climatic variability and environmental diversity. Drawing on the historical perspective that the archaeological record represents, this effort seeks to achieve the following research objectives:

(2) Identify the underlying social factors that may have influenced decision-making processes.

(3) Assess the impact adaptive responses have had on the fragile balance critical to maintaining ecological equilibrium--and long term viability--in a marginal, or transitional, environment.

II. Within this broader research framework, TMAP was initiated for the specific purpose of gathering archaeological data from the presumed urban center of a regional settlement network for comparison with existing data sets from comparable contexts (e.g. domestic/residential, administrative/public, etc.) at rural village sites in the region. In order to test prevailing theories about the development of centralized urban institutions and the rise of early state-ordered societies in the southern Levant, this initiative seeks to address the following research questions:

(1) Did subsistence practices become less diversified, emphasizing strategies that intensified production and maximized crop yields?

(2) Did animal husbandry efforts intensify, shifting toward the market exchange of animal products?

(3) Did craft industries (primarily ceramic and lithic) develop from dispersed household production levels into larger-scale more centralized configurations?

(4) Were redistributive exchange systems replaced by market-oriented ones; and

III. The specific project goals of Phase I of TMAP are:

(1) Assemble extensive, quantifiable collections of botanical, faunal, ceramic, and lithic materials for each of the principal phases of occupation at the site.

(2) Map and record associated architectural remains.

(3) Conduct the preliminary processing and laboratory analysis of the material evidence recovered.

(4) Integrate the architectural and artifact records in a relational database that will permit the detailed regional comparative analyses necessary to address the research objectives outlined above.

(5) Did an organizational shift occur in social structure away from an emphasis on kin-based extended family networks?