Agriculture and Storage Practices in an Early Iron Age Household: Analyses of Plant Macro Remains at Tell Abu al-Kharaz, Jordan Valley

Abstract

The discovery of exceptionally well-pre- served plant macroremains in an early Iron Age (11th century BCE) compound in Tell Abu al- Kharaz, Jordan Valley, sheds light on agricultural and storage practices in the Southern Levant. The samples, which primarily were intended to serve as dating material, were collected in four different basement rooms of the compound. The analysed samples consisted of edible plants such as wheat, barley, chickpea, grass pea, flax, lentil, olive, pomegranate and common grape. In contrast to other Levantine sites, where free-threshing wheat dominates in the Iron Age, the dominant cereal crop at Tell Abu al-Kharaz was emmer wheat, which is more tolerant to drought and poor soils and less susceptible to diseases. It is also easier to store, because is more resistant to pests, yet requires more work to process than free-threshing wheats. The assemblage in one of the rooms represents prime grain in the final stages of crop processing for meal preparation, which is further supported by the presence of (bread) ovens (tawabin and tananir) as well as mortars and grinding imple- ments in the compound. Judging by the storage capacity and the variety of botanical remains, it is suggested that the basement of the compound represents a private storage facility associated with domestic areas in the upper storey, rather than a communal storeroom.