Signs of sedentism and mobility in an agro-pastoral community during the Levantine Middle Bronze Age: Interpreting site function and occupation strategy at Zahrat adh-Dhra‘ 1 in Jordan

Abstract

Successfully interpreting levels of permanence at archaeological sites is frequently hampered by the difficulty of correlating sedentary or mobile behavior with specific material culture traits. Owing to the diversity of occupation strategies, which can combine varying levels of permanence with any number of economic subsistence strategies and behavioral characteristics, archaeologists have remained divided over which methodological approaches are the most suitable. In the southern Levant, sedentary and mobile groups enjoyed a close and persistent relationship, which stimulated a flexible approach to occupation strategies, and allowed for fluctuations in levels of permanence among the same social groups through time. Such fluctuations have generated a problematic material record that can contain signs of both sedentary and mobile behaviors. Examination of the agriculturally marginal Middle Bronze II settlement of Zahrat adh-Dhra‘ 1, located on the Dead Sea Plain of Jordan, illustrates the difficulties associated with interpreting occupation strategies for southern Levantine sites. The material culture record from the site, comprising evidence for economic subsistence, trade, settlement and behavior, provides at times conflicting signals for a sedentary, semi-sedentary (transhumant), or possibly non-sedentary occupation. Due to a lack of clearly prescribed indices for interpreting the permanence levels of sites, interpretations must rely on a flexible, inductive approach, which seeks to balance suites of evidence in preference to a rigid correlation with ethnographically derived models.