Northwest Quarter Research Articles

Analysis of mosaic mortars from the Roman, Byzantine and Early Islamic periods sourced from Gerasa’s Northwest Quarter

This study analyses and compares around 650 years of mosaic mortar production spanning the Roman, late Roman and Umayyad periods, at Gerasa/Jerash in Jordan, offering a better understanding of composition, structural features, and manufacturing processes. It assesses the value of optical and electron microscopy examination of morphological and textural features, pore structure using MIP, and composition studies using EDX, XRD, FTIR, TGA, and Raman spectroscopy. The study indicated high density lime adhesive was used compared to other mortars. Wood was used as a fuel when producing the lime and natural fibres were incorporated when manufacturing mortars. Aggregates were primarily calcitic with a small proportion of silica-based aggregates. Key outcomes of the study conclude that early Roman mortars were of highest quality, which was demonstrated through the careful selection of materials including different stone for lime and tesserae, and differences between layers. Late Roman mortars used the same slaked lime plus fibres and charcoal. Mortars dating from the Umayyad period also had the same higher lime content than late Roman, but higher porosity with fibres and charcoal. In general, the mortars showed slight differences in content and aggregate; different stone for lime and tesserae. The research attests to underlying traditions as well as changes in mortar mixes and methods according to context and time. The resulting data is contextualized within local and regional approaches.

:Metal Finds and Coins: Final Publications from the Danish-German Jerash Northwest Quarter Project II

:<i>Metal Finds and Coins: Final Publications from the Danish-German Jerash Northwest Quarter Project II</i>

Hellenistic and Roman Gerasa: The Archaeology and History of a Decapolis City. Edited by Achim Lichtenberger and Rubina Raja. Turnhout: Brepols 2020. Pp. xviii + 390. €110. ISBN 978-2-503-58504-8 (paper).

<i>Hellenistic and Roman Gerasa: The Archaeology and History of a Decapolis City</i>. Edited by Achim Lichtenberger and Rubina Raja. Turnhout: Brepols 2020. Pp. xviii + 390. €110. ISBN 978-2-503-58504-8 (paper).

Radiocarbon dating of lime plaster from a Roman period cistern in ancient Gerasa, Jerash in Jordan

Ancient Gerasa (Jerash, since the Islamic period) is a city with a rich archaeological heritage from prehistory onwards, with the periods from Roman times into the Early Islamic period best attested. A Danish-German team has been working in the Northwest Quarter of the city since 2011. Among the findings was a Roman period monumental cistern that was intentionally filled in, at one point in time. The complexity of the archaeology raised chronological questions regarding the construction, destruction and subsequent backfilling of the cistern. This study contributed to answer these questions by radiocarbon dating lime plaster excavated from the cistern, and comparing the results with charcoal radiocarbon dates from other studies. Radiocarbon dating of plaster and mortar in Jerash is challenging because of contamination of geological carbonates from the local limestone geology. Quoting previous mortar dating studies, this study utilized sample characterization by alkalinity screening, petrography, SEM-EDS, and sample pre-treatment and preparation by wet sieving, sedimentation and stepwise injection. The plaster dates argued for the construction of the cistern being in the last half of the 1st century BCE to the middle of the 1st century CE. A few samples had later mortar dates, which argued for the filling event of the cistern taking place sometime in the late 3rd century CE or later.

Exotic glass types and the intensity of recycling in the northwest Quarter of Gerasa (Jerash, Jordan)

Major and trace elements are presented for 149 glass fragments ranging in date from the Roman to Early Islamic periods (1st – mid-8th centuries CE), excavated during the Danish-German Jerash Northwest Quarter Project's fieldwork between 2011 and 2016. The results confirm a clear dominance of Levantine glass types, but also reveal 12 glasses of Egyptian and Mesopotamian compositions recovered from two houses destroyed by the major earthquake which hit parts of the Levant in January 749 CE. These closed and undisturbed contexts from the final phase of occupation reveal the presence of relatively more pristine Levantine as well as imported material that is less visible in earlier contexts in the Gerasa assemblage, where the recycling indexes are high and chemical signatures of any exotic glass were largely lost due to remelting and their dilution by the overwhelming quantities of glass produced in the Levantine region. This emphasizes that imported glass may frequently be underestimated or even invisible in glass compositional studies, depending on the archaeological context sampled and the approach taken to artifact quantification.Levantine glass was attributed to Roman, Late Roman (Jalame) and Byzantine/Early Islamic (Apollonia) productions based primarily on MnO, Al2O3 and Na2O concentrations, which offered an advantage over previous approaches. While colorants in weakly colored glass indicate recycled material, their concentrations are sensitive to context, with higher concentrations in the early periods when the use of intentionally colored glass was more frequent. We have therefore developed the concept of the intensity of recycling, which was estimated using components modified during prolonged melting, such as K2O, P2O5 and Cl. A pronounced enrichment in CaO, also dependent upon the intensity of recycling, may affect the assignment to compositional groups and should be taken into consideration in future. Recycling in Gerasa appears to have been more intensive than was the case for cities closer to the primary production centers on the Mediterranean coast, consistent with the view that the dependency on recycling increases further away from the source of the primary material. In contrast, the cities in the coastal plain could readily exploit the marine transportation network, which appears to have played a major role in the distribution of raw glass. (361 words).

Achim Lichtenberger et Rubina Raja (éd.), Environmental Studies, Remote Sensing, and Modelling: Final Publications from the Danish-German Jerash Northwest Quarter Project I

Achim Lichtenberger et Rubina Raja (éd.), Environmental Studies, Remote Sensing, and Modelling: Final Publications from the Danish-German Jerash Northwest Quarter Project I

New Insights from Middle Islamic Ceramics from Jerash

This article presents selected contextualized ceramic finds of the Middle Islamic period from the Northwest Quarter in Jerash, where a settlement of the same period has been investigated over the last years (2011–2016) within the framework of the Danish-German Jerash Northwest Quarter Project. Twenty-four sherds from various vessel types were selected for petrographic analysis, with 17 of these undergoing organic residue analysis as well. We bring together here the results of these analyses and present the sherds in their archaeological contexts together with the new information from the archaeo-scientific analyses. While on the basis of the results we cannot conclude much about specific vessels being assigned certain kinds of foods, we do present wide-ranging results of differing local and imported ceramics as well as a variety of animal and vegetal remains. The results bring to the forefront new knowledge about clay varieties and availability of different kinds of foodstuffs in Middle Islamic Jerash, a topic which is understudied.

A Study of the Centuries-Long Reliance on Local Ceramics in Jerash Through Full Quantification and Simulation

The Danish-German Jerash Northwest Quarter Project revealed a robust and striking pattern of the extreme dominance (>99%) of locally produced ceramics over six centuries and across different depositional contexts (in total over half a million pottery sherds). The archaeology of Jerash points towards an exceptional degree of self-sufficiency in craft products: why? The project team implemented a full quantification approach during excavation, manually and digitally recording and counting all pottery and other classes of artefacts. This enabled a full analysis of trends in production and use of ceramics throughout the archaeologically documented history of Jerash and revealed the unexpected pattern of the extreme dominance of local pottery. Archaeologists formulated a set of hypotheses to explain this pattern, and we developed an agent-based model of simple customer preference driving product distribution to evaluate several explanatory factors and their potential interactions. Our simulation results reveal that preference for locally produced ceramics at Jerash might be a plausible theory, but only if its intrinsic value was considered rather high in comparison to other goods, or if it was preferred by a majority of the population, and there was a tendency to follow this majority preference (or a combination of these factors). Here, we present a complete research pipeline of a full quantification of ceramics, analysis and modelling applicable at any archaeological site. We argue that transparent methods are necessary at all stages of an archaeological project: not only for data collection, management and analysis but also in theory development and testing. By focusing on a common archaeological material and by leveraging a range of widely available computational tools, we are able to better understand local and intra-regional distribution patterns of craft products in Jerash and in the ancient eastern Mediterranean.

Loose glass tesserae and lost decorations: chronology and production of mosaics from Gerasa's Northwest Quarter.

Laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA‐ICP‐MS) analyses of loose glass tesserae from the Northwest Quarter of Gerasa/Jerash has enhanced our understanding of the dynamics regulating the production and circulation of glass tesserae in second‐ to eighth‐centuries ce Jordan and the diachronic development of mosaics at the site. The identification of Levantine and Egyptian compositions (Roman‐Mn, Levantine I, HIMT, Foy 2.1) proves the continuous production of mosaics from the second to the seventh centuries. The Levantine I tesserae were made by the recycling and colouring of glass cullet. The gilded tesserae, in contrast, were all of an Egyptian base glass, likely illustrating the import of finished tesserae.

Trends in ceramic assemblages from the Northwest Quarter of Gerasa/Jerash, Jordan

Past peoples left behind preciously little for us to reconstruct their daily lives and histories. However, some types of archaeological material stand the test of time better than others thanks to their durability and ubiquity, and foremost among them: the ceramic evidence. Pottery often serves as a proxy for the reconstruction of a variety of aspects of a past life: the wealth of city inhabitants, the function of spaces (Smith, 1987), cultural transmission between craftsmen (Coto-Sarmiento et al., 2018) or trading interactions (Brughmans and Poblome, 2016). However, to take full advantage of the wealth of information that can be derived from pottery evidence it is essential to use robust analytic methods establishing the full distribution in ceramic use and discard and its evolution over time.Here, we present a comprehensive data analysis of ceramic material coming from the Northwest Quarter of Jerash, present-day Jordan. It is one of the first examples of full quantification of an archaeological site of this age in the region. More than 625 000 pieces of pottery have been collected, recorded and analysed. We describe the process of data preparation, cleaning, exploratory analysis and statistical examination as well as visualisation. All steps of data analysis have been undertaken in the Python scripting environment making the process entirely transparent, reproducible and reusable for other researchers. We showcase how full quantification combined with quantitative analysis can lead to detection of significant trends in pottery evolution over centuries and enable robust comparative studies in the region and beyond.

Copper-based metalwork in Roman to early Islamic Jerash (Jordan): Insights into production and recycling through alloy compositions and lead isotopes

Metallographic, chemical and lead isotopic analyses of copper-based artefacts recovered from the Northwest Quarter in Jerash (ancient Gerasa) in Jordan provide new information on the civic life and material culture from a key urban site in the Roman Empire’s eastern provinces. The samples span the city’s occupation from its flourishing under Roman rule into the Byzantine and early Islamic periods. We examined 49 copper-based artefacts using reflected light microscopy and micro-X-ray fluorescence. A subset of these artefacts was analysed by electron microprobe spectroscopy for major and minor elements at higher spatial resolution, and by multicollector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry for lead isotopes. Results imply that binary bronze dominated the Roman period, (leaded) brass characterised the Byzantine period, while tin-containing alloys were prevalent during the Islamic period. Lead isotopes suggest that during the Roman and Byzantine periods some of the metal in Jerash came from European and/or Mediterranean sources, while copper used during the Islamic period may have been sourced more locally from Timna. The changes in alloy types and lead isotopes suggest that recycling of metals took place in Jerash possibly as early as the Roman period and more frequent from the Byzantine period onwards.

From nummi minimi to ful\u016bs\u2014small change and wider issues: characterising coinage from Gerasa/Jerash (Late Roman to Umayyad periods)

New compositional and metallographic data are presented for the fourth to eighth century CE copper coins from the Northwest Quarter of Gerasa/Jerash, Jordan. The majority of the coins are small copper and copper alloy nummi minimi from the Late Roman and Byzantine periods. Also represented are pre-reform and post-reform fulūs minted under the Umayyad dynasty. Seventy-one coins (55 Roman, 4 Byzantine, 3 pre-reform and 9 post-reform) were characterised using optical microscopy and micro-X-ray fluorescence (μ-XRF) spectroscopy. Lead (Pb) isotopes were measured for a subset of coins. We find that all coins were cast as flans before striking and that there is a discernible increase in alloying and debasement of copper during the fifth century CE and end of the seventh century CE. The Pb isotope results suggest the use of copper metal from the Aegean and the Arabah, and lead metal from Western Europe. The temporal changes in the alloy composition suggest periods of optimisation in the use of raw materials whilst maintaining a continuity in the technology used in minting coinage, perhaps related to broader economic and monetary issues associated with the fifth century CE and the coin reform of ‘Abd al-Malik.

A new inscribed amulet from Gerasa (Jerash)

During the 2016 campaign of the Danish-German Jerash Northwest Quarter Project, a gem was discovered in a fill layer, which had been intentionally filled in in order to close a large, well-constructed Roman-period cistern. The amuletic ring-stone considered here adds to the magic material known from Jerash. Although the gem was found out of its primary context, both the iconographic scene on the obverse and the magical inscription on the reverse are unparalleled. The stone belongs to a group of magical amulets in which an image prompted by Classical mythology is combined with an inscription that transforms the image into a specifically magical object intended to act as a love spell.

Mosaicists at work: the organisation of mosaic production in Early Islamic Jerash

Abstract

An Umayyad period magical amulet from a domestic context in Jerash, Jordan

During the 2014 campaign of the Danish-German Northwest Quarter Project in Jerash a small metal capsule was found in a house destroyed by an earthquake in the mid-8th cent. ce. The capsule, which retained traces of textile fibres, was conserved and proved to contain a tightly-rolled strip of silver foil (lamella) which, on removal, turned out to be inscribed with letters of Semitic character. Since it could not be unfolded manually, it was submitted to computed tomography and ‘unfolded’ digitally by means of special software. This article presents the lamella and its capsule as well as the archaeological context, a private house sealed by an earthquake in the mid-8th cent. ce on the eastern terrace of the Northwest Quarter in Jerash. The lamella, which also contains a few charakteres (magical signs), is interpreted as a magical amulet, which stands in a Semitic and Greco-Roman tradition but in this case surely stems from the Umayyad period.

New Archaeological Research in the Northwest Quarter of Jerash and Its Implications for the Urban Development of Roman Gerasa

New Archaeological Research in the Northwest Quarter of Jerash and Its Implications for the Urban Development of Roman Gerasa

Intentional Cooking Pot Deposits in Late Roman Jerash (Northwest Quarter)

Abstract – During the 2012 campaign of the Danish-German Northwest Quarter Project in Jerash, ancient Gerasa, three intentionally deposited cooking pots were found in a fill layer. Two of them were almost intact and discovered with ashes and other finds inside. Another one was fragmented and also held ashes inside. The cooking pot deposits are likely to have been termination deposits. It is the scope of this paper to discuss the context and function of these deposits and of comparable evidences. No completely conclusive explanation for the three deposited cooking pots from the Northwest Quarter can be given, but the context gives clear indications that they were deposited intentionally and were only in some sort of use for a short period of time. They were not part of an installation, such as a kitchen or production complex and they were not part of an ancient dump. The homogenous fill layers surrounding them indicate a rapid and intentional filling —a process in which these deposited pots played a role. We here suggest a possible ritual or magic function of these pots as termination deposits, but this can only be confirmed further by comparable finds excavated and documented in detail at other sites as well as better knowledge of the room that was backfilled and ritually closed with termination deposits. The main purpose of this article is to raise awareness of such deposits in archaeological contexts, which may too often be overlooked.

An architectural block with altar-iconography from the North-west Quarter of Jerash

This article considers a monumental architectural limestone block with altar-iconography that was found during the 2012 campaign of the Danish–German North-west Quarter project. The project, which began in 2011, has mapped the highest area within the walled city, the so-called North-west Quarter, which had hitherto remained largely unexplored. The monumental block, which was in secondary use as a late antique oil press, gives new insight into the local building traditions in Gerasa. The authors suggest that this block originally came from a building with a sacred function. Through comparison with other local sanctuaries from the region, as well as from Gerasa itself where the tradition of the horned altar-motif seems to have been flourishing in the Roman period, it is shown that this block might have belonged to a sanctuary dedicated to a deity of a local character.

Radiocarbon analysis of mortar from Roman and Byzantine water management installations in the Northwest Quarter of Jerash, Jordan

Jerash (Gerasa) in northwestern Jordan is an important Decapolis city displaying urban development for more than a millennium beginning in the late Hellenistic period (1st century CE). Despite more than a hundred years of archaeological explorations at the site there are still major questions about the city's urban development which are left open due to the nature of the archaeological investigations undertaken at the site. This in particular pertains to questions about the city's extension in the Roman period. During the investigations undertaken by the Danish–German Northwest Quarter Project since 2011 it has become clear that this area of the city partly has undergone extensive phases of reuse and therefore a strict chronology is difficult to obtain through the archaeological strata themselves. In the 2013 campaign excavation was undertaken in the largest cistern within the city walls, which is located in the Northwest Quarter. The cistern was in parts lined with several layers of mortar belonging to different phases of use. Furthermore water pressure pipes embedded in mortar were found in-situ on the hill. Since methods for dating mortar have become more refined over the later years it was decided to have 14C AMS dating of 25 samples done in order to test chronology and relative phases in the cistern and the construction of the water pressure pipe system in order and clarify dating as well as possible relation between the cistern and the pipes. These results together with the archaeological evidence show that the urban development of Gerasa and its extension in the Roman period needs to be reconsidered and that there now seems to be hard evidence for among other things water supply in the Northwest Quarter dating to the Roman period which is earlier in this part of the city than usually assumed.