A major disappointment of the group had to do with the absence of firm evidence from the patriarchal period to confirm the biblical story of the conquest of the Amorite king, Sihon, by the Israelites (Numbers 21). After all, this was the principal reason that Dr. Horn started excavations at Tell Hesban in 1968 and his reason for naming the original project the "Heshbon Expedition."

After Horn's retirement, his younger colleagues and students—Larry Geraty, Larry Herr, Øystein LaBianca, Doug Clark, Bjornar Storfjell, Larry Mitchell, David Merling, and Randall Younker—continued the excavations, establishing an ongoing program of archaeological and anthropological research in the wider region surrounding Hesban. The Madaba Plains Project, as it was now called, expanded to include excavations at the sister sites of Tell al-'Umayri and Tell Jalul in 1984 and 1992, respectively.

The continued surveys and excavations around Hesban yielded dividends far beyond what anyone imagined. The Madaba Plains Project has advanced not only the archaeology of the patriarchal period in the region (see below), but placed the archaeology of the Ammonites and Moabites in Jordan on solid footing. The project has also made significant contributions to Edomite, Israelite, Hellenistic, Roman-Byzantine, and Islamic archaeology in the Holy Land.

In 1996 Øystein LaBianca returned to Hesban, in part to clean and restore the ruins at the site (photo of restoration) and to seek answers to a number of questions that had arisen after two decades of research around Umayri and Jalul. Excavations showed that enormous changes occurred over the centuries in the lifestyles of ancient peoples. During some periods most residents had lived as farmers—growing cereals, olives, and grapes. During other periods people moved from place to place with their herds of camels, sheep, and goats in a seminomadic lifestyle. At such times, the sites appear to have been used as seasonal camps, with people living among the ruins of abandoned houses, as well as in caves and tents.

In 1997 a research grant from the National Geographic Society allowed LaBianca to study how these shifting lifestyles may have contributed to changes in climate and rainfall, and how they may have helped people feed and shelter themselves in a region prone to great political and environmental uncertainty.

Answers to these questions are emerging through painstaking study of animal bones and carbonized seeds from plants unearthed by excavators at Hesban. While climatic factors may have played a minor role in drying up the local landscape, the biggest factor appears to have been the cutting down of trees over the centuries every time people returned to settled life in villages and towns.

Other exciting discoveries by the renewed Hesban Project include a large, inscribed dedicatory lintel stone that probably came from an entrance to the sixth-century A.D. Christian basilica on the summit. Keith Mattingly, administrative director of the Hesban team and religion professor at Andrews University, will be publishing the inscription at a later date.

Of great interest to Middle East historians and the Jordanian public is what the renewed excavations tell us about rural Islam. Most of what is known about Islamic history during the Golden Age of Islam (ca. A.D. 700-1200) comes from urban contexts. The reports of our excavations about Muslim life in small agricultural villages are filling a significant gap in the research literature. Much of the credit for this exciting new line of research goes to Bethany Walker, a young medieval archaeologist on the leadership team at Hesban.

Tell al-'Umayri—Finally, First Glimpses
of the Amorites.³
Excavations at the site of Umayri have uncovered some of the best-preserved finds from the Old Testament period in all of Jordan. The site is not a large one and cannot definitely be identified with a biblical city, although Abel-keramim of Judges 11:33 is a good candidate.

In earlier seasons we found remains from the time of the patriarchs. The earliest discovery was a grave constructed of huge stones, or megaliths, called a dolmen, holding 20 skeletons and 20 pottery vessels. There was also a well-organized town with houses and alleyways dating slightly earlier than the time of Abraham. After a period when no one lived at the site, new people came while Jacob and Joseph were in Egypt and built an artificial rampart around the settlement, making it look like a huge saucer with the houses inside the bowl. These were probably the Amorites mentioned in the Bible.

The best finds this past summer came from the time of Moses. When the Israelites traveled through ancient Moab on their way to the Promised Land (Numbers 21), they defeated the Amorites and destroyed nearby Heshbon. Possibly the Amorites living at Umayri were included in the destruction.

Few towns and cities existed in the area at that time; but surprisingly, in 1996, we discovered a large building, excavated over the next five seasons, which turned out to be one of the best-preserved buildings in all of the Holy Land from the time of Moses. The walls are almost four feet thick and are preserved about 10 feet high, and there is still more to go!

This summer the building was identified as a temple, complete with a whitewashed niche in a wall that held five curiously rounded stones set in plaster. Many other sites have produced standing stones, but none with the rounded, almost domed, stones as in this niche. Usually such stones represented gods, so perhaps this group represented a main god with four others associated with him/her. We can only guess at who the gods may have been. The chief Amorite god was named El, but it could have been Baal just as well, since he took on importance about this time.

The temple was destroyed by violence, leaving chalices, bowls, and lamps perched around the standing stones in the niche. Fallen bricks filled the room from the top story, which probably extended upward another 10 feet. It is possible that the Israelites destroyed it as they marched toward Jericho, although other peoples could have as well—such as Egyptians, Ammonites, or raiding desert tribes.

In earlier seasons we found several well-preserved houses from the time of the judges. One of them still contained the home furnishings and food that were inside when it was destroyed around 1200 B.C. This season we found the upper parts of walls belonging to more neighboring houses.

Around 1100 B.C. the inhabitants, probably Ammonites by this time, built an open-air, cobbled sanctuary with several model shrines, which we found broken in bits on the floor. This sanctuary was reused for several centuries, with multiple floors one on top of the other. The Ammonite occupation culminated in a large administrative center from the time of the Babylonian Empire, which may have overseen the production of wine for tribute, since earlier seasons revealed more than 80 seals and other indications of official government activity.

Following this time, the site seems to have diminished in importance, becoming an agricultural area. We excavated a large, Hellenistic (second century B.C.) farm that probably belonged to a rural family. There were signs of earlier structures, made of huge stones, under the farm buildings, but we don't know exactly when they were constructed. There is much more to find and to learn, and each little bit helps us picture life in Bible times better than before.

Tell Jalul—Mysterious Caves and Skeletons.⁴
We do not yet know the ancient biblical identity of this site. It's close to Hesban and Mount Nebo and was occupied throughout biblical times. As the largest site in the region, it undoubtedly played an important role throughout biblical history, and some have suggested that its name was Heshbon in earlier periods. Perhaps an inscription may be found one day that will shed light on this ancient city's identity.

Finds during previous seasons included a large Persian building from the time of Queen Esther, and the approach roads and gateways to the city during the time of the Israelite prophets (the ninth to sixth centuries B.C.). From this same period, we found a large building divided into three long rooms, known as a tripartite building, which undoubtedly played an important economic and administrative role in the city.

More recently we excavated a mysterious cave located beneath a seventh-century B.C. house that contained more than a dozen skeletons of men, women, and children. Could these be ancient Ammonites who were killed during an attack on their town? Small finds also from this house included clay figures of horse and rider and seals with Ammonite names. Elsewhere on the site we found small figurines of other animals, including a lion.

Jalul must have been on the southernmost border of the Ammonite kingdom. Pots, figurines, and inscriptions are virtually identical to other Ammonite sites to the north, including Hesban, Umayri, and even Amman, the capital of the Ammonites. But just a few miles to the south, archaeological sites contain material objects and inscriptions that seem to be distinctively Moabite. Hence, Jalul was an important frontier city for Ammon for at least part of its history.

Last summer the Jalul team joined forces with Art Chadwick and Larry Turner of Southwestern Adventist University to remap the site, using Global Positioning System (GPS) technology. Chadwick and Turner had already proven its usefulness at their dinosaur dig in Wyoming. The data points, accurate to within a few millimeters, were combined with digital photographs taken from a Jordanian military helicopter, and the computer software created a three-dimensional "map" of the entire ancient city that can be rotated and viewed from any angle on a computer. It is possible to "zoom in" and see individual features such as streets, walls, and even small objects in 3-D color! According to Younker, Madaba Plains Project is among the first to apply this mapping technology to a dig in the Holy Land, placing Adventist scholars again on the cutting edge of archaeological research.

Postscript: All three Madaba Plains Projects welcome participants from all walks of life, as long as they are in excellent health and are good campers. The typical field season runs for five to six weeks during May-August, although participants may come for only a half season if they wish. The Jalul team will return to the field in May 2005. Excavations at Umayri are planned for June and July of 2006, and Hesban for May-June 2007.⁵ For more information, please visit our Web site: www.madabaplains.org .

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¹ MPP Hesban is a joint endeavor of the Department of Behavioral Sciences and the Institute of Archaeology at Andrews University.
² These expeditions were sponsored by Andrews University.
³ Sponsored by La Sierra University in consortium with Canadian University College, the Division of Architecture at Andrews University, Mount Royal College (Calgary), Pacific Union College, and Walla Walla College.
⁴ MPP Jalul is a joint endeavor of the Institute of Archaeology and the Department of Old Testament at the Theological Seminary at Andrews University.
⁵ All three projects are grateful for excellent cooperation and support for their work by the Department of Antiquities of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. We also want to extend a heartfelt thanks to each of the Seventh-day Adventist colleges that have contributed faculty and students to our projects.

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Øystein S. LaBianca is a professor of anthropology and an associate director of the Institute of Archaeology at Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan. Also contributing to this article were Larry Herr, professor of religious studies at Canadian University College in Alberta, Canada; and Randall Younker, director of the Institute of Archaeology at Andrews University.

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