Umm
el-Jimal
PROJECT HISTORY AND FIELDWORK |
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Umm el-Jimal became known to travelers in the middle of the 19th century, but major early work was done by the Princedton University Expedition to Southern Syria in 1905 and 1909, directed by Howard C. Butler. In the winter of 1904-5 Butler's team made the first site map which included its public buildings: Praetorium, Barracks, 15 churches, reservoirs, gates, 20 of its 131 houses, monumental tombs. This was published along with an excellent verbal description and restored plans of typical buildings (Butler 1913). Numerous Greek, Latin, Nabataean, Safaitic and Arabic inscriptions were catalogued by E. Littmann (1913). G. Horsfield published early aerial photographs (1937), and N. Glueck included Umm el-Jimal in his assessment of Nabataean influence on south Syria (1951). In 1956 G. U. S. Corbett did exploratory excavations of the Julianos Church, from which he determined that Butler's founding date in the 4th cent. was erroneously based on a reused funerary text (1957).
Back to TopThe Umm el-Jimal Project has consisted of 8 field seasons over 22 years, directed by Bert de Vries and based at Calvin College. The first phase consisted of 5 campaigns that ended in 1984, and the current phase is a series of field seasons in the summers of 1992, 3, 4 and beyond. The overarching purpose of the project has been to understand rural life on the Arabian desert frontier during the succession of Roman, Byzantine and Early Islamic hegemonies. This began with the study of what was visible above ground, the late antique town just described, but two major discoveries forced a backward expansion of historical horizons. The first is a 4th century Roman fort (castellum) within the perimeter wall of the town, ruined and abandoned as the town grew around it. The second is a totally ruined village, about half the size of the town and two hundred meters to its east, dated to the heyday of Nabataean and Roman expansion in the Hauran (1st-3rd cent. A.D.). This field work history follows in greater detail. Back to TopThe 1972--1973 season was devoted to mapping of the site, in order to fill in the details omitted from the selective architectural survey done by H.C. Butler's Princeton University Expedition. In 1974 preliminary soundings were dug, which determined that the basic stratigraphic profile ranged from Late Roman to Umayyad. In 1977 the focus was on four major structures: The Barracks, Praetorium, House XVIII and the perimeter wall. The major results were the determination that the town had continuous habitation from the Late Roman through the Umayyad periods and that no Early Roman/Nabataean occupation levels were found. The fall of 1977 was devoted to the consolidation of the Barracks perimeter walls with force-pumped aerated cement. View Field Reports of Excavation Back to TopIn 1981 new work included excavation of the Northeast Church, the Numerianos Church, various water channels and the via nova traiana (6 km to the west). This work confirmed that the standing buildings are mainly the product of a rural agrarian culture that flourished in the Hauran from the 4th to the 8th centuries. A major discovery was the identification of the 100 m x 100 m ruined area between the Roman reservoir and the East Church as a castellum built ca. A.D. 300 and used as part of the Roman frontier defenses in the fourth century. In January of 1983 the gate of House XVIII was cleared and its walls consolidated. View Field Reports of Excavation Back to TopIn 1984 further work was done on churches and the Roman castellum. However, the major focus shifted to activities outside the walls of the Byzantine-Umayyad town. These included the completion of a walking survey of terrain within 10 km of the town, and the excavation of cemeteries and reservoirs east of the town. The major discovery that season was the Nabataean/Roman village buried under the rubble field (called al-Herri) adjacent to those reservoirs. Field dates indicate that the village began in the late 1st cent. A.D., at the time of the last Nabataean expansion into southern Syria, flourished in the 2nd and 3rd, and was destroyed during the turmoil of the late 3rd or early 4th century. The presence of this Nabataean/Roman site does much to explain the lack of earlier occupation layers under the Byzantine town. The numerous Nabataean and Greek tombstone inscriptions reused secondarily in the town must have been robbed from the cemeteries of this earlier village. View Field Reports of Excavation Back to TopIn 1992 only surface work was done. This included architectural study of four Late Roman and Early Byzantine structures (Houses 35, 49, 119 and the Praetorium) and detailed mapping of the castellum and the Nabataean/Roman village, including low altitude aerial photography by Wilson and Ellie Myers. This survey data has been used to develop Geographic Information System computer images and maps of the site. The 1993 season focused on consolidation and site development, including the stabilizing of the high walls of the Praetorium, and excavation of House 119 in preparation for its adaptation as a museum and visitor center. House 119 proved to be a completely Umayyad construction on a cleared Byzantine domestic site. Field research in the 1994 and subsequent seasons concentrated on the systematic excavation of a house in the Nabataean Roman village and of 13 late antique cist burials in the modern village west of the Byzantine-Umayyad town. View Field Reports of Excavation Back to TopA simplified version of the history of the site follows from the above results: From the 1st to the 3rd centuries A.D. a small Arab village with both Nabataean and Roman features flourished at al-Herri until its destruction. Meanwhile, the Praetorium and a few other imperial Roman structures were erected 200 m to the west. Then ca. A.D. 300 the earlier castellum was built, which lost its military function late in the 4th century. To replace it, the much smaller Barracks was constructed early in the 5th cent. Then, as imperial military presence diminished, the Early Byzantine town of the 5th and 6th centuries, consisting of 131 houses and 15 churches, prospered, a product of self-sufficient economy and security. This town survived in somewhat diminished size through the Umayyad period, but after the catastrophies of the mid-8th centuries (plague and earthquake) human presence was reduced to squatting in the ruins for the next century. Then, after centuries of inactivity, this town enjoyed a brief revival when the Druze resettled it between 1910 and 1935. The ancient name of the site is not known. D. Kennedy has argued convincingly, that Thantia, Butler's suggested name, is better located to the west on the via nova (1982: 148-52), and H. MacAdam has put forward Surattha from Ptolemy's Geography as an alternative (1986: 17). View More Historical Interpretation Back to Top
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