Jordan's Stonehenge: The Endangered Chalcolithic/Early Bronze Age Site at Al-Murayghât - Hajr al-Mansûb

Stephen H. Savage, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Box 872402, Tempe, AZ 85287-2402.

Introduction

The ceremonial landscape of Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age Jordan (Table 1) is unique in the Near East, though it bears a striking resemblance to that of Western Europe and the British Isles during a similar period. Perhaps for that reason, early travelers to Jordan were impressed by the thousands of dolmens (prehistoric monuments of two or more upright stones supporting a horizontal stone slab, which may have functioned as tombs or sites of primary internment prior to secondary burial elsewhere), menhirs (standing stones), stone circles and alignments. Following reports from these early travelers, especially Irby and Mangles (1917-1918) and Condor (1881), archaeologists have begun examining these structures in the light of modern scholarship. Recent discussions include Dubis and Savage 2001; Herr 2002; Ilan 2002; Kafafi and Scheltema 2005; Mortensen and Thuesen 1998 and Palumbo 1998. Many dolmen fields have been mapped, and a few individual dolmens have been excavated.

While considerable knowledge has been gleaned about these ancient ceremonial structures, and new perspectives synthesized, archaeologists are now faced with the rapid destruction of Jordan's megalithic heritage. Kafafi and Scheltema have lamented that "Whereas nineteenth-century visitors spoke about thousands of dolmens, suggesting that modern-day Jordan was at that time still the most densely dolmen-covered part of the Mediterranean, considerably less than a thousand in all seem to remain fairly intact nowadays" (2005: 8). Rapid population expansion following the first and second Iraq wars have spurred urban and infrastructure development in Jordan at an unprecedented pace. Dolmen fields are under attack directly by urban expansion, and directly by stone and gravel quarries. Examples include the Damiyah dolmen field, which is currently endangered by a travertine quarry (van der Kooij 2007), and the dolmen field at Al-Murayghât (Dubis and Savage 2001; Savage and Rollefson 2001).

This article focuses on the site of Al-Murayghât (a.k.a. el-Megheirat, el-Mareighât, Mugheirat), which has been called "Jordan's Stonehenge" for the striking character of its dolmen field and configuration of menhirs and megalithic structures. Though unique, the site is currently in imminent danger of complete destruction from rapidly expanding quarrying activity.

Al-Murayghât is a large, ceremonial site consisting of a series of circles and rectangles of standing stones (menhirs) with cobblestone floors, an extensive menhir and dolmen field that extends over 80 hectares, and a sherd/lithic scatter that stretches across approximately 25 hectares. The dolmen field is concentrated mostly on hills to the west of the central knoll, but there are also dolmens on the hills to the south and north. The ceremonial center of the site occupies a low, denuded hill, with very little soil between bedrock terraces. The larger site is spread across an area that is currently planted in barley to the west, which indicates some soil depth. Other, unplanted areas near the road from Ma`in reveal approximately 1.5 meters of gray, midden-like soil, containing numerous artifacts. The site is located southwest of Ma`in, partly within a large gravel quarry, whose excavation is currently destroying the hills upon which the dolmen field is located, and northeast of a more recent gravel quarry that threatens to expand into the western edge of the site.

Based on ceramic evidence, Al-Murayghât was occupied during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age, though there are indications that it was used over a much longer period of time. An Epipaleolithic component in the stone tools indicates when the site was first used; the dominant ceramic forms are from the EB I period. Other researchers have indicated that a Chalcolithic component, and possibly an EB III/IV component are present as well, though a surface collection, conducted by the author in 2000 did not identify ceramics from these periods. A small Roman/Byzantine component is also present, and the site is currently cultivated, and in summer months it is occupied by migratory pastoralists. It is therefore subject to damage from agriculture, erosion, vandalism, and especially by the expansion of gravel quarries located to the southwest and northeast of the site. Here I describe describe the discovery of the site, its configuration and artifact assemblage, and discuss the impact on the site of ongoing gravel quarrying in the vicinity.

Early Reports from al-Murayghât:

The first description of Al-Murayghât comes from Charles Irby and James Mangles, two Commanders in the British Royal Navy who, in 1817 and 1818, were the first westerners to openly visit the interior of the Levant since the Crusader Period. Following Nelson's defeat of Napoleon's naval forces at the Battle of the Nile (1798), and William Sidney Smith's successful defense of Acco in 1799, the Royal Navy had acquired such a level of prestige with the Ottoman Empire that Irby and Mangles were able to secure permission to tour the region. Like many Royal Navy officers of the time, they probably went to sea in their early teens, if not before, following a brief general education (see O'Brian, 1995). Once at sea, as "young gentlemen," they were expertly trained in a specific set of skills, including gunnery, ship handling, command, and celestial navigation. They learned to write a good report. Their ideas about ancient history, though, were informed by the Old Testament, based on Ussher's 6,000-year chronology; their cultural outlook was framed by early Victorian mores and the indisputable supremacy of the Royal Navy. Though they had the permission of high Ottoman officials to travel in the region, the trip was full of incidents