On the Orientation of Megalithic Monuments of the Transjordan Plateau: New Clues for an Astronomical Interpretation

Hoskin M. , Tombs, temples and their orientations: New perspectives in Mediterranean prehistory (Bognor Regis, 2001). For the statistics, see García A. C. González Belmonte J. A. , “Statistical analysis of megalithic tombs orientations in the Iberian Peninsula and neighbouring regions”, Journal for the history of astronomy, xli (2010), 2010–38. In this paper, the data for 40 small dolmens in the Golan area, to the north of Jordan, are presented, apparently showing an eclectic and enigmatic western pattern of orientation.

Scheltema G. , Megalithic Jordan: An introduction and field guide (Amman, 2008).

Belmonte J. A. , “Mediterranean archaeoastronomy and archaeotopography: Two examples of dolmenic necropolises in the Jordan Valley”, Archaeoastronomy supplement to Journal for the history of astronomy, no. 22 (1997), S37–43; and Polcaro A. Polcaro V. F. , “Early Bronze Age dolmens in Jordan and their orientations”, Mediterranean archaeology and archaeometry, vi/3 (2006), 165–71.

The situation was worse than expected.

Irby C. Mangles J. , Travels in Egypt and Nubia, Syria, and the Holy Land (London, 1844).

Conder C. R. , The survey of Eastern Palestine (London, 1889).

Schumacher G. , Across the Jordan: An exploration and survey of part of Hauran and Jaulan (London, 1889).

Irby Mangles , op. cit. (ref. 5), 325.

Schumacher , op. cit. (ref. 7), 68–9.

MacKenzie D. , Megalithic monuments of Rabbat-Hammon at Amman (London, 1911).

Neuville R. , “La necropoli mégalithique d'el-'Adeimeh (Transjordanie)”, Biblica, xi (1930), 249–65. Stekelis Moshe , Les monuments mégalithiques de Palestine (Paris, 1935).

Stekelis M. , La necropolis megalítica de Ala-Safat, Transjordania (Barcelona, 1961).

Stekelis , op. cit. (ref. 12), 61–89.

See: Swauger J. , “1962 study of three dolmen sites in Jordan”, Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, x (1965), 5–36; Gilead D. , “Burial customs and the dolmen problem”, Palestine exploration quarterly, c (1968), 1968–26; Yassine K. , “The dolmens: Construction and dating reconsidered”, Bulletin of the American School of Oriental Research, cclix (1985), 1985–69; Zohar M. , “Megalithic cemeteries in the Levant”, in Pastoralism in the Levant — Archaeological materials in anthropological perspectives, ed. by Yosef Bar O. Khazanov A. (Madison, 1992), 43–64.

See on this topic also: Polcaro A. , “EB I settlements and environment in the Wadi az-Zarqa dolmens and ideology of death”, in Proceedings of the 5th International Congress of the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, 2 April — 8 April 2006, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, ed. by Córdoba J. M. (Madrid, 2008), 31–48.

For a general study of the Levantine dolmens see Steimer-Herbert T. , Classification des sépultures à superstructure lithique dans le Levant et l'Arabie aux IVe et IIIe millénaires av. J.-C. (British Archaeological Reports, International Series 1246; Oxford, 2004).

Stepansky Y. , “The megalithic culture of the Corazim Plateau, Eastern Galilee, Israel”, Mediterranean archaeology and archaeometry , v/1 (2005), 39–50; Paz Y. , “The megalithic manifestation of the urban process at the Golan during the Early Bronze Age”, Mediterranean archaeology and archaeometry, v/1 (2005), 5–14.

Prag K. , “The Dead Sea dolmens: Death and the landscape”, in The archaeology of death in the ancient Near East, ed. by Campbell S. Green A. (Oxford, 1995), 75–84.

Dubis E. Savage S. , “Moab Archaeological Resource Survey: The dolmen field at al-Murayghat”, Archeologia, lii (2001), 91–6; Savage S. , “Jordan's Stonehenge: The endangered Chalcolithic / Early Bronze Age site at al-Murayghat”, Near Eastern archaeology, lxxiii/1 (2010), 32–46.

Dubis E. Mrahleh M. Nawafleh S. , “Two new dolmen fields in the Ash-Shawbak area”, Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, xlviii (2004), 15–24.

Dubis E. Dabrowsky B. , “Field K: The dolmen and other features on the south slopes of Tall al-'Umayri”, in The 1994 season at Tall al-'Umeyri , ed. by Herr L. G. (Berrien Springs, 2002), 171–7.

Kafafi Z. Scheltema G. , “Megalithic structures in Jordan”, Mediterranean archaeology and archaeometry , v/2 (2005), 5–22; see also Scheltema , op. cit. (ref. 2), 7.

See Seaton P. , Chalcolithic cult and risk management at Teleilat Ghassul (British Archaeological Reports, International Series 1864; Oxford, 2008), 139–44.

See on this topic: Steimer-Herbert T. , “Funerary monuments of agro-pastoral populations of the Leja (Southern Syria)”, in Proceedings of the 5th International Congress of the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East (ref. 15), 221–34.

For a recent analysis of the dolmens distribution in Jordan see: Al-Shorman A. , “Testing the function of Early Bronze Age I Dolmens: A GIS Investigation”, Near Eastern archaeology, lxxiii/1 (2010), 46–9.

See on this topic: Polcaro A. , “The stone and the landscape: The phenomenon of megalithic constructions in Jordan in the main historical context of Southern Levant at the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC”, in Identity & connectivity, Proceedings of the 16th Symposium on Mediterranean Archaeology (Florence, 1–3 March 2012), ed. by Bombardieri L. (British Archaeological Reports, 2013; Oxford, in press).

Belmonte , op. cit. (ref. 3).

See Belmonte J. A. Shaltout M. Fekri M. , “Astronomy, landscape and symbolism: A study of the orientation of ancient Egyptian temples”, in In search of cosmic order: Selected essays on Egyptian archaeoastronomy , ed. by Belmonte J. A. Shaltout M. (Cairo, 2009).

Polcaro Polcaro , op. cit. (ref. 3).

See Polcaro Polcaro , op. cit. (ref. 3).

See Polcaro A. , “Jebel Mutawwaq dolmens: Cult of ancestors in EB I Wadi Az-Zarqa Valley, Jordan”, in Proceedings of the 6th International Congress of the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, Rome 5–10 May 2008, ii, ed. by Matthiae P. (Wiesbaden, 2010), 553–66.

See Polcaro A. Polcaro V. F. , “L'orientamento della Porta SE di Rujm el-Hiri”, in L'uomo e il cielo: Atti del VII Congresso SIA, Rome 28–29 Settembre 2007 , ed. by Antonello E. (Rome, 2010), 27–32.

See Polcaro A. , “EB I settlements and environment in the Wadi az-Zarqa: Dolmens and ideology of death”, in Proceedings of the 5th International Congress of the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, 2 April — 8 April 2006, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, ed. by Córdoba J. M. (Madrid, 2008), 31–48.

Djebel al Mutawwaq had at least three different funerary areas where dolmens were constructed around the Early Bronze Age I village located on the southern border of the mountain. The first one was positioned on the south and south eastern slope of the djebel, the nearest to the settlement; the second, also near to the village, was positioned on the western slope; the third and largest dolmen field was located on the northern and eastern slopes of the mountain, far from the settlement.

These and others results of the 2012 excavations to the Djebel al Mutawwaq dolmen field were presented by Andrea Polcaro, Juan Ramón Muñiz Álvarez and Valentín Álvarez Martínez at the XIIth International Conference on the History and Archaeology of Jordan, “Transparent borders”, held in Berlin, 5–11 May 2013. Analysis of the original result of the excavation to the Dahmiyeh dolmen field seems to prove this function of the circular wall surrounding the dolmens: See Stekelis , op. cit. (ref. 12).

The other large dolmen fields in Jordan located near villages of the EB I are at least three in number: Mureighat, where there is a settlement with different circular houses and probably a large sanctuary; Wadi Jedid, near where a settlement with working areas surrounded by a wall enclosure named Conder's Circle was recently excavated; and Dahmiyeh, located on the Jordan Valley, where there are many small tells (artificial mounds) positioned around the area (probably not all dated to the EB I) and a larger site, Tell Umm Hammad, 2 km north, which was an important settlement of the region with a permanent occupation until the end of the EB II. See on these topics: For Mureighat, Savage, op. cit (ref. 19); for Circle Conder's Thuesen I. , “From Jericho to Mount Nebo: Results of recent excavations of Conder's Circle”, Studies in the history and archaeology of Jordan, x (2009), 603–11; for Hammad Tell Umm Betts A. V. G. (ed.), Excavations at Tell Um Hammad: The early assemblages (EB I—II) (Edinburgh, 1992).

In a recent study, A. Porter analysed this topic for the Mesopotamian area in the fourth millennium b.c., see Porter A. , Mobile pastoralism and the formation of Near Eastern civilizations (New York, 2012).

Scheltema , op. cit. (ref. 2), 50–2.

Scheltema , op. cit. (ref. 2), 67–8, who relies on Baker F. , The Pella hinterland tombs project 1998: Juffayn dolmens, Preliminary field report for the Deparment of Antiquities of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, unpublished.

Belmonte , op. cit. (ref. 3).

To obtain the plot of the histogram, the mean is first computed and subtracted from the data. Then, the data are normalized with the standard deviation of the measurements. Any peak rising above the 3σ level could be considered as having a 99% degree of confidence. Peaks between 0 and 3 would be real (our data have no noise) but should be treated with more caution and will not be considered in our following analyses of the data unless strictly necessary.

Polcaro Polcaro , op. cit. (ref. 3).

Conder , op. cit. (ref. 6).

Silva F. Pimenta F. , “The crossover of the sun and the moon”, Journal for the history of astronomy, xliii (2012), 191–208. See also da Silva C. Marciano , “The spring full moon”, Journal for the history of astronomy, xxxv (2004), 2004–8, for the origin of the idea.

Perhaps the summer crescent or the winter full moon, see García A. C. González Ferrer L. Costa Belmonte J. A. , “Solarist vs. Lunatics: Modelling patterns in megalithic astronomy”, in Light and shadows in cultural astronomy , ed. by Zedda M. P. Belmonte J. A. (Dolianova, 2007), 23–30; see also Silva Pimenta , op. cit. (ref. 44).

Disappointingly, seldom called the “Jordanian Stonehenge”. See Savage , op. cit. (ref. 19). For a series of comments on this unfortunate wording custom see Ruggles C. L. N. , “Stonehenge and its landscape”, and Belmonte J. A. , “Ancient observatories, a relevant concept?” in Springer's handbook of archeoastronomy , ed. by Ruggles C. L. N. (Heidelberg, 2014), in press.

Savage , op. cit. (ref. 19), 44.

Dubis Savage , op. cit. (ref. 19), 95.

Secondary , but still significant, peaks are located at declination −43° 36′ and −16° 54′.

Dubis Mrahleh Nawafleh , op. cit. (ref. 20).

Scheltema , op. cit. (ref. 2), 113–14.

Either by chance or by design, the northernmost declination of the moon.

Solstices and ‘equinoxes’ in a very loose approximation.

Surprisingly, the declination histogram of the dolmens of Jordan is strikingly similar to the one yielded by the Nabataean temples built in the same region three millennia later. See Belmonte J. A. García A. César González Polcaro A. , “Light and shadows over Petra: Astronomy and landscape in the Nabataean lands”, Nexus network journal (2013), in press.

As demonstrated on several occasions. See, for example, Hoskin , op. cit. (ref. 1), 213–16, and González García and Belmonte, op. cit. (ref. 1).

As in Matabi, Belmonte, op. cit. (ref. 3).

For the applied statistical technique, see for example, Ruggles C. L. N. , Astronomy in prehistoric Britain and Ireland (London, 1999), 42.

Large concentrations of dolmens should still remain in the area of Adamiyeh, in the vicinity of the Dead Sea, and in the region around the fast growing urban area of Irbid.