From 2012 to 2015, a team of scholars under the auspices of Groningen University excavated at Tell Abu Sarbut in the Eastern Jordan Valley. They uncovered Early Roman, Early Islamic and Middle Islamic remains. The Early Roman occupation was unexpected, as this period had not been documented in regional surveys or when the site was last excavated in 1988-1992. Evidence suggests the inhabitants of the estate or village had strong ties with Jewish communities west of the River Jordan. The three-meter-thick deposit of Early Islamic occupation showed the region’s interaction with the wider Islamic world. Middle Islamic remains had been extensively excavated in the earlier excavation as well.The publication includes studies on architecture, pottery and other finds, as well as the occupational history of the site.

AUTHOR
Margreet L. Steiner is an Iron Age specialist and co-directed the earlier excavation at Tell Abu Sarbut in 1988-1992. Eveline J. van der Steen specialises in the Early Iron Age and the Middle Islamic period.Noor Mulder-Hymans studied classical archaeology and is a specialist in bread ovens. Jeannette Boertien has studied and published widely on textile production in the Levant. 

Contributors: Barbara Borgers, Katarína Mokránová, and Tatiana de Vries.

REVIEW
"This book is significant for southern Levantine archaeology in that it provides new information on the settlement history and regional distribution of human activity during a period poorly known in this area." Dr Eva Kaptijn, Het Oversticht