Publisher's Synopsis
Busayra in southern Jordan is generally identified with Old Testament Bozrah, the major city of the Iron Age kingdom of Edom. Crystal Bennett's excavations between 1971 and 1980 unearthed a fortified administrative and religious centre dominated by impressive raised stone buildings containing distinctive fine painted pottery. In this final report on the late Mrs Bennett's excavations, Piotr Bienkowski and specialist contributors describe and illustrate the architecture, stratigraphy, pottery and other finds in detail. The concluding chapter puts the nature and role of Busayra into its proper ancient context in the light of current research on tribal kingdoms. Busayra was settled from the late eighth century to c. 300/200 BC, with some re-use, perhaps for agricultural purposes, in the Nabataean and Roman periods. The site is ideally located on an easily defended, high spur among rich arable lands, providing secure opportunities for agriculture and pastoralism and maximising proximity to the copper mines of Faynan and to the crossing of the Wadi Arabah used by the Arabian incense trade.;Piotr Bienkowski concludes that Busayra was not a capital of a nation state, as it is often described, but the administrative and religious centre of the supra-tribal authority of the heterarchical state of Edom, recognised and treated as kings by the Assyrians.
