Publisher's Synopsis
This second volume of the findings of important excavations in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan presents the longest and best preserved stratified occupation of the second half of the 4th millenium BC (EB1A and EB1B) at Tell Um Hammad in the central Jordan Valley. For many years this period has been the subject of speculation among the scholars of Near Eastern history, who see it as the prelude to the first "urban" stage in the southern Levant. This new work at Tell Um Hammad has now given the first comprehensive set of ceramic, lithic, architectural, and stratigraphic data which will form the basis for future interpretation. Striving towards an explanation of the historical processes between the village economies of the Chalcolithic period and the "full" Early Bronze Age, this volume aims to provide a vasluable reference for historians and archaeologists of the Near East.