Interaction studies based on core-periphery relations and resource exploitation provide powerful analytical tools for studying ancient social evolution. Most core-periphery studies focus on either the urban centers of ancient civilization or on their satellite settlement colonies located in the periphery. However, little attention has been paid to the long-term role that the rich natural resource zones themselves played in social evolution. Unequally distributed resource zones punctuated ancient interaction spheres in antiquity. These regions provided key materials whose procurement, processing, exchange and control influenced both local social evolution in producer societies and changes in more powerful non-local core societies who consumed needed resources. The project we are proposing will investigate one of these rich resource zones and its impact on regional social change through time. The research area is located in the Faynan district of southern Jordan, one of the largest sources of copper ore in the Levantine mainland. The impact of this research will be one of the first 'deep time' diachronic studies of early ore procurement and metallurgy on social evolution in the Near East. The research is interdisciplinary and uses recent developments in paleoenvironment studies, geology and geophysics, economic archaeology, archaeometallurgy, ancient DNA, and other fields to help reconstruct explanations which will lead toward a long-term social history of one part of the Old World.

The Jabal (Arabic = mountain) Hamrat Fidan in southern Jordan marks the "gateway" to the Faynan district. Faynan was one of the most important sources of copper ore for ancient communities living in what is today Israel-Jordan-Palestine. Exploitation of Faynan ores span the entire range of late prehistoric (Pre-Pottery Neolithic, ca 8th/7th millennium) through early Islamic periods (ca. 638 - 1099 CE). The social context of early metallurgy has been investigated in other regions such as Africa and Anatolia but in narrower spans of time. By focusing on the role of copper ore and early metallurgy in social change from the Neolithic period through the Iron Age, this project will be the first 'deep-time,' diachronic study of craft specialization and social evolution in the Near East. By beginning the investigation of copper ore procurement and exchange in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN) period, this study applies the notion of core-periphery interaction systems to pre-state level societies. These less complex societies are commonly beyond the purview of core/periphery studies. However, the recognition of copper ore exploitation and regional exchange networks in Anatolia with sites contemporary with the Levantine 'PPNB' period make these interaction models applicable. In addition, Bar-Yosef and Belfer-Cohen's (1989) hypothesis of a 'PPNB interaction sphere' with large villages in the core settlement area of the Mediterranean zone, and smaller settlements in the semi-arid/arid zones, make core/periphery studies a useful heuristic device for examining the early role of ore procurement and exchange on regional social change during this formative period.

What makes this project feasible is that researchers from the German Mining Museum at Bochum carried out important technological studies of early copper metallurgy and mining in Faynan in the 1980s and early 1990s. However, the social context of early metalworking was not addressed in their research. Results of the Bochum work present a history of technology detached from the communities who exploited copper ores from Faynan. Based on recent excavations in the study area by the applicant in the summer of 1997, even these technological-based studies in Faynan are now in need of reevaluation. The proposed project will remedy this through a program of systematic excavations in the study area and collaboration with the German Mining Museum team who will carry out new analytical studies of metallurgical finds from broad archaeological exposures. This project will be carried out during the summers of 1999 through 2001 and will clarify, for the first time, the social implications of early ore procurement and metallurgy on both local and pan-regional social evolution in the southern Levant. While the new work includes further archaeometallurgical research, it goes well beyond the earlier studies. Using the Jabal Hamrat Fidan region as the basic unit of analysis and anthropological theory, the new project will include a series of large-scale excavations and surveys that will provide new data concerning ore procurement, changing pyro-technologies, the diachronic relationship between pastoral and sedentary communities, and the social organization of labor and production through time. This work will provide the social context of technological change from the advent of food producing societies (Neolithic) to the rise of chiefdoms (Chalcolithic), the emergence of the earliest urban centers (Bronze Age) to the rise of the first historical kingdoms in the region (Iron Age). In addition to scientific achievements, this project will have a positive impact on the modern socio-economic development of this part of southern Jordan.

JABAL HAMRAT FIDAN GENERAL RESEARCH DESIGN

The primary aims of this diachronic project are rooted in interaction studies of the local polities who lived within the environs of this rare south Levantine natural resource zone and their exchange relations with other regions in the Levant and ancient Near East. Over the past decade, interaction studies have focused on center-periphery models which enable archaeologists, geographers, historians and other researchers to analyze the spatial organization of human societies (cf. Champion 1989; Schortman and Urban 1992). Through the lens of ore extraction and early metallurgy through time, this project will use the 'natural resource zone' as the locus of analysis for exploring how trade and exchange can bring about significant changes in social relations leading to cultural evolution. The social context of early metallurgy has been investigated in other regions such as Africa (Holl 1997) and Anatolia (Yener 1989, 1993), but in narrower spans of time. The time frame for this study is broad and spans the Pre-Pottery Neolithic (ca. 7500 - 6000/5500 BC) through the late Iron Age (ca. 1000-586 BC). The Jabal Hamrat Fidan research area is particularly amenable to this kind of social archaeological study because it lack's the 'tyranny' imposed by the large multi-period mound sites (Arabic and Hebrew = Tel) so common in the Middle East which inevitably slow up data collection. Instead, the main sites to be excavated are relatively shallow, usually represent single periods and have already provided evidence of abundant archaeometallurgical materials. As the study area lies some 12 km downstream from the main settlement area along the Wadi Faynan (Barker et al 1997), it has not suffered from repeated sedentary occupations contributing to deep stratigraphic build-up, which characterizes Faynan. These factors ensure the rapid success of data acquisition for the Jabal Hamrat Fidan project goals. Central to the success of the project is the close interdisciplinary collaboration of specialists (e.g. archaeometallurgy, archaeobotany, archaeozoology, biological anthropology, paleoenvironment, geology and geophysics, GIS, etc.) whose research will contribute directly to the over-all anthropological goals of the project which focus on changing core-periphery relations through the major periods of social transformation in the southern Levant (cf. Levy 1998).

From a global perspective, core-periphery studies have primarily examined the impact of relations between early pristine states and their less developed peripheries. However, as Marcus (1994:418) points out, one of the biggest problems is that core/periphery models are generally static; they imply that the core was always a core and the periphery always peripheral. In terms of social evolution, this can be remedied by taking a long-term, diachronic, regional approach to center-periphery studies in which it is assumed that at certain points in time "peripheries" can shift to become independent or innovative core areas themselves. This is particularly appropriate for he southern Levant which never witnessed pristine state formation of the type and scale usually associated with centers of state formation such as central Mexico (Drennan et al 1990; Millon 1981; Santley 1989), the Indus Valley (Kenoyer 1991; Possehl 1990), southern Mesopotamia (Adams 1981; Algaze 1993; Pollock 1992; Zagarell 1986), and Egypt (Hoffman 1979; Hassan 1988; Wenke 1991). In the southern Levant, it is only during the beginning of the Early Bronze I period (ca. 3600 - 3000 BC) when 'traditional' pristine state - periphery relations crystallized with the establishment of Egyptian colonies in southern Palestine (ca. Brandl 1992; Esse 1989; Falconer and Savage 1995; Gophna 1995; Joffee 1993; Levy et al 1997; Stager 1992). How then can center-periphery models be applied to a larger sequence of cultural evolution? In particular, how can diachronic center-periphery models be used to explain some of the major social evolutionary transformations associated with the changes from autonomous Neolithic village societies in the southern to the rise of the earliest historically documented Iron Age state systems? Some of the central interaction issues to be investigated in this study can be summarized as follows:

a) The Pre-Pottery Neolithic B Interaction Sphere
By beginning the investigation of copper ore procurement and exchange in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN) period, this study applies the notion of core-periphery interaction systems to pre-state level societies. Traditionally, these less complex societies were beyond the purview of core/periphery studies. However, as Peregrine (1991) has shown for Mississipian chiefdom organizations, it is possible to identify pre-state core-periphery systems that were based on the manufacture and trade of prestige-goods. Exchange of goods and services within core-periphery systems can be linked to the dynamics of political economies that ultimately contribute to social evolution (Johnson and Earle 1987:11). In the Near East, the recognition of copper ore exploitation and regional exchange networks in Anatolia at sites contemporary with the Levantine 'PPNB'period make interaction models particularly applicable (Ozdogan 1995a; Ozdogan 1995b; Esin 1995). More importantly, Bar-Yosef and Belfer-Cohen's (1989; 1991) hypothesis of a 'PPNB interaction sphere' with large villages in the core settlement area of the Mediterranean zone, and smaller settlements in the semi-arid/arid zones, make core/periphery studies a useful heuristic device for examining the early role of ore procurement and exchange on regional social change during this formative period. A wide range of non-perishables circulated in this system including sea shells, bitumen, obsidian, turquoise, Dabba marble and copper ores (Anati 1962; Bar-Yosef and Alon 1988; D. Bar-Yosef 1991; Cauvin 1991; Dixon et al 1968; Garfinkel 1987; Goring-Morris et al 1995; Rollefson 1988; Rollefson et al 1992). Copper ore exploitation will provide a lens for examining PPNB production and exchange of one of these materials because it can be readily traced to source areas. By excavating sites near the copper ore source and using archaeometallurgical methods outlined below, the following details concerning the PPNB Interaction Sphere will be examined: a) the regional extent of copper ore use, b) determination if ores were acquired by inhabitants of other PPNB sites by long distance procurement or exchange, c) identification of direct vs. down-the-line vs. distance-decay models of trade (Renfrew 1975), d) did local inhabitants control access to these goods as early as the PPNB or not? e) the nature of traded materials (finished products, raw material, or both), f) the role of the Jabal Hamrat Fidan PPNB sites at the 'gateway' to the copper district and contemporary neighbors within the Interaction Sphere system, g) does intrasite spatial analysis point to changes in the nature, organization and extent of production over the time span of the PPNB (Hietala 1984) and h) when does it originate (in PPNA?).

Some of the archaeometallurgical aims of these excavations will be to define the role of copper ores during the early Neolithic and their input/role concerning the beginnings of metallurgy. Was copper ore heat-treated before the spread of extractive metallurgy in the 4th millennium? Did developments in pyro-technology, as seen in PPN abilities to produce lime plaster, contribute to the beginnings of metallurgy in the Faynan district? PPN Lime plaster has been found in Faynan (Simmons and Najjar 1997; Adams et al in prep). On the other hand, native copper was used and heat-treated in contemporaneous sites in southern Anatolia (Maddin et al 1991). Native copper was used in Anatolia as early as the 10th millennium BC. In the southern Levant, there is no clear evidence that metal was known in the Neolithic, and the development of metallurgy seems to have been different than in the north. The only copper object from the Neolithic period in the southern Levant known, thus far, comes from Tell Ramad in Syria, probably imported from Anatolia and not from the Wadi Arabah. In the Levant, copper ore seems to have been used in this period for cosmetic purposes and for making beads. It was traded to other sites such as Nahal Hemar, Yiftahel, and Beidha (Garfinkel 1987). Recent claims for Neolithic copper smelting at Timna by Rothenberg and Merkel (1995) are interesting, but not convincing. The new excavations at Wadi Fidan A and C would provide a unique opportunity to investigate the material composition of the copper ores used, the spatial organization of production and the facilities used in the production process. In addition, we hope to examine the issue of developments in pyro-technology and the relationship of lime plaster production to any traces of PPN heat treatment of copper ores.

b) Chalcolithic vs. Early Bronze Age Control of Metallurgy
In the southern Levant, smelting and casting technologies originated in the Chalcolithic period (ca. 4500-3600 BC) and were used to produce both utilitarian and spectacular prestige metal work which circulated amongst chiefly elites (Levy 1995). Large-scale excavations of Chalcolithic sites in Israel's northern Negev desert by the applicant and archaeometallurgical studies of materials from those and other Negev excavations indicate Jordan's Faynan district was the main source of copper ore used for utilitarian tools, while the source for alloy based prestige metal work remains a mystery (Levy and Shalev 1989; Tadmor et al 1995). This highly attenuated production and exchange system (Joffee 1993) involved procurement of ore in Faynan, and its transport to Chalcolithic settlements in Israel's Negev desert where smelting and casting activities took place. To date, there is no evidence of Chalcolithic smelting or casting in Faynan. As indicated by recent excavations and radiocarbon dates (Levy and Adams, in prep), the key early metallurgy site in the Faynan district, Wadi Fidan 4, was mistakenly ascribed to the Chalcolithic period (Adams and Genz 1995; Hauptmann et al 1996). This pattern supports the identification of a Negev 'monopoly' over metallurgy during the Chalcolithic, including the procurement process of ores from Faynan. Systematic surveys are proposed here to identify Chalcolithic sites in the study area, which may challenge this model.

The first local control of Faynan's rich copper ore district occurred in the following Early Bronze I period (ca. 3600-3300 BC) when there was a major social devolution in the southern Levant and Chalcolithic chiefdoms disappeared. The collapse took place in the shadow of growing Egyptian 'pristine' state formation (Hassan 1988). While most early EB I settlements in western Palestine were characterized by ephemeral pit dwellings and caves, some Faynan copper made it way to lower Egypt (Maadi - Rizkana and Seeher 1989) via sites on the Negev coastal plain (Gophna 1995; Hauptmann 1989). On the other hand, recent work at Wadi Fidan 4 in Faynan shows a more complex contemporary social organization evidenced by on-site metal production associated with more complex building structures than their early EB I counterparts in Palestine. This regional shift in metal production will be examined at the Wadi Fidan 4 village through archaeometallurgical studies of the metal working installations, slags, crucibles, prills, and other objects obtained in 1997 in relation to published Egyptian and Palestinian data.

By the end of the EB I (ca. 3300 - 3000) and Early Bronze II - III (ca. 3000 - 2200 BC; Gophna 1995b), the rise of the earliest urban centers in the southern Levant can be directly linked to traditional models of core/periphery systems (Levy et al 1997). How metal circulated between Levantine EB polities, its function in promoting social evolution, and its social role between the Levant and Egyptian core civilization has been a source of debate. To date, due to the paucity of EB excavations in Faynan, little is known about the local organization of Early Bronze Age metal production or its contemporary links with the core areas of civilization. Even on the local pan-regional scale of Levantine interaction, Faynan's role in promoting, maintaining, or inhibiting social change is unknown. For example, it has been argued that EB II urbanism in the Negev desert at Tel Arad (Ilan and Sabbane 1989) can be explained by that site's control of the south Levantine metal trade. Hauptmann's (1989; in press) evidence of EB II industrial scale metal processing facilities in Faynan, recent geophysical surveys and excavations at the archaeometallurgically-rich EBII site of Khirbet Hamrat Ifdan in the study will provide important data for challenging Arad's centrality in the EB pan-Levantine metal trade. Using new EB excavation data from the study area, alternative models based on shifting core-periphery interaction will be examined.

Finally, by the end of the Early Bronze Age a period of social collapse characterizes western Palestine and to a much lesser extent Jordan (cf. Early Bronze IV, ca. 2200-2000 BC). The nature of EB IV interaction between permanent urban sites in Jordan and seasonal village occupations in western Palestine has be a source of intense debate (cf. Dever 1995; Falconer 1995; Palumbo 1991; Richard and Boraas 1988). While EB IV metal objects has been examined as indicators of social rank (Palumbo 1987; Shay 1983), the control of EBIV metal production and exchange as a catalyst for social transformations has not. Preliminary explorations of EB IV deposits at Khirbet Hamrat Ifdan have produced a rich corpus of casting molds, metal working areas, and other features that can be used to monitor these issues.

c) Metallurgy and the Formation of the Iron Age Edomite Kingdom
In southern Jordan the emergence of the first historically documented archaic state level societies occurred during the Iron Age, ca. 1200 - 586 BC (Bienkowski 1992; Herr 1997). During the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1500 - 1200 BC) the Egyptian 'Execration Texts' indicate that the area was already known to outsiders as Edom (Kitchen 1992). According to Bienkowski (1992b:8), most scholars believe that Edom remained largely nomadic until perhaps the 7th C. BC. supporting biblical evidence (Bartlett 1992) that it was only in the 8th and 7th centuries BC, after Edom's independence in the mid-9th century BC that biblical writers became aware of Edom as a state power. The emergence of the Edomite state has been closely linked to the Arabian trade. Edom's geographical location at the outlet of the west Arabian 'incense route' to the Mediterranean port of Gaza has been used to support this hypothesis based on the assumption that the main trade item was incense (Eph'al 1982; Finkelstein 1992). However, the search for an explanation of Edomite state origins has occurred within an archaeological vacuum clouded by reliance on biblical sources. While Bienkowski (1992b) alludes to the resumption of mining activities in Faynan as contributing to improve economic circumstances in the region, the lack of hard archaeological data has precluded an examination of the role metallurgy played in this process. Recent excavations in the Wadi Fidan by Levy and Adams (Levy et al in press) of an Iron Age cemetery with thousands of burial monuments provide the first large archaeological sample to evaluate this problem. Amongst other questions, this data and new information from the Iron Age excavations at Khirbet en-Nahas metal production center will be used to assess: a) the role of nomadic populations in the evolution of the Edomite state, b) the structure of local vs outside control of metallurgy, c) trade in metal with other Iron Age polities, and d) how the local social structure changed when the area came under the control of the expanding Neo-Assyrian empire/core civilization in the 8th - 7th C. B.C. (Millard 1992).

KEY DIMENSIONS OF CORE-PERIPHERY RELATIONS AND TEST IMPLICATIONS

The requirement of brevity necessitates that only a broad outline is presented of the key dimensions of core-periphery relations to be investigated in this project. Core-periphery interaction opens socio-economic explanations of cultural evolution beyond the local level. Dissatisfaction with neo-evolutionary explanations which often put ecological factors to the exclusion or near-exclusion of variables linked to pan-regional interaction help explain the burgeoning growth of core-periphery studies in archaeology (cf. Chase -Dunn and Hall 1991; Frank and Gills 1996; Kohl 1989; Rowlands et al 1987; Schortman and Urban 1994; Wallerstein 1974). As Kohl (1989:218) points out, "the development or cultural evolution of any society is dependent upon its relations with other societies; that cultures are open, not closed, systems; and that studies - be they based on excavations of a site or settlement data from surveys of precisely defined, well-demarcated, but bounded areas - that fail to consider broader patterns of interaction are necessarily incomplete and partial." It is within this context, that the 'deep-time' investigation of social archaeology and early metallurgy in the Jabal Hamrat Fidan is cast. Central to an analysis of core-periphery relations is the identification of shifting patterns of asymmetric interaction. As Yoffee (1995) points out, scholars cannot assume a teleological step-like pattern of unilineal social evolution from simple hunting and gathering bands to archaic states. Social evolution, as Flannery suggests (1995), refers to the reorganization of society at a different level of complexity and not all societies passed through the same evolutionary sequence of growth, stability, and collapse. To achieve a more robust understanding of late prehistoric and early historic social evolution in southern Jordan which goes beyond neo-evolutionary studies, two frameworks of investigation will be utilized: 1) local adaptation models which seek to explain subsistence and settlement strategies against shifting paleoenvironments through time in the Jabal Hamrat Fidan (cf. Henry 1995) and 2) changing core-periphery relations which can be identified by comparing archaeometric, biological anthropologic, and other diachronic data sets from Jabal Hamrat Fidan with other regions in the Levant and greater Near East.

At certain points in time, settlement in the Faynan district formed an integral part of local complex social systems, such as the Iron Age Edomite kingdom. However, the degree to which core civilization hegemony played in the region during the Bronze Age is open to debate. It is ironic that, to date, the role of metallurgy in the formation, maintenance and collapse of the Edomite kingdom has not been investigated (cf. Bartlett 1989, 1992; Bienkowski 1992; LaBianca and Younker 1995). The rich potential of the Wadi Fidan 4 Cemetery and Kh. en - Nahas for answering this question is outlined below.

How was trade and exchange of ores and metal organized through time? There are two main possibilities that focus on local vs. foreign control of resource extraction and metal production. These are not mutually exclusive and could change through time. While difficult to outline all of the issues to be examined in the study area for center-periphery relations from the Neolithic to Iron Age, the following are a sample of test implications to be examined in this project:

a) Selected Test Implications for Neolithic PPNB Interaction Sphere: Ores and Related Products
i) Intra-site spatial analysis of study area sites would help differentiate outside vs. local preparation ores, beads and related materials for export.

ii) Quantitative studies of ore retrieved from study area excavations could help determine abundance of this commodity relative to other PPNB sites resulting in the production of fall-off curves to test for down-the-line and other trade models.

iii) Evidence for local central-place redistribution of ores to the PPNB interaction sphere can be tested by comparing assemblages from the study area with other Faynan district PPNB sites (cf. Ghuwair).

b) Post-Neolithic Test Implications for Foreign Core Dominance
i) There should be evidence of formal socio-economic links between the center and periphery that indicate the integration of the resource rich Faynan district into the expanding economy of core civilizations/powers through time. This can be identified through the discovery and analysis of epigraphic data such as stamp impressions, potter's marks, inscriptions, standardized trade items such as ingots and other artifacts.

ii) The presence of officials or representatives of core civilizations could be recognized in the archaeological record through the presence of symbols of rank and power in the J. Hamrat Fidan region.

iii) There should be evidence of a well-established core civilization administrative hierarchy reflected in the social organization of settlements in the southern Levant. One data source would be the analysis of human remains found in burial contexts in the study area. For example, what can ancient DNA tell us about social relations between Edomites (Bienkowski 1992; Smith 1995), Israelite, and other communities which existed in the Late Iron Age southern Levant?

iv) An imposed colony could be evidenced by monumental or administrative architecture imposed on the local landscape by core civilizations. Support for this implication, if applicable, could be found in core-style tombs, architecture, and other built structures.

v) A formal colonial presence would be evidenced by the establishment of core settlements such as trading posts or administrative centers along trade routes and near resource concentrations in the study area.

vi) There should be evidence of differences in agro-pastoral production strategies between the resource concentration zone and other settlement areas of the southern Levant indicating shifting patterns of economic specialization. Identifying the shifting role of pastoral societies (Henry 1992; Khazanov 1994; Zeder 1991) in the study area through time should shed light on this implication.

vii) Local elites in the Jabal Hamrat Fidan should emulate core ideological systems through the acquisition of prestige objects from the core.

viii) Core dominance of trade and exchange should be evidenced through the establishment of core administrative systems in the study area. This would be evidenced through petrographic studies of pottery, seal impressions, metal and stone objects to identify patterns of exchange between regions.

ix) "Colonists" whether they be Early Bronze (EB) Canaanites from Palestine, EB Egyptians, or Iron Age Neo-Assyrians should reside in the study area. This would be evidenced by domestic spatial patterns of consumption, discard, food preparation, the use of living space which differ from local patterns, and ancient DNA studies.

x) There should be evidence of increasing social complexity as a direct result of contact with core civilizations.

xi) Although not a necessary condition for core dominance of the resource zone, there could be evidence of military conquest or control in the study area.

c) Post-Neolithic Test Implications for Local Autonomy (cf. Stein 1993)
i) Local J. Hamrat Fidan economy should be geared toward a general subsistence base with little evidence of specialization and little trade (see archaeobotanical section below).

ii) Local elites should emulate core ideology but display evidence of their independence.

iii) Evidence for change in social complexity should not display rapid or "punctuated" abrupt changes in the local archaeological sequence in the periphery.

iv) Exchange between center and periphery should be of low volume. The only core civilization exchange goods should be those with high ratios of value to weight (or bulk; e.g. Stein 1993).

v) There should be symmetry in exchange relations with no evidence of core domination.

vi) In the periphery societies, there should be no major changes in the intensity of production in agro-pastoral or craft specialization (Levy 1992).

RESEARCH AREA: ENVIRONMENT, HISTORY OF RESEARCH & MAJOR SITES TO BE EXCAVATED (1999-2001) -
The Jabal Hamrat Fidan Research Area (Area = 240 square km.)

The study area is located S and E of the Dead Sea and forms part of the territory known since biblical times as "Edom" derived from a Semitic root meaning "red" after the local red Nubian sandstone (Bartlett 1992). The Jabal Hamrat Fidan is an igneous granite rocky ridge running 8 km NE/SW which rises some 150 meters above the Wadi Arabah floor around 15 km east of the Jordan - Israel border (Rabb'a 1994). This ridge, along with the Jabal el-Menshar to the north blocks the entrance to the Faynan region. A portion of the Wadi al-Ghuweib is also included in the study area. The vegetation of this desert environment is characterized as Saharo-Sindian with isolated pockets of Sudano-Deccan (Horowitz 1979; Zohary 1962). Average annual rainfall is 70.7 mm (Abandah 1990). A perennial stream flows from the Ain al-Fidan spring in the center of the study area. Sudanian tree species such as Acacia raddiana, Acacia tortilis, Ziziphus spin-christi and others are common (Danin 1995:35). The following briefly summarizes the geomorphologic breakdown of the area and highlights where survey and excavation work will take place:

A. Prime survey targets.
Approximately 84 square kilometers (35% of survey area). Composed largely of an alluviated plain between the eastern edge of the Jordan Graben and the Jabal Hamrat Fidan. This area has been heavily alluviated in the later phases of the Holocene (i.e. the pottery Neolithic tell of Tell Wadi Faynan up-stream from the research area has ca. 4-10 meters of alluvial deposit over it; see Table 1 for 14C dates), and is in the process of being down again by new wadi systems. The area is covered in its eastern edges by large alluvial fans, and approximately 30% of the entire area is covered or partially covered by active dune systems (especially in the southeast. Also included in this unit are the scattered and dissected wadi terraces along the main wadi drainages east of the Jabal Hamrat Fidan. The major sites to be excavated are located here and all wadi profiles will be studied by the project geomorphologist.

B. Secondary survey targets.
Approximately 60 square kilometers (25% of survey area). Flat alluvial plain to the west of the Jabal Hamrat Fidan. This area is more disturbed in parts by recent activities, such as road building and quarrying, but areas along the wadi systems are likely to produce useful survey information, and some selective shovel testing in discrete areas my prove a useful way of accessing these areas. Many parts of this 'plain' are also now dissected by modern wadis, and will prove difficult on the ground.

B2. Secondary survey targets.
Approximately 60 square kilometers (25% of survey area). Mountainous or steppic areas along the sides of the various Jabal's, Jordan Graben, and higher terraces. Long term prospects are good here, and have already produced most of the mining and major smelting sites (Hauptmann 1989).

C. Tertiary survey targets.
Approximately 36 square kilometers (15% of survey area). Primarily wadi bottoms, and secondary drainages. Not very useful except perhaps as indicators of what they are cutting, which could be helpful in many areas. The bottoms themselves are not useful except of locating eroded, re-deposited materials. Wadi profiles in these areas will be studied by the project geomorphologist.

History of Research

Since the late 19th C, a limited amount of exploration and archaeological research has been carried out in Jabal Hamrat Fidan (Kitchener 1884, Musil 1907, Frank 1934, Glueck 1935, 1937). The major sites in the study area were identified in unsystematic surveys by T. Raikes (1980, 1985) and visited by other scholars (Macdonald 1992). Similar selective surveys and test excavations aimed at archaeometallurgical issues were made by the German Mining Museum (Hauptmann 1986; Keesmann et al 1984; Hauptmann, Weisgerber, and Knauf 1985; Hauptmann and Weisgerber 1987) in the 1980s in the Faynan district that includes our research area. This 10 year research program produced new and significant information concerning the history of metal working, mining, and smelting in this part of the Levant. R. Adams (1991) carried out test excavations at the major sites to be investigated and Adams and H. Genz (1995) at the Early Bronze I village site of Wadi Fidan. In 1997, T. Levy and R. Adams (in prep) carried out the first large-scale excavations in the region at Early Bronze and Iron Age sites. Over the past four years, the Faynan district has been the focus of renewed interest for paleoenvironmental, economic and culture historical research by several British teams (Barker et al 1997, in press; Wright et al, in press). A. Simmons and M. Najjar (1997) have initiated major early Neolithic research at Ghuwair, ca. 15 km up-stream from contemporary sites in our research area.

Major Sites to be Excavated

Unlike the center of settlement in the Faynan district (the Wadi Faynan) where intense occupation has created complex, disturbed multi-layer stratigraphy, the sites in the Jabal Hamrat Fidan are mostly represented by single periods with easily accessible shallow archaeological horizons. These factors will insure success in making broad horizontal exposures and retrieving the interdisciplinary data needed to test the diachronic models outlined above. At present, there is no need to excavate EB I deposits given the large sample of material obtained in 1997 (Levy and Adams in prep). Perceived occupation gaps such as the Middle Bronze Age and other periods will hopefully be filled with data from the planned systematic surveys. Doctoral candidates will supervise the excavations at the following sites and utilize the data for their Ph.D. research:

Pre-Pottery Neolithic

Wadi Fidan Site A
The site lies at the mouth of the Wadi Fidan, and at the extreme western end of the Faynan drainage system, where it empties into the broad plain of the Wadi Arabah. Following initial survey of the site by Raikes, it was also surveyed by both the Deutsches Bergbau Museum Survey by MacDonald (1992). All of these surveys noted the presence of surface architecture, extensive flint scatters, and suggested a dating of the site to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic. Two small trial trenches (Table 2) by Adams revealed extremely well preserved stone wall architecture on the site, many of them still standing to ca. two meters in height. The stone built architecture is typical for the late Pre-Pottery Neolithic and the primary structure excavated had a well preserved plaster floor, evidence of red painted plaster walls, and a stone built oven set against one wall. The site was dated by means of both flint typology (Byblos points) and radiocarbon dating (ca. 7575-6700 Age BC, see Table 1), both of that indicate a date within the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B. Excavations at PPNB Site A will be focused on its role in the exchange of copper ores which have their origin in Faynan and have been found at contemporary sites all over the southern Levant (cf. Bar-Yosef and Belfer-Cohen 1989; Bar-Yosef and Alon 1988; Garfinkel 1987; Rollefson 1988; Rollefson et al 1992). Geophysical surveys in 1997 indicate extensive building structures at this site and have helped identify where future work will take place.

Wadi Fidan Site C
Located 1 km upstream from Site A, Site C lies on the south bank of the Wadi Fidan, opposite the site of the Wadi Fidan 4 cemetery. It is the larger of the two known PPN sites in the study area (Table 2) and is comprised of steep hills with the remains of terraced housing. A small trial excavation (Adams et al in prep.) revealed excellent preservation of both architectural and occupational deposits, well preserved in-situ deposits of fauna (Richardson 1992) and flora (Colledge 1993). The trench produced a series of terraced structures, with well-built stone walls, earthen floors and bin installations. Large samples of grinding, hammer stones and lithics were found (Neeley 1989, 1992). No radiocarbon dates are available and without large scale excavations, little can be said about the site's local and pan-regional significance. Prior to excavations in 2001, geophysical surveys will be made here (Table 2). Using the full range of data from both Sites A and C, research will focus on exchange models aimed at reconstructing dimensions of the Levantine 'PPNB' interaction sphere (Bar-Yosef and Belfer-Cohen 1989).
Early Bronze II-IV (ca. 3000-2000 BCE)

Kirbet Hamrat Ifdan
The site of Khirbet Hamrat Ifdan lies in the center of the Wadi Fidan, near the spring of Ain el-Fidan (Adams 1992). This ca. 3.25-hectare island in the middle of the wadi lies at approximately twenty meters off the current wadi bed, on the top of a Pleistocene conglomerate. Two small trial trenches (Adams in prep) on the slope of indicate the presence of rich archaeological Early Bronze II - IV deposits reaching a depth of up to 3 meters. The sondages and geophysical surveys indicate that throughout its history the site was primarily a metallurgical processing site related to the copper industry. The upper phases of the excavation revealed a well-preserved two-room structure, radiocarbon dated to the last half of the third millennium BC, or the closing phases of the EB III. The material culture of the site is dominated by finds related to the smelting and fabrication of copper. A major corpus of casting molds were here which have links with a series of copper `ingots' from EBIV sites in the Negev and Northern Sinai. This close connection between western Palestine and the later EBA sites of the Faynan area has also recently been supported by an extensive petrographic study (Adams et al in prep.). Geophysical surveys in 1997 point to a plethora of building structures and extensive sheets of what appear to be subsurface slag spills. Large-scale excavations will provide key data on the procurement, control, organization, production and exchange of metal during the first periods of urbanism and early industrialization in the Levant. This will contribute to wider issues of center-periphery relations during the Early Bronze Age. For example, Ilan and Sabanne (1989) suggest that origin of EB urbanism in the Negev region of the Levant be explained by the emergence of urban Arad as the controlling center of the metal trade at this time. Excavations at K. Hamrat Ifdan, located in the main ore resource zone, will test this and other hypotheses.
Iron Age (ca. 1200-580 BCE)

Khirbat en-Nahas
The name of the site literally means 'ruins of copper', and indicates both the size and importance of this site for understanding the history of copper metallurgy in the southern Levant. The site lies in the upper (eastern) reaches of the Wadi el-Ghuweibeh, on a large terrace on the south bank of the wadi, and is approximately 10 hectares in size, making it one of the largest pre-industrial copper working sites in the Near East. Several teams have periodically surveyed the site in the past, which show the main periods are from the Iron Age and Roman/Byzantine period. Hauptmann has calculated approximately 200,000 tons of copper slags (yield = 20,000 tons of copper) in the Faynan district dating to these two periods alone, and much of it comes from Khirbet en-Nahas.

Recent research by the German Mining Museum has largely concentrated upon exploration of the mines, slag heaps and smelting installations, through small soundings, and surface collection. The site was the focus of extensive work on calculating fuel resources in ancient smelting, which combined radiometric dating of slag heaps, characterization of slag contents (Hauptmann 1989a, 1989b), and a program of plant physiology aimed at determining species used for fuel (Engel 1993, Engel and Frey 1996) . The only stratigraphic excavation on occupation portions of the site were conducted in 1990 by the Germans under the direction of V. Fritz (1996) who dug one late Iron Age structure at this large industrial site. This produced a useful ceramic corpus and a single radiometric pointing to the rich potential for further horizontal exposure of the site. The radiometric date from the site places the building complexes in the Iron II period (cal. BC 900 - 805 BC as roughly contemporary with the recently excavated Iron Age cemetery by Levy and Adams (in prep) at Wadi Fidan 4 located ca. 4.5 km southwest of Kh. en - Nahas. This industrial production center will provide a key for examining Edomite state formation, shifting center-periphery relations between Edom and other Iron Age polities in the Near East and other issues.