Social Archaeology & Early Metallurgy:
The Jabal Hamrat Fidan Project, Jordan

A project carried out under the auspices of the University of California, San Diego and the Department of Antiquities of Jordan

The Jabal (Arabic = mountain) Hamrat Fidan (JHF) in southern Jordan marks the "gateway" to the Faynan district; the largest source of copper ore in the southern Levantine mainland. The Faynan district has been the most important source of copper ore for ancient communities living in what is today Israel-Jordan-Palestine. Exploitation of Faynan ore spans the entire range of late prehistoric (Neolithic - 8th/7th millennium), Chalcolithic (ca. 4500 - 3600 BCE), Bronze Age (ca. 3600 - 2000 BCE), Late Iron Age (ca. 1000 - 586 BCE), Roman (37 BCE - 324 CE) and early Arab (ca. 638 - 1099 CE) periods. By focusing on the role of copper ore and early metallurgy in social change from the Neolithic period through the Iron Age, this UCSD field school represents the first "deep-time", diachronic study of craft specialization and social evolution in this part of the Levant.