Tell Iktanu

From ArchaeoWiki

Tell Iktanu is an archaeological site in the kingdom of Jordan, located immediately south of the Wadi Rama/Hisban in the south-east Jordan Valley, some 15 km east of Jericho on the east side of the Jordan River.

[31° 49' N, 35° 40' E; Palestine Grid: 215 136; Jordan 1/50,000, el Karama Sheet 3153 IV, grid: YA 52 7 23 3]

Tell Iktanu is strategically situated on twin spurs of natural rock, marl and gravel on the edge of the foothills, overlooking fertile alluvial soils, in an area of marginal rainfall (modern annual average 164 mm).

Iktanu has been variously identified with the Biblical sites of Zoar [Genesis 13:12; 19:29] and Beth-Haram / Beth-Haran [Joshua 13:27; Numbers 32:36). The first proposal has been rejected in favour of a Byzantine location south of the Dead Sea; the second remains unproven and has also been located at nearby Tell al-Rama. The region has at various times been identified with the location of "the Cities of the Plain"; "the camps of Joshua"; and "the Fields of Moab".

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Bibliography

Bordreuil, P. and Pardee, D. [1990], "Le papyrus du Marzeah", Semitica 38 (1990), pp.49-68.

Cross, F.M. (1996) A Papyrus Recording a Divine Legal Decision and the Root rq in Biblical and Near Eastern Legal Usage. Pp. 311-320 in M.V. Fox, V.A. Hurowitz, A. Hurvitz, M.L. Klein, B.J. Schwartz and N. Shupak (eds) Text, Temples, and Traditions. A Tribute to Menahem Haran. Eisenbrauns.

Kockelmann W., Kutzke H., Kirfel A., Pantos E., Papiz M.Z., Girdwood S.E., Hahnel E., Zhilin M., Prag A.J.N.W., and Prag K.(2000) Quantitative phase analysis of archaeological ceramics using neutron, X-ray and synchrotron diffraction. Zeitschrift fur Kristallographie, Supplement 17, 69.

McCartney, C.J. [1996], "A Report on the Chipped Stone Assemblage from Tell Iktanu, Jordan", Levant 28 (1996), pp.131-155.

Newton, G.W.A. and Prag, K. (1995) Neutron Activation Analysis of Clay and late Third Millennium Pottery from Iktanu, Jericho and Jerusalem: First Results. Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan V, 573-585. Department of Antiquities: Amman.

Pantos, E., Tang, C.C., MacLean, E.J., Roberts, M.A., Murphy, B.M., Collins, S.P., Cheung, K.C., Strange, R.W., Murphy, L.M., Papiz, M.Z., Girdwood, S.E., Rizkallah, P.J., Clarke, D.T., Clark, G.F., Tobin, M.J., Colston, S.L., Jupe, A.C., Zhilin, M.G., Prag, K and Prag, A.J.N.W. (2002) Applications of Synchrotron Radiation to Archaeological Ceramics. Fifth European Meeting on Ancient Ceramics, Athens 1999. BAR International Series 1011. Oxford

Prag, K. (1974) The Intermediate Early Bronze - Middle Bronze Age: an interpretation of the evidence from Transjordan, Syria and Lebanon. Levant 6: 69-116.

Prag, K. (1986) The Intermediate Early Bronze - Middle Bronze Age Sequences at Jericho and Tell Iktanu Reviewed. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 264: 61-72

Prag, K. (1988) Kilns of the Intermediate Early Bronze - Middle Bronze Age at Tell Iktanu, Preliminary Report, 1987 Season. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 32: 59-73.

Prag, K. (1989) Preliminary report on the Excavations at Tell Iktanu, Jordan, 1987. Levant 21, 33-45.

Prag, K. (1990) Preliminary Report on the Excavations at Tell Iktanu, Jordan, 1989. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 34, 119-130.

Prag, K. (1991a) Preliminary Report on the Excavations at Tell Iktanu and Tell al-Hammam, Jordan, 1990. Levant 23, 55-66.

Prag, K. (1991b) A Walk in the Wadi Hesban. Palestine Exploration Quarterly 123, 48-61.

Prag, K. (1992a) Bronze Age Settlement Patterns in the South Jordan Valley: Archaeology, Environment and Ethnology. Pp. 155-160 in Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan. IV. Department of Antiquities: Amman.

Prag, K. (1992b) Tell Iktanu, Jordan Valley and Tell al-Hammam, Jordan Valley. Pp. 515-516 in Bert de Vries (ed.), Archaeology in Jordan. American Journal of Archaeology 96.

Prag, K. (1992) Tell Iktanu and Tell al-Hammam. Excavations in Jordan. Manchester Archaeological Bulletin 7, 15-19.

Prag, K. (1993a) The Excavations at Tell Iktanu 1989 and 1990; The Excavations at Tell al-Hammam 1990. Syria LXX.1-2, 269-273.

Prag, K. (1993b) Iktanu. P. 476 in Bert de Vries and Pierre Bikai (eds.), Archaeology in Jordan. American Journal of Archaeology 97.

Prag, K. (1994) The Botanical Survey at Tell Iktanu 1992 - or News about the Weather. British Institute at Amman for Archaeology and History Newsletter.

Prag, K. (1995) The Dead Sea Dolmens - Death and the Landscape. Pp. 75 - 84 in S. Campbell and A. Green, The Archaeology of Death in the Ancient Near East. Oxbow Monograph 51: Oxford.

Prag, K. (1997a) Tell Iktanu. Pp.143-144 in E. Meyers (ed.) The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East. OUP: New York.

Prag, K. (1997b) Vernacular Architecture and the Assessment of Demographic Patterns within the Recent Environment in Relation to the Evidence from Tell Iktanu. Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan VI, 195-200.

Prag, K. (1997c) The Shu'aib/Hisban Project. Pp. 502-503 in P.M. Bikai and V. Egan (eds) Archaeology in Jordan. American Journal of Archaeology 101.

Prag, K. (1998) A Response from the 'Plains of Moab'. Pp. 153-161 in S. Aituv and E. Oren (eds) The Origin of Early Israel - Current Debate. Biblical, Historical and Archaeological Perspectives. Beer-Sheva Studies by the Department of Bible and Ancient Near East. Vol. XII. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Press.

Prag, K. (2000) Tell Iktanu, South Jordan Valley: Early Bronze Age I Ceramics. Graham Philip and Douglas Baird (eds) Ceramics and Change in the Early Bronze Age of the Southern Levant. Levantine Archaeology 2. eds. Russell Adams and Yuval Goren. Sheffield Academic Press: Sheffield.

Prag, K. (2001a) 'Iktanu, Tell'. P 240 in Negev, A. and Gibson, S. (eds) Archaeological Encyclopedia of the Holy Land. Revised and updated edition. Continuum Publishers: New York and London.

Prag, K. (2001b) The Third Millennium in Jordan: a Perspective, Past and Future. Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan VII, 179-190. Department of Antiquities: Jordan.

Prag, K. (2001c) Moving Onward: Australian Archaeologists in Jordan in the 1960s. Pp. 21-30 in Alan Walmsley (ed.) Australians Uncovering Ancient Jordan. Fifty Years of Middle Eastern Archaeology. Research Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Sydney and Department of Antiquities of Jordan: Sydney.

Prag, K (2001d) Figurines, Figures and Contexts in Jerusalem and Regions to the East in the 7th and 6th Centuries B.C. Pp. 217-234 in Amihai Mazar (ed. with the assistance of Ginny Mattias.) Studies in the Archaeology of the Iron Age in Israel and Jordan. Pers Presented in a Colloqium Organized by The Institute of Jewish Studies, University College, University of London in April 1996. JSOT Supplements. Sheffield Academic Press: Sheffield.

Prag, K (2003) Ethnicity and Warfare in the South Jordan Valley: is there relevance to studies of nomad/settled relations on the desert frontier of Syria and Jordan? Mediterranean Archaeology 16, 65-71

Prag, K (2004a) Food Storage, Sustainability and Land Use at Iktanu in the Late Third Millennium. Pp 445-448 in Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan, Vol VIII. Department of Antiquities, Amman

Prag, K (2004b) A Celebration. Opening Speech at the Eighth International Conference on the History and Archaeology of Jordan. Pp 25-28 in Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan, Vol VIII. Department of Antiquities, Amman

Prag, K (2004c) Wadi Hisban/Wadi Shu'ayb. Munjazat 2001, 46. Department of Antiquities, Amman

Prag, K (forthcoming) The Domestic Unit at Tall Iktanu, its Derivations and Functions. In M. Chessom (ed) Festschrift for W. Rast and T. Schaub. Eisenbrauns

Prag, K (forthcoming) The Late Third Millenium in the Levant: a Reappraisal of the North-South Divide. In P. Parr and J. Tubb (eds) The Levant in Transition