<< Our Photo Pages >> Rawdah - Burial Chamber or Dolmen in Jordan
Submitted by enkidu41 on Wednesday, 07 July 2010 Page Views: 7545
Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Rawdah Alternative Name: Tall el-HammamCountry: Jordan
NOTE: This site is 11.209 km away from the location you searched for.
Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen
Nearest Town: Amman Nearest Village: al- kufeir
Latitude: 31.830052N Longitude: 35.684083E
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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The area has been given many names in the past. It is located in the foothills east of the village of Rawdah (formerly Esh Shaghur/el Mazar), on both sides of the main road between Naur and the King Hussain Bridge. It starts in the valleys from Wadi Kafrein/Tell Hamman in the north, Wadi Maata, Wadi Quseib, on the spurs near "el Maberah", to the north-east near Ain el Meheiyineh, down south towards Tell el Mataba, then to the lower slopes of the Wadi Hesban and Wadi el Muthariqa, south of the road towards the Dead Sea. It has also been referred to as Ghor es Seisaban.
A 100 years ago there may have perhaps been as many as 300 dolmens but there are now only about 200 built, in groups, mainly in brown crystalline limestone. They are found both on the ridges and in the valleys. The majority are built on an elevated round terrace and it has been suggested that some may have had pointed topslabs. There is also a 2.5m menhir which has a broken top sustained when it was pulled down in November 2004, several circles of up to 10 m diameter, and a few cupholes.
More from motist: In July 2007 Dr. Uzi Avner and I paid a visit to Mr.Gajus Scheltema (AMMANABA - a member of the Megalithic site) in the Dutch embassy in Amman (Mr. Scheltema was then the Dutch ambassador to Jordan). Mr. Scheltema took us to visit this megalithic site so we shot some photos.
There is a great deal of controversy as to the construction date and nature of dolmens within the environs of the Rift Valley. Several dolmen fields exist in and adjacent to the Rift (Jordan) Valley from Syria down to the Dead Sea. During TeHEP Season Four and Season Five, a new survey of dolmens in the immediate vicinity of Tall el-Hammam was conducted. While previous surveys had divided the area dolmens into at least two fields, our new survey has filled in the gaps between those fields, has added several hundred new ones to the survey, and has demonstrated that all the dolmens in the area belong to one continuous field, which we have now officially named the Tall el-Hammam Dolmen Field.
This field occupies the hilly land to the E, SE, S, and SW of Tall el-Hammam, marking, in those locations, a clear boundary for the city-state. There's even evidence of dolmens near the base of the tall proper. We've now surveyed, photographed, and described almost 500 of the ancient funerary monuments, and have estimated the existence of at least 500 more in areas scraped off for military and residential purposes. The sheer number of the Hammam dolmens suggests their importance in the socio-cultic history of the area.
Evidence from the Season Five excavation of an undisturbed dolmen (a rare find!) suggests that the monuments were not generally used for primary burials, but were the focus of a more complex set of (ancestor worship?) rituals involving 'token' bones (extracted from nearby family cave- and shaft-tombs?) and (mostly) small offering vessels placed into the dolmen chamber at lengthy calendar intervals. The excavation of Hammam Dolmen 73 included over 40 vessels, beginning in the Chalcolithic Period and spanning about 2000 years.
More at: Hammam Dolmen Field
Note: New survey demonstrates that all the dolmens in the area belong to one continuous group, now named the Tall el-Hammam dolmen field.
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