Tell el-Hammeh

Tell el-Hammeh may refer to:

Tell el Hammeh

Tell el Hammeh is an archaeological tell in the West Bank. It is located about 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) north-west of the Israeli settlement of Mehola, on the southern edge of Beit She'an valley, some 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) south of the city. The tell is elevated about 30 metres (98 ft) from the surrounding plain; its top has an area of 5 dunams (1.2 acres).

It is identified with the Canaanite city state of Hammath, known from a stela of Seti I describing a military campaign. The idea originates in William F. Albright.

The tell was excavated in 1985-1988 by Jane Cahill, who reported of layers of the Iron Age, or 11th to 7th centuries BC, separated by the remains of major fires. One layer, from the 9th century or later, revealed a stone building, while earlier ones only had mud-bricks. Unusual concentrations of loom weights and spindles from different periods suggest the city maintained a weaving industry.

References and further reading

Tell Hammeh

Tell Hammeh (Arabic:تـل حـمـه) is a relatively small tell in the central Jordan Valley, Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, located where the Zarqa River valley opens into the Jordan Valley. It is the site of the earliest bloomery smelting of iron, from around 930 BC. It is close to several of the larger tells in this part of the Jordan Valley (e.g. Tell Deir ^cAlla, Tell es-Sa^cidiyeh) as well as to the natural resources desirable in metal production: access to water, outcrops of marly clays (see Veldhuijzen 2005b, 297), and above all the only iron ore deposit of the wider region at Mugharet al-Warda (Abu-Ajamieh et al. 1988; Pigott 1983; Pigott et al. 1982; Bender 1968, 149-151; van den Boom and Lahloub 1962).

Excavation

The excavations at Hammeh are part of the 'Deir ^cAlla Regional Project, a joint undertaking of Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan and Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands, in collaboration with the Jordanian Department of Antiquities.

The site's most intriguing feature is the presence of a substantial and very early iron smelting operation, as evidence by large quantities of slag, technical ceramics, furnace remnants etc. This activity dates to (datum post quem) 930 CalBC.

Tell

A tell, or tel (from Arabic: تَل‎, tall,Hebrew: תֵּל,) is a type of archaeological mound created by human occupation and abandonment of a geographical site over many centuries. A classic tell looks like a low, truncated cone with a flat top and sloping sides. The term is mainly used of sites in the Middle East, where it often forms part of the local place name.

Archaeology

A tell is a hill created by many generations of people living and rebuilding on the same spot. Over time, the level rises, forming a mound. The single biggest contributor to the mass of a tell are mud bricks, which disintegrate rapidly. Excavating a tell can reveal buried structures such as government or military buildings, religious shrines and homes, located at different depths depending on their date of use. They often overlap horizontally, vertically, or both. Archaeologists excavate tell sites to interpret architecture, purpose, and date of occupation. Since excavating a tell is a destructive process, physicists and geophysicists have developed non-destructive methods of mapping tell sites.

Tell (2014 film)

Tell is a 2014 crime thriller starring Katee Sackhoff, Jason Lee and Milo Ventimiglia. It is produced by Haven Entertainment, distributed by Orion Pictures, and was released on December 4.

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Tell (disambiguation)

A tell is a type of archaeological site. Tell or tel can also refer to:

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See also