Zeighan Ancient Landscapes Project (Jordan)
ZAP
Fieldwork at Tall al-Handaquq South & Tall Abu ez-Zeighan
Exploring the Early Bronze Age (3700 – 2000 BCE)
Approximate preserved extent of the Early Bronze Age settlement covering Tall al-Handaquq South and Tall Abu ez-Zeighan. The settlement sits on the banks of the Zarqa River, east of modern Abu az-Zighan. (Google Earth).
With 15 hectares preserved today, the Early Bronze Age (c. 3700-2000 BCE) settlement sprawling across Tall al-Handaquq South & Tall Abu ez-Zeighan is one of the largest known in Jordan. It is strategically located at the junction between the Highlands and the Jordan Valley, at the mouth of Wadi Zarqa, offering rich insights into early urban development and regional systems in the southern Levant during the 4th and 3rd millennia BCE.
Through renewed work at two connected archaeological sites, Tall al-Handaquq South &Tall Abu ez-Zeighan (Jordan), the Zeighan Ancient Landscapes Project (ZAP) investigates the emergence, development, and demise of a significant Early Bronze Age settlement. ZAP engages with key transformations brought on by the first cities in the southern Levant, investigating how people fed, housed, and organized a novel rapidly growing community.
Regional evidence and previous research at the site leave us with essential questions that we are uniquely situated to address at Tall al-Handaquq South & Tall Abu ez-Zeighan with our ongoing research:
(1) How did the early urban settlement develop? How did the community expand the built environment to fit their transforming cosmopolitan needs? How did settlement organization change as people navigated city living for the first time?
(2) How was the settlement organized? What were the key administrative structures, how were public spaces and infrastructure planned, and how did people provision the large community with essential food and other resources?
Tall al-Handaquq South, 1993 & 1996 Seasons. Surface Architecture: Wall and Gate. (Photos By: Meredith Chesson (Left), Ian Kuijt (Right)).
1993 – 1996: Chesson Excavation Seasons
Excavations directed by Dr. Meredith Chesson between 1993 and 1996, focused on residential structures to investigate the role households played in political, social, and economic organization of early urban settlements. The data recovered by Chesson and her team contributes invaluable information about how people crafted a new, urban way of life within their houses and through their day-to-day activities, informing our understanding of how people created and maintained their communities during the Early Bronze Age.
Excavations of domestic space (left) and mudbrick fortifications (right) in 1993 & 1996. (Photos by: Meredith Chesson).
2025 – Present: ZAP Surveys
The first phase (2025-2026) of renewed work at Tall al-Handaquq South & Tall Abu ez-Zeighan combines aerial and pedestrian survey to address the following questions: (1) What was the likely extent of the settlement during each Early Bronze Age subperiod? (2) How did the spatial organization and intensity of occupation change during the EBA? (3) What is the nature of ongoing threats to cultural heritage at the sites?
Systematic collection of pottery, ground- and chipped stone, and recording of surface features provide insights into life during the EBA, as well as modifications to the landscape, and settlement organization. Preliminary results from the 2025 season indicates that people lived at Tall al-Handaquq South during the EB I through EB III period, and there is some evidence for a possible EB IV occupation at the site as well.
Figure 4
Features recorded during the 2025 survey season: A trilithon dolmen and cup mark (left), and a section of an exposed wall or platform (right).
Project Directors
Dr. Hanna Erftenbeck (Grinnell College, University of Notre Dame) erftenbeck@nd.edu
Dr. Natalia M. Handziuk (University of Toronto, University of Notre Dame) natalia.handziuk@mail.utoronto.ca / nhandziu@nd.edu
Funding:
Our work at Tall al-Handaquq South & Tall Abu ez-Zeighan is supported by grants from:
2025: Curtiss T. and Mary G. Brennan Foundation, American Center of Research, American Society for Overseas Research Joe D. Seger project Grant, Colgate University2026: American Philosophical Society Franklin Research Grant, Grinnell College.
Public Reports and Lectures
Joe D. Seger Project Grant: Tall al-Handaquq South Archaeological Project. https://www.asor.org/news/2026/02/seger-grant-report-al-handaquq
ACOR lecture, 29 March 2026: “Investigating Early Bronze Age Urbanism at Tall al-Handaquq South” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVJSWNvxONw
Select Publications
Chesson, M.S. 1998. ‘Preliminary Results of Excavations at Tell El-Handaquq South (1993–96)’. Palestine Exploration Quarterly 130 (1): 20–34. https://doi.org/10.1179/peq.1998.130.1.20.
Chesson, M.S. 2000. ‘Ceramics and Daily Life in the EBA Household: Form, Function and Action in Residential Compounds at Tell El-Handaquq South, Jordan’. In Ceramics and Change in the Early Bronze Age of the Southern Levant, edited by G. Philip and D. Baird, 365–78. Sheffield, England: Sheffield Academic Press.
Erftenbeck, H.and M.S. Chesson. 2025. “Complicated Endings: Household-Based Foodways and the Demise of Early Bronze Age Urban Society in the Southern Levant”. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 79 (September):101687. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2025.101687.
Erftenbeck, H. 2023. ‘Food for Change: Daily Practices and the Development of a Shared Food Habitus during the Early Bronze Age in the Southern Levant’. Unpublished Thesis, Indiana: Notre Dame.
Handziuk, N.M. and Erftenbeck, H. Forthcoming. The Zeighan Ancient Landscapes Project: Renewed Work on Early Bronze Age Tall al-Handaquq South. Archaeology in Jordan (5).
Price, M.D., C.A. Makarewicz, and M.S. Chesson. 2018. ‘Domestic Animal Production and Consumption at Tall Al-Handaquq South (Jordan) in the Early Bronze III’. Paléorient 44 (1): 75–91. https://doi.org/10.3406/paleo.2018.5786.
Walls visible on the surface at Tall al-Handaquoq South in March 2022. (Photo courtesy of Dr. Bob Miller https://bobmiller.com.au/copy-of-archaeology).
