Deir Alla ( Arabic: دير علا) is the site of an ancient Near Eastern town in Balqa Governorate, Jordan. The

Deir Alla Inscription The Deir 'Alla Inscription (or Bal'am Son of Be'or Inscription), known as KAI 312, was discovered during a 1967 excavation in Deir 'Alla, Jordan. It is currently at the Jordan Archaeological Museum. It is written in a peculiar Northwest Semitic di ...

, datable to ca. 840–760 BCE, was found here. Tomb of Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah 2

On 20 August 2010, it recorded a scorching temperature of 51.1 °C, the new official highest temperature in the history of Jordan.

Identification

Deir Alla has been suggested to be the biblical

Sukkot or ("Booths, Tabernacles") , observedby = Jews, Samaritans, a few Protestant denominations, Messianic Jews, Semitic Neopagans , type = Jewish, Samaritan , begins = 15th day of Tishrei , ends = 21st day of Tishre ...

Transjordan Transjordan may refer to: * Transjordan (region), an area to the east of the Jordan River * Oultrejordain, a Crusader lordship (1118–1187), also called Transjordan * Emirate of Transjordan, British protectorate (1921–1946) * Hashemite Kingdom of ...

. Some believe it to be the biblical Pethor.W.H. Shea, "The Inscribed Tablets From Tell Deir `Alla" Part I

Part II

''Andrews University Seminary Studies'', vol. 27, pp. 21-37, 97-119, 1989. It was also suggested by an early traveler to the site,

Selah Merrill Selah Merrill (May 2, 1837 – January 22, 1909) was an American Congregationalist clergyman. He served as the American consul in Jerusalem. Biography Selah Merrill was born in Canton Centre, Connecticut on May 2, 1837, and died on January 22, ...

, who found parallels with names in the Hebrew Bible.

Archaeology

The tell is 50 by 200 meters and rises to 27 meters above the plain. A series of Dutch excavations sponsored by the Netherlands Organisation for the Advancement of Pure Research began in 1960, under the auspices of the department of theology, University of Leiden. These excavations continued for five seasons until 1967. The excavation made its most dramatic discovery in 1967, an ink wall inscription relating a hitherto-unknown prophecy of Balaam, who thereby becomes the first Old Testament prophet to be identified in an inscription. After a long interruption, work resumed in 1976, initially under Franken, for several seasons. After another long break, occasional seasons were conducted beginning in 1994 until 2008. At the end of the 1964 campaign, 11 clay tablets, 3 inscribed in a

West Semitic The West Semitic languages are a proposed major sub-grouping of ancient Semitic languages. The term was first coined in 1883 by Fritz Hommel.Caananite script, 7 bearing only dots, and one uninscribed, were discovered. The tablets were found in the destruction layer of storerooms dated by a cartouche of Queen Twosret of Egypt to around 1200 BC. Earlier objects were also found there so the tablets may well predate the destruction. In the later excavations several more clay tablets were found, for a total of 15.

The Balaam inscription

The 1967 excavation revealed a many-chambered structure that had also been destroyed by earthquake, during the Persian period at the site. On a wall was written a story relating visions of the seer of the gods "Balʿam son of Beʿor" (Balaam son of Beor), who may be the same Balʿam son of Beʿor mentioned in Numbers 22–24 and in other passages of the Bible. The Deir Alla Balaam is associated with "a god bearing the name ''Shgr'', 'Shadday' gods and goddesses, and with the goddess

Ashtar Ashtar may refer to: *Jazz Bar in Byblos, Lebanon *alternate spelling of Attar (god), an Ethiopian Aksumite god * Malik al-Ashtar (c. 637-658), in Arabic history, a companion of Ali Ibn Abi Talib, the cousin of Muhammad, and commander in some batt ...

." It reflects the oldest example of story from a biblical book ( Numbers) written in a West Semitic alphabetic script, and is considered the oldest piece of West Semitic literature transmitted in a still debated Semitic language. The

is datable to ca. 840–760 BCE; it was written in red and black inks on a plastered wall; 119 pieces of inked plaster were recovered. The wall, near the summit of the tell, was felled by yet another tremor.

History

The town was a sanctuary and metal-working centre, ringed by smelting furnaces built against the exterior of the city walls, whose successive rebuildings, dated by ceramics from the Late Bronze Age, sixteenth century BCE, to the fifth century BCE, accumulated as a tell based on a low natural hill. The hopeful identification of the site as the biblical Sukkot is not confirmed by any inscription at the site. Deir Alla was the first Bronze Age city excavated in Jordan. The initial expectations were of establishing a relative chronology of Palestine pottery in the transition between the Bronze Age to the Iron Age, established through meticulous

stratigraphy Stratigraphy is a branch of geology concerned with the study of rock (geology), rock layers (Stratum, strata) and layering (stratification). It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary rock, sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks. Stratigrap ...

. It was intended to span a gap between established chronologies at

Jericho Jericho ( ; ar, أريحا ; he, יְרִיחוֹ ) is a Palestinian city in the West Bank. It is located in the Jordan Valley, with the Jordan River to the east and Jerusalem to the west. It is the administrative seat of the Jericho Gove ...

and Samaria. The oldest sanctuary at Deir Alla dates to the Late Bronze Age; it was peacefully rebuilt at intervals, the floor being raised as the tell accumulated height, and the squared altar stone renewed, each new one placed atop the previous one. The final sanctuary was obliterated in a fierce fire; the blackened remains of an Egyptian jar bearing the cartouche of Queen Twosret gives a terminus post quem of c. 1200 BCE, a date consonant with other twelfth-century urban destruction in the Ancient Near East. Unlike some other destroyed sites, Deir Alla's habitation continued after the disaster, without a break, into the Iron Age; the discontinuity was a cultural one, with highly developed pottery of a separate ceramic tradition post-dating the destruction.

Ayyubid/Mamluk era

A sugar mill, dating from the

Ayyubid The Ayyubid dynasty ( ar, الأيوبيون '; ) was the founding dynasty of the medieval Sultan of Egypt, Sultanate of Egypt established by Saladin in 1171, following his abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate, Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt. A Sunni ...

/ Mamluk era, was in use in the village until 1967.

Ottoman era

In 1596, during the Ottoman Empire, Deir Alla was noted in the census as being located in the '' nahiya'' of ''Gawr'' in the ''

liwa Liwa may refer to: Places ; Chad *Liwa (sub-prefecture) in Mamdi Department ; Indonesia *Liwa, Indonesia ; Oman * Liwa, Oman, place in Oman, area around Sohar University *Liwa Province, Oman (wilayah) ; Poland *Liwa, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeshi ...

'' of

Ajloun Ajloun ( ar, عجلون, ''‘Ajlūn''), also spelled Ajlun, is the capital town of the Ajloun Governorate, a hilly town in the north of Jordan, located 76 kilometers (around 47 miles) north west of Amman. It is noted for its impressive ruins of t ...

. It had a population of 46

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

households and 4 Muslim bachelors. They paid a taxes on various agricultural products, including wheat, barley, sesame, cotton, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues, water buffalos and a water mill; a total of 10,500

akçe The ''akçe'' or ''akça'' (also spelled ''akche'', ''akcheh''; ota, آقچه; ) refers to a silver coin which was the chief monetary unit of the Ottoman Empire. The word itself evolved from the word "silver or silver money", this word is deri ...

Modern era

The Jordanian census of 1961 found 1,190 inhabitants in Deir Alla.Government of Jordan, Department of Statistics, 1964, p
17
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Tourist attractions

As well as being the site of the

, Deir Alla is also the site of Battle of Fahl between the Muslim Caliphate and the Byzantine Empire. There are several tombs of

Sahabah The Companions of the Prophet ( ar, اَلصَّحَابَةُ; ''aṣ-ṣaḥāba'' meaning "the companions", from the verb meaning "accompany", "keep company with", "associate with") were the disciples and followers of Muhammad who saw or m ...

(followers of Muhammad) in Deir Alla: * Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah *

Dhiraar bin Al-Azwar Diraar ibn al-Azwar(RA) ( ar, ضرار بن الأزور) also spelled as Diraar or Dhiraar (original name Diraar ibn Malik), was a skilled warrior since before the time of Islam who participated in the Early Muslim conquests and a companion of ...

Sharhabeel ibn Hasana Abū ʿAbd Allāh Shuraḥbīl ibn Ḥasana () was one of the earliest Muslim converts, ''sahaba'' (companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad) and a key commander in the Rashidun army during the Muslim conquest of the Levant. Early life Shurahbil ...

Notes

Bibliography

* * * *''Een Verhalla voor het Oprapen. Opgravingen de Deir Alla in de Jordaanvallei'', Leiden: Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, 1989.

External Links

Photos of Deir Alla
at the

American Center of Research The American Center of Research (ACOR) is a private, not-for-profit scholarly and educational organization. Based in Alexandria, Virginia, with a facility in Amman, Jordan, ACOR promotes knowledge of Jordan and the interconnected region, past and ...

{{Sites of the Israelite Settlement Populated places in Balqa Governorate Archaeological sites in Jordan Former populated places in Southwest Asia Late Bronze Age collapse