Jordan
Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...
ian town located in Madaba Governorate approximately 70 kilometres south of
Amman
Amman ( , ; , ) is the capital and the largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of four million as of 2021, Amman is Jordan's primate city and is the largest city in the Levant ...
and east of the
Dead Sea
The Dead Sea (; or ; ), also known by #Names, other names, is a landlocked salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east, the Israeli-occupied West Bank to the west and Israel to the southwest. It lies in the endorheic basin of the Jordan Rift Valle ...
. It was the site of an ancient
Moab
Moab () was an ancient Levant, Levantine kingdom whose territory is today located in southern Jordan. The land is mountainous and lies alongside much of the eastern shore of the Dead Sea. The existence of the Kingdom of Moab is attested to by ...
ite town (;, ,)
Previously
nomadic
Nomads are communities without fixed habitation who regularly move to and from areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the population of nomadic pa ...
, the current community settled the town in the 1950s. Dhiban's current population is approximately 15,000, with many residents working in the army, government agencies, or engaged in seasonal agricultural production. Several young people study in nearby universities in al Karak, Madaba, and
Amman
Amman ( , ; , ) is the capital and the largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of four million as of 2021, Amman is Jordan's primate city and is the largest city in the Levant ...
. Most inhabitants practise
Islam
Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...
.
History
The ancient settlement lies adjacent to the modern town. Excavations have revealed that the site was occupied intermittently over the past 5,000 years, its earliest occupation occurring in the Early Bronze Age in the third millennium BC. The site's extensive settlement history is in part due to its location on the King's Highway, a major commercial route in antiquity. The majority of evidence for this population is concentrated in a 15-hectare tel. The release of the Mesha Inscription in 1868 led to an upsurge in visitors to the town (including tourists and scholars) due to its ostensible confirmation of biblical passages.
Bronze Age
The first substantial settlement at Dhiban's tel was during the Early Bronze Age. Archaeological evidence for a habitation of the tel between the Early Bronze Age and Iron Age has not yet been found. However, the disturbed archaeological context at the site means that this might not be definitive. Dhiban might correspond with the town “Tpn” or “Tbn” found in Egyptian texts from the reigns of Thutmoses III, Amenhotep III, and Rameses II.
Dhiban and the Israelites
The
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach" . '' tribe of Gad.
According to the Bible, the city was conquered by the Amorite king Sihon from the Moabites. Later, it fell into the hands of the
Israelites
Israelites were a Hebrew language, Hebrew-speaking ethnoreligious group, consisting of tribes that lived in Canaan during the Iron Age.
Modern scholarship describes the Israelites as emerging from indigenous Canaanites, Canaanite populations ...
and was allocated to either the tribe of Gad or Reuben. According to the Mesha Stele, which was found at the site, the Moabite king Mesha ruled from Divon in the 9th century BC after his father had ruled it for 30 years. It was thus probably a Moabite town from at least the late 10th century BC. Biblical texts suggest that Divon remained under Moabite control until the end of the Southern Levantine Iron Age. Archaeological excavations conducted in the 1950s revealed settlements dating back to the
Chalcolithic
The Chalcolithic ( ) (also called the Copper Age and Eneolithic) was an archaeological period characterized by the increasing use of smelted copper. It followed the Neolithic and preceded the Bronze Age. It occurred at different periods in di ...
(early 5th millennium BCE), as well as later structures. However, in the early sixth century BCE, the
Neo-Babylonian Empire
The Neo-Babylonian Empire or Second Babylonian Empire, historically known as the Chaldean Empire, was the last polity ruled by monarchs native to ancient Mesopotamia. Beginning with the coronation of Nabopolassar as the King of Babylon in 626 BC a ...
The Mesha Stele, discovered in this region, describes the histories of Divon, Moab, and the
Kingdom of Judah
The Kingdom of Judah was an Israelites, Israelite kingdom of the Southern Levant during the Iron Age. Centered in the highlands to the west of the Dead Sea, the kingdom's capital was Jerusalem. It was ruled by the Davidic line for four centuries ...
. The inscription recounts King Mesha’s rebellion against the northern
Kingdom of Israel (Samaria)
The Kingdom of Israel ( ), also called the Northern Kingdom or the Kingdom of Samaria, was an History of ancient Israel and Judah, Israelite kingdom that existed in the Southern Levant during the Iron Age. Its beginnings date back to the firs ...
, a pivotal event referenced in 2 Kings 3 in the Bible.
The Mesha Stele linked the tell (archaeological site) at Dhiʾban with the biblical Divon, while also implying that it was the capital of Mesha, a prominent Moabite king; however, its role in Mesha's reign has not been confirmed. In the Iron IIb period (IIb-c: 925-586 BCE), the tell at Dhiʾban underwent at least three large building projects. The site was artificially enlarged during this period, incorporating several new architectural features. These include retaining walls, towers, and a monumental city wall. The dates of these features' construction have not been confirmed, but they may be somewhere between the 9th and 8th centuries BCE. These large buildings appear to have been abandoned in the Iron IIc period. The site also featured a large necropolis to the northeast of the tel. This contained multi-generational burials with corresponding funerary offerings, and one had a clay coffin with an anthropomorphic lid. The necropolis appears to be contemporary with these building projects.
Another name for Dibon was Karchoh, and possibly in the ninth century, the name Divon referred to a tribe of which Mesha was the leader, and that the name Dibon was attached to the town later (see van der Steen and Smelik 2007)
Modern scholarship, such as the works of historians Israel Finkelstein, Nadav Na'aman, and Thomas Römer, emphasizes how the Meshe Stele serves as a lens to understand the historical relationship between Moab and Israel. The stele remains central to discussions about
Israel
Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
There has been little evidence recovered from the site for the eras of the
Achaemenid Empire
The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire, also known as the Persian Empire or First Persian Empire (; , , ), was an Iranian peoples, Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty in 550 BC. Based in modern-day Iran, i ...
, the
Hellenistic period
In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...
, and the early
Nabataean Kingdom
The Nabataean Kingdom (Nabataean Aramaic: 𐢕𐢃𐢋𐢈 ''Nabāṭū''), also named Nabatea () was a political state of the Nabataeans during classical antiquity. The Nabataean Kingdom controlled many of the trade routes of the region, amassin ...
. However, evidence indicates that the site became part of Nabataea in the mid-
1st century BC
The 1st century Before Christ, BC, also known as the last century BC and the last century Common Era , BCE, started on the first day of 100 BC, 100 BC and ended on the last day of 1 BC, 1 BC. The Anno Domini, AD/BC notation does not ...
. These include Nabataean-style ceramics, coins, and architecture (such as a temple with a Nabataean-like layout, Nabataean masonry, an aqueduct, retaining wall, and monumental stairway).
Roman and Byzantine Dhiban
In 106 CE, the Romans incorporated Nabataea into their empire, including Divon. Nabataean monumental buildings were abandoned, and there were indications of a decline in population at the site. Coins, a multi-generational family tomb, and an inscription indicate that the site did remain inhabited, and there were building projects during this time. The inscription also suggests that the Romans maintained a road near the site, which might have been the King's Highway. In the later Roman and Byzantine eras, the population of Divon began to increase gradually. It was mentioned in Eusebius’ ''Onomasticon'' as a very large village in the 4th century. Excavations have uncovered two significant buildings from this period: a
therma
Therma or Thermē (, ) is the unknown city incorporated into the new city of Thessaloniki by the Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedonians on its synoecism and foundation. Little is known of literary Therma, including its exact location.
Thessal ...
and two
church buildings
A church, church building, church house, or chapel is a building used for Christian worship church service, services and Christian religion, Christian activities. The earliest identified Christian church is a house church founded between 233 A ...
.
Early and Middle Islamic Periods
The exact date of Dhiban's refounding after the
Muslim conquest of the Levant
The Muslim conquest of the Levant (; ), or Arab conquest of Syria, was a 634–638 CE invasion of Byzantine Syria by the Rashidun Caliphate. A part of the wider Arab–Byzantine wars, the Levant was brought under Arab Muslim rule and develope ...
is under debate. It could be from the 7th to 8th century
Umayyad Caliphate
The Umayyad Caliphate or Umayyad Empire (, ; ) was the second caliphate established after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty. Uthman ibn Affan, the third of the Rashidun caliphs, was also a member o ...
or the 8th to 9th century
Abbasid Caliphate
The Abbasid Caliphate or Abbasid Empire (; ) was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (566–653 CE), from whom the dynasty takes ...
. The community thrived during this time and covered most of the current tell by the time of the 14th century rule by the
Mamluk Sultanate
The Mamluk Sultanate (), also known as Mamluk Egypt or the Mamluk Empire, was a state that ruled Egypt, the Levant and the Hejaz from the mid-13th to early 16th centuries, with Cairo as its capital. It was ruled by a military caste of mamluks ...
, if not earlier during the 13th century Ayyubid period. Several structures on the site have been dated to this period using coins and ceramics.
In 1261, the Mamluk sultan Baybars granted Dhiʾban as an iqṭāʿ "tax farm" to the son of an Ayyubid prince.Laparidou, pp. 95–97 Dhiʾban prospered throughout the 1200s and 1300s. It lay on the region's main trade route and supplied
meat
Meat is animal Tissue (biology), tissue, often muscle, that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted and farmed other animals for meat since prehistory. The Neolithic Revolution allowed the domestication of vertebrates, including chickens, sheep, ...
to nearby towns. The town had a diverse agricultural economy, with einkorn and
barley
Barley (), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains; it was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent around 9000 BC, giving it nonshattering spikele ...
supplemented with
grape
A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters.
The cultivation of grapes began approximately 8,0 ...
lentil
The lentil (''Vicia lens'' or ''Lens culinaris'') is an annual plant, annual legume grown for its Lens (geometry), lens-shaped edible seeds or ''pulses'', also called ''lentils''. It is about tall, and the seeds grow in Legume, pods, usually w ...
s, and
chickpea
The chickpea or chick pea (''Cicer arietinum'') is an annual plant, annual legume of the family (biology), family Fabaceae, subfamily Faboideae, cultivated for its edible seeds. Its different types are variously known as gram," Bengal gram, ga ...
s. Agriculture in Dhiʾban depended heavily on the use of
cistern
A cistern (; , ; ) is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. To prevent leakage, the interior of the cistern is often lined with hydraulic plaster.
Cisterns are disti ...
s for
irrigation
Irrigation (also referred to as watering of plants) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has bee ...
, since the semi-arid climate made rainfall uncertain. The farmers practised multiple cropping and raised swine, sheep, goats, and cattle; they also caught fish, shellfish, and crabs.
However, Dhiʾban appears to have declined in importance after 1356, when the nearby town of Hisban lost its status as capital of the al-Balqa region in favour of
Amman
Amman ( , ; , ) is the capital and the largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of four million as of 2021, Amman is Jordan's primate city and is the largest city in the Levant ...
. Periods of drought in the ensuing years exacerbated this decline, and Dhiʾban was abandoned during the early years of the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...
Ottoman Syria
Ottoman Syria () is a historiographical term used to describe the group of divisions of the Ottoman Empire within the region of the Levant, usually defined as being east of the Mediterranean Sea, west of the Euphrates River, north of the Ara ...
from 1538 to 1596 neglected Dhiʾban, which implies that the settlement declined through the 16th century. Families of the Bani Hamida, a
bedouin
The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu ( ; , singular ) are pastorally nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia (Iraq). The Bedouin originated in the Sy ...
tribe, settled the site of Dhiʾban in the 1950s, building upon preexisting structures as well as using them for raw materials. In the following years, the land surrounding the tell was distributed to the community for private ownership, and the tell itself remains Jordanian government property.
Archaeology
The first archaeological work at tell Dhiʾban was conducted by Duncan Mackenzie in 1910, mainly a surface examination. Scientific excavations began at the site in the mid-20th century with the American Schools of Oriental Research's project in 1950–1953 (now the
American Society of Overseas Research
The American Society of Overseas Research (ASOR), founded in 1900 as the American School of Oriental Study and Research in Palestine, is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization based in Alexandria, Virginia, which supports the research and teaching of ...
), led by Frederick Victor Winnett, and later by William LaForest Reed. The ASOR effort, now led by William Morton, continued with seasons in 1955, 1956, and 1965.
The current excavation and restoration project is the Dhiban Excavation and Development Project codirected by scholars at the
University of Liverpool
The University of Liverpool (abbreviated UOL) is a Public university, public research university in Liverpool, England. Founded in 1881 as University College Liverpool, Victoria University (United Kingdom), Victoria University, it received Ro ...
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...
. Work has been conducted there since 2004; , a dig programme was scheduled to begin on May 17, 2025.
*Cordova, C., C. Foley, and A. Nowell (2005) Landforms, Sediments, Soil Development, and Prehistoric Site Settings on the Madaba-Dhiban Plateau, Jordan. ''Geoarchaeology '' 20(1): 29-56.
*Ji, C. (2007) “The Iraq al-Amir and Dhiban Plateau Regional Surveys,” pp. 141–161 in ''Crossing Jordan – North American contributions to the archaeology of Jordan. '' T. Levy, P. M. Daviau, R. Younker and M. Shaer, eds. London: Equinox.
*Ji, C., and J. Lee (2000) A Preliminary Report on the Dhiban Plateau Survey Project, 1999: The Versacare Expedition. ''Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan '' 44: 493–506. Porter, B. et al. “Tall Dhiban 2004 Pilot Season: Prospection, Preservation, and Planning.” ''Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan'' 49 (2005): 201-216. *
*
*
*Routledge, B. (2004) In ''Moab in the Iron Age: Hegemony, polity, archaeology.'' Philadelphia, Pa: University of Pennsylvania Press.
*Sauer, J. (1975) Review: The Excavation at Dibon (Dhiban) in Moab: The Third Campaign 1952–1953. ''Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan'' 20: 103–9.
*Tushingham, A. (1972) ''The Excavations at Dibon (Dhiban) in Moab'' (Cambridge: Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research).
*Tushingham, A. (1990) Dhiban Reconsidered: King Mesha and his Works. ''Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan'' 34: 182–92.
*Tushingham, A., and P. Pedrette (1995) Mesha's Citadel complex (Qarhoh) at Dhiban. In ''Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan'', V, edited by Muna Zaghloul (Amman: Department of Antiquities): 151–59.
*Van der Steen and Smelik (2007) King Mesha and the tribe of Dibon. In: '' Journal for the Study of the Old Testament'' 32:139-162
*
*Winnet, F. and W. Reed (1964) ''The Excavations at Dibon (Dhiban) in Moab: The First and Second Campaigns'' (Baltimore: J.H. Furst).