Major recent excavations, have shed much light on the complexity of Iron Age society and religion in southern Palestine, a region where both Judeans and Edomites lived. However, it is not clear whether the religious practices attested at these sites were a reflection of localised customs or were common rituals for peoples of Cisjordan and we do not know their extent. An isolated shrine site at Wadi ath-Thamad Site WT-13 in northern Moab which contained numerous finds of Iron Age figurines and statues has been the subject of detailed excavation. The rich harvest of figurines, ceramic statues, beads, miniature ceramic vessels, architectural models, faunal remains and shells and fossils constitutes the evidence for repeated cultic activities. Although dating to the Iron Age at the time of the consolidation of the kingdom of Moab, there is insufficient evidence at present to determine the full range of cultic practices and deities venerated by the peoples of the lands within ancient Moab and by those visitors to the shrine. The links between WT-13 and the surrounding town sites is only now coming to light with excavation at Atarus and Khirbat al-Mudayna, as well as at the Ammonite site of Tall Damiyah in the Jordan Valley, where a comparable shrine has recently been uncovered. WT-13 clearly serves as a link between the Jordan Valley and the Negev, adding to our knowledge of local and foreign influences in the region during the Iron Age.

• Front Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of tables and charts
• List of illustrations
• Preface
• Team members (1996–2003)
• PART 1: THE SITE AND ITS EXCAVATION
  • 1. Introduction and geographical setting
  • 2. Approaches to religious rituals and cultic behaviour
  • 3. Stratigraphy, architecture and finds at WT-13
• PART 2: THE FINDS FROM THE STRATUM II SHRINE
  • 4. The anthropomorphic figurines and statues: images of gods and worshipers
  • 5. Typology of the small finds
  • 6. WT-13 pottery and the Central Jordan tradition
  • 7. Tripod cups, miniature and specialized vessels
  • 8. The provenance of anthropomorphic statues, figurines and pottery
  • 9. The WT-13 faunal bone collection
  • 10. Recent shells and fossil invertebrates from WT-13
  • 11. Fossil sea urchins from WT-13
  • 12. The beads
  • 13. Nabataean and Roman pottery and objects
• PART 3: LANDSCAPE ARCHAEOLOGY
  • 14. Regional survey and landscape archaeology at WT-13 and WT-18 (al-Rumayl)
  • 15. Sacred landscape in central Jordan
• Bibliography