The Early Bronze Age I Tombs and Burials of Bab edh-Dhra', Jordan.

• Author: Bloch-Smith, Elizabeth
• Position: Book review

The Early Bronze Age I Tombs and Burials of Bab edh-Dhra', Jordan. By DONALD J. ORTNER and BRUNO FROHLICH. Reports of the Expedition to the Dead Sea Plain, Jordan, vol. 3. Lanham, Maryland: ALTA MIRA PRESS, 2008. Pp. x + 325, illus. $195.

Donald Ortner and Bruno Frohlich provide a model and set a new standard for ancient Near Eastern bioarchaeological or osteoarchaeological research and publication with this volume on the shaft tombs and Charnel House burials excavated in 1977, 1979, and 1981 from EBA 1 Bab edh-Dhra', Jordan. With the advantage of a large sample dating to a limited time period, 578 shaft tomb burials from the Early Bronze Age IA (3300-3200 B.C.) with males and females of all ages represented, the authors and contributors reconstruct the ancient population through discussions of paleodemography and paleopathology.

Chapters 1-5 present introductory material: a brief history of the excavations (chapter 1), "The Ecological and Social Context of the EB I People" (chapter 2), "Methods in the Recovery of and Research on the EBI People" (chapter 3), "Cultural Artifacts of the EB I Tombs" (chapter 4, by Thomas Schaub), and "The Funerary Tradition of the EB I People" (chapter 5). Ortner and Frohlich argue that the large number and distribution of males and females of all ages, from fetal and neo-natal through fifty years old, constitute a representative sample for reconstructing the live EB IA population. They base their reconstruction on metric data, non-metric observation, dental analysis, and skeletal evidence of various disorders (primarily trauma, arthritis, and infection). Cultural artifacts are summarily presented, as most of the material has been previously published: pottery including many fine ware types, basalt bowls, stone mace heads, twelve ceramic figurines of "gestating" females, jewelry, bone and wood objects, and textiles. Each tomb type is then detailed: the EB IA shaft tomb, with a vertical shaft opening into multiple, stone-carved chambers housing secondary burials; and the EB IB Charnel House, an above-ground, beehive-shaped, mudbrick structure for primary and secondary burials. Based on the virtual absence of permanent settlement at the site in EB IA, the excavators reconstruct a nomadic or semi-nomadic population initially interring their dead elsewhere and then periodically transporting the collected bones--losing or breaking some in the process--to the Bab edh-Dhra' burial ground for placement within a family...