Description : Tell el-Hammam (also Tall al-Hammam) is an archaeological site in Jordan, in the eastern part of the lower Jordan Valley close to the mouth of the Jordan River. The site has substantial remains from the Chalcolithic, Early, Intermediate and Middle Bronze Age, and from Iron Age II. There are different attempts at identifying the site with a biblical city. Until 2016, the excavations have brought to light occupation layers from the Neolithic, Chalcolithic, the entire Bronze Age (Early, Intermediate, and Middle, then again from Iron Age 2, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, and Islamic periods. However, by far the most substantial findings are from the Early Bronze Age (3600–2500 BCE), Intermediate Bronze Age (2500–1950 BCE), and Middle Bronze Age (after 1950 BCE). The site was occupied in the Chalcolithic (c. 4300-3600 BCE), Early Bronze Age (c. 3600–2500 BCE), Intermediate Bronze Age (2500–1950 BCE), Middle Bronze Age (c. 1950–1550 BCE), Iron Age 2–3 (c. 980–332 BCE) and Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, and Umayyad periods (163 BCE–750 CE). Like most sites in the Jordan Valley, it was vacant in the Late Bronze Age (c. 1550–1200 BCE). Only some Late Bronze pottery was discovered in a tomb. and a single freestanding LB2a structure in Field UA on the upper tall. The "Late Bronze Gap" (first named by Flanagan at Tall Nimrin) of c. 550 years is not unique to Tall al-Hammam but characteristic of many of the sites in the Jordan valley (Heb. kikkār) region, including Tall Iktanu, Tall Kefrein (al-Kefrayn), Tall Nimrin, Tall el-Musṭāḥ, Tall Bleibel (Bulaybil), etc.
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