Umm al-Jimal

أم الجمال

Jordan · Mafraq

SettlementIntermittent excavationUNESCO · 2024
Approximate period1 CE — 800 CERoman, Byzantine and Early Islamic periods; reuse in the 20th century See on the map ↓

In brief

Umm al-Jimal is a rural settlement whose basalt buildings preserve the local architecture of the Hauran region. Excavations have investigated houses, cemeteries and the water system, revealing the relationship between the early Roman settlement and the later Byzantine and Early Islamic settlement.

What was found?

  • 1Al-Herri Roman village

    It is an earlier village identified southeast of the Late Antique settlement. Excavations revealed the site's Roman-period settlement history.

  • 2House complex XVII–XVIII

    It is a group of houses investigated through excavation and consolidated. It provides a tangible example for studying the settlement's everyday living spaces.

  • 3Water collection system

    It is a complex water collection system supporting the settlement's agriculture and animal husbandry. It shows how the rural economy depended on water management.

  • 4Multilingual inscriptions

    Texts in Greek, Nabataean, Safaitic, Latin, and Arabic were found. They allow the identities, political affiliations, and religious changes of the local population to be traced.

  • 5Fihr commemorative inscription

    Nabataean and Greek versions of a text commemorating Fihr, the teacher of Gadhima, were found. The Nabataean text, dated to approximately AD 265, bears signs of the transition to Arabic script.

What does it point to?

The houses and water system show a local way of life based on agriculture and animal husbandry. The inscriptions document that this community used different languages and experienced changes during the Roman, Byzantine, and Early Islamic periods.

What did it teach us?

  1. It revealed that a Roman village existed before the Late Antique settlement.
  2. It showed that rural production was supported by advanced water collection systems.
  3. It provided tangible evidence for studying the transition from Nabataean to Arabic script.

Record

Culture
Local communities of the Hauran; Roman, Byzantine and Umayyad periods
First modern dig
1974
Team / historical
Umm el-Jimal Archaeological Project
Coordinates
32.3269°, 36.3700°

Sources

  1. whc.unesco.org
  2. ummeljimal.org
  3. ummeljimal.org
  4. ummeljimal.org

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