Jebel al-Mutawwaq dolmen field and the Early Bronze Age site

The project of archaeological excavations of funerary megalithic monuments in the area of Qreisan Spring, Middle Wadi az-Zarqa, started in August 2012 and it is under the co-direction of Juan Muniz of the "Universidad Pontificia di Salamanca" (Spain) and of Andrea Polcaro of "Università degli Studi di Perugia" (Italy).

 

The aim of the project is to investigate the architectural features of the Early Bronze Age dolmens of Jebel al-Mutawwaq and to collect materials in order to dating the funerary structures. In particular we will try to understand if the different architectural typologies of dolmens identified in the past years by the Spanish mission in Jebel al-Mutawwaq are related to different chronological periods or to other social or status differences between the families that use these kinds of monuments as tombs.

 

Another aim is to delineate the relationship between the Early Bronze Age I settlement on the top of Jebel al-Mutawwaq and the megalithic necropolis on the slopes. Moreover, the continuous destruction suffered by dolmens of Jebel al-Mutawwaq and around Qareisan Spring, caused by the agricultural modern activities, needs at our advice an urgent work of archaeological documentations of these monuments and of the Early Bronze Age village, together with the valorization of the dolmen field and of the main buildings of the settlement which in the future risk to disappear completely.