BELOW The ruins of Jerash seen from the north-western part of the city, where a Danish-German team have shed new light on activity in this so-called ‘peripheral’ area. In the foreground are the remains of the Synagogue Church, and to the left is the large Artemis Temple. To the right is the South Theatre and the Oval Piazza, and in-between is the Temple of Zeus.

Jerash: revealing a ‘peripheral’ part of an ancient city in northern Jordan

In AD 749, the ancient city of Jerash was hit by a devastating earthquake. Excavating private houses that collapsed during the disaster has revealed a wealth of information about the Umayyad city. These, though, are just some of the finds encountered during recent archaeological work in the north-western part of the site, as Achim Lichtenberger, Eva Mortensen, and Rubina Raja reveal.

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World Archaeology

May 20, 2021

It is winter. The kitchen is humming with activity, as sheep’s wool is prepared for textile production and fires are kept up. The sheep have already been sheared with large iron scissors, and now the wool is being combed, while the fibres are softened and dyed. The household is busy. One member gets out a large iron ladle to stir either the soaked fibres or the coals in the fire. Another inhabitant heads upstairs to find the wooden spindles and the matching clay and rock-crystal whorls, so that they are ready for spinning the fibres. The kitchen is a rather large room, which covers about 17m2. Set into the floor in a corner are two column drums, one of which works as a crusher. On the o

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