Research Projects
Shuna Project
A research project of the Department of Archaeology.
Background
Excavations at Tell esh-Shuna in the north Jordan Valley were undertaken between 1991 and 1994 to investigate the nature of developments taking place in the small-scale complex societies of present day Palestine and Jordan during the second half of the 4th millennium BC, that is contemporary with the growth of cities in Mesopotamia. The evidence from Shuna demonstrates that these key centuries witnessed very significant changes in the subsistence economy, the production and distribution of material culture the nature of long-range contacts, and the organisation of space within the settlement. The final project monograph will be submitted for publication 2008. The project was co-directed by Dr. Philip with Dr. Douglas Baird University of Liverpool, and supported by a range of bodies including: Council for British Research in the Levant, The British Academy, The Society of Antiquaries, The Royal Museums of Scotland, The University of Liverpool, The Ashmolean, Museum, Oxford, The British Museum, The Oriental Museum, University of Durham.
Publications:
Preliminary field reports appear in: Levant 26 (1994): 111-133, Levant 25 (1993): 13-36, Ann. Dept. Ant. Of Jordan 36 (1992): 71-88.
Specialist studies include:
Rehren, T., Hess, K. and Philip, G. 1998. Fourth millennium BC copper metallurgy in northern Jordan: the evidence from Tell esh-Shuna. In H.-G. Gebel,. Z. Kafafi, and G.O. Rollefson (eds) The Prehistory of Jordan, II. Perspectives from 1997. Studies in Early Near Eastern Production, Subsistence, and Environment 4: 625-640. Berlin: ex oriente.
Philip, G. and Rehren, T. 1996. Fourth millennium BC silver from Tell esh-Shuna, Jordan: archaeometallurgical investigation and some thoughts on ceramic skeuomorphs. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 15(2): 129-150.
