Disentangling Cross-Crafting, Reuse, and Recycling in Late Antique Gerasa/Jerash (Fourth-Seventh Centuries CE)

This article focuses on the processes of cross-crafting, reuse, and recycling, which thick dense fill layers in archaeological stratigraphies allow us to begin to disentangle and investigate – however, not without problems. It discusses the potential and pitfalls of such often overlooked and understudied ‘messy’ contexts. It furthermore discusses the focus these contexts deserve and their centrality to push forward our understanding of complex processes in urban spaces in the Late Antique period in the Eastern Mediterranean. While focussing on archaeological situations in Gerasa/Jerash, the broader implications of this contribution’s arguments are of wider significance and importance to archaeological practice and research focus.