Khirbet al-Mafjar Reconsidered: The Ceramic Evidence

Khirbet al-Mafjar is important as a well published example of an early Islamic "desert castle." Using data that Baramki provided, the present study reworks this large corpus of Islamic ceramics deriving new stratigraphic information and a chronological framework for the Mafjar ceramic types in four periods: Period I, 750-800; Period 2, 800-850; Period 3, 900-1000; and Period 4, 1200-1400. Within the context of the depositional history of the palace, this detailed analysis leads to revisions in our understanding of the history of the site. Thus, the earthquake of 747/8, however terrible it might have been, neither halted construction nor interrupted occupation of the palace. On the contrary, the suggested ceramic sequence bridges the "early Abbasid" hiatus and offers a heuristic model to be tested on early Islamic sites in Jordan and Palestine.