(MENAFN- Jordan Times)
AMMAN - Tell er-Rumeith, or Tell er-Ramith1 is an Iron Age site located 15 km to the east of Irbid and 7 km south of Ramtha. The site was built on the commanding tell, overlooking the Irbit Plateau from western side (Hosn) towards Ramtha on the north and Mafraq on the east.
This site controls the King's Highway which goes from Damascus to Amman and roads between Irbid and Mafraq.
American archaeologist Nelson Glueck (1900-1971) surveyed the site in 1943 and reportedIron I–II sherds. Glueck identified the site with biblical Ramoth-Gilead while Paul Lapp(1930-1970) described a small square or rectangular fort with a gate inits eastern side.
Tell er-Rumeith was a stronghold on the frontier between different states and statelets.
"The preliminary descriptions, which are not accompaniedby plans, section drawings and enough pictures, are vagueand render the reconstruction of the archaeology of the site almost an impossible task," said Archaeologist Omer Serghi.
"Lapps dating of the strata was probablymade according to the results of the 1950s'excavations at Hazor - at that time the only site in the north with a well-establishedstratigraphy and well-defined pottery assemblages," noted Serghi.
The archaeologist added that the site is bigger than described by Lapp as it consists of threemain elements, only one of them observed by him: an elevatedsquare or rectangular fort, a moatand an outer earth rampart.
In the center of the complex stands the hill of the fort. Today,after centuries of erosion, it has a somewhat round shape, butoriginally it was a square, partially artificial hill, Serghi continued, adding that the constructionof the first fort probably called for some leveling and filling operations.
The slope of the hill on all sides is too regular in line andgradient for a natural slope, and hence it can be assumed that theouter walls of the fort were protected by a glacis (not mentionedby the excavators) which went down into the moat.
When the area of the fort was extended the slope must have been re-arrangedwith a new glacis.
The broad moat is clear on at least three sides of the fort and a depression is marked on the northern and western sides.
"The scale of the building operation at Tell er-Rumeith has so far escaped the attention of scholars. The Iron IIA construction created a well-protected, elevated fort."
"Though small in size, theformidable fort guarded the entire plateau around it, and thenearby junction of the King's Highway leading to Damascus withthe road from the Jordan Valley and Irbid in the west to the desert in the east," the archaeologist said.
Few sites in the Levant demonstrate similar strategicvalue. This is especially noteworthy in light of the fact thatin much of the 9th and 8th centuries BC, the area was disputedandprobably changed hands several times," Serghi elaborated, adding that it is difficult to decide who was responsible for the constructionof each of the forts and who can be blamed for their demise.
This fort was destroyed in 842/841 BC as an outcomeof the defeat of Israel in the battle of Ramoth-Gilead which was fought nearby. The fort of Stratum VI was then built by Hazael and destroyed during the renewed expansion of Israel tothis region in the days of Jeroboam II in the early 8th century.
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