Sa'ad: A Late Roman/Byzantine Site in North Jordan

This monograph presents the village of Sa'ad, located in northwest Jordan near the Decapolis city of Gerasa (now Jerash) and inhabited continuously from Late Antiquity (in Jordan 324 to 641 CE) through Islamic times. This is an integrated report of the investigation of structures, cemeteries and contents, tombs, artifacts, and skeletal biology that provides a multi-faceted description and analysis of industrial areas, tomb architecture, objects used in daily life, and the diet and health of the people. In the area of structures, the report includes attention to two buildings occupied in several phases, a wine press sufficient for commercial purposes, a sixth century church with mosaic floor and Greek inscription, and a mosque that had been erected over Roman remains. The cemeteries, spread over four necropolises, are described in terms of tomb architecture and contents, with consideration of artifacts and of skeletal material that includes stable isotope analysis for diet reconstruction; also offered is an expanded tomb typology for north Jordan that extends the work done at Hesban. Overall, the monograph sets forth the total results of excavation from 1994 through 1997 in one inclusive volume.