The first preliminary report of the Khirbat Umm al-GhuzlÄ n Excavation Project: investigating an EB IV olive processing site in north Jordan

The evidence from Khirbat Umm al-GhuzlÄ n suggests that this enclosure site served a specialised economic purpose in the Early Bronze Age (EB) IV (ca 26/2500-2000BC). Given the site’s location, it is likely that it was used as a processing centre for upland horticultural crops such as olive, which grow better in the well-drained slopes of the rift escarpment than on the flood-prone Jordan Valley floor. The site may have been enclosed to protect seasonally-produced caches of high-value oil jars before their distribution through the settlement systems of the rift escarpment, or to population centres on the Jordan Valley floor.