Ramtha Antiquities assumes authority over Tell Al Rumayth archaeological site — official

AMMAN — The remains of the Iron Age settlement Tell Al Rumayth, near Ramtha, belongs to the Ramtha Antiquities office, stated Director General of the Department of Antiquities (DoA) Fadi Bala’awi.

 “The hill is located about 6km to the south of the Ramtha district, Irbid. The site contains building foundations and pottery dating back to Iron Age, Hellenistic, Roman and Islamic periods, and it rises 579 metres above the sea level,” Bala’awi told The Jordan Times in a recent interview.

Though there is no signage indicating the site, it is open to the general public. 

“Tell Al Rumayth is an archaeological site and it should be the subject to the Jordanian Antiquities Law,” Bala’awi said, adding that, “unfortunately, the site was not qualified as significant, nor it was expropriated by the state”.

“Therefore Tell Al Rumayth is in a poor state,” Bala’awi said.

He added that there are multiple factors that affect Tell Al Rumayth, including urban development and its proximity to an industrial zone.

Archaeological investigations at the site that took place during the sixties of the last century have demonstrated a continuous occupation during the Iron Age II period (10-9th century BC), through Hellenistic, Roman-Byzantine and Islamic period, Jordanian archaeologist Mohammad Najjar told The Jordan Times in a previous interview.‘