Study reveals no link between nomadic graves in Wadi Fidan, copper production in Iron Age Faynan

AMMAN — Nomads had always roamed around Wadi Faynan in the Iron Age. However, their presence was not a significant contributor for the copper industry boom.

Regarding the evidence for nomads in Faynan, there is the large 10th to 9th century BC cemetery of Wadi Fidan 40, interpreted as the burials of a nomadic or semi-nomadic population. However, it is difficult to connect this nomadic population to the copper production at Faynan. 

The report of a scholarly team working in Wadi Faynan concluded that this mortuary assemblage was very different from the contemporary occupants of the copper production centres, and referred to a "dichotomy" between the two, explicitly acknowledging that it could findno evidence to connect the nomadic population of the cemetery with Khirbat an-Nahas or any of the copper production. 

"Not only were there no material culture parallels, but the cemetery is quite isolated, in a different wadi system, and 4 km distant from Nahas, the centre of copper production. Furthermore, there are no radiocarbon dates at the cemetery later than the mid-9th century BC, while copper production continued to the late 9th century BC," said professor Piotr Bienkowski from the University of Manchester.

Bienkowski added that Wadi Fidan 40 does not show the evidence of a hierarchical society with an elite layer that is present at Nahas in the 10th and 9th centuries BCE.

“The WF 40 cemetery is related to the long tradition of desert funerary architecture of south-western Jordan and the Negev that harks back to the Neolithic period and it contains a total of 245 excavated cist graves, although most of the site is still unexcavated, the most common type consisting of stone cist graves, covered by stones labs and mud plaster,” Bienkowski continued.

The professor noted that the graves were frequently surrounded by two or three concentric circles of cobbles set upright on the soil, some of them identified as an iconic or anthropomorphic standing stones because of their shape or special placement within the grave circles. 

"A large number of grave goods were interred with the dead, most commonly adornments made of stone, shell beads and pendants. Only two pottery vessels were found at WF 40, but the most common items were wooden bowls, said to be typical of pastoral groups," Bienkowski elaborated.

The professor noted that this led the excavators to suggest that “by avoiding ceramics, the individuals interred at Wadi Fidan 40 appear to have signalled a distinction between themselves and groups with ceramics.”

All burials were roughly the same size, shared the same material culture and likely reflect a tribal, egalitarian society, the professor explained, noting that WF 40 was not the only Iron Age burial field found in the Faynan region, although it was certainly the largest and most complex. 

Other tumulus burials from the same period were excavated at Wadi Fidan 4, 45 and 61, with a similar material culture as WF 40.

"Wadi Fidan 45 consisted of only one stone-ringed tumulus with cists covered by slabs; grave goods included 32 beads [including two made of copper], but no pottery."

"Excavations at Wadi Fidan 4 unearthed three tumulus tombs, again made up of a ring of stones and covered by capstones; grave goods comprised beads [some made of copper and iron], an Egyptian seal, a scarab, and a figurine, but no pottery," Bienkowski underlined.

 At WF 61, one tumulus grave was excavated with similar burial offerings and the features present at WF 40 (and the other three excavated cemeteries) are completely absent at the main period of occupation of Khirbat an-Nahas. 

"At Nahas, no burial was found associated with the main early Iron II phase. It may be argued, of course, that WF 40 was the main cemetery for the people working at Nahas, but the striking fact is that the grave goods deposited at the former find no parallel in the latter," Bienkowski concluded.