Dead Sea Tea Party: An Analysis of Variation in Early Bronze Age IV Mortuary Practices in Bâb adh-Dhra`, Jordan

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This poster explores mortuary practices in the Early Bronze Age IV (EB IV; 2400-2000 BCE) post-urban settlement of Bâb adh-Dhra`, Jordan through the analysis of legacy collections from 1970s excavations by the Expedition to the Dead Sea Plain led by R. Thomas Schaub and Walter E. Rast. Bâb adh-Dhra`’s cemetery offers EBA researchers an exceptional opportunity to compare EB IV mortuary practices with the remains from an associated unwalled village settlement to assess the nature of socioeconomic differentiation within a post-urban community. We analyzed EB IV tombs RTT (Road Trench Tomb), A52, and A54 to examine variation in how EB IV people in the village treated their dead, including primary and secondary mortuary practices and the inclusion of different types of grave goods. We argue that the range of practices, particularly the presence and absence of teapots and lamps, indicates participation in rituals designed to preserve a sense of community and personhood.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 52622