About MPP-ʿUmayri

Over the past five decades, the Madaba Plains Project has carried out sustained archaeological research in the Mādabā region of Jordan, building on earlier work begun at Tall Ḥisbān in the late 1960s. In 1984, excavations began at Tall al-ʿUmayri—the first site formally investigated under the MPP umbrella—marking a pivotal shift from a narrowly biblical-archaeological focus toward a more rigorous, stratigraphic and interdisciplinary research program. Alongside later work at Tall Jalūl, research at Tall al-ʿUmayri has helped illuminate over five millennia of human occupation in central Jordan, from Early Bronze Age urbanization through Iron Age kingdoms and into the Islamic and modern periods. Continued excavation at ʿUmayri enabled researchers to move beyond questions of textual correlation and instead explore long-term cultural processes such as settlement patterns, food systems, and cycles of nomadism and sedentarization in the region.

Over time, the project evolved into a collaborative, anthropologically informed enterprise supported by institutions including Andrews University, La Sierra University, Walla Walla University, and Burman University, and strengthened through partnerships with the Department of Antiquities of Jordan and the American Center of Research in Amman. Excavations at Tall al-ʿUmayri, in particular, exemplify the project’s commitment to methodological rigor, technological innovation, and prompt publication—principles that have influenced archaeological practice throughout Jordan and beyond with support from organizations such as the American Society of Overseas Research. Today, ʿUmayri remains central to the project’s legacy, offering one of its most continuous and data-rich records for understanding cultural change across the southern Levant.

(Summary of the Introductory chapter of Narrating Archaeological Sites and Places: Fifty Years of the Madaba Plains Project at Tall Hisban, Tall al-ʿUmayri, and Tall Jalul, edited by Douglas R. Clark, Øystein S. LaBianca, and Randall W. Younker, 2025. Adapted for emphasis on the excavations and research at Tall al-ʿUmayri.)