Though the site appears to have never had more than a few dozen buildings, archaeological artifacts have been recovered from 21 different strata. This indicates that the site has been occupied for all but 1,200 years since the early Bronze Age (c. 3200 BCE) to the present, with a few flints and cherts from even earlier periods. A
dolmen from this earliest period contains disarticulated skeletons from at least 20 people, along with several associated structures and pottery fragments. This phase of occupation peaked approximately 2500 BCE based on the ruins of several houses and streets, before being abandoned by 2200 BCE. The site was recolonized and fortified with a 5-meter-deep moat topped by a 5-meter-tall rampart around 1600 BCE, but there is no clear evidence it was occupied between 1550 and 1350 BCE. A large, well-preserved, five-room, two-story structure built in the Late Bronze Age (c. 1300 BCE) has been the subject of some debate among archaeologists. Artifacts bearing a stamp with the word "'Ammon" written in
Aramaic persist until approximately 400 BCE, well into the
Persian Era. After a two-centuries without occupation, the site apparently persisted as a farmstead built around the spring from 200 BCE to 135 CE. A tomb with a
Greek inscription and a plastered ritual pool from the time period indicate connections to other Mediterranean cultures. After 350 CE, numerous pottery fragments, sherds, and wall fragments indicate it was at least transiently occupied during the
Byzantine and Islamic periods, and possibly by the
Bedouin into the 20th century. ==See also==