Australian archaeologists working in Jordan told about new results of excavations of the ancient city of Pella. The finds belong both to the oldest period of the city's existence and to Byzantine times. Specifically, scientists have found pieces of art in the ruins of a large stone building that scientists believe was the ruler's palace.
Ancient Pella was located in the Jordan Valley, 130 kilometers north of modern Amman. People have settled there since the Neolithic era. In the Bronze Age, there was already a large city, which is mentioned in Egyptian texts. But in the 9th century BC. e. the city was destroyed. It arose again only in the Hellenistic era, as one of the cities of the Seleucid kingdom, and was named after the ancient capital of the Macedonian kingdom and the homeland of Alexander the Great. When in 63 BC. e. Roman commander Pompey annexed the lands of the Seleucids in the Roman Empire, Pella, along with other nine cities inhabited by Greek-speaking inhabitants, received the patronage of the Romans and retained some autonomy. For example, all the cities of the Decapolis, as they were called at the time, continued to mint their own coins. Pella reached its greatest flowering in the Byzantine era. In the middle of the 5th century, the city had an episcopal see. The city became the site of a battle between the Byzantine forces and the Muslim invaders in January 635 AD. Pella finally perished in the 749 earthquake.
According to 2019 project manager Stephen Bourke of the University of Sydney, archaeologists this time found many small items of wood, ivory, earthenware, glass and metal in a late Bronze Age building. Some of the items are, says Burke, "of exceptional quality." The building itself, measuring 30 by 30 meters, was built of stone and brick. For several seasons of excavation, scientists have found 45 rooms in it. Some of them served as warehouses for oil, grain, grinding stones and other goods. The kitchen and the monumental entrance have also been excavated. Archaeologists suggest that the building served as the residence of the ruler of the ancient city. It was destroyed by fire in about 800 BC. e.
The archaeologist says that in the Bronze Age, Pella became one of the first settlements in Jordan, surrounded by a stone wall. Products brought from Egypt, Cyprus and Anatolia were found in the city, but the main source of the ancient city's prosperity was not trade, but agriculture.
Excavations of buildings from the Byzantine period (about 350-650) showed how large urban estates were gradually divided into smaller households, and some of them were converted into production facilities: there were furnaces where glass was melted. This indicates a continuing decline in the population of Pella since the middle of the 6th century. Stephen Burke says that Pella suffered several disasters during this time. The first was the plague in 540-542, which is supposed to have killed up to 30-40% of the population. The wars that began at this time between Byzantium and the Sassanid state led to both destruction and a significant increase in taxes. Finally, between 550 and 660 a series of earthquakes occurred.
