By Rocío Da Riva

 

Sela (as-Sila) occupies a rocky outcrop about 200 m above the surrounding wadis, on the Edomite Plateau in the administrative district of Tafilah, in southern Jordan. The site is located about 50 km north of Petra, near modern-day Buseirah (the Edomite Bozrah), not far from the legendary King’s Highway. It seems an unlikely spot for a Babylonian inscription.

Map of Jordan, after B.W. Porter, 2004. “Authority, polity, and tenuous elites in Iron Age Edom (Jordan),” Oxford Journal of Archaeology 23: 373–395. All images are copyright of the Sela Archaeological Project unless otherwise noted.

 

View of Sela from the north, October 2018.

 

Early 20th century explorers mentioned Sela, but it was Colonel Frederick G. Peake, commander of the Arab Legion, who discovered the archaeological site in the 1920s. Peake notified Nelson Glueck, who made the first archaeological visit to the site in 1937. Many later visitors remarked on the abundance of Iron Age pottery, but the site was only surveyed in the 1970s and thereafter. The late Hamed K. Qatamine of Mu’tah University undertook excavations at the site in 2001, and our Spanish-Jordanian team began working at Sela in the spring of 2015.

Despite its extreme location, many archaeological remains and textual sources bear witness to the importance of Sela in different periods. The surface pottery has revealed a long occupation of the settlement from the Iron Age, Nabatean, Ayyubid/Mamluk, and Late Islamic/Ottoman periods, but it is difficult to say how intensive these occupations were. Surface finds from the summit indicate that Sela saw its most extensive occupation during the Iron Age II (early to mid-first millennium BCE), the time of the Biblical Edomites and the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian empires. It is also interesting that no Bronze Age or Iron Age I material was detected in the course of the survey, which seems to point to the Iron Age II as the beginning of the occupation of Sela, when water management techniques were mastered. Sela was only habitable if water by means of the construction of water channels, deposits and cisterns. This is similar to other Edomite settlements in the area, such as Ba’ja III, Umm el Biyara, Khirbat Al-Mu’allaq, and Jabal al-Qseir.

Sela, lower part of the site.

 

Stairways of Sela, April 2016.

 

Entrance to the site of Sela, April 2016.

 

Entrance to the promontory of Sela, October 2018.

 

Remains of a house at Sela, October 2018.

 

Sela, southern side of the site, April 2016.

 

The settlement on the outcrop can be reached by means of a rock-cut stairway, protected by a tower, and access is gained through a gateway. There are rock-cut houses and other structures, some with traces of painted stucco, and more than a hundred structures related to water management: reservoirs and catchment basins, as well as cisterns, deposits, and associated channels from the Iron Age and Nabatean periods.

On the eastern slope of the site, south-east of the main stairway leading to the summit and about 100 m from the ground, there is a carved relief framed by a niche. The relief depicts a standing male human figure facing right. Three symbols are displayed in front of the figure: a moon, a solar disc, and a star. The figure holds a long staff in his right hand, while the left hand is lifted to the mouth in the well-known Mesopotamian gesture of prayer, and he wears a long robe and a conic crown or cap, the characteristic attire of the Babylonian monarch. Fragments of a cuneiform inscription can be seen to the right of the figure and below the three symbols. The figure has been identified with Babylonian king Nabonidus (556-539 BCE), because the relief bears resemblances to other representations of this king on stele and because the inscription clearly refers to him.

 

Working on the inscription at Sela, October 2018.

 

Studying the Nabonidus inscription at Sela, October 2018.

 

This monument represents firm evidence of a Babylonian presence during the Iron Age in southern Jordan and is the clearest indication of Sela’s importance during that period. It also suggests that the area was under Babylonian administration during the reign of Nabonidus. From the Nabonidus Chronicle we know that the king campaigned through Edom (Udummu) in the mid-sixth century BCE when he travelled from Babylonia to Arabia, and some authors have connected the Sela relief with this particular journey. Nabonidus’ presence in Sela is certainly linked to his Arabian campaigns. In fact, by his third regnal year, Nabonidus resided in Tayma and the conquest of Edom, and the programme to create the monument in Sela must date to the beginning of his ten-year stay in Arabia (553-543 BCE). We do not know whether Nabonidus was active in Edom at a later time during his long Arabian period; if this were the case, the monument could be dated at any moment between his third and his thirteenth regnal years.

The study of the Babylonian inscription was made by means of direct observation, taking photographs and measuring the monument. Given the location of the monument, abseiling was necessary, as well as the use of ropes and climbing equipment. A team of professional climbers assisted in the task, including Arcadio Noriega, Alex Lopez Estacio, Raúl Mejías, and David González.

The study included an analysis of the manufacturing techniques of the monument as well as a survey of the rock surface, and we found evidence for the use of scaffoldings to produce the monument. Finally, the study of the contour of the mountain where Sela is located has revealed that the site was only accessible through the Eastern side, where the stairways are located and the inscription was carved. This means that Sela was a true mountain stronghold, a real fortress.

During our first campaign (2015) we also undertook a survey of the site and produced a cartographic base for future studies. The archaeological field survey of 2015 was non-intrusive and extensive. The total area surveyed was over 42 hectares, distributed between the areas shown on the sketch map.

The total area surveyed was over 42 hectares, distributed between the areas shown on the sketch map. Base map from Google Maps.

 

Studying water systems at Sela, October 2018.

 

Studying water systems at Sela, October 2018.

 

The objective of the second campaign (2016) was twofold. The first part of the project was the survey conducted to identify cisterns, channels and structures related to water use, using the 2015 survey map as a base. The second part of the campaign was devoted to the excavation of two areas near the entrance tower. The third campaign (2018) focused on the study of the Nabonidus inscription, measurement of water structures, study of the wadi around the promontory of Sela, and the surface survey of the settlement, undertaken by archaeologists Mohammad Najjar and Michael Herles.

Sela is a site with a rich archaeological legacy and an imposing geomorphological heritage. Its extent, the presence of many architectural structures, the surface finds, and general layout bear witness to its archaeological importance. The structures for water storage and management, as well as the dwellings and fortifications, make it a unique site for studying the economic use and social relevance of water management on the Edomite Plateau. The topographic study and preliminary surveys demonstrate the potential of Sela for contributing to the understanding of the past on the Edomite Plateau and for helping us to solve questions regarding settlement patterns, water control systems, and economic activity. The combination of history and landscape makes Sela a likely pole of attraction for sustainable tourism in Tafila and a key landmark for educational work in the region.

 

Prof. Dr. Rocío Da Riva of the University of Barcelona leads this on-going archaeological project in collaboration with the Department of Antiquities of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Work at Sela has been funded by the ICREA Academia Research Prize, the Spanish Ministry of Education and Culture, the Agency for Management of University and Research Grants of the Government of Catalonia and the PALARQ Foundation. The project also has the support of the Water Research Institute of the University of Barcelona and the Spanish Embassy in Amman.

For Further Reading:

Bienkowski, P. 2014. Edom during the Iron Age II period, in M.L. Steiner and A.E. Killebrew (eds), The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of the Levant (c. 8000-332 BCE): 782-794. London: Oxford University Press.

Crowell, B. L. 2007. Nabonidus, as-Silaʿ, and the Beginning of the End of Edom. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 348: 75-88

Da Riva, R. 2015. Surface survey of the site of as-Sila/Sela (Tafila, Jordan): water management in the Edomite Plateau during the first millennium BC. Newsletter of Water and Wastewater in Ancient Civilizations (WWAC), December 2015: 17-20.

Dalley, S. and Goguel, A. 1997. The Selaʿ Sculpture: A Neo–Babylonian Rock Relief in Southern Jordan. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 41: 169-176.

Tebes J. M. 2016a. The Kingdom of Edom? A Critical Reappraisal of the Edomite State Model, in I. Milevski and T.E. Levy (eds), Framing Archaeology in the Near East – The Application of Social Theory to Fieldwork. New Directions in Anthropological Archaeology: 113-122. London: Equinox.