Mesha’s Moab: Settlement Patterns and Site Interactions on the Madaba Plateau

Since the discovery of the Mesha Inscription, the kingdom of Moab has drawn widespread scholarly attention, with numerous surveys and excavations conducted over the past half century. Despite this research, significant questions remain regarding the origins of the kingdom, its structure, and the many settlements and sociopolitical groups that were integrated within the vision of Moab outlined by Mesha. This article presents the preliminary results from a series of archaeological surveys and excavations at several sites on the Madaba Plateau (Khirbat al-Mukhayyat, Khirbat al-Fayha, Khirbat Libb, Tall Maʿin, Khirbat Nitl, and Khirbat ad-Deleilat ash-Sharqiyah). Some of these sites were major settlements in the region during the Iron Age II period, though they have yet to enter scholarly discourse. The introduction of these preliminary summaries presents a significant step in better understanding the region of the Madaba Plateau during the Iron Age II, particularly in relation to site interrelations and hierarchy in the context of the formation of the kingdom of Moab. Preliminary Iron Age data from these sites reveal a system of numerous settlements, fortified sites, and accompanying towers/forts linked via access routes and integrated within an intentional network of intervisibility that bolstered inter-site relations and increased strategic visibility.