Bir Madhkur is a major caravan station along the ancient Spice Route that connected Petra in southern Jordan with the Mediterranean port of Gaza. The site was occupied in the late Hellenistic (Nabataean), Roman, and Byzantine periods. The main features of the site include a Late Roman/Byzantine army fort, a domestic settlement surrounding the fort, a bath complex/caravanserai, and various ancillary structures. Sites in the vicinity of Bir Madhkur include other caravan stations, farmhouses, and nomadic encampments. The Bir Madhkur Project examines, through historical, archaeological, and ethnographic research, the function of Bir Madhkur as a regional center of social, economic, and cultural interaction and exchange.

The Site of Bir Madhkur

Approximately 10 km northwest of Petra, Bir Madhkur lies in the foothills of the esh-Shera mountain range along the eastern border of Wadi Araba (see map). The most prominent feature at Bir Madhkur is the large fort with four corner towers (quadriburgium), which measures just over 30 × 30 m. The fort has an open courtyard in its center, surrounded by rooms adjacent to the curtain wall. The construction of the fort dates to the Late Roman/Early Byzantine period. Another structure (ca. 30 × 25 m) lies on the bank of a dry wadi roughly 34 m southeast of the fort. Its function is unknown, although it is probably a bath complex associated with the Roman and Byzantine military occupation at the site. A possible domestic complex covering an area of 25 × 25 m is situated west and southwest of the fort. This complex appears as a large area of ruined structures, most of which have seemingly adjoining walls. Pottery from this complex is mostly of the Nabataean and Early Roman periods, which would attest to the earliest phases of occupation at the site.

Several other structures have been mapped in the vicinity of Bir Madhkur. One in particular is situated only ca. 18 m south of the fort. It measures 18 × 10 m and its walls are constructed of roughly cut stone 0.80 m thick. The entrance into this structure is along the west wall, and there is evidence of at least six internal rooms. The nature and purpose of this structure remain to be determined. Also, there are numerous other structures on the low ridge immediately northeast of the fort in the direction of the spring, one of which may have served as an observation post to guard approaches to the spring from the northeast. Finally, in addition to these various outlying structures, several cemeteries, both ancient and modern, have been recorded at the site.

Furthermore, beyond the central site of Bir Madhkur, there are numerous other archaeological sites and features in the immediate countryside. These range from agricultural settlements, which include farmhouses, terraces, and ancient field walls, to campsites, both ancient and modern. Also, there are numerous paths and roadways linking all of these sites and features into a unified network.

Albrecht Alt was the first scholar to attempt an identification of Bir Madhkur, suggesting that it might be the site of ancient Moa (Alt 1935: 7, 24, 26, 31, 47). Other scholars, however, proposed to identify Bir Madhkur with Calamona of the Notitia, the base of a Cohors prima equitata (Not. Dign. [Or.] 34.43; Avi-Yonah 1976: 45; Rothenberg 1971: 217) Alt identifies Calamona with Ellebana of the Beersheva Edict, but does not attempt to identify or locate the settlement (Alt 1935: 26). The ancient identity of Bir Madhkur, despite previous attempts to assign an ancient place-name to the settlement, remains uncertain.