Overview

Bibliography

Nestled along the worn cliffs of the Wadi es-Sir roughly 17 kilometers west of the crowded and bustling modern city of Amman, the ruins of the majestic fortified palace that crowns the ancient site of 'Iraq al-Amir are startling in their beauty. This monumental structure, known as the Qsar el-'Abd, or "Fortress of the Servant," was built by Hyrcanus the Tobiad in the early second century BCE, as described in vivid detail by Josephus in his Antiquities of the Jews (12.4.11). Rising roughly 700 meters NNE of the building, rugged cliffs offer themselves as a matrix of natural and hewn caves also described by Josephus. Durably etched above the entrances of two of the larger halls one finds the prominent name "Tobiah" in Aramaic script (see Figure 17), further reinforcing the identification of the palatial fortress and its environs with the renowned and influential Tobiad clan. Finally, roughly 200 meters southeast of the caves is the tell of 'Iraq al-Amir, rooted in the Iron I period and tentatively identified by excavators as the biblical city of Ramath-Mizpeh. Excavators also suggest that 'Iraq al-Amir may be the Birtha, or stronghold, of the Ammonites mentioned in the Zenon papyri.

'Iraq al-Amir was first, briefly excavated by Howard Butler of Princeton University in 1904, but it was not until 1961 that formal excavations were begun, led by Paul W. Lapp and funded largely by the American Schools of Oriental Research. In 1976, several seasons of additional exploration were conducted by the French Institute of Near East Archaeology, under the auspices of the Jordanian Department of Antiquities.