MARS was established to collect settlement, archaeological, and environmental data from the western part of the Madaba Plain in the highlands of central Jordan
Radio carbon dating to establish reliable absolute chronology; analysis to establish dietary perameters; petrographic analysis to investigate the nature of ceramic production/exchange
Is the Early Bronze Age settlement pattern characterized by relatively loosely integrated sites of is it organized hierarchically? Are manufacturing funtuions centralized in one site of dispersed in sites throughout the cluster? Was ceremony controlled in the region through a centralized administrative/cult center and cemetary, or did many sites possess these attributes? If rank/size primacy is shown to exist, and if manufactoring and ceremony was resrticted to centralized locations, were they concentrated in the primate center, or located in different locations? Did different settlement sites in the cluster practice different subsistence strategies based on their poximity to different ecological zones? Did a shift toward greater centralization (ie hierarchy) occur during the peak of the Early Bronze Age cycle?
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