some aspects of sugar production in jericho, jordan valley

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13. Some Aspects of Sugar production in Jericho, Jordan Valley

Hamdan Taha1

Palestinian Department of Antiquities

AbstrAct

The production of sugar was a main economic activity in the Jordan Valley during the Medieval period as indicated in both historical sources and archaeological evidences. The site of Tawaheen es-Sukkar in Jericho features a relatively well preserved industrial installation for manufacturing sugar. The remains consist of an aqueduct, press, mill house, refinery, furnace, kitchen and a storage house. Two seasons of excavations (2000, 2001) were carried out at the site on behalf of the Palestinian Department of Antiquities under the direction of the author of this paper. The excavations took place in two main fields, providing new archaeological information on the sugar industry in the Jordan Valley. A considerable number of artefacts were found, including sugar vessels, pottery lamps, metal artefacts, glass objects and coins. The mill system can be dated from Crusader/Ayyubid period to the end of the Mamluk period, when it went out of use.

1. IntroductIon

The sugar industry flourished as one of the main economic activities during the Medieval period in Palestine and Jordan. Sugar mills were in use during the Fatimid, Crusader, Ayyubid and Mamluk periods. The plantation of sugar cane in the Jordan Valley and the coastal areas was already known before its utilisation for sugar production (Al-Maqdesi 1967). The cultivation of sugar cane and the production of sugar require abundant water for irrigation (Benvenisti 1970, 253; Galloway 1989) and for powering the mills; therefore, it was generally associated with ample sources of water and water installations. Jordan Valley’s sugar cane cultivation and mills were mentioned in several early medieval, Arab and Frankish sources. The sources of the Fatimid period refer to the plantation of sugar cane in the Jordan Valley. Al-Maqdesi, who died in 985 AD (1967) and Ibn Hawqal († 977 AD) described the plantation of sugar cane in the Jordan Valley. In 1116 AD a general reference was made to a mill in Jericho, without specification, but sugar mills were in use there during the Crusader and Ayyubid periods. Yaqut (1995, 217) described Jericho in 1225 AD as a city famous for sugar cane and dates. He wrote that the best quality of sugar is manufactured in this area (Le Strange 1896). The whole production process was described by Burchard of Mount Sion in 1283 AD (Benvenisti 1970, 253f) and by Al-Nuweiri in 1391 AD (1976, 264-66). Sugar mills seems to have been used during the Mamluk period, as they were mentioned by Al-Maqrisi in 1442 AD and by Felix Fabri in the year 1484 AD (Benvenisti 1970; Hamarna 1978; Ashtor 1981; Abu Dalu 1991; 1995). The technology of sugar production was transferred to Europe during the Crusader period, as indicated by the large numbers of sugar refineries in Cyprus (Von Wartburg 1983; 1995; Riley-Smith 1967; Phillips 1986). Archaeological surveys and excavations have recorded dozens of sugar refineries in Palestine and Jordan (e.g. Albright 1926; Glueck 1934-1935; Ibrahim et al. 1976; MacDonald et al. 1987; Jones et al. 2000; Biran and Shoram 1987; Biran 1993). A general survey of the data about sugar industry was provided by R. Abu Dalu (1991; 1995), P. Brigitte-Porëe (1995), N. Barakat (1999) and E. Stern (1999). In the last two decades, a series of sites were excavated in the Jordan Valley (LaGro and De Haas 1989-1990; 1991-1992; De Haas et al. 1992; Jones et al. 2000), including the site of Tawaheen es-Sukkar (Jericho) (Taha 2001; 2004). These excavations provided new information about different aspects of sugar cane industry in the Jordan Valley. Tawaheen es-Sukkar (Fig. 1) features a relatively well preserved industrial site for manufacturing sugar. Already in 1896 Clermont-Ganneau described the site of Tawaheen es-Sukkar. Three sugar mills were

1 Mailing address: Palestinian Department of Antiquities, Ramallah, Palestine ([email protected])

13 - SOME ASPECTS OF SUGAR PRODUCTION IN JERICHO, JORDAN VALLEY

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recorded at the beginning of the 20th century; one of these mills is still preserved today. The site is located in the lower foothills of the Mount Quruntul (Mount of Temptation) in the Jordan Valley, c. one km west of Tell es-Sultan (Brigitte-Porëe 1995; Barakat 1999). The original function of the site is still preserved in the name of the site, which literally means sugar mills. The Arabic name “massara”, meaning press, was used as an alternative name for the site indicating the same function. The preserved remains of sugar product installations in Jericho (Fig. 2) consist of the aqueduct, the press, the mill house, the refinery, the kitchen, the furnace, the courtyard and the house for sugar cane.

2. ArchAeologIcAl remAIns

The excavations at Tawaheen es-Sukkar (Taha 2001; 2004) have provided new archaeological information on sugar industry in the Jordan Valley. Two seasons of excavations and restoration work were carried out at the site in 2000 and 2001. The excavation was conducted on behalf of the Palestinian Department of Antiquities under the direction of H. Taha with W. Hamamra as field supervisor. The first season was carried out as part of the project “Protection of Ecology, Historical and Natural Landscape” funded by the Dutch government and the second season was funded by the Norwegian government through the UNESCO office in Ramallah. The main objectives of the excavation were to verify the stratigraphy of the site, to understand the operational sequence of its sugar industry, as well as to preserve the site and present it to the public. Excavations were carried out in two main fields, Field A and Field B. Three main strata were distinguished. In Field A three squares, A1, A2 and A3 (all measuring 5x5 m), were opened (Taha 2004, 75). They were located north-east of the shrine (maqam) on the lower terrace of the site. Remains of a furnace were uncovered in square A1 (Taha 2004, pl. 3). Unfortunately, the upper part of the furnace was removed by bulldozers and only the foundations were preserved. The furnace was constructed of mudbricks and filled with ash, slag and a large amount of pottery sherds. The furnace is circular in plan with an outer diameter of 4 m, and an inner diameter of 1.70 m. The walls of the furnace foundation consist of three concentric rows of mudbricks. The joints between the mudbrick were filled with mud The excavation in square A2, located to the west of the furnace, revealed successive layers of ash and debris. Evidence of burning is also visible in the balks of the square. Virgin soil was reached at c. 2 m below the surface. Square A2 is rich in pottery finds, consisting of lamps and sugar vessels of the conical type. Additionally, several complete sugar pots were uncovered. Two Arabic inscriptions were found on conical jar

Fig. 1: General view of the site


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sherds, reading the words: the good or medical honey (Fig. 11). The stratigraphy of square A3 is similar to the one of square A2. No structural features were found in this square and the excavated material was limited mainly to debris from the industrial area. The debris consists of successive layers of ash and soil, which is apparently part of the residual remains of the furnace. Two complete conical vessels were found in this square in addition to large quantities of broken sherds of similar conical vessels and sausage jars. Typical Ayyubid/Mamluk lamps with geometric decorations were also found, including a glazed open lamp and a glazed bowl with geometric decorations. In Field B (Fig. 3), located west of the maqam, six squares, named B1-B6, were opened (Taha 2004, 75-76). Two rooms were uncovered in this field. One is a large room that forms the western extension of the maqam building, measuring 4.95 m east-west and 4.80 m north-south. The room is similar in size to the maqam building and connected with the adjacent maqam room by means of a door, which is 1 m in width and 2.05 m in height and is superimposed by a semi-circular arch. The rooms are built of rough, medium sized stones. In the middle of room no. 1, two arch bases were found against the inner sides of the two walls, apparently supporting a vault. The floor level of the rooms varies, due to the irregular topography of the area.

Fig. 2: Site-plan (1- Courtyard, 2- Sugar cane house, 3- Kitchen-maqam, 4- Mill house, 5- Lower grinding stone 6- Furnace, 7- Upper aqueduct, 8- Lower aqueduct)


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On the floor of the room a hoard, consisting of a large amount of copper artefacts and a total of 34 coins, was found. The bulk of the hoard was encountered in the western part of the room. The hoard was probably deposited in a wooden box or other container made of organic material. It contained various metal artefacts, including hinges, perforated metal sheets in geometric, animal and floral forms, as well as chains, bracelets, bars, needles, keys, nails and other decorative items. In addition, there are a number of lamp fragments. The second room (no. 2) is located in squares 1 and 4 to the south of room 1. It is relatively small and measures 3x2.18 m. The door of the room with a width of 75 cm leads to the east. Part of the entrance is still buried in the east balk. The finds in room no. 2 consist of three coins and two conical shaped jars. One of the jars shows a hole in its base similar to the jars found in Field A. The other jar has no hole in its concave base, but its wall is perforated with a vertical line of three holes. The area west of the two rooms is part of an open courtyard. Its floor is higher than the floor level of the rooms. This courtyard must have been part of a building complex to the west that is still unexcavated. The courtyard was coated with a 2.5 cm thick layer of plaster. A modern water canal, built of cement, represents the last phase in the occupational history of the area. It is a secondary canal linked to the main water canal carrying water from Ain Deyuk. This secondary canal fell into disuse after 1967, while the main canal, that once powered the mill, is still in use today. The last restoration of the canal was carried out in 1991.

Fig. 3: Plan of Area B


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3. ProductIon Process of sugAr

The production of sugar consists of several stages: planting of sugar cane, harvesting the cane, shredding, crushing, pressing, boiling the juice, pouring it off and finally removing the crystallised sugar from the containers (Peled 1999, 252). The whole production process was described briefly by Burchard of Mount Sion in 1283 AD (Benvenisti 1970, 253-54) and in comprehensive way by Al-Nuweiri in 1391 AD (1976, 264-66). The site of Tawaheen es-Sukkar is composed of three components: the water system, the refinery and the agricultural land. The remains of the industrial installations of sugar production consist of the water aqueduct, the courtyard, the house for sugar cane, the press, the mill house, the refinery, the furnace, the kitchen and the and the furnace. Different stages of sugar production were attested at the site. The mill at Tawaheen es-Sukkar was powered by water that was brought by aqueducts from the springs of Ain Nueima and Ain Deyuk. This water system consists of a channel which follows the high bedrock ridge and the upper aqueduct (Fig. 2:7 and 8). From the aqueduct a headrace delivers the water to the wheel room through an opening in the roof and would then have powered the wheel, which is gone. The plastered floor of the mill house slopes down towards the centre in order to carry the water out of the room. The lower structure is the exit flume aqueduct that carries the water away to the fields (Brigitte-Porëe 1995; Barakat 1999). The refinery is situated on five intentionally made terraces of considerable size on the slope below the higher aqueduct. The sugar installations identified at Tawaheen es-Sukkar include the courtyard, the sugar cane house, the mill house the kitchen, the furnace and the storage house for sugar pots. The courtyard (Fig. 2:1) consists of an elongated open area, 38x18 m. It is the first part of the sugar refinery and opens to the road where the animals could enter to unload the sugar cane. The sugar cane house (Fig. 2:2), or Dar el-Qassab as described by An-Nuweiri (1976), is divided into three long barrel vaulted rooms, each 20 m long and 5 m wide, with an opening in their northern walls. It is the

Fig. 4: Plan and section of the Mill house


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place where sugar cane is peeled by workers employed especially for this task. The unsweet upper parts of the cane were cut off along with the roots. The “Beit an-Noub”, the place where the sugar cane is washed after being cut into small pieces as described by An-Nuweiri (1976), was not attested at Tawaheen es-Sukkar. After cleaning, appropriate quantities were taken in baskets to the mill stone. The mill house (Fig. 4) is the place for the crushing and pressing the sugar cane. It is composed of two parts, a rotating stone press, where the sugar cane was crushed, and a basin that contains the mill stone. The first filtration was done by removing large parts of sugar cane that were flowing on the surface of the syrup in this basin. When the juice flowed out through a hole in the bottom of the basin, the smaller parts, which remain inside this basin, were strained out. At Tawaheen es-Sukkar the lower part of the grinding stone is still in situ and has a radius of 1.35 m (Fig. 2:5). The crushed sugar cane was placed in netted baskets. It was then taken to the press room, where it went under a rotating wheel press. The sugar cane is pressed until the remaining water is extracted. The mill house (Fig. 2:4 and Fig. 4) is composed of two elongated rooms, oriented east-west, and built in different phases. The inner main room, in which the grinding wheel was placed, was built in an earlier phase. The walls were built of ashlar stones and had a barrel vault. The outer room functioned as an extension of the press room in a later stage. This room has a narrow vaulted door and a graded access from the level of the next lower terrace. The kitchen (Fig. 2:3), where the boiling of the juice took place, was a massive building (Taha 2004, pl. 3), as is indicated by the preserved gate. The excavations uncovered some parts of this kitchen. The maqam consisting of one room was originally part of the kitchen. It has three main building stages. It was used most probably as a small mosque during the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods and reused later as an Islamic shrine, apparently, after the factory went out of use at the end of the Mamluk period. In the kitchen two stages of building are indicated by different construction techniques. The furnace (Fig. 2:6) was uncovered in front of the main entrance to the kitchen (Taha 2004, pl. 2:B). Its function could be traced by the uncovered remains and the accumulated ashy deposits on the threshold of the kitchen. Additionally, successive layers of ash were found in the area north of the kitchen.

Fig. 5: Conical sugar pot and molasses jar Fig. 6: Sugar pot


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On this furnace the juice was boiled in a large copper kettle, known as ’dest, pl. Desuut’ for a considerable time. After being cooked, the thick juice is poured into the conical sugar pots that was placed on top of jars. This activity was carried out in a place called by Al-Nuweiri (1976, 270) as “Beit es-Saab”, which translates as ‘the house where juice is poured’. The sugar pots were stored in a room until the extra water was drained and the sugar had crystallised. At this point, the sugar could be detached from the sugar pots and was ready for use.

4. Pottery Vessels

The material objects found during the excavations attest to different activities related to sugar production. They consist primarily of pottery vessels, pottery lamps, metal artefacts, coins, and few Arabic inscriptions (Taha 2004). Among the ceramic objects are a few glazed bowls (Fig. 10) and lamps. The most typical find is represented by the ceramic sugar vessel (Fig. 5:1 and Fig. 6), known in Arabic sources as “abloug, pl. abaleeg” (Al-Nuweiri 1976). These wheel-made sugar pots are conical in shape, having a wide mouth, narrow base and a single hole in it (Franken and Kalsbeek 1975, 150 and fig. 41). This industrial vessel was used only once (Avissar and Stern 2005, 86). In the last phase of sugar production, the boiled liquid was poured in these sugar pots that were placed on top of molasse jars (Fig. 5:2). These jars are belly shaped vessels without handles where the molasses drained into from the sugar bowl. Many of these pots broke during the removal of the crystallised sugar. A large number of broken vessels were found in the excavated area in addition to a significant number of complete pots. This number of broken vessels attests to the large scale of sugar production at Tawaheen es-Sukkar.

Fig.7-8: Moulded lamp Fig. 9: Glazed lamp

Fig.10: Glazed bowl Fig. 11: Arabic inscription


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A considerable number of complete moulded slipper lamps were found (Figs 7-8). The lamps are generally homogeneous in shape reveal often geometric decorations in relief. These lamps were in use during Ayyubid and Mamluk periods. Few fragments of wheel made and glazed saucer lamps (Fig. 9) dated to the Crusader period were found (for parallel material see Avissar 2005, 79-82).

5. metAl objects

The most intriguing finds are represented by a hoard of copper artefacts found in Field B (Taha 2001). The metal finds consist of a wide variety of items, including a large number of hinges, hammered and perforated sheets of metal (Figs 12-14) needles, rings, chains, nails, and jewellery. The large number of slag found in association with the furnace strongly indicates smithy activities on the site. The association of this activity with sugar production needs to be further examined.

6. numIsmAtIc eVIdence

More than 32 coins were found in the same locus as the metal objects of Field B (Taha 2004, 76). The earliest coins date back to the Roman and Byzantine periods, but the latest coins date clearly to the Ayyubid period. One coin bears the name of the king Al-Adel and Mahmoud ibn Zinki (1199-1218 AD) and another coin bears the name of King as-Saleh Ismael, who reigned between 1237-1249 AD.

7. conclusIon An important result of the excavation at Tawaheen es-Sukkar was the recovery of the sugar industry installation. The excavation furnished the first stratigraphic evidence regarding the history of the site. Two main fields were

Fig. 14: Metal hinge

Fig. 12-13: Metal objects


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excavated at the lower terrace of the site. In Field A, a furnace was uncovered in association with a kitchen and successive ashy layers. Two rooms were excavated in Field B, forming probably part of the kitchen. In one of these rooms a hoard of copper artefacts was found, including a collection of coins. The latest coins date to the Ayyubid period. Numerous ceramic vessels used during the manufacturing of sugar were found. The Crusader-Ayyubid and Mamluk date of the sugar production at the site is based on the associated pottery. A more precise dates was provided by several coins from the early Ayyubid period. The last phase in the history of the factory is associated with Mamluk pottery. The excavation has revealed that Jericho was one of the main production centres in the Jordan Valley for sugar during the Crusader, Ayyubid and Mamluk periods.

Acknowledgement

The author wishes to express his thanks to the Council of American Overseas Research Centers’ Getty Research Exchange Fellowship Program for the Mediterranean Basin and Middle, which supported the work on Tawaheen es-Sukkar through an one month research grant. I wish to thank Dr. A. Abu Deyeh for the identification of the coins, and Dr. G. van der Kooij for the photography of the finds.

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some aspects of sugar production in jericho, jordan valley

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