Tell Al-Mashhad

"The site of Tell al-Mashhad (Jordan) (fgs. 1-3) lies in the Mount Nebo region, not far from the town of Madaba. It is in the vicinity of a perennial spring (‘Ayun Musa; fg. 4) giving it a great importance since prehistory (fg.14). The site was visited for the first time by the american archaeologist Nelson Glueck (fg. 5), the father of the transjordanian archaeology, who collected, in 1932, many potsherds and fragments of small clay figurines, dated to the Iron Age II (c.a. 900-600 b. C.; fg. 7. The fragment of another female figurines was found by the german scholar H. Henke in 1958.The last systematic reconnaissance at Tell al-Mashhad was carried out in 1995 within the framework of the "Mount Nebo Survey, organized by the Danish Palestine Foundation led by Prof. P. Mortensen, with the participation of the present author. On that occasion the presence was detected of several outcropping masonry structures on the hillside south of the squared fortress at the top of the hill (fgs. 8-13), and the main period of occupation of the site was identified as Iron II (ca. between 900 and 600 B.C.).Tell al-Mashhad can be identified with the ancient city of Bet-Peor (occasionally referred to as Baal-Peor), mentioned in several Old Testament passages (Nm. 25,3.5; Dt. 3,29; Dt. 4,3.46; Dt. 34,6; Gs. 13,20; Psalms 106,28; Os 9,10) and in the Onomasticon of Eusebius; not far from this city, according to the biblical account, Moses was buried when he died after contemplating the Promised Land from the peak of Pisga (the present-day peak of Siyagha, on the nearby Mount Nebo)."