Megalithic Jordan: An Introduction and Field Guide

Dolmens and standing stones from human prehistory are widely distributed in Jordan. Megalithic (Greek for large stone) architecture has been found in large areas of the Middle East. Megalithic Jordan is a delightful field guide of where to find and how to get to the major megalithic monuments in Jordan, and it covers other related stone constructions such as stone alignments, stone circles, cairns, cists, cup holes and rock-cut tombs. While the guide does not claim to exhaustively cover every stone monument in Jordan, it is an accessible introductory work on the subject and discusses with candor the problem of preserving the megalithic monuments from destruction resulting from urban expansion or human malfeasance. The author Gajus Scheltema was the Dutch Ambassador to the Kingdom of Jordan between 2003-2007. While living in Jordan Scheltema became interested in the dolmens and standing stones in the landscape and took on the task to review existing scholarship on these stones and document as many as he could possibly find. His wish to discover these sites became a desire to help to protect them.