^cAujah el-Foqa: A Middle Bronze Age Fortified Site in the Jordan Valley

Aujah el-Foqa, located in the southern Jordan Valley, was identified as an Iron Age II fortified site in the Manasseh Hills Survey and has been excavated since 2019. A massive, Square structure on the site's northern slope was dated to the Middle Bronze Age IIB-C according to pottery and radiocarbon data and identified as a free-standing tower. The structure contains two occupation phases and was not used or rebuilt in subsequent periods. The finds from the excavation are briefly presented, along with initial portable optically stimulated luminescence dating results. The isolated nature of this structure in time and Space within its landscape and the broader region raises questions about its style and function. This massive construction is suggested to be an Observation tower that was part of the inter-settlement road System network of the Middle Bronze Age IIB-C in this marginal region.