 1982; Bender 1968, 149-151; van den Boom and Lahloub 1962).The excavations at Hammeh are part of the Deir 'Alla Regional Project, a joint undertaking of Yarmouk University in Irbid, Jordan, and Leiden University in the Netherlands, in collaboration with the Jordanian Department of Antiquities.The site's most intriguing feature is the presence of a substantial and very early iron smelting operation, as evidence by large quantities of slag, technical ceramics, furnace remnants etc.