Barsinia

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Barsinia, Bersinia, Tell Barsina or Khirbet Barsiniya is an archaeological site in northern Jordan, located near the village of Dayr a-Si'na, west of Irbid. Excavations have revealed evidence of largely continuous settlement spanning the Iron Age II through the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, early Islamic, Mamluk, and Ottoman periods. The origin of the site's name remains uncertain, with proposed etymologies linking it to either of two historical figures named Barsine or to Phoenician and Greek or Latin roots. Félix-Marie Abel identified the site with biblical Rogelim, although this identification has since been challenged. Remains at the site include a residential quarter of interconnected rooms and courtyards with paved and mosaic floors, hearths, and silos, alongside evidence of a probable Byzantine church and a Roman-Byzantine bathhouse. Notable finds range from a 7th-century Umayyad coin and an ivory kohl stick to a Rhodian stamped amphora handle dated to the early 2nd century BC. At the eastern edge of the site, four tombs dating to the Roman and Byzantine periods contained the remains of dozens of individuals; one, a monumental "temple tomb" mausoleum, is among only a handful of known examples of this type in the region. Isotopic and dental analysis of the skeletal remains has indicated a generally healthy, locally rooted population that relied on a self-sufficient local diet. Barsinia first drew scholarly attention in the 19th century. A 2005 joint survey by Yarmouk University and the French Institute for the Middle East noted its importance among sites in the West Irbid area. Signs of looting prompted formal rescue excavations, first carried out in 2006 under Lamia El-Khouri of Yarmouk University's Faculty of Archaeology and Anthropology, with a further season in 2007.