text: Several periods are attested at Hammeh. From bedrock upward, remains of Chalcolithic (ca. 4500-3000 BC) and Early Bronze Age (ca. 3000-2000 BC) occupation were found, followed by more substantial layers of Late Bronze Age (ca. 1600-1150 BC) material. Hammeh appears continuously settled through the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age I (ca. 1150-1000 BC), up to the moment when iron production started in the early Iron Age II (see van der Steen 2004).
  At that point in time, domestic structures, at least in the excavated areas, cease to exist, and are covered, without a clear interruption, by a stratigraphically well defined phase of iron production. This phase has a complex internal layering, likely reflecting seasonal activity over an extended period of time. (Veldhuijzen 2005a).
  This phase consists of large quantities of various types of slag, most belonging to a bloomery iron smelting operation, and a fraction to primary smithing (i.e. bloom-smithing or bloom consolidation).
  Very soon or immediately after iron production ceased, habitation of the site resumed. This later Iron Age II phase seems to form the last extensive occupation of Tell Hammeh. Based on examination of the extensive pottery finds from this post-smelting phase, it can be assumed that the iron production activities must have ended no later than 750 BC. No settlement structures contemporary to the iron smelting phase are presently known from Tell Hammeh.