– 429 – Introduction and Background ‘Ayn Qusaybah (WQ 120) is a small, unmounded site on the north bank of Wādī Qusaybah, in northern Jordan. Situated roughly 14km north-northeast of Pella/Tabaqat Fahl (Fig. 1), ‘Ayn Qusaybah lies 1km east of the mouth of the Wādī Qusaybah and the floor of the Jordan Valley, at an elevation around 100m below sea level. The site takes its name from a nearby spring, situated immediately to its west, and appears to extend along the slope about 120m from northwest to southeast (Fig. 2). In 2012, the University of Toronto’s Wādī Ziqlāb Laboratory, directed by E.B. Banning, first detected ‘Ayn Qusaybah during an archaeological survey of Wādī Qusaybah and its catchment basin (Hitchings et al. 2016). Remains of stone walls were visible at the surface along a pedestrian path that traverses the site on a route from the Jordan Valley to the Mandah plateau (Fig. 3). A 1×1m probe, excavated next to one of these walls, exposed several wall courses. The ceramics collected during this small operation dated from the Middle Bronze (MB) Age through Roman periods. Excavations at ‘Ayn Qusaybah resumed in August 2014 as part of a one-week, targeted operation to clarify the occupational history of the site (Banning et al. 2015). Several 1×2m units that were excavated downslope from the pedestrian path yielded little cultural material (Fig. 2). Further upslope, however, Area G11 yielded considerable architectural remains (Fig. 4), including stone walls preserved more than 1m in height and a door socket in situ in the southwest corner of a partially excavated room (Fig. 5). Although the horizontal exposure in G11 was limited to 3×4m, the results suggested that ‘Ayn Qusaybah was a substantial site with The 2018 SeaSon oF excavaTIon aT MIddle Bronze age ‘ayn QuSayBah S. Edwards, N. Handziuk, S. Klassen and E.B. Banning 1. Location of Wādī Qusaybah and ‘Ayn Qusaybah (WQ 120) in northern Jordan (basemap source: Google Earth).