particular, a large market and workshop area was installed adjacent to the Civic Complex church at the heart of the Byzantine town plan. Umayyad Pella, which by the eighth century CE had officially returned to its original Semitic name of Fihl (variant of Pihil), was totally devastated by the massive 749 Galilee earthquake, as a Jordan Valley rift fault line runs directly under the site. The stone and mudbrick two-storeyed houses on the top of the tell (main mound) collapsed in on themselves, thereby trapping the inhabitants – human and animal – and preserving a rich collection of finds sourced from distant regions, such as Egypt and the Arabian Peninsula. Subsequent settlement at Pella, dated from the later eighth to eleventh centuries CE (from the Abbasid into the Fatimid period), was reduced in size, but featured an enclosed double-courtyard architectural complex in the valley immediately north of the tell. The configuration of the complex suggests markets (khans), with commercial activities such as glass workshops. An Abbasid khan (caravanserai) dating to ca. 950 CE was unearthed at Pella. Recent work on the tell has identified widespread rebuilding following the 749 earthquake, as indicated by wall foundations, plastered floors and refuse pits filled with finely worked bone and moulded glassware. Later history Evidence for a presence in the Crusader period (12th century CE) is slight – a few pottery sherds only – but in the following Ayyubid and Mamluk periods the flat summit of the tell was inhabited by a large village, featuring a stone-built mosque with a minbar (pulpit), residential compounds defined by lane ways, and a large cemetery. Australian archaeologists discovered a Mameluke mosque and administrative compound (ca. 1350 CE). Late 16th century Ottoman defters list a village called Fahl el Tahta in the administrative district of Ajlun where wheat, barley, and sesame were grown and taxes collected on goats, beehives and water-driven mills. Recent excavations The site was first published as part of a regional survey by G. Schumacher, but the first excavation was conducted by Funk and Richardson only in 1958, revealing Bronze and Iron Age material in two soundings. From 1966–1967, R. H. Smith led a team from Wooster College (Ohio) to prepare a plan of the site and its environs, and begin excavations, but was interrupted by the Six Day War. A joint project with the University of Sydney (Australia), but with separate excavation teams and