The 69th volume of the Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research is devoted to studies of botanical and faunal remains from three major sites in Jordan: Tall al'Umayri (Bronze to early Iron Age), Karak Castle (Middle and Late Islamic Period), and Khirbet al-Mudayna al-‘Aliya (early Iron Age).

Although each paper reflects the work of different teams, they are all thematically linked by their contributions to the study of agro-pastoralist economic activities in the region. Each paper offers insight into contextually specific historical circumstances but also insight into agriculture and pastoralism more broadly.

Likewise, each paper offers different approaches for working with faunal or botanical evidence that will be of interest to specialists in bioarchaeology more generally. Scholars of pastoralism will be interested in all of these papers, which touch on issues of foddering and animal consumption.