The Karak Plateau in the Early Islamic Period:
The other important resource available for the study of the Early Islamic period is the archaeological record. The region has been the subject of field surveys and excavations [link to: archaeological techniques sections]. In addition, we are able to compare the ceramics and other finds from these studies with dated material from excavations conducted in northern Jordan, Israel and Syria. One important body of information is architectural inscriptions. Inscriptions in Greek discovered on the Karak plateau have provided evidence that the Christian communities of the region were still flourishing after the Muslim conquest. One from the town of al-Rabba records a construction by the metropolitan (i.e. bishop) Stephen in 687, and we know from other sources that bishops were appointed to the town until 1168. The majority of the rural population probably continued to be Christian until at least the thirteenth century. Crusader chronicles record that at the beginning of the twelfth century Arab Christians from the Karak plateau were brought by the Crusader king to repopulate parts of Jerusalem and surrounding areas. Other early inscriptions such as a gravestone now in the Karak castle museum show the introduction of Arabic into Jordan in the Early Islamic period.
Archaeological surveys have also been used to look at the fluctuations in settlement over the plateau through time. In particular, this has been done by analysing the pottery found on the urban and rural sites in the region. By dating the pottery collected on a site it is possible to establish the periods during which it was occupied. Clearly, this technique relies upon accurate dating of the pottery sherds recovered on the surveys. It should be noted, however, that our understanding of the types of pottery used in Jordan during the Early Islamic period is limited and it may be that much of the pottery identified as Byzantine may, in fact, come from the Early Islamic period. The overall picture is still difficult to interpret, but it appears that the last two centuries of Byzantine rule saw a massive expansion in the number of villages on the Karak plateau. This peak of occupation was not sustained after the Muslim conquest and there seems to have been a steady decline in the numbers of occupied villages through to a low point from the ninth to the eleventh century. It was only from the twelfth century that the rural population increased significantly.