Excavations year by year (most important dates)

1974-76: First contacts and creation of the Belgian Committee for Excavations in Jordan.  
1977: Searching an archaeological site between Madaba and Kerak (ancient Moab-region).  Choice of Al-Lahun with its numerous antiquities and amazing view on the Wadi Mujib.  
1978 (sectors A-D): First topographical mapping of the site (later: 1978-1980, 1982, 1986, 1989, 1996, 1998).  
1979 (sector A2): First excavation: Nabataean temple (6,25 m x 6,25 m) built in local limestone, outer walls embossed, inner walls probably plastered.  Room paved with rectangular slab stones (tool marks still visible); monolithic threshold with door socket, leading down to the sanctuary; well preserved altar leaning against eastern wall.  (1988: Restoration of the Temple)
1980 (sectors A-D): Lithic survey of Lehun, important for tool technology and typology of prehistoric man in Central Jordan.  Human presence attested in Palaeolithic by flints, in Pottery Neolithic & Chalcolithic by pottery fragments.  
1982 (sector B3): Early Bronze family tomb, with more than 150 locally handmade pots. Building of the Belgian Excavation House.  
1980, 1983-1987 (sector D): Iron Age II fortress (1000-6^th C. B.C.E.): large stronghold (33/37 m x 43 m) with casemate system and central courtyard; built above houses of the end of the 2nd millennium B.C.E.; watchtowers overlooking the region; household material showing agricultural environment and explaining the role of Al-Lahun as storage fortress for Moabite kings.  (Contemporary with biblical King Mesha "the Dhibonite" (the Man of Dhiban).  
1987 (sector A2): Mamluk Mosque (15^th C. AD)(restoration: 1998): village mosque dated by a coin found on the floor; handmade painted ware (Arab-geometric style).  West of the mosque: 4 houses separated by a street, belonging to the same period (see 1999).  
1989, 1998 (sector A1): Umayyad-Ayyubid farmstead: main building with adjacent rooms.  
1992-1997 (sector D south): Iron Age I fortified village (1300-1000 B.C.E.): fortified settlement of the beginning of the Kingdom of Moab: period of contacts with Mediterranean and Egyptian cultures attested by painted pottery and a scarab stamp seal.  More than 20 houses are excavated till now.  
1998-2000 (sector C1): Early Bronze fortified town (3200-2250 B.C.E.) enclosed in a large precinct wall (5 to 5,5 m) above an earlier settlement (3200-3000 B.C.E.).  Partially excavated: houses, streets, mortars, olive presses, typical pottery and household artifacts of an agricultural and pastoral population.  Interesting antique dolines (water reservoirs) and cisterns.  In 1999 (sector A2) a Islamic house and a Byzantine church (?) were partially excavated near the mosque.  
Other Research Programs: geo-morphology (with the University of Ghent, Belgium), zoology (Museum of African Natural History, Brussels, Belgium), pottery analyses (University of Leyden, Netherlands).

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