Excavations have revealed that the site was occupied intermittently over the past 5,000 years, its earliest occupation occurring in the Early Bronze Age in the third millennium BC.

The site's extensive settlement history is in part due to its location on the King's Highway, a major commercial route in antiquity.

The release of the Mesha Inscription in 1868 led to an upsurge in visitors to the town (including tourists and scholars) due to its ostensible confirmation of biblical passages.

Biblical texts suggest that Dhiban remained under Moabite control until the end of the Iron Age.

However, in the early sixth century BC, Dhiban suffered destruction at the hands of the Babylonians and remained uninhabited until Roman times.

These include Nabataean-style ceramics, coins, and architecture (such as a temple with a Nabataean-like layout, Nabataean masonry, an aqueduct, retaining wall, and monumental stairway).

Coins, a multi-generational family tomb, and an inscription do, however, indicate that the site remained inhabited and there were some building projects during this time.

The town had a diverse agricultural economy, with einkorn wheat and barley supplemented with grapes, figs, lentils, and chickpeas.

Agriculture in Dhiban heavily depended upon the use of cisterns providing water for irrigation, since the semi-arid climate made rainfall uncertain.

The farmers practised multi-cropping and raised swine, sheep, goats, and cattle; they also caught fish, shellfish, and crabs.

[10] However, Dhiban appears to have declined in importance after 1356, when the nearby town of Hisban lost its status as capital of the al-Balqa region in favour of Amman.

Families of the pastoral nomadic Bani Hamida tribe established modern Dhiban in the 1950s and both built upon preexisting structures and used them for raw materials.

[11] Scientific excavations began at the site in the mid-20th century with the American Schools of Oriental Research's project in 1950–1953, led by F.V.