Prehistoric Landscapes and Settlement Geography along the Wadi Hasa, West-Central Jordan. Part I: Geoarchaeology, Human Palaeoecology and Ethnographic Modelling (original) (raw)
Survey of Prehistoric Sites, Wadi Araba, Southern Jordan
A survey of the western flank of the southern Rift Valley, the Wadi Araba, revealed a low density of prehistoric sites stretching from Middle Palaeolithic to Chalcolithic periods. The investigation suggests that during most prehistoric periods the Rift served as a low-elevation seasonal refuge representing one segment of a settlementprocurement strategy based on transhumance within this mountainous region of southern Jordan. Also, the presence of Late Natufian and Late Neolithic occupations in low elevation, hyperarid settings challenges prevailing views that these occurred during exceptionally dry climatic episodes.
Landscape Archaeology of Wādī al-̒Arab
Archaeopress Publishing Ltd eBooks, 2023
Archaeological sites exist within landscapesthe surrounding physical, cultural and biological environments that provide them with context and driving factors for development. Landscape archaeologists ask questions like "What is the importance of water in determining site locations?", "What determines the location of roads?", or "How did people in ancient settlements use natural resources?" Since 2009, our team at the German Protestant Institute of Archaeology has been examining an area in northwestern Jordan with these questions in mind (Figure 1, and Vieweger and Häser 2017). The aim was to get a thorough understanding of the archaeological site. Geography Arab area in northern Jordan is an area rich in historical and prehistorical settlement. 328 sites are known from this area, of which 197 were relocated and documented in this study. The rest were known from literature from previous surveys, but were either destroyed in the last decades or we were not able to relocate them. Thus, the current study includes 197 sites ranging from the lithic epochs (until 3600 BCE) to the Ottoman era (ending 1918, at least 6500 years) were found occupation history (Vieweger and Häser 2017). Arab is a typical Levantine landscape on the edge of the Jordan Valley. It is rich in plant species, and there are many springs-an important consideration for settlements. Away from the valleys, the landscape is a mixture of steppe, shrub land and oak woodland, and water sources are scarce. (Shmida et al. 2020).
Reconstructing Paleolandscapes and Prehistoric Occupation of Wadi Ziqlab, Northern Jordan
Geoarchaeological survey conducted in Wadi Ziqlab focused on reconstructing landscape change in the river valley and relating these changes to shifts in prehistoric settlement. Micromorphology was used to identify a Late Pleistocene paleosol that once comprised a relatively continuous soil cover throughout the main valley and allowed stratigraphic correlations between examined sections. Warmer and wetter conditions during the Late Pleistocene supported substantial occupation of the wadi during this time at the Epipaleolithic site of 'Uyun al-Hammam, and other contemporary sites in the wadi. The complete lack of late EP and early Neolithic sites throughout the wadi result from large-scale erosion during the Younger Dryas, which removed any traces of these sites. Later Neolithic and subsequent occupation of the valley occurred within a notably different climatic regime. The pattern of prehistoric occupation and differential preservation of the archaeological record emphasizes the importance of local geoarchaeological investigations as the depositional sequence found in any one wadi is not necessarily traceable to other wadis.
Survey and Excavation of Stone Age Sites in Jordan's Wadi al-Hasa: 1979-2012
Quaternary of the Levant: Environments, Climate Change and Humans, 2017
Beginning in the late 1970s, Burton MacDonald’s Wadi Hasa Sur- vey (1979–1983) identified dozens of sites in the highlands of west- central Jordan ranging from the Lower Palaeolithic to the Aceramic Neolithic. Although most were deflated surface scatters, Middle, Upper and Epipalaeolithic open and rockshelter sites in the eastern end of the drainage associated with palaeo-Lake Hasa preserved stratigraphy and faunas rare for the region. In 1984–1993, G.A. Clark initiated a series of surveys and excavations at these and other, newly discovered sites that led to research on the early Upper Palaeolithic by Nancy Coinman and Deborah Olszewski (1998– 2000). Work by Zeljko Rezek continues at ‘Ain Difla, a Mous- terian rockshelter in the Wadi Ali (2010–). Here we summarize what we have learned from more than 30 years of research on Late Pleistocene forager adaptations to the highlands of west-central Jordan.
The Fringes of the Arid Regions: Prehistoric Settlement Development in Central Jordan
It has been noticed that prehistoric research in Jordan has been rapidly increasing during the last thirty years. The large number of results of archaeological survey, sounding site and regional field projects reflect this. The results of these activities are published in preliminary or final reports. During the past 20 years several major publications devoted only to the discussion of the prehistory of Jordan have been published.1 In addition a large number of PhD and MA theses discussing major aspects of the prehistory of Jordan have been submitted to many national and international institutions. Comprehensive studies directed towards understanding the prehistory of Jordan started only during the second half of the 1970 s of the twentieth century. However, a survey of the prehistoric research in Jordan reveals a marked increase in the number of projects over the last decades. They are widely distributed and represent time frames ranging from the Lower Palaeolithic to the Chalcolithic. Unfortunately, only a few of these projects have reached final publications, while many are still underway. However, the published preliminary results may assist researchers in understanding the differences in the settlement patterns through all the prehistoric periods, and from one region to another in Jordan. This presentation will concentrate only on studying the prehistory of the fringes of central Jordan
Recent fieldwork in the Jebel Qurma region, in the basalt wasteland east of Azraq, revealed a large number of prehistoric sites, dating from the 7th to the late 4th millennia cal BC. While some sites were little more than lithic scatters over a few dozen square metres, others were of impressive size, up to 8 hectares in extent and characterized by hundreds of stone-built structures. The new data demonstrate considerable diversity in site layout as well as clear shifts in habitation patterns and locational preferences through time. These new insights require a re-evaluation of current thoughts on settlement and community organization in the basaltic uplands of northeastern Jordan in the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods.
Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 2006
Regional surveys in the Levant have led to the formulation of settlement models in- tended to represent how Palaeolithic foragers adapted to their local landscapes. A com- mon critique of these models is their lack of fit with data from other regions. This is particularly the case for the inland regions of the Levant where lacustrine environments dotted the landscape during the Upper Pleistocene. The Tafila-Busayra Archaeological Survey investigated such a setting in west-central Jordan. This survey report character- izes local Palaeolithic settlement patterns and compares them with a settlement model derived from the nearby Wadi al-Hasa, another area with extensive lacustrine deposits. Despite the similar environmental settings, the results indicate that patterns of settle- ment vary considerably over short distances within the Levant, and future modeling should attempt to integrate information from neighboring regions.
Late Epipaleolithic Settlement in the Wadi Juheira, West-Central Jordan
The Last Hunter-Gatherers in the Near East, 2004
Survey and excavation in the arid regions of Jordan indicate the increasing importance of lacustrine settings for understanding long-term land use patterns during the Paleolithic. This is evident from the recent research in areas like the Wadi Hammeh (Edwards et al. 1988; Macumber and Head 1991), the Azraq Basin (Garrard et al. 1987, 1988), the Jafr Basin (Quintero and Wilke 1998a, 1998b), the Hisma (Henry 1995), and the Wadi al-Hasa (MacDonald 1988; Clark et al. 1988; Schuldenrein and Clark 1994, 2001), all of which indicate the presence of lake/marsh deposits during portions of the Paleolithic (Figure 1). A similar but smaller scale setting has been recently identified in the Wadi Juheira as part of the Tafila-Busayra Archaeological Survey (MacDonald et al. 2000, 2001). Located southwest of the modern village of Jurf ed-Darawish, initial archaeological and geological reconnaissance in the area has identified the remnants of a small, Pleistocene lake. Archaeological remains along the Wadi Juheira span the entire Paleolithic, however, the greatest frequency of Paleolithic sites are attributed to the Late Epipaleolithic (ca. 12,500-10,000 BP). The association of Late Epipaleolithic sites with lakeshore deposits is relatively rare in west-central Jordan and this cluster of sites along the Wadi Juheira presents an opportunity to examine and compare settlement patterns with nearby survey areas and place them within the context of existing settlement models derived from the central Negev, southern Jordan, and the Wadi al-Hasa. Of particular interest is the relative fit of these sites with the models of settlement derived from research in the Wadi al-Hasa.
2017
As a result of extensive archaeological survey, the west-central portion of Jordan contains a rich archaeological record. This is especially the case for the Paleolithic time frames as a series of wetland environments have been identified for the Wadi al-Hasa and the nearby Jurf ad-Darawish region. These prominent landscape features were hubs of activity for Pleistocene huntergatherers prior to the decline of these habitats at the Pleistocene/Holocene boundary. However, the Late Epipaleolithic (Natufian) is less well-represented in these landscapes. This paper focuses on one of these Late Epipaleolithic sites, TBAS 212, situated along a small wetland setting south of Jurf ad-Darawish. At a local level, TBAS 212 is unique as the only large, repeatedly occupied base camp in this area. This site is in contrast to several nearby smaller, Late Epipaleolithic occupations. At the regional level, the only other large Late Epipaleolithic occupation (Tabaqa) is located in the Wadi al-Hasa. Based on archaeological and geoarchaeological evidence we argue that similar environmental settings in both areas made them conducive to these larger-scale occupations. Limited evidence for large-scale settlement outside of these habitats is likely due to issues of resource availability and site preservation/geomorphological processes.
Prehistoric Cultural Ecology in Southern Jordan
Science, 1994
Research in the mountains of southern Jordan resulted in the discovery of 109 archaeological sites that are from the Lower Paleolithic to the Chalcolithic period [I50 to 6 thousand years ago (ka)]. Beginning with the Middle Paleolithic (70 ka) two site types (long-term and ephemeral camps) are recognized. Long-term sites have larger areas, thicker deposits, higher artifact densities, and more abundant archaeological features than ephemeral sites. Their natural settings (elevation and exposure) and associated seasonal evidence (phytolith and cementum increment data) indicate that long-term sites were occupied during the winter, wet season and ephemeral sites during the,warm, dry season. These differences in site use and seasonality likely reflect an adaptive strategy of transhumance that persisted to modern Bedouin times. At the end of the Pleistocene, the onset of warmer, drier conditions induced a shift of the long-term winter camps from relatively low (800 to 1000 meters above sea level) to high (1 000 to 1250 meters above sea level) elevations and largely reversed the earlier transhumant pattern.