Prehistoric Landscapes and Settlement Geography along the Wadi Hasa, West-Central Jordan.
Part II: Towards a Model of Palaeoecological Settlement for the Wadi Hasa (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).

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.

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.

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