Natufian Settlement in the Wadi al-Qusayr, West-Central Jordan

2018 ◽  
pp. 397-411
Author(s):  
Michael Neeley
Keyword(s):  
West Central ◽  
Central Jordan

A Preliminary Lithic Analysis of the Mousterian Site of ’Ain Difla (WHS Site 634) in the Wadi Ali, West-Central Jordan

1987 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 279-292 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Lindly ◽  
Geoffrey Clark
Keyword(s):  
Phase 1 ◽  
Lithic Analysis ◽  
Coarse Grained ◽  
Middle Palaeolithic ◽  
Upper Palaeolithic ◽  
Lithic Assemblage ◽  
West Central ◽  
Central Jordan ◽  
Length Width ◽  
Analytical Frameworks

Test excavations in 1984 at the middle palaeolithic rockshelter of 'Ain Difla (Wadi Hasa Survey Site 634) in west-central Jordan produced a lithic assemblage dominated by elongated levallois points with very few retouched tools. Length/width ratios of the levallois points and width/thickness ratios of a sample of complete flakes suggest an affinity with Tabun D/Phase 1 mousterian sites. This kind of assemblage is generally thought to occur during the early Levantine mousterian. However, there is evidence of persistence of Tabun D assemblages in the southern Levant until the middle/upper palaeolithic transition. Comparing the ’Ain Difla lithic assemblage with those of other Levantine mousterian sites underscores problems with the analytical frameworks used to ‘date’ sites through technological and metrical analyses. A rather coarse-grained regional paleoenvironmental sequence exacerbates these problems.

Complex communities: the archaeology of early Iron Age west-central Jordan

2014 ◽  
Vol 51 (09) ◽  
pp. 51-5105-51-5105
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
West Central ◽  
Central Jordan

Land Use and an Archaeological Perspective on Socio-Natural Studies in the Wadi Al-Hasa, West-Central Jordan

2004 ◽  
Vol 69 (3) ◽  
pp. 389-412 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Brett Hill
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Environmental Research ◽  
Active Engagement ◽  
American Antiquity ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
West Central ◽  
Central Jordan ◽  
Archaeological Perspective

In recent years environmental archaeologists have emphasized evidence for human-caused degradation, and attention has been focused on the role of our discipline in debates over contemporary socioenvironmental problems. In a recent American Antiquity forum, van der Leeuw and Redman (2002) argue that current environmental research would benefit from an archaeological perspective on these problems, and that our discipline would benefit from more active engagement in the larger debate. I present research supporting the claim that archaeology has unique and compelling insights to offer socio-natural studies. I make arguments based on spatial statistical and GIS analyses of past land use in the Wadi al-Hasa, west-central Jordan, that environmental degradation in the form of soil erosion has been a problem for agropastoralists in that region for several millennia. Furthermore, I argue that an archaeological perspective on long-term patterns of land use provides information at a scale and resolution that makes it highly suitable for studies of human-environment dynamics. Archaeology's unique data and perspective create an opportunity to contribute in a more explicit manner to the study of contemporary environmental issues that currently lack long-term focus at a scale and resolution that is meaningful to humans.

WHS 784 X (Yutil al-Hasa): A Late Ahmarian Site in the Wadi Hasa, West-central Jordan

1990 ◽  
Vol 56 ◽  
pp. 33-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah I. Olszewski ◽  
Geoffrey A. Clark ◽  
Suzanne Fish
Keyword(s):  
Upper Paleolithic ◽  
Southern Levant ◽  
Seasonal Movements ◽  
West Central ◽  
Central Jordan ◽  
Stone Artifact

A collapsed rockshelter site, WHS 784 X (Yutil al-Hasa), in the Wadi Hasa drainage in west-central Jordan was tested in 1984. Technological and typological analyses of the stone artifact assemblages suggest that it pertains to the latest phases of the Levantine Upper Paleolithic ‘Ahmarian Tradition’. Excellent faunal preservation allowed the identification of several ungulate species, as well as other taxa. These data and the topographic setting of the site indicated that WHS 784 X was probably a hunting camp used in part to monitor the (seasonal?) movements of herds of equids and gazelles. Dating at 19,000 uncal BP, the occupations fall at the Upper Paleolithic/Epipaleolithic transition as conventionally defined, and represent one of the first well-documented occurrences of an Ahmarian limited activity site. Work at WHS 784 X contributes to the rapidly improving state of Levantine Upper Paleolithic systematics and provides a fuller understanding of life at the end of the Upper Paleolithic in the southern Levant.

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