Donald O. Henry

Prehistoric cultural ecology and evolution : insights from Southern Jordan

Introduction and Overview. Late Quaternary Geology and Geomorphology of the Area in the Vicinity of Ras en Naqb F.A. Hassan. Culturalhistoric Framework. The Lower Paleolithic Site of Wadi Qalkha. The Middle Paleolithic Sites. Lithic Microwear Analysis of the Tor Faraj Rockshelter J.J. Shea. Late Levantine Mousterian Patterns of Adaptation and Cognition. The Upper Paleolithic Sites N.R. Coinman, D.O. Henry. The Qalkhan Occupations. The Hamran Sites. The Madamaghan Sites D.O. Henry, C. Shen. The Natufian Sites and the Emergence of Complex Foraging. Cultural Evolution and Interaction during the Epipaleolithic. An Early Neolithic Hunting Camp: Jebel Queisa. The Timnian and Pastoral Nomadism in the Chalcolithic. Pollen Analysis: Environmental and Climatic Implications A. Emery-Barbier. Shells from the Wadi Hisma Sites D.S. Reese. Cementum Increment Analysis of Teeth from Wadi Judayid (J2) and Tor Hamar (J431): Estimations of Site Seasonality D.E. Liberman. Analysis of Phytoliths: Seasonal, Economic, and Environmental Evidence A.M. Rosen. The Tor Hamar Fauna R.G. Klein. Adaptive Behaviors, Evolution, and Ethnicity. Index.

Preagricultural Sedentism: The Natufian Example

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses preagricultural sedentism. The Levant during the terminal Pleistocene offers an intriguing opportunity for the comparison of different adaptive systems and their evolution. During the period from around 14,000 to 10,000 years ago, simple hunting–gathering societies gave way to complex hunter–gatherers who were subsequently replaced by agriculturalists. However, in the Levant, changes in procurement and settlement strategies, demographic patterns, and social organization are at present recognized to have been more profound during the first rather than the second transition. From a diachronic perspective, three general observations can be made relative to complex hunting–gathering systems. First, such systems experienced quite short durations, normally not exceeding two to three millennia. Second, such systems were most common during the terminal Pleistocene and early Holocene (that is., after ca. 10,500 B.C.), although there are some indications of their presence earlier in the Pleistocene. Third, such complex adaptations were typically transitional between simple hunting–gathering and agricultural systems. While the simple hunting–gathering and agricultural systems have been well studied from the static and evolutionary perspectives of ethnography and archeology, few investigations have been devoted to more complex hunter–gatherers.

Neanderthals in the Levant: Behavioral Organization and the Beginnings of Human Modernity

The volume traces the controversy that revolves around the bio-cultural relationships of Archaic (Neanderthal) and Modern humans at global and regional, Levantine scales. The focus of the book is on understanding the degree to which the behavioral organization of Archaic groups differed from Moderns. To this end, a case study is presented for a 44-70,000 year old, Middle Paleolithic occupation of a Jordanian rockshelter. The research, centering on the spatial analysis of artifacts, hearths and related data, reveals how the Archaic occupants of the shelter structured their activities and placed certain conceptual labels on different parts of the site. The structure of Tor Faraj is compared to site structures defined for modern foragers, in both ethnographic and archaeological contexts, to measure any differences in behavioral organization. The comparisons show very similar structures for Tor Faraj and its modern cohorts. The implications of this finding challenge prevailing views in the emergence of modern human controversy in which Archaic groups are thought to have had inferior cognition and less complex behavioral-social organization than modern foragers. And, it is generally thought that such behaviors only emerged after the appearance of the Upper Paleolithic, dated some 10-20,000 years later than the occupation of Tor Faraj.

The Prehistory of Southern Jordan and Relationships with the Levant

AbstractA prehistoric investigation in southern Jordan resulted in the discovery of 81 sites with occupations that spanned most of the Late Pleistocene and Holocene. A comparison of the cultural and environmental successions of the region with parallel sequences in the Levant reveals that the prehistoric inhabitants of southern Jordan interacted more strongly with populations of the northern Levant than with nearby southern Levantine groups. Only during markedly arid episodes were strong relations established with southern Levantine populations. Prehistoric interaction spheres within the region appear to have been influenced more by environmental setting than geographic proximity.

The excavation of hayonim terrace: an examination of terminal pleistocene climatic and adaptive changes

Abstract The investigation of the epipalaeolithic site of Hayonim Terrace contributes new evidence relative to our understanding of the series of adaptive changes which took place among populations of Palestine during the terminal Pleistocene and early Holocene. The study defines a cultural continuity between the Geometric Kebaran A and Natufian archaeological complexes against a changing environmental background. A succession of environmental oscillations which occurred between c . 12,500 and 10,000 BP is identified and discussed in regard to changes in epipalaeolithic economic and adaptive patterns. An episode of climatic amelioration ( c . 12,000-11,000 BP) apparently contributed to the expansion of cereals into the Mediterranean hill zone and the abandonment of palaeolithic hunting and gathering strategy by Natufian cereal collectors. Subsequent environmental deterioration associated with the onset of drier conditions ( c . 11,000 BP) prompted Natufian populations to attempt to maintain their habitable territory artificially, through the cultivation of cereals.

Middle Paleolithic Behavioral Organization: 1993 Excavation of Tor Faraj, Southern Jordan

Abstract Excavation of a Levantine Mousterian rockshelter exposed two living floors in the upper part of a deposit more than 3.5 m thick. An intrasite study, focusing on the spatial patterns of data recovered from the two floors, complements an earlier intersite study of settlement and procurement patterns. The arrangement of hearths and the spatial distributions of artifacts and manuports indicate redundant behavioral organization for the two components. Moreover, the behavioral patterns reflected in site use by the occupants of the shelter some 70,000 years ago strongly resemble those recorded for modern foragers.

Prehistoric cultural ecology in southern Jordan

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 [150 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 (1000 to 1250 meters above sea level) elevations and largely reversed the earlier transhumant pattern.

The early neolithic site of Ayn Abu Nukhayla, southern Jordan

Three seasons of research at the Middle PPNB site of Ayn Abū Nukhayla indicate that it experienced intermittent, seasonal occupations spanning a period of ca. 200 years, centered on 8500 b. p. Despite being located in a hyperarid setting in southern Jordan, the site displays extensive architecture and other evidence of intensive occupation. Settlement of the site appears to have been triggered by a moist pulse that produced sufficient upland run-off to generate ponding in a nearby mudflat. This supported cereal cultivation that in turn produced a chaff subsidy which allowed for seasonal herding of sheep and goats in a pasture-poor region. By following a pattern of transhumance in which foraging, herding, and farming were interwoven within a complex subsistence strategy, groups were able to establish long-term, seasonal occupations in this marginal setting.

The Middle Paleolithic Sites

The Middle Paleolithic is represented by five Levantine Mousterian sites found in the Judayid Basin and the Jebel Qalkha study areas. Only two of the sites, Tor Sabiha and Tor Faraj, yielded in situ materials and these became the focus of research for the period (Figure 4.1). The other sites might best be described as find-spots where low densities of diagnostic artifacts (e.g., Levallois points and cores) were recorded on the surface.

The Excavation of Hayonim Terrace: An Interim Report

Abstract The site of Hayonim Terrace contains occupations of two Epipaleolithic complexes: the Natufian and the Geometric Kebaran. The prehistoric occupations of the terrace appear to span a period of transition between hunting/ collecting and food-producing economies. Excavation of the terrace has provided considerable information on the environmental setting and prehistoric adaptive strategies of this period.