First inhabitants the early prehistory of north-east Jordan Richter, Tobias; Akkermanns, Peter; Ahmad, Jallad, Al- Published in: Landscapes of Survival Publication date: 2020 Document version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Document license: Unspecified Citation for published version (APA): Richter, T., Akkermanns, P. (Ed.), & Ahmad, J. A. (Ed.) (2020). First inhabitants: the early prehistory of north- east Jordan. In P. Akkermans (Ed.), Landscapes of Survival: International Conference on The Archaeology and Epigraphy of Jordan’s North-Eastern Desert (pp. 17). sidestone press academics. Download date: 29. sep.. 2021 LANDSCAPES OF SURVIVAL This is a free offprint – as with all our publications the entire book is freely accessible on our website, and is available in print or as PDF e-book. www.sidestone.com LANDSCAPES OF SURVIVAL THE ARCHAEOLOGY AND EPIGRAPHY OF JORDAN’S NORTH-EASTERN DESERT AND BEYOND edited by PETER M.M.G. AKKERMANS © 2020 Individual authors Published by Sidestone Press, Leiden www.sidestone.com Lay-out & cover design: Sidestone Press Photograph cover: Peter Akkermans – Jebel Qurma Archaeological Landscape Project ISBN 978-90-8890-942-9 (softcover) ISBN 978-90-8890-943-6 (hardcover) ISBN 978-90-8890-944-3 (PDF e-book) Contents Foreword 7 Aktham Oweidi Introduction: landscapes of survival 9 Peter M.M.G. Akkermans First inhabitants: the early prehistory of north-east Jordan 17 Tobias Richter New techniques for tracing ephemeral occupation in arid, 37 dynamic environments: case studies from Wadi Faynan and Wadi al-Jilat, Jordan Daniella Vos Populating the Black Desert: the Late Neolithic presence 59 Yorke M. Rowan, Gary O. Rollefson and Alexander Wasse Flamingos in the desert: how a chance encounter shed light on 79 the ‘Burin Neolithic’ of eastern Jordan Alexander Wasse, Gary Rollefson and Yorke Rowan Pastoralists of the southern Nefud desert: inter-regional contact 103 and local identity Maria Guagnin The works of the old men in Arabia: a comparative analysis 117 David Kennedy Defending the ‘land of the devil’: prehistoric hillforts in the 145 Jawa hinterland Bernd Müller-Neuhof The Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age of the badia and 165 beyond: implications of the results of the first season of the ‘Western Harra Survey’ Stefan L. Smith East of Azraq: settlement, burial and chronology from the 185 Chalcolithic to the Bronze Age and Iron Age in the Jebel Qurma region, Black Desert, north-east Jordan Peter M.M.G. Akkermans and Merel L. Brüning Identifying nomadic camp sites from the Classical and Late 217 Antique periods in the Jebel Qurma region, north-eastern Jordan Harmen O. Huigens The Nabataeans as travellers between the desert and the sown 235 Will M. Kennedy The desert and the sown: Safaitic outsiders in Palmyrene territory 255 Jørgen Christian Meyer The north-eastern badia in Early Islamic times 265 Karin Bartl Depicting the camel: representations of the dromedary in the 287 Black Desert rock art of Jordan Nathalie Østerled Brusgaard Bows on basalt boulders: weaponry in Safaitic rock art from 305 Jebel Qurma, Black Desert, Jordan Keshia A.N. Akkermans ‘Your own mark for all time’: on wusūm marking practices in the 317 Near East (c. 1800-1960 AD) Koen Berghuijs Rock art in Saudi Arabia: a window into the past? First insights 333 of a comparative study of rock art sites in the Riyadh and Najrān regions Charly Poliakoff Graffiti and complexity: ways-of-life and languages in the 343 Hellenistic and Roman harrah Michael C.A. Macdonald Gaius the Roman and the Kawnites: inscriptional evidence for 355 Roman auxiliary units raised from the nomads of the harrah Ahmad Al-Jallad, Zeyad Al-Salameen, Yunus Shdeifat and Rafe Harahsheh Remarks on some recently published inscriptions from the 363 harrah referring to the Nabataeans and the ‘revolt of Damasī’ Jérôme Norris Two new Safaitic inscriptions and the Arabic and Semitic plural 391 demonstrative base Phillip W. Stokes First inhabitants: the early prehistory of north-east Jordan Tobias Richter Abstract The semi-arid to arid steppe and desert regions of eastern Jordan have produced a remarkable record for human occupation during the Pleistocene and early Holocene. Humans arrived in this region as early as 400,000 years ago during the Lower Palaeolithic. Fieldwork has produced particularly substantial evidence for human habitation during the Epipalaeolithic, and recent fieldwork has also demonstrated considerable human settlement during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A. This contribution outlines the history of prehistoric research in eastern Jordan, and summarises the evidence for each of the key periods. Cumulatively, the evidence suggests that eastern Jordan was not always a marginal or peripheral region during the Palaeolithic and early Neolithic. Human groups used the steppe and desert to the best of their advantage and adapted to the physical constraints of these landscapes in different ways. Keywords: Palaeolithic, Epipalaeolithic, Pre-Pottery Neolithic, Azraq, harrah Introduction With human presence attested at least 400,000 years ago, the Azraq basin and adjacent areas of north-east Jordan preserve one of the most continuous and well-known sequences of early prehistoric settlement in the Levant. Although the north-east badia of Jordan had for a long time been thought of as a largely inhospitable region, hostile to permanent human occupation, archaeological fieldwork over the past four decades has demonstrated that the region’s early occupation spans from the later part of the Lower Palaeolithic to the end of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic. The idea that north-east Jordan was a landscape in which, due to the environmental constraints of the semi-arid steppe and arid desert, survival was difficult and life was harsh, has therefore been undergoing active revision (e.g. Richter 2014; Maher et al. 2016). Thus, it has become clear that east and north-east Jordan were not a cultural ‘periphery’, as has sometimes been implied (e.g. Bar-Yosef 1998; Bar-Yosef and Belfer-Cohen 2000; 1989; Bar-Yosef and Meadow 1995; Garrard et al. 1996; Goring-Morris 1987). Key cultural, economic and social advances have commonly been described as having occurred outside this region and were introduced to the badia only later. But at least in terms of early human settlement, this is not necessarily a given, as I hope to show in this article. Certain developments in the prehistory of north- east Jordan can actually be seen as locally-specific processes, independent of events taking place elsewhere. Furthermore, it is important not to judge the archaeological record of this semi-arid steppe and desert through the perspective of a modern, western individual. Oftentimes, we tend to judge the suitability of landscapes for human occupation based In: Peter M. M. G. Akkermans (ed.) 2020: Landscapes of Survival - The Archaeology and Epigraphy of Jordan’s North-Eastern Desert and Beyond, Sidestone Press (Leiden), pp. 17-36. 17 on the idea how suitable, or not, such an area is or was in the area. Under current climatic conditions, rainfall for agriculture, especially when it comes to more recent declines from c. 200-300 mm in the north-west to 60 mm periods. While it is clear that farming was probably in the south-west of the badia, whereas mean annual always opportunistic and seasonal in eastern Jordan, rainfall on the eastern limestone plateau declines from 90 we ought to recognise that the inhabitants of this region to 70 mm from west to east. The area is thus classified as a would not have seen it the same way. Instead, I argue that hot, semi-arid steppe and desert. this landscape was the centre of their social lives. Their However, the catchment area of the Azraq basin experience of living in and off this land made them experts extends over an area of 12,000 km2 and reaches as far up at constructing their very own niche, developing modes as the Jebel al-‘Arab/Jebel Druze in southern Syria, where of existence and experiences that were particular to this mean annual precipitation ranges between 350 and 500 mm and similar parts of south-west Asia. It is also important (Haaland 2009; Noble 2009). Almost all of the water on the to recognise that the landscape that characterises north- southern, south-eastern and eastern slopes of the Jebel east Jordan today has changed dramatically since the al-‘Arab drain towards the Azraq oasis, transporting large beginning of human settlement in the region. There is quantities of surface run-off during the autumn and winter ample evidence to suggest that the landscape we consider seasons. The springs of the oasis are fed by the uppermost today as characteristic of eastern Jordan was radically of the three Azraq aquifers, which are replenished through different in the deep past. I will return to these twin issues this seasonal rainfall. Their discharge was low compared to throughout this contribution. recharge, creating a permanent water source even during drier climatic intervals, but this equilibrium has been Geography, research history and disturbed by recent water extraction. Seasonal rainfall also palaeoenvironment of north-east leads to flooding of playas, which stay flooded for several Jordan weeks and months, usually drying up by the late spring/ The region under discussion encompasses the geological early summer. The largest of these is the Azraq qa’, which areas of the north-eastern part of Jordan’s central plateau, can flood up to 50-60 km2. Outside of the oasis, there is the Azraq-Sirhan basin; the northern basalt plateau, little or no fresh water across much of the area during the part of the Harrat al-Sham volcanic field; and the north- summer period. eastern limestone plateau. It totals c. 40,000 km2 in area. Following initial reports of archaeological structures The northern basalt plateau is comprised of lava flows spotted from the air by air-mail pilots Maitland (1927) dating from the Miocene-Pliocene, which overlie older and Rees (1929), Henry Field was the first archaeologist Cretaceous, Eocene and Oligocene limestone formations.