myBocaege Emmy ereAei Pantos Alexis George ato h odna aia,Amn( Amman capital, Jordanian the of east region. (Coqueugniot this in Safa site Aoui settlement El is these Among interior. Levantine semi-arid the the Anderson Jerf from of & reported Mureybet, part been (e.g. far eastern so arid have Upper sites to the PPNA few along contrast, north By Djade). farther a el-Ahmar, Jordan and the marking in Araba documented Wadi world, been have the agricultural sites the Valley, PPNA fledged of fully in majority towards the now, anywhere plants Until of production. cultivation food management human plant the in for escalation evidence significant confirmed earliest the (PPNA; A Pre- The Yeomans Lisa & Richter Tobias Jordan north-east in settlement A and Neolithic Natufian Pre-Pottery Late new a 6: Shubayqa ∗ 3 2 1 al ooee rvdn ieadrc ag frsucs(emn Richter & (Yeomans and resources Pleistocene of late range the rich during and wide basin a present substantial providing a the of Holocene, occupied existence early that the to wetland due permanent probably of is area area respectively. this 6 in Shubayqa settlements from of south-east 3.1km concentration and The west 0.7km situated are 3 Shubayqa and ela rneAeocpto hs,oeleteNoihcstlmn.Cipdsoeand 3000m stone entire Chipped settlement. the Neolithic cover the artefacts overlie stone phase, ground occupation Age Bronze a as well ( deposits anthropogenic investigation under been have which area, this (Richter in 2012 located since settlements Holocene early and h a hbyaae nthe in area Shubayqa Qa’ the ANTIQUITY C niut ulctosLd 2016 Ltd, Publications Antiquity hbya6i iutdo h oteneg fteQ’Suaq,aon 3k north- 130km around Shubayqa, Qa’ the of edge northern the on situated is 6 Shubayqa hbya6rsstot he ersaoetesronigae,adcnit nieyof entirely consists and area, surrounding the above metres three to two rises 6 Shubayqa ee,Fac (Email: France Cedex, eateto rs-utrladRgoa tde,Uiest fCpnae,KrnBiesVj4, Vej Blixens Karen Copenhagen, of University [email protected] Studies, Regional (Email: and Denmark Copenhagen-S, Cross-Cultural 2300 of Department uhrfrcorrespondence for Author of Institute Weizmann Science, Archaeological for Universit Center (Email: Kimmel Israel Martin Rehovot, Science, and Helen Laboratory, D-REAMS [email protected] ´ eBreu,UR59 AE,B PACEA, 5199 UMR Bordeaux, de e 034 2(06:15doi: 1–5 (2016): e2 354, 90 1996 n prdcfln ctesesweei the in elsewhere scatters flint sporadic and ) 1, ) 3 tal. et ∗ 1 [email protected] rnEstrup Erin , mi Arranz-Otaegui Amaia , ; iue2 Figure 2012 [email protected] 1 [email protected] arc Pedersen Patrick , Harra , 2014 .SvrlBznie al sai n ae tutrs as structures, later and Islamic early Byzantine, Several ). [email protected] a rdcdtefis vdneframr substantial more a for evidence first the produced has .TeLt pplelti aua ie hbya1 Shubayqa sites Natufian Epipalaeolithic Late The ). 1 c. ea Martinez-Gallardo Cesar , iue1 Figure 6080 a C eidi h eatprovides the in period BC) cal 9600–8500 ) tmn 8 All B8, atiment ˆ ; 1 [email protected] 2 .Test soeo eea aePleistocene late several of one is site The ). ftemudadtesronigarea. surrounding the and mound the of 1 ; neogSæhle Ingeborg , [email protected] 1 ´ eGofo tHlie S503 31 Pessac 33615 50023, CS Hilaire, St Geoffroy ee lsbtaBoaretto Elisabetta , ) Harra ; ; [email protected] [email protected] eetfilwr in fieldwork Recent . 10.15184/aqy.2016.182 1 1 , 2 , 2016 ). ; ;

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Figure 1. Location of Shubayqa 6 and other PPNA sites in the southern Levant.

Shubayqa 6 was discovered during a pedestrian survey in October 2012. To date, excavations have revealed a complex series of circular or sub-circular buildings, which reflect the multiple phases of occupation and reuse of the settlement (Figure 3). The structures uncovered so far range from small buildings, less than two metres in length, to buildings with a diameter of four metres. Two larger structures, measuring six and five metres in maximum length have also been uncovered. Although most structures at the site are as yet unexcavated down to floor level, those that have been demonstrate well-made floors and fireplaces. Six AMS dates have been obtained on charred plant material from the site (Figure 4). Apart from one sample that returned a late Chalcolithic/early Bronze Age I date of 3770–3660 cal BC (5710–5610 cal BP 68.2% probability), all other dates fall between 10 420–8640 C Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2016

2 iue2 eilpoorp n lno hbya6soigtelcto ftemi xaainarea. excavation main the of location the showing 6 Shubayqa of plan and photograph Aerial 2. Figure iue3 ls-pve ftemi xaainae tSuaq 6. Shubayqa at area excavation main the of view Close-up 3. Figure hbya6 Shubayqa 3 C niut ulctosLd 2016 Ltd, Publications Antiquity

Project Gallery Tobias Richter et al. cal BC (12 370–10 590 cal BP 68.2% probability), covering the time frame between the late Natufian and the late PPNA. These dates are confirmed by the chipped stone material (Figure 5), which exhibits an increase in geometric microliths with depth, while el-Khiam points, , flaked axes, sickles and Hagdud and Gilgal truncations dominate the upper layers. The ground stone tools, which are exclusively Figure 4. Plot of the probability distribution of calibrated made of local basalt, include hand- ranges of 14C dates from Shubayqa 6 in year cal BC and stones, querns, cup-marked stones, pestles, cal BP.Calibrated ages in calendar years have been obtained from the calibration tables in Reimer et al. (2013)bymeans mortars and grooved stones. Numerous of OxCal v. 4.2 of Bronk Ramsey (1995, 2001). Samples pieces of worked bone have also been are ordered according to their stratigraphic position in the recovered. site’s matrix. Particularly noteworthy is the large number (2000+) of stone beads, in addition to unfinished beads and blanks, as well as more than 1.1kg of debitage. These beads are predominantly made of greenstone, although other imported types of stone were also occasionally used. Bead manufacture at the site is also suggested by the large number of flint drills recovered. Art objects are represented by an anthropomorphic chalk figurine (Figure 6) and a T-shaped bone plaque with incisions. Organic preservation at Shubayqa 6 is excellent. In addition to a large faunal assemblage, intensive flotation of sediment samples has produced a substantial assemblage of macro- botanical plant remains, which is currently being analysed. Shubayqa 6 is the first substantial PPNA settlement identified in the Black Desert; it demonstrates that settlement in this semi-arid to arid zone was more intensive than previously thought. The site appears, moreover, to have had occupation that extends across the late Epipalaeolithic to PPNA transition making it one of the few sites in the Levant that combines stratified deposits from these two crucial periods with the preservation of charred

Figure 5. El-Khiam point. Figure 6. Anthropomorphic chalk figurine.

C Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2016

4 R B C program radiocarbon the of Development 2001. – References in This Institute assistance. Danish and the advice Research, Palæstinaforsking. Independent their Dansk for for for Council Mindefondet staff Jordan, Danish Department’s Hjerl H.P. of the the the from Antiquities as and grants Damascus well of by as Department funded research, been the our has of out project Director-General carry Jamhawi, to Dahash permission Monther for thank to wish We Levant. the in production food Acknowledgements to critical gathering shed and hunting to from promises transition therefore the 6 on Shubayqa light at new work Additional remains. macrobotanic RONK EIMER OQUEUGNIOT 2–0 eln xOriente. Ex regions Berlin: adjacent 421–30. in contemporaries their Fertile and the Crescent of industries (ed.) stone Gebel chipped H.-G. Neolithic & Kozłowski S.K. in sud) http://dx.doi.org/10.2458/azu BP. years cal 0-50,000 curves calibration age radiocarbon http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0033822200038212 OxCal. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0033822200030903 program. Radiocarbon OxCal the stratigraphy: of analysis ..R R.W. ..H D.L. .G.B . G P. ’nuti ihqedE oiSf,u ova site nouveau un Khiamien Safa, Aoui d’El lithique L’industrie ..S J.R. .H I. .K F. .M.G . M P. J. .C H. A DER VAN -R .. .B E. P.J., , AISER AJDAS HENG AMSEY OUTHON LACKWELL ROOTES EIMER OFFMANN Radiocarbon Radiocarbon ,B.K ,C.H ’s uJble (D el Jebel du l’Est a ` ,L.R.E ,E.&P.C.A P .19.Rdoabnclbainand calibration Radiocarbon 1995. C. , LICHT 7 425–30. 37: ..R D.A. , ARD ..S R.A. , ,T.P.G ROMER ATT ,C.B ..H A.G. , ,A.B 03 nCl3adMarine13 and IntCal13 2013. . DWARDS E ´ 5 1869–87. 55: 3 355–63. 43: ,T.J.H ICHARDS ,S.W.M UILDERSON RONK TAFF AYLISS NDERSON OGG ,M.F ...T C.S.M. , -R EATON ,W.J.B ,M.E.S ..H K.A. , AMSEY ANNING sr or yi du Syrie Noir, esert ´ js RIEDRICH ,H.H 1996. . rc.55.16947 , ,C.E.B ECK URNEY COTT ,M.N UGHEN AFLIDASON , , , UCK & IU , hbya6 Shubayqa , , : , 5 R R Y EOMANS ICHTER ICHTER &L.Y eoto h rtseason. first the on preliminary report 1: Shubayqa of site Epipalaeolithic .R A. .A A. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/oa.2533 Osteoarchaeology 1. Shubayqa Late at the Natufian during hunting bird resource: seasonal eoto h eodsao fecvto at excavation 1. of Shubayqa season second the on report RRANZ AFAIAH ,T.,A.A ,T.,L.B ,L.&T.R EOMANS ,I.S &L.Y Neo-Lithics ODE RRANZ C 02 xaain tteLate the at Excavations 2012. . AEHLE . niut ulctosLd 2016 Ltd, Publications Antiquity ICHTER ,M.H EOMANS O ,G.T TAEGUI 06 xliaino a of Exploitation 2016. . 41:3–10. 14(1): nentoa ora of Journal International OUSE Neo-Lithics 04 Preliminary 2014. . HAARUP ,R.I ,M.H VERSEN ,M.-L.T OUSE 22:3–14. 12(2): , , VEDE

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