Latest news with #LateChalcolithic
Jordan Times
23-02-2025
- Science
- Jordan Times
Polish excavations at Huseiniya uncover early Bronze Age artefacts
AMMAN — A Polish archaeological team from Jagiellonian University (JU) excavated in 2021 at Huseiniya, near the Desert Highway. The site is located about 500 metres from the Harrat Juhayra site, which was investigated several years ago by a Japanese team of archaeologists led by Professor Sumio Fujii. The vast site occupied the southern side of a small valley called Wadi Quseir and numerous stone concentrations were scattered throughout, forming small artificial mounds that concealed architectural relics. 'The surface was also marked with scatters of lithics and ceramic objects. While part of the site is directly threatened by the ongoing construction of a gas pipeline, it is mostly under threat of intense looting activity," said Michal Wasilewski. "The site is located on a fluvial terrace, in a flat-bottomed, shallow, and currently dry river bed running from west to east,' said Wasilewski, adding that the valley itself is a part of a larger basin surrounded from the north, west, and east by hills formed, among others, by Pleistocene rocks of volcanic origin. The hydrothermal phenomena associated with volcanic activity resulted in formation of massive local deposits of silicates up to several meters thick. Outcrops of these rocks occur at a short distance to the west of the archaeological site. The most prominent sediments are of a Quaternary age and comprise gravels, sands, and silts of fluvial and aeolian origin. 'During the 2021 excavations, only two archaeological strata were recorded. One was connected with the functioning of the household [described below], and the other, located outside the building, consisted of collapsed mudbrick and stone material and was most likely a result of events occurring after the household went out of use," he said. "Eight radiocarbon dates obtained from the household context date the dwelling's occupation to the end of the 5th millennium BC, with the oldest date within the highest probability range being 4266 cal BC, and the youngest — 3967 cal BC,' Wasilewski explained. Among the investigated structures was a rectangular dug-out building with stone walls, some of them in the form of orthostates, and a stepped entrance giving access to the structure from the south Near the entrance was a two part, internally divided stone installation, which, at least at one point in time, was used as a hearth. The floor level of the building was probably covered with clay plaster. The series of eight radiocarbon dates ranging from 4331 to 3967 cal BC, obtained mainly from charcoal, place the functioning of this homestead in the Late Chalcolithic, Wasilewski said, noting that pottery finds help to date the discovered structure to the EB IA period. 'By far the most important find that helped confirm this chronology is a ledge handle of the 'folded' type, discovered in Locus. Vessels equipped with such handles first appeared at the beginning of EB I and then disappeared about halfway through this period,' Wasilewski underlined. He added that worthy of note is the presence of holemouth jars, which differed from those found on other sites in Wadi Quseir, as they had a more closed shape and arms that sloped less steeply. The site yielded a total of 976 lithic artifacts, 225 of which were found within the intact archaeological context, the archaeologist said, adding that the rest were scattered on the surface and in looters' pits. Flake production, mostly ad hoc, dominated in the inventory. An increase in the share of flakes first occurred at the end of the Neolithic, but it was the Chalcolithic and the Bronze Age that witnessed a more noticeable growth in their number. 'The assemblage from the site featured characteristic elements that in some ways relate more clearly to the Chalcolithic or, possibly, to the transitional period between the Chalcolithic and the Early Bronze Age." "Among the more distinctive tools confirming this chronology were arched-backed blades, regular backed blades sometimes combined with perforators including those made on flat cortical, as well as forms resembling Palaeolithic chopper tools,' Wasilewski highlighted. This site most likely contained settlement units scattered along a small seasonal stream. The environmental conditions in the late 5th millennium BC may have been more favourable than today's arid and hyper arid conditions typical of this area, the scholar concluded. Page 2
Jordan Times
09-02-2025
- Science
- Jordan Times
Delving into Early Bronze I: Societal shifts in Southern Levant
AMMAN — According to radiocarbon calibrated dates, the Early Bronze I (EB 1) lasted almost six centuries, between c. 3,700 and c. 3,100 BC. Some societal changes took place during that period which shaped societies after six hundred years. 'Archaeologists, therefore, differentiate between an early phase [EB IA}, c. 3,700–3,400 C, a late phase [EB IB], c. 3,400– 3,200 BC, and a terminal phase [Final EB IB], c. 3,200–3,100/3,000 BC, which is transitional with the following EB II period,' the professor Pierre de Miroschedji from National Centre for Scientific Research said, adding that the modalities of the transition between the Late Chalcolithic and EB I are still poorly understood. 'In the coastal plain of southern Levant, there are indications of a smooth transition. Everywhere else, the beginning of a new period is felt rather abruptly in subsistence modes, pattern of settlement, material culture, foreign relations, funerary practices, and cult,' Miroschedji elaborated, adding that at the beginning of the new civilisation, a new subsistence economy emerged during the fourth millennium, which characterised the Mediterranean zone from this time onward . 'It is a mixed agro-pastoral economy based on agriculture [cereals and leguminous], horticulture [olive and vine], and animal husbandry [cattle, sheep and goats—pig whenever possible—and donkey domesticated in the EB I]. The significant rise of a sedentary population in the Early Bronze Age suggests that both the surface of arable lands and productivity increased, a consequence of the development of floodwater farming and the introduction of the plough, possibly in the EB I,' Miroschedji underlined. The development of horticulture represents the most important agricultural innovation since the Neolithic, which had a considerable impact on economic and social organisation. Miroschedji explained that the advent of a new subsistence economy was soon translated onto the settlement map. The first striking feature is the settlement hiatus: Most of the Late Chalcolithic settlements were abandoned and a number of the EB I settlements are newly founded, a movement which implies a strong sedentarisation process. 'In addition the sharp increase in the number of sites is remarkable, suggesting a significant demographic rise, at least for the sedentary segment of the population. Another conspicuous change concerns the spatial distribution of sites: Previously almost empty, the hilly areas and the central highlands witnessed the foundation of numerous small settlements, some of which became major cities in the Bronze and Iron Ages,' Miroschedji underlined. 'At the same time, scores of small settlements inhabited by transhumant pastoralists appeared in the semi-arid southern margins of the Negev. The process of sedentarisation, however, was not uniform. In some areas, such as the central Shephelah region, two phases can be identified: the first marked by the founding of new settlements, the second by the abandonment of some and the grouping of their inhabitants into a few larger sites, one of which became a regional centre in the following period,' Miroschedji highlighted. Elsewhere the focal point of future settlement seems to have been a cemetery established initially at the centre of the territory inhabited by people still broadly semi-nomadic. These EB IA–B settlements were all villages. They rarely exceeded an area of 5 ha, although some were very large, sometimes larger than the EB II–III cities that succeeded them but excavations suggest that they were sparsely built, with dwellings disorderly distributed and separated by open spaces. 'These dwellings were mostly of the courtyard type [a broad room preceded by a courtyard], attested in the southern Levant since the Late Neolithic. Another kind of dwelling, considered a hallmark of the EB IA, is represented by oval or elongated houses with apses at both ends. These are found on a dozen of settlements along the coast, as well as in Lebanon,' Miroschedji said, noting that some EB IB settlements also enclosed multi-roomed buildings used for storage, cultic activities, and various other purposes.
