Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-vvkck Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-28T09:17:47.546Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

72 - The Early Epipalaeolithic in the Eastern Levant

Wadi al-Hasa Region

from Part VI: - Humans in the Levant

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 May 2017

Yehouda Enzel
Affiliation:
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Ofer Bar-Yosef
Affiliation:
Harvard University, Massachusetts
Get access

Summary

Investigations of the archaeological landscape in the eastern Levant have yielded a considerable number of Early Epipalaeolithic sites dating to the interval characterized by the approach, peak, and immediate aftermath of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). While these Irano-Turanian steppic occupations are known from many areas of the interior Levant, two of the best-investigated locales currently are the Azraq Basin and the Wadi al-Hasa region. The circumstances and features of the Early Epipaleolithic in the Wadi al-Hasa, where several projects from 1984 to 2012 focused on excavations at the sites of Tor Sageer, Yutil al-Hasa, Tor at-Tareeq, and KPS-75, are discussed in this chapter. The palaeoecological setting in the Wadi al-Hasa, as well as on the adjacent Kerak Plateau, was much wetter during the LGM, resulting in the long-term presence of marshes, ponds, and perhaps a shallow lake. These served as attractors for both animals and people in an otherwise xeric landscape, but did not result in reduced mobility or the establishment of long-term base camps.
Type
Chapter
Information
Quaternary of the Levant
Environments, Climate Change, and Humans
, pp. 651 - 658
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2017

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anschuetz, K.F., Wilshusen, R.H. & Scheick, C.L. 2001. An archaeology of landscapes: Perspectives and directions. Journal of Archaeological Research 9: 157209.Google Scholar
Bailey, G. 2005. Concepts of time. In Archaeology: The Key Concepts, ed. Renfrew, C. & Bahn, P.. London: Routledge, pp. 268–73.Google Scholar
Byrd, B.F. & Garrard, A.N. 2013. Regional patterns in Late Palaeolithic chipped stone production and technology in the Levant. In Beyond the Fertile Crescent: Late Palaeolithic and Neolithic Communities of the Jordanian Steppe, the Azraq Basin Project Vol. 1, ed. Garrard, A.N. & Byrd, B.F.. Oxford: Oxbow Books, pp. 350–93.Google Scholar
Clark, G.A., Lindly, J., Donaldson, M. et al. 1987. Paleolithic archaeology in the southern Levant: A preliminary report of excavations at Middle, Upper and Epipaleolithic sites in the Wadi 'Hasa, west-central Jordan. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 31: 1978. [Reprinted (2000), in Archaeological Excavations in the Wadi Hasa Vol. 2, ed. Coinman, N.R., Anthropological Research Papers No. 52. Tempe: Department of Anthropology, Arizona State University, pp. 1766.Google Scholar
Clark, G.A., Neeley, M., MacDonald, B., Schuldenrein, J. & ‘Amr, K. 1992. Wadi Hasa Paleolithic Project – 1992: Preliminary report. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 36: 1323.Google Scholar
Clark, G.A., Olszewski, D.I., Schuldenrein, J., Rida, N. & Eighmey, J. 1994. Survey and excavation in the Wadi al-Hasa: A preliminary report of the 1993 field season. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 38: 4155.Google Scholar
Coinman, N.R., Olszewski, D.I., Abdo, K. et al. 1999. The Eastern Hasa Late Pleistocene Project: Preliminary report on the 1998 season. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 43: 925.Google Scholar
David, B. & Thomas, J. (ed.) 2008. Handbook of Landscape Archaeology. Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press.Google Scholar
Garrard, A.N. & Byrd, B.F. 1992. New dimensions to the epipalaeolithic of the Wadi el-Jilat in central Jordan. Paléorient 18: 4762.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goring-Morris, A.N. 1987. At the Edge: Terminal Pleistocene Hunter-Gatherers in the Negev and Sinai, BAR International Series 361. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.Google Scholar
Hoffecker, J.F. 2005. Innovation and technological knowledge in the Upper Paleolithic of northern Eurasia. Evolutionary Anthropology 14: 186–98.Google Scholar
Holdaway, S.J. & Wandsnider, L. 2006. Temporal scales and archaeologic-al landscapes from the Eastern Desert of Australia and intermontane North America. In Confronting Scale in Archaeology: Issues of Theory and Practice, ed. Lock, G. & Molyneaux, B.L.. New York: Springer, pp. 183202.Google Scholar
Kennerty, M.R. 2010. Epipaleolithic Subsistence Strategies in the Wadi al-Hasa, Jordan. Unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Connecticut.Google Scholar
Kislev, M.E., Nadel, D. & Carmi, I. 1992. Epipalaeolithic (19,000 B.P.) cereal and fruit diet at Ohalo II, Sea of Galilee, Israel. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 73: 161–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacDonald, B., Banning, E. & Pavlish, L. 1980. The Wadi el Hasa Survey 1979: A preliminary report. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 24: 169–83.Google Scholar
MacDonald, B., Rollefson, G. & Roller, D. 1982. The Wadi el Hasa Survey 1981: A preliminary report. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 26: 117–31.Google Scholar
MacDonald, B., Rollefson, G.O., Banning, E.B., Byrd, B.F. & D'Annibale, C. 1983. The Wadi al-Hasa archaeological survey 1982: A prelim-inary report. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 27: 311–23.Google Scholar
Maher, L.A. & Richter, T. 2011. PPN predecessors: Current issues in Late Pleistocene chipped stone analyses in the southern Levant. In The State of the Stone Technologies, Continuities and Contexts in Near Eastern Lithics. Proceedings of the Sixth PPN Conference on Chipped and Ground Stone Artefacts in the Near East, Manchester, England (3rd–5th March 2008). Includes papers of the Fourth PPN Workshop on Chipped Lithic Industries, Niğde/Cappadocia (4th–8th June 2001), ed. Healey, E., Campbell, S. & Maeda, O.. Berlin: ex oriente, pp. 2531.Google Scholar
Maher, L.A., Richter, T., Macdonald, D. et al. 2012. Twenty thousand-year-old huts at a hunter-gatherer settlement in eastern Jordan. PLoS One 7: e31447.Google Scholar
Munro, N.D., Kennerty, M.R., Meier, J.S. et al. 2016. Human hunting and mobility in the Early Epipaleolithic of the Jordanian western highlands. Quaternary International 396: 3139.Google Scholar
Nadel, D. 2002. Ohalo II. A 23,000-Year-Old Fisher-Hunter-Gatherers’ Camp on the Shore of the Sea of Galilee. Haifa: University of Haifa, Reuben and Edith Hecht Museum.Google Scholar
al-Nahar, M. & Olszewski, D.I. 2016. Early Epipaleolithic lithics, time-averaging, and site interpretations: Wadi al-Hasa region, western highlands of Jordan. Quaternary International. 396: 4051.Google Scholar
al-Nahar, M., Olszewski, D.I. & Cooper, J.B. 2009. The 2009 excavations at the Early Epipaleolithic site of KPS-75, Kerak plateau. Neo-Lithics 2/09: 912.Google Scholar
Neeley, M.P., Peterson, J.D., Clark, G.A., Fish, S.K. & Glass, M. 1998. Investigations at Tor al-Tareeq: An Epipaleolithic site in the Wadi el-Hasa, Jordan. Journal of Field Archaeology 25: 295317.Google Scholar
Nicolaides, M.L. 2015. Considering the Importance of Wetlands to Hunter-Gatherer Adaptation: A Microbotanical Investigation of Late Pleistocene Plant-Use in the Eastern Levant. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Texas.Google Scholar
Olszewski, D.I. 2006. Issues in the Epipaleolithic: The Madamaghan, Nebekian, and Qalkhan (Levant Epipaleolithic). Paléorient 32: 1926.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olszewski, D.I. 2011. Issues of lithic ‘cultures’ in the Levantine Epipaleolithic. In The State of the Stone Technologies, Continuities and Contexts in Near Eastern Lithics, Proceedings of the Sixth PPN Conference on Chipped and Ground Stone Artefacts in the Near East, Manchester, England (3rd–5th March 2008). Includes papers of Fourth PPN Workshop on Chipped Lithic Industries, Niğde/Cappadocia (4th–8th June 2001), ed. Healey, E., Campbell, S. & Maeda, O.. Berlin: ex oriente, pp. 5165.Google Scholar
Olszewski, D.I. 2016. Late Upper Paleolithic and Initial Epipaleolithic in the marshlands: A view from Tor Sageer, Wadi al-Hasa, Jordan. In Fresh Fields and Pastures New: Papers Presented in Honor of Andrew M.T. Moore, ed. Lillois, K.T & Chazan, M. Leiden: Sidestone Press, pp. 4153.Google Scholar
Olszewski, D.I. & al-Nahar, M. 2006. When stone is more than stone: Clues to prehistoric resource use. Expedition 48: 22–8.Google Scholar
Olszewski, D.I. & al-Nahar, M. 2011. A fourth season at Yutil al-Hasa (WHS 784): Renewed Early Epipaleolithic excavations. Neo-Lithics 1/11: 30–4.Google Scholar
Olszewski, D.I. & al-Nahar, M. 2014. The 2012 excavations in the Area A Early Epipaleolithic at Tor at-Tareeq, Wadi al-Hasa. Neo-Lithics 1/14: 2532.Google Scholar
Olszewski, D.I. & Schurmans, U. 2007. Raw material use in west-central Jordan. In Chert Availability and Prehistoric Exploitation in the Near East, ed. Delage, C., BAR International Series S1615. Oxford: John and Erica Hedges, pp. 164203.Google Scholar
Olszewski, D.I., Clark, G.A. & Fish, S. 1990. WHS 784 X (Yutil al-Hasa): A Late Ahmarian site in the Wadi Hasa, west-central Jordan. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 56: 3349.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olszewski, D.I., Stevens, M., Glass, M. et al. 1994. The 1993 excavations at Yutil al-Hasa (WHS 784), west-central Jordan: The Epipaleolithic periods. Paléorient 20: 129–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olszewski, D.I., Coinman, N.R., Schuldenrein, J. et al. 1998. The Eastern Hasa Late Pleistocene Project: preliminary report on the 1997 season. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 42: 5374.Google Scholar
Olszewski, D.I., Coinman, N.R., Clausen, T.G. et al. 2001. The Eastern Hasa Late Pleistocene Project. Preliminary report on the 2000 field season. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 45: 3960.Google Scholar
Olszewski, D.I., Crowley, M.P. & al-Nahar, M. 2004. Preliminary report of the 2004 Wadi al-Hasa chert survey. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 48: 347–56.Google Scholar
Ramsey, M.N & Rosen, A.M 2016. Wedded to wetlands: Exploring late Pleistocene plant-use in the eastern Levant. Quaternary Inter-national 396: 519.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richter, T. 2011. Nebekian, Qalkhan and Kebaran: Variability, classification and interaction. New insights from the Azraq Oasis. In The State of the Stone Technologies, Continuities and Contexts in Near Eastern Lithics, Proceedings of the Sixth PPN Conference on Chipped and Ground Stone Artefacts in the Near East, Manchester, England (3rd–5th March 2008). Includes papers of Fourth PPN Workshop on Chipped Lithic Industries, Niğde/Cappadocia (4th–8th June 2001), ed. Healey, E., Campbell, S. & Maeda, O.. Berlin: ex oriente, pp. 3349.Google Scholar
Richter, T., Garrard, A.N., Allock, S. & Maher, L.A. 2011. Interaction before agriculture: Exchanging material and sharing knowledge in the Final Pleistocene Levant. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 21: 95114.Google Scholar
Richter, T., Maher, L. A., Garrard, A.N. et al. 2013. Epipalaeolithic settlement dynamics in southwest Asia: New radiocarbon evidence from the Azraq Basin. Journal of Quaternary Science 28: 467–79.Google Scholar
Rosen, A.M. 2000. Report on phytoliths from Wadi Hasa survey, 1997/1998. On file with the author (Department of Anthropology, University of Texas, Austin, TX) and with D.I. Olszewski (Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA).Google Scholar
Schuldenrein, J. 1998. Geomorphology and stratigraphy of prehistoric sites along the Wadi al-Hasa. In: The Archaeology of the Wadi al-Hasa, West-Central Jordan. Vol. 1: Surveys, Settlement Patterns and Paleoenvironments, ed. Coinman, N.R., Anthropological Research Papers No. 50. Tempe: Arizona State University, pp. 205–28.Google Scholar
Schuldenrein, J. & Clark, G.A. 1994. Landscape and prehistoric chronology of west-central Jordan. Geoarchaeology 9: 3155.Google Scholar
Schuldenrein, J. & Clark, G.A. 2001. Prehistoric landscapes and settlement geography along the Wadi Hasa, west-central Jordan. Part I: Geo-archaeology, human palaeoecology and ethnographic modelling. Environmental Archaeology 6: 2338.Google Scholar
Smith, B.D. 2011. A cultural niche construction theory of initial domestication. Biological Theory 6: 260–71.Google Scholar
Stern, N. 1993. The structure of the Lower Pleistocene archaeological record. Current Anthropology 34: 201–25.Google Scholar
Winer, E.R. 2010. Interpretation and Climatic Significance of Late Quaternary Valley-Fill Deposits in Wadi Hasa, West-Central Jordan. Unpublished M.A. thesis, Miami University.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×