Searching for Complexity: Initial statistical analysis of mortuary material in shaft tombs from the Early Bronze Age I (c. 3500-3000 BC) Bab adh-Dhra`, Jordan

Summary

The southern Leventine Early Bronze Age (EB) I-III is characterized by the development of fortification systems, intensification of agricultural and pastoral production, innovative water management, irrigation technology, population aggregation, and increasing regionalized expression of EB material culture. Due to these characteristics, various researchers have interpreted this society as the region's earliest urban culture, a chiefdom, a city state, or a secondary state. Recent scholars have begun to question these interpretations, and our work will address the issue by examining burials from the EBIA period that span the pre-settlement through the beginning of the EBIB village at Bab adh-Dhra`, Jordan. The cemetery includes hundreds of shaft tombs, each with 1 to 5 chambers. The scope of this study is to inventory, organize, and statistically analyze the various artifacts and skeletal material from the tombs in order to gain insights about the social complexity of these people. We hope to acquire a wider understanding about status differentiation between and within shaft tombs, the development of social complexity, and how to quantify social differentiation statistically.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage