New Insights from a Reanalysis of the Flaked-Stone Assemblage from the Neolithic Site of Wadi Shu’eib, Jordan

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In the ongoing research on the Neolithic of the Southern Levant, flaked-stone assemblages continue to play a key role in interpretations of social organization and interaction. Despite the prominence of research on lithic assemblages during the Neolithic, few comprehensive studies come from the large settlements with long, continuous occupation spans (2,000 years of continuous occupation) that are likely to be more informative about long-term patterns of social and economic change. For instance, the research conducted at the long-occupied site of ‘Ain Ghazal, Jordan demonstrated that changes in the flaked-stone assemblage correspond with changes in subsistence, settlement size, and settlement configuration through time. If such patterns exist at other similar sites with long occupation spans, it remains understudied. Therefore, this research aims to address these shortfalls in our knowledge through additional analysis on the flaked-stone assemblage from the site of Wadi Shu’eib, a large Neolithic settlement in Jordan occupied from the Middle Pre-Pottery Neolithic B to the Pottery Neolithic. Specifically, this paper presents the results of a technological analysis of a sample of debitage, cores, and tools from each period of occupation and interprets what they may tell us about socioeconomic change through time at the site of Wadi Shu’eib.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• SAA 2021: General Sessions

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32167