Settlement Patterns, Water Accessibility, and Circulation in the Azraq Watershed during the Neolithic Colonization (Seventh–Sixth Millennium BCE)

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Water in the Desert: Human Resilience in the Azraq Basin and Eastern Desert of Jordan" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The end of the neolithization process (seventh–sixth millennium cal BCE) was a period of settlement peak in the arid margins of the Fertile Crescent. In northeastern Jordan, the combination of a long sequence of Neolithic occupation and several decades of field investigation provide the opportunity of an in-depth study of this phenomenon through a regional perspective. This presentation will focus on the Azraq watershed with a particular emphasis on the Black Desert plateau, also known as Harra, which drains the northeastern part of the catchment basin. Based on the results of past and present field programs, including unpublished data from the Western Harra Survey project, it intends to propose a comprehensive overview of the colonization of the region during the PPNB and the Late Neolithic. It will question settlement patterns and their evolution over two millennia through the lens of water availability, in quality (type of water source), space (proximity and accessibility), and time (short-term water seasonality vs. long-term wet/dry climatic periods). Beyond subsistence and given the circulation difficulties in the Harra, the potential role of watercourses as corridors between Azraq, the Black Desert, and beyond will also be assessed.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)   •
• Water in the Desert: Human Resilience in the Azraq Basin and Eastern Desert of Jordan

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38970.0