Introducing Aswad Terrace in the Hisma Basin: New Discovery of Initial Upper Paleolithic Remains in Southern Jordan

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Initial Upper Paleolithic (IUP) is a chrono-cultural concept that is widely used in the Levant, Central–Southeastern Europe and Central–North Asia to characterize unique cultural changes at the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic. The IUP remains have been recognized as key cultural records that can be related to paleoanthropological and genetic evidence to examine the dispersal processes of Homo sapiens in Eurasia. This presentation introduces a site, Aswad Terrace, with IUP cultural remains in southern Jordan. The site is located a few kilometers south of the Jebel Qalkha area, where Middle and Upper Paleolithic sites are concentrated. Aswad Terrace was discovered in 2022 during the survey by Nagoya University, and the excavations in the 2023 and 2024 seasons resulted in the collection of lithic artifacts that show techno-typological characteristics of the Initial Upper Paleolithic, such as robust and sometimes pointed blades with large (often faceted) striking platforms as well as several blade cores. Stratigraphic and chronological records will also be presented. Aswad Terrace adds to the two IUP sites, Wadi Aghar and Tor Fawaz, in the Jebel Qalkha area. The presentation also shows preliminary comparisons of cultural remains and site settings among the three sites.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 52666