Persistent Place-Making in Prehistory: the Creation, Maintenance, and Transformation of an Epipalaeolithic Landscape

Most archaeological projects today integrate, at least to some degree, how past people engaged with their surroundings, including both how they strategized resource use, organized technological production, or scheduled movements within a physical environment, as well as how they constructed cosmologies around or created symbolic connections to places in the landscape. However, there are a multitude of ways in which archaeologists approach the creation, maintenance, and transformation of human-landscape interrelationships. This paper explores some of these approaches for reconstructing the Epipalaeolithic (ca. 23,000–11,500 years BP) landscape of Southwest Asia, using macro- and microscale geoarchaeological approaches to examine how everyday practices leave traces of human-landscape interactions in northern and eastern Jordan. The case studies presented here demonstrate that these Epipalaeolithic groups engaged in complex and far-reaching social landscapes. Examination of the Early and Middle Epipalaeolithic (EP) highlights that the notion of “Neolithization” is somewhat misleading as many of the features we use to define this transition were already well-established patterns of behavior by the Neolithic. Instead, these features and practices were enacted within a hunter-gatherer world and worldview

Worked bone in the Levantine Upper Paleolithic : rare examples from the Wadi al-Hasa, West-Central Jordan.

Artifacts made from bone, antler, and horn cores have been identified at Upper Paleolithic sites in the Levant, but their distribution is associated primarily with Levantine Aurignacian assemblages in rockshelters and caves in the Mediterranean zone of northern Israel and Lebanon. Recent evidence from the southern and eastern regions of the Levant suggests that under certain preservation conditions, it is possible to recover evidence that bone-working technologies probably were more extensive during the Upper Paleolithic than previously described. Two rare examples from the Ahmarian site of Ain el-Buhira (WHS 618) in Jordan are described.Des artefacts en os, en andouiller et en cheville osseuse de corne ont été identifiés sur des gisements du Paléolithique supérieur du Levant, mais leur distribution est principalement associée aux assemblages aurignaciens du Levant qui se trouvent dans les abris sous roche et dans les grottes situés dans la zone méditerranéenne en Israël septentrional et au Liban. Dans les régions méridionale et orientale du Levant de nouvelles données suggèrent que, sous certaines conditions de conservation, des indices pourraient montrer que les technologies de l'os travaillé ont été probablement plus répandues pendant le Paléolithique supérieur que ne le suggéraient les descriptions antérieures. Deux exemples rares issus du gisement ahmarien d'Ain el-Buhira (WHS 618) en Jordanie sont décrits.Coinman Nancy R. Worked bone in the Levantine Upper Paleolithic : rare examples from the Wadi al-Hasa, West-Central Jordan.. In: Paléorient, 1996, vol. 22, n°2. pp. 113-121

WHS 618 - Ain El-Buhira : an Upper Paleolithic site in the Wadi Hasa, West-Central Jordan

The site of WHS 618 (Ain el-Buhira) in the Wadi Hasa of west-central Jordan represents an excellent example of the Levantine Upper Paleolithic in Jordan and demonstrates a strong association with the late Ahmarian tradition of the southern Levant. Variability in the lithic assemblages from this large site situated on the shores of Pleistocene Lake Hasa suggests at least two major occupations during the terminal Upper Paleolithic at ca. 20,000 b.p. The presence of Ahmarian assemblages at WHS 618 contributes new data on the distribution of non-Aurignacian assemblage types in the lesser known regions of the Levant.Le gisement de WHS 618 (Ain el-Buhira), situé dans le Wadi Hasa dans le centre-ouest de la Jordanie représente un excellent exemple du Paléolithique supérieur Levantin en Jordanie. Ce gisement montre une correspondance solide avec la tradition Ahmarienne tardive du Levant méridional. La variabilité dans les industries lithiques issues de ce grand gisement, situé sur les rives du lac Pléistocène de Hasa, suggère l'existence d'au moins deux occupations majeures pendant le Paléolithique supérieur terminal, datées des environs de 20 000 b.p. La présence d'industries lithiques Ahmariennes dans le gisement WHS 618 apporte de nouvelles données sur la distribution des industries de type non-Aurignacien dans des régions jusqu'ici moins connues du Levant.Coinman Nancy R. WHS 618 - Ain El-Buhira : an Upper Paleolithic site in the Wadi Hasa, West-Central Jordan. In: Paléorient, 1993, vol. 19, n°2. pp. 17-37

New Evidence of Ksar Akil Scrapers in the Levantine Upper Paleolithic

Recent investigations in the Wadi al-Hasa region of Jordan have recovered examples of Ksar Akil scrapers, some in well-dated behavioral contexts, providing new insights into their function, as well as evidence that the type is more widely distributed than previously thought and more variable inform.Les recherches récentes dans la région du wadi Hasa (Jordanie) ont livré des « grattoirs Ksar Akil », dont certains dans des contextes bien datés permettant ainsi de nouvelles hypothèses sur leur fonction. Ils montrent ainsi que ce type est plus largement distribué qu 'on ne le pensait et que ses formes sont plus variées.Coinman Nancy R. New Evidence of Ksar Akil Scrapers in the Levantine Upper Paleolithic. In: Paléorient, 2002, vol. 28, n°2. pp. 87-103