Local-scale environmental gradients in ‘snail-shell’ stable isotopes from Holocene Jordanian archaeological sites

Reconstructing environments around archaeological sites is complicated by past land management practices and regional-scale climate proxies that can be contradictory and are often located at a distance from the sites themselves. Here we explore environmental information from fossil snail shells which, even when few in number on an archaeological site, may prove invaluable in constructing site-specific data. The palaeoecology of fossil snails and the stable isotopic composition of their shell carbonate can provide context-specific information on vegetation, water availability, and relative humidity during the occupation of a site. We studied terrestrial and aquatic snails from two later Neolithic archaeological sites in the Jordanian badia, Wadi al-Qattafi and Wisad Pools. At specific archaeological site-scale our study highlights the importance of aquatic snails in the reconstruction of semi-arid environments. At Wisad pools rare aquatic snails in contexts dating between ~8.0 and ~7.6 ka demonstrate episodes of wetness; moreover, their shell isotopic compositions indicate that local watercourses were well established, corroborating previous findings that during this period the immediate environs of Wisad Pools were host to C3 plant species more typical of the Mediterranean zone. Moreover, the δ18O signal in these snail shells allow tentative reconstruction of rainwater isotopic compositions and identify the effects of evaporation. Such fine-grained environmental information is much less evident from the terrestrial snail shell data alone, showing that an ensemble of snail shell data can be highly sensitive to environmental differentials across an archaeological site. Finally, at a regional palaeoclimate-scale our Wisad Pools snail shell stable isotope data are consistent with a sustained, Rapid Climate Change (RCC)-driven wetness between 8.6 and 7.6 ka concurrent with cold and wet conditions in the wider Levant

Time out of joint: A re-assessment of the Cypriot Early Neolithic site of Kalavasos-Tenta and its regional implications

This article proposes that the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) hunter-forager-cultivator introductions to Cyprus from the northern Levant had a much more enduring impact on the Cypriot Aceramic Neolithic than subsequent agricultural introductions associated with the Early Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB). The presence at Ayios Tychonas-Klimonas of imported wild emmer wheat, a chipped stone assemblage bearing strong similarities to Mureybet IIIA and a circular communal building with close parallels in the northern Levantine PPNA (Vigne et al. 2012: 8446–47), confirm that by the beginning of the 9th millennium cal BC communities on Cyprus had adopted technologies, behaviours and perhaps the ideology of the mainland PPNA. Many PPNA-derived practices survived, or were deliberately maintained, after the introduction of agriculture to the island in the mid 9th millennium cal BC. On the basis of a critical re-evaluation of the important Cypriot Aceramic Neolithic site of Kalavasos-Tenta, the significance of this assertion is explored. The possibility is discussed that cultural archaism, observed in many aspects of the Cypriot Neolithic, was the result of deliberate choice, constituted within an ideology that rejected the shift towards the more structured, corporate way of living which was gathering pace on the mainland by the 8th millennium cal BC (Benz et al. 2017). Instead, mainland PPNB technologies and materiel were differentially adopted, or disregarded, under unique conditions that enabled Cyprus to maintain a predominantly hunting economy long after agriculture had been introduced to the island. A re-analysis of three impressive circular communal buildings at Tenta and their relationship with the surrounding, much smaller pillar buildings lead us to argue that Tenta was occupied virtually continuously from at least the mid 9th to the mid 7th millennia cal BC, that its extraordinary longevity and archaism can be attributed to its socio-ideological significance; and, that the top-of-site communal buildings may have been the successors to the early 9th millennium cal BC examples epitomised by Building 10 at Klimonas. In addition, the smaller circular pillar buildings surrounding them are interpreted here in the context of a new influx of people with links to Upper Mesopotamia at around 7500 cal BC, who may have been seeking refuge from the rapidly intensifying and changing world of the mainland PPNB

The development of goat and sheep herding during the Levantine Neolithic

This thesis examines the development of goat and sheep herding in the Levant during the Neolithic period, and focuses particularly on the emergence of caprines as major early domesticates and the development of specialised pastoral economies. It is divided into two sections. The first consists of a critical review of published palaeoclimatic, archaeological, archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological data, which are integrated to provide baseline interpretations of caprine domestication and the development of specialised pastoral economies. The second section presents the results of a zooarchaeological analysis of the faunal assemblage from the Neolithic site of 'Ain Ghazal, located in the Jordanian Highlands, which are evaluated in the context of the two baseline interpretations presented in the first section. The relative merits of the different methods by which archaeological caprine remains can be identified to species are also discussed. It is argued that goats were probably first domesticated in or immediately adjacent to the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon Mountains during the 10th millennium b.p., and that mouflon were probably first domesticated in the piedmont zones of the Taurus and Zagros Mountains during the first half of the 9th millennium b. p.. The independent domestication of goats in the Zagros Mountains during the first half of the millennium b.p. is regarded as a strong possibility. It is concluded that the concepts of there have been a temporal gap between the appearance of the earliest permanent agricultural villages and the earliest domestic caprines, and that significant periods of loose-herding preceded the full domestication of these species, may need to be reconsidered. Pastoral economies during the Levantine Neolithic seem to have been based on sedentary animal husbandry aimed at subsistence-orientated meat production. There is however some evidence that simple forms of distant pastures husbandry, still focused on subsistence- orientated meat production, may have developed during the Neolithic period

The ‘land of conjecture’: New late prehistoric discoveries at Maitland’s Mesa and Wisad Pools, Jordan

International audienc

The ‘land of conjecture’: New late prehistoric discoveries at Maitland’s Mesa and Wisad Pools, Jordan

International audienc

The ‘land of conjecture’: New late prehistoric discoveries at Maitland’s Mesa and Wisad Pools, Jordan

International audienc