British Museum. Image by L. M. Clancy ©. ‘Ain Ghazal is a large Neolithic site in the Wadi Zarqa on the outskirts of northeast Amman in Jordan. Excavations began in 1982 by a joint American-Jordanian expedition under the direction of Gary Rollefson, Alan Simmons and Zeidan Kafafi. Four main phases of occupation were uncovered, lasting [...]

Wadi Rabah is a Pottery Neolithic assemblage (culture) whose sites are on plains or alluvial terraces and max out at 2-4 ha. It was first discovered beneath Wadi Rabah’s Ghassulian Chalcolithic layer. Floorplans are rectilinear, with round grain silos installed in the floor. Pottery vessels resembles north Syrian dark-faced burnished ware and includes both red [...]

Anthropo- and zoo-morphic figurines have a presumedly religious motivation. An alternative to the cultic possibility is the use of figurines as teaching aids on the mysteries of life. While large-scale cultic items have not been found, smaller finds indicate a household basis for cultic tradition. Exemplary of the Levant’s Pre-Pottery Neolithic are plaster statues, clay [...]

Trade presumedly drove much of the movement of domesticated animals and plants. Paleolithic Period Many goat bones have been found in Paleolithic strata of Syria and Lebanon. Sheep and goats spread from the Zagros to the Levantine interior first (modern=day Syria, Lebanon, Transjordan and Israel) and then to Anatolia. Pre-Pottery Neolithic B Sheep bones are [...]

Anatolian obsidian was found at Jericho, indicating some form of trade. Microlithis dropped sharply in abundance during the PPNA, a marked departure from the Natufian. PPNA art was limited to anthropomorphic figurines of chalk and clay, although a few stone figurines have been found with crude outlines of features. Also, social stratification is indicated by [...]

Although continuous with the Pre-Pottery Neolithic, knowledge about the Levant’s Pottery Neolithic period is fragmentary. This is largely due to a shift in settlement patterns, likely due to a climatic change at the beginning of the 6th millenium BC that dried and then re-moistened the Levant. There are sites in the Jordan valley, and the [...]

In the Neolithic (11,000-6,000 BC), people began subsisting by cultivating cereals and legumes, domesticating sheep and goats, hunting wild game, gathering wild seed and fruit and product trading. Amidst the 5,000 Neolithic years, the Near East shifted from small hunting bands to agricultural villages (.2-12 ha) within fertile Levantine zones. The Pre-Pottery Neolithic has all [...]

Herd animals were domesticated in the Levant during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B. Sheep and goats were domesticated for practical reasons, and much later cattle were domesticated (although for religious/sacrifice reasons). There was an intense adoration of cattle, evidenced by clay bucrania crowned with real horns found at Catal Huyuk in Anatolia. Also, the PPNB begins [...]

Jericho (Tell es-Sultan) is a Levantine site given great Biblical weight as the first site conquered by the Israelites. It has a Pre-Pottery Neolithic fortification, suggesting the presence of chiefdoms in this era. Also, it has a remarkable Middle Bronze Age wall that is five meters thick. Anatolian obsidian was found at Jericho, indicating some [...]

One thing characteristic of Chalcolithic culture in the Beersheba area is the chalcolythic urn. Ceramic churns are present only in the Chalcolythic era (until Classic era) and otherwise would have been made from skin, hung from a tree and whacked back and forth. These churns indicate the secondary product revolution. Also, there are ceramic cult [...]

Ghassulian culture is typified at Teleilat Ghassul and Nahal Mishmar. A cave “Cave of the Treasure” containing 400 ceremonial copper objects made by the lost-wax method is also a great Ghassulian corpus. 10 copper crowns. Standards with animal heads, some with ibexes. Figurine standards. Scepters. Perforated disks. Chisels and hammers. MAce-heads. Other finds include hippo [...]