Rewriting the Prehistory of Jordan

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Jordanian prehistory begins with the traces left by human ancestors on a key route out of Africa into Europe and Asia. This earliest phase is mainly known from scatters of flint tools made, used, and abandoned. Around 20,000 years ago, archaeological preservation improves providing evidence for some of the most profound changes in human history. These include the development of food producing technologies, the domestication of plants and animals, and the social and ideological developments that enabled living together in increasingly large and sedentary communities: what have been identified as the earliest modern societies (e.g. Cauvin 2000). Similar developments took place independently in a number of regions across the globe (Barker 2006), but their earliest manifestation was in Southwest Asia. Until recently, Jordan was considered as marginal to this process, but archaeological evidence now suggests that Jordan was important region to this transformation. Sites such as Kharaneh IV in the Epipalaeolithic show developments in subsistence and social complexity from c 20,000 years ago, while recent excavations at Shubayqa now provide evidence of permanent architecture from the Natufian period c 14,000 years ago. The earliest Neolithic, the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (12,000-10,300 years ago), was barely known in Jordan even a decade ago, but is now known from multiple sites. The Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (10,300 - 8,700 years ago), previously thought to derive from developments elsewhere, is now seen to incorporate local innovations when the Jordanian plateau became one of the most densely populated parts of the world. Although field evidence remains scarce, the Late Neolithic (8,300-6,500 years ago) continues a local historical trajectory when the farming package consolidates. Jordan plays an important role in the development of nomadic pastoralism following the domestication of sheep and goats.With notable exceptions, such as Profs Zeidan Kafafi of Yarmouk University and Maysoon al-Nahar of the University of Jordan, early prehistoric archaeological research has been dominated by international researchers, and has been marginal to archaeology and cultural heritage presentation within Jordan. The narrative of early prehistory has been largely written by international scholars, whose focus has been to place Jordanian evidence into a wider regional and global context. With the exception of scholars working directly on Jordanian material, most Near Eastern Neolithic archaeologists continue to downplay the significance of Jordan, indeed, with rare exceptions (such as mention of the large Late Pre-Pottery Neolithic B sites), Jordan does not register in regional syntheses, and the crucial early developments evident in Jordan are often omitted. Prehistory does not figure in Jordanian school education, despite the many resonances with contemporary issues of settling down, the growth of sedentary communities, and the early development of an agricultural package that still lies at the core of Jordanian subsistence.This project aims to develop a new generation of Jordanian scholars and cultural resource managers working in early prehistoric research. We will focus on Jordanian engagement, helping develop Jordanian skills, policies and procedures to research and manage prehistory, and to foster a new research environment with Jordanian perspectives and agendas.The project will seek to engage the wider Jordanian public in prehistory, where a lack of local interest translates into a lack of protection for these sites. We will raise the profile of prehistory, show its relevance to modern life in the origins of herding, farming, and water management, all vital to modern Jordanian society. We want to show this is a human and local story, not just academic and global.We will develop the tourism potential of prehistory, locally and internationally, to provide direct economic benefits to rural communities and the Jordanian economy.