Archaeological Stratigraphy
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’AIN GHAZAL Rolfe D. Mandel1 and Alan H. Simmons2 1 Department of Anthropology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA 2 Department of Anthropology, University of Nevada Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV, USA
Definition ’Ain Ghazal (“Spring of the Gazelles”) is a major Neolithic settlement located near Amman in northwestern Jordan. The site is situated on footslopes and toeslopes in the Zarqa River valley, the second largest tributary of the Jordan River. Archaeological excavations were conducted at ’Ain Ghazal during seasons beginning in 1982. Although a relatively small portion of the site has been excavated, the findings have been remarkable and have brought about the reevaluation of some basic assumptions regarding Neolithic life (Simmons, 2007). The most significant discoveries at the site relate to chronology, size and population, economy, ritual and artistic life, ecological adaptation, and the ultimate abandonment of the site. Covering an area of at least 12 ha, ’Ain Ghazal is three times the size of Jericho and represents one of the largest aceramic Neolithic sites recorded in the Near East. Hence, it probably was a major population center, although the entire site may not have been occupied at the same time. At its peak, ’Ain Ghazal probably had a population of several thousand people, but after 8,500 cal years BP, the population dropped sharply. Based on a large suite of radiocarbon ages, a major occupation occurred at ’Ain Ghazal between ca. 10,200 and 8,000 cal years BP, which corresponds to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) (Simmons et al., 1988). There also was an occupation during the succeeding Pre-Pottery Neolithic C, and the site continued to be
occupied into the Pottery Neolithic component, locally known as the Yarmoukian (Rollefson, 1993). The Yarmoukian component at ’Ain Ghazal dates to ca. 7,700 cal years BP (Kafafi et al., 2012: 27). In addition, Chalcolithic pastoralists appear to have occupied the site during two brief intervals around 7,200 and 6,500 cal years BP (Zielhofer et al., 2012). Aceramic and ceramic components often occur at major Neolithic sites, but they are often separated by a hiatus in the period of occupation. This is not the case at ’Ain Ghazal; a transitional phase from aceramic to ceramic was documented, the aforementioned Pre-Pottery Neolithic C (PPNC) (Simmons et al., 1988). The PPNC component shares elements common to both the PPNB and Yarmoukian, yet it is unique in many ways. The recovery of abundant faunal and floral remains at ’Ain Ghazal provided a wealth of information about subsistence strategies during the periods of occupation. Goats dominate the faunal assemblage and, along with cattle, were used in a domestic sense (Köhler-Rollefson et al., 1988), although they may not have been morphologically domestic (Simmons et al., 1988). Also, a remarkable variety of wild animals were consumed at the site during the PPNB, with over 50 taxa identified in the assemblage, although by the second half of the 8th millennium, the wild component drops dramatically (von den Driesc
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