Mammal remains from the eastern Jordanian Neolithic, and the nature of caprine herding in the steppe

Abstract

This paper draws together the results of studies of mammalian remains from a series of 10 Neolithic sites in eastern Jordan. The sites span the mid- 10 to the 8th millennia BP and are assigned to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic В (PPNB) and Late Neolithic (LN), and are in various areas of the present dry-steppe and sub-desert. Relative proportions of identified mammalian taxa from each animal bone assemblage are presented; chronological and geographical variability highlighted, and the major change seen in the Early LN - that of the appearance of caprines (sheep and goats) - is discussed. It has previously been suggested that the eastern Jordanian sites which have caprines result from specialised pastoralist activity. It is concluded here, however, that the inhabitants practised diverse subsistence activities including hunting, trapping, foraging and crop cultivation, to which in the Early LN they added caprine herding.