Settlement dynamic of open-air sites in the Late Lower and Early Middle Paleolithic: surface survey from the left bank of Jordan Valley

Abstract

Between 2015 and 2018, a joint venture of the Universities of Basel (Switzerland), Jordan, and Yarmouk (Jordan) conducted a survey project along the eastern margins of the Jordan Valley between Sulaykhat and Adassiyyah. The three field seasons, which aimed to document archeological sites, saw a number of important Paleolithic artifacts discovered. Study of the stone artifacts focused on the identification of cultural clusters based on techno-typological characteristics of particular well-known cultural units from highly stratified sites in the Levant. Alongside this, conservation conditions of lithics from open-air sites were a focus. Using such benchmarks, 140 Lower and Middle Paleolithic open-air sites were identified. In this paper, we focus only on the finds from Late Lower and Early Middle Paleolithic. The analysis showed that the newly discovered open-air sites for blade production can be defined as workshop sites, with the massive production of blanks but very little evidence of formal tools. The lithic assemblages reveal a specific debitage system similar to the Hummalian production strategy recognized at Hummal, Syria. Alongside these, Yabrudian sites were also identified and labeled as former settlements. Their stone assemblages show techno-typological traits typical for the Yabrudian cultural units already observed in the Levant. Furthermore, the identification of the source of raw material permitted a better understanding of the settlement dynamics in the region.