Prehistoric Cultural Ecology and Evolution: Insights from Southern Jordan (Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology)

Offering the most comprehensive study of southern Jordan, this illuminating account presents detailed data from over a hundred archaeological sites stretching from the Lower Paleotlithic to the Chalcolithic periods. The author uses archaeological and paleoenvironmental evidence to reconstruct synchronic and evolutionary aspects of the cultural ecology of the prehistoric inhabitants of southern Jordan. This study exemplifies that cultural historic and processual approaches are integral to examining prehistoric cultural ecology. Numerous artifact illustrations as well as tables and appendixes containing primary data are included. Front Matter....Pages i-xxv Introduction and Overview: Evolutionary Ecology and Archaeology....Pages 1-21 Late Quaternary Geology and Geomorphology of the Area in the Vicinity of Ras en Naqb....Pages 23-31 Cultural-Historic Framework....Pages 33-41 The Lower Paleolithic Site of Wadi Qalkha....Pages 43-48 The Middle Paleolithic Sites....Pages 49-84 Lithic Microwear Analysis of Tor Faraj Rockshelter....Pages 85-105 Late Levantine Mousterian Patterns of Adaptation and Cognition....Pages 107-132 The Upper Paleolithic Sites....Pages 133-214 The Qalkhan Occupations....Pages 215-242 The Hamran Sites....Pages 243-293 The Madamaghan Sites....Pages 295-317 The Natufian Sites and the Emergence of Complex Foraging....Pages 319-335 Cultural Evolution and Interaction during the Epipaleolithic....Pages 337-343 An Early Neolithic Hunting Camp: Jebel Queisa....Pages 345-352 The Timnian and Pastoral Nomadism in the Chalcolithic....Pages 353-374 Pollen Analysis: Environmental and Climatic Implications....Pages 375-384 Shells from the Wadi Hisma Sites....Pages 385-390 Cementum Increment Analyses of Teeth From Wadi Judayid (J2) And Tor Hamar (J431): Estimations of Site Seasonality....Pages 391-398 Preliminary Analysis of Phytoliths from Prehistoric Sites in Southern Jordan....Pages 399-403 The Tor Hamar Fauna....Pages 405-416 Adaptive Behaviors, Evolution, and Ethnicity....Pages 417-437 Back Matter....Pages 439-466