The Wadi Sabra (Jordan)

Nach “Pleistocene Archaeology of the Petra Area in Jordan” [KSPA 5] ist dies der 2. Band des DFG-Forschungsprojektes CRC 806 “Our Way to Europe” - B1. Die Autorin, die dort viele Jahre mit ausgrub, legt die erste kontextualisierte und integrative Darstellung der langen Geschichte früher Besiedlung im nun dürren und überweideten Wadi Sabra in SW-Jordanien vor, wo einst reiche, grüne und fruchtbare Landschaft voller Wild viele Vorteile für Jäger bot. Die Arbeit bemüht sich um eine Umweltrekonstruktion und ein Modell der Siedlungsdynamik im Wadi Sabra und um ein Verständnis seiner großen Attraktivität. Kapitel I behandelt das Forschungskonzept, Kapitel II das Material von 4 Fundstellen einschließlich detaillierter technischer Analysen und einer kulturhistorischen Deutung der lokalen Entwicklungen, und Kapitel III weitet den Blick auf die gesamte Südlevante und versucht dabei, aus allen verfügbaren Inventaren Siedlungsmuster und Mobilität diachron zu rekonstruieren. Dabei zeigt sich fürs Jungpaläolithikum ein stabiles System von Wohnsitzmobilität mit extrem vielfältiger Technologie und Typologie, das erst im Epipaläolithikum homogeneren Gruppen wich.

After “Pleistocene Archaeology of the Petra Area in Jordan” [KSPA 5] this is the 2nd book by the DFG research project CRC 806 “Our Way to Europe” - B1. The author, who participated in relevant field campaigns for many years, presents the first contextual and integrative account of the deep history of early occupation of now barren and overgrazed Wadi Sabra in SW-Jordan, where a once rich, green, and fertile landscape full of game provided many benefits to hunters. The study is concerned with creating an environmental reconstruction and a model of settlement dynamics for Wadi Sabra and an understanding of its great attraction. The text is tripartite, with part I explaining the research concept, part II presenting the material from 4 sites including detailed technical analyses and a cohesive cultural-historical interpretation of the local development, and part III broadening this picture to the Southern Levant in an attempt to reconstruct settlement patterns and mobility from all available inventories in a diachronic perspective. What was found was a stable residential mobility system with a highly diverse technology and typology in the Upper Palaeolithic which was only homogenised in the Epipalaeolithic. After “Pleistocene Archaeology of the Petra Area in Jordan” [KSPA 5] this is the 2nd book by the DFG research project CRC 806 “Our Way to Europe” - B1. The author, who participated in relevant field campaigns for many years, presents the first contextual and integrative account of the deep history of early occupation of now barren and overgrazed Wadi Sabra in SW-Jordan, where a once rich, green, and fertile landscape full of game provided many benefits to hunters. The study is concerned with creating an environmental reconstruction and a model of settlement dynamics for Wadi Sabra and an understanding of its great attraction. The text is tripartite, with part I explaining the research concept, part II presenting the material from 4 sites including detailed technical analyses and a cohesive cultural-historical interpretation of the local development, and part III broadening this picture to the Southern Levant in an attempt to reconstruct settlement patterns and mobility from all available inventories in a diachronic perspective. What was found was a stable residential mobility system with a highly diverse technology and typology in the Upper Palaeolithic which was only homogenised in the Epipalaeolithic.