from Part IV - Human settlement, climate change, hydrology and water management
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 April 2011
ABSTRACT
The Beidha archaeological site in Southern Jordan was occupied during the Natufian (two discrete occupation phases, c. 15,200–14,200 cal. BP and c. 13,600–13,200 cal. years BP) and Pre-Pottery B Neolithic periods (c. 10,300–8,600 cal. years BP). This chapter reconstructs the palaeoenvironments at Beidha during these periods, using sedimentological observations and the stable isotopic composition (oxygen and carbon) of carbonate deposits. Age control is provided by uranium-series and radiocarbon dating. Detailed analysis of a carbonate stratigraphic section related to a fossil spring close to the site, and a sequence of carbonate nodules from a section on the western edge of the archaeological site, permits a reconstruction of climatic variations between c. 18,000 and c. 8,500 years BP. The results of the palaeoenvironmental study are compared with the archaeological evidence, to explore the relationship between human occupation and climatic variability at Beidha. The results indicate a marked correspondence between more favourable (wetter) environmental conditions and phases of occupation at Beidha, and provide clues to the likely sources of water that sustained the settlement during the Late Pleistocene and early Holocene.
INTRODUCTION
Climate change during the Late Pleistocene–early Holocene is often seen as a key factor in the transition to sedentism and stable, agricultural societies in the Middle East, given the background of major events such as the start of the Younger Dryas and the Holocene (e.g. Moore and Hillman, 1992; Mithen, 2003; Cordova, 2007, see also Feynman and Ruzmaikin, 2007).
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