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A recipe for disaster: emerging urbanism and unsustainable plant economies at Early Bronze Age Ras an-Numayra, Jordan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 April 2015

Chantel E. White ,
Meredith S. Chesson  and
R. Thomas Schaub
Chantel E. White*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Notre Dame, 611 Flanner Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA
Meredith S. Chesson
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Notre Dame, 611 Flanner Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA
R. Thomas Schaub
Affiliation:
Expedition to the Dead Sea Plain, 5700 Bunkerhill Street, PH3, Pittsburgh, PA 15206, USA
*
*Author for correspondence (Email: [email protected])
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Extract

The intensification of agriculture as farming communities grew in size did not always produce a successful and sustainable economic base. At Ras an-Numayra on the Dead Sea Plain, a small farming community of the late fourth millennium BC developed a specialised plant economy dependent on cereals, grapes and flax. Irrigation in this arid environment led to increased soil salinity while recurrent cultivation of flax may have introduced the fungal pathogen responsible for flax wilt. Faced with declining yields, the farmers may have further intensified their irrigation and cultivation schedules, only to exacerbate the underlying problems. Thus specialised crop production increased both agricultural risk and vulnerability to catastrophe, and Ras an-Numayra, unlike other sites in the region, was abandoned after a relatively short occupation.

Keywords

JordanDead Sea PlainEarly Bronze Ageagricultural intensificationirrigationsalinisationflax wilt
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 88 , Issue 340 , 01 June 2014 , pp. 363 - 377
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2014 

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