Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 39 (3) 2011

Annotation:  The Origin of Anatomically Modern Humans and their Behavior in Africa and Eurasia Newly Discovered Yarmukian and Wadi Rabah Sites in the Southern Jordan Valley and the Desert Fringe Periodization of Bronze Age Cultures in the Ob–Irtysh Forest-Steppe: The Stratigraphic Position of E Early Iron Age Burials in Southeastern Zhetysu: The Geoarchaeological Evidence Stratigraphy and Relative Chronology of the Neolithic Assemblages at the Koksharovsky Kholm Sanctua Pazyryk Burial at Khankarinsky Dol in the Northwestern Altai On the Origins of Nomadism in the Asian Steppes Medieval Sanctuary at Eshmess Cave in the Pechora Urals “Priest’s Staff” from Fort Nadym of the 16th–17th Centuries Wooden Pectoral Cross from a Burial at the Spassky Necropolis of the 18th Century in Irkutsk Latticed Petroglyphs of Mount Kalbak-Tash, Gorny Altai Food Symbolism in the Context of Komi (Zyrians) Wedding Rituals Zheltuga Republic: The Case of Social Development at the Chinese-Russian Border The Dentition of the Alakul People, with Reference to their Origin   

Newly Discovered Yarmukian and Wadi Rabah Sites in the Southern Jordan Valley and the Desert Fringes of Samaria during the 7th and 6th Millennia BC: Preliminary Report

S. Bar and D. Rosenberg.

This study presents data on six previously unknown Late Neolithic/Early Chalcolithic sites in the western Jordan Valley and the desert fringes of Samaria, discovered mostly during the ongoing Manasseh Hill Country Survey. The accumulated data represents a near-total void of Yarmukian occurrences and an absence of Jericho IX sites in the surveyed area. In contrast to this ‘void’ during the early parts of the Pottery Neolithic period, a marked change in site density within the study area was found for the Late Neolithic/Early Chalcolithic period (Wadi Rabah/Jericho VIII culture), from which fi ve sites were found. These sites are now appended to the known sites of the Late Neolithic/Early Chalcolithic in the Southern Levant, helping to fi ll some of the gaps in our knowledge of the area during the 7th and 6th millennia cal. BC.

Keywords: Late Neolithic, Early Chalcolithic, Jordan Valley.