FRIENDS OF ñ WEBINARS
The Neolithic Renaissance in the Black Desert of Jordan
Friends of ñ present the next webinar in the 2023-2024 season on January 11th at 6:00pm EST presented by Dr. Yorke Rowan, moderated by Dr. Chad Hill. During the 9th to 8th millennia BCE, climatic conditions created environments that fostered increasing cereal and pulse farming, animal husbandry, and population growth. The “Neolithic Revolution” that occurred across southwest Asia during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic was followed by a much less well-understood period, the Late (or Pottery) Neolithic. Even more obscure, the deserts and steppes beyond the Fertile Crescent were considered underpopulated and of little significance to the larger neolithization process. Through the pioneering field work of people like Alison Betts, Svend Helms and Andrew Garrard, a few structures were known in the steppes and desert of eastern Jordan, an inhospitable region of basalt cobbles and insufficient rainfall for permanent farming. However, recent field research demonstrates that areas such as the Black Desert of eastern Jordan witnessed a sharp uptick in population and building, particularly during the Late Neolithic.
New data indicates this region was much more hospitable than at present, evident in the clusters of hundreds of permanent structures and extensive chains of hunting traps known as ‘desert kites’. Other enigmatic desert features such as petroglyphs, “wheels” and paths are of unknown date and function, but attest to the recurring use of the region. Join Yorke Rowan as he presents the latest discoveries from the Black Desert of eastern Jordan.
The webinar will conclude with a live Q&A session led by Dr. Chad Hill of the University of Pennsylvania.
Yorke Rowan is Research Professor in the Archaeology of the Southern Levant at the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures (formerly the OI) at the University of Chicago. He co-directs the NSF funded Kites in Context and the Eastern Badia Archaeological Project, both archaeological field programs in the Black Desert of eastern Jordan. In addition, he directs the Galilee Prehistory Project in northern Israel. He has been a Fulbright Scholar in Jordan and NEH Fellow at American Center for Overseas Research in Amman and the W. F. Albright Institute for Archaeological Research in Jerusalem. His most recent volumes include “The Social Archaeology of the Levant: from Prehistory to the Present” (with A. Yasur-Landau and E. Cline) and recently submitted the proofs for “Shiqmim II: The Phase II Excavations at a Chalcolithic settlement center in the Northern Negev Desert, Israel (1987-1993)” with T. E. Levy and M. M. Burton.
This webinar will be recorded and all paid registrants will be sent a link to view the recording.
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All proceeds from this webinar are used to fund scholarships for members as well as increasing ñ’s online resources, which are free to the public.
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