11,600 years-old communal structure from the Neolithic of southern Jordan

The area known as the fertile crescent of south-west Asia is an area where evidence is being found for the transition of man from a hunter gather to a sedentary farming style. The following PDF is recommended reading to those interested in that story.







Link to Antiquity magazine down for PDF


The environment of the area in the early Holocene

A second look (1998) at that area of Jordan

Thanks Hanslune. It makes me wonder how many more sites are out there waiting to be dug up.

S+F...i'll check it out later..

reply to post by cenpuppie


Considering the number of mounds x number of civilizations x number years I'd says bunches to the power of 4!

Literally thousands, I drove once from Antioch to Sirnak and Batman, Turkey and along those roads were hundreds of un-excavated mounds and likely places. There are many more in Iraq, Jordan, Syria and further south and north not to count the ones in the Zagros mountains of Iran.

reply to post by Hanslune


Have you ever been through the Levantine Valley? I havent, but It's a pretty interesting site and one of the earliest dated places of likely cohabitation by Neanderthal and Cromagnon. In fact there were still Neanderthal living there after modern humans had moved on into Europe. It's an extremely interesting site and hopefully I can make it there at some point.

Originally posted by peter vlar
reply to post by Hanslune

 

Have you ever been through the Levantine Valley? I havent, but It's a pretty interesting site and one of the earliest dated places of likely cohabitation by Neanderthal and Cromagnon. In fact there were still Neanderthal living there after modern humans had moved on into Europe. It's an extremely interesting site and hopefully I can make it there at some point.

Howdy

A conditional no, I'm not sure where that is unless you are talking about the central valley in northern Lebanon? Or are you referring to an other location in the Middle East, like the Jordanian rift?

Yes, in Lebanon. It's somewhat off topic but when I saw Fertile Crescent and the drive you took it popped into my head.

Originally posted by peter vlar
Yes, in Lebanon. It's somewhat off topic but when I saw Fertile Crescent and the drive you took it popped into my head.

Yeah the northern tip of that valley (in Lebanon I spent a partial day in Lebanon only at a Mitanni site in the hills to the NW of Qasr. (I think)

Originally posted by cenpuppie
Thanks Hanslune. It makes me wonder how many more sites are out there waiting to be dug up.

edit on 26-7-2013 by cenpuppie because: (no reason given)

think the answer there is till we stop digging, however, the issue is getting stories like this in the mainstream rather than 'and finally'.

Originally posted by NateHatred

Originally posted by cenpuppie
Thanks Hanslune. It makes me wonder how many more sites are out there waiting to be dug up.

edit on 26-7-2013 by cenpuppie because: (no reason given)

think the answer there is till we stop digging, however, the issue is getting stories like this in the mainstream rather than 'and finally'.

Didn't fully understand what you were trying to say.

Originally posted by Hanslune
reply to post by cenpuppie

 

Considering the number of mounds x number of civilizations x number years I'd says bunches to the power of 4!

Literally thousands, I drove once from Antioch to Sirnak and Batman, Turkey and along those roads were hundreds of un-excavated mounds and likely places. There are many more in Iraq, Jordan, Syria and further south and north not to count the ones in the Zagros mountains of Iran.

There's probably a hundred just around the Dead Sea area.

Harte

Originally posted by Harte

Originally posted by Hanslune
reply to post by cenpuppie

 

Considering the number of mounds x number of civilizations x number years I'd says bunches to the power of 4!

Literally thousands, I drove once from Antioch to Sirnak and Batman, Turkey and along those roads were hundreds of un-excavated mounds and likely places. There are many more in Iraq, Jordan, Syria and further south and north not to count the ones in the Zagros mountains of Iran.

There's probably a hundred just around the Dead Sea area.

That probably a conservative number and I've only been to the Jordanian side.
Harte

I'm giving this thread a well deserved bump.
Thanks H

I thought it was very interesting. I appreciate the links and provided info

Originally posted by Hanslune

Originally posted by NateHatred

Originally posted by cenpuppie
Thanks Hanslune. It makes me wonder how many more sites are out there waiting to be dug up.

edit on 26-7-2013 by cenpuppie because: (no reason given)

think the answer there is till we stop digging, however, the issue is getting stories like this in the mainstream rather than 'and finally'.

Didn't fully understand what you were trying to say.

I think he means that (i) there are so many sites that people will keep finding new ones for as long as people keep looking for them, and that (ii) the only time you hear about this discoveries is when they get stuck at the end of a news segment as the "upbeat light relief" story, rather than treated as serious stories in their own right.

Once again, Hanslune, you've brought something fascinating to the forum, a big thumbs up!

Originally posted by EvillerBob

Originally posted by Hanslune

Originally posted by NateHatred

Originally posted by cenpuppie
Thanks Hanslune. It makes me wonder how many more sites are out there waiting to be dug up.

edit on 26-7-2013 by cenpuppie because: (no reason given)

think the answer there is till we stop digging, however, the issue is getting stories like this in the mainstream rather than 'and finally'.

Didn't fully understand what you were trying to say.

I think he means that (i) there are so many sites that people will keep finding new ones for as long as people keep looking for them, and that (ii) the only time you hear about this discoveries is when they get stuck at the end of a news segment as the "upbeat light relief" story, rather than treated as serious stories in their own right.

Once again, Hanslune, you've brought something fascinating to the forum, a big thumbs up!

No shortage of sites in the Middle-East. 99% of site reports never generate any interest outsite of a few other experts but every once in awhile something comes up which become fadish and interests the mainstream people outside of archaeology Gobekli Tepe is the current darling and a generation ago it was Catalhoyuk and the generation before that it was Shanidar.

A true sign of world wide charm is when a site gets worked into fringe archaeology conspiracy theories