<< Our Photo Pages >> Beidha - Ancient Village or Settlement in Jordan
Submitted by motist on Saturday, 18 September 2010 Page Views: 12424
DigsSite Name: BeidhaCountry: Jordan Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Nearest Town: Petra-Wadi Musa Nearest Village: Al-Beidha
Latitude: 30.370780N Longitude: 35.447756E
Condition:
| 5 | Perfect |
| 4 | Almost Perfect |
| 3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
| 2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
| 1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
| 0 | No data. |
| -1 | Completely destroyed |
| 5 | Superb |
| 4 | Good |
| 3 | Ordinary |
| 2 | Not Good |
| 1 | Awful |
| 0 | No data. |
| 5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
| 4 | Short walk on a footpath |
| 3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
| 2 | A long walk |
| 1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
| 0 | No data. |
| 5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
| 4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
| 3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
| 2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
| 1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
| 0 | no data |
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Notable among the cultural developments associated with the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B is institutionalized animal domestication. Plant domestication is associated with the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A, just previous in the chronological sequence established by Kirkbride and other archaeologists of her time. Kirkbride found a Natufian occupation below the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B settlement at Beidha. The Natufian occurs just prior to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A, and therefore, just before plant domestication.
Archaeological excavations conducted by Diana Kirkbride were reported both by her (1966, 1968, 1989) and by Brian Byrd (1987), who participated in the final field season in 1983. Excavations discovered a Pre-Pottery Neolithic B occupation from about 7,500 to 9,200 B.P. Also discovered were earlier occupations, from about 11,000 to 11,300 B.P. and 12,000 to 12,500 B.P., both of which were Natufian.
The Natufian occupations are best characterized as hunting encampments. Great quantities of caprine bone were recovered. Some of this was ibex (Capra ibex), but Kirkbride's analysis indicated that most was the Bezoar goat (Capra aegagrus), the ancestor of the domesticated goat. Only a few artifacts indicated collecting of wheat and barley, grains that were later domesticated at Beidha. Just two grinding artifacts and a few sickle blades and nongeometric lithics mounted in sickles to form harvesting implements were found. The only features discovered were hearths and roasting areas, the latter found in association with large animal bones. Absent were walls, structures, storage facilities, burials, and stone paving.
Seven levels were found in the later Pre-Pottery Neolithic B occupation at Beidha, each displaying architecture of increasing sophistication. Round and somewhat irregularly shaped structures of the earliest levels (levels VII–V) change by steps into the more regular, strictly rectilinear structures of Level III. Rooms are increasingly differentiated into storage rooms, work shops, and living areas. Other signs of rapidly increasing cultural complexity lay in flora and fauna recovered. Kirkbride wrote in 1989 that barley constituted most of the botanical material she recovered from the earliest level with permanent buildings (Level VI). Carbonized plant remains and imprints in clay roofs and walls established that Hordeum spontaneum, the wild, hulled two-row barley, was being cultivated. She could say at that time that, "This cultivation of wild cereals is a stage in the process of domestication that was known of theoretically, but had never yet been demonstrated in the field" (1989:120). Similarly, Dexter Perkins, who conducted the analysis of the faunal material recovered by Kirkbride, wrote that "…the Madamagh-Beidha faunas strongly suggest that goats were domesticated at Beidha during the Neolithic" (1966:66).
Major archeological studies have been conducted over the last 50 years at Beidha by several archeologists including Diana Kirkbride and more recently, Brian Byrd. Byrd suggests that Beidha has a Netufian period of occupation around 9000 BC, followed by a period of abandonment. Then between 7000 - 5000 BC a Neolithic period of occupation occurred with three phases followed by abandonment until the site was developed by the Nabataeans about the time of Christ (300 BC - 100 AD) . Bryd take the view that there are three occupational Phases (A, B, C) at Beidha that occurred continuously between 7000-5000 BC.
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Wir möchten mehr über diese Stätte erfahren. Bitte zögern Sie nicht, eine kurze Beschreibung und relevante Informationen in Deutsch hinzuzufügen.
Nous aimerions en savoir encore un peu sur les lieux. S'il vous plaît n'hesitez pas à ajouter une courte description et tous les renseignements pertinents dans votre propre langue.
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