Ain Ghazal (Amman)

 archaeological site, neolithic age, fossil site

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‘Ain Ghazal was a farming settlement of approximately 30 acres in present-day Jordan, near the city of Amman. Excavation of the site began in 1982 as a salvage mission after its discovery at the construction site of a highway. The most famous find from the site consists of two caches of plaster statues buried beneath the floors of houses. These statues take the form of humans and their position within the house suggests some form of ancestor worship was practiced. They are one of the first examples of full human representation.
The community spanned the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B through the Pottery Neolithic and can be broken down into roughly four phases of development. The first, from ca. 7500 to ca. 6700 BCE, is characterized by rectangular mud-brick houses occupied by small families. Grains were planted and goats were raised, while the production of stone tools, distinctive of the Neolithic, took place on-site. The second phase (ca. 6700-ca. 6200 BCE) shows a growth in population with a resulting increase in the size of dwellings and the appearance of possible temples. The third phase is marked by a population decline ca. 6200 BCE. Despite this setback, this period is marked by goat herding and the domestication of pigs and cattle. Houses become smaller and simpler, and individual tombs are replaced by communal graves. Finally, ca. 5700 BCE the production of pottery begins and farming and animal husbandry are common. This period lasts until ca. 4700 BCE when the site appears to have been abandoned, possibly due to soil depletion or other natural occurrences.


Sources:
www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/research/profiles/ktubb/tubb....
www.imarabe.org/temp/expo/jordanie-us/jordanie11.html
proteus.brown.edu/architecturebodyperformance/326