The Harra and the Hamad

The Harra and the Hamad
Author: A. V. G. Betts
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 280
Release: 1999-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9781850756149

This book is the first in a series of reports on fieldwork carried out n eastern Jordan, 1979-1991. It presents evidence for the Epipalaeolithic period docused on the site of Dhuweila, a hunting camp used in the 7th and 6th millennia BC, and surrounding camps making use of desert 'kites', their chipped and ground stone industries, animal remains, botanical remains and rock art. Also includes an edited summary of work by Uzbek and Russian scholars on hunting traps and animal migration patterns on the Ustiurt plateau in Uzbekistan.

People, Land and Water in the Arab Middle East

People, Land and Water in the Arab Middle East
Author: William Lancaster
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 475
Release: 2013-07-04
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1134411340

The result of twenty-five years of research with different tribal groups in the Arabian peninsula, this study focuses on ethnographic descriptions of Arab tribal societies in five regions of the peninsula, with comparative material from others. Having become aware of the depth in time of Arab tribal structures, the authors have developed a view of Arabic tribal discourse where 'tribe' is seen as essentially an identity that confers access to a social structure and its processes.

Mobile Peoples – Permanent Places: Nomadic Landscapes and Stone Architecture from the Hellenistic to Early Islamic Periods in North-Eastern Jordan

Mobile Peoples – Permanent Places: Nomadic Landscapes and Stone Architecture from the Hellenistic to Early Islamic Periods in North-Eastern Jordan
Author: Harmen O. Huigens
Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
Total Pages: 270
Release: 2019-10-31
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1789693144

This study explores the relationship between nomadic communities in the Black Desert of north-eastern Jordan (c. 300 BC and 900 AD) and the landscapes they inhabited and extensively modified. This book focuses on the architectural features created in the landscape some 2000 years ago which were used and revisited on multiple occasions.

The Archaeology of Jordan and Beyond

The Archaeology of Jordan and Beyond
Author: Lawrence E. Stager
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 545
Release: 2018-07-17
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9004369805

James A. Sauer was for many years the Director of the American Center of Oriental Research in Amman, Jordan, leading it to the preeminent place it now occupies as a research institution dedicated to the archaeology and history of Transjordan. This volume honors him, with more than 50 contributions from colleagues and friends. With this volume, the Harvard Semitic Museum inaugurates a new series entitled "Studies in the Archaeology and History of the Levant."

Quaternary of the Levant

Quaternary of the Levant
Author: Yehouda Enzel
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 789
Release: 2017-04-27
Genre: History
ISBN: 1107090466

Over eighty contributions from leading researchers review 2.5 million years of environmental change and human cultural evolution in the Levant.

Handbook of Rock Art Research

Handbook of Rock Art Research
Author: David S. Whitley
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 876
Release: 2001
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9780742502567

While there has always been a large public interest in ancient pictures painted or carved on stone, the archaeological study of rock art is in its infancy. But intensive amounts of research has revolutionized this field in the past decade. New methods of dating and analysis help to pinpoint the makers of these beautiful images, new interpretive models help us understand this art in relation to culture. Identification, conservation and management of rock art sites have become major issues in historical preservation worldwide. And the number of archaeologically attested sites has mushroomed. In this handbook, the leading researchers in the rock art area provide cogent, state-of-the-art summaries of the technical, interpretive, and regional advances in rock art research. The book offers a comprehensive, basic reference of current information on key topics over six continents for archaeologists, anthropologists, art historians, and rock art enthusiasts.

The Gazelle’s Dream

The Gazelle’s Dream
Author: Alison Betts
Publisher: Sydney University Press
Total Pages: 535
Release: 2021-12-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1743327773

Once the world’s prairies, grasslands, steppes and tundra teemed with massive herds of game: gazelle, wild ass, bison, caribou and antelope. Humans seeking to hunt these large fast-moving herds devised a range of specialised traps that share many characteristics across all continents. Typically consisting of guiding walls or lines of stones leading to an enclosure or trap, game drives were designed for a mass killing. Construction of the game drive, organisation of the hunt and processing of the carcass often required group co-operation and in many cases game drives have been linked to seasonal gatherings of otherwise scattered groups, who may have used these occasions not only to hunt, but also for social, ritual and economic activities. The Gazelle’s Dream: Game Drives of the Old and New Worlds is the first comparative study of game drives, examining this mode of hunting across three continents and a broad range of periods. The book describes the hunting of bison in North America, reindeer in Scandinavia, antelope in Tibet and an extensive array of examples from the greater Middle East, from Egypt to Armenia. The Gazelle’s Dream will be of value to anyone with an interest in the history of hunting and wildlife management.

Ritual, Play and Belief, in Evolution and Early Human Societies

Ritual, Play and Belief, in Evolution and Early Human Societies
Author: Colin Renfrew
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 355
Release: 2017-12-21
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1108547516

The origins of religion and ritual in humans have been the focus of centuries of thought in archaeology, anthropology, theology, evolutionary psychology and more. Play and ritual have many aspects in common, and ritual is a key component of the early cult practices that underlie the religious systems of the first complex societies in all parts of the world. This book examines the formative cults and the roots of religious practice from the earliest times until the development of early religion in the Near East, in China, in Peru, in Mesoamerica and beyond. Here, leading prehistorians and other specialists bring a fresh approach to the early practices that underlie the faiths and religions of the world. They demonstrate the profound role of play ritual and belief systems and offer powerful new insights into the emergence of early civilization.

Concluding the Neolithic

Concluding the Neolithic
Author: Arkadiusz Marciniak
Publisher: Lockwood Press
Total Pages: 341
Release: 2019-12-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1937040844

The second half of the seventh millennium BC saw the demise of the previously affluent and dynamic Neolithic way of life. The period is marked by significant social and economic transformations of local communities, as manifested in a new spatial organization, patterns of architecture, burial practices, and in chipped stone and pottery manufacture. This volume has three foci. The first concerns the character of these changes in different parts of the Near East with a view to placing them in a broader comparative perspective. The second concerns the social and ideological changes that took place at the end of Neolithic and the beginning of the Chalcolithic that help to explain the disintegration of constitutive principles binding the large centers, the emergence of a new social system, as well as the consequences of this process for the development of full-fledged farming communities in the region and beyond. The third concerns changes in lifeways: subsistence strategies, exploitation of the environment, and, in particular, modes of procurement, consumption, and distribution of different resources.