Making spaces amongst the rocks: The construction, purpose and meaning of Late epipalaeolithic and PPNA buildings in the Harrat ash-Sham

IF 0.9 2区历史学 0 ARCHAEOLOGY

Archaeological Research in Asia Pub Date : 2025-01-31 DOI:10.1016/j.ara.2025.100603

Tobias Richter , Lisa Yeomans , Alexis Pantos

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Abstract

The Late Pleistocene and early Holocene inhabitants of the Qa’ Shubayqa in northeast Jordan's Harrat ash-Sham basalt desert constructed a remarkable array of buildings over the course of nearly 6000 years. We present the architectural evidence from two excavated archaeological sites in the area: Shubayqa 1 and 6 and reflect on the nature of Epipalaeolithic and Early Neolithic constructions, and the purpose and meaning of the uncovered buildings. The Shubayqa sites afford a rare opportunity to examine changes in architecture from the beginning of the Natufian to the end of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) in one confined area. We argue that construction at Shubayqa 1 and 6 followed different rhythms and that the materiality of stone used as a building material does not directly correlate with permanent or impermanent modes of inhabiting these places. This prompts a rethinking of how we analyse and understand architecture during the transition from the Epipalaeolithic to the Neolithic in southwest Asia.

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来源期刊

Archaeological Research in Asia ARCHAEOLOGY-

CiteScore

2.50

自引率

13.30%

发文量

期刊介绍： Archaeological Research in Asia presents high quality scholarly research conducted in between the Bosporus and the Pacific on a broad range of archaeological subjects of importance to audiences across Asia and around the world. The journal covers the traditional components of archaeology: placing events and patterns in time and space; analysis of past lifeways; and explanations for cultural processes and change. To this end, the publication will highlight theoretical and methodological advances in studying the past, present new data, and detail patterns that reshape our understanding of it. Archaeological Research in Asia publishes work on the full temporal range of archaeological inquiry from the earliest human presence in Asia with a special emphasis on time periods under-represented in other venues. Journal contributions are of three kinds: articles, case reports and short communications. Full length articles should present synthetic treatments, novel analyses, or theoretical approaches to unresolved issues. Case reports present basic data on subjects that are of broad interest because they represent key sites, sequences, and subjects that figure prominently, or should figure prominently, in how scholars both inside and outside Asia understand the archaeology of cultural and biological change through time. Short communications present new findings (e.g., radiocarbon dates) that are important to the extent that they reaffirm or change the way scholars in Asia and around the world think about Asian cultural or biological history.