THE GREAT EASTWARD MIGRATION INTO THE LATE NEOLITHIC BLACK DESERT, JORDAN

The southern Levant underwent two massive episodes of population dislocation in the Neolithic period, both apparently caused to some extent by overexploitation of natural resources as well as some degree of climate instability. Palestine and the Jordan Valley were virtually abandoned in the mid-seventh millennium BC, and the movement of people to the highlands of Jordan resulted in the creation of enormous settlements, the “megasites” of the Late PPNB during the second half of the seventh millennium. The second “Great Eastward Migration” occurred at the end of the seventh millennium, at the onset of the PPNC/Final PPNB, when the LPPNB megasites collapsed, forcing outright abandonment in the southern half of Jordan and a major reduction of the size of megasites in the northern part of Jordan. The Jordan Valley and Palestine were re-populated as a consequence, but a substantial number of people forced out of their settlements were pulled into the basalt desert of eastern Jordan, southeastern Syria, and northern Saudi Arabia. The migrants used a new hunting method: the construction of large chains of overlapping traps (kites) to undertake mass slaughter of gazelles, as well as to develop a dairy base centered on yoghurt made from milking herds of domesticated sheep and goats.