Under the direction of Dr. Harold Dibble and Dr. Deborah Olszewski, Ms. Maire Crowley will collect data for her doctoral dissertation on lithic raw material exploitation patterns in the Wadi al?Hasa, Jordan. She will analyze lithic assemblages from seven sites which span a time range from the Middle/Upper Paleolithic transition through to the Neolithic, and conduct a survey of chert bearing formations which will expand (both in detail and areas covered) a survey conducted in 2000 by the Eastern al?Hasa Late Pleistocene Project.
There are two principal models which dominate interpretations of Late Pleistocene human behavior in the Levant, the circulating/radiating model, based on research in the Central Negev Highlands, and the transhumance model, based on research in southern Jordan. However, these models are based on the study of behavioral responses to very different environmental and/or topographical conditions from the lake/marsh ecological system which existed in the Wadi al?Hasa in the Late Pleistocene. Ms. Crowley will be testing and refining a model of behavioral mobility developed specifically for this type of lake/marsh environment. This model will provide a useful alternative to the two dominant models and aid our understanding of prehistoric behavior patterns in other areas of the Levant where similar lake/marsh environments existed, for example the Azraq and Jafr Basins.
Raw material availability has been shown to be one of the most important factors influencing morphological and technological patterns in lithic assemblages. Because high quality raw material is widely available in the Levant, an assumption pervades much Levantine lithic research that raw material can be treated as a constant. Research in other regions of the world, such as Europe, where raw material is much less widely available, has shown that depletion of raw material sources over time is a significant factor which must be taken into account when examining diachronic assemblage variability. Ms. Crowley will also examine whether depletion is a factor that needs to be considered when studying diachronic variability in Levantine lithic assemblages, questioning the previously unchallenged assumption that in this area raw material availability may be treated as a constant.
The difficulty of identifying raw material sources utilized by prehistoric flintknappers has frequently been noted in the literature. However, Ms. Crowley will be developing and refining procedures for combining a variety of visual criteria which will enable large numbers of artifacts to be analyzed efficiently and inexpensively and which should make it possible to narrow sources down to where the body of raw material data collected may be used to test behavioral models.
Sourcing studies have rarely been performed in the Levant. This research is also important because it will generate a large and detailed computerized database of sourcing and raw material utilization data. This database will provide a useful resource for other paleolithic lithic researchers to draw on to test a variety of hypotheses. This research will also make a significant contribution to the training of a promising paleolithic archaeologist.
