With National Science Foundation support Dr. Donald Henry and his colleagues will conduct two seasons of archaeological fieldwork in the desertic Wadi Hisma region of southern Jordan. Previous archaeological work in this area has revealed the presence of a large Pre Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) site which, on typological grounds, may be as much as 9,000 years old. The site, Ain Abu Nekheileh, consists of a constellation of curvilinear stone-walled structures exposed on the surface of a small alluvial fan over an area of ca. 2,250 square meters. Based on variation in house form, as many as five building phases may be present and thus the site may encompass a significant period of time. Associated sediments are finely stratified and, because of the dry conditions, preserve an abundance of cultural materials including large numbers of well preserved bones. Dr. Henry and his colleagues will conduct extensive excavation at the site and collect both cultural and environmental information to reconstruct PPNB social and subsistence patterns and set these into a broader ecological context. In particular he will focus on the wealth of faunal remains because they provide insight both into the season in the site was occupied and the extent to which purposeful manipulation of caprid species (sheep and goat) took place. The Near East is one of the cradles of civilization and the domestication of plants and animals necessary to achieve this level of complexity took place in this region. Excellent data from many sites have provided insight into the evolution of domestic wheat and barley from their local wild progenitors. Data also indicate that not until ca. 1,000 years later do domestic sheep and goat appear in the archaeological record. However the history of this latter transformation and the processes which underlie it are unknown. Although many sites have been excavated in better watered regions of the Near East, relatively little is known about marginal desert regions and Dr. Henry has focused his attention in just such an area. Because wild caprid ancestors were present, Dr. Henry believes that work at Ain Abu Nekheileh may provide relevant data. This research will provide basic information about an understudied region and the results will be of interest to many archaeologists. It will, hopefully, shed new light on one of the major transformations of human culture. The project includes a number of graduate students who will work with Dr. Henry in the field and thus important training will take place.
