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This paper examines recurrent spatial patterns of prehistoric sites in relation to landforms, alluvial fills, and soil development in the uplands and valleys of the Madaba and Dhiban Plateaus of Jordan. Mousterian lithics (Middle Paleolithic) are largely found on high strath terraces plateaus, where they are associated with red Mediterranean soils. In valleys, Upper Paleolithic sites are often associated with reworked loess deposits of the Dalala allostratigraphic unit. Epipaleolithic occupations are found stratified in deposits of the Thamad Terrace, and PrePottery Neolithic and Pottery Neolithic occupations are associated with colluvium mantling the Thamad Terrace. The Tur al-Abyad Terrace and the Iskanderite alluvial inset are the remnants of middle Holocene floodplains, which were attractive areas for Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age settlements. Sometime around 4000 B.C., stream incision and further lateral erosion destroyed these floodplains. These historic terraces are underlain by alluvial deposits ranging in age from Roman to Early Islamic periods. The sequence of allostratigraphic units, paleosols, and terraces are the basis for reconstructing phases of fluvial aggradation and stream incision during the past 20,000 years.

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This article investigates the degree and nature of ‘imposed form’ in Middle Palaeolithic scrapers, the most common category of stone tool produced by Neanderthals. Novice flintknappers unfamiliar with Middle Palaeolithic tool forms were found to consistently employ two rules in manufacturing scrapers: the striking platform and any adjacent blunt edges were left intact to facilitate prehension, and the longest edge with the most acute spine-plane angle was retouched. Scrapers from three major Middle Palaeolithic sites adhered to these rules in over 90 per cent of cases, but significant divergence from these rules was found in a sample from Skhul cave (Israel) level B1, associated with early anatomically modern Homo sapiens. It is concluded that Middle Palaeolithic scraper manufacture was structured by the need to create a suitable working edge, and to locate that edge to maximize ease and comfort during manufacture and use. The overall shape of the resulting tools was thus not an expression of ‘imposed form’ in the conventional sense. The discovery of violations of these rules in the Skhul B1 collection provides evidence of increased use of imposed form, as well as potentially significant behavioural differences between early anatomically modern Homo sapiens and contemporary Neanderthals.