Environment and Land Use in the Wadi Faynan, Southern Jordan: the Third Season of Geoarchaeology and Landscape Archaeology (1998)

Abstract

This report describes the third season of fieldwork by an interdisciplinaty team of archaeologists and geographers working to reconsttuct the landscape history of the Wadi Faynan in southern Jordan oaer the past 200,000 years. The particular focus of the project is the long-tenn history of inter-relationships between landscape and people, as a contribution to the study of processes of deserffication and environmental degradation. The geomorphological and palaeoecological studies haz.te now established the outline sequence of landform changes and climatic fluctuations in the late Pleistocene and Holocene. The complex field system WF4 has now been recorded in its entirety in tenns of wall construction, surface artefacts, and hydrological features, as well as most of the outlying field ytstems. From these studies, in combination with the analysis of the surface artefacts, an outline sequence of the water utilization and management strategies they represent can now be discemed. Ethnoarchaeolog,t is also being used to inztestigate the present-day populations of the study area, their interactions with their landscape and with neighbouing socio-economic groups, in part to yield archaeological signatures to aid the interpretation of the surface remains being gathered by the archaeological suruey. Palynologt is shozaing that Roman/Byzantine agricuhure and mining sezterely impacted on the landscape in terms of deforestation; and geochemistry that Roman/Byzantine mining seaerelt polluted the landscape, the fficts of which are still apparent in the modem ecology of the study area.

Characteristics, evolution and distribution of Quaternary channel calcretes, southern Jordan

“…The mineralogy and chemistry of individual crystals and grains were also analysed in situ under the SEM (Hitatchi S-250) using an energy dispersive X-ray analyser (EDX). Detailed descriptions of all the type-sites can be found in and Barker et al (1997Barker et al ( , 1998Barker et al ( , 1999Barker et al ( , 2000. Numerical ages using optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating and radiocarbon dating techniques have been attempted and are discussed further (along with details of the methodologies used) in Hunt et al (in press) and .…”

“…A near-saturated OSL sample indicates that the Fass Yad Member is more than 109 000 years old. A Middle Palaeolithic hand axe was found in situ (Barker et al, 1999). The strato-type deposit is only weakly cemented at the type-site because it is not confined in a distinct bedrock channel.…”

An 8000-year history of landscape, climate, and copper exploitation in the Middle East: the Wadi Faynan and the Wadi Dana National Reserve in southern Jordan

“…1) and about 250 ancient mines and adits within the 12 km 2 of the copper ore field around the Khirbet Faynan. This legacy also includes a complex pattern of archaeological remains (Barjous, 1992;Barker et al, , 1999Barker et al, , 2000 and a locally metal-polluted environment (French National Public Institute, 1974;Graf, 1988;Grattan et al, 2003aGrattan et al, ,b, 2002Grattan et al, , 2007Overstreet et al, 1982;Pyatt et al, 2002Pyatt et al, , 1999Pyatt et al, , 2000Pyatt et al, , 2005Pyatt and Grattan, 2001). Additionally, post-Neolithic human activity created some small-scale wallbuilt catchments , a huge field system, a barrage and a major reservoir (Fig.…”

“…Definitions, characteristics and further interpretations are developed from Barjous (1992), Barker et al ( , 1999Barker et al ( , 2000, Hunt and Gilbertson (1998), Mohammed (1999) and McLaren et al (2004). a Base of sequence.…”

Invertebrates of ancient heavy metal spoil and smelting tip sites in southern Jordan: Their distribution and use as bioindicators of metalliferous pollution derived from ancient sources

“…This study area, which is some 70 km to the south-east of the Dead Sea, lies within the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Further detailed information on this region is presented by Barker et al (1997Barker et al ( , 1998Barker et al ( , 1999 and Pyatt et al (1999Pyatt et al ( , 2000. Pyatt et al (2000) note that this isolated stony desert area is part of the important Wadi Arabah rift valley which represents a continuation of the Red Sea fault.…”