Investigating Early Natufian Sedentism: The microstratigraphy of Wadi Hammeh 27, Jordan

Abstract

Wadi Hammeh 27 (14,450 - 13,950 BP), an Early Natufian site in northwest Jordan, represents the critical transition between the earlier Epipalaeolithic mobile hunter-gatherers and the sedentary agricultural villagers of the Early Neolithic (Bar-Yosef 2011). Together with Jericho and Ain Mallaha, Wadi Hammeh 27 is the earliest and the third major, open-air Early Natufian base-camp discovered during the past 60 years in the Mediterranean region of the Levant. Even though Wadi Hammeh 27 is considered to be a pre-agricultural, sedentary settlement, there are major uncertainties concerning the archaeological markers and indicators of sedentism at the site. Renewed excavations between 2014 to 2016 provided samples that have allowed the geoarchaeological investigation of six stratified occupational horizons (Lower/Upper Phase 4, Lower/Upper Phase 3, and Phases 2 - 1). The detailed microstratigraphic investigations reported here seek to assess the geoarchaeological visibility of, and thereby differentiate, the degrees of sedentism of the inhabitants of Wadi Hammeh 27, namely whether year-on-year occupation or seasonal reoccupation. The microstratigraphic study was conducted using micromorphology, supplemented with quantitative evaluation of minerals using energy dispersive spectroscopy (QEM-EDS) and bulk geochemical analyses. Using Matthews' (2018) conceptual framework for detecting settled life, this geoarchaeological study identified micro-traces suggesting intra-phase year-on-year sedentism at Wadi Hammeh 27. Several lines of evidence demonstrate Early Natufian groups lived at the site for extended periods during each architectural phase, including: 1) confirmed field identifications of two trampled surfaces with overlying occupation deposits, as well as additional suspected trampled surfaces; 2) limited evidence of pre-burial weathering of trampled surfaces and occupation deposits; 3) microscopic traces of bioturbation are restricted to the active bioturbation zone; 4) temporal repetition of activities in internal and external contexts as evidenced by the high frequency of microartefacts in occupation deposits, mirroring that previously recorded on the macroscale; and 5) the presence of pise, an earthen construction material, in Upper Phase 4, Lower and Upper Phase 3, and Phases 2 and 1 signifies repeated episodes of disintegration and structural collapse associated with multiple architectural phases at Wadi Hammeh 27.

The microscopic evidence of pise throughout the microstratigraphy demonstrates the structures at Wadi Hammeh 27 were technologically innovative and formed a precursor to pise and mud plasters manufactured and applied to buildings in Jordan during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA). When taken in the context of earthen construction material lineages in the Near East, the evidence from Wadi Hammeh 27 adds additional magnitude to the often-argued continuity between the Early Natufian and PPNA periods. The microstratigraphic research presented in this thesis is the first mixed-method and multi-scale, geoarchaeological study of Early Natufian sedentism using high-resolution optical and mineralogical analyses to detect sedentism at Wadi Hammeh 27. As such, this research contributes methodologically to debates on the ambiguity and visibility of archaeological indicators of sedentism within Natufian sites - and archaeological sites in general - and our lack of understanding of the regularity and duration of Natufian residence at open-air base-camp sites. Show more