Centre for the Study of Early Agricultural Societies

Shubayqa Archaeological Project

The Qa’ Shubayqa is situated in the semi-arid Harra region of northern Jordan, c. 130 km northeast of Amman. Following the discovery of a number of prehistoric sites around the edges of the Shubayqa mudflat in the 1980s and 1990s by Alison Betts, the Shubayqa Archaeological Project was launched in 2012 to further investigate the prehistoric occupation in the area. Initially focused on the transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture (Natufian to PPNA) the project now also involves broader landscape survey, geomorphological and palaeoclimatic studies.

Since 2012 the project has carried out excavations at the Natufian site Shubayqa 1 (2012 – 2015) and the late Natufian and PPNA site Shubayqa 6 (2014 – 2022). Both sites feature well-preserved stone architecture, burials and rich assemblages of stone artefacts, fauna and botanical remains. Survey around the Qa’ Shubayqa has resulted in the discovery of more than a dozen previously unknown late Pleistocene and early Holocene sites, suggesting that the area was once intensively used in the past. Based on this fieldwork we explore a wide range of themes, such as the relationship between climatic and environmental and cultural change, changes in food and subsistence (see also our Past Foodways project), as well as the emergence of craft specialization, households and social inequality.

Research in the Qa’ Shubayqa has been supported by grants from the Frie Forskningsråd Kultur og Kommunikation, H.P. Hjerl Mindefondet for Dansk Palæstinaforskning and the Danish Institute in Damascus. It is carried out with permission and in collaboration with the Department of Antiquities of Jordan.

14,500 year old building at the Natufian site Shubayqa 1

Final Natufian/early PPNA building at Shubayqa 6

Publications

Ibanez-Estevez, JJ, Anderson, PC, Arranz-Otaegui, A, Gonzalez-Urquijo, JE, Jörgensen Lindahl, A, Mazzucco, N, Pichon, F & Richter, T 2021, 'Sickle gloss texture analysis elucidates long-term change in plant harvesting during the transition to agriculture', Journal of Archaeological Science, bind 136.
Kierdorf, H., Witzel, C., Bocaege, E., Richter, T., & Kierdorf, U. (2021). Assessment of physiological disturbances during pre‐ and early postnatal development based on microscopic analysis of human deciduous teeth from the Late Epipaleolithic site of Shubayqa 1 (Jordan). American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 174(1), 20-34.
Jones, M., Richter, T., Rollefson, G., Rowan, Y., Roe, J., Toms, P., Wood, J., Wasse, A., Ikram, H., Williams, M., AlShdaifat, A., Pedersen, P. N., & Esaid, W. (2021). The palaeoenvironmental potential of the eastern Jordanian desert basins (Qe’an). Quaternary International.
Yeomans, L., Gelting, U., Killackey, K., Pantos, A., Salicath Halvorsen, A., & Richter, T. (2021). Worked sheep and gazelle foot bones as possible figurative representations: A 12,000 year old cluster of artifacts from Shubayqa 6, Jordan Levant. Levant: The Journal of the Council for British Research in the Levant, 53(2), 123-138.
Yeomans, L., & Richter, T. (2020). Preservation of seasonally abundant waterfowl? Analysis of faunal remains from middens at the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A site of Shubayqa 6 in northeast Jordan. Quaternary International, 543, 43-49.
Richter, T, Akkermanns, P (red.) & Ahmad, JA (red.) 2020, First inhabitants: the early prehistory of north-east Jordan. i P Akkermans (red.), Landscapes of Survival: International Conference on The Archaeology and Epigraphy of Jordan’s North-Eastern Desert. sidestone press academics, London, s. 17.
Jones, MD, Abu-Jaber, N, AlShdaifat, A, Baird, D, Cook, BI, Cuthbert, MO, Dean, JR, Djamali, M, Eastwood, W, Fleitmann, D, Haywood, A, Kwiecien, O, Larsen, J, Maher, LA, Metcalfe, SE, Parker, A, Petrie, CA, Primmer, N, Richter, T, Roberts, N, Roe, J, Tindall, JC, Ünal-İmer, E & Weeks, L 2019, '20,000 years of societal vulnerability and adaptation to climate change in southwest Asia', Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Water, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. e1330.
Yeomans, L, Martin, L & Richter, T 2019, 'Close companions: Early evidence for dogs in northeast Jordan and the potential impact of new hunting methods', Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, vol. 53, pp. 161-173.
Richter, T, Bocaege, E, Ilsøe, P, Ruter, AH, Pantos, GA, Pedersen, PN & Yeomans, L 2019, 'Ochre, Ground Stone, and Wrapping the Dead in the Late Epipalaeolithic (Natufian) Levant: Revealing the Funerary Practices at Shubayqa 1, Jordan', Journal of Field Archaeology.
Otaegui, AA, Gonzalez Carretero, L, N. Ramsey, M, Fuller, DQ & Richter, T 2018, 'Archaeobotanical evidence reveals the origins of bread 14,400 years ago in northeastern Jordan', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
Yeomans, LM & Richter, T 2018, 'Exploitation of a Seasonally Abundant Resource: Bird Hunting during the Late Natufian at Shubayqa 1', International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 95-108.
Richter, T, Otaegui, AA, Yeomans, LM & Boaretto, E 2017, 'High Resolution AMS Dates from Shubayqa 1, northeast Jordan Reveal Complex Origins of Late Epipalaeolithic Natufian in the Levant', Scientific Reports, vol. 7, no. 1, 17025, pp. 1-10.
Yeomans, LM, Martin, L & Richter, T 2017, 'Environment, seasonality and hunting strategies as influences on Natufian food procurement: The faunal remains from Shubayqa 1', Levant: The Journal of the Council for British Research in the Levant, vol. 49, no. 2, pp. 85-104.
Yeomans, LM, Martin, L & Richter, T 2017, 'Expansion of the known distribution of Asiatic mouflon (Ovis orientalis) in the Late Pleistocene of the Southern Levant', Royal Society Open Science, pp. 1-15.
Richter, T 2017, 'The Late Epipalaeolithic and Early Neolithic in the Jordanian Badia: Recent Fieldwork around the Qa' Shubayqa', Near Eastern Archaeology, vol. 80, no. 2, pp. 30-37.
Pedersen, PN, Richter, T & Otaegui, AA 2016, 'Preliminary Analysis of the Ground Stone from Shubayqa 1, Jordan', Journal of Lithic Studies, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 1-24.
Ramsey, M, Jones, M, Richter, T & Rosen, A 2015, 'Modifying the marsh: Evaluating Early Epipaleolithic hunter-gatherer impacts in the Azraq wetland, Jordan', Holocene, vol. 25, no. 10, pp. 1553-1564.
Jones, M, Maher, L, Macdonald, D, Ryan, C, Rambeau, C, Black, S & Richter, T 2015, 'The environmental setting of Epipalaeolithic aggregation site Kharaneh IV', Quaternary International, pp. 95-104.
Richter, T, Otaegui, AA, Boaretto, E, Bocaege, E, Estrup, E, Martinez-Gallardo, C, Pantos, GA, Pedersen, PN & Yeomans, LM 2016, 'Shubayqa 6: a new Late Natufian and Pre-Pottery Neolithic A settlement in north-east Jordan', Antiquity, vol. 90, no. 354, pp. 1-5.
Richter, T, Otaegui, AA, Boaretto, E, Bocaege, E, Estrup, E, Martinez-Gallardo, C, Pantos, GA, Pedersen, PN, Saehle, I & Yeomans, LM 2016, 'A Late Natufian and PPNA Settlement in North-East Jordan: Interim Report on the 2014-2016 Excavations at Shubayqa 6', Neo-Lithics. A newsletter of southwest Asian lithics research, vol. 2016, no. 1, pp. 13-21
Richter, T. 2014. Margin or Centre? The Epipalaeolithic in the Azraq Oasis and the Qa’ Shubayqa. In Finlayson, B. and C. Makarewicz (eds.) Settlement, Survey and Stone. Essays on Near Eastern Prehistory in Honour of Gary Rollefson. 27-36. Berlin: ex Oriente
Richter, T. 2014. Rescue excavations at a Late Neolithic cairn in the east Jordanian Badya. Neo-Lithics 1/14, 18-24
Richter, T. A. Arranz, M. House and L. Yeomans. 2014. The Second Season of Excavations at Shubayqa 1. Neo-Lithics 1/14, 10-17
Richter, T. and L. Maher. 2013. The Late Epipalaeolithic in the Azraq Basin: a reappraisal. In Bar-Yosef, O. and F.R. Valla (eds.) Natufian Foragers in the Levant. Terminal Pleistocene Social Changes in Western Asia. International Monographs in Prehistory 19, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 429-448
Richter, T., L. Bode, M. House, R. Iversen, A. Arranz, I. Saehle, G. Thaarup, M.-L- Tvede and L. Yeomans. 2012. Excavations at the Late Epipalaeolithic Site of Shubayqa 1: Preliminary Report on the First Season. Neo-Lithics 2/12, 3-14

Participants

Internal

Name	Title	Phone	E-mail
Richter, Tobias	Associate Professor - Promotion Programme	+4525845120	E-mail
Yeomans, Lisa	Associate Professor	+4527121701	E-mail

External

Amaia Arranz-Otaegui, University of the Basque Country
Monica Nicolaides, University of Toronto
Alexis Pantos, Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo
Lisa Maher, University of California Berkeley
Joe Roe, University of Bern
Matthew Jones, University of Nottingham