Wadi Hammeh 27 is a
Late Epipalaeolithic
The Epipalaeolithic Near East designates the Epipalaeolithic ("Final Old Stone Age", also known as Mesolithic) in the prehistory of the Near East. It is the period after the Upper Palaeolithic and before the Neolithic, between approximately 20,0 ...
archaeological site
An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...
in
Pella, Jordan
Pella ( gr, Πέλλα, ) was an ancient city in what is now northwest Jordan, containing ruins from the Neolithic, Chalcolithic,Bronze Age, Iron Age, Canaanite, Hellenistic and Islamic periods. It is located in a rich water source within the ea ...
. It consists of the remains of a large settlement dating to the
Early Natufian period, about 14,500 to 14,000 years ago.
The people of the Natufian culture were nomadic
foragers
A traditional hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living an ancestrally derived lifestyle in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local sources, especially edible wild plants but also insects, fungi, ...
, but at Wadi Hammeh 27 they built large, durable dwellings that were maintained and revisited over many generations. The excavators of the site therefore interpret it as a substantial 'base camp' and forerunner of the first
sedentary
Sedentary lifestyle is a lifestyle type, in which one is physically inactive and does little or no physical movement and or exercise. A person living a sedentary lifestyle is often sitting or lying down while engaged in an activity like soci ...
villages that were established in the area in the succeeding
Pre-Pottery Neolithic
The Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN) represents the early Neolithic in the Levantine and upper Mesopotamian region of the Fertile Crescent, dating to years ago, (10000 – 6500 BCE).Richard, Suzanne ''Near Eastern archaeology'' Eisenbrauns; il ...
period.
References
Further reading
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External Links
Photos of Wadi Hemmehat the
American Center of Research
The American Center of Research (ACOR) is a private, not-for-profit scholarly and educational organization. Based in Alexandria, Virginia, with a facility in Amman, Jordan, ACOR promotes knowledge of Jordan and the interconnected region, past and ...
{{Epipalaeolithic Southwest Asia
Archaeological sites in Jordan
Natufian sites