The invention and development of next or second generation sequencing methods has resulted in a dramatic transformation of ancient DNA research and allowed shotgun sequencing of entire genomes from ...fossil specimens. However, although there are exceptions, most fossil specimens contain only low (~ 1% or less) percentages of endogenous DNA. The only skeletal element for which a systematically higher endogenous DNA content compared to other skeletal elements has been shown is the petrous part of the temporal bone. In this study we investigate whether (a) different parts of the petrous bone of archaeological human specimens give different percentages of endogenous DNA yields, (b) there are significant differences in average DNA read lengths, damage patterns and total DNA concentration, and (c) it is possible to obtain endogenous ancient DNA from petrous bones from hot environments. We carried out intra-petrous comparisons for ten petrous bones from specimens from Holocene archaeological contexts across Eurasia dated between 10,000-1,800 calibrated years before present (cal. BP). We obtained shotgun DNA sequences from three distinct areas within the petrous: a spongy part of trabecular bone (part A), the dense part of cortical bone encircling the osseous inner ear, or otic capsule (part B), and the dense part within the otic capsule (part C). Our results confirm that dense bone parts of the petrous bone can provide high endogenous aDNA yields and indicate that endogenous DNA fractions for part C can exceed those obtained for part B by up to 65-fold and those from part A by up to 177-fold, while total endogenous DNA concentrations are up to 126-fold and 109-fold higher for these comparisons. Our results also show that while endogenous yields from part C were lower than 1% for samples from hot (both arid and humid) parts, the DNA damage patterns indicate that at least some of the reads originate from ancient DNA molecules, potentially enabling ancient DNA analyses of samples from hot regions that are otherwise not amenable to ancient DNA analyses.
Current genetic data are equivocal as to whether goat domestication occurred multiple times or was a singular process. We generated genomic data from 83 ancient goats (51 with genome-wide coverage) ...from Paleolithic to Medieval contexts throughout the Near East. Our findings demonstrate that multiple divergent ancient wild goat sources were domesticated in a dispersed process that resulted in genetically and geographically distinct Neolithic goat populations, echoing contemporaneous human divergence across the region. These early goat populations contributed differently to modern goats in Asia, Africa, and Europe. We also detect early selection for pigmentation, stature, reproduction, milking, and response to dietary change, providing 8000-year-old evidence for human agency in molding genome variation within a partner species.
Petroglyphs are well known in the Negev, eastern and southern Jordan, and the Arabian Peninsula. Intensive documentation of hundreds of petroglyphs at the site of Wisad Pools in the Black Desert of ...eastern Jordan records animals, humans, hunting traps and geometric designs, connecting people and places to the larger landscape. These were recorded at the landscape scale with drones and photogrammetry, and the local scale through the construction of a database combined with GPS recording and terrestrial photogrammetry. Petroglyphs of animals and hunting traps are significant because the site is located within a landscape that includes enormous and enigmatic hunting traps (desert kites). Mapping these depictions highlights typological distribution, association of types, and relation to landscape features as well as the topography of the basalt boulders on which they were pecked. The depictions of animals and hunting traps provide clues about the use of desert kites, the social role of hunting, communal gatherings, and feasting in the region.
Pioneering research by Betts and by Garrard in the eastern steppe and desert of Jordan demonstrated the presence of Late Neolithic (c. 7000-5000 cal bc) pastoral exploitation of this currently ...arid/hyper-arid region, but the scale of Late Neolithic presence in the area was difficult to assess from the reports of their surveys and excavations. Recent investigations by the Eastern Badia Archaeological Project at Wisad Pools and the Wadi al-Qattafi in the Black Desert have shown that conditions during the latter half of the 7th millennium and into the 6th permitted substantial numbers of pastoralists to occupy substantial dwellings recurrently, in virtual village settings, for considerable amounts of time on a seasonal basis, relying heavily on the hunting of wild animals and perhaps practising opportunistic agriculture in addition to herding caprines.
In three field seasons, between 2010 and 2012, the Brown University Petra Archaeological Project (BUPAP) conducted a diachronic archaeological survey of the northern hinterland of
Petra, Jordan. ...While regional reconnaissance has a long history in Jordan, it has rarely been conducted with the “intensive” methodologies today characteristic of projects
elsewhere, most proximately in the Mediterranean. Such an approach is ideally suited for the territory north of Petra, the setting for a wide-ranging variety of human activity from
the Lower Paleolithic to the present. The survey component of BUPAP, the Petra Area and Wadi Silaysil Survey (or PAWS), covered some 1,000 ha (10 km2), most of which was
traversed by closely spaced (10 m) fieldwalking in 1,321 individual survey units. In the course of this work, PAWS recorded patterns in the distribution of tens of thousands of
artifacts. In addition, more than 1,000 individual archaeological features were identified and documented; geophysical survey was conducted in several areas; and test excavations
were carried out in 10 locations of particular interest. This article provides an overview of the PAWS survey and related activity—discussing motivations, methods, and results—and
touches on key issues concerning the long-term human history of the study area. This article is also available as open access on AJA Online. Additional figures and an appendix appear under this article’s abstract on AJA Online.
Major cultural transformations took place in the southern Levant during the late prehistoric periods (ca. late 7th-4th millennia b.c.). Agropastoralists expanded into areas previously only sparsely ...occupied and secondary animal products played an increasingly important economic role. In the arable parts of the southern Levant, the olive in particular became increasingly significant and may have played a part in expanded exchange contacts in the region. Technological expertise developed in craft production, and the volume and diversity of status goods increased, particularly in funerary contexts. Mortuary and other ritual practices became increasingly pronounced. General study syntheses, however, rarely include more than a cursory mention of the more arid regions of the southern Levant (i.e., Negev, eastern and southern Jordan, and Syria). Recent investigations indicate that intensive exploitation of the regions may date to these late prehistoric periods, yet this evidence has been difficult to attribute to specific chronological period or cultural affiliations. The Eastern Badia Archaeological Project investigates two regions for a potential florescence of building and occupation during the late prehistoric periods in the eastern desert of Jordan.
Major cultural transformations took place in the southern Levant during the late prehistoric periods (ca. mid-seventh through fourth millenna B.C.E.). General syntheses rarely include more than ...cursory mention of the more arid regions of the southern Levant (Negev, eastern and southern Jordan). The Eastern Badia Archaeological Project EBAP study area comprises a west–east transect across the southern part of the eastern badia, selected to include a variety of ecological zones. To date, this field research project has focused on two primary study areas in the Black Desert in Jordan's panhandle: Wisad Pools and Wadi al-Qattafi. In both areas, excavation combined with pedestrian and aerial survey record an apparent florescence of building and intensive exploitation of the landscape that contradicts previous assumptions that the region was used only intermittently by late prehistoric people. The many substantial well-constructed Late Neolithic buildings, evidence for trees and marshy plants, and extensive systems of kites seem to suggest that, rather than a virtually empty region, the Black Desert was once rich in animals, plants and people.
Two glass beads were discovered in an architectural structure (W-80) at a site called Wisad Pools, located in the so-called Black Desert of eastern Jordan. Structure W-80 refers to a tomb built on a ...collapsed Late Neolithic (6600-5000 B.C.) dwelling. The tomb was approximately five meters in diameter, with walls still standing about 80 centimeters high at the time of the excavation. The skeleton within the burial was poorly preserved and accompanied by a number of small finds, some of which were tentatively dated to the Late Bronze Age IIA period (about 14th century B.C.). These included the two dark blue glass beads discussed in this note, 15 carnelian beads, two melon beads made of Dabba marble, a copper bead, a copper finger ring, a silver (?) earring, and a bronze arrowhead. A detailed study of the small finds, including origin and date, will be published later.
Fieldwork in the Late Prehistory of Jordan’s basalt-strewn Black Desert has a history of more than thirty years of research, and recent investigations over the past five years have begun to clarify ...many of the aspects of the character of the landscape and the exploitation of its resources during the Late Neolithic, Chalcolithic, and Early Bronze Age. There are many areas of the Black Desert that demonstrate repeated visits to the same locations, undoubtedly on a seasonal basis corresponding with reliable water resources during the winter and early spring. Two areas — the basalt-topped mesas c. 60 km east of North Azraq and Wisad Pools, about 60 km farther to the east — show contrasting patterns of aggregation, possibly related, in part, to changes in precipitation between c. 6,500 and 2,500 bc. Wisad Pools, in particular, appears to be much more frequently visited, even into historic times, and the distribution of tumuli clusters suggest that the site may have witnessed more than economic and ritual activities.
PDF
