The Harra and the Hamad: Excavations and Surveys in Eastern Jordan.

• Author: Banning, E.B.
• Position: Book review

The Harra and the Hamad: Excavations and Surveys in Eastern Jordan, volume 1. Edited by A. V. G. BETTS. Sheffield Archaeological Monographs, vol. 9. Sheffield: SHEFFIELD ACADEMIC PRESS, 1998. Pp. xx + 252, illus. $74.

The first volume in publication of important prehistoric fieldwork in Jordan's eastern desert from 1979 to 1991 reviews evidence for the Epipalaeolithic, but concentrates on the results of excavations at the Neolithic site of Dhuweila. The prehistory of Jordan's eastern "panhandle" region was very little known prior to Betts's survey first of the lower Wadi Rajil and then of other parts of the Harra (basaltic "Black Desert") and Hamad (the limestone and chert desert to its east).

Epipalaeolithic use of the region appears to have concentrated in the Geometric Kebaran and, especially, Late Natufian. The Geometric Kebaran sites are small, sparse lithic scatters, while some of the Natufian ones were substantial settlements, with heavy grinding stones and evidence of structures. There are brief allusions to the likely climatic implications of this distribution at the beginning and end of chapter two, but more direct evidence for paleoenvironment in this region (besides the faunal sample) would have been welcome. The chapter summarizes mainly the stone tools, fauna, stratigraphy, and structures from excavations at Natufian Khallat 'Anaza, along with surface finds from other sites.

Chapters three through nine deal with various aspects of the excavations at Dhuweila, while chapter ten reports on a survey in Dhuweila's vicinity. Dhuweila appears originally to have been a small but substantial camp for Late PPNB hunters using a "desert kite"--a funnel-shaped arrangement of stones--to trap herd animals, probably gazelle. After a period of abandonment, Late Neolithic hunters reoccupied the site, apparently also to use the kites. Later, the site saw occasional reuse as a temporary campsite right up to modern times.

In the first volume in a series on this fieldwork, fuller discussion of field methods, and especially survey procedures, would have been welcome. The introductory chapter's discussion of the history of research and Black Desert Survey merely indicates that "much of the harra was surveyed on foot or by vehicle reconnaissance" (p. 5), with no mention of such fundamentals as the borders of the surveyed region, the extent to which air photos guided survey, or the amount, distribution, or density of survey effort. With so little...