Levant, Vol. XVI (1984)

BLACK DESERT SURVEY, JORDAN: SECOND PRELIMINARY REPORT

by Alison Betts

The Black Desert Survey is being undertaken toexamine prehistoric activity in the basalt region ofeastern Jordan. The second field season, thepreliminary results of which are presented here, lastedsixweeks during August/September 198~z.

The Black Desert Survey is sponsored by the BritishInstitute at Amman for Archaeology and History. Iwould like to thank the Director of Antiquities, Dr.Adnan Hadidi, for his kind permission to undertakethe project. This season we were greatly assisted in thefield by Mr. Arif Abu Ghannem, Representative of the

Department of Antiquities. A number of Institutionsprovided generous support-The Gordon Childe andMargery Bequest Funds,. The Wainwright Fund, TheBritish School of Archaeologyin Jerusalem, The BritishMuseum, The Palestine Exploration Fund, The BritishInstitute at Amman for Archaeology and History, TheCounty Museum, Liverpool, The Ashmolean Museum,The Pitt-Rivers Museum, The City Museums and ArtGallery, Birmingham and The Manchester Museum. Iam also grateful to Dr. Andrew Garrard, AssistantDirector of the British Institute at Amman for

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Fig. I. EastemJordan: survey areas.

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Archaeology and History, Mr·s. L. Copeland, Pere F.Hours and Dr. F. Koucky for their help and advice. Myspecial thanks go to Alison McQuitty and IsabelleRuben for their invaluable help in the field.

The aim of the second survey season was toconcentrate on area rather than detail. Compensationfor this bias towards a broad non-specific approachwill be made in the third season when work will focuson test excavation of key sites. Half of the six-weekseason was spent in the south of the region. Otherwork was carried on around Azraq, in the central areaat Bir al-Ghusain and down the eastern margins of thebasalt south of H4. A week was spent in examininglower Wadi Rajil as it runs from the T.A.P. line tracksouthwards along the edge of the basalt towards Qa'aMejalla. A series of low-level aerial photographs of

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this area were made available to the survey (propertyof Dr. S. W. Helms) and work was carried out on thebasis of information obtained from these. This sectionof Wadi Rajil cuts through a long narrow, almoststraight-sided cleft in the basalt plateau, possibly anancient fissure line. To the west run a chain of "kites"and an extensive knapping site was found in thevicinity. Three kilometres from the T.A.P. line trackWadi Rajil turns an abrupt right-angle and flows off ina southerly direction. A unique site, unfortunatelyundated, lies at the point where the wadi makes itsabrupt turn. There are quite deep pools in the wadiand at die time of the discovery of the site inmid-August these still held water. Above the pools onthe slope of the wadi side lies a long and solid wallbuilt of large basalt chunks, roughly faced on the inner

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Fig. 2. Region: black desert.

BLACK DESERT SURVEY: SECOND PRELIMINARY REPORT

side. The wall is slightly less than a metre high and hasa narrow cleared area behind it. The whole structureaffords a commanding view over the pools and behindthe wall, scattered about the slope, are small stonecircles and cleared patches. On the opposite side of thewadi is a "kite" with very well preserved walls and short"arms" which appear to encompass the pool, at leastpartially. Presumably animals coming to drink couldbe scared by hunters concealed behind the wall andwould flee into the trap.

The survey team also visited Bir AI-Ghusain, shownon maps as a wadi containing disused and brackishwells. However, when the main concentration wasreached it was found that, although most werestagnant, one of the wells contained sweet water andthere were signs that the beduin had used it veryrecently. The wells are about 4-5 m. deep, lined withrough stone cobbles. Above the wadi where most ofthe wells lie is a flat hilltop, almost completely coveredby rocks bearing pre- Islamic inscriptions. There areseveral fine animal carvings as well as Islamic texts.Concentrations of flint were found around two largecairns. Among the pieces recovered were some tangedpoints of Pre- Pottery Neolithic type.

Two days were spent in examining the easternborder of the basalt south of H4. Sites were rare andthe few flint scatters found represented veryimpoverished versions of more westerly examples.This pattern is similar to that observed at Qasr Burqu'during the first season.

After completion of the third and final field season,full analysis of the survey material will be undertaken.Until then only preliminary conclusions can be pre-sented. A summary of the main finds from the secondseason is given below.

PALEOLITHIC

Evidence for Paleolithic sites in -the basalt region isstill very scant. No material has been recovered whichmight with any certainty be assigned to the Upp~rPaleolithic. No bifaces have yet been found, with theexception of those published by Crawford (1938).However, during the last season a number of scattersof Middle Paleolithic artefacts were located, mostly onthe level summits of isolated basalt-capped hills on theperiphery of the main basalt massif.

EPIPALEOLITHIC

Little new information was gathered onepipaleblithic industries in the area in 1982. Only afew isolated microliths were collected but site 31/14, anepipaleolithic knapping site surveyed in 1981 (Betts1983, 4) was revisited and a number of lunates, absent

from the initial collection, were recovered, suggestingthat the site might now be assigned to the Natufianperiod.

A site which may prove to fit in between theepipaleolithic and the large number of sites nowrecorded for the PPNB is 24/02, the only site of anysignificant size so far found on the table mountainsrunning eastwards from jebel Qurma. It iies on a highcol between two basalt-capped peaks. On the south-facing slope are six or seven very low stone circles,roughly 5 m. in diameter. A large area of the colaround and below these circles is covered with a flintscatter which includes blades, bladelets and onenotched point (Fig. 6, 1). Preliminary eximinations ofthe debitage shows that the striking platforms tend tobe small, ovoid and have in most cases a slight lip.Another interesting aspect of this site was the discoveryof a "T" shaped piece (Fig. 6, 2). These tools werereported from jebel Umm Wual, Rutba and LandingGround j by Garrod (in Field 1960, 119). This is thefirst example, however, to be found on the survey.

"BURIN SITES"

A total of eighteen new examples of "burin sites"were located in the second season of survey. Some ofthese were merely isolated scatters but a numberconformed to what has become a recognizablepattern of several concentrations of artefacts in andaround a cluster of corrals, normally on the lowerslopes of the plateau, sheltered from the prevailingwind. Collections from the larger "burin sites"together with the very high frequency of concavetruncation burins, almost always include one or twobifacially worked pieces,. several crude flake scrapersand occasionally borers (Fig. 6, 3-7).

Further information about these sites has beenemerging rapidly over the past fewyears as more of thesteppic regions are studied. New sites have been foundrecently in Amman (Rollefson et at. 1982), west ofAzraq (Rollefson and Frohlich 1982; Rollefson andMuheisen n.d.) and on the upper slopes of the Wadiel-Hasa (Macdonald et at. 1982; Macdonald et at n.d.).These extend the known range of "burin sites"westwards but they still appear to be confined to theplateau and desert areas. Those found on the Wadiel-Hasa for example are located at quite highelevations overlooking major drainage systems.

"Burin sites" are remarkqble for the uniformity ofassemblages from site to site and this makes themreadily identifiable even when isolated and unexpectedexamples are discovered. However, in 1982 a series ofsites were found which had similar assemblages, yetwith subtle differences in typology. These differencesinclude a higher index of retouched burin spalls and

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Fig. 3. Tuleilat el Hisna, source of volcanic glass (based onJORDAN I :50,000 series K737 Sheet 3 5 54 IV).

B LACK DESERT SURVEY: SEC ON D PRELIM IN AR Y REPORT

smaller, finer, more delicate burins. Although the'burins are still often on concave truncations, there isa greater variety in type-some dihedral examples andmore burins on breaks (Fig. 7, 9-14). This industry isassociated with small round huts, possibly originallycrudely corbelled, and clustered into groups. Each sitemay have up to five Or six of these groups, approxi-mately "500m. apart. Other structural features include

.massive stone uprights either forming low walls orstanding as isolated monoliths. Some of the clustersseem to'have irregular walls partly enclosing them.

Because 'so much of the information about "burinsites'.' comes from surface survey material (Betts 1982,Fig. 1) there hasbee~ some doubt expressed as towhether they really' do . belong to the PPNB assuggested by' - thi .~eic~vations at Wadi Dhobai(Waechter and£eton- Williams 1938). Excavations andsurvey in ~heviciqity of d' ~o~ (Cauvin, j. 1981)seemto. confirm the likelihood .that, such a date is correct.Qdeir 1 .(AurencQe ~nd: ¥:C. Cauvin 1982)is .atellwith 'rectangular ,buildings, plaster floors and somewhite ware in the 'uppermost level. Below this lie aseries of levels with an unusual density of lithicmaterial described -by excavators as an "atelier".No structures relating to these levels have been found.Burins are th~ most common implement in anassemblage which includes bipolar cores, Byblospoints, a few sickle blades and'flake scrapers "d'assezmauvaise qualite'~. Burins are mixed in type,although concave truncation examples are common,and dominate the burin index in the lower levels ofsquare GX; Nadaouyieh 7 (Cauvin,j. 1982),3 km. eastof Qdeir 1 is a large surface site about 2 ha. in extent.The most numerous. tools in the assemblage areburins, and bifaces' are also com~on. Cauvin believesthat it represents tbe same industry as Qdeirl.

In further discussion of these sites, Cauvin (1981)places basal Qdeir 1 in the second half of the seventhmillennium, contemporary with Ramad I, TellAssouad and the middle level of Neolithic AbuHureyra. He does point out as well that, although theburin index is extremely high for assemblages in theregion of el Kowm, there is a considerable variety incomparison particularly with Site 79 at Palmyra(Akazawa in Hanihara and Akazawa eds. 1979, 159),where almost all the burins are on truncations.Aurenche and M-C. Cauvin (1982) suggest that thepredominance of burins has a functional rather than acultural significance related to specialized activitywithin the later PPNB of the desert regions.

Despite the difference in burin types-not somarked in the new variant described above-moresimilarities are emerging to link the Transjordan"burin sites" with those from el Kowm. Both crudeflake scrapers and bifacialpieces are regularly

associated with concave truncation burins in the BlackDesert sites. These can be paralleled in Syria withbifaces at Nadaouyieh 7 and the rather poor qualityflake scapers at Qdeir 1. Evidence from the desert"kites" seems to indicate increased activity in thedesert during the later PPNB and this may wellbe echoed by the higher frequency of "burin sites"in comparison to material evidence from otherperiods.

"JELLYFISH"

Recent interest jn _the region. around Azraq hasbrought to light much new information about thesesomewhat enigmatic structures. Many new discoverieshave been made. t,hr.ough examination of low levelaerial photographs (Riley 1982). Riley has locatedseveral large clusters of "jellyfish"-he refers to themas "wheel" enclosures-In' and around the centralAzraq basin. (Riley'r982,Fig. 48). Those in WadiRatam, 4 km. westof Azraq' Fort, were re-examined bythe surveyteamjnl982;The structures were all verylow and would have gOl)ealmost' unrecognized had itnot already been ascertained: that they were there.Because of their ,ephemet:al nature no plans were 'madeas these will be more Clccurat~lyand simply obtainedfrom- aerial photographs. One' important aspect ofRiley's work was to establish.adefinite link betweenRees' "circles of hut-circles" (Rees 1929) ,and the"jellyfish". Riley's Fig. 47.3a shows a "jellyfish"surrounded by a circle of hut-circles as illustrated anddescribed by Rees. This link having been established, a"jellyfish" of precisely this type (Fig. 5) was found bythe survey team just to· the west of the Azraq/H5highway, immediately beside one, 9/1, discovered theprevious season.

This somewhat bizarre group of structures nowseems to fall into a number of groups: circles of hutcircles, "jellyfish" surrounded by circles of hut circles,"jellyfish" with hut circles incorporated into theirouter walls and "jellyfish" without hut circles. Thereare some indications that the "jdlyfish" may prove tobe a phenomenon local to the greater Azraq basin.Riley has found clusters of structures up to 10 km.from the oasis and the survey has located anothergroup, including 9/1 and 9/2, further to the east but asimilar distance from Azraq itself. Other examples,one at jebel Qurma, two in the Qa'a Mejalla area andone at Shubeiqa, as well as five-others known fromaerial photographs but not yet ground checked, are allisolated examples, perhaps outliers from more centralclusters. So far no such structures have been found onthe eastern side of the basalt barrier, either in theBurqu' region or further south.

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Fig. 4. Rock art: wild animals and "kite".

BLACK DESERT SURVEY: SECOND PRELIMINARY REPORT 31

NATURAL RESOURCESMost of the material used to make the stone tools

found on sites in the area is rather poor quality grey

plains, there is an area of broken country with isolatedhills cut by deep valleys. A number of these runparallel into an open area of sandBats and low gravelmounds. Strung across the mouths of these valleys aresmall versions of the "star-shaped" "kites", theirenclosures lying up and along the valley sides, andwith hides perched, often somewhat precariously, onthe upper scree-strewn slopes. Most of them have beenrebuilt a number of times.

Roughly a kilometre away to the south, on a flathilltop partly overlooking these "kites", is a large andconfusing series of structures including clusters of-corrals, a line of large stone cairns which may oncehave been corbelled huts, curving walls which connecttogether some of a group of individual stone circles,and other more complex double-walled structures.Parts of the playa on which these remains are foundare thickly strewn with flints. Some scatters seem to beconnected with one or other of the structures includ-ing a cairn and a group of corrals. The assemblagebelongs to the PPNB and includes a large number oftanged points, some with pressure flaking.

There is no positive evidence to connect the two, butthe presence of a large hunting camp in the vicinity ofa much used complex of "kites" seems to suggest apossible link, since proof already exists of the use of

. "star-shaped" "kites" in the seventh millennium (Betts1982,32).

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"KITES"In 1982 no attempt was made to do ground plans of

"kites" because they can be studied more rapidly andeffectively using low-level aerial photography bymeans of a parafoiI. Work will be done on this duringthe 1983 field season. In the process of the surveyhowever, several new items of information came tolight. Perhaps most important of these was thediscovery of a number of rock carvings apparentlydepicting "kites" (Fig. 4; PI. XIII). Several of thesebore a striking similarity to the plans of "star-shaped""kites", and in fact seemed to use the surface of therock in the same way that the builders of "kites" usedthe landscape-concealing the sub-circular hides thatnormally surround the main enclosure behind a rise orin a depression; in the case of the carving, round theside of the rock. The guiding walls which lead animalsinto the traps usually run over a hill into the enclosureand this effect is simulated on the rock carvings bypecking two or more lines round towards the back ofthe rock. One or two other examples were morestylized but still seemed quite clearly to depict "kites".The example illustrated in Fig. 4 has three ostrichesapparently entering the enclosure, but it is not clear ifthese birds are contemporary with the "kite" carvingitself.

One of the areas selected for general survey in 1982was the souther~ section of the Qurma Gap, a chain ofbasalt-capped limestone table mountains runningeast-west in a gently curving chain roughly parallel toand some 10-15 km. from the Saudi Arabian border.These hills are linked one to another by low irregularzigzagwalls that run down from the basalt scree belowtheir summits and across the gravel plains between,using ridges where possible (PI. XIV). Some of thesewalls have hides -dotted at irregular intervals alongthem. They represent a very simple type of "kite"designed to capture animals moving up through thehills from the open hamada steppe to the south. Thelow and eroded nature of their walls possibly suggeststhat they are an earlier form of the more elaborate"star-shaped" variety, but no lithic evidence has yetbeen found to support this.

Such a great number and variety of "kites" in thebasalt area is clear material evidence of the importanceof hunting in prehistoric times. Many of the sitesfound on the survey relate to a particular aspect of thehunt, for example knapping sites on prominentlookout positions ana probably also site 22/2 (Betts1983, 10) which seems from preliminary evidence to bea place where game was processed after the hunt.Evidence for larger hunting camps however has onlyjust come to light. East of Qattafi Wells, at the edge ofthe basalt plateau, where the two main branches ofWadi Qattafi converge and debouch onto the gravel

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emFig. 6. Flints: I, 2412 notched point; 2, 2412 "T" shaped piece; 3, 23113 tabular scraper; 4, 2JIIJ multiple burin, bipolar concave truncation; 5, 2311Jmultiple burin, bipolar concave truncation; 6, 24110 multiple burin, concave truncation and break; 7, 2JI41 multiple concave truncation burin; 8, 24110

transverse arrowhead.

Fig. 7. Flints: 9, 22129 multiple concave truncation burin; 10, 22129 multiple concave truncation burin; I I, 22129 concave truncation burin; 12, 22129transverse truncation burin on secondary crested blade; IJ, 22129 oblique truncation burin; 14, 22129 dihedral burin and burin on transverse truncation; 15,

22128 point rif Amuq type; 16, 2JI14 tabular scraper; 17,2311 4 ledge-handle.

BLACK DESERT SURVEY: SECOND PRELIMINARY REPORT 33

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chert found in abundance in the ardh es-sawwan (flintdesert) and eroding out of limestone exposures on theedge of the basalt, This season though, several othersources of better quality flint were found, togetherwith evidence of their use on nearby sites. Wadi Qattafihas exposed two of these sources. Where the two mainbranches of the wadi emerge from the basalt plateau,they cut through beds of a very distinctive fine-grainedchert which varies in colour from mottled rose-pink toa deep brick red. A number of "burin sites" in thevicinity had tools made from this. Further down-stream where the wadi passes through the tablemountains on the southern side of the Qurma Gap, asecond type of chert bed is exposed. The material isnodular and in many cases is banded in agate-like coilsof various colours, the predominant one of which isquite green. It is very fine, almost translucent andseems to be used most commonly on epi-paleolithicsites. A number of cores from 31/14 for example wereof similar flint.

Most unexpected though was the discovery of asource of volcanic glass. This glass comes from aheavily eroded crater in the Bir al-Ghusain regionnorth of the main HS/H4 highway (Fig. s; PI. XV). Itoccurs in small irregular lumps within a reddish brown

matrix together with crystalline formations of peridot.There is no evidence to show that it was exploited byman, and the use of volcanic glass is almost unknownin the region, but this does not preclude the possi-bility. Samples of this glass have been submitted foranalysis and the results will be published as soon asthey become available.

Evidence for post-fourth millennium periods con-sists usually of only small fragments of RomaniByzantine pottery, a very few Islamic sherds andinscriptions and an abundance of Pre-Islamic graffiti.To this can now be added a characteristic ledge-handleof EBS/EB4date (Fig. 7, 17).This comes from a clusterof corrals near Qattafi Wells and on the same site was atabular scraper of fine grained chert, a type unusual onthe desert sites (Fig. 7, 16). The clay from which thesherd is made looks as if it could be from a localsource within the desert (F. Koucky pers. comm.).

The third and final survey season will take placeduring June andJuly 1983. A number of key sites willbe sounded, further survey work will be completedand aerial photographic reconnaissance attempted.Final analysis of the survey finds will then be under-taken.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Aurenche, O. and Cauvin, M-C. (1982) "Qdeir 1, campagne1980: une installation neolithique du VIle millenaire",Cahiers defEuphrate 3, 51 ff. (CNRS).

Betts, A. V. G. (198n) "Prehistoric sites at Qa'a Mejalla,'easternJordan", Levant XIV, 1 ff.

Betts, A. V. G. (1982b) "'Jellyfish': prehistoric desertshelters", ADA} XXVI, 183 ff.

Betts, A. V. G. (1983) "Black Desert Survey, Jordan: firstpreliminary report", Levant XV, 1 ff.

Cauvin, j. (1981) "L'occupation neolithiquede la regiond'el Kowm: resultats 1978-1979", Prihistoire du Levant, 471ff. (CNRS).

Cauvin, j. (1982) "Nouvelles stations neolithiques dans lacuvette d'EI Kowm", Cahiers de l'Euphrate 3, 79 ff. (CNRS).

Crawford, O. G. S. (1938) "Notes & News", Antiquity XII.Field, H. (1960) North Arabian Desert Archaeological Survey,

1925-195° (Papers of the Peabody Museum, Harvard, 45,No.2).

Hanihara, K. and Akazawa, T., eds. (1979) Paleolithic Site qfDouara Cave and Paleogeography of Palmyra Basin in Syria(Bull. Univ. Museum Tokyo 16, II).

Macdonald, B., Rollefson, G., Banning, E., Byrd, B. and

D'Annibale, C. (in press) "The Wadi el Hasa Archaeo-logical Survey 1982: a preliminary report", ADA}

Macdonald, B., Rollefson, G: and Roller, D. (1982) "TheWadi el Hasa Survey 1981: a preliminary report", ADA}XXVI, 117fT.

Rees, L. W. B. (1929) "The Trans-Jordanian Desert",Antiquity III, 389 ff.

Riley, D. N. (1982) "Antiquities recorded by old photo-graphs taken by the Royal Air Force of the desert nearAzraq Duruz", in Kennedy, D. L., Archaeological Explorationson the Roman Frontier in N.E. Jordan (B.A.R.), No. 134,Appendix C.

Rollefson, G. and Frohlich, B. (1982) "A PPNB burin site onJabal Uweinid, easternJordan", ADA} XXVI, 189 fT.

Rollefson, G., Kaechele, Z. and Kaechele,j. (1982). "A burinsite in the Umm Utheina district, Jebel Amman",ADA} XXVI, 243 ff.

Rollefson, G. and Muheisen, M. (in prep.) "SpecializedPPNB camp near Kharaneh Castle, eastern Jordan".

Waechter, j. d'A. and Seton-Williams, V. M. (t938) "Theexcavations at Wadi Dhobai 1937-1938 and the Dhobaianindustry",}POS XVIII, 172 ff.