Something old, something new: Ongoing revelations within the Faynan Landscape

ABSTRACT

The long-term research projects within the Faynan Basin of southern Jordan continue to yield new and unexpected finds of all periods. This report focuses upon the investigation of the region in the Faynan floodplain, an area known from previous archaeological survey and limited excavation. Renewed investigation in 2019 focused upon analysis of the environmental impact of early metallurgy upon the ancient population through the excavation of five (5) EB IB tombs, and this paper outlines the unexpected nature of the graves, their contents, and preliminary observations of the human remains.

KEYWORDS:

• Faynan
• Early Bronze Age
• bioarchaeology
• funerary archaeology
• WF 100
• charnel houses

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Other projects include: The Wadi Fidan Project (1989–1993), Adams, who undertook a PhD at Sheffield University focused on the development of Copper Metallurgy in the Levant, focusing upon evidence from the Faynan region; Jabal Hamrat Fidan Project, Adams and T. E. Levy (1997–2002); The Wadi Faynan Project: Reconnaissance survey (1994–1995) British Institute at Amman (Barnes et al. 1995; Ruben et al. 1997); The Faynan Landscape Survey, (1996–2000), Graeme Barker, David Gilbertson and David Mattingly; The Wadi Faynan Project: the South Cemetery Excavations (Findlater et al.); The Dana-Faynan-Ghuwayr Early Prehistory Project (1997–), S. Mithen and B. Finlayson; Ghwair I, (1998–), Alan Simmons and Mohammed Najjar; The Edom Lowlands Project, T. E. Levy and M. Najjar (2005–); Barqa Landscape Project ( 2009–).

2 The initial phase of the Barqa Landscpae Project was funded by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Standard Research Grant, Grant No. 410-08-0783.

Additional information

Funding

The second phase of the Barqa Landscpae Project was funded by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Insight Grant, to R. B. Adams, A. E. Dolphin and C. Yakymchuk, Grant No. 435-2018-0944.