Offering the most comprehensive study of southern Jordan, this illuminating account presents detailed data from over a hundred archaeological sites stretching from the Lower Paleotlithic to the Chalcolithic periods. The author uses archaeological and paleoenvironmental evidence to reconstruct synchronic and evolutionary aspects of the cultural ecology of the prehistoric inhabitants of southern Jordan. This study exemplifies that cultural historic and processual approaches are integral to examining prehistoric cultural ecology. Numerous artifact illustrations as well as tables and appendixes containing primary data are included.

Inhalt
1 • Introduction and Overview: Evolutionary Ecology and Archaeology.- 2 • Late Quaternary Geology and Geomorphology of the Area in the Vicinity of Ras en Naqb.- 3 • Cultural-Historic Framework.- 4 • The Lower Paleolithic Site of Wadi Qalkha.- 5 • The Middle Paleolithic Sites.- 6 • Lithic Microwear Analysis of Tor Faraj Rockshelter.- 7 • Late Levantine Mousterian Patterns of Adaptation and Cognition.- 8 • The Upper Paleolithic Sites.- 9 • The Qalkhan Occupations.- 10 • The Hamran Sites.- 11 • The Madamaghan Sites.- 12 • The Natufian Sites and the Emergence of Complex Foraging.- 13 • Cultural Evolution and Interaction during the Epipaleolithic.- 14 • An Early Neolithic Hunting Camp: Jebel Queisa.- 15 • The Timnian and Pastoral Nomadism in the Chakolithic.- 16 • Pollen Analysis: Environmental and Climatic Implications.- 17 • Shells from the Wadi Hisma Sites.- 18 • Cementum Increment Analysis of Teeth from Wadi Judayid (J2) and Tor Hamar (J431): Estimations of Site Seasonality.- 19 • Preliminary Analysis of Phytoliths from Prehistoric Sites in Southern Jordan.- 20 • The Tor Hamar Fauna.- 21 • Adaptive Behaviors, Evolution, and Ethnicity.- References.- Series Publications.