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This article presents the results of the archaeological, bioanthropological, and historical analysis of an atypical human bone deposit found at the medieval Islamic desert site of Khirbat al-Dusaq in southern present-day Jordan. This site has yielded several human remains deposits, most of which appear to be either ordinary or reorganised burials with a clearly identifiable sepulchral function. However, one particular deposit (labelled “Structure no 1 (Pièce 5)”) displays several atypical features which complicate its interpretation. As such, radiocarbon dating of this particular deposit indicates a chronological range extending from the second half of the seventeenth century CE to the end of the eighteenth century CE. In addition, the human bones contained within this deposit tend to show unusual osteological characteristics, such as possible cut marks resembling peri-mortem lesions inflicted upon the deceased by third parties armed with sharp objects. The precise historical contextualisation of this deposit enables us to discuss different scenarios that could explain the circumstances of its inception. In this sense, the spectrum of possible explanatory interpretations ranges from the conjecture that the remains under study represent one or several victims of an inter-tribal conflict, a brigandage or retaliation attack, a crushed popular uprising, or even individuals who died during one of the violent raids perpetrated by local Bedouin tribes against the Mecca pilgrimage caravans during the Ottoman period.

Background: A good and continuous assessment of the safety culture in the area of providing services in the healthcare sector will provide an initial step towards providing safe conditions for patient care. Aims: This study aimed to evaluate the perception of patient safety culture among healthcare providers in southern Jordanian hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted among healthcare providers (physicians, nurses, and their administrators). Between July and November 2021, data was gathered by an Arabic version of the Hospital Survey of Patient Safety Culture Questionnaire (HSPSC) from 531 healthcare providers using the convenience sample approach. In four southern Jordanian hospitals. Results: This study found that there were some areas of strength such as: organizational learning/continuous improvement, communication openness, communication about errors, supervisor, manager, or clinical support for patient safety, and hospital management support for patient safety. The reporting-related composites (response to error and reporting patient safety events), staffing, teamwork across hospital units, and information exchange were areas for improvement. Conclusion: There was a need for advancement in the practices of patient safety culture in southern Jordanian hospitals. Reporting-related composites, staffing, handoffs, and information exchange are areas of patient safety that need quick refinement.

The volumes under review here have much in common. Both are the first in series of much-anticipated final reports of important sites in central/southern Jordan. Both take a longue durée approach to landscapes and settlements, although Ancient Landscapes of Zoara I (henceforth Zoara I), beginning in the Neolithic period, takes a longer view, and Khirbat Faris (henceforth Fâris I, as two additional volumes are planned) takes a more explicitly Braudelian approach, opening with a brief discussion of the influence of The Mediterranean on the project's initial design. While excellent initial final report volumes, both are also hindered by omissions of key analyses, as discussed below. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A complex view of the prehistory in southern Jordan emerges from the excavations of the Jagiellonian University team, which carried out in 2018 its second season of fieldwork at the sites of Munqata’a and Faysaliyya, even as analyses of finds from the previous season were underway. Human communities living here in the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age practiced both sedentary and mobile lifestyles. The changing landscape around them, caused by natural erosion processes and periodical climate change, is also taken into consideration while interpreting the explored relics.

The aim of this paper is to shed some light on the period of Petra’s passage from paganism to Christianity, which saw the deterioration of pagan beliefs and the struggle for survival between paganism and Christianity. The recognition of Christianity as the official religion of the Byzantine Empire in 313 AD did not mean that paganism had disappeared from Petra. In fact, most of the Nabataean temples in the city remained open until the second half of the 4th century AD, when the city was hit by the earthquake of 363. It was this event that had the greatest impact on the abandoning of the city’s temples, such as the Temple of the Winged Lions, the Temple of Qasr el-Bent and the Great Temple. The historical and archaeological evidence confirms the construction of a numer of churches in Petra, which received considerable attention from the Christian clergy and the administration of the city during the 5th and 6th centuries AD.

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The aim of this paper is to shed some light on the period of Petra’s passage from paganism to Christianity, which saw the deterioration of pagan beliefs and the struggle for survival between paganism and Christianity. The recognition of Christianity as the official religion of the Byzantine Empire in 313 AD did not mean that paganism had disappeared from Petra. In fact, most of the Nabataean temples in the city remained open until the second half of the 4th century AD, when the city was hit by the earthquake of 363. It was this event that had the greatest impact on the abandoning of the city’s temples, such as the Temple of the Winged Lions, the Temple of Qasr el-Bent and the Great Temple. The historical and archaeological evidence confirms the construction of a number of churches in Petra, which received considerable attention from the Christian clergy and the administration of the city during the 5th and 6th centuries AD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Excavations at the site of Wadi Mataha, located in Southern Jordan, revealed stratified Epipalaeolithic occupations containing Geometric Kebaran, Early Natufian, and Late Natufian deposits. Although the Middle Epipalaeolithic occupation at the site is small, it contains a human burial in a face-down burial position, along with groundstone artifacts, suggesting a unique burial practice was enacted at the site. This paper explores the Geometric Kebaran component of Wadi Mataha, focusing on the lithic assemblage and the recovered human burial. Despite the small size of the assemblage, techno-typological and functional analysis of the lithics and the presence of a human burial suggests that small, limited term occupations were still considered important and symbolically charged places in the landscape. Wadi Mataha represents one of the southernmost extents of Geometric Kebaran occupations in Jordan, making it an interesting case study to understand regional mobility and movement during the Middle Epipalaeolithic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Ḥwēṭāt Tribe Dialect from Wādi Ramm - Linguistic and Sociolinguistic Aspects of a Bedouin Dialect in Jordan. The purpose of this paper is to investigate on the effects of sedentarization and language change on the dialect of the Ḥwēṭāt tribe in Southern Jordan. The sociolinguistic analysis aims at comparing the influence of new urban models, apparently the most prestigious variety in Jordan, with the so-called “Bedouin factor” that basically implies a certain resistance to change strongly connected to ancestry and tribal affiliation. Thus, it is demonstrated that the concept of prestige is often ambiguous and that in everyday interactions a simple accommodation and levelling process takes place.

The lack of efficient digital data processing tools during field excavations is a major bottleneck affecting the delay between data collection and dissemination in archaeology. In this paper, we outline the fundamental methodology of ArchField, an integrated digital field recording solution developed to overcome this bottleneck and translate field excavations to virtual museums in real-time. ArchField records sub-centimetre accurate three-dimensional coordinates from Total Stations and RTK GPS units. Recorded field data and measured 3D coordinates are digitally processed to produce auto-generated daily GIS top plans. The processing pipeline enables the generation of publishable online maps from the first day of excavation to the last. It is interoperable with many different GIS viewers and stores data in an online PostGIS database. Digitization of archaeological data in the field is streamlined to facilitate standardization, redundancy and storage that can be immediately made accessible online to the digital community. Consequently, ArchField integrates features such as synchronization, data formatting, re-projection, dynamic labeling and symbolization. It provides immediate online accessibility of field ex- cavations for virtual museums of the future. ArchField enables any archaeological project to inexpensively adopt real-time 3D digital recording techniques in their field methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The alluvial-fluvial drainage system in the Wadi Araba, southern Jordan, incised into Cambrian clastic sedimentary and felsic igneous rocks giving rise to a disseminated Cu-(Mn) mineralization of diagenetic and epigenetic origin along the southern branch of the Dead Sea Transform Fault (=DSTF). During the Late Pleistocene and Holocene, the primary Cu sulfides were replaced by secondary minerals giving rise to hypogene to supergene encrustations, bearing Cu silicates, Cu carbonates, Cu oxychlorides and cupriferous vanadates. They occur in fissures, coat walls and developed even-rim/meniscus and blocky cements in the arenites near the surface. The first generation cement has been interpreted in terms of freshwater vadose hydraulic conditions, while the second-generation blocky cement of chrysocolla and malachite evolved as late cement. The Cu-Si-C fluid system within the Wadi Araba drainage system is the on-shore or subaerial facies of a regressive lacustrine regime called the 'Lake Lisan Stage', a precursor of the present-day Dead Sea. Radiocarbon dating (younger than 27,740 ± 1,570 years), oxygen-isotope-based temperature determination (hot brine-related mineralization at 60-80 °C, climate-driven mineralization at 25-30 °C) and thermodynamical calculations let to the subdivision of this secondary Cu mineralization into four stages, whose chemical and mineralogical composition was controlled by the variation of the anion complexes of silica and carbonate and the chlorine contents. The acidity of the pore water positively correlates with the degree of oxidation. The highest aridity and most intensive evaporation deduced from the thermodynamical calculations were achieved during stage 3, which is coeval with late Lake Lisan. Geogene processes causing Cu-enriched encrustations overlap with man-made manganiferous slags. The smelter feed has been derived mainly from Cu ore which developed during Late Pleistocene in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The Middle to early Late Ordovician Hiswah and Dubaydib Formations in southern Jordan provide a well constrained sedimentary record of 4th and 3rd order relative sea level change along the northern, tectonically quiescent, subpolar Gondwana continental margin. Cyclic deposition occurred on a wave- and storm-dominated, microtidal shelf, dominated by shoreface and offshore transition zone facies. Cycles are commonly bounded by “amalgamated” bounding surfaces (SB/ts or SB/mfs) and are characterised by stacked transgressive systems tracts (TSTs). The small facies dislocation across key sequence bounding surfaces, indicates a 15–50m change in relative sea level. Fourth order sequences are hypothesized to be paced by the long eccentricity 405-kyr cycle and consequently 3rd order sequences are calculated to be ~1.2m.y. and ~2.4m.y. long. These correlate with the global eustatic sea level curve. In comparison with Mesozoic and Cenozoic sequence stratigraphical data we conclude that the ~1.2m.y. cycles correspond with long obliquity cycles predominant in icehouse conditions and the ~2.4m.y. cycles with the long eccentricity cycle predominant during greenhouse conditions. We propose a Darriwilian Ice Age, during which, orbitally induced “cold snaps,” caused the expansion and amalgamation of small/medium-scale ice sheets. The reduced size of the correlative positive carbon isotope excursion, compared to that in the Hirnantian may indicate that the Darriwilian ice sheets only reached the sea in a few places. The absence of glacio-terrestrial deposits of Middle Ordovician age is most likely due to subsequent glacial erosion during repeated ice advances, up to and including those in the Hirnantian. The existence of Darriwilian ice sheets is consistent with zooplankton province distributions that indicate a Polar Front at ~40°S during the ice age. It is likely that polar ice existed throughout the Ordovician. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: For the first time, a large Eemian paleolake was observed by 29°N in the Mudawwara depression (Southern Jordan) which prolongates into Saudi Arabia. Lacustrine coquina shows that vast lake complexes existed in the depression during oxygen isotope stages (OIS) 7a–6e, 5e and 5c–a. These ages correlate with those of Sahara Pleistocene paleolakes and bring into question the range of monsoonal and Mediterranean rainfall over the Arabian Peninsula during the Last Interglacial. The presence of Levallois–Mousterian artefacts along the lake shores indicates that the area was inhabited during these periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reveals the geochemical processes of dissolution, precipitation and cation exchange that took place during water–rock interaction between water seepages through the Tannur Dam. The Schoeller diagram indicates that there are three major water types originating during water–rock interaction. The first water type is characterized by low salinity that ranges from 1,300 to 2,800 µs/cm, which represents the reservoir water and the water in the right side of the central gallery. The second water type is in the left side of the central gallery, which exhibits medium salinity that reaches about 4,400 µs/cm. The third water type is characterized by very high salinity that reaches a value of around 8,500 µs/cm and represents the water in the right existing adit. The increase of salinity can be explained due to the dissolution of carbonate and sulfate minerals that form the matrix of the foundation and the abutment rocks, and the dissolution of the grout curtain, which is composed of cement and bentonite. Hydrogeochemical modeling, using a computer code PHREEQC, was used to obtain the saturation indices of specific mineral phases, which might be related to interaction with water seepages, and to identify the chemical species of the dissolved ions. The thermodynamic calculations indicate that most of the water samples were undersaturated with respect to gypsum, anhydrite and halite, and were saturated and/or supersaturated with respect to calcite and dolomite. Ca(HCO3)2 is the primary water type, as a result of dissolution of carbonate minerals such as calcite and dolomite prevailing at the dam site. However, cation-exchange processes are responsible for the formation of the Na2SO4 water type from the CaSO4 type that formed due to the dissolution of gypsum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate the period prevalence, etiology and some epidemiological features of subclinical mastitis in Awassi ewes from the southern part of Jordan, milk samples from 318 lactating ewes were aseptically collected for bacterial and somatic cell counts (SCC) tests. Milk samples were collected at monthly intervals. The period prevalence of subclinical mastitis was 18.3% and the prevalence within each flock remained relatively constant throughout the study period. A significant association (P<0.001) was observed between the occurrence of subclinical mastitis and the age of ewe. Presence of teat lesions has no impact on the prevalence of subclinical mastitis. The prevalent bacterial species isolated from mammary glands with subclinical mastitis were Staphylococcus aureus (39%), Streptococci (25%), Escherichia coli (19.6%) and coagulase-negative Staphylococci (17.9%). Coagulase-negative Staphylococci were the most prevailing isolates from samples that showed negative SCC results. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]