Search

International audience

[EN] Kharaysin is a Pre-Pottery Neolithic A and Pre-Pottery Neolithic B site, dated between the end of the 10th millennium and the first half of the 8th millennium cal BC. It is located at the village of Quneya, by the Zarqa River, with 25 ha in extension. Up to the present, four phases of occupation have been discovered, two corresponding to the PPNA and two to the PPNB. The abundant instruments, human, animal and botanical remains, figurines and so on recovered in Kharaysin allow us considering Kharaysin as a key site for understanding the first sedentary villages and the process of invention of agriculture and livestock in northern Jordan., [ES] Kharaysin es un yacimiento datado en el Neolítico Precerámico A y B, entre finales del x y la primera mitad del viii milenio cal a. C., situado en el pueblo de Quneya, junto al río Zarqa, con 25 ha de extensión. Por el momento se han detectado cuatro fases de ocupación: dos correspondientes al Precerámico A y otras dos al B. La abundancia de restos humanos, de utillaje, faunísticos y arqueobotánicos recuperados hace de Kharaysin un yacimiento clave para comprender los orígenes de la agricultura y la ganadería, así como el proceso de sedentarización de las poblaciones en el norte de Jordania.

Kharaysin is a Pre-Pottery Neolithic site located in the village of Quneya, in the Zarqa River valley, over 25 ha in size and dating from the 9th millennium cal BC. Two occupation levels have been documented. In excavation area IJ100, two oval semi-sunken houses with plaster floors were excavated; these dated from the beginning of the 9th millennium cal BC, the late phase of the PPNA. Over this architectural level, a straight stone wall and a burial correspond to the beginning of the Middle PPNB, at the end of the 9th millennium cal BC. Further south, down the slope of the site, in trenches CDEFG-55 and TUVX-60, a Middle PPNB occupation has also been documented, with rectangular buildings built on the surface, stone walls and plastered floors. In Area U60, paintings were discovered on the plastered floor of one building. Bipolar technology, Jericho and Amuq points and bent sickle blades are observed in the Middle PPNB occupation phase. The PPNA material culture, which is still poorly documented, seems to be characterized by unipolar knapping, blades with double pairs of notches and decorated grooved stones.