An international group of paleontologist, archeologists, and anthropologists announced the discovery of the earliest known hunter gatherer housing project at the Public Library of Science web site on February 15, 2012.
This discovery can be clearly dated to the earliest groups of hunter gatherers from latest Epipalaeolithic phase (Natufian) of human expansion from Africa.
Kharaneh IV is 70 km east of Jordan's capital Amman at the western edge of the Azraq Basin.
The site exhibits all the elements of multiple occupation and reuse, flint knapping factories, furniture (a rarity), and the use of ochre (a red pigment) in decoration and clothing that has been found in similar but much more recent sites.
The ritual burial of the dead under the houses was also observed at the site. This practice is usually associated with familial and potentially religious practices.
Kharaneh IV is dated to 20,000 years ago (possibly 23,000). The site is one of the best preserved of its kind.
Paper
Twenty Thousand-Year-Old Huts at a Hunter-Gatherer Settlement in Eastern Jordan
Authors
Lisa A. Maher1*, Tobias Richter2, Danielle Macdonald3, Matthew D. Jones4, Louise Martin5, Jay T. Stock6
1 Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley, California, United States of America, 2 Department of Regional and Cross-Cultural Studies, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark, 3 Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 4 Department of Geography, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom, 5 Institute of Archaeology, University College London, London, United Kingdom, 6 Division of Biological Anthropology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
Citation: Maher LA, Richter T, Macdonald D, Jones MD, Martin L, et al. (2012) Twenty Thousand-Year-Old Huts at a Hunter-Gatherer Settlement in Eastern Jordan. PLoS ONE 7(2): e31447. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0031447
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