Dating Neolithic rubble layers from Ba'ja and Basta sites in southern Jordan using luminescence

TY - JOUR

T1 - Dating Neolithic rubble layers from Ba'ja and Basta sites in southern Jordan using luminescence

AU - al Khasawneh, Sahar

AU - Murray, Andrew

AU - Thompson, Warren

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2022 Elsevier B.V.

PY - 2022/5

Y1 - 2022/5

N2 - There is considerable evidence of widespread damage in the 7th millennium habitation sites across Jordan. The origins of this damage are unknown, but the most widely accepted hypothesis associates the resulting rubble and gravel deposits with the Holocene Rapid Climate Change. One way of testing the various hypotheses is to provide a more reliable chronology for the event(s) in question. In this study, we used quartz OSL and feldspar IRSL signals to date accumulative rubble layers at two archaeological sites in Southern Jordan; Ba'ja and Basta. By comparison with the OSL ages, the IRSL ages demonstrate that most of the quartz samples were sufficiently well bleached at deposition to provide accurate ages. Quartz ages show that deposition of the rubble layers took place in different episodes starting around 8.5 ka and 6.0 ka. Ages from Ba'ja site agree with the archaeological expectations of time of deposition. However, the results from Basta are younger than the archaeological expectations, which are based mainly on architectural style and stratigraphy.

AB - There is considerable evidence of widespread damage in the 7th millennium habitation sites across Jordan. The origins of this damage are unknown, but the most widely accepted hypothesis associates the resulting rubble and gravel deposits with the Holocene Rapid Climate Change. One way of testing the various hypotheses is to provide a more reliable chronology for the event(s) in question. In this study, we used quartz OSL and feldspar IRSL signals to date accumulative rubble layers at two archaeological sites in Southern Jordan; Ba'ja and Basta. By comparison with the OSL ages, the IRSL ages demonstrate that most of the quartz samples were sufficiently well bleached at deposition to provide accurate ages. Quartz ages show that deposition of the rubble layers took place in different episodes starting around 8.5 ka and 6.0 ka. Ages from Ba'ja site agree with the archaeological expectations of time of deposition. However, the results from Basta are younger than the archaeological expectations, which are based mainly on architectural style and stratigraphy.

KW - Ba'ja

KW - Basta

KW - Jordan

KW - Neolithic

KW - OSL

KW - Rubble layers

KW - Yarmoukian landslide

U2 - 10.1016/j.quageo.2022.101291

DO - 10.1016/j.quageo.2022.101291

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85128255429

SN - 1871-1014

VL - 70

JO - Quaternary Geochronology

JF - Quaternary Geochronology

M1 - 101291

ER -