Did South Levantine Urbanization Emerge in the East? The 4th Millennium Hillfort Pheonomenon of the Jawa Hinterland
Bernd Müller-Neuhof
Researcher at the German Archaeological Institute
AIA / DAI Fellow at the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA
Director of the Jawa Hinterlands Project
Thursday, May 11, 2017
12:00 PM
LaSalle Banks Room of the Oriental Institute
The emergence of urbanization in the southern Levant is generally associated with the emergence of fortified settlements in the Early Bronze Age II starting around 3,000 BCE. However, recent discoveries of several hill fort sites from the 4th millennium cal. BCE, especialty in the basalt desert of northeastern Jordan, seem to challenge this doctrine. Located in a marginal landscape with many options, these sites document that this region was involved in the evolution of hill forts in SW Asia. The lecture presents the newly discovered hill forts, followed by a critical review of the hitherto usual ascription of Jawa as a remote and isolated site located in the 'far east' of the southern Levant.
