600+
Structures
Eastern Badia Archaeological Project (EBAP)
Overview
The Eastern Badia Archaeological Project (EBAP) investigates the later prehistory of eastern Jordan, with particular focus on Late Neolithic communities in the Black Desert. Since 2008, survey and excavation at sites including Wisad Pools and Wadi al-Qattafi have revealed evidence for semi-permanent settlement in landscapes that are now extremely arid, but were once wetter and supported marshes, standing water, and possibly localized woodland. EBAP explores how these communities responded to environmental change, interacted with regions across the Levant, Mesopotamia, and Arabia, and contributed to wider processes of Neolithization. The project also documents later traces of human activity, including colonial-era infrastructure.
Team enjoys breakfast at Wisad Pools
Drone view over Maitlands Mesa
Field camp near the Wisad Pools
Neolithic buildings around mesas
Neolithic projectile points
Before and after excavation of a Neolithic building
Eastern Badia Archaeological Project: Survey, Documentation, and Excavation in Eastern Jordan
The Eastern Badia Archaeological Project (EBAP) focuses primarily on the later phases of prehistory in the panhandle of eastern Jordan. Our broader goals include exploring the relationship of local Neolithic communities with regions further afield (i.e., Mesopotamia, Arabian Peninsula, and the Levantine coast), investigating the impact of the 8.2kya climate event, examining the appearance of hilltop sites possibly occurring after the demise of the local Late Neolithic, and exploring the possibility that the large Neolithic aggregation sites led to increased Neolithization on the Arabian peninsula. More recently our documentation includes the remaining traces of colonial infrastructure (e.g., aviation markers, Trans Arabian Pipeline).
Since 2008, survey and excavation conducted by EBAP has yielded evidence for semi-permanent occupation during the Late Neolithic (c. 6,400-5,100 cal BC) in areas that are now quite arid. Climatic and environmental research by EBAP suggests wetter conditions during the LN with possible localized woodland, marsh, and standing water. Individual structures were excavated at the sites of Wisad Pools and Wadi al-Qattafi along the margins of the harra, or Black Desert, a small sample of the many hundreds which are now known to exist.
By the numbers
EBAP is revealing the remarkable scale and persistence of human life in Jordan’s Black Desert. Hundreds of structures, ancient rock art, long-lived settlements, and sophisticated use of scarce water point to a landscape that was far more inhabited and interconnected than once imagined.
450+
Petroglyphs
700+
Years of Occupation
500K
Gallons of Water
Behind every number is evidence of a once-thriving desert landscape: communities built, gathered, created, and adapted across the Eastern Badia for generations.
The Eastern Badia Team
The Eastern Badia Archaeological Project brings together decades of field experience in eastern Jordan. Through survey, excavation, and documentation, the team is revealing how people lived, adapted, and moved through the changing landscapes of the Black Desert.
Wisad Pools and Wadi al-Qattafi, rather than backwater margins, may have been on the crossroads of the steppe and important nexuses for cultural exchange …
Yorke Rowan | Petroglyphs and Kites in the Black Desert, Jordan: Connecting Art and Landscape
Select Publications
- Alexander Wasse, Gary Rollefson, Yorke Rowan, Blair Heidkamp, Louise Martin, Tom Röttger-Morgan, and Özlem Sarıtaş. "Not a Place for Respectable People, But the Ends of the Earth Converge There: Insights from Wisad Pools into the Nature and Context of Jordan’s Black Desert Neolithic." Levant 56 (2024): 1–32.
- Holly Jenkins, Julian Andrews, Yorke Rowan, Alexander Wasse, Tom White, Graham Philip, Alina Marca, and Joanne Clarke. "Stable Isotopes and Proxies of Local Palaeoclimates for Three Sites in the Holocene Levant." The Holocene 33 (2022): 255–266.
- Austin Chad Hill and Yorke M. Rowan (2022). "The Black Desert Drone Survey: New Perspectives on an Ancient Landscape." Remote Sensing 14, Special Issue: Remote Sensing of Past Human Land Use (2022): 702.
- Yorke M. Rowan, Gary O. Rollefson, and Alexander Wasse. "Populating the Black Desert. The Late Neolithic Presence." In Landscapes of Survival: Pastoralist Societies, Rock Art and Literacy in Jordan’s Black Desert, edited by P. M. M. G. Akkermans, pp. 59–77. Leiden: Sidestone Press, 2020.
- Austin Chad Hill, Yorke M. Rowan, Alexander Wasse, and Gary O. Rollefson (2020). "Inscribed Landscapes in the Black Desert: Petroglyphs and Kites at Wisad Pools, Jordan." Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 31 (2020): 245–262.
- Yorke M. Rowan, Gary O. Rollefson, Alexander Wasse, Austin Chad Hill, and Morag M. Kersel. "The Late Neolithic Presence in the Black Desert." Near Eastern Archaeology 80 (2017): 102–113.
- Yorke M. Rowan, Gary O. Rollefson, Alexander Wasse, Wael Abu-Azizeh, Austin Chad Hill, and Morag M. Kersel. "The ‘Land of Conjecture’: New Late Prehistoric Discoveries at Maitland’s Mesa and Wisad Pools. The Eastern Badia Archaeological Project, Jordan." Journal of Field Archaeology 40 (2015): 175–188.
- Gary O. Rollefson, Yorke M. Rowan, and Alexander Wasse. "The Late Neolithic Colonization of the Eastern Badia of Jordan." Levant 46 (2014): 285–301.
- Yorke M. Rowan and Austin Chad Hill. "Pecking at Basalt: Photogrammetric documentation of petroglyphs in the Black Desert, Jordan." In Settlement, Survey, and Stone: Essays on Near Eastern Prehistory in Honour of Gary Rollefson, edited by W. Finlayson and C. Makarewicz, pp. 209–217. Berlin: Ex Oriente, 2014.