Hunter-Gatherer Interactions in Eastern Jordan
Channel: Science@Cal
Date: 20/10/2014

Dr. Lisa A. Maher

Full Title: House and Home in Prehistory: Reconstructing Hunter-Gatherer Interactions in Eastern Jordan. 

Summary: In Southwest Asia only a handful of prehistoric sites attest to the aggregation of hunter-gatherer groups including evidence of individual dwellings, tents or hut structures.  The incredible size of Kharaneh IV, as well as a richness of stone tools, fauna, worked bone objects, red ochre, marine shell beads, and charcoal remains, provide a rare opportunity to reconstruct evidence for long-term occupation, house construction and use, food surpluses (storage and feasting), long-distance interaction networks, treatment of the dead, and caching of utilitarian and symbolic objects by these hunter-gatherer groups. We reconstruct these activities to explore the idea that hunter-gatherers had “homes” that included both hut structures and broader social landscapes.