5,000-Year-Old Ceremonial Site Discovered in Jordan

Room 5 successful Trench 8, lasting chromatic successful the mediate with a ample limestone mortar adjacent by. Credit: Susanne Kerner / CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Archaeologists person uncovered a 5,000-year-old ceremonial tract successful Jordan that whitethorn shed airy connected however past communities coped with large societal and biology changes. The discovery, led by a probe squad from the University of Copenhagen, centers connected Murayghat—a hilltop country marked by clusters of stone monuments and structures believed to person served ritual purposes.

The ceremonial tract discovered successful Jordan stands retired for its attraction of dolmens—stone burial markers—alongside lasting stones and ample megalithic constructions. Unlike the residential settlements of earlier periods, Murayghat shows small grounds of home life.

Researchers accidental this displacement suggests that Early Bronze Age communities successful the portion focused much connected communal rituals and gatherings during a clip of instability.

Cultural displacement aft illness of Chalcolithic era

The tract dates to the play pursuing the diminution of the Chalcolithic culture, which spanned astir 4500 to 3500 BCE.

That earlier epoch was known for its village-based living, copper tools, symbolic objects, and tiny shrines. Researchers judge changing clime conditions and interior societal disruptions led to the illness of that mode of life.

Overview of cardinal knoll (Area 1) from N, showing antithetic lines of lasting stones. Credit: Susanne Kerner / CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Susanne Kerner, the project’s pb archaeologist from the University of Copenhagen, said the findings amusement however aboriginal societies responded to specified upheaval.

Instead of rebuilding ample settlements, these communities turned to monument operation and ritual enactment arsenic a mode to support societal cohesion and redefine roles wrong the group.

Ritual structures and their societal function

Excavations astatine Murayghat person identified much than 95 dolmen structures, on with stone-built enclosures and carved features successful the bedrock. These carnal elements suggest the country was utilized for ceremonial functions, including communal burials and ritual assemblies.

Kerner noted that successful the lack of a cardinal authority, specified disposable landmarks apt helped communities found shared individuality and territorial presence. The standard and determination of the tract besides connote that it whitethorn person served arsenic a gathering constituent for antithetic groups crossed the region.

Artifacts recovered during the excavations see Early Bronze Age pottery, grinding stones, flint tools, ample communal bowls, carnal horn remains, and a tiny fig of copper objects. These materials constituent to feasting and ritual practices arsenic cardinal activities astatine the site.

Kerner elaborate the findings successful her caller article, published successful the journal Levant, wherever she outlines the site’s relation successful knowing the societal strategies of past communities facing disruption.