Prehistoric Environment and Settlement in the Azraq Basin: An Interim Report on the 1984 Excavation Season

The Azraq Project was begun in 1975 in order to learn more of the history of environment, settlement and subsistence in the presently arid zone of South-West Asia during the late Glacial and early Holocene—the period crucial to the beginnings of food production. In 1975 a survey was made of fifteen localitites around the Azraq Basin and the area was found to be rich in sites of late Acheulian to Neolithic date. Evidence was also found for a large Pleistocene lake at the centre of the depression (Garrard et al. 1975, 1977). In 1982 a more detailed archaeological and geomorphological survey was made of the area of the former lake and of two of its western tributary wadis–Wadis el-Jilat and Kharaneh (Garrard et al. 1985a,b). A range of Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic sites were found associated with the expansion and retreat of the last major lake. Similarly dated, as well as earlier. Upper Palaeolithic, sites were also found in the western tributary wadis, at the present steppe–desert boundary. The Upper Palaeolithic sites were found in river terrace accumulations, which are thought to have collected under wetter conditions than the present. A succeeding dry phase is suggested by an accumulation of loess and by the absence of early Epipalaeolithic sites. During the later Epipalaeolithic, when the Azraq lake was rising, there was large scale settlement in the western wadis. Settlement continued through into the succeeding Neolithic dry phase, which is indicated by the retreat of the Azraq lake to its present size.