ABSTRACT
Investigations on the Plain of Dhra‘ and the Lisan Peninsula featured a collaboration between La Trobe and Arizona State universities for the Archaeology and Environment of the Dead Sea Plain Project co-directed by Phillip Edwards, Steven Falconer, and Patricia Fall. The focus of our project has been to elucidate the long-term consequences of human interactions within the agriculturally marginal environment surrounding the Dead Sea. Archaeological excavations at a trio of neighboring sites address three crucial junctures in the prehistory and history of the region. The Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) site of Zahrat adh-Dhra‘ 2 (ZAD 2) (9,600–9,300 BP/9,200–8,300 cal bc) highlights the advent of farming on the now hyper-arid Plain of Dhra‘. Zahrat adh-Dhra‘ 1 (ZAD 1), an unusual Middle Bronze Age (ca. 2,000–1,500 bc) village for this region, exemplifies agricultural settlement on the margins of Middle Bronze Age urbanized society. Investigations at Qasr al-Bulayda (QB) emphasize the Byzantine era, one of southern Jordan’s most significant periods of intensified settlement and agriculture.
