ABSTRACT
Jordan has historically played a pivotal role in research related to the origins of agriculture, because it was in the southern Levant where humans first domesticated wheat and barley nearly 10,000 years ago. The number of papers in this volume devoted to Neolithic sites is a testament to that tradition. The increasing symbiosis between plants and people that characterizes the shift from hunting-gathering to agricultural lifestyles represents a biocultural crossroads. It marks a fundamental turning point in the relationships between human groups and their natural and social environments. Our research examines these revolutionary events in west-central Jordan. Was the development of farming a regional phenomenon that grew out of indigenous roots in west-central Jordan? Were the local Natufian hunter-gatherers influential in shaping and managing the origins of agriculture? Or were the Neolithic villagers newcomers to the area seeking out new tracts of arable land as they either outgrew or outstripped the resources further North? How did the intersection between local identity and larger, regional patterns of culture play out in west-central Jordan? Addressing these questions is the primary focus of our on-going work described in this chapter.
