ABSTRACT
Jordan as a nation-state has existed for less than 90 years. It occupies part of an ancient land inhabited since earliest human times; the Jordan valley was once the home of Palaeolithic and Mesolithic hunter-gatherers. A Neolithic people introduced agriculture and a settled way of life into the region seven to eight thousand years Before Christ. Beidha (1) on the East Bank of the Jordan and Jericho (2) on the West are on the sites of settlements which date back to some of this region’s earliest cities (bracketed numbers against old kingdom names refer to the map).
