Sophisticated accessory reveals complex trade network in Neolithic Jordan
The international team of researchers from Spain and Germany describe the find as showing 'unexpected level of connectivity between Ba'ja and the wider world'
An archeological discovery revealed unique insight into Neolithic culture and its social structure, through analysis of an item found in the ancient village of Ba’ja, near Petra, Jordan, published Wednesday in the open-access academic journal PLOS ONE.
Hala Alarashi of the CSIC, Spain, and the Côte d'Azur University, France, along with 17 colleagues, described the study as revealing “an unexpected level of connectivity between Ba'ja and the wider world, and its involvement in the exchange and trade networks that circulated throughout the Levant.”
Alarashi and her colleagues analyzed materials found on the body of an eight-year-old child buried in a grave at Ba'ja, dating between 7400 and 6800 BCE. There were over 2,500 beads from multiple materials, such as stone and shell, but also fossil amber described as “unprecedented” for that time period.
A perforated stone pendant held the necklace together in the back, and a mother-of-pearl ring in the front. The researchers posited the creation as holding further aesthetic, artisanal and socioeconomic implications than what initially met the eye.
The team investigated the process required to make the necklace, stating the creation would have required meticulous work, as well as the import of exotic materials from other regions. The authors revealed that complex social dynamics must have been in play between community members at Ba'ja, which would have involved artisans, traders, and high-status authorities.
“The retrieval of such an ornament from life and its attribution to a young dead child highlights the significant social status of this individual,” the authors wrote as an introduction to the article published by PLOS ONE.
Furthermore, the necklace was believed to be a key part of the funeral ritual. The author described it as not “belonging completely to the realm of death but rather to the world of the living, materializing a collective memory and shared moments of emotions and social cohesion.”
A physical reconstruction of the original necklace was created as part of the study, which is now on display at the Petra Museum in Southern Jordan.
Read more like this:
Italian archeologists uncover pizza 'ancestor' on fresco in Pompeii
Witches and skulls: Israeli archaeologists find evidence of necromancy
Israeli researchers reveal complex prehistoric human trade 'earlier than assumed'