Harrat al-Sham

Ḥarrat al-Shām
Black Desert
Location within the Levant of the wider volcanic province it is part of
Location within the Levant of the wider volcanic province it is part of
Coordinates: 32°37′53″N 36°45′52″E / 32.63139°N 36.76444°E / 32.63139; 36.76444
Part ofSyrian Desert
Offshore water bodies
AgeOligocene, Neogene, Quaternary
GeologyBasaltic volcanic field
Volcanic fieldHarrat Ash Shaam Volcanic Province (HASV)
The Harrat near Jawa in eastern Jordan

The Ḥarrat al-Shām (Arabic: حَرَّة ٱلشَّام),[1][nb 1] also known as the Black Desert,[2] is a region of rocky, basaltic desert straddling southern Syria and the northern Arabian Peninsula. It covers an area of some 40,000 km2 (15,000 sq mi)[citation needed] in the modern-day Syrian Arab Republic, Jordan, Israel and Saudi Arabia. Vegetation is characteristically open acacia shrubland with patches of juniper at higher altitudes.[3]

The Harrat has been occupied by humans since at least the Late Epipalaeolithic period (c. 12,500–9500 BCE).[4] One of the earliest known sites is Shubayqa 1 (occupied c. 12,600–10,000 BCE),[4][5] where archaeologists have discovered the remains of the oldest known bread.[6]

  1. ^ Ibrahim, K. (1993), The geological framework for the Harrat Ash-Shaam Basaltic Super-Group and its volcanotectonic evolution, Jordan: Bulletin 24, Geological Mapping Division, Natural Resources Authority
  2. ^ Betts, Alison (1982). "A Natufian site in the Black Desert, Eastern Jordan". Paléorient. 8 (2): 79–82. doi:10.3406/paleo.1982.4322. ISSN 0153-9345.
  3. ^ S.A. Ghazanfar, Vegetation of the Arabian Peninsula (Springer Science & Business Media, 1998) p 272.
  4. ^ a b Richter, Tobias (2017). "Natufian and early Neolithic in the Black Desert". In Enzel, Yehouda; Bar-Yosef, Ofer (eds.). Quaternary of the Levant: Environments, Climate Change, and Humans. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 715–722. ISBN 978-1-107-09046-0.
  5. ^ Richter, Tobias; Arranz-Otaegui, Amaia; Yeomans, Lisa; Boaretto, Elisabetta (5 December 2017). "High Resolution AMS Dates from Shubayqa 1, northeast Jordan Reveal Complex Origins of Late Epipalaeolithic Natufian in the Levant". Scientific Reports. 7 (1): 17025. Bibcode:2017NatSR...717025R. doi:10.1038/s41598-017-17096-5. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 5717003. PMID 29208998.
  6. ^ Arranz-Otaegui, Amaia; Carretero, Lara Gonzalez; Ramsey, Monica N.; Fuller, Dorian Q.; Richter, Tobias (31 July 2018). "Archaeobotanical evidence reveals the origins of bread 14,400 years ago in northeastern Jordan". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 115 (31): 7925–7930. doi:10.1073/pnas.1801071115. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 6077754. PMID 30012614.


Cite error: There are <ref group=nb> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=nb}} template (see the help page).


© MMXXIII Rich X Search. We shall prevail. All rights reserved. Rich X Search