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Wadi el Jilat

Shown within Jordan
Alternative name	Qilat, Wadi Qilat
Location	Amman Governorate
Region	Jordan
Coordinates	31°30′06″N 36°24′29″E / 31.50167°N 36.40806°E / 31.50167; 36.40806
Type	Wadi
Area	150 square metres (0.015 ha) drainage catchment
Height	738 metres (2,421 ft) above sea level
History
Periods	PPNB
Cultures	Neolithic
Site notes
Archaeologists	Andrew Garrard, Sue Colledge
Condition	Ruins

Wadi Jilat is a seasonal stream (wadi) in the Badia of eastern Jordan. Part of its course runs through a steeply-incised ravine that retains water for much of the year, an unusual feature in the desert region.

The area is known for its archaeological significance, including a still-functioning dammed reservoir that may date back as far as the Nabataean period. Thirty two prehistoric sites were also discovered in the area by Andrew Garrard in the 1970s–80s. They include Wadi Jilat 6, an Early Epipalaeolithic megasite occupied from approximately 20,500 to 18,000 years ago. Together with Kharaneh IV, it is one of the two largest prehistoric sites in the Levant (c. 19,000 m) and has been interpreted as an seasonal aggregation camp. Wadi Jilat 7 is an early Neolithic site, providing the earliest known evidence of domesticated einkorn wheat, radiocarbon dated to 9500–9200 years ago.

References

1. Garrard, Andrew. "The Azraq Basin Project". UCL Institute of Archaeology. University College London. Retrieved 9 July 2017.
2. Politis, Konstantinos D. (1993). "The Stepped Dam at Wadi El-Jilat". Palestine Exploration Quarterly. 125 (1): 43–49. doi:10.1179/peq.1993.125.1.43. ISSN 0031-0328.
3. Garrard, Andrew; Byrd, Brian (2013). Beyond the Fertile Crescent: Late Palaeolithic and Neolithic Communities of the Jordanian Steppe. Levant Supplementary Series 13. Oxford: Oxbow Books. ISBN 978-1-842-17833-1.
4. Richter, Tobias; Maher, Lisa A.; Garrard, Andrew N.; Edinborough, Kevan; Jones, Matthew D.; Stock, Jay T. (2013). "Epipalaeolithic settlement dynamics in southwest Asia: new radiocarbon evidence from the Azraq Basin". Journal of Quaternary Science. 28 (5): 467–479. Bibcode:2013JQS....28..467R. doi:10.1002/jqs.2629. S2CID 130436456.
5. Garrard A. N., Colledge S., Hunt G., Montague R. Environment and subsistence during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene in the Azraq Basin, Paléorient, 1988. Volume 14. Issue 14–2. pp. 40–49.
6. Nestbitt, Mark., When and where did domesticated cereals first occur in southwest Asia? in R.T.J. Cappers & S. Bottema (Eds.) The Dawn of Farming in the Near East. Studies in Early Near Eastern Production, Subsistence, and Environment 6, 2002 (1999). Berlin, ex oriente.

• Archaeological sites in Jordan
• Neolithic settlements
• Paleolithic sites
• Megasites
• Wadis of Jordan