Spring of 2011 saw scientists from project B1 (F. Lehmkuhl, J. Richter, R. Löhrer, J. Protze) visiting northern Jordan to survey terrestrial sediment sections along the eastern slopes of the Jordan Valley north of Amman.
Accompanied by Prof. K. Al-Qudah (UNESCO Chair for Desert Studies) from Yarmouk University in Irbid, we succeeded in locating slack water deposits in the lower Wadi Mujib area (near the Dead Sea), and a huge Pleistocene sediment section near ancient Pella (in Wadi Al-Hammeh).
The second part of the field trip was dedicated to identifying suitable locations for future drilling projects. These will be used to evaluate the potential for Pleistocene palaeo-environmental research in the sebkha of the Azraq Basin. This operation was undertaken together with colleagues from the Institute of Geophysics and Meteorology of the University of Cologne (B. Tezkan, P. Yogeshwar) who will also be conducting the geophysical exploration of the sebkha sediments. During the geophysical investigations, lithic artefacts from archaeological periods, including the Acheulian, the Yabrudian, and the Upper Palaeolithic, were encountered in the proximity to several springmounds.
Geophysical investigations at a sebkha in the Azraq Basin. Photo: Jürgen Richter |
Handaxe as found on the surface. Photo: Jürgen Richter
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