We use faunal evidence from Khirbat al-Mudayna al-ʿAliya, an agropastoral settlementlocated in west-central Jordan, to examine early Iron Age subsistence regimes.Analysis of faunal evidence reveals a low-intensity, nonspecialized animal economy dependenton both domesticated and wild species, including freshwater crabs. The subsistenceeconomy of the settlement, we argue, was structured so as to take maximumadvantage of its location overlooking the Wadi al-Nukhayla, a perennial water sourcesupporting a relatively verdant floral and faunal array. This diverse and flexible organizationmade subsistence in this resource-scarce environment more sustainable. Whenthis profile is compared with other early Iron Age southern Levantine communities, thediversity of ways that animal economies were organized during this period is apparent,signaling the need to investigate the local strategies that communities used to adapt totheir immediate environmental circumstances, not only ecologically but also socially.

The results of the Dhiban Excavation and Development Project's 2005 excavation season in Jordan. 

The extensification of agricultural systems into marginal lands is a common response to environmental,economic, and political pressures for more cultivable land. Yet the course that extensification takes inparticular instances is unpredictable given the choices available to producers. This article investigates aninstance of extensification during the late second millennium BCE on the semi-arid Eastern Karak Plateauin west-central Jordan. Architectural, faunal, and archaeobotanical evidence is presented from Khirbat al-Mudayna al-’Aliya, one of several communities that participated in an extensified settlement system onthe edge of the Wadi al-Mujib and its tributaries. Producers practiced agriculture and pastoralism in alow-intensity subsistence economy that supported a nucleated settlement of households. Faunal analysisdetermined goats were kept, and wild animals supplemented diets. Archaeobotanical analysis of charredplant remains from storage bins in a building destroyed byfire indicated that barley was stored in a semi-processed state and that harvesting by uprooting was practiced, thus resulting in the maximization of thestraw harvest. The riparian zone beneath the settlement was a key venue for subsistence activities. ThisEarly Iron Age example contrasts with later episodes of extensification whose settlement systems weremore dispersed and agro-pastoralist regime more integrated.

Archaeological remains of brachyurans (e.g. crabs) are often overlooked as potential paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatical proxies in contrast to other marine and terrestrial invertebrates such as mollusks and landsnails. The potential for fine-scale regional paleoclimate reconstruction based upon these organisms' behavioral ecology has yet to be examined. We present novel isotopic analyses of the remains of a semiterrestrial freshwater crab (Potamon potamios) endemic to southwest Asia recovered from the archaeological site of Khirbat al-Mudayna al-’Aliya (KMA). KMA lies on a southern tributary of the Wadi al-Mujib in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, approximately 40 km east of the Dead Sea. Excavations here recovered architecture, artifacts, and ecofacts dating to a single-period occupation during the early Iron Age (∼1000 cal BCE). Oxygen and carbon isotopes from these brachyuran remains were analyzed in conjunction with a two-year isotopic and morphometric study of the modern potomonautid population near the archaeological site and at nearby wadi systems to assess whether the isotopic values of modern crab populations correlated with variables such as temperature, including isotopic study of the pools in which crabs were found. In turn, these data could be used to reconstruct paleoclimate or paleoenvironment in the archaeological population. The high correlation in oxygen isotope values between crab carapaces and the water of the pools in which they were sampled suggest that variability in isotopic values of crab specimens recovered from KMA is tracking ancient human capture of these organisms across potentially different pools. Further, intra-year variability in isotopic values in modern crab carapaces as well as the similarity of isotopic values across wadi systems with different environments suggest that P. potamios remains cannot be used as reliable paleoenvironmental indicators. The implications of this research will have significance for archaeologists and other researchers in the study of paleoenvironment and paleoecology, and bears upon human mobility, resource acquisition, and human-nonhuman animal relationships.

Archaeological remains of brachyurans (e.g. crabs) are often overlooked as potential paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatical proxies in contrast to other marine and terrestrial invertebrates such as mollusks and landsnails. The potential for fine-scale regional paleoclimate reconstruction based upon these organisms' behavioral ecology has yet to be examined. We present novel isotopic analyses of the remains of a semiterrestrial freshwater crab (Potamon potamios) endemic to southwest Asia recovered from the archaeological site of Khirbat al-Mudayna al-’Aliya (KMA). KMA lies on a southern tributary of the Wadi al-Mujib in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, approximately 40 km east of the Dead Sea. Excavations here recovered architecture, artifacts, and ecofacts dating to a single-period occupation during the early Iron Age (∼1000 cal BCE). Oxygen and carbon isotopes from these brachyuran remains were analyzed in conjunction with a two-year isotopic and morphometric study of the modern potomonautid population near the archaeological site and at nearby wadi systems to assess whether the isotopic values of modern crab populations correlated with variables such as temperature, including isotopic study of the pools in which crabs were found. In turn, these data could be used to reconstruct paleoclimate or paleoenvironment in the archaeological population. The high correlation in oxygen isotope values between crab carapaces and the water of the pools in which they were sampled suggest that variability in isotopic values of crab specimens recovered from KMA is tracking ancient human capture of these organisms across potentially different pools. Further, intra-year variability in isotopic values in modern crab carapaces as well as the similarity of isotopic values across wadi systems with different environments suggest that P. potamios remains cannot be used as reliable paleoenvironmental indicators. The implications of this research will have significance for archaeologists and other researchers in the study of paleoenvironment and paleoecology, and bears upon human mobility, resource acquisition, and human-nonhuman animal relationships.