Burial Practices in Jordan from the Natufians to the Persians

Abstract

Jordan, rich in archaeological sites and the related funerary attributes, has the potential to reconstruct the life of past societies and deduce burial practices that, in turn, may assist in understanding these societies and tracking the changes of social adjustments chronologically. This study utilizes archaeological reports and manuscripts to synthesize the social archaeology in Jordan from the Natufian period to the Persian. The study shows a prominent variability in burial practices over the various archaeological periods that were triggered by culture change, where the latter was imposed by the intertwined socio-political and environmental factors. The simplicity or complexity in burial practices followed those of the society itself, where burial types and practices started as simple during the Natufian period and gradually intensified and complicated in the latter periods.