Ayl-to-Ras en'Naqb Survey Project

Description:
The Ayl-to-Ras en'Naqb survey is a general survey for all time periods (the only kind the Jordanian Dept of Antiquities will issue a permit for) encompassing a good chunk of west-central Jordan between Ayl and Ras en'Naqb (near Petra) and extending from the western edge of the Jordan horst to the Desert Highway. My involvement in it is concerned with the 'lithic period' sites (everything from Lower Paleolithic to the PrePottery Neolithic). As I did with the Wadi Hasa Survey (1979-1983), I intend to use the lithic material survey to form the basis for a series of NSF grants involving excavation of 'lithic period' sites with buried, stratified deposits. This work, funded by 2 major NSF grants, 1 NGS grant, and 4 NSF Disssertation Aid Grants, was enormously productive, producing (so far) 3 monographs, >50 publications in the Wadi Hasa Paleolithic Project series, 5 PhDs and 7 MA degrees, and an NSF-funded 'daughter project' (Coinman & Olszewski's Eastern Hasa Late Paleolithic Project). In general, the work is oriented toward tracking changing forager adaptations to lacustrine environments through time.