The Neolithic figurines and ornaments of Kharaysin
Within the activities organized by EUNIC Jordan and the Delegation of the European Union in the "Heritage Days in Jordan”, the Embassy of Spain and Instituto Cervantes in Amman are presenting a lecture entitled "The Neolithic figurines and ornaments of Kharaysin" and an exhibition of objects from the early Neolithic site of Kharaysin which is located near the village of Quneya, in the province of Zarqa - Jordan.
The exhibition will be displayed at the exhibitions hall of the Instituto Cervantes in Amman and will run through the 13th of October 2019.
In 2014 an international team directed by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and including researchers from different Spanish universities, the French National Research Council (CNRS), the University of Copenhagen and the Palacký University (Check Republic) started excavating the Early Neolithic archaeological site of Kharaysin, located near the village of Quneya, in the province of Zarqa. Four occupation levels have been so far documented in the site, dating from the end of the 12th millennium to the beginning of the 10th millennium before present. During this period, local populations shifted from a mobile to a sedentary life and invented agriculture and livestock.
The figurines and ornaments from Kharaysin represent important items of the Jordan Cultural Heritage found by a European team of archaeologists. The origins of the Neolithic, between 12.000 and 8.000 was one of the most dynamic and fruitful periods of human creativity in Jordan. Nomade hunter-gatherers settled down in permanent villages and invented livestock and agriculture. These innovations were exported to the rest of the old world in the following millennia. Showing these iconic objects made in that period will make the Jordan population aware of the highly innovative personality of their ancestors, stressing, at the same time, the Cultural collaboration of Europe in the discovery and preservation of their fruitful past.