Settlement
In its prime era circa 7000 BCE, it extended over 10-15 hectares (25–37 ac) and was inhabited by ca. 3000 people (four to five times contemporary Jericho). After 6500 BC, however, the population dropped sharply to about one sixth within only a few generations, probably due to environmental degradation (Köhler-Rollefson 1992).
'Ain Ghazal started as a typical aceramic Neolithic village of modest size. It was set on terraced ground at a valley-side, and was built with rectangular mud-brick houses that accommodated a square main room and a smaller anteroom. Walls were plastered with mud on the outside, and with lime plaster inside that was renewed every few years.
Being an early farming community, the 'Ain Ghazal people cultivated cereals (barley and ancient species of wheat), legumens (peas, beans and lentils) and chickpeas in fields above the village, and herded domesticated goats. However, they also still hunted wild animals - deer, gazelle, equids, pigs and smaller mammals such as fox or hare.
Read more about this topic: 'Ain Ghazal
Famous quotes containing the word settlement:
“Before I get through with you, you will have a clear case for divorce and so will my wife. Now, the first thing to do is arrange for a settlement. You take the children, your husband takes the house, Junior burns down the house, you take the insurance and I take you!”
—S.J. Perelman, U.S. screenwriter, Arthur Sheekman, Will Johnstone, and Norman Z. McLeod. Groucho Marx, Monkey Business, terms for a divorce settlement proposed while trying to woo Lucille Briggs (Thelma Todd)
“... if the Settlement seeks its expression through social activity, it must learn the difference between mere social unrest and spiritual impulse.”
—Jane Addams (1860–1935)
“I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in providence, for the illumination of the ignorant and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth.”
—John Adams (1735–1826)