Kharaysin (Tell Kharaysin)
خريسان · Kharaysin, Quneya
PPNA to Yarmoukian Pottery Neolithic·PPNA → MPPNB/LPPNB (Zarqa valley) → Yarmoukian·🇯🇴 Zarqa Governorate, Zarqa River valley, Quneya village, Jordan
About
About Kharaysin (Tell Kharaysin)
Pre-Pottery Neolithic village (c.8800–6800 BCE) sealed under 5 m of Zarqa alluvium, excavated 2015– Spanish CSIC (Juan José Ibáñez, Ferran Borrell). Impressive PPNB architecture: 2-storey stone-footed houses with plaster floors, communal building with red pigment, blade obsidian workshop and early lentil/wheat cultivation, transitional PPNB to Pottery Neolithic with Yarmoukian intrusion above. One of most complete PPNB village plans since Abu Hureyra, less known than Ba’ja/Jericho. 2 ha of domestic and ritual floors buried beneath road-cut terraces.
Why it mattersMost intact PPNB Zarqa sequence; links Levantine corridor PPNB to Damascus basin and clarifies MPPNB→Yarmoukian transition.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Is two-storey inference valid vs terraced slope construction?
- 02Yarmoukian intrusive vs continuous PPNB-PN transition here
Theories
- 01Ibáñez local Zarqa evolution vs Kuijt communal ritual driver model
- 02Obsidian exchange — Anatolian vs Arabian source proportion
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.8800 BCE PPNA pioneer huts; PPNB village c.8300–6800 BCE; PN Yarmoukian c.6400 BCE
- Period
- PPNA to Yarmoukian Pottery Neolithic
- Culture
- PPNA → MPPNB/LPPNB (Zarqa valley) → Yarmoukian
- Builders
- PPNB tribal houses; Yarmoukian potters
- Purpose
- Valley-floor farming village controlling Zarqa ford
- Abandoned
- c.6800 BCE PPNB collapse then PN reoccupation
- Rediscovered
- Found 2014 road cut; excavated 2015– Ibáñez/Borrell (CSIC Barcelona)
- Excavation
- Excavation ongoing
8300 BCE
MPPNB stone-footed houses with plaster floors established
2015
CSIC opens Area A two-storey house trench
On the ground
Structures & features
32.0830° N · 36.0120° E · 620 m · 3 mapped features
Area A two-storey houses
settlementMPPNB dwellings with upper floor joist sockets
32.0832° N · 36.0125° ECommunal red building
communalRed pigment floor and benches (ritual?)
32.0830° N · 36.0120° EPottery Neolithic Yarmoukian horizon
settlementYarmoukian pitted ware above PPNB collapse
32.0831° N · 36.0118° E