So, I'm in the middle of studying for my midterm in archaeological theory and method, but I had to share this new discovery because it's so totally unique and cool. A team of researchers from Jordan, Britain, Denmark, and the USA uncovered the remains of some paleolithic dwellings in Jordan that date back to about 20,000 years ago. That's 10,000 years before the advent of agriculture - or at least our earliest evidence for agriculture. It seems to suggest people were setting up, and living in, some fairly complex dwellings for extended periods of time long before they were actually tied to a specific landscape because of other economic factors (i.e. farming, horticultural, animal domestication). These people were seemingly free to come and go as they pleased, but for some reason they decided to stay put in one little area. I wonder why that was. Do you have any ideas?
Okay, that's all I have to say for now. Check out this article or the actual paper itself if you'd like to know more. These guys published in PLoS One so their findings aren't hidden behind a pay wall. I'm giving them some extra bonus points for that. Hooray for open access science! That's how it's done in the twenty-first century.
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