Beidha

A site in south-central Yemen near Petra that was first occupied in the Early Natufian and Aceramic Neolithic. It is situated on a high plateau and, until the unification of the two Yemen states in 1990, was part of North Yemen (San'a'), though it lay near the disputed frontier with South Yemen. At first it was a semi-permanent camp which lived off goat and ibex. Beidha was reoccupied c 7000 BC by a Pre-Pottery Neolithic A [PPNA} group, who lived in a planned community of roughly circular semi-subterranean houses. They domesticated goats and cultivated emmer, wheat, and barley. There was a succeeding PPNB phase in which the buildings changed to complexes of large rectangular rooms, each with small workshops attached and with plastered floors and walls. Burials without skulls were found and there was also a separate ritual area away from the village. Finds from the site include materials from great distances, including obsidian from Anatolia and cowries and mother-of-pearl from the Red Sea.

Natufian and Aceramic Neolithic site near Petra in southern Jordan. It was first occupied for a short period as a semipermanent camp in the Early Natufian period. The community of this time lived off ibex and goat; 75 per cent of the goats were immature animals, suggesting that selective hunting or perhaps herding was practised. Beidha was reoccupied c7000 be by a Prepottery Neolithic A [PPNA] group, who lived in a planned village of roughly circular semi-subterranean houses, arranged in clusters. The main meat food came from domesticated goats, while the villagers also cultivated emmer wheat and barley, both still in an early stage of domestication, and collected a number of wild plants. In the succeeding PPNB phase there was little change in the subsistence economy, but the form of the buildings changed: in this stage there were complexes of large rectangular rooms, each with small workshops attached. Floors and walls were plastered. There is some evidence that there may have been upper storeys. Burials without skulls were found in the settlement and there was also a separate ritual area away from the village, where three apparently ritual buildings have been excavated. Finds from the site include materials that had come from great distances, including obsidian from Anatolia and cowries and mother-of-pearl from the Red Sea.