Harrat al-Sham

Ḥarrat al-Shām
Black Desert
Desert
Location within the Levant of the wider volcanic province it is part of
Location within the Levant of the wider volcanic province it is part of
Coordinates: 32°37′53″N 36°45′52″E / 32.63139°N 36.76444°E / 32.63139; 36.76444
Part ofSyrian Desert
Offshore water bodies
AgeOligocene, Neogene, Quaternary
GeologyBasaltic volcanic field
Volcanic fieldHarrat Ash Shaam Volcanic Province (HASV)
The Harrat near Jawa in eastern Jordan

The Ḥarrat al-Shām (Arabic: حَرَّة ٱلشَّام),[1][nb 1] also known as the Harrat al-Harra or Harrat al-Shaba,[2] and colloquially as the Black Desert in English,[3] is a region of rocky, basaltic desert straddling southern Syrian region and the northern Arabian Peninsula. It covers an area of some 40,000 km2 (15,000 sq mi)[citation needed] in the modern-day Syrian Arab Republic, Jordan, Israel and Saudi Arabia. Vegetation is characteristically open acacia shrubland with patches of juniper at higher altitudes.[4]

The Harrat has been occupied by humans since at least the Late Epipalaeolithic (c. 12,500–9500 BCE).[5] One of the earliest known sites is Shubayqa 1 (occupied c. 12,600–10,000 BCE),[5][6] a Natufian site where archaeologists have discovered the remains of the oldest known bread.[7]

  1. ^ Ibrahim, K. (1993), The geological framework for the Harrat Ash-Shaam Basaltic Super-Group and its volcanotectonic evolution, Jordan: Bulletin 24, Geological Mapping Division, Natural Resources Authority
  2. ^ Edgell, H. Stewart (2006). Arabian Deserts: Nature, Origin and Evolution. Dordrecht: Springer. pp. 327–329, 347. ISBN 978-1-4020-3969-0.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  3. ^ Betts, Alison (1982). "A Natufian site in the Black Desert, Eastern Jordan". Paléorient. 8 (2): 79–82. doi:10.3406/paleo.1982.4322. ISSN 0153-9345.
  4. ^ S.A. Ghazanfar, Vegetation of the Arabian Peninsula (Springer Science & Business Media, 1998) p 272.
  5. ^ a b Richter, Tobias (2017). "Natufian and early Neolithic in the Black Desert". In Enzel, Yehouda; Bar-Yosef, Ofer (eds.). Quaternary of the Levant: Environments, Climate Change, and Humans. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 715–722. ISBN 978-1-107-09046-0.
  6. ^ Richter, Tobias; Arranz-Otaegui, Amaia; Yeomans, Lisa; Boaretto, Elisabetta (5 December 2017). "High Resolution AMS Dates from Shubayqa 1, northeast Jordan Reveal Complex Origins of Late Epipalaeolithic Natufian in the Levant". Scientific Reports. 7 (1): 17025. Bibcode:2017NatSR...717025R. doi:10.1038/s41598-017-17096-5. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 5717003. PMID 29208998.
  7. ^ Arranz-Otaegui, Amaia; Carretero, Lara Gonzalez; Ramsey, Monica N.; Fuller, Dorian Q.; Richter, Tobias (31 July 2018). "Archaeobotanical evidence reveals the origins of bread 14,400 years ago in northeastern Jordan". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 115 (31): 7925–7930. doi:10.1073/pnas.1801071115. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 6077754. PMID 30012614.


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