Kharaysin
خرايسين · Quneya · Kharaysin PPNA
PPNA to Late PPNB (9000–6800 BCE)·Southern Levant PPNA → PPNB (Jericho–Yarmoukian continuum)·🇯🇴 Zarqa Governorate, Zarqa River valley, Quneya village, Jordan
About
About Kharaysin
Huge Pre-Pottery Neolithic mega-site (25 ha) on Zarqa River middle terraces at Quneya, discovered 1984 Hanbury-Tenison Jerash survey and excavated since 2014 by Spanish CSIC (Ibañez). Stratified PPNA through Middle–Late PPNB (9000–6800 BCE) with naviform blade industry, 6800 plant remains showing legume (lentil) cultivation, plastered floors, wall painting and the earliest cremated human burial in the Near East (PPNB 9007–8774 cal BP) confirmed by XRD/Raman. Massive architecture includes earthen-walled communal building 8 m diameter. Demonstrates Jordanian plateau PPNA–PPNB transition outside the Jordan Valley corridor.
Why it mattersEarliest cremation in Levant and largest PPNA–PPNB village on Jordanian plateau; key to spread of farming out of Jordan Valley.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Meaning of cremation — hygiene or ritual transformation?
Theories
- 01Seasonal transhumant base linking Wadi Jilat to highlands
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. 9000 BCE (late PPNA)
- Period
- PPNA to Late PPNB (9000–6800 BCE)
- Culture
- Southern Levant PPNA → PPNB (Jericho–Yarmoukian continuum)
- Builders
- Sedentising forager–farmers
- Purpose
- Large sedentary farming–herding village with ritual/cemetery area and cremation rite
- Abandoned
- c.6800 BCE (late PPNB collapse)
- Rediscovered
- 1984 Jerash Region Survey; excavated 2014– Ibáñez (IMF-CSIC, Barcelona)
- Excavation
- Excavation ongoing
c.9000 BCE
PPNA curvilinear houses founded
c.8800 BCE
Cremation burial (earliest Near East) deposited
2014
Spanish mission opens large-scale trenches
On the ground
Structures & features
32.2039° N · 36.0089° E · 600 m · 2 mapped features
Communal building with plaster floor
buildingEarthen-walled circular building 8 m with wall painting
32.2040° N · 36.0090° EPPNB cremation burial
burialCremated adult in pit 9007–8774 cal BP
32.2037° N · 36.0087° E