Archaeology News Online

Ancient stone tombs, some dating back more than 4,000 years, have been uncovered by archaeologists working in Jordan's Black Desert. The burial sites were discovered in the Jebel Qurma region by a team of Dutch researchers. A giant cairn which dates back to the second or third century AD  [Credit: Jebel Qurma Archaeological Landscape Project] The region is so desolate that one early explorer described it as a land of 'Dead Fire'. The discovery of the burials could help to shed light on the history of human occupation of the area over the course of millennia, as well as the conditions they faced. Though many people once lived in Jebel Qurma, its climate is now inhospitable, and very few people live there. 'Except for a short period in the spring, the whole of this country looks like a dead fire — nothing but cold ashes,' wrote Group Capt. Lionel Rees, an officer in the British Royal Air Force, in an article he published in 1929 in the journal Antiquity . This enclos...

Ancient stone tombs, some dating back more than 4,000 years, have been uncovered by archaeologists working in Jordan's Black Desert. The burial sites were discovered in the Jebel Qurma region by a team of Dutch researchers. A giant cairn which dates back to the second or third century AD  [Credit: Jebel Qurma Archaeological Landscape Project] The region is so desolate that one early explorer described it as a land of 'Dead Fire'. The discovery of the burials could help to shed light on the history of human occupation of the area over the course of millennia, as well as the conditions they faced. Though many people once lived in Jebel Qurma, its climate is now inhospitable, and very few people live there. 'Except for a short period in the spring, the whole of this country looks like a dead fire — nothing but cold ashes,' wrote Group Capt. Lionel Rees, an officer in the British Royal Air Force, in an article he published in 1929 in the journal Antiquity . This enclos...