Ba'ja

Ba'ja is a Neolithic village tucked into a steep sandstone gorge about 14 km north of Petra, Jordan. Founded around 7000 BCE in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B, it ranks among the largest early farming settlements of the southern Levant. Houses were terraced into the slopes around a spring-fed basin at some 1,160 m, with stone walls, plastered floors and timber-supported roofs; many were two-storey, with storage rooms, hearths and burials beneath the floors. Excavations have yielded flint and bone tools, shell and stone ornaments, and rich plant remains. The inhabitants grew cereals and legumes and kept goats and sheep, while still hunting wild animals. A narrow cleft is the only way into the site, making the village easy to defend but also isolated. Ba'ja was abandoned before the end of the seventh millennium BCE, and its well-preserved architecture and waterlogged deposits make it a key witness to the first farming communities of the Near East.