9,000-Year-Old Necklace Buried With 8-Year-Old Child in Neolithic Village Reconstructed, Displayed at Jordan’s Petra Museum

An ancient necklace was restructured and put on display in a museum. The extraordinary piece was reportedly found in the grave of an 8-year-old child buried 9,000 years ago.

Extraordinary Necklace From Neolithic Village

In a recent study, researchers explained how they rebuilt the relic several millennia later. The evaluation of the necklace has revealed previously unrecognized depth about the child's old society, Newsweek reported.

The necklace was discovered in a cemetery in the Neolithic hamlet of Ba'ja in Jordan, which dates to between 7400 and 6800 B.C. Around the 10th millennium B.C., at least in the Middle East, the Neolithic archaeological period started.

The location is one of the most significant and well-researched communities from this period in the Southern Levant. Large, deep, and sophisticated constructions have been found in Ba'ja since 1997 as a result of archaeological fieldwork.

In addition to more than 2,500 vibrant stones and shell beads on the chest and neck, a double-perforated stone pendant, and a carefully carved mother-of-pearl ring, the grave was discovered in 2018. The kid was found in the fetal position.

After analyzing their composition, craftsmanship, and spatial arrangement, the authors concluded that these objects were once part of a single, multi-row necklace that has since disintegrated.

According to several lines of evidence, the necklace was likely constructed in Ba'ja, even though a large portion of the beads were crafted from rare shells and stones, including fossil amber.

According to the researchers, the ornament shows that the youngster had a substantial social rank.

The necklace's profusion of beads, a frequent feature of ornaments discovered in other tombs in Ba'ja, suggests riches and success. Over 2,500 beads are used as ornaments, unheard of in Levantine Neolithic villages.

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Physical Reconstruction of Necklace

As part of the study, the researchers recreated the original necklace. The outcome is currently on display at the Petra Museum in Jordan.

Not all of the necklace's parts were preserved in their original positions when the child's body and artifacts were discovered. As a result, a thorough examination of the necklace's components and a series of estimates based on logical deductions served as the foundation for its reconstruction.

The scientists, however, declared that the reconstruction results exceeded their expectations. It featured an imposing multi-row necklace of complex structure with a beautiful design.

None of the Neolithic Levantine ornamental traditions that are currently known have anything like the said necklace. The elaborate decorations of the later urban Mesopotamian and Egyptian societies are reminiscent of these works due to their significant volume, intricate organization, symmetry, harmony, beauty of the objects, and play of light and color.

The necklace appears to have been meticulously crafted during its creation. Additionally, it stands out as it includes several rare resources from foreign countries.

The examination of the necklace reveals a high degree of interconnectedness between the ancient Ba'ja people and the rest of the world.

The researchers claimed the community had access to marine, mineral, and amber supplies while being unseen and concealed between the rocks, leading to a broad spectrum of ornamental patterns.

The study was published in the online journal PLOS One.