Desert Funerary Architecture and Afterfile Beliefs in the Arid Southern Levant from a Longue Durée Perspective

Abstract

Use and intermittent visits to funerary and afterlife-related cultic structures played a significant role in the afterlife-world of the nomadic, semi-pastoral population that lived in the southern Levantine and SyroArabian arid margins for several millennia. This paper intends to analyze the archaeological evidences of mortuary structures and afterlife-related cultic architecture in the Negev and southern Jordan from the Neolithic to the Early Islamic Period. The study will actively adopt a longue dureé and trans-regional perspective by exploring several case studies in the long tradition of desert funerary landscapes.