The hydrologic system in Jordan began its evolution with the regression of the Tethys during the Eocene and the rifting of Arabia from Africa. From that time onward Jordan lay on land. The rivers from Jordan and the Sirhan east of it flew into the Rift. On the Jordan land volcanism developed and was on and off active until sub-recent times. Flows of magma covered large areas in north and central Jordan. The uppermost hard layers of the deep valleys of the Yarmouk and the Mujib present evidence for their later erosion. The land to the east of the rift was low and in depressions lakes formed on the Jordan plateau, which began to rise less than half a Million years ago. Especially the Jafr and the Azraq Lakes developed a belt of green vegetation that attracted numerous animals which were hunted by early men. Tools for hunting and food preparation were produced from flint and assembled next to the former lake shores with time. The shape of these flint tools allows a coarse dating and documents the arrival of humans hundred thousand years ago and of modern men between 50,000 and 80,000 years ago. Great changes in the shape of the eastern Rift margin had occurred before Lake Lisan evolved and its rising water flooded the mouths of canyons for example of Wadi Hasa, Wadi Mujib and Wadi Zerka Ma’in. On former gravel fans into Lake Lisan of the Tabaqat Fahl first agriculture still in Neolithic times evolved as well as in Amman where people from Ain Ghazal planted crops like barley and peas, beans, lentils and chickpeas and domesticated sheep, goats and pigs. The existence of the highland lakes seems to have been of utmost importance to human migrations from Africa. Such lakes provided water and food for those humans in the Arid area of Jordan.
Burdon, D.J. and Quennell, A.M. (1959) Handbook of the Geology of Jordan: To Accompany and Explain the three sheets of the 1:250,000 Geological Map of Jordan East of the Rift by Albert M. Quennell. Government of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Amman.
Bender, F. (1968) Geologie von Jordanien-Beitraege zur regionalen Geologie der Erde. Gebrüder Borntrager, Berlin.
Huchriede, R. and Wiesemann, G. (1968) Der junpleistozne pluvial von El-Jafr und wietere daten zum Quartaer Jordanieas. Geologica Palaeontologica, 2, 73-90.
Clark, I., Khoury, H., Salameh, E., Fritz, P., Goksu, Y., Wieser, A. and Fontes, J. (1992) Travertines in Central Jordan. IAEA-SM-319/6, 551-565.
Bandel, K. and Salameh, E. (2013) Geologic Development of Jordan-Evolution of Its Rocks and Life. Deposit No. 690/3/2013 of the National Library, Amman, 278 p.
Mischke, S., Opitz, S., Kalbe, J., Ginat, H. and Al-Saqarat, B. (2015) Palaeoenvironmental Inferences from Late Quaternary Sediments of the Al Jafr Basin, Jordan. Quaternary International, 382, 154-167. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2014.12.041
Mischke, S., Ginat, H., Al-Saqarat, B.S., Faerstein, G., Porat, N. and Rech, J. (2017) Fossil-Based Reconstructions of Ancient Water Bodies in the Levantine Deserts. In: Enzel, Y. and Bar-Yosef, O., Eds., Quaternary Environments and Humans in the Levant, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 381-389. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316106754.045
Davies, C.P. (2005) Quaternary Paleoenvironments and Potential for Human Exploitation of the Jordan Plateau Desert Interior. Geoarchaeology, 20, 379-400. https://doi.org/10.1002/gea.20055
Rech, J.A., Ginat, H., Catlett, G.A., Mischke, S., Winer Tully, E. and Pigati, J.S. (2017) Pleistocene Water Bodies and Associated Geologic Deposits in the Southern Levant. In: Enzel, Y., Bar-Yosef, O., Eds., Quaternary Environments and Humans in the Levant, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316106754.014
Quennell, A.M. (1958) The Structural and Geomorphic Evolution of the Dead Sea Rift. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, 114, 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1144/gsjgs.114.1.0001
Quintero, L.A. and Wilke, P.J. (1998) Archaeological Reconnaissance in the al-Jafr Basin, 1997. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, 42, 113-121.
Bandel, K. and Shinaq, R. (2003) The Sea in the Jordan Rift (Nordern Jordan) during Oligocene/Miocene Transition with Implications to the Reconstruction of the Geological History of the Region. Palaontologie, Stratigraphie, Fazies, 11, 97-115.
Bandel, K., Alhejoj, I. and Salameh E. (2016) Geologic evolution of the Tertiary-Quaternary Jordan Valley with Introduction of the Bakura Formation. Freiberger Forschungshefte, 23, 103-135.
Van Den Boom, G. and Sawwan, O. (1966) Report on Geological and Petrological Studies of the Plateau Basalts in NE-Jordan. Unpublished Report German Geologic Mission in Jordan, Amman.
Ibrahim, K.M., Shaw, J., Baker, J., Khoury, H., Rabba, I. and Tarawneh, K. (2006) Pliocene-Pleistocene Volcanism in Northwestern Arabian Plate (Jordan): I. Geology and Geochemistry of the Asfar Volcanic Group. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Palaontologie-Abhandlungen, 242, 145-170. https://doi.org/10.1127/njgpa/242/2006/145
Salameh, E. and Al Farajat, M. (2007) The Role of Volcanic Eruptions in Blocking the Drainage Leading to the Dead Sea Formation. Environmental Geology, 52, 519-527. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-006-0484-x
Wolfart, R. (1967) Geologie von Syrien and Libanon-Beitrage zur regionalen Geologie der Erde. Gebrüder Borntrager, Berlin.
Ginat, H., Opitz, S., Ababneh, L., Faershtein, G., Lazar, M., Porat, N. and Mischke, S. (2017) Pliocene-Pleistocene Water Bodies and Associated Deposits in Southern Israel and Southern Jordan. Journal of Arid Environments, 148, 14-33.
Schuldenrein, J. and Clark, G.A. (1994) Landscape and Prehistoric Chronology of West-Central Jordan. Geoarchaeology, 9, 31-55. https://doi.org/10.1002/gea.3340090103
Schuldenrein, J. and Clark, G.A. (2003) Prehistoric Landscapes and Settlement Geography along the Wadi Hasa, West-Central Jordan. Part I: Geoarchaeology, Human Palaeoecology and Ethnographic Modelling. Environmental Archaeology, 6, 23-38.
Davies, C. (2007) Past Environments of the Jordan Plateau from the Paleolakes of the Eastern Desert. Crossing Jordan: North American Contributions to the Archaeology of Jordan, 79-86.
Macumber, P. (2008) Evolving Landscape and Environment in Jordan. Equinox Publishing, 7-34.
Moumani, K., Alexander, J. and Bateman, M.D. (2003) Sedimentology of the Late Quaternary Wadi Hasa Marl Formation of Central Jordan: A Record of Climate Variability. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 191, 221-242. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0031-0182(02)00715-0
Winer, E.R. (2010) Interpretation and Climatic Significance of Late Quaternary Valley-Fill Deposits in Wadi Hasa. West-Central Jordan. Unpublished M.Sc. Thesis, Department of Geology, Miami University, Miami, 97.
Khoury, H.N. and Abu-Jayyab, A. (1995) Research Note to the Mineral Volkonskoite; Four New Localites in Central Jordan. Dirasat, 22, 189-198.
Alhejoj, I. and Bandel, K. (2013) Mollusks of the Pleistocene Al-Qarn Formation of the Jordan Rift-Valley in Jordan. Freiberger Forschungshefte, C, 545, 141-173.
Masri, A. (1988) The Geology of Halat Ammar and Al Mudawwara, Map Sheet Nos. Natural Resources Authority, Geological Mapping Directorate, Geological Mapping Division, Amman.
Petit-Maire, N., Carbonel, P., Reyss, J.L., Sanlaville, P., Abed, A., Bourrouilh, R. and Yasin, S. (2010) A Vast Eemian Palaeolake in Southern Jordan (29 °N). Global and Planetary Change, 72, 368-373. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2010.01.012
MacDonald, M. and Humanity Technical Services Limited (1966) Wadi Dhuleil Irrigation Project—Hydrogeology. Central Water Authority, Jordan, Amman, London.
Neev, D. and Emery, K.O. (1967) The Dead Sea: Depositional Processes and Environments of Evaporates. Israel Geological Survey Bulletin, 41, 147 p.
Potash Company Jordan. Open Files 2018.
Bookman, R., Bartov, Y., Enzel, Y. and Stein, M. (2006) Quaternary Lake Levels in the Dead Sea Basin: Two Centuries of Research.
Bartov, Y., Stein, M., Enzel, Y., Amotz-Agnon, A. and Ze’ev Reches, Z. (2002) Lake Levels and Sequence Stratigraphy of Lake Lisan, the Late Pleistocene Precursor of the Dead Sea. Quaternary Research, 57, 9-21. https://doi.org/10.1006/qres.2001.2284
Agnon, A. and Goring-Morris, N. (2014) Settlement on the Shores of Lake Lisan and Adjacent Swamps: Hindered Aridization. American Geophysical Union, 33D-1278.
Maher, L., Macdonald, D.A., Alaica, A., Banning, E.D., Jay, T. and Stock, J.T. (2014) Two Early Epipalaeolithic Sites in Wadi Taiyiba, Northern Jordan. Paléorient, 40, 73-97. https://doi.org/10.3406/paleo.2014.5617
Garcia, T., Féraud, G., Falguères, C., de Lumley, H., Perrenoud, C. and Lordkipanidze, D. (2010) Earliest Human Remains in Eurasia: New 40Ar/39Ar Dating of the Dmanisi Hominid-Bearing Levels, Georgia. Quaternary Geochronology, 5, 443-451. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quageo.2009.09.012
Lopez, S.D. and Hallenthal, G. (2016) Human Dispersal Out of Africa. A Lasting Debate. Evolutionary Bioinformatics Online, 11, 57-68. https://doi.org/10.4137/EBO.S33489
Washburn, S.L. (1960) Tools and Human Evolution. Scientific American, 203, 62-75. https://doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican0960-62
Schrenk, F., Bromage, T.G., Betzler, C.G., Ring, U. and Juwayeyi, Y.M. (1993) Oldest Homo and Pliocene Biogeography of the Malawi Rift. Nature, 365, 833-836. https://doi.org/10.1038/365833a0
Besancon, J., Copeland, L., Hours, F., Macaire, J. and Sanlaville, P. (1984) The Lower and Middle Paleolithic in the Upper Zarqa-Khirbet Samra Area of Northern Jordan: 1982-1983 Survey Results. Annual of the Department of Antiquities, 28, 91-141.
Olszewski, D.I. (2000) The Epipaleolithic in the Wadi Al-Hasa: An Overview. Archaeological Excavations in the Wadi Hasa, 2, 227-243.
Rollefson, G., Schnurrenberger, D., Quintero, L., Watson, R.P. and Low, R. (1997) Ain Soda and ‘Ayn Qasiya: New Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Sites in the Azraq Shishan Area, Eastern Jordan. In: Gebel, H.G.K., Kafafi, Z. and Rollefson, G.O., Eds., The Prehistory of Jordan, II: Perspectives from 1997 Studies in Early Near Eastern Production, Subsistence and Environment 4, Ex Oriente, Berlin, 45-58.
Rollefson, G.O. (1983) Two Seasons of Excavations at ‘Ain el-Assad near Azraq, Eastern Jordan, 1980-1981. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 252, 25-34. https://doi.org/10.2307/1356835
Copeland, L., Hours, F. and Series, B.I. (1989) Two Late Quaternary Pollen Profiles from Ain El-Assad, Azraq, Jordan. The Hammer on the Rock: Studies in the Early Paleolithic of Azraq, Jordan, 1, 259.
Jagher, R. (2016) Nadaouiyeh Ain Askar, an Example of Upper Acheulean Variability in the Levant. Quaternary International, 411, 44-58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2016.02.006
Clark, J.D., Beyene, Y., WoldeGabriel, G., Hart, W.K., Renne, P.R., Gilbert, H., Boisserie, J.R., et al. (2003) Stratigraphic, Chronological and Behavioural Contexts of Pleistocene Homo Sapiens from Middle Awash, Ethiopia. Nature, 423, 747. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature01670
Rollefson, G.O., Quintero, L.A. and Wilke, P.J. (2006) Late Acheulian Variability in the Southern Levant: A Contrast of the Western and Eastern Margins of the Levantine Corridor. Near Eastern Archaeology, 69, 61.