Although the people of the Natufian culture were nomadic hunter-gatherers, Azraq 18 shows signs of repeated visits and use for long periods of time.[2] The excavations revealed the remains of structures, heavy ground stone tools, finely-worked bone and microlithic stone tools, and a large volume of plant and animal remains.[2] The animal remains included wild cattle and duck, indicating that the site was probably in or near to a wetland area.[4] Notably, a collective burial of three adults and four children was discovered at the site; one of very few surviving Natufian burials from the arid regions of the Levant. The bodies were interred separately at different times, and some of the skulls were later removed, treated with coloured pigments, and reburied.[5] The practice of retrieving and manipulating human remains—especially skulls—after burial began in with the Natufian and spread across Southwest Asia in the subsequent Neolithic period, and is sometimes referred as the Neolithic skull cult.[5][6]
After the 1985 excavations the area was cleared for agricultural use, likely destroying anything that remained.[2]
^ abcdGarrard, Andrew (1991). "Natufian settlement in the Azraq Basin, Eastern Jordan". In Bar-Yosef, Ofer; Valla, François (eds.). The Natufian Culture in the Levant. International Monographs in Prehistory 1. pp. 235–244.
^Garrard, Andrew N.; Byrd, Brian F. (2013). Beyond the Fertile Crescent: Late Palaeolithic and Neolithic Communities of the Jordanian Steppe. Levant Supplementary Series 13. Council for British Research in the Levant.