During the Neolithic Age, the largest settlement in Jordan was Ain Ghazal located in the north-west. Inhabited c. 7000 BCE, Ain Ghazal was an agricultural community whose artisans created some of the most striking anthropomorphic statuary in early history.
By about 5,000 BC people in Jordan were making pottery. By 4,000 BC they smelted copper and about 3,200 BC they learned to make tools of bronze.
During the Middle Bronze Age (c. 1950-1550 BCE), people began to move around the Middle East to a far greater extent than before. Trading continued to develop between Egypt, Syria, Arabia, Palestine and Jordan, resulting in the refinement and spread of civilization and technology.
After 1,500 BC Jordan was divided into highly organized kingdoms. The most important were Moab, Edom, and Amon. Together with other Middle Eastern territories, Jordan passed in turn to the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, and, about 330 B.C., the Seleucids
Alexander the Great (r. 336-323 BC) founded cities in the region and the Nabateans carved their capital city of Petra there from sandstone cliffs.
In A.D. 106 it became part of the Roman province of Arabia and in 633 was conquered by the Arabs. In the 16th century, Jordan submitted to Ottoman Turkish rule and was administered from Damascus until the Great Arab Revolt occurred against the Ottomans in 1916 during World War I.
In 1920, Prince Abdullah bin Hussein, a descendent of the Prophet Mohammed, arrived in the southern city of Maan and stayed there for four months, where he met with the Jordanian tribes to make the necessary arrangements to establish the Jordanian state, and then moved to Amman, where he arrived on March 2, 1921.
In 1923, Britain recognized Jordan's independence, subject to the mandate. When the British mandate ended on 22 May 1946, Amir Abdullah was crowned king of the now independent state of Jordan
Jordan became officially an independent state, known as the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan. However, it was renamed to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan post the country took over the West Bank during the Arab–Israeli War of 1948. King Abdullah was assassinated in 1951. He was replaced by his son Talal. However, in 1952 he was followed by Hussein. During the 1960s and 1970s, economic growth took place in Jordan.
History of Jordan
