FEATURE ARTICLES Fallahin and Bedu between the Desert and the Sown: the Population Dynamics of a buffer-zone from Byzantium to the Mamluks

From the twilight of Byzantine rule to the Mamluk Sultanate, various modes of interaction between agriculturalists and pastoralists were at play in the large semi-arid zone of the Southern Levant from semi-sedentarization to temporary settling for the servicing of pilgrims on the road to Mecca. Using Geographical Information Systems (GIS) in combination with archaeological data and historical sources, a new geo-spatial approach applied to landscape archaeology attempts to capture and explain the diachronic population dynamics of southern Jordan.