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Dhra, Zahrat, adh‑Dhraʿ or ZAD 2 dates to the PPNA. Roughly 10,500–9,200 BC (final PPNA phases, and 9,200–8,300 BC for ZAD2

Its setting was the Alluvial fan or Dead Sea plain near ancestral Wadi adh‑Dhraʿ
Its 10–20 km east of the modern Dead Sea shoreline and well east of the Jordan River valley proper.

They had and economy based on intensive wild‑cereal gathering and pre‑domestication cultivation including legumes
They had groundstone tools, and many were abundant.

Architecture was oval/curvilinear stone huts, with semi‑subterranean floors, stone benches and plastered surfaces
Multiple floor layers in single structures, show they were rebuilt. It fits the southern Levant PPNA pattern (round/oval forms dominate, while square/rectangular plans become common later in PPNB).

Faunal lists show wild ungulates and small carnivores
Explicit evidence for leopard or wild cat presence is limited in published ZAD2 reports They occur regionally but must be checked in faunal catalogues.

Dhra compares with other southern Levant PPNA sites
Dhra and ZAD2 are hamlet‑scale, year‑round settlements comparable to Netiv Hagdud and Jericho’s PPNA phases but located farther south on the Dead Sea plain; they preserve deep occupation fills and multiple floor sequences.

Architecture: Dhra has oval/curvilinear stone huts with benches. They fit the southern Levant PPNA pattern of round/oval forms, and square/rectangular plans later in PPNB.

Economy: Like other late PPNA southern sites, Dhra shows pre‑domestication agriculture (cereals, pulses) rather than fully domesticated crops. The site contributes to the “pre‑domestication cultivation” model.

Significant finds and notable features
The oval stone structures with built benches had multiple floor layers. And, are well preserved at ZAD2.

Large archaeobotanical assemblages indicating cereal and pulse processing and possible on‑site crop tending.

Early storage/silo evidence, and incised stone plaquettes (symbolic material) recovered in context.

Obsidian: ZAD2 is among southern sites incorporated into Anatolian obsidian exchange networks, so exotic lithics occur.

Key investigators: Ian Kuijt (earlier Dhra work), Phillip C. Edwards and La Trobe University team (Zahrat adh‑Dhraʿ 2 excavations 1999–2002)
And, Shelby White & Leon Levy project summarize, La Trobe/Arizona State collaborate, and there are publications in the Paléorient and journals documenting stratigraphy, micromorphology and archaeobotany.

Dhra was a southern Levantine PPNA hamlet on the Dead Sea plain. With oval/semisubterranean stone‑built houses, early evidence for cultivation of cereals & specialized features (silos, benches, dense refuse). Check it out today.

References: JSTOR Dhra’: An Early Neolithic Village in the Southern Jordan Valley https://www.jstor.org/stable/530576

whitelevy.fas.harvard.edu The Pre-pottery Neolithic A Site of Zahrat Adh-‘Dhra 2 and the Dawn of Farming by the Dead Sea | The Shelby White and Leon Levy https://whitelevy.fas.harvard.edu/pre-pottery-neolithic-site-zahrat-adh-dhra-2-and-dawn-farming-dead-sea

JSTOR The Third Season of Investigations at the Pre-Pottery Neolithic a Site of Zahrat adh-Dhraʿ 2 on the Dead Sea Plain, Jordan https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/25067020.pdf

JSTOR Dhra’: An Early Neolithic Village in the Southern Jordan Valley https://www.jstor.org/stable/530576

whitelevy.fas.harvard.edu The Pre-pottery Neolithic A Site of Zahrat Adh-‘Dhra 2 and the Dawn of Farming by the Dead Sea | The Shelby White and Leon Levy https://whitelevy.fas.harvard.edu/pre-pottery-neolithic-site-zahrat-adh-dhra-2-and-dawn-farming-dead-sea

JSTOR The Third Season of Investigations at the Pre-Pottery Neolithic a Site of Zahrat adh-Dhraʿ 2 on the Dead Sea Plain, Jordan https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/25067020.pdf

Dhra‘: An Early Neolithic Settlement – Faynan Heritage https://faynanheritage.org/the-neolithic-southern-jordan/dhra/

Pottery Neolithic landscape modification at Dhra’ https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/pottery-neolithic-landscape-modification-at-dhra/9FC2C1CEBEB83DCE4F507595A79649BD

Zahrat Adh-Dhraʿ 2: A New Pre-Pottery Neolithic A Site … – ResearchGate https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Phillip-Edwards-4/publication/271802493_Zahrat_Adh-Dhra_2_A_New_Pre-Pottery_Neolithic_A_Site_on_the_Dead_Sea_Plain_in_Jordan/links/5f15a20ba6fdcc3ed718c744/Zahrat-Adh-Dhra-2-A-New-Pre-Pottery-Neolithic-A-Site-on-the-Dead-Sea-Plain-in-Jordan.pdf