Four phases of development characterise the site of Ain Ghazal, a Neolithic settlement discovered near Amman.

From 7500 to 6700 B.C. small families lived in houses made of stone with whitewashed floors. They planted cereals, peas and lentils, and raised goats. Their well developed, stone tool work included sickles and hunting spearheads, and were produced on site. There might have been a religious use for the figurines representing wild oxen, and both male and female human forms. Their statues were whitewashed mannequins made of woven reeds, possibly indicating a form of ancestor worship, which would be corroborated by the existence of individual tombs dug under the floors of the houses.

From 6700 to 5700 B.C., with population growth, houses became larger to hold several families at a time. Small buildings with apses appeared, most likely temples.

From 6200 B.C. onwards the population declined, sheep herding replaced goat herding, cattle and pigs were domesticated. Home construction returned to simple, small houses with dirt floors. Fence walls set off plots of lands. A paved street ran from a hilltop to the river Zarqa. Ancestor worship must have disappeared, as burial practices moved from tombs to communal graves. A large temple with two rooms marked the separation between proanos and sanctuary (altar), which was later to become the hallmark of temple construction in the Middle East.

During the Yarmoukian Period, from 5700 to 4700 B.C., pottery production arose, and farming and animal husbandry became complementary. But after some 2300 years of farming, the soil was depleted, and the resident population drifted away to be replaced by nomads.

Plaster figurines representing human form, some busts, some of full bodies, while others represent faces modelled upon skulls. This particular skull-technique was used rather frequently; other examples of it have been found in the region (at Jericho, notably). Bitumen was used to decorate the eyes, and a red pigment mixed into the last layer of clay gave the faces a rosy hue. The Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. completed the restoration of these objects from Ain Ghazal.