Environment and Societies in the Southern Caucasus during the Holocene

The Southern Caucasus is a region located at a strategic intersection between the European and Asian continents. Its extremely varied topography sustained a range of climatic niches, and its mountain ranges to the north and south provided a corridor of passage between the Black and Caspian seas. The region has long served as both a passage and refuge for human populations making it a ripe zone for the study of the Holocene climate and its effects on occupation, as well as human impacts on the..

Ancient Lebanon reveals its treasures: ‘Sidon Best of 15 Years’ exhibition

The early lifestyle of people in ancient Sidon has been revived and brought back to life by a team of archaeologists showing to its full extent the richness of Lebanese heritage, culture and history.’ Fig.1: A view of College Site- Sidon (Lebanon), excavation summer 2013 © Sidon British museum excavation. The Sidon British Museum excavation team has been working for the last 15 years on the site of the old American College of Sidon, in close collaboration with the Directorate General of Anti..

Man, Animal, and Gods: Animal Remains as Indicators of Beliefs in the Ancient Near East

International audienceThe elements that allow us to approach the question of religion in archaeology are often extremely limited. Artistic expressions, sculptures, paintings and engravings, as illustrations of mental images, are the main material for prehistorians to study the emergence of symbolic systems (Cauvin 2000). Even in regions where the early appearance of writing makes it possible to call upon sources, textual sources that represent knowledge of the religious and sacred sphere sometimes remain very incomplete, particularly with regard to rituals and cultic activities. Nevertheless, “a religious activity is inscribed in a world of practices that unfold within a material environment” (" une activité religieuse s’inscrit dans un monde de pratiques qui se déploient au sein d’un environnement matériel": Cohen and Mottier 2016: 350). Belief––or rather “doing religion”––is a social dynamic construction where practices make a sacred entity, deity, or spirit, present through features and rituals (Cohen and Mottier 2016). Studies devoted to material cultures, i.e., the tangible forms linked to religious activities, can give an account of the latter and stimulate research perspectives. Taking into account the place of animals when discussing the material aspects of the remains of ritual and cultic activities, religious practices seems essential because animals are integrated into the sphere of the sacred and participate in the religious phenomenon in all societies: “There is no religion without animals” (Poplin 1989: 13). Skeletal elements are the mineral, tangible parts that remain of animals. While not comparable to other material objects that are considered material culture, faunal remains are part of the world of practices that take place within a material environment. In fact, they are clearly part of the material expressions of human activities, particularly religious ones in relation to beliefs. We present here the study of animal remains found in temple contexts in the Near East (Syria and Lebanon) dated to the Bronze Age that raise major questions: What information can archaeozoological studies of sanctuary contexts provide? How can animal remains be identified in relation to rituals and religion? Can we characterize them in relation to other archaeological remains linked to secular butchery and food activities? What is an intentional ritual deposit

Man, Animal, and Gods: Animal Remains as Indicators of Beliefs in the Ancient Near East

International audienceThe elements that allow us to approach the question of religion in archaeology are often extremely limited. Artistic expressions, sculptures, paintings and engravings, as illustrations of mental images, are the main material for prehistorians to study the emergence of symbolic systems (Cauvin 2000). Even in regions where the early appearance of writing makes it possible to call upon sources, textual sources that represent knowledge of the religious and sacred sphere sometimes remain very incomplete, particularly with regard to rituals and cultic activities. Nevertheless, “a religious activity is inscribed in a world of practices that unfold within a material environment” (" une activité religieuse s’inscrit dans un monde de pratiques qui se déploient au sein d’un environnement matériel": Cohen and Mottier 2016: 350). Belief––or rather “doing religion”––is a social dynamic construction where practices make a sacred entity, deity, or spirit, present through features and rituals (Cohen and Mottier 2016). Studies devoted to material cultures, i.e., the tangible forms linked to religious activities, can give an account of the latter and stimulate research perspectives. Taking into account the place of animals when discussing the material aspects of the remains of ritual and cultic activities, religious practices seems essential because animals are integrated into the sphere of the sacred and participate in the religious phenomenon in all societies: “There is no religion without animals” (Poplin 1989: 13). Skeletal elements are the mineral, tangible parts that remain of animals. While not comparable to other material objects that are considered material culture, faunal remains are part of the world of practices that take place within a material environment. In fact, they are clearly part of the material expressions of human activities, particularly religious ones in relation to beliefs. We present here the study of animal remains found in temple contexts in the Near East (Syria and Lebanon) dated to the Bronze Age that raise major questions: What information can archaeozoological studies of sanctuary contexts provide? How can animal remains be identified in relation to rituals and religion? Can we characterize them in relation to other archaeological remains linked to secular butchery and food activities? What is an intentional ritual deposit

Food for the Dead, Food for the Living, Food for the Gods, according to faunal Data from the Ancient Near East

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Sheep husbandry from the sixth to the third millennia BC in the Near East: a launching pad for the Mesopotamian urban revolution ?

International audienceThe Near East is the cradle of sheep and goat domestication. It is also the first place where farming began to specialize in sheep husbandry from the Neolithic period onwards. This paper focuses on the evolution of husbandry and the contribution of caprines (sheep and goats) to the animal economy in Mesopotamia and the Levant, par- ticularly from the Chalcolithic period to the Early Bronze Age. The increase in caprine breeding, especially sheep, is very significant from the Uruk period onwards in North Mesopotamia. The rise in the number of sheep was encouraged by the developing need for secondary products linked to the urbanization process. The control of sheep hus- bandry must have been fundamental for the implementation of the new economic and socio-cultural systems – urbanization, state-cities, empires – that developed at that time

Origin and evolution of sheep breeds: The diversity of modern breeds, Lebanon. ArchéOrient - Le Blog, 15 octobre 2021, [En ligne] https://archeorient.hypotheses.org/16478

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Origin and evolution of sheep breeds: The diversity of modern breeds, Lebanon

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Exploitation of fauna at Ras Shamra: case study of the ‘Maison aux Albâtres’, Late Bronze Age, northern Levant

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Food for the Dead, Food for the Living, Food for the Gods, according to faunal Data from the Ancient Near East

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