Genomic history of Neolithic to Bronze Age Anatolia, Northern Levant, and Southern Caucasus

Here, we report genome-wide data analyses from 110 ancient Near Eastern individuals spanning the Late Neolithic to Late Bronze Age, a period characterized by intense interregional interactions for the Near East. We find that 6th millennium BCE populations of North/Central Anatolia and the Southern Caucasus shared mixed ancestry on a genetic cline that formed during the Neolithic between Western Anatolia and regions in today’s Southern Caucasus/Zagros. During the Late Chalcolithic and/or the Early Bronze Age, more than half of the Northern Levantine gene pool was replaced, while in the rest of Anatolia and the Southern Caucasus, we document genetic continuity with only transient gene flow. Additionally, we reveal a genetically distinct individual within the Late Bronze Age Northern Levant. Overall, our study uncovers multiple scales of population dynamics through time, from extensive admixture during the Neolithic period to long-distance mobility within the globalized societies of the Late Bronze Age. Video Abstrac

Polymaterism in Early Syrian Ebla

While in Early Dynastic Mesopotamia polymaterism was not such a diffused practice, at Ebla, the use to compose figures with different materials, in large, as well as in miniature size images reached a peak, in the skills manifested in the assemblage of the materials, in the wealth of the raw materials employed and in the variety of objects produced. The evidence provided by this important Early Syrian town will be analysed in detail, and an attempt will be made, also with the aid of the cuneiform evidence, at understanding the reasons for the use of different materials, and the eventual symbolism behind them. Though the palace furniture was found in scattered pieces, as a consequence of the sack following to the fall of the town, the reconstruction of some unique object is proposed, which was peculiar to the Early Syrian culture of Ebla

Ebla. Alle origini della civiltà urbana

La mostra ha presentato 517 reperti provenienti dai soli di scavi di Ebla, dall'arte monumentale, all'artigianato palatino, templare e domestic

Scheda n. 126 p. 331, Catalogo Ebla. Alle origini della civiltà urbana

80 perle di pasta vitre