Les crânes surmodelés de Tell Aswad (PPNB, Syrie). Premier regard sur l’ensemble, premières réflexions

Le site de Tell Aswad (35 km à l’est de Damas, Syrie) a livré de très nombreux restes funéraires. Deux aires funéraires successives ont notamment été mises au jour, datant de la fin du PPNB moyen ou du début du PPNB récent et situées à la marge de la zone construite. Chacune de ces aires a été fondée par un dépôt de crânes surmodelés, enfoui dans une fosse. Le contexte de ces dépôts est donc dissimulé et collectif. Après une description des crânes surmodelés, il sera tenté ici de comparer leur contexte avec celui des autres attestations connues pour la même époque.The site of Tell Aswad (35 km east of Damascus, Syria) unveiled numerous funerary remains. A new light was shed on two consecutive funeral areas, dating from the end of the Middle PPNB or the beginning of the Late PPNB and situated on the periphery of the constructed zone. Each area was founded by a deposit of over-modeled skulls, buried in a hole in the ground. The context of those deposits is therefore concealed and collective. After a brief description of the over-modeled skulls, we will attempt in the following paper to compare this given context to that of the other known-to-date discoveries evidenced for the same period.خلاصة – كشف موقع تل أسود الذي يبعد 35 كلم إلى الشرق عن دمشق عن الكثير جداً من البقايا الجنائزية. وقد تم الكشف بشكل خاص عن مساحتين جنائزيتين متتابعتين ترجعان إلى نهاية العصر النيوليتي ما قبل الفخار ب PPNB الأوسط أو إلى بداية العصر النيوليتي ما قبل الفخار ب الحديث، وهما تقعان على طرف المنطقة المبنية. وكانت كل من هاتين المساحتين قد أنشأ من خلال تراكم للجماجم المقولبة المطمورة في حفرة. وبالتالي كان الإطار الذي وجد فيه هذان المستودعان مخفياً وجماعياً. ونحاول هنا بعد تقديم وص

L’aire funéraire de Tell Aswad (PPNB)

Le site néolithique de Tell Aswad, situé à 30 km à l’est-sud-est de Damas, a été découvert et sondé par H. de Contenson en 1972 et 1973. Le site a été fouillé par une équipe franco-syrienne de 2001 à 2006. Les trois phases du PPNB (Horizon PPNB ancien, PPNB moyen, PPNB récent) ont été mises en lumière dans quatorze niveaux archéologiques. Cet article présente une aire funéraire qui se rattache sans doute au début du PPNB récent. Deux groupes de sépultures, représentant deux états successifs, réunissent plus de cinquante individus inhumés selon diverses pratiques (sépultures individuelles, plurielles, primaires, secondaires, combinées). L’état initial de cette aire a été fondé par le dépôt de quatre crânes surmodelés.Tell Aswad is a Neolithic site located 30 km East-South-East from Damascus. Discovered by H. de Contenson, the site was sounded in 1972 and 1973. Between 2001 and 2006 it was excavated by a Franco/Syrian team. Fourteen archaeological levels were discovered, representing the three phases of the PPNB (Early PPNB horizon, Middle and Late PPNB). The funeral area described here appears to be dated to the beginning of the Late PPNB. This area was used in two stages and more than 50 individuals were buried in several different types of grave (individual, collective, primary, secondary and a combination of these). The first stage begun with the deposition of four plastered skulls.خلاصة – يقع تل أسود، وهو موقع نيوليتي (العصر الحجري الحديث)، على بعد 30 كم إلى الشرق من دمشق. تم الكشف عن الموقع من قبل العالم هنري دو كونتنسون، الذي قام بمجموعة من الأسبار في الموقع في عامي 1972 و 1973. وبين عامي 2001 و 2006 تم التنقيب في الموقع من قبل فريق عمل فرنسي/سوري، وتم العثور على أربع عشرة سوية أثرية توضح العصر الحجري ماقبل الفخار ب بمراحله الثلاث (القديم، الوسيط، الحديث). يقدم هذا المقال الحيز الجنائزي الذي يعود وبدون أدنى شك إلى فترة النيوليت ما قبل الفخار ب الحديث. تم استخدام هذه المنطقة خلال فترتين متعاقبتين ضمتا مجموعتين من القبور والتي دفن فيها أكثر من خمسين فرداً في وضعيات دفن متنوعة (فردي، جماعي، أولي، ثانوي، وكلها مختلطة). تبدأ المرحلة الأولى من هذا الحيز بدفن أربع جماجم مقولبة (المطليّة بطريقة تقولبها بشكل جديد)

The Role of Education for Intergenerational Income Mobility: A comparison of the United States, Great Britain, and Sweden

Previous studies have found that intergenerational income persistence is relatively high in the United States and Britain, especially as compared to Nordic countries. We compare the association between family income and sons’ earnings in the United States (National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1979), Britain (British Cohort Study 1970), and Sweden (Population Register Data, 1965 cohort), and find that both income elasticities and rank-order correlations are highest in the United States, followed by Britain, with Sweden being clearly more equal. We ask whether differences in educational inequality and in return to qualifications can explain these cross-country differences. Surprisingly, we find that this is not the case, even though returns to education are higher in the United States. Instead, the low income mobility in the United States and Britain is almost entirely due to the part of the parent-son association that is not mediated by educational attainment. In the United States and especially Britain, parental income is far more important for earnings at a given level of education than in Sweden, a result that holds also when controlling for cognitive ability. This goes against widespread ideas of the United States as a country where the role of ascription is limited and meritocratic stratification prevails

Les pratiques funéraires de l'horizon PPNB ancien à Tell Aswad (Syrie)

Fig. 1 : Situation géographique de Tell Aswad (Syrie). Tell Aswad, grand site néolithique (250x250m) situé à 30 km au Sud-Est de Damas (fig. 1), a été fouillé de 2001 à 2006 (Stordeur et al., 2010). L’occupation, attribuée au Néolithique Précéramique B (PPNB), s’étend de 8200 à 7500 avant J.-C. (débutant à la fin du PPNB ancien, elle se termine au début du PPNB récent). Les 18 niveaux de la stratigraphie sont subdivisés en trois phases, au cours desquelles l'occupation du site ne montre aucun..

Man and Death in pre-pottery neolithic B : Exemple Tell Aswad

Tell Aswad, situé à environ 30km à l’Est / Sud-Est de Damas, est un grand tell d’environ 6 hectares dont la hauteur maximale ne dépasse pas de 4,50 m la grande plaine lacustre qui l’entoure. Le site de Tell Aswad datant entièrement du Néolithique Précéramique B (entre 8200 et 7500 av. J.-C.) est un site de référence du Levant Central. Ces populations, complètement agriculteurs/éleveurs, montrent des liens entre les populations et les cultures du Levant Nord et Sud. Les niveaux attribués à l’horizon PPNB ancien, période mal connue au Levant Sud, lui donne une grande importance historique au niveau régional. Ainsi, ce site offre une documentation rare qui peut être utilisées dans la recherche des origines du PPNB dans la région et les identités culturelles qui lui correspondent. Il nous a offert une riche documentation sur les pratiques funéraires. Répartis sur presque la totalité de son occupation, plus de 119 individus ont été exhumés. Les résultats nous indiquent la présence d’une continuité diachronique des pratiques funéraires tout au long de l’occupation, celles-ci étant originaire d’une tradition ancestrale. Elles révèlent le recours aux funérailles uniques mais se spécifient par des funérailles multiples, à travers le prélèvement des crânes. Chacun de ces deux modèles résulterait d’un choix imposé et sélectif issu du système social (hiérarchisé), indiquant la manière dont le défunt doit être inhumé. Les différents traitements des crânes prélevés, dont le surmodelage, correspondraient à des « rituelles» et pratiques funéraires hautement culturalisées. Elles témoignent de l’ordre social et de l’intégrité du groupe et matérialisent l’un des traits majeurs de l’identité culturels des sociétés Néolithiques du PPNB à Tell Aswad. L’étude de l’organisation spatiale des sépultures au cours de l’occupation PPNB de Tell Aswad, révèle un changement des lieux d’inhumations, depuis l’inhumation dans des maisons, à l’intérieur de la cellule familiale, jusqu’à la conception de lieux spécifiques dédiés aux pratiques funéraires. L’organisation spatiale de ces lieux devient pour nous une source supplémentaire témoignant de l’organisation sociale dans ce site.Tell Aswad, located 30 km East/South-East of Damascus, is a nearly 6 hectares tell not exceeding 4,5 meters height above the great lacustrian plain surrounding. The whole stratigraphy of the site dates from PPNB (8200-7500 B.C.), it's a reference site for the Central Levant because of the farmer/cattle breeder population showing connections between Southern and Northern Levant. The ancient PPNB levels, poorly understood in South Levant, give to the site an important historical status on a regional level. Thus, Tell Aswad offers us a rare documentation used for a better understanding of the PPNB period origins in the area and the cultural identities corresponding. The data are especially rich for the funeral practices. More than 119 individuals have been excavated spread on the entire occupation. Our results indicate the presence of a diachronic continuity of the funeral practices throughout the occupation due to an ancestral tradition. They reveal the use of simple burials but also specificity in the multiple burials by means of the skull withdrawal. Both models result from a selective choice imposed by the social system (hierarchical), indicating how the deceased had to be buried. The variability inside the skull treatment including the modeled skulls correspond to "ritual" and funerary practices highly culturalized. They reflect a social order and a group integrity materializing one of the major feature of the cultural identity of Neolithic PPNB society in Tell Aswad. Studying the spatial organization of the burials during the PPNB occupation of Tell Aswad reveals changes in burial sites, from burials in the house inside the family unit until the creation of specific area dedicated to funerary practices. The spatial organization of these areas becomes for our research a supplementary testimony of the social organization in the site

Association of health warning labels and motivation to quit waterpipe tobacco smoking among university students in the Eastern Mediterranean Region

INTRODUCTION: This study aimed to determine associations between health warning label content and motivation to quit waterpipe smoking by gender and smoking location. METHODS: Convenience samples of university students in three Eastern Mediterranean countries - Egypt (n=442), Jordan (n=535) and Palestine (n=487) - completed an online survey assessing health warning labels. Multinomial logit regression models were conducted to determine the association between different variables, particularly gender and smoking location, with motivation to quit. RESULTS: In Palestine, female smokers were more motivated to quit waterpipe smoking when seeing textual warning labels related to children (T2) and pregnancy (T6) [T2: 1.8 (95% CI: 1.1-2.8), T6: 2.7 (95% CI: 1.6-4.3)] compared to males. Similar results were found in Jordan [T2: 1.6 (95% CI: 1.0-2.6), T6: 1.8 (95% CI: 1.1-3.0)]. As for the smoking location, home-only smokers in Palestine were more likely to quit in response to the following warnings: waterpipe smoking is addictive T1: 2.3 (95% CI: 1.4-3.7), harmful for children T2: 2.3 (95% CI: 1.4-4.1), harmful for the baby during pregnancy T6: 2.4 (95% CI: 1.3-4.3), and to believe that quitting reduces the health risks T9: 1.8 (95% CI: 1.0-3.1). These results were not found in Jordan nor Egypt. Smokers reported that the most noticeable location of a HWL on a waterpipe device is the mouthpiece. CONCLUSIONS: A better understanding of motivation to quit and its association with various warnings and smoking location could guide countries on which warnings to require in legislation and where best to require them particularly in relation to location

Diagnostic des lésions infectieuses au sein de populations néolithiques de Syrie (Néolithique précéramique B, 8700-7700 av. J.-C.) : deux cas probables de tuberculose à Dja’de el Mughara et Tell Aswad

International audienceDiagnostic des lésions infectieuses au sein de populations néolithiques de Syrie (Néolithique précéramique B, 8700-7700 av. J.-C.) : deux cas probables de tuberculose à Dja’de el Mughara et Tell Aswa

Prehistory of human tuberculosis: Earliest evidences from the onset of animal husbandry in the Near East

International audienceHuman tuberculosis has been considered for a long time as a model of animal infection transmitted to humans, resulting from cattle domestication at the Neolithic period. A decade ago, studies of molecular phylogeny of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) has challenged this dogma, suggesting that this human infection could be as old as the human species and emerged ca 2-3 Myrs ago. Yet, recent studies of molecular clock computations proposed that human tuberculosis could not be older than 6 kyrs BP. In order to bring new data to this debate, we studied the paleopathological evidence of tuberculosis on a large sample of two Neolithic sites from Syria in the Near East, cradle of agriculture and domestication: Dja’de el-Mughara (9310-8290 cal. BC) located in the Middle Euphrates Valley (Northern Syria) and Tell Aswad (8200-7500 cal. BC) in the Central Levant (Southern Syria). Both sites have delivered skeletal remains of more than one hundred individuals deriving from different funeral contexts. We used methods of paleopathology, microstructural analysis (μ-CT) and paleomicrobiology. The paleopathological study gave evidence to the most ancient paleopathological known cases of human TB (one adult and nine immature individuals at Dja’de el-Mughara and one adult at Tell Aswad) predating or accompanying the emergence of animal domestication. Among the eleven cases identified, five individualsfrom Dja’de el-Mughara have been buried in the House of the Dead, while the other individuals at both sites were found in primary, plural and mixed burials. On the basis of these results, the future challenge would be to understand the close contact between humans and animals role in the evolution of MTBC and the mechanisms of modern human tuberculosis strains emergence and spread. For this reason, the Levant is a crucial region as a key center for domestication and sedentism origins

Prehistory of human tuberculosis: Earliest evidence from the onset of animal husbandry in the Near East

International audienceHuman tuberculosis has been considered for a long time as a model of animal infection transmitted to humans, resultingfrom cattle domestication at the Neolithic period. A decade ago, studies of molecular phylogeny of the Mycobacterium tuberculosiscomplex (MTBC) has challenged this dogma, suggesting that this human infection could be as old as the human species and emergedca 2-3 Myrs ago. Yet, recent studies of molecular clock computations proposed that human tuberculosis could not be older than6 kyrs BP. In order to bring new data to this debate, we studied the paleopathological evidence of tuberculosis on a large sample of twoNeolithic sites from Syria in the Near East, cradle of agriculture and domestication: Dja’de el-Mughara (9310-8290 cal. BC) locatedin the Middle Euphrates Valley (Northern Syria) and Tell Aswad (8200-7500 cal. BC) in the Central Levant (Southern Syria). Bothsites have delivered skeletal remains of more than one hundred individuals deriving from different funeral contexts. We used methodsof paleopathology, microstructural analysis (μ-CT) and paleomicrobiology. The paleopathological study gave evidence to the mostancient paleopathological known cases of human TB (one adult and nine immature individuals at Dja’de el-Mughara and one adultat Tell Aswad) predating or accompanying the emergence of animal domestication. Among the eleven cases identified, five individualsfrom Dja’de el-Mughara have been buried in the House of the Dead, while the other individuals at both sites were found in primary,plural and mixed burials. On the basis of these results, the future challenge would be to understand the close contact between humansand animals role in the evolution of MTBC and the mechanisms of modern human tuberculosis strains emergence and spread. For thisreason, the Levant is a crucial region as a key center for domestication and sedentism origins

Le Néolithique de Syrie est bien vivant. Quatorze thèses en témoignent

International audienc