Investigating the early pottery Neolithic of northern Syria:New evidence from Tell Sabi Abyad

The 2001-2003 excavations at Tell Sabi Abyad in northern Syria have provided important new information on the nature and development of the Pottery Neolithic settlement at the site in the seventh and sixth millennia B.C. The fieldwork has produced it long sequence of small and continually shifting occupations, in the order of 0.5-1.0 ha, each with rich assemblages of very early ceramics and other artifacts. There is proof for localized abandonment and the episodic contraction and expansion of occupation over the site. Living in small, dispersed groups, leaving extensive areas of the Site Uninhabited, was a basic practice of Neolithic settlers at Tell Sabi Abyad (and probably elsewhere as well). Of particular note was the discovery of well-preserved building levels belonging to the initial stage of the Pottery Neolithic, ca. 66006 200 B.C., providing insight into the character of settlement and material culture of one of the poorest known periods in the history of Syria and the northern Levant. Single- and multiroomed houses came to light, often with white-plastered floors and walls. The ceramics from these buildings are among the earliest found in the Near East to date. Distinct changes in the organization Of the communities and the material culture took place at ca. 6200 B.C. and were associated with, among other things the appearance of circular buildings and clay sealings as indicators of controlled storage

Carbon stable isotope analysis of cereal remains as a way to reconstruct water availability: preliminary results

Reconstructing past water availability, both as rainfall and irrigation, is important to answer questions about the way society reacts to climate and its changes and the role of irrigation in the development of social complexity. Carbon stable isotope analysis of archaeobotanical remains is a potentially valuable method for reconstructing water availability. To further define the relationship between water availability and plant carbon isotope composition and to set up baseline values for the Southern Levant, grains of experimentally grown barley and sorghum were studied. The cereal crops were grown at three stations under five different irrigation regimes in Jordan. Results indicate that a positive but weak relationship exists between irrigation regime and total water input of barley grains, but no relationship was found for sorghum. The relationship for barley is site-specific and inter-annual variation was present at Deir ‘Alla, but not at Ramtha and Khirbet as-Samra

Urban and Transport Scaling: Northern Mesopotamia in the Late Chalcolithic and Bronze Age

Scaling methods have been applied to study modern urban areas and how they create accelerated, feedback growth in some systems while efficient use in others. For ancient cities, results have shown that cities act as social reactors that lead to positive feedback growth in socioeconomic measures. In this paper, we assess the relationship between settlement area expressed through mound area from Late Chalcolithic and Bronze Age sites and mean hollow way widths, which are remains of roadways, from the Khabur Triangle in northern Mesopotamia. The intent is to demonstrate the type of scaling and relationship present between sites and hollow ways, where both feature types are relatively well preserved. For modern roadway systems, efficiency in growth relative to population growth suggests roads should show sublinear scaling in relation to site size. In fact, similar to modern systems, such sublinear scaling results are demonstrated for the Khabur Triangle using available data, suggesting ancient efficiency in intensive transport growth relative to population levels. Comparable results are also achieved in other ancient Near East regions. Furthermore, results suggest that there could be a general pattern relevant for some small sites (0–2 ha) and those that have fewer hollow ways, where β, a measure of scaling, is on average low (≈ < 0.2). On the other hand, a second type of result for sites with many hollow ways (11 or more) and that are often larger suggests that β is greater (0.23–0.72), but still sublinear. This result could reflect the scale in which larger settlements acted as greater social attractors or had more intensive economic activity relative to smaller sites. The provided models also allow estimations of past roadway widths in regions where hollow ways are missing

Cultural Transformation and the 8.2.ka event in Upper Mesopotamia

Many of the cultural transformations observed in the archaeological record for the later seventh to early sixth millennium BC can be interpreted as adapting to climatic stresses. However, a closer look at the emerging data suggests a more complex picture. At Tell Sabi Abyad, several key “adaptations” may in fact trace their roots to stratigraphic levels preceding those synchronizing with the climate event. For example, the development of ceramic bulk storage containers was an innovation that gave a significant benefit in times of enhanced aridity; this container’s development occurred long before the 8.2 ka climate event. Rather than causing these cultural changes, the climate anomaly appears to have accelerated already existing trends that were entirely unrelated to climate change