Tell Aswad

Tell Aswad
تل أسود
Shown within Syria
Location 30 km (19 mi) from Damascus, Syria
Region Damascus basin
Coordinates 33°24′N 36°33′E / 33.40°N 36.55°E / 33.40; 36.55
Type Tell
Part of Village
Length 250 metres (820 ft)
Width 250 metres (820 ft)
Area 5 hectares (540,000 sq ft)
History
Material Clay, Limestone
Founded c. 9300 BC
Abandoned c. 7500 BC
Periods PPNB, Neolithic
Cultures Natufian
Site notes
Excavation dates 1971-1976
2001-2006
Archaeologists Henri de Contenson
Danielle Stordeur
Bassam Jamous
Condition Ruins
Management Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums
Public access Yes

Tell Aswad (Arabic: تل أسود‎‎, "Black hill"), Su-uk-su or Shuksa, is a large prehistoric, neolithic tell, about 5 hectares (540,000 sq ft) in size, located around 48 kilometres (30 mi) from Damascus in Syria, on a tributary of the Barada River at the eastern end of the village of Jdeidet el Khass.[1]

Excavation

It was discovered in 1967 by Henri de Contenson who led excavations in 1971–1972.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8] The Aswadian culture found by de Contenson was far too advanced for its calibrated dating than anything else found in the region, and the only example ever found of this culture.[9] Further technical investigation of the lithic series by Frédéric Abbès revealed inconsistencies so it was recently decided to re-excavate in six seasons by the French Permanent Archaeological Mission El Kowm-Mureybet under the co-direction of Danielle Stordeur and Bassam Jamous between 2001–2006. Investigations into the materials found are ongoing at the National Museum of Damascus.[10][11][12][13]

The fieldwork at Tell Aswad has changed the dating system at this site, abolishing the Aswadian period in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) period (9500–8700 cal BC). The latest research has split the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) period into 3; PPNB Ancien from 8700 to 8200 cal BC and the PPNB Moyen from 8200 to 7500 BC. PPNB Récent has been equated with Dunand's "Néolithique ancien de Byblos".[14]

Construction

The first PPNB period involved construction of massive earth architecture, layering soil with reeds to construct walls. The inhabitants of Tell Aswad invented the brick on site by modelling earth clods with beds of reeds, which they then formed into raw bricks and eventually dried in later stages. Houses were round from beginning to the end of the settlement, elliptical or polygonal and were partly buried or laid. The orientation of the openings is most often to the East. This conforms with sites in the Southern Levant, whereas Northern Euphrates Valley sites generally display rectangular houses.[15]

Culture

Tools and weapons were made of flint including Aswadian and Jericho point arrowheads. Other finds included grinding equipment, stone and mud containers, and ornaments made of various materials. Obsidian was imported from Anatolia. Basketry and weaving were commonplace with the imprint of embroidered fabric recorded on a fragment of plaster. Modelling clay and stone figurines of people, animals and geometric shapes such as spheres, cones, discs took place since the beginning of the settlement, these were sometimes mixed with vegetables.

The graves of more than one hundred well-preserved individuals were found. In the first half of occupation these were found in or around the homes, in later stages cemeteries are isolated outside the village.[16] A collection of nine technically and stylistically similar, over-modelled, skulls were retrieved from two areas. Detailed study of the skulls is currently underway to provide insight into the traditions and social ties of the villagers. The residents of Tell Aswad reserved a very sophisticated treatment for the dead: skulls were removed and cleaned, with a face modelled directly onto the bone with lime plaster and then painted.[17][18][19]

Agriculture & animal domestication

Tell Aswad occupies a special location in the central Levant as a connecting region between northern and southern expansions of agriculture. Apparently a stronger trade relation is present to the southern cultures, although they had many things in common with the cultures that existed in the northern Levant. It is an example of one of the oldest sites of agriculture with domesticated emmer wheat dated by Willem van Zeist and his assistant Johanna Bakker-Heeres to 8800 BC.[20][21] Peter Akkermans and Glenn Schwatrz suggested on this evidence that Tell Aswad shows "the earliest systematic exploitation of domesticated cereals (emmer wheat) c. 9000-8500 BC". They suggest that the arrival of domesticated grain came from somewhere in the vicinity of "the basaltic highlands of the Jawlan (Golan) and Hawran".[22] The claim is based on the discovery of enlarged grains, absences of wild grains and on the presumption that the site was beyond the usual habitat of the wild variety of emmer wheat. The earliest postulated evidence for einkorn wheat at Jericho was not dated until at least five hundred years later than Aswad's emmer.[23] Flax seeds were also present. Fruit, figs and pistachios, were apparently very popular because they were found in large quantities. Stationary containers of mud and stone were found with carbonized grain found on the interior of one designating them as silos. Finally, reeds were widely used, especially as reinforcement in the architecture, but also for mats and baskets and perhaps as bedding or fodder.

A large number of goats were evident in the early stages indicating they were either hunted or herded. This is an important issue because the period when animal domestication first took place is still an open question. From the middle PPNB, the presence of corralled animals is evident. There are pigs, sheep, goats and cattle. For the latter two, production of meat and milk has been noted. In addition, cattle often show diseases resulting from their use for labour. The image that results from the study of the archaeozoological evidence is a village of farmers and herders in full possession of food production techniques. Hunting is well represented with two species of horses, two gazelles (mountain gazelle and Persian gazelle), wild boars, many water birds and some birds of the steppes. Finally, fishing is practiced throughout the occupation of the site. The presence of flora such as water reeds, rushes and tamarisk shows that the site was close to a very humid environment. The presence of bones of fish and aquatic birds like ducks, cranes and geese, indicated that the site was located near a lake and the inhabitants of Neolithic Aswad fully exploited its resources.

Tell Aswad has been cited as being of importance for the evolution of organised cities due to the appearance of building materials, organized plans and collective work. It has provided insight into the "explosion of knowledge" in the northern Levant during the PPNB Neolithic stage following dam construction.[24] Aswad has been suggested to be amongst the ten probable centers for the origin of agriculture.[25]

Sue Colledge gives dates for the earliest domesticated cereal use at Tell Aswad from approximately 9150 to 8950 BC. This is preceded by an earlier and smaller cave site called Iraq ed-Dubb in Jordan showing evidence of domestic cereals possibly as far back as 9600 BC.[26]

Jacques Cauvin clarifies that Aswad was not the center for the origin of agriculture, stating that its first inhabitants "arrived, perhaps from the neighboring Anti-Lebanon, already equipped with the seeds for planting, for their practice of agriculture from the inception of the settlement is not in doubt. Thus it was not in the oasis itself that they carried out their first experiments in farming."[27]

Literature

References

  1. ↑ The Megalithic Portal entry about Tell Aswad
  2. ↑ de Contenson, Henri., Tell Aswad. Fouilles de 1971, Annales Archéologiques Arabes Syriennes XXII, 1972, p. 75–84., 1972.
  3. ↑ de Contenson, Henri., Chronologie absolue de Tell Aswad, Bulletin de la Société Préhistorique Française 70, 1973, p. 253–255., 1973.
  4. ↑ de Contenson, Henri., Tell Aswad, site néolithique précéramique près de Damas (Syria), Bulletin de la Société Préhistorique Française 71, 1974, p. 5–6., 1974.
  5. ↑ de Contenson, Henri., Précisions sur la stratigraphie de Tell Aswad (Syria), Bulletin de la Société Préhistorique Française 73, 1976, p. 198–199., 1976.
  6. ↑ de Contenson, Henri., Tell Aswad, Archiv für Orientforschung XXVI, 1978/79, p. 151–152., 1978.
  7. ↑ de Contenson, Henri., Tell Aswad. Fouilles de 1972, Annales Archéologiques Arabes Syriennes XXVII-XXVIII, 1977–1978, p. 207–215., 1977.
  8. ↑ de Contenson, Henri., Tell Aswad (Damascène), Paléorient 5, 1979, p. 153–156., 1979.
  9. ↑ de Contenson, Henri., L'Aswadien, un nouveau faciès du Néolithique syrien, Paléorient 15/1, 1989, p. 259–261., 1989.
  10. ↑ Helmer D. ; Gourichon L., Premières données sur les modalités de subsistance dans les niveaux récents de Tell Aswad (Damascène, Syrie) – fouilles 2001–2005., 2008.
  11. ↑ In Vila E., Gourichon L., Buitenhuis H. & Choyke A. (éd.), Archaeozoology of the Southwest Asia and Adjacent Areas VIII. Actes du 8e colloque de l'ASWA (Lyon, 28 June – 1 July 2006). Lyon, Travaux de la Maison de l'Orient 49, volume 1, pp. 119–151. 2008.
  12. ↑ Helmer D. et Gourichon L., Premières données sur les modalités de subsistances dans les niveaux récents (PPNB moyen à Néolithique à Poterie) de Tell Aswad en Damascène (Syrie), Fouilles 2001–2005, in Vila E. et Gourichon L. (eds), ASWA Lyon June 2006., 2007.
  13. ↑ Stordeur, Danielle., Tell Aswad. Résultats préliminaires des campagnes 2001 et 2002. Neo Lithics 1/03, 7–15, 2003.
  14. ↑ de Contenson, Henri., Nouvelles données sur Tell Aswad et l'Aswadien (Damascène), Syria 84, p. 307–308., 2007.
  15. ↑ IFP Orient - Tell Aswad
  16. ↑ Stordeur, D., Khawam R. Une place pour les morts dans les maisons de Tell Aswad (Syrie). (Horizon PPNB ancien et PPNB moyen). Workshop Houses for the living and a place for the dead, Hommage à J. Cauvin. Madrid, 5ICAANE., 2008.
  17. ↑ Stordeur, Danielle., Des crânes surmodelés à Tell Aswad de Damascène. (PPNB - Syrie). Paléorient, CNRS Editions, 29/2, 109-116., 2003.
  18. ↑ Stordeur, D., Jammous B., Khawam R., Morero E., L'aire funéraire de Tell Aswad (PPNB). In HUOT J.-L. et STORDEUR D. (Eds) Hommage à H. de Contenson. Syria, n° spécial, 83, 39-62., 2006.
  19. ↑ Stordeur, D., Khawam R. Les crânes surmodelés de Tell Aswad (PPNB, Syrie). Premier regard sur l’ensemble, premières réflexions. Syria, 84, 5-32., 2007.
  20. ↑ Ozkan, H; Brandolini, A; Schäfer-Pregl, R; Salamini, F (October 2002). "AFLP analysis of a collection of tetraploid wheats indicates the origin of emmer and hard wheat domestication in southeast Turkey". Molecular Biology and Evolution. 19 (10): 1797–801. PMID 12270906. doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.molbev.a004002.
  21. ↑ van Zeist, W. Bakker-Heeres, J.A.H., Archaeobotanical Studies in the Levant 1. Neolithic Sites in the Damascus Basin: Aswad, Ghoraifé, Ramad., Palaeohistoria, 24, 165-256, 1982.
  22. ↑ Peter M. M. G. Akkermans; Glenn M. Schwartz (2003). The archaeology of Syria: from complex hunter-gatherers to early urban societies (c. 16,000-300 BC). Cambridge University Press. pp. 72–. ISBN 978-0-521-79666-8. Retrieved 27 June 2011.
  23. ↑ David R. Harris (1996). The origins and spread of agriculture and pastoralism in Eurasia. Psychology Press. pp. 207–. ISBN 978-1-85728-538-3. Retrieved 27 June 2011.
  24. ↑ Daneille Stordeur, Directeur de recherche (DR1) émérite , CNRS Directrice de la mission permanente El Kowm-Mureybet (Syrie) du Ministère des Affaires Étrangères - Recherches sur le Levant central/sud : Premiers résultats
  25. ↑ Pinhasi R, Fort J, Ammerman AJ., Tracing the Origin and Spread of Agriculture in Europe. PLoS Biol 3(12): e410. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0030410 (2005)
  26. ↑ Colledge, Sue, Conolly, James & Shennan, Stephen., Archaeobotanical Evidence for the Spread of Farming in the Eastern Mediterranean, Current Anthropology, The Werner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, Volume 45, Supplement, August - October 2004.
  27. ↑ Jacques Cauvin; Trevor Watkins (2000). The birth of the Gods and the origins of agriculture, pp. 55-56. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-65135-6. Retrieved 16 November 2011.
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