Interpreting the Late Neolithic of Upper Mesopotamia

Interpreting the Late Neolithic of Upper Mesopotamia PDF Author: Olivier Nieuwenhuyse
Publisher: Brepols Publishers
ISBN: 9782503540016
Category : Civilization, Assyro-Babylonian
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The times between the Neolithic and Urban revolutions in Mesopotamia have for a long time been interpreted as a period of stagnation. This volume is part of an emerging discourse that challenges such assumptions. Focussing upon the northern parts of ancient Western Asia, where most recent research has concentrated, an international group of researchers demonstrates that Upper Mesopotamia underwent complex historical changes that we just begin to grasp fully. The Late Neolithic was a critical phase of the history of the ancient Middle East. Authors investigate settlement patterns, practices of painting pottery, distributions of various raw materials, the role of craft industries, the emergence of seals and other issues from a variety of theoretical and practical questions. The book is a must-have for prehistorians working in the Near East, and a rich source of information for archaeologists working in other parts of the world. Olivier Nieuwenhuyse is a Research Fellow at Leiden University and at the DAI-Berlin. His research focuses on reconstructions of landscape and prehistoric settlement and the meanings of material culture. Reinhard Bernbeck is professor at the Freie Universitat Berlin and Binghamton University, New York. His research focuses on critical assessments of ancient Western Asian prehistory and historical periods. Peter Akkermans is professor at Leiden University. He is the director of the excavatons at Tell Sabi Abyad and had published widely on the prehistory of the ancient Near East.

Interpreting the Late Neolithic of Upper Mesopotamia

Interpreting the Late Neolithic of Upper Mesopotamia PDF Author: Olivier Nieuwenhuyse
Publisher: Brepols Publishers
ISBN: 9782503540016
Category : Civilization, Assyro-Babylonian
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
The times between the Neolithic and Urban revolutions in Mesopotamia have for a long time been interpreted as a period of stagnation. This volume is part of an emerging discourse that challenges such assumptions. Focussing upon the northern parts of ancient Western Asia, where most recent research has concentrated, an international group of researchers demonstrates that Upper Mesopotamia underwent complex historical changes that we just begin to grasp fully. The Late Neolithic was a critical phase of the history of the ancient Middle East. Authors investigate settlement patterns, practices of painting pottery, distributions of various raw materials, the role of craft industries, the emergence of seals and other issues from a variety of theoretical and practical questions. The book is a must-have for prehistorians working in the Near East, and a rich source of information for archaeologists working in other parts of the world. Olivier Nieuwenhuyse is a Research Fellow at Leiden University and at the DAI-Berlin. His research focuses on reconstructions of landscape and prehistoric settlement and the meanings of material culture. Reinhard Bernbeck is professor at the Freie Universitat Berlin and Binghamton University, New York. His research focuses on critical assessments of ancient Western Asian prehistory and historical periods. Peter Akkermans is professor at Leiden University. He is the director of the excavatons at Tell Sabi Abyad and had published widely on the prehistory of the ancient Near East.

Tell Boueid II

Tell Boueid II PDF Author: Antoine Suleiman
Publisher: Brepols Publishers
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 230

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Book Description
Tell Boueid II is one of many sites submerged by the completion of the Middle Khabur dam, northeastern Syria. Salvage excavations by Antoine Suleiman (DGAM) in 1997 and 1998 exposed a small (about 0.12 ha) settlement dated on the basis of the ceramics to the Late Neolithic period. More specifically, comparisons with Tell Sabi Abyad and Tell Chagar Bazar suggest a date at the end of the Pre-Halaf era and the beginning of the Transitional stage between pre-Halaf and Early Halaf. During this crucial period, which remains poorly understood in Syria and northern Mesopotamia, various regional communities in Syria and northern Mesopotamia exhibit an increasingly strong cultural unity. In the report, archaeologists and specialists present the analyses of some aspects of the excavations: the architecture, the small finds, the Late Neolithic ceramics, the faunal remains, the obsidian, two clay sealings and the contents of two Late Chalcolithic pits. The ceramics show strong relationships with the so-called Hassuna and Samarra traditions known from Iraq. The obsidian tools, too, show affinities with the Samarra tradition but also with local, Syrian traditions. Of particular significance are two sealings with stamp seal impressions, which are similar to sealings recently excavated at Tell Sabi Abyad. In a concluding chapter the authors bring together their viewpoints in a joint discussion of Tell Boueid II.

Plain and Painted Pottery

Plain and Painted Pottery PDF Author: Olivier Nieuwenhuyse
Publisher: Brepols Publishers
ISBN: 9782503524443
Category : Excavations (Archaeology)
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This study focuses on a major issue in Near Eastern prehistoric archaeology: the rise of the Halaf culture, ca. 5900 - 5400 cal. BC. The book presents in a detailed, quantified and lavishly illustrated manner the ceramics excavated by the National Museum of Antiquities Leiden at Tell Sabi Abyad, northern Syria. Concentrating on the 1996 - 2000 campaigns, the book also synthesizes much earlier work in order to come to a comprehensive overview. Tell Sabi Abyad thus far remains the only archaeological site in the Near East where the shift from a Pre-Halaf to an Early Halaf cultural assemblage can be followed within a continuous, meticulously stratified sequence. This shift occured during a short-lived transitional stage, radiocarbon dated at 6100-5900 cal. BC, In terms of the ceramics, this transition is characterized by the gradual replacement of plain Coarse Ware by intricately painted Fine Wares, and by numerous innovations in ceramic technology, morphology and decorative style. More than merely a pottery report, the book offers a lively discussion of past and present views on the origins of the Halaf culture. It also places the excavated ceramics in the broader socio-economic and symbolic context of Late Neolithic societies in northern Syria. Using the concepts of feasting and emulation, the study aims to gain insight in patterns of rapid ceramic innovation and change. The book is of interest not only to specialists of prehistoric pottery but to a wider archaeological audience as well.

The Archaeology of Syria

The Archaeology of Syria PDF Author: Peter M. M. G. Akkermans
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521796668
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 490

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Book Description
This was the first book to present a comprehensive review of the archaeology of Syria from the end of the Paleolithic period to 300 BC. Syria has become a prime focus of field archaeology in the Middle East in the past thirty years, and Peter Akkermans and Glenn Schwartz discuss the results of this intensive fieldwork, integrating them with earlier research. Alongside the major material culture types of each period, they examine important contributions of Syrian archaeology to issues like the onset of agriculture, the emergence of private property and social inequality, the rise and collapse of urban life, and the archaeology of early empires. All competing interpretations are set out and considered, alongside the authors' own perspectives and conclusions.

Life on the Edge: The Neolithic and Bronze Age of Iain Crawford’s Udal, North Uist

Life on the Edge: The Neolithic and Bronze Age of Iain Crawford’s Udal, North Uist PDF Author: Beverley Ballin Smith
Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1784917710
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
Excavations in North Uist dating from 1974-1984 identified two cists with human remains in kerbed cairns, many bowl pits dug into the blown sand, two late Neolithic structures and a ritual complex.

A History of Syria in One Hundred Sites

A History of Syria in One Hundred Sites PDF Author: Youssef Kanjou
Publisher: Archaeopress Archaeology
ISBN: 9781784913816
Category : Excavations (Archaeology)
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
"This book presents the long history of Syria by means of a journey through its most important and most recently-excavated archaeological sites.(...)". Quatrième de couverture

The Archaeology of Imperial Landscapes

The Archaeology of Imperial Landscapes PDF Author: Bleda S. Düring
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107189705
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 385

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Book Description
This book examines the poorly understood transformations in rural landscapes and societies that formed the backbone of ancient empires.

The Neolithic Lithic Industry at Tell Ain El-Kerkh

The Neolithic Lithic Industry at Tell Ain El-Kerkh PDF Author: Makoto Arimura
Publisher: Archaeopress Archaeology
ISBN: 9781789694567
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
This book presents the first attempt to unveil the Neolithisation process in northwest Syria, with the techno-typological studies of the flintstone implements from Tell Ain el-Kerkh in the Rouj basin in Idlib, an important large Neolithic site occupied from the from the 9th to the 7th millennium BC.

Excavations at Late Neolithic Tell Sabi Abyad, Syria

Excavations at Late Neolithic Tell Sabi Abyad, Syria PDF Author: Peter M. M. G. Akkermans
Publisher: Brepols Publishers
ISBN: 9782503531113
Category : Antiquities, Prehistoric
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Tell Sabi Abyad is a major Late Neolithic settlement mound in Northern Syria, belonging to the seventh and early sixth millennium BC. This book presents the results of large-scale fieldwork conducted at the site between 1994 and 1999, under the auspices of the Netherlands National Museum of Antiquities and Leiden University. For six successive field campaigns, the relatively low and gently sloping southeastern part of Tell Sabi Abyad - termed Operation I - was the focus of broad horizontal excavation and a diverse, interdis- ciplinary series of investigations, aimed at the exploration of the sequence of local Late Neolithic (or Pottery Neolithic) villages dating from around 6200-5850 BC. Because of the large-scale investigation at Tell Sabi Abyad, we are much better informed on the local development of culture and society in the Late Neolithic - an era which received little scholarly attention, if not sheer neglect, for a very long time but which has rapidly gained recognition in the past two decades. This monograph takes the reader through an account of the excavation and an analysis of the material remains from the 1994 to 1999 field campaigns at Tell Sabi Abyad. The book provides reports on the stratigraphy, architecture, material culture, plant remains, human skeletal remains, and other finds from the various phases of Neolithic settlement at the site.

The Pots and Potters of Assyria

The Pots and Potters of Assyria PDF Author: Kim Duistermaat
Publisher: Brepols Publishers
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 612

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Book Description
This is the first monograph that deals with the Middle Assyrian remains at Tell Sabi Abyad, northern Syria. It offers a detailed description of the ceramics excavated between 1991 and 1998 in the project of Leiden National Museum of Antiquities. The study integrates technological, morphological, stylistic, and archaeological data to come to an understanding of pottery production and use. The book contains seven lavishly illustrated chapters and six appendices presenting the raw data on typology, pottery kilns, archaeometric analyses and functional analyses. The large-scale excavation and the excellent preservation of pottery workshops, tools and kilns as well as the meticulous study of technology and standardization provide a unique insight into the organization of pottery production. The chapter on function and use combines information on performance characteristics, shape and capacity, traces of use, depictions of vessels in iconography and information from texts, in an attempt to reconstruct how vessels were used. In a contribution by Dr. Frans Wiggermann two cuneiform texts from Sabi Abyad dealing with pottery have been published, and a first step has been taken to connect the ceramic repertoire with Middle Assyrian vocabulary. This study will be interesting to Near Eastern archaeologists, ceramicists and Assyriologists as well as to students of craft production in archaeology or ethno-archaeology. Dr. Kim Duistermaat is director of the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo. She has participated in archaeological research projects in the Netherlands, Egypt and Syria, where she directed the Netherlands Institute for Academic Studies in Damascus between 1997 and 2005.