Archaeology 258

c 40,0000-16,000 BP

c 16,000-10,000 BP

c 10,000-6,200 BP

c 10,000 BP - Present (arguably)

8000-7500 BCE

7500-7000 BCE

Iraq

Small parts of Iran, Syria, and Turkey

Development of:

-agriculture

-Earliest urban centres &/or civilizations

-bureaucracy, legal systems

Napoleon invasion of Egypt

-People looking for similar treasures in Mesopotamia

-Napoleon invasion - >treasures

-people attempting to verify the Bible and it's historicity

To disrupt British communications

-Independently wealthy woman

-responsible for the building of the Iraq National Museum

-revised the local laws of artifacts and archaeological research to benefit the findings security

-Use of very watery version of the clay used to make pottery

-rubbed on surfaces of pottery to make it water tight

-often infused with ochre or other pigment for colouration

The use of an object such as a piece of wood or stone to coat and smooth pottery with the slip mixture

Form of relative dating

-pots sequenced oldest to newest

-no absolute dates

-important to west Asian Archaeology due to rapidly changing pottery styles/techniques

First to recognize what a tell was, along with its significance

A type of archaeological mound created by human occupation and abandonment of a geographical site over many centuries

Tel

tall

5x5 m excavation site

- excavate individual squares within larger square while leaving a thin wall between all inner squares as a way of preserving stratigraphy

-Theoretical movement rooted in the 1960-70's

-presented a (then) radical break from historical and antiquarian approaches

-central focuses include:

1) Archaeology as a science

2) focus of culture process

3) expressly theoretical approach to explaining the past processes

-More than anything else is a critique of processual Archaeology

-focuses more on the man: behaviour, gender, & culture of the people

-Zagros mountains

-'Mesopotamian' limestone trough

-northern Mesopotamia plain

-central Mesopotamia

-southern Mesopotamia

-the Delta

-folded mountains, creates multiple ecological zones in which plant and animal life are very different zone to zone

-intra-montagne valleys with rivers and terraces

Flora - oak, pine, diverse range of grasses

Fauna - cattle, deer, elk(red deer), sheep, goats

Rain fed plain

River and river valley

Above the samarra hit line

Transitional zone

Below the samarra hit line

River valley broadens into plain

Soil regeneration due to dropping of sediment from River

South of samarra hit line

Shallow River valley and flood plain

-Wetland area located in southern Iraq and partially in southern Iran

-rare aquatic landscape in the desert

Emmer wheat

Einkorn wheat

Barley

Chickpeas

Peas

Lentils (legumes)

Flax

Bitter vetch

Onager

Boar

Gazelle

Elk (red deer)

Wild goat

Auroch (large bovine)

Sheep

-Main source of feed for animals

-Not consumed by humans

-More crop cultivation in the south

-More animal domestication in the north

Uneven

Resulted in trade, competition, and the development of elites in civilizations

-In Iraq, dates 50,000 BP

-Neandertal burial with flower pollen

-shanidar IV burial- injured specimen, amputated arm, damage to eye socket, possibly blind

c. 10,000-8,900 Bp

-Early village site near shanidar cave

-circular pit houses, depression in ground w/ structure built around

-sickle blades and grinding stones

-sheep and goats

Pre 9000 BP

seasonal settlement

Sickle blades with sheen found

-Suggests being used to cut plant material

-Silica in plants leaves Polish on blade when cut

10,500-10,000 BP

-site in Iran

-Earliest evidence for managed sheep and goat herds. Not yet domesticated, only managing

-80% S+G bones, mostly males

-Used term neolithic revolution to describe transition of hunting & gathering towards agricultural & food production

-supported oasis hypothesis

Suggested that humans would only change subsistence patters in a time of comfort, when resources were in a surplus

-marginal zone theory

-Population pressure

-Thought agriculture would have begun when naturally occurring food sources became scarce

Thought food production to have originated when ancient peoples would hold large feasts, in turn having the attendees indebted to them

Holder of the feast = informal leader

-Argues that a fundamental cognitive shift is necessary for agriculture to take form

-human view shifts from being part of nature to being 'above' it

Theorized that the younger dryas was a trigger mechanism that brought in need for agriculture

Climate event

Climate gets dryer, followed by colder

-Gave need for greater food supply

-some reverted back to nomadic hunting/gathering

-some stayed in marginal zones and began to cultivate land and practice agriculture

-site w similar animal bone deposits to ganj dareh

-Headed by R. Braidwood in an attempt to prove his theories correct

-assembled an all-purpose team to go looking for sites that illustrated the transition to agriculture

Ganj Dareh

Karim Shahir

Jarmo

among others

-Cultural readiness

-nuclear zone hypothesis

9000 BP

-established agricultural village in foothills of Zagros, 8000m altitude

-permanent residence buildings

-12 levels of strata documented

-no distinctive change in artifacts from any level to the next

-20-25 'tauf' (mud) houses with stone foundations

-permanent houses

-Celts, mortars & pestles, querns, millstones, weights and beads, maceheads (rare)

-Grinders and grinding stones, figurines (mostly female), sickles, possibly rings made of stone

-Suggests there being individuals who had nothing better to do

-obsidian found, not local to site

Early pottery from this site is really well decorated, but over time becomes more and more uniform and 'boring'

-one of the earliest known agriculture settlements from the neolithic

-excavation began by Jacques Cauvin

-Archaeologist & British military leader

-aided in the Arab uprising against the turks/ottoman empire

8000-7500 BP

-Small but sophisticated agricultural village

-Evolved, technologically, into the Samarra culture. Evident in pottery styles as well as architecture

7500-7000 BP

south of 200m isohyet

-Evolved technologically from the hassuna (pottery & architecture illustrate the change)

This pottery was remarkable not only for its new shapes, but also for is bold and innovative use of elaborately painted motifs

- diverse designs, whether painted on or incised

-animal and human forms depicted

-burnished, slipped, and painted

-Very similar but was better quality

-walls were thinner

-had better control over kiln temperature

-designs more diverse

Hassuna site

Begins aceramic, quickly develops pottery however

-Six layers of houses uncovered, each layer progressively more substantial than the last

-utilized buttresses on larger walls

- buildings generally have an 'L' shape

-Tendency in the building to be made with a 'T' shape

-multi family homes, heavily buttressed

-Samarra site

-'T' shaped buildings

-multi family homes

-heavily buttressed

-large wall of hand-made mud brick built around the site

-moat dug outside the wall

-defensively fortifications, signs of conflict, outside pressure

-

7000 BP

Samarra site

-Eastern side in the foothills of the Zagros

-Earliest evidence of irrigation

-Suggests crop cultivation and specialization

7000-6300 B.P.

only culture to originate and live in the north