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New results from recent excavation at Gird Lashkir (Erbil, Kurdistan region, Iraq) are presented in this paper. Data from the most archaic occupation phases so far discovered at the site will be discussed, with special emphasis on the Late Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age. This article presents data related to architecture and subsistence (bioarchaeological analyses, organic residue analyses, etc.) as well as craft activities (ceramic production, metallurgy, etc.). The general characterisation of the settlement in these periods will be compared to similar horizons in Northern Mesopotamia, particularly in the Erbil Plain. Résumé. Dans cet article, de nouveaux résultats provenant de récents travaux archéologiques à Gird Lashkir (Erbil, région du Kurdistan, Irak) seront présentés. Les données des phases d'occupation les plus anciennes jusqu'ici découvertes sur le site seront discutées, mettant ainsi en avant les données du Chalcolithique tardif et du début de l'âge du Bronze. Cet article présente les donnéesrelatives aux structures d'habitat décrivant plusieurs activités de subsistance (analyses bioarchéologiques, analyses de résidus organiques, etc.) ainsi que des activités productives (production de céramique, métallurgie, etc.). La caractérisation générale du peuplement dans ces périodes sera liée à l'état des connaissances pour des horizons similaires dans le Nord de la Mésopotamie et, plus précisément, dans la plaine d'Erbil.

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The protracted domestication model posits that wild cereals in southwest Asia were cultivated over millennia prior to the appearance of domesticated cereals in the archaeological record. These 'predomestication cultivation' (PDC) activities are widely understood as entailing annual cycles of soil tillage and sowing, and expected to select for domestic traits such as non-shattering ears. However, the reconstruction of these practices is mostly based on indirect evidence and speculation, raising the question whether PDC created arable environments that would select for domestic traits. We developed a novel functional ecological model that distinguishes arable fields from wild cereal habitats in the Levant using plant functional traits related to mechanical soil disturbance. Our results show that exploitation practices at key PDC sites maintained soil disturbance conditions similar to untilled wild cereal habitats. This implies that PDC did not create arable environments through regular tillage but entailed low-input exploitation practices oriented on the ecological strategies of the competitive large-seeded grasses themselves.

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