The oldest pottery Neolithic of Upper Mesopotamia : New evidence from Tell Seker al-Aheimar, the Khabur, northeast Syria

Abstract

: The oldest Pottery Neolithic of Upper Mesopotamia, including the Khabur basin, has long been believed to be represented by the Proto-Hassuna (Sotto-Umm Dabaghiyah) entity. Recent excavations at Tell Seker al-Aheimar, on the upper Khabur, produced new evidence that questions this view. The excavations revealed that a Pottery Neolithic phase predating the Proto-Hassuna existed on the Khabur, characterized by a distinct set of pottery as well as architecture and lithic technology. The long uninterrupted sequence at Tell Seker al-Aheimar, beginning perhaps from the Middle PPNB and ending with the Proto-Hassuna, shows that this cultural entity, provisionally referred to as "Pre-Proto-Hassuna ", was derived from a local fades of East Taurus PPNB and gradually developed into Proto-Hassuna. Radiocarbon dates for this phase indicate the early centuries of the 8th millennium BP, a period prior to that of Proto- Hassuna settlements in both northeast Syria and northern Iraq. These new data highlight the necessity of reconsidering the Neolithic framework of Upper Mesopotamia in general.

Architecture and Social Continuity at Neolithic Tell Sabi Abyad III, Syria

“…The designs were simple and included parallel diagonal lines, diagonal lines in alternating directions, cross-hatching and diagonal waves. Similarly decorated ceramics have been retrieved at Seker al-Aheimar on the Khabur and at Akarçay on the Turkish Euphrates (Nishiaki and Le Mière 2005;Arimura et al 2000). Considering that pottery occurred at Tell Sabi Abyad III in what seems to have been a fully-fledged form, it is not excluded that the ceramics arrived at the site through exchange networks, perhaps from north-eastern Syria or Anatolia (Nieuwenhuyse et al 2010).…”

Paleohydrological implications of late Quaternary fluvial deposits in and around archaeological sites in Syria

“…1), and adjacent to a distinct meander bend of the Khabur. Human settlement at the site occurred mainly in the early Holocene between 9.5 and 8.3 ka (Nishiaki and Le Miere, 2006). The landscape adjacent to the tell is relatively flat, and can be regarded as a broad alluvial plain formed by the Khabur (Fig.…”

20,000 years of societal vulnerability and adaptation to climate change in southwest Asia

“…Summary of reginal archaeological chronologies. Derived from, for Anatolia (Allcock & Roberts, ), for the Levant (Finkelstein & Piasetzky, ; Maher et al, ; Regev, Finkelstein, Adams, & Boaretto, ), for Mesopotamia (Matthews, ; Nishiaki & Le Miere, ), for the Arabian Peninsula (Magee, ), and for the Iranian Plateau (Potts, ). The dating of some of these periods is complicated and debated, and varies within some of the regions defined here.…”

“…Since the development of agriculture (Box 2) there has been a more pressing need for people to deal with soil-moisture or hydrological droughts, in ways other than moving across the landscape, and these choices and adaptions have been the key to the resulting degree of societal success. Access to water in some areas is reasonably straightforward, such as the parts of northern Mesopotamia and Iran that receive sufficient direct winter rainfall to support dry farming, and the various piedmont areas (Allcock & Roberts, 2014), for the Levant (Finkelstein & Piasetzky, 2007;Maher et al, 2011;Regev, Finkelstein, Adams, & Boaretto, 2014), for Mesopotamia (Matthews, 2013;Nishiaki & Le Miere, 2005), for the Arabian Peninsula (Magee, 2014), and for the Iranian Plateau (Potts, 2013). The dating of some of these periods is complicated and debated, and varies within some of the regions defined here.…”