ANT/HIST 500

The Ancient City

Day 3

Toward the Neolithic

The Ages

• Paleolithic: Old Stone Age

• Mesolithic: Middle Stone Age

• Neolithic: New Stone Age

• Chalcolithic: Copper Age

• Bronze Age: d’uh

• Iron Age: ditto

Natufian Khiamian

The “Epi-Paleolithic” or

Mesolithic

Natufian

Natufian

Natufian/Khiamian

Polity

• Not much to be said

• Hunting & Gathering societies typically share “Episodic” leadership just as small groups do

• No obvious social stratification in burials, architecture, jewelry

Economy

• Hunting & Gathering

• “Broad Spectrum” (Flannery)

• Evidence of “Down the Line” trade

Economy

Necklace of Teeth, Bone, and SeaShells from El Wad

This would have required trade or foraging parties in order to get the sea shells from the coast

Economy

Natufian Sickle: Although they had such technology, this isnot evidence of domesticated grains.

Culture

Natufian Burial at El Wad

Culture

Burial with Dog atEin Mallaha

Culture

Natufian animal carving

Culture

Natufian platform.

Pits and staircase are fromlater period.

Possible sanctuary?

Environment

• Early Natufian: Relatively warm, wooded; 12,500-11,000 BC; sedentism in favored environments

• Late Natufian: “Younger Dryas” little Ice age; 11,000-10,000 BC; nomadism

• Khiamian: End of Late Natufian & return to sedentism; 10,000-9,500 BC

Environment

Plan of Hayonim Cave

Environment

Reconstruction of Natufian Hut,Beidha

Toward Urbanization

NeolithicA. Pre-Pottery Neolithic

1.PPNA (9,500-8,500 BC)2.PPNB (8,500-7,000 BC)3.PPNC (7,000-6,000 BC)

B. Pottery Neolithic1.Halaf Culture (6,500-5,100 BC)2.Samarra Culture (6,000-5,000) BC

ChalcolithicA. Ubaid (5,000-3,900 BC)

Neolithic

The first agricultural villages

9,500BC-6,000BC

Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN)

Gobekli Tepe

PPNA Polity

• Appears to still be based on episodic leadership and age

• No evidence of stratification

• Likely religious “shamans”

PPNA - Polity

Jericho

PPNA Economy

• Cultivation of Wild cereals

• Domestication of fig (9600 BC)

• Domestication of cereals (9200 BC)

• Domestication of Legumes (9000 BC)

• Evidence of Trade in Obsidian, likely for Dead Sea shells and bitumen

PPNA Culture(s)

• Sultanian (Jericho and Jordan Valley)

• Aswadian (Syria near Damascus)

• Mureybetian (Euphrates Valley and Southern Turkey)

PPNA Culture

Plastered Skulls from Jericho

PPNA Culture

• Religion like based on ancestor worship

• In north, also evidence of animistic concepts at Gobekli Tepe, but this is not in evidence in the Sultanian or Aswadian regions

• Religion appears to be the mechanism by which leaders motivated people

PPNA Culture

Gobekli Tepe

PPNA Culture

• In south (Sultanian and Aswadian) goddess figurines

• In north (Mureybetian) we see animal carved in sculpture, introduction of bull symbolism

PPNA Environment

Housing at Mureybet

PPNA Environment

• Largest villages such as Mureybet and Jericho grew to as many as 700 residents

• Held religious authority over surrounding villages and received “help” from them

PPNB

• The “root” of the later Neolithic

• Seems to be a later expression and spreading of the Mureybetian culture

PPNB Polity

• Appears to still be based on episodic leadership and age

• No evidence of stratification

• Likely religious “shamans”

PPNB Economy

• Widespread use of Domesticated cereals & legumes

• Evidence of Trade in Obsidian, likely for Dead Sea shells and bitumen

• Introduction of goat and sheep herding

PPNB Culture

Plastered Skulls at Mureybet

PPNB Culture

Wall Fresco at Dja’de

PPNB Culture

Bucrania embedded in PPNB wall at Dja’de

PPNB Environment

• Key communities such as Mureybet, Jericho & Beidha on early trade routes, growing to as much as 1,000 residents

• Use of stone for housing, first rectangular housing in world history

PPNC

• An extension of the Aceramic PPNB culture in the southern Levant

• In the north, ceramics had been invented during the Late PPNB and the subsequent culture is called “Halaf”

PPNC Polity

• Appears to still be based on episodic leadership and age

• No evidence of stratification

• Likely religious “shamans”

PPNC Economy

• Comes to be dominated by goat and sheep herding

• Environment is degraded due to herding, and in time pastoral nomadism becomes the rule

• Extensive trade between settled villages and nomads; likely fellow clans

• Extension of Near Eastern trade routes

PPNC Economy

Grain Storage at Ain Ghazal, centralizedand likely controlled through religiousmechanisms

PPNC Culture

Sanctuary at Ain Ghazal, near Amman Jordan

PPNC Culture

Clay figurines from Ain Ghazal

PPNC Culture

Burial beneath house at Ain Ghazal

Plaster Death Mask from Jericho

PPNC Culture

Statues from Ain Ghazal

PPNC Environment

• Use of plaster on floors

• Stone rectangular buildings

Pottery Neolithic

• Primarily in the north, an extension of PPNB culture with the advent of ceramic pottery

• A sequence of cultures, including Proto-Hassuna, Hassuna, and Pre-Halaf leading to the Halaf culture after 6,000 BC

• “Culture” is equated with pottery styles

PN: Catal Hoyuk 6500-5500 BC

PN: Catal Hoyuk Polity• Seems to have been based around family units,

with each “matriarch” family having a slightly more elaborate home with space for rituals

• Rituals included plastered skulls, likely of revered ancestors

• No other evidence for social stratification; homes are approximately the same size

• No centralized location for collective worship or meetings

PN: Catal Hoyuk Economy

• Based on agriculture, hunting and gathering for subsistence (same as earlier agricultural societies)

• Trade in Obsidian

PN: Catal Hoyuk Culture

Pottery (above)Burial of Pregnant Woman (right)

PN: Catal Hoyuk Culture

Wall mural of hunting scene (above)

Goddess figurine seated on throne flanked by two animals (right)

PN: Catal Hoyuk Culture

PN: Catal Hoyuk Environment

PN: Catal Hoyuk Environment

Reconstruction of House, except side entrance