PPNA PPNB sites Research Papers (original) (raw)

- by and +1
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- Religion, Near Eastern Archaeology, Music, Near Eastern Studies

Recent fieldwork in the main excavation area at Göbekli Tepe has focused on the excavation of deep soundingsto reach the natural bedrock in preparation for the construction of a shelter, urgently required for the protection of the exposed Neolithic architecture. Eleven deep soundings have been excavated to the bedrock. At several locations, considerable amounts of carbonized botanical material were discovered, so far unique for excavations at Göbekli. A series of more than 150 samples has been produced either on site or by flotation of the relevant soil units. To test the quality of the material for radiocarbon dating, five samples from the area of the large enclosures from Layer III were submitted for AMS-radiocarbon dating. These new data, together with a further age made on collagen from an animal tooth, are presented and discussed in context with previously available absolute chronological evidence.

- by Stephanie Emra and +2
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- Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Zooarchaeology, Neolithic

Report and appreciation of the excavation

- by Lee Clare and +2
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- Prehistoric Archaeology, Anatolian Archaeology, Neolithic Archaeology, Neolithic Transition

This article investigates the emergence of public and religious architectures in the towns of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic " A " , paricularly those important sites of Northern Iraq and Southeastern Anatolia (Upper Tigris). The analysis focuses on structural and architectural elements and some archaeological artifacts discovered there. The study shows that the emergence of such buildings during this period was the result of several developmental factors which characterized the early Neolithic period in the region. This study demonstrates that there were two types of such buildings, the earliest of which were " house–shrines, " and then there were the independent public buildings with specific ritual and social functions characteristic of the end of Pre-Pottery Neolithic " A " period.

This paper summarises typological and technological research on a small assemblage of pottery containers recovered at Kfar HaHoresh (KHH), a Pre-Pottery Neolithic B site in the Southern Levant. The majority of the sherds belong to a distinguishable fabric, composed of local marl matrix tempered with vegetal material originating from herbivore manure. Based on the scarcity and properties of the sherds, we propose that the pottery containers at KHH were rare vessels possibly produced for personal use or for use by distinctive individuals for very limited purposes.

While researching a Babel candidate site near Diyarbakir, Turkey, on 3 October 2019, we found a complex of sites on the
mountain Karaca Dag that, upon further examination, seem to match the description of the landing site of Noah’s Ark,
along with a tomb, possible altar, and much more. The tomb is a 60-m-square, rough stone mastaba, oriented to the
winter solstice sunrise, with two extensions that make it into roughly a 160-m-long boat shape. The site is marked by six
or more geoglyphs, situated along an arc 5 km distant on the northwest side of the mountain. The possible remains of
the Ark appear to have had a modern school built on them, now collapsed.

- by Kenneth Griffith and +1
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- History, Creationism, PPNA PPNB sites, Noah's Ark
- by Lee Clare
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- Anatolian Archaeology, Neolithic Archaeology, Neolithic Transition, Neolithic

- by Oliver Dietrich and +1
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- Archaeology, Near Eastern Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, History of Religion

The 2019-2021 Siberian field-works, which has been carried out uninterruptedly since 2001, is progressed on 3 stages: archaeological excavations, laboratory reserches and theoretical studies. We participated the excavations in Siberia at three points during the field-works. 1) One of the archaeological excavations carried out at three different points in the Angara-Baikal region is two areas at the Buret' Upper Paleolithic site. During the excavations in area A, Upper Paleolithic stone tools, microfaunal finds and some small pieces of large mammals were found. A single human burial belonging to the Bronze Age was excavated in area B. The skeleton of a child was fully closed hocker. No finds accompanying the individual were found in the burial. 2) The excavations of two burials were carried out in the Small Sea (Малое море), opposite to the Ol'hon island on the shore of Lake Baikal. The tombs are associated with the traditions of the Early Bronze Age Glazkovo culture for the Ol'hon Region. Among the finds jade earrings, bracelets (flat rings and discs) and other small ornaments as well as a bronze double-faced spearhead take place. The spearhead is typical for the Glazkovo culture. 3) The other excavations were carried out in the Early Neolithic Ust'-Beleya settlement. The site is located to the Northwest of Irkutsk, on the left bank of the river, at the mouth of the Belaya river, a tributary of the Angara river. The excavations yielded findings confirming the development of the esolithic and Neolithic of the upper Angara basin. The laboratory works comprised ceramics, stone tools and anthropological materials. During the theoretical studies, previous studies on Siberia-Near East relations were checked through the microblade stone tool industry produced by the pressure technique. Our hypothetical views on the possible process of cultural relations between both regions have been updated through new archaeological materials.

- by Semih Güneri
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- Lake Baikal, Neolithic Archaeology, Upper Paleolithic, Siberian Studies
- by Hüseyin BİLDİRİCİ
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- Anatolian Studies, Anatolian Archaeology, Sculpture, Limestone

"The Tepe Telegrams" is a weblog meant to give insight into ongoing excavations and archaeological research at the Pre-Pottery Neolithic site of Göbekli Tepe in southeastern Turkey. Notes on recent field work and short contributions by staff members of the research project will address some of the questions and topics often brought up regarding the monumental structures unearthed at Göbekli Tepe.

- by Jens Notroff
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- Religion, Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Anatolian Archaeology

Visiting China for the first time in October 2016, at the kind invitation of Professor Feng Li, I was immediately struck by the scale and complexity of the Neolithic archaeology. During interesting discussions with Chinese colleagues it became clear that many aspects of the archaeological narratives developed for the origins of the Neolithic in China shared many of the same explanatory models and theoretical perspectives as its prehistoric counterpart in southwest Asia (modern-day Israel/Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Anatolia). I thought it therefore appropriate in my contribution to this issue of Asian Archaeology to offer a summary of the history and development of Neolithic transition archaeology in southwest Asia. I hope this contribution will lead to further comparative discussions.

Gusir Höyük (Siirt), located on the Upper Tigris Basin of Southeast Anatolia is one of several Pre-Pottery Neolithic sites in the region and it is important since it provides data about the PPNB transition as well as having well stratified PPNA deposits. Although it looks like a typical Upper Tigris settlement according to the chipped stone artefacts and many other features, it also shows some differences when compared to other settlements in the region. The absence of scalene microliths which are a typical tool group in the PPNA period of Upper Tigris Basin, and the presence of obsidian pressure blades recovered in the upper layers of the site are examples of these differences. In this paper as well as focusing on the general characteristics of the chipped stone artefacts of Gusir Höyük, the changes observed in the artefacts over time are also considered.

- by Çiler Altınbilek Algül and +1
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- Lithic Technology, Ancient Near East (Archaeology), Prehistory, Anatolian Prehistory

Ayanlar Höyük (Gre Hut), located 30km west of Sanlıurfa, was discovered during surface surveys conducted in 2013. Ayanlar Höyük dated to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic Period, is a largescale mound like Göbekli Tepe and Karahan Tepe, covering an overall surface area of 14 hectares. It was learned recently that three artefacts dated to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period which are held by Sanlıurfa Museum were brought from Ayanlar Höyük. The artefacts in Sanlıurfa Museum and the finds recovered from Ayanlar Höyük during a surface survey have been identified as having characteristics similar to those from Körtik Tepe, Göbekli Tepe, Nevali Çori and Karahan Tepe. Consequently, Ayanlar Höyük should be dated between the early Pre-Pottery Neolithic Period B (EPPNB) and the mid-Pre-Pottery Neolithic Period B (MPPNB).

- by Bahattin CELIK
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- The Neolithic period in central Greece, PPNA PPNB sites

A tiny bone plaque found at the Pre-Pottery Neolithic site of Göbekli Tepe in southeast Turkey, and currently on display in nearby Sanliurfa Museum, shows the first recorded depiction of the site’s familiar T-shaped pillars. In addition to this, the etching on its surface might well be the earliest known use of a 3D perspective in prehistoric art. The plaque’s finely carved imagery also reignites the debate over the axial orientation of the site’s main enclosures and any potential astronomical targets during the epoch of their construction.

Following the first publication on the archaeology of Arabia (OREA 4), this second volume is devoted to connecting the evidence across the Arabian Peninsula and bridging the gap between traditionally distinct scholarly fields.
Spanning a chronological range from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) to the Islamic period and encompassing regions from the south-eastern tip to the north-eastern corner of the subcontinent, from Oman to the Negev and the Red Sea, we commit to reconstructing a broader, more interconnected picture of the archaeology of this underexplored, vast territorial expanse.
In this edition we discuss the formation of the oldest peri-maritime settled communities of the Neolithic and investigate similarities and dissimilarities in landmarks, territorial appropriation and environmental conditions of the Early Bronze Age funerary landscape (al-Kharj oasis) and the settlement landscape created by the early-3rd-millennium-BCE emergence of Hejazi ‘urbanism’ in the most ancient mega sites of the peninsula, the famous walled oases of Qurayyah and Tayma. We highlight the varied modalities of cultic landscapes of nomadic pastoral peoples in the Negev and Oman and the symbolic value of copper-alloy metallurgy, and investigate epigraphic and regional trade connections and routes throughout an extended region, as well as the formation of mining landscapes and specialised sites for the selective exploitation of mineral resources such as copper, silver and gold (Al-Baha area).
The book offers the first answers to questions of agency, networks, chronologies and the complex legacy of reconstructing history based on Greek, Roman and the chequered local epigraphic evidence.

- by Marta Luciani
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- Northwest Semitic Epigraphy, Archaeometallurgy, Tayma, PPNA PPNB sites

Anadolu’da Neolitik Dönem bulgularının ilk kez ortaya çıkışı, J. Mellaart’ın 1957-1960 yıllarında yapmış olduğu Hacılar Kazısı ile gerçekleşmiştir. İlerleyen yıllarda, Pisidya/Göller Bölgesi’nde gerçekleştirilen araştırmalar ve devam eden kazılar neticesinde, söz konusu bölgenin Çanak-Çömlekli Neolitik Dönem boyunca yoğun olarak iskân edildiğini anlaşılsa da, bu sürecin öncesine tarihlenen arkeolojik veriler son derece sınırlıdır. Hacılar şimdilik, söz konusu bölge-nin, Akeramik Neolitik tabakalar içeren tek kazısı konumundadır. Bu sebeple de bölgede yerleşik hayatın başlangıcı yaklaşık olarak MÖ 8000’lere kadar geri gitmektedir. Ancak, Pisidya/Göller Bölgesi’nde uzun yıllardır araştırma ve kazılar yapan Duru, Hacılar Nekropol aramaları çalışmalarında elde ettiği arkeolojik veriler neticesinde, Mellaart’ın oluşturduğu stratigrafiye dayanan kronolojik düzeni yeniden ele alarak yorumlamıştır. Hacılar’ın özellikle Akeramik Neolitik Dönem tabakalarının tarihlendirilmesi halen birçok araştırmacı tarafından tartışmalı olup söz konusu tabaka-lar, bu çalışma ile mevcut arkeolojik veriler ışığında ve yeni bir bakış açısıyla değerlendirilmeye çalışılmıştır. Bu değer-lendirme sırasında, bölgede ve Anadolu yarımadasında Hacılar’ın kazılmasından yıllar sonra ortaya çıkan ve Neolitik Dönem ile ilgili bilgilerimizi baştan kurgulayan pek çok yerleşmenin verilerinden de faydalanılmıştır.

- by Sinem Türkteki
- •
- Neolithic Archaeology, Neolithic Transition, Neolithic, Chronology

This MA dissertation is concerned with the ways in which people treated the human head in Southwest Asia from the Epipaleolithic to the Early Bronze Age. Both continuity and innovation regarding head treatments may be observed in a compiled database of 100 prehistoric sites from five subregions. Each site was analyzed via 25 categories of head treatment taken from five major classifications of agency: 1) Burial Site Treatments, 2) Skull Removal, 3) Skull Modifications, 4) Animal Association, and 5) Anthropomorphic Imagery. The number of sites which participated in a category fluctuated according to geography, chronology, and head treatment. These fluctuations are presented and diachronically discussed by region, as well as illustrated with pertinent examples of treatments from many archaeological sites. The continuity and innovation regarding treatments of the human head first displayed by complex hunter-gatherers and later by agricultural communities may provide insight into concepts related to identity, aesthetics, symbolism, ritual, emotion, and mortality for these prehistoric cultures. Concepts of which continue to hold relevance for present cultures. This work is intended to be a helpful reference for further study of head treatments in Southwest Asian regions during the Epipaleolithic to the Early Bronze Age and therefore includes summary reference charts for each site in the database according to time period and region, in addition to appendices with MNI information, radiocarbon dating, and a summary of head treatments for all sites included in the database. The centralization of information compiled in this work from numerous archeological publications may aid in future intrasite, regional, and/or chronological studies of how these diverse cultures treated the human head.

Peter M.M.G. Akkermans (Ed.) 1989

We review and evaluate human adaptations during the last glacial-interglacial climatic transition in southwest Asia. Stable isotope data imply that climatic change was synchronous across the region within the limits of dating uncertainty. Changes in vegetation, as indicated from pollen and charcoal, mirror step-wise shifts between cold-dry and warm-wet climatic conditions, but with lag effects for woody vegetation in some upland and interior areas. Palaeoenvironmental data can be set against regional archaeological evidence for human occupancy and economy from the later Epipalaeolithic to the aceramic Neolithic. Demographic change is evaluated from summed radiocarbon date probability distributions , which indicating contrasting and in some cases opposite-population trajectories in different regions. Abrupt warming transitions at ~14.5 and 11.7 ka BP may have acted as pacemakers for rapid cultural change in some areas, notably at the start of the Natufian and Pre-Pottery Neolithic cultures. However temporal synchroneity does not mean that climatic changes had the same environmental or societal consequences in different regions. During cold-dry time intervals, regions such as the Levant acted as refugia for plant and animal resources and human population. In areas where socio-ecological continuity was maintained through periods of adverse climate (e.g. Younger Dryas) human communities were able to respond rapidly to subsequent climatic improvement. By contrast, in areas where there was a break in settlement at these times (e.g. central Anatolia), populations were slower to react to the new opportunities provided by the interglacial world.

Second newsletter published in the frame of the "Our Place: Our Place in the World" project financed by the John Templeton Foundation (USA)

- by Lee Clare and +2
- •
- Near Eastern Archaeology, Anatolian Archaeology, Neolithic Archaeology, Archaeology of Ritual and Magic

A series of eight dwelling sites were discovered recently in south-eastern Jordan, directly associated with eight mass-hunting structures: desert kites. These associated sites also share a clear chronological framework, as they are all dated to the end of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B. The archaeological material, mostly made up of abundant lithic industries, is extremely homogenous and coherent at all the sites. The excavated lithic industries from three of the eight dwelling sites are studied here. They show similarities and consist of a blade and a bifacial component of small to large-sized artefacts, in association with a large assemblage of small arrowheads of various types. On the basis of the specific characteristics of the whole lithic assemblage, a new regional techno-complex, called the “Ghassanian”, is defined for these desert margins of the Fertile Crescent.

- by Remy Crassard and +2
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- Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Neolithic Archaeology, Use Wear Analysis
- by Oliver Dietrich and +1
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- Archaeology, Near Eastern Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, History of Religion

Peter M.M.G. Akkermans (Ed.) 1996

The intention of this essay is to phenomenologically explore the ways in which a Neolithic person may have interacted within the space of Göbekli Tepe in light of archeological evidence. Specifically, we will examine 1) participation in construction, 2) possible understandings of symbolism, and 3) what rituals may have occurred therein. More specifically, we will attempt to limit our study to Enclosure D at Göbekli Tepe. Without ignoring the surrounding context, this micro scale approach should allow a more direct focus on understanding how a Neolithic person may have viewed this obviously meaningful space {NOTE: this paper was written before an understanding of the Taş Tepeler culture was developed and follows many of the suppositions originally posited by Schmidt}

Intensive survey and initial excavations have succeeded in pushing back the Neolithic human occupation of Cyprus to the earlier ninth millennium cal BC. Contemporary with PPNA in the Levant, and with signs of belonging to the same intellectual community, these were not marginalised foragers, but participants in the developing Neolithic project, which was therefore effectively networked over the sea.

- by Carole McCartney
- •
- Neolithic Archaeology, PPNA PPNB sites, Neolithic of the Near East

M. Verhoeven and Peter M.M.G. Akkermans (Eds.) 2000

Our understanding about the existence of Neolithic Çukurova is much less when compared to the
neighboring regions. Even though cultural layers of Neolithic period have been discovered by the excavations
carried out at Yumuktepe and Gözlükule in the first half of 20th century, excavations have provided only
patchy and insufficient information about the Neolithic layers in many excavated mounds in the region
up to now. Prehistoric stratigraphy of this large region has been determined by the evidence of only one
settlement, Yumuktepe, where new excavations have been undertaken once again since 1993. According to
this stratigraphy the Pottery Neolithic Period stratigraphy in the mound which begins from 7000 BC, can
be traced without interruption. Existence of Pre Pottery Neolithic Period, on the other hand, is problematic.
Çukurova is the second biggest delta plain in Mediterranean and so covers quite a large area. Therefore, it
is very hard to describe prehistory such a massive area with the data coming from only one site. Tatarlı Höyük,
which lies Yukarıova (upper part of plain) part east of Çukurova seem to be a good candidate to solve Neolithic
issues of the region. Both its location and natural environment are remarkable. Our intensive surveys since 2016
conducted in and around Tatarlı have yielded significant information on the Neolithic Period.
Data of Neolithic Period at Tatarlı was obtained on the perimeter and its adjacent regions. In particular,
large quantity of Neolithic material have been found despite out of context in the Citadel part of the mound.
In addition, in the south of the Citadel, Bucak locality in the north and Leçelik in the east have yielded chipped
stone materials. This assemblage is mostly composed of flintstone raw material, although considerable amount
of obsidians were also observed. Provenance analyses on the obsidian material indicate that the large majority
of them are connected to the Göllüdağ source. There are also obsidians from Nemrut source in Eastern
Anatolia. Apart from flint and obsidian, quarts, radiolarite, gypsum must had been used for chipping process.
It is apparent that both flintstone and obsidian were chipped in the settlement. Great amount of core, tablet,
plunging blade made of both raw materials prove this situation.
Aside from chipped stone material, there are ceramic materials as well. Especially to the south and
southwest of the Citadel, pottery has been observed. Dark Faced Burnish Ware (DFBW) and pre - DFBW as
well as impresso decorated pottery can give an approximate date. Apart from above mentioned archaeological
material such as chipped stones and pottery, small finds of Neolithic Period such as a great number and type
of miniature stone axes, chipped disks and figurines are existing.
To conclude, when material groups examined together with the settlements in the prone cultural regions,
the evidence of Pre Pottery and Pottery Neolithic periods in Tatarlı Höyük are apparent.
There is no doubt that the excavations in Neolithic layers of Tatarlı Höyük in the years ahead will reveal
the Neolithic period, accordingly Neolithic progress of the Çukurova Region will be better understood.

- by K.Serdar Girginer
- •
- Neolithic Archaeology, Obsidian, Cilicia, Neolithic

The Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) and B (PPNB) of Upper Mesopotamia reveal a cultural phenomenon, called Nevalıçorien or T-shaped pillar sites. In their significant settlement pattern and structure, as well as their architecture and statuary, numerous markers for corporate identities and
developed organization structures can be detected, suggesting a complex intra- and intersite group consciousness.

- by Carole McCartney
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- Neolithic Cyprus, PPNA PPNB sites, Neolithic of the Near East
- by Hala Alarashi
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- Neolithic Archaeology, Beads, PPNA PPNB sites, Stone Beads Technology

In September 2014 a new Polish research project dedicated to the Early Bronze Age (EB) began. Archaeologists and students from the Institute of Archeology of the Jagiellonian University started exploratory work in southern Jordan. The Heritage-Landscape Community (HLC) project research the area located in the vicinity of the city of aṭ-Ṭafīlah. In the years 2014-16, the project focused mostly on surface survey (Kołodziejczyk et al. 2018), while in 2017 excavations at two sites were started. In the years to come new locations will be added to the project. The work is being carried out as part of research project UMO-2016/22/E/HS3/00141, financed by the National Science Center (Poland). The project represents a comprehensive attempt to establish the functioning and significance of southern Jordan during the EB.

- by Jacek Karmowski and +3
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- Lithics, Late Neolithic, Early Bronze Age in the Southern Levant, Archaeology of the Southern Levant

The Neolithic site of Shkārat Msaied is under excavation since 1999 by a Danish team of the University of Copenhagen. During the last seasons we have focused on building unit F and its surroundings. Unit F contains a series of burials offering striking insights into the PPNB mortuary practices. The contribution presents the fieldwork and research carried out at the site in recent years. Shkārat Msaied is one of the PPNB sites in the Petra area showing the transition from round to rectangular buildings and the use of the “vertical” space highlighting the long building tradition in the region.

- by Moritz Kinzel
- •
- Archaeology, Jordan, Mortuary archaeology, PPNA PPNB sites

Kharaysin is a Pre-Pottery Neolithic site located in the village of Quneya, in the Zarqa River valley, over 25 ha
in size and dating from the 9th millennium cal BC. Two occupation levels have been documented. In excavation
area IJ100, two oval semi-sunken houses with plaster floors were excavated; these dated from the beginning of the
9th millennium cal BC, the late phase of the PPNA. Over this architectural level, a straight stone wall and a burial
correspond to the beginning of the Middle PPNB, at the end of the 9th millennium cal BC. Further south, down the
slope of the site, in trenches CDEFG-55 and TUVX-60, a Middle PPNB occupation has also been documented, with
rectangular buildings built on the surface, stone walls and plastered floors. In Area U60, paintings were discovered
on the plastered floor of one building. Bipolar technology, Jericho and Amuq points and bent sickle blades are
observed in the Middle PPNB occupation phase. The PPNA material culture, which is still poorly documented,
seems to be characterized by unipolar knapping, blades with double pairs of notches and decorated grooved stones.

- by Martin Moník and +7
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- Geophysics, PPNA PPNB sites

Az Urfa-régió eddig feltárt lelőhelyei igen kiemelkedő helyet foglalnak el Anatólia neolitikus kultúráinak kutatásában. A legelső antropogén hatások egészen a mezolitikum idejére nyúlnak vissza. A régészeti kutatás tekintetében, hitvilági aspektusból a legjelentősebb leletek a mobil művészet emlékei, illetőleg a különböző objektumok, amelyeknek sorából kiemelkedik Göbekli Tepe lelőhelye, amelynek rétegei egyértelműen a kerámia előtti neolitikum időszakára datálhatók, habár a domesztikációra utaló nyomok mondhatni teljes egészében hiányoznak. Legkorábbi fázisának megalitikus oszlopokból álló kőkörei megalapozták a lelőhely hírnevét és tudományos jelentőségét. A régió gazdag vadállatfaunája feltehetőleg nagy hatást gyakorolt a korabeli ember életére, gondolkodására, nemcsak a mindennapi táplálékszerzés és közvetlen környezet tekintetében, hanem az ábrázoló művészetben is, melynek a kutatás mai állása szerinti legelfogadottabb értelmezése egyértelműen a szakrális szimbolikához köti. Számos értelmezés és eredmény látott napvilágot az évek során, azonban ha figyelembe vesszük a lelőhelyek kiterjedését vagy a becsült várható további lelőhelyeket, objektumokat, és egyéb leleteket, akkor kijelenthetjük, hogy a kutatás a régió jelentős részén még igencsak a kezdeti szakaszban van.

During the Middle Pre-pottery Neolithic B in the southern Levant the use of lime plaster in both ritual and domestic contexts increased significantly relative to previous periods. Its properties of whiteness, purity, plasticity and antisepsis would have made it a natural choice for decorating, and through the act of colouring disparate categories of objects were linked together. Plaster appears to have transcended its own inherent value as a material due to its interconnectedness with mortuary ritual. Because of its ubiquity, this socially ascribed value was accessible to everyone. This article will claim that plaster, and the act of plastering both ritual and domestic contexts played a key role in the creation and maintenance of community cohesion and social well-being.

Festschrift für Andreas Zimmermann

Erscheinungsdatum: 22. 07. 2016
ISBN: 978-3-7749-4022-2

- by Tim Kerig and +19
- •
- Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Multivariate Statistics, Landscape Archaeology

Shells in general, and marine shells in particular, are conspicuously abundant at the EPPNB site of Nesher-Ramla and had a central role in the activities taking place at the site and in the lives of the people using it. Land snails most probably occurred naturally at the site while freshwater shells were brought inadvertently or purposefully as adornment. Marine shells were brought to the site from the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. Marine shell beads could have been either produced at NRQN, or brought there as finished products, possibly as part of elaborate ornaments. The marine shells represent different use trajectories. Glycymeris shells, none of which are likely to have been artificially perforated, and many of which were found burnt, may have been part of the local lime-plaster production. Many of the gastropods, artificially perforated in various ways, some skillfully heat treated, were used by the site’s occupants as ornamental beads. Shells were made into beads by different people or in different situations, yet following clear conceptual guidelines connecting shell-type to bead-shape. Shells from each specific taxa were perforated in a similar way, while different taxa were shaped differently. Color also varied, as both naturally light and skillfully darkened specimens appear in several taxa. This recurring array of beads was probably used to create different patterns or rhythmic visual effects. Technical differences in execution, such as depth, regularity or directionality of the manufacturing striations, represent the involvement of different producers, while recurring bead shapes represent the shared material cultural tradition of the people using NRQN.

During the Early Neolithic in the Near East, particularly from the mid ninth millennium cal BC onwards, human iconography became more widespread. Explanations for this development, however, remain elusive. This article presents a unique assemblage of flint artefacts from the Middle Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (eighth millennium BC) site of Kharaysin in Jordan. Contextual, morphological, statistical and use-wear analyses of these artefacts suggest that they are not tools but rather human figurines. Their close association with burial contexts suggests that they were manufactured and discarded during mortuary rituals and remembrance ceremonies that included the extraction, manipulation and redeposition of human remains.

- by Jonathan Santana
- •
- Archaeology, Ancient Near East, Antiquity, Shape Analysis

Communal buildings, rounded and. sunken are characteristic of the Late Mureybetian (PPNA Horizon) in the Euphrates valley. They belong to two different types. The earliest ones were found at Mureybet and Jerf el Ahmar. They have exactly the same plans, with, radial subdivisions forming small cells. They were probably multifunctional (storage, meetings, rituals). The latest ones were only found in the transition phase between PPNA and PPNB at Jerf el Ahmar. Their only feature is a bench, which backs onto the wall and continues around the entire interior, forming an hexagon and embellished by decorated stone slabs. They were places for meeting and/or for ritual. In this way they are the forerunners of the Early PPNB sanctuaries of Anatolia.
Des bâtiments communautaires arrondis et enterrés caractérisent le Mureybétien récent (Horizon PPNA) de la vallée de Г Euphrate. Ils sont de deux types, qui se succèdent dans le temps. Les plus anciens ont été trouvés à Mureybet et à Jerf el Ahmar. De plan identique, ils sont tous subdivisés en cellules rayonnantes. Leur fonction était sans doute polyvalente (stockage, réunions, rituels). Les plus récents illustrent la phase de transition PPNA-PPNB de Jerf' el Ahmar. Ils ne comportent qu'une banquette périphérique hexagonale ornée de dalles en calcaire décorées. Aucune structure de stockage n'y est prévue, il s'agit de lieux de réunion d'ordre social et/ou rituel. En ce sens ils sont les précurseurs des «sanctuaires » du PPNB ancien anatolien.

- by Michel Brenet
- •
- Architectural History, Neolithic Archaeology, PPNA PPNB sites

Transverse grooved stones (TGS) believed to be used as shaft straighteners, first made their
appearance at Epipalaeolithic sites in the Near East from where they spread to the Mediterranean
coasts of Africa and Europe, but mostly to Northern Eurasia (the steppe, forest-steppe, and semi-desert
zones). It has been discovered that the spread of TGA has been carried out along different paths.
Moreover, grooved stones along each of these transmission routes can be distinguished by their unique
decorative and morphological characteristics.
The aim of this paper is to clarify the circumstances and the date of appearance of the first TGS,
localization of their initial areas, and identification of their respective decorative and morphological
features. This is a necessary condition for identifying the starting points of the subsequent transit
carriers of TGS' tradition and tracing the directions of interaction in Eurasia during the end of the
Pleistocene – the first half of the Holocene period using TGS as markers.
The initial database was formed on the basis of the scientific publications on the Near East. The
following is a presentation of the analytical review of at least 200 grooved stones and 80 sites in their
starting area in south-western Asia. The analysis used a systematic approach with emphasis on
chronology, environment, petrography, morphology, functional-typological data where such were
available, and TGS’ decor. But first of all, the study pays attention to the distribution of TGS and their
cultural and chronological boundaries in this region. For this purpose, it was performed the mapping
of findings in two chronological levels – up to 8000 thousand BCE and after, with the marking of
decorated products.
The results enabled us to detect that the geographical spread of grooved artefacts of this type is
limited in the Near East to the area of central Anatolia and Fertile Crescent, with a boundary along the
desert-steppes. At least three concentrations can be clearly distinguished: the Levant, Zagros
Mountains, and Upper Mesopotamia - central Anatolia, where the products are characterized by
specific features of decorative and morphological design and in one case (Levant) an additional
observed petrographic specificity. Currently, the earliest cases are recorded in Early Natufian contexts
in the Levant and in Epipalaeolithic contexts of the Anatolian plateau since the 13th millennium cal
BCE. Thus, one can confidently state that the introduction of TGS in the Middle East is generally
linked to the Epipalaeolithic sites (Natufian, Harifian, and Western Zarzian) and is definitely
associated with hunter-gatherers. The heyday of TGS falls on the PPNA and lasts to the beginning of
the early Bronze Age, when they finally disappear.