ANT/HIST 500

1. ANT/HIST 500 The Ancient City Day 3

2. Toward the Neolithic

3. The Ages • Paleolithic: Old Stone Age • Mesolithic: Middle Stone Age • Neolithic: New Stone Age • Chalcolithic: Copper Age • Bronze Age: d’uh • Iron Age: ditto

4. Natufian  Khiamian The “Epi-Paleolithic” or Mesolithic

5. Natufian

6. Natufian

7. Natufian/Khiamian

8. 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

9. Economy • Hunting & Gathering • “Broad Spectrum” (Flannery) • Evidence of “Down the Line” trade

10. Economy Necklace of Teeth, Bone, and Sea Shells from El Wad This would have required trade or foraging parties in order to get the sea shells from the coast

11. Economy Natufian Sickle: Although they had such technology, this is not evidence of domesticated grains.

12. Culture Natufian Burial at El Wad

13. Culture Burial with Dog at Ein Mallaha

14. Culture Natufian animal carving

15. Culture Natufian platform. Pits and staircase are from later period. Possible sanctuary?

16. 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

17. Environment Plan of Hayonim Cave

18. Environment Reconstruction of Natufian Hut, Beidha

19. Toward Urbanization • Neolithic • A. Pre-Pottery Neolithic • PPNA (9,500-8,500 BC) • PPNB (8,500-7,000 BC) • PPNC (7,000-6,000 BC) • B. Pottery Neolithic • Halaf Culture (6,500-5,100 BC) • Samarra Culture (6,000-5,000) BC • Chalcolithic • Ubaid (5,000-3,900 BC)

20. Neolithic The first agricultural villages 9,500BC-6,000BC

21. Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN) Gobekli Tepe

22. PPNA Polity • Appears to still be based on episodic leadership and age • No evidence of stratification • Likely religious “shamans”

23. PPNA - Polity Jericho

24. 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

25. PPNA Culture(s) • Sultanian (Jericho and Jordan Valley) • Aswadian (Syria near Damascus) • Mureybetian (Euphrates Valley and Southern Turkey)

26. PPNA Culture Plastered Skulls from Jericho

27. 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

28. PPNA Culture Gobekli Tepe

29. PPNA Culture • In south (Sultanian and Aswadian) goddess figurines • In north (Mureybetian) we see animal carved in sculpture, introduction of bull symbolism

30. PPNA Environment Housing at Mureybet

31. 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

32. PPNB • The “root” of the later Neolithic • Seems to be a later expression and spreading of the Mureybetian culture

33. PPNB Polity • Appears to still be based on episodic leadership and age • No evidence of stratification • Likely religious “shamans”

34. 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

35. PPNB Culture Plastered Skulls at Mureybet

36. PPNB Culture Wall Fresco at Dja’de

37. PPNB Culture Bucrania embedded in PPNB wall at Dja’de

38. 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

39. 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”

40. PPNC Polity • Appears to still be based on episodic leadership and age • No evidence of stratification • Likely religious “shamans”

41. 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

42. PPNC Economy Grain Storage at Ain Ghazal, centralized and likely controlled through religious mechanisms

43. PPNC Culture Sanctuary at Ain Ghazal, near Amman Jordan

44. PPNC Culture Clay figurines from Ain Ghazal

45. PPNC Culture Burial beneath house at Ain Ghazal Plaster Death Mask from Jericho

46. PPNC Culture Statues from Ain Ghazal

47. PPNC Environment • Use of plaster on floors • Stone rectangular buildings

48. 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

49. PN: Catal Hoyuk 6500-5500 BC

50. 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