The origins and development of the earliest farming society in Upper Mesopotamia

该项目调查了上美索不达米亚早期农业社会的起源和发展。这项研究的主要数据是通过在叙利亚东北部的Tell Seker al-Aheimar的挖掘获得的，这是上美索不达米亚已知的最古老的农业定居点之一。2004-2007年的发掘工作提供了新石器时代前陶器B（PPNB）到新石器时代陶器的原始Hassuna阶段的分层证据，这些证据来自公元前8世纪末到公元前7世纪中期。研究的一些主要结果如下。(1)建筑和石器技术表明，该遗址的第一批PPNB居住者与安纳托利亚东南部的PPNB社区共享文化传统。(2)他们的生计主要依靠谷物和动物驯养，沿着的是对瞪羚等中型动物的额外狩猎。(3)分层沉积物中丰富的放射性碳年代测定结果确定了这一时期陶器使用的开始。 ...更多信息 地区，CA。公元前6900/6800年。(4)在Seker al-Aheimar发现的最古老的陶器展示了以前未知的特征，这导致了在上美索不达米亚或“前”原始哈苏纳的新石器时代陶器实体的建议。矿物回火的普遍使用和各层次陶器的罕见出现，揭示了陶器在新石器时代最早期的功能作用。(5)其中一个证据表明，从PPNB到陶器新石器时代的象征性方面的变化是粘土女性雕像的快速增加。来自Tell Seker al-Aheimar的粘土制品包括一个巨大的，极其复杂的粘土女性雕像，这为我们讨论PPNB/陶器新石器时代界面时期的象征行为提供了一个新的维度。(6)为了重建古气候，在附近的一个沼泽，哈顿耶湖进行了岩心钻探调查。对全新世早期样本的硅藻和花粉分析结果表明，公元前7000年发生了一次重大的气候变化，这可能引发了陶器新石器时代的社会经济变化。少

This project investigated the origins and development of the early farming society in Upper Mesopotamia. The primary data for this research was obtained through the excavations at Tell Seker al-Aheimar in northeast Syria, which is one of the oldest farming settlements known in Upper Mesopotamia. The 2004-2007 excavations yielded stratified evidence on the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) to the Proto-Hassuna phase of the Pottery Neolithic, derived from the late 8th to the mid 7th millennium BC. Some of the major results of the research are as follows. (1) The architecture and the lithic technology indicate that the first, PPNB occupants at the site shared a cultural tradition with the PPNB communities of the southeast Anatolia. (2) Their subsistence was mainly based on cereal and animal domestication, along with additional hunting of medium-sized animals such as gazelles. (3) The abundant radiocarbon dates from the stratified deposits firmly dated the beginning of the pottery use in this … More region to ca. 6900/6800 BC. (4) The oldest pottery discovered at Seker al-Aheimar exhibited previously unknown features, which led to proposal of a new Pottery Neolithic entity in Upper Mesopotamia, or "Pre" Proto-Hassuna. The common use of mineral tempering and the very rare occurrences of the pottery in each level shed light on the functional role of pottery at the earliest stage of the Pottery Neolithic period. (5) One of the evidences indicating a change in symbolic aspects from the PPNB to the Pottery Neolithic was the rapid increase of clay female figurines. The clay objects from Tell Seker al-Aheimar included a gigantic, extremely sophisticated clay female figurine, which provided us with a new dimension to discuss the symbolic behaviors of the PPNB/ Pottery Neolithic interface period. (6) In order to reconstruct paleo-climate, a core-drilling investigation was conducted in a nearby swamp, Lake Hattonyieh. The results of diatom and pollen analyses for the early Holocene samples suggest a major climatic change in the 7th millennium BC, which might have triggered socio-economic change during the Pottery Neolithic. Less