ANT/HIST 500 The Ancient City Day 3. Toward the Neolithic.
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Transcript of 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
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
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.
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
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)
PPNA Polity
• Appears to still be based on episodic leadership and age
• No evidence of stratification
• Likely religious “shamans”
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
• 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
• In south (Sultanian and Aswadian) goddess figurines
• In north (Mureybetian) we see animal carved in sculpture, introduction of bull symbolism
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
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
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 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
Wall mural of hunting scene (above)
Goddess figurine seated on throne flanked by two animals (right)
PN: Catal Hoyuk Environment
Reconstruction of House, except side entrance