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Feeding Villages: Foraging and Farming Across Neolithic Landscapes

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Feeding Villages: Foraging and Farming Across Neolithic Landscapes Feeding Villages: Foraging and farming across Neolithic landscapes by Matthew V. Kroot A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Anthropology) in the University of Michigan 2014 Dissertation Committee: Professor Henry T. Wright, Chair Professor Daniel C. Fisher Professor Kent V. Flannery Professor Ian Kuijt, Notre Dame University Professor Joyce Marcus ©Matthew V. Kroot 2014 Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to Robin G. Nelson. ii Acknowledgments There are two parts to this dissertation work, the first being the research and the second being the writing. I would like to thank all those who labored in the field and in the lab with me to make the ‘Assal-Dhra’ Archaeological Project (ADAP) – the research program through which all the primary data of this dissertation has been derived – possible. This includes Chantel White, my co-director in the first year, as well as the paleo-environmental specialist for the duration of the project and Eliza Wallace, the project’s GIS specialist. In the first year the survey and surface collections could never have been completed without Joshua Wright who essentially designed the methodologies that we used. Additionally, Phil Graham provided enthusiastic and valuable work during this first season. Our Department of Antiquities representative, Rami Freihat, helped with fieldwork and field life in countless ways. In the second season, I had the pleasure of working with two very helpful members of the Department of Antiquities: Jamal Safi, who helped map the site of al-Khayran, and Khaled Tarawneh, who worked tirelessly for ADAP both in the field and in the bureaucracy. Additionally, the male members of the al-Garaleh family living in Kathrabba and Ai’, Abudul al-Hay, Ri’ad, Mahmoud, Basheer, Ra’d, Fadee, Khalid, and Noor, all did the major excavation work at the site. Gabriela Perez-Dietz has worked diligently to get together many of the figures used in this dissertation. The second part of this dissertation, the writing, has only been possible with the intellectual guidance of my many mentors in graduate school. I would like to thank my chair, Henry T. Wright, for being my biggest (academic) supporter throughout this process. From my initial visit to the university of Michigan Museum of Anthropology in 2004 when he gave me the famous two-hour tour to the cellphone pep-talks from the Minneapolis airport as the clock was winding down on this dissertation, none of it could have been done without his help. I would also like to thank Ian Kuijt for giving me my first exposure to the southwest Asian Neolithic, excavating at the site of Dhra’ and for pointing me in the direction of al-Khayran, the subject of this dissertation. It was his suggestion that first sent me to the library to look through the volumes of the Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan to find the el-Khiam and Helwan points that let us know there was something to dig at the site. Kent Flannery and Joyce Marcus have provided me with endless support from informative classes and conversations to lab space in which to work. Daniel Fisher has helped me out immensely. He has generously given his time through all of the twists and turns of the defense process. I also owe a debt of gratitude to the countless people within the Department of Anthropology at the University of Michigan who have supported my studies. Lisa Young was always a wonderful source for conversations about early villages and life. Carla Sinopoli supported me throughout my time in the Museum and always made me think hard in class. John Speth’s consistent jovial disagreements with my preliminary thoughts on most things have always challenged me and improved my work in the long-run. My fellow graduate students have always been major supporters in Ann Arbor and beyond. Emily Wentzell was generous enough to be my roommate (once again) in graduate school, making sure I had a place to live before I ever showed up for classes. Cameron Gokee, Alice Wright, and Colin Quinn were always wonderful friends who made archaeology fun and iii intellectually stimulating, Khori Newlander, Uthara Suvrathan, and Hemanth Kedambi were all wonderful dig partners and conversationalists in the deserts of Arizona. People outside of the University of Michigan have also been instrumental in the starting and completion of this dissertation. Mindy Zeder was the one who first encouraged me to apply for a grant from National Geographic to start the work on ADAP and also provided me with my first exposure to faunal analysis in southwest Asia. Glenn Schwartz put me on the track to working in southwest Asia as an undergraduate by helping me get my first field experience in New Mexico, taking me to Syria for my first Near Eastern dig, and writing me letters of recommendation for graduate school. Of course, none of this work could have been completed without the immense amount of help I received from people in the country of Jordan. This includes Bill Finlayson of the Council for British Research in the Levant (CBRL) who willingly sponsored my first permit application for ADAP and who provided plenty of thoughts and work space throughout the research process. Nadia Qaisi, also of the CBRL, was a constant advocate for me in Jordan, making sure that I was treated appropriately by purveyors of rental cars and hotel rooms. The second season of ADAP was funded in major part by the American Center for Oriental Research (ACOR). However, beyond the generous fellowship they offered me, they also provided amazing facilities to complete my work and countless individuals who were informal mentors through conversations over dinner and in the library. These include Barbara Porter, Christopher Tuttle, Kathy Nimri, Houmi Ayoubi, Samya Kafafi, Nisreen Abu Al Shaikh, Abed Adawi, Sa'ed Adawi, and Sarah Harpending, all of whom played a significant role in this project, from teaching me Arabic to guiding me through archival materials to finding me equipment for my fieldwork. The Department of Antiquities of Jordan has been more than generous with me, allowing a second-year graduate student to start his own project. Since this time they have provided wonderful representatives and other fieldwork experts. Additionally, Roula Kasoos, Catreena Hamarneh, Khaled Moumani, Rafi Harash, Husam Hajazeem, Khalil Khamdan, Ashraf Rawashdeh, Ahmad Lash, and Aktham Oweidi have all helped me navigate the bureaucracy of the department, always making sure I was able to complete my work. I would also like to thank former Directors Dr. Ziad al-Saad and Dr. Fawwaz al-Khraysheh for their support. While in Jordan a great number of foreign colleagues contributed to this work as well. Phil Wilke and Leslie Quintero informally mentored me on lithic analysis, providing me with the resources to design my own research methods. Gary Rollefson could always be found in Jordan during the summer, providing me with guidance and endless encouragement. Louise Martin’s brief friendly chats at ACOR receptions kick-started my thoughts on faunal analysis. Russell Adams provided me with advice, contacts, and resources based on his experiences excavating Neolithic Tel Tif’dan. Juan Moreno generously provided me with a copy of his dissertation via email and helpful advice on what sorts of questions were important to ask during our work at al- Khayran. Konstantino Politis provided enthusiastic conversation about his work at Neolithic Wadi Hamarash I. Meredith Chesson provided me with information from Expedition to the Dead Sea Plains survey to guide ADAP’s natural resource survey. Cheryl Makarewicz has provided iv me with guidance on faunal analysis and general thinking about animal subsistence production during the Neolithic, as well as an invitation to swap ideas with some of the senior members of the southwest Asian Neolithic research community in Kiel, Germany. Of course, without funding none of this work could have happened. Funding was provided by the National Geographic Society, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the American Center for Oriental Research, and the University of Michigan’s Department of Anthropology, International Institute, and Rackham Graduate School. I also owe a special thanks to Maysoon al-Nahar and Michael Barton who provided me with funding for the paleo-environmental and radiocarbon analyses at al-Khayran from their grant supporting the Mediterranean Landscape Dynamics Project (National Science Foundation grant BCS-410269). No acknowledgments would be complete without a thank you to someone who has no idea either that I wrote a dissertation or that he helped me in countless ways in the process: my son Judah Nelson Kroot. His smile is a true reward of which I never tire and I love him dearly for it and so much more. Last but not least, I would like to thank my wife Robin Nelson. She has provided me with endless support throughout this entire process. She has also been the single most important intellectual sounding board for me. Everything, from my thoughts on household composition in the Neolithic to the computer on which much of this dissertation was written to the apartments in which it was written are all thanks to her. I owe her everything and am so happy to have had her by my side during all my trials and tribulations along my path to this end point. I love her with all my heart. v Table of Contents Dedication ...................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgments
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