THE DEVELOPMENT of GOAT and SHEEP HERDING DURING the LEVANTINE NEOLITHIC Volume 1
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF GOAT AND SHEEP HERDING DURING THE LEVANTINE NEOLITHIC Volume 1 Alexander Michael Richard WASSE Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of London January 2000 Institute of Archaeology University College London ABSTRACT This thesis examines the development of goat and sheep herding in the Levant during the Neolithic period, and focuses particularly on the emergence of caprines as major early domesticates and the development of specialised pastoral economies. It is divided into two sections. The first consists of a critical review of published palaeoclimatic, archaeological, archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological data, which are integrated to provide baseline interpretations of caprine domestication and the development of specialised pastoral economies. The second section presents the results of a zooarchaeological analysis of the faunal assemblage from the Neolithic site of 'Am Ghazal, located in the Jordanian Highlands, which are evaluated in the context of the two baseline interpretations presented in the first section. The relative merits of the different methods by which archaeological caprine remains can be identified to species are also discussed. It is argued that goats were probably first domesticated in or immediately adjacent to the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon Mountains during the 10th millennium b.p., and that mouflon were probably first domesticated in the piedmont zones of the Taurus and Zagros Mountains during the first half of the 9th millennium b.p.. The independent domestication of goats in the Zagros Mountains during the first half of the 9th millennium b.p. is regarded as a strong possibility. It is concluded that the concepts of there have been a temporal gap between the appearance of the earliest permanent agricultural villages and the earliest domestic caprines, and that significant periods of loose-herding preceded the full domestication of these species, may need to be reconsidered. Pastoral economies during the Levantine Neolithic seem to have been based on sedentary animal husbandry aimed at subsistence-orientated meat production. There is however some evidence that simple forms of distant pastures husbandry, still focused on subsistence- orientated meat production, may have developed during the Neolithic period. 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The greatest debt of thanks is due to my supervisors, Dr. Andrew Garrard and Dr. Louise Martin, not only for their constant advice, patience and untold support, but also for introducing me to the delights of Levantine prehistory and its caprines in the first place. I am extremely grateful to the excavators of 'Am Ghazal, Dr. Gary Rollefson and Dr. Zeidan Kafafi for making their painstakingly excavated archaeological material available to me, and for enabling me to participate in excavations at 'Am Ghazal. I am also heavily indebted to Dr. use Kohler-Rollefson, whose original analysis and interpretations of the 'Am Ghazal faunal assemblage provided the framework for this thesis. Thanks are due to the British Academy for presenting me with the post-graduate studentship which enabled the work to be undertaken. My father and mother have provided constant love, support and inspiration throughout, and an especial debt of gratitude is due to them. Most of the work involved in this thesis was done at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, and I would like to acknowledge the support which this institution and its staff have provided. However, a substantial part of the fauna! analysis was carried out at the British Institute at Amman for Archaeology and History, and thanks are therefore due to Alison McQuitty and George Findlater for their facilitation of this work. I would also like to thank the staff of the Institute of Archaeology, Yarmouk University. I am heavily indebted to colleagues in the 'bone room' of the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, especially Daniel Antoine, Marcello Mannino, Robert Symmons and Sylvia Warman, for their support and not least their lively banter at the darkest moments. Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to Edward Allonby, Simon and Penny Brocklehurst, Cyprian Broodbank, Caroline Brown, Stuart Cakebread, Harriet Crawford, the Crown Inn, Jakub Czastka, Paul Croft, Simon Davis, Guy Dingley, Oliver Famworth, Emma Findlay, Salvatore Garfi, Hermann Genz, Nick Hayes, Peter Hellyer, Gordon human, Nissar Hoath, Des, Carol, Suzanne, Claire, and Louise Irvine, Jenny Jones, Geoffrey King, Phillippa Loates, Ariane Marcar, Henry Morris, James Murdoch, Katie Pack, Sebastian Payne, Carl Phillips, Alan Rowe, Steven Schmich, Thomas Stambach, Eitan Tchernov, Hans-Peter Uerpmann, Barnaby, Paul and Jill Wright, Karen Wright, and Miss 'X' of Bayswater. Amman, 31.12.1999 3 CONTENTS VOLUME 1: Chapter 1: Introduction: 24 1.1: Introduction 24 1.2: The emergence of food producing economies in the Levant 26 1.3: The rationale for this study 27 Chapter 2: Methodology: 29 2.1: Introduction 29 2.2: First stage (Chapters 3, 4, 5 and 6) 29 2.3: Second stage (Chapters 7, 8,9, 10 and 11) 31 2.3.1: Zooarchaeological methodology 32 2.3.1.1: Aims and objectives 32 2.3.1.2: Material available for analysis 33 2.3.1.3: Sampling of the material available for analysis 33 2.3.1.4: Retrieval and preparation 37 2.3.1.5: General methodological considerations 37 2.3.1.6: Parts of the skeleton which were counted 37 23.1.7: Identification 39 2.3.1.8: Quantification 40 2.3.1.9: Ageing 41 2.3.1.10: Sexing 41 2.3.1.11: Measurements 42 Chapter 3: The Environmental Setting of the Levant: 43 3.1: Introduction 43 3.2: The Levant 43 3.3: The geology of the Levant 43 3.4: The geomorphology of the Levant 46 3.5: Current climate of the Levant 47 3.6: Current vegetation of the Levant 49 3.6.1: Mediterranean region 49 3.6.2: Irano-Turanian region 50 4 3.6.3: Saharo-Arabian region 51 3.6.4: Sudanian region 51 3.7: Late Pleistocene and early Holocene climate and vegetation of the Levant 53 3.7.1: WUrm glacial chronology 53 3.7.2: Wetland pollen cores 54 3.7.2.1: Wetland pollen cores from the Hula basin 54 3.7.2.2: Wetland pollen cores from the Ghab valley 56 3.7.3: Sedimentology of the Lisan formation 57 3.7.3.1: Expansion and contraction of the Lisan lake and Dead Sea 57 3.7.3.2: Supporting archaeological data 58 3.7.4: Summary of late Pleistocene and early Holocene climate and 59 vegetation of the Levant 3.7.4.1: Late Glacial climatic amelioration (15,000 to 1 1,000b.p.) 59 3.7.4.2: Return of cold and arid conditions during the Younger 60 Dryas (11,000 to 10,000b.p.) 3.7.4.3: Early/Mid Holocene climatic amelioration (10,000 to 60 6,000b.p.) Chapter 4: The Archaeology of the Levant 12,500 to 5300b.p.: 62 4.1: Introduction 62 4.2: Archaeological terminology 62 4.2.1: Chrono-cultural terminology used by Gopher (1994) 63 4.2.2: Chrono-cultural terminology used in this chapter 64 4.2.3: The Levantine Corridor 64 4.3: The Levantine late-Epipalaeolithic (12,500 to l0,300b.p.) 65 4.3.1: The Natufian 65 4.3.1.1: Definition 65 4.3.1.2: Settlement size and location 66 4.3.1.3: Chipped stone 66 43.1.4: Chronology, phases and facies 66 4.3.1.5: Key aspects of material culture 67 4.4: The Levantine Neolithic (10,300 to 6,000b.p.) 68 4.4.1: Pre-Pottery Neolithic A 68 4.4.1.1: Definition 68 5 4.4.1.2: Settlement size and location 69 4.4.1.3: Chipped stone 69 4.4.1.4: Chronology, phases and facies 70 4.4.1.5: Key aspects of material culture 70 4.4.2: Pre-Pottery Neolithic B 71 4.4.2.1: Definition 72 4.4.2.2: Settlement size and location 73 4.4.2.3: Chipped stone 74 4.4.2.4: Chronology, phases and facies 75 4.4.2.5: Key aspects of material culture 76 4.4.3: Final Pre-Pottery Neolithic B / Pre-Pottery Neolithic C / Early 77 Late Neolithic 4.4.3.1: Definition 77 4.4.3.2: Settlement size and location 78 4.4.3.3: Chipped stone 78 4.4.3.4: Chronology, phases and facies 79 4.4.3.5: Key aspects of material culture 79 4.4.4: Pottery Neolithic 80 4.4.4.1: Definition 81 4.4.4.2: Settlement size and location 81 4.4.4.3: Chipped stone 82 4.4.4.4: Pottery 83 4.4.4.5: Chronology, phases and fades 84 4.4.4.6: Key aspects of material culture 85 4.5: The Levantine Chalcolithic (6,400 to 5,300b.p.) 86 Chapter 5: Subsistence in South-West Asia 12,500 to 5,300b.jj 87 5.1: Introduction 87 5.2: Period 1: 12,500 to l0,300b.p. 89 5.3: Period 2: 10,300 to 9,600b.p. 96 5.4: Period 3: 9,600 to 8,600b.p. 102 5.5: Period 4: 8,600 to 8,000b.p. 108 5.6: Period 5: 8,000 to 7,600b.p. 115 5.7: Period 6: 7,600 to 7,000b.p. 121 6 5.8: Period 7: 7,000 to 6,500b.p. 126 5.9: Period 8: 6,500 to 6,lOOb.p. 130 5.10: Period 9: 6,100 to 5,200 b.p. 135 5.11: Conclusions 140 Chapter 6: Key Issues in the ZooarchaeoIoy of Caprines in South- 141 West Asia 12,500 to 5,200b.p.