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(28 Cm, XVIII, 585). ISBN 0-19-510806 619 BOEKBESPREKINGEN — ARCHEOLOGIE 620 of Abu H. 2, had taken place, leaving lithic material on the spot, and thus creating a condensed residue of a long lasting but intermittant habitation? A related problem is the outcome of radiocarbon samples. Since the result of the convention- ally processed samples did not fully meet the expectations, charred seeds taken from soil samples bij floatation were processed according to the AMS method adding to the initial dates. Considering that the extreme values at both sides of the range (Figure 5.28), one of 11,500 BP and two at 10,000 BP are obviously isolated, the most reliable span of occupa- tion of Abu H. 1 seems to be between ca 11,100 and 10.500 BP. Yet, although there is environmental evidence for year round occupation, the archaeological record fails to demon- strate uninterrupted habitation even during five or six cen- turies. The same is true for Abu H. 2, a Pre-Pottery Neolithic B village. According to the radiocarbon dates this settlement was probably founded after 9000 BP. In contrast to AH 1, ARCHEOLOGIE which was sounded in a single trench of 49 m2, the Abu H. 2 deposit emerged in four trenches of different sizes totalling a surface varying between ca. 160-180 m2. Here the above- MOORE, A.M., G.C. HILLMAN, A.J. LEGGE — Village mentioned discrepancy between settlement duration and on the Euphrates. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2000 deposit also occurs. The amount of preserved building levels (28 cm, XVIII, 585). ISBN 0-19-510806. £ 45.00. is higher, the entire deposit thicker (ca. 5 m), but in my view This bulky report on investigations at the prehistoric site these facts do not allow to bridge a period of 2400 years pro- of Abu Hureyra on the Middle Euphrates of Syria is the posed by the authors, who moreover consider Abu H. 2 as reflection of the authors' initial design “to give equal weight the successor of number 1. The assessment of an intermedi- to the cultural and economic evidence”. Intended as a defin- ate period of habitation connecting both villages in time itive statement, it comprises a vaste array of analyses in seems to be solely based on a few radiocarbon samples from which many specialists were involved. The particularly volu- an unspecified context. A more realistic calculation of the vil- minous share of natural sciences in the Abu Hureyra inves- lage's entire lifespan can be derived from page 494 of the tigations has apparently dictated the strategy of the fieldwork, same volume, where the average lifetime of a mudbrick which was one of mere sounding and sampling. The mass of building has been estimated at 50 years, which is rather long data from those disciplines may be impressive, but the purely for prehistoric mudbrick architecture. When taking into archaeological information is comparatively small, which is account that the trench with the highest amount of building the inevitable effect of small-sized exposures of successive levels — seven levels with solid architectural remains and occupation layers. Therefore, it is hardly surprising that this one with pits — the occupation may have lasted 600 to 800 strategy leaves questions unanswered and at times casts years at the very maximum, running from 8800 to 8000 BP doubts on propounded solutions. and covering period 2A (the number of building levels is To build up the occupational history of a site with help of multiplied by 1.5-2 to discount the periods of non-construc- stratigraphical evidence from rather remote and difficult to tion). The lack of datings between 8000 and 7300, the period correlate trenches is a precarious undertaking. Hence, it called 2B, has been filled by the authors with the help of cir- needed a lot of “knitting and knotting” by the authors to pre- cumstantial evidence such as changes in the economy, the sent the sequence of Abu Hureyra as an almost continuous artefact assemblage, etc. This is not very convincing, the event. To overcome the problem of correlating building more so because Abu H. 2 had a tendency to cultural con- phases from one trench to another, support was called upon servatism, or to quote the authors, “the cultural characteris- not only from radiometric dating, but also from changes in tics of Abu Hureyra 2B are much the same as those of 2A”. faunal remains (sheep and goats replacing gazelles) and the Such a tendency would not help to successfully establish material culture (appearance of pottery) operating as ‘fossiles intra-trench level correlations. Consequently, it remains to be directeur'. Such an approach is risky since the presence or proven that there really was continued occupation during absence of those ‘fossiles' in the occupation deposits from most of the eighth millennium BP, as is assumed by the such small trenches has no or a feeble statistical significance. authors. A resettlement of the site near 7300 BP shown by a The fact remains that it is a well-documented and readable general occurrence of pottery in the occupation levels seems book, although there is much repetition. Yet there are some more plausible. doubts that are difficult to clear from one's mind. The sampling method had consequences for the interpre- One concerns a discrepancy between the occupation length tation of the use of space as well. The 49 m2 small exposure of the two superimposed settlements and the importance of of Abu H. 1 yielded a few round pits associated with post- their corresponding archaeological deposits. For epipalae- holes. The biggest pits, ca. 2 m in diameter, are considered olithic Abu H. 1 an occupation of ca 1500 years is postulated, to have constituted the bottoms of sem-subterranean during which an avarage of over one meter of debris accu- dwellings, while posts were somehow utilized in the upper mulated, in which three occupation horizons were distin- structures of those dwellings. Unfortunately, the spread of guished (1A-C). Is it possible that a process of repeated ero- the postholes was such that their connection with the sion, similar to the one that was assumed for the surface level dwellings is not so obvious. Here one painfully senses the 621 BIBLIOTHECA ORIENTALIS LIX N° 5-6, september-december 2002 622 lack of sufficiently large surfaces exposing such structures a team of French archeologists and specialists in various that could have facilitated interpretation. The same is true for fields under the heading of the much regretted Jacques Cau- the Abu H. 2 village, albeit to a lesser extent, since the vin was granted permission to undertake investigations, not biggest exposure (trench E) reached 112 m2 at a time. Alto- only on the mound but also in the surroundings. This multi- gether, next to a number of partially uncovered buildings no disciplinary research revealed soon that local artesian springs more than two plans could be entirely excavated. This leaves had attracted men since the Early Paleolithic period. unimpeded that the general lay-out and use of these build- The high mound, El Kowm 1, was resting on a 3m high ings has emerged. In contrast, with so little evidence at hand terrace of 500m in diameter, where the two lower artificial it is nearly impossible to draw conclusions on the nature and mounds of El Kwom 2 and 3 were located. Although El organisation of the community as a whole, for instance Kowm 1 presented a more important succession of habitation whether it was egalitarian or not. periods running from the Epipaleolithic through different In many occasions the authors underligned the uniqueness stages of the Neolithic, the more modestly sized El Kowm 2 of Abu Hureyra. This is true as far as its extent is concerned, (also called El Kowm-Caracol) was chosen for financial and in particular for the PPNB settlement, which may have cov- technical reasons. The occupation remains at EK2 date from ered substantially more acres than the average village of that the PrePottery Neolithic B stage and the Pottery Neolithic, period. It is probably not true for the duration of both the which were covered with a thin Uruk layer. The investiga- number 1 and 2 settlements. As I have tried to demonstrate, tions at EK 2 were carried out from 1980-87 and directed by Abu Hureyra may have been occupied for longer stretches of the author of this volume and mainly concern the PPNB time during the 11th and 9th millenia BP, but may also have occupation remains. known long periods of ephemerous, intermittent occupation With exception of the work on Paleolithic finds in the or even none at all. The site's uniqueness also does not vicinity of El Kowm carried out by F. Hours and L. account for its occupation form since during the Epipalae- Copeland, all participants of this multidisciplinary project olithic period semi-subterranean cabins did occur along the have contributed in this volume, some with preliminary Levant and in Southeast Anatolia, while the mudbrick archi- reports, others with final conclusions. The contents are tecture of Abu H. 2 finds close parallels at El Kowm 2, divided in four sections: I — Geomorphology, comprising Bouqras and other PPN-B villages. No, the uniqueness of the present landscape, vegetation and agriculture (J. Abu H. has to be sought a priori in the earliest evidence for Besançon, D. de Moulins, G. Wilcox) and stratigraphy of the plant cultivation that apparently had started a millennium tell (D. Stordeur, C. Maréchal, M. Molist, A. Taha); II — before this was conventionally thought to have happed in the Architecture (D. Stordeur, C. Maréchal, M. Molist); III — Near East.
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