ON THE MOVE IN THE LATE NEOLITHIC Understanding the nature of exchange and the organisation of transport at the site of Tell Sabi Abyad (Syria) Rizwan Ahmad Cover: Image of nomadic community from the Rajistan province of India (from http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/ Asia/India/West/Rajasthan/Jaisalm er/photo789500.htm) Accessed on 08.04.2014 Rizwan Ahmad Kloosterpoort 161 Leiden, 2312EM Tel: 0044 7854 166 987 Email:
[email protected] ON THE MOVE Understanding the nature of exchange and the organisation of transport at the site of Tell Sabi Abyad (Syria) MA Thesis 1044WY Rizwan Ahmad S1420011 Supervisor: Dr O.P. Nieuwenhuyse University of Leiden, Faculty of Archaeology Leiden, 16 June 2014 1 2 Table of Contents | Acknowledgments 6 1 Introduction 7 1.1 Presenting the dilemma 10 1.1.2 Methods of transport 11 1.2 Research questions 12 1.3 Issues of chronology 13 1.3.1 Arbitrary boundaries 16 1.4 Tell Sabi Abyad: centre of exchange? 16 1.5 Notes on methodology 17 1.5.1 Obsidian and bitumen 17 1.6 Structure of thesis 18 2 Prehistoric exchange systems: formalism, substantivism and 21 ‘primitive’ economies 2.1 Issues with terminology 23 2.1.1 Trade 23 2.1.2 Exchange 24 2.2 Prehistoric economic systems 25 2.2.1 Formalism 26 2.2.2 Substantivism 28 2.2.3 Gift exchange and alienable versus inalienable goods 39 2.3 Putting it all into context 30 3 Synthesising storage and trade: developments in the Neolithic 31 3.1 Storage, surplus and trade 33 3.1.1 Agents of mobility: portable storage in the Neolithic 35 3.2 Storage in the Natufian 38 3.2.1