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People and Ground Stone Tools in the Zagros Neolithic - Economic and Social Interpretations of the Assemblage from Bestansur, Iraqi Kurdistan

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People and Ground Stone Tools in the Zagros Neolithic - Economic and Social Interpretations of the Assemblage from Bestansur, Iraqi Kurdistan UNIVERSITY OF READING Archaeology Department People and ground stone tools in the Zagros Neolithic - economic and social interpretations of the assemblage from Bestansur, Iraqi Kurdistan Thesis submitted in accordance with the Uiesits requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy David Mudd September 2016 Abstract Recent research into ground stone technology has moved beyond the earlier typological approach of describing and classifying the artefact at the point when it entered the archaeological record, towards a perspective which studies the broader sequences of processes and activities by which people made, used, and deposited the artefacts. Most studies of Neolithic Zagros ground stone assemblages have not, until now, been subjected to these new approaches. My thesis analyses and interprets a ground stone assemblage (424 tools and 412 items of debitage and unworked stone) from the Early Neolithic settlement of Bestansur in the Cetal Zagos Iai Kudista. It uses the ojet iogaph appoah to addess thee research aims. These are to find and interpret the whole life-history of the artefacts, to identify the characteristics of the people who made and engaged with them, and third, to explore the role of ground stone in the development of social process and relations in the Early Neolithic of the eastern Fertile Crescent, particularly in quotidian and ritual processes such as commensality and funerary practice. The thesis reviews the development of ground stone research in the Neolithic Zagros. It uses the modern techniques of usewear and residue analysis, and draws on ethnographic studies to interpret the role and significance of ground stone in Neolithic Bestansur. In answering these research questions, it shows how ground stone artefacts afforded technological solutions to many problems associated with the development of settled residential life, exploiting the cultivation of plants and the management of animals, and new and more complex social practice and structures, the key changes of the Neolithic in southwest Asia. It also concludes that the presence or absence of ground stone tools can be used to illustrate past processes of abandonment of buildings and settlements. ii Declaration of original authorship I confirm that this is my own work and that the use of all material from other sources has been properly and fully acknowledged. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................... II ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................ XVI CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION: THE NEOLITHIC OF SOUTHWEST ASIA AND THE ZAGROS .. 18 1.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 18 1.2 THE NEOLITHIC AND NEOLITHISATION: DEFINITION OF TERMS ............................................... 18 1.2.1 Neolithic origins .............................................................................................................................. 18 1.2.2 Chronology and geographical definitions ....................................................................................... 20 1.3 STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS .............................................................................................. 21 1.4 STUDYING THE NEOLITHIC OF SOUTHWEST ASIA AND THE ZAGROS ......................................... 23 1.4.1 Research themes ............................................................................................................................. 23 1.4.2 The transition to farming in the eastern Fertile Crescent: sequence and dating ........................... 24 1.4.3 The context for Neolithisation ........................................................................................................ 31 1.4.4 Cultural aspects of Neolithisation ................................................................................................... 32 1.4.5 History of ground stone research in the Zagros region ................................................................... 36 1.4.6 Summary ......................................................................................................................................... 41 1.5 THE CENTRAL ZAGROS ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROJECT ............................................................. 41 1.6 BESTANSUR .................................................................................................................. 44 1.7 THE BESTANSUR GROUND STONE ASSEMBLAGE .................................................................. 49 1.8 SUMMARY ................................................................................................................... 54 CHAPTER 2 RESEARCH RATIONALE AND AIMS ............................................................. 55 2.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 55 2.2 GROUND STONE - DEFINITION .......................................................................................... 55 2.3 BIOGRAPHIES: STUDY OF GROUND STONE AND PEOPLE IN THE NEOLITHIC ............................... 55 2.4 GROUND STONE: AGENCY THEORY AND PRACTICE ............................................................... 59 2.5 RESEARCH RATIONALE AND AIMS...................................................................................... 62 2.6 MY RESEARCH QUESTIONS .............................................................................................. 65 2.7 SUMMARY ................................................................................................................... 65 CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODS ............................................................................... 66 3.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 66 3.2 FIELD COLLECTION ......................................................................................................... 67 3.2.1 Excavation and registration ............................................................................................................ 67 3.2.2 Handling, storage and retention ..................................................................................................... 68 iv 3.3 PHYSICAL AND FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS ............................................................................... 68 3.3.1 Catalogue of physical characteristics .............................................................................................. 68 3.3.2 Classification ................................................................................................................................... 69 3.3.3 Petrography and source of raw materials....................................................................................... 70 3.3.4 Function .......................................................................................................................................... 72 3.3.5 Surface residue analysis .................................................................................................................. 78 3.4 EXPERIMENTAL REPLICATION ........................................................................................... 81 3.5 SPATIAL AND STATISTICAL ANALYSIS .................................................................................. 82 3.5.1 Approach ........................................................................................................................................ 82 3.5.2 Post-depositional displacement ...................................................................................................... 83 3.6 RELIABILITY .................................................................................................................. 83 3.6.1 Data quality .................................................................................................................................... 83 3.6.2 Artefact identification and classification ........................................................................................ 84 3.6.3 Sampling reliability ......................................................................................................................... 84 3.7 SUMMARY ................................................................................................................... 84 CHAPTER 4 PROVENANCE AND SELECTION OF RAW MATERIAL ................................... 87 4.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 87 4.2 PROVENANCE OF RAW MATERIAL ..................................................................................... 87 4.2.1 Geology of the region and the immediate environment of the settlement ..................................... 87 4.2.2 Probable sources of stone in antiquity ............................................................................................ 92 4.3 RAW MATERIAL: PETROLOGY ........................................................................................... 97 4.4 RAW MATERIAL ACQUISITION AND SELECTION .................................................................. 100 4.4.1 Desirable qualities in raw material ............................................................................................... 100 4.4.2 The quarrying process: technological, social and symbolic
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