University of Connecticut OpenCommons@UConn Doctoral Dissertations University of Connecticut Graduate School 5-7-2014 Phytoliths, Starch Grains, and Emerging Social Complexity at Tell Zeidan, Syria Thomas C. Hart [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://opencommons.uconn.edu/dissertations Recommended Citation Hart, Thomas C., "Phytoliths, Starch Grains, and Emerging Social Complexity at Tell Zeidan, Syria" (2014). Doctoral Dissertations. 395. https://opencommons.uconn.edu/dissertations/395 Phytoliths, Starch Grains, and Emerging Social Complexity at Tell Zeidan, Syria Thomas Chesley Hart, PhD University of Connecticut, 2014 Agriculture and subsistence practices are believed to play an important role in the development of social complexity in Mesopotamia. However, very little palaeoethnobotanical research has been conducted to test this assumption. This dissertation examines comparative plant materials from Southwest Asia and archaeological materials from the 2008–2010 excavations of the Ubaid period regional center of Tell Zeidan, Syria to provide the first microbotanical insights into subsistence practices during the formative stages of social complexity in northern Mesopotamia. This dissertation is composed of four separate, but related, research projects. The first two examine phytolith and starch grain production patterns in taxa common to Southwest Asia (181 non-grass taxa for phytoliths and 64 taxa for starch grains). Knowledge of these patterns is important to understand the range of identifiable plants and their parts that may have been used by the people of Tell Zeidan. The results of these first two projects demonstrate that a small number of taxa produce plant microfossils that are either diagnostic of their plant part or at the genus level. The third study examines phytoliths from sixteen sediment samples from Ubaid period domestic contexts of Tell Zeidan to reveal use areas and assess fuel use. The burning of wild grass husks and leaf/stem tissues found in hearth waste suggests that crop byproducts were used as a fuel source. Thomas Chesley Hart – 2014 In the fourth study, six dental calculus samples from five individuals from the Halaf/Ubaid transition, Ubaid, and Late Chalcolithic 2 period were analyzed to explore the potential for dental calculus research at Zeidan. Recovery of phytoliths, calcium spherulites, pollen, charcoal, and fungi from the calculus reveals the complex nature of dental calculus formation and potential insights into diet and/or dental hygiene practices during the Halaf/Ubaid transition. The overall results of this dissertation provide the first ever phytolith analyses of Ubaid period materials and lay the foundation for future plant microfossil research into the complex relationship between emerging social complexity and subsistence in northern Mesopotamia. Phytoliths, Starch Grains, and Emerging Social Complexity at Tell Zeidan, Syria Thomas Chesley Hart B.A., St. Mary’s College of Maryland, 2004 M.A., University of Missouri, 2007 A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Connecticut 2014 Copyright by Thomas Chesley Hart 2014 Acknowledgements It is often said that it takes a village to raise a child. I believe that it takes a village to complete a dissertation. First and foremost I would like to thank the National Science Foundation, the University of Connecticut Anthropology Department, and the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago for providing funding for this research. The funding was provided through an NSF Dissertation Improvement Grant (# BCS-1136516), UConn Summer Research Fellowship, as well as a stipend for research conducted at Tell Zeidan by the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. This research would not have been possible without their financial backing and their belief in my abilities as a young scholar. I would also like to thank the Syrian Department of Antiquities, the Raqqa Museum, and the Syrian people for allowing me to excavate and study their past. Abu Turkei, Tukei, and the rest of the people I met in Syria were some of the nicest and most helpful people I have ever met and I hope to someday be able to repay their kindness. My interactions with them during my time in Syria cemented my love of Syria and its people. I would also like to thank my committee members Drs. Alexia Smith, Natalie Munro, Sally McBrearty, Deborah Pearsall, and Gil Stein for their continued guidance and wisdom in turning a bright, eager student into a professional researcher. I will always be grateful for your help. I would also like to thank them for cautioning patience in research and for always reminding me to look at the big picture. Thank you to Professor Gil Stein for allowing me to work at Tell Zeidan and introducing me to the exciting word of Mesopotamian archaeology. I will always remember the moment driving from Damascus to Raqqa where we went around a bend in the road and he welcomed me to Mesopotamia. I am also indebted to Dr. Kirsi Lorentz, iii Dr. Philip Kaarsgard, Professor Elizabeth Healey, Dr. Katharyn Hanson, Dr. Kate Grossman, Adam Schneider, Kathryn O’Neil Weber, Sarah Adcock, Stefan Smith, Stephanie Selover, Dr. Andy Creekmore, Khaled Jayyab, Mike Fisher, Fahd Sbahi, and the rest of the Tell Zeidan excavation team for their help in the field as well as with understanding Mesopotamian archaeology. I owe Professor Joy McCorriston a massive debt of gratitude for allowing me to study and use her Near Eastern comparative collection for the construction of the phytolith and starch grain comparative collection. This dissertation would not have been possible without her allowing me take samples from her comparative collection. I would also like to thank Masoumeh Kimiaie and Matthew Senn for their assistance and hospitality while working in the McCorriston Laboratory at Ohio State University. Thank you to Professor Arlene Rosen for her continued guidance in the complexities and the nuances of Near Eastern phytolith analysis and for allowing me to study her reference collection and helping with phytolith identifications. Thank you to Dr. Philippa Ryan, Monica Nicolaides, and Sophia Laparidou for their assistance with Near Eastern archaeology and phytolith identifications as well. The dental calculus research would not have been possible without the help of Dr. Kirsi Lorentz who aided in the sampling of the calculus, and Drs. Li Liu, Neil Duncan, and Tareq Haddad who helped solve the mystery of identifying the calcium spherulites in the dental calculus. Thank you to Dr. Dolores Piperno and Professor Deborah Pearsall for helping me figure out why I was having trouble dissolving the dental calculus in the first place. Thank you to Dr. Natalie Munro and Dr. Cara Roure for allowing me to test run some dental calculus protocol on some willing calculus from a teaching skeleton. iv The construction of the comparative collection studied in this dissertation would not have been possible without the aid of my undergraduate assistants Kathleen Hammel, Andrew Ritz, Joyce Fountain, Stephen McKay, and Jessica Lundquist. Without them, I never would have been able to create and study such a wonderful starch grain and comparative collection. I would like to thank all of my graduate student friends in the Anthropology Department at UConn for your help. Graduate school and dissertation work is a long process and requires lots of conversations over a good beer or a cup of coffee. Thank you Dr. Robert Booth, Siavash Samei, Ronnie Shepard, Jackie Meier, Gabe Hrynick, Dr. Chad Hill, Bill Farley, Sara Ailshire, Lucas Proctor, Alison Mant, Beverly Schmidt, Dave Leslie, Breanne Clifton, Madelynn von Baeyer, Tiziana Matarazzo, Erika Phillips, Eric Heffter, Katherine Mueller, Rich Colon, Dianne Schindler, Zach Singer, Dr. Nathan Wales and the rest of the grad students at UConn. Dissertation work also requires a group of close friends who are willing to listen to the trials and tribulations of an insecure graduate student. I would like to thank all of my close friends including Dr. Shan-Estelle Brown, Dr. Aja LaDuke, Noël Burgess, Sarah LaRose, Ashlee Shaw-Williams, Reed Shaw-Williams, Neil Kaufman, Zareen Thomas, Shir Lerman, Dr. Susie DiVietro, Joe Grillo, Dr. Philip Glauberman, Jordan Kiper, Robin Albarano-Kiper, Dr. Ben Purzycki, Dr. Jessica McCutcheon, Ayanna Bledsoe, Aneesha Deshpande, and Dr. Philip Graham for enduring many hours of conversations related to graduate school work and life in general. Finally, I would like to thank my family, Victor, Jessica, and Laura Hart, Betty and Thomas Mitchell, Bonner Mitchell, Regina Graziano, and the Graziano family for all of v their continued love and unwavering support. This project would not have been completed without their help. I am truly humbled by the amount of love and support they have provided throughout this long process. vi Table of Contents LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................................................ X LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................................................... XII CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 1 1.1 WORKS CITED ....................................................................................................................................................