Wossink CHALLENGING C L I M AT E CHANGE CHALLENGING C L I M AT E CHANGE Competition and cooperation among pastoralists and agri- Throughout history, climate change has been an important driving force culturalists in northern Mesopotamia (c. 3000-1600 BC) behind human behaviour. This archaeological study seeks to understand the complex interrelations between that behaviour and climatic fluctu- ations, focussing on how climate affected the social relations between neighbouring communities of occasionally differing nature. It is argued CHALLENGING that developments in these relations will fall within a continuum between competition on one end and cooperation on the other. The adoption of a particular strategy depends on whether that strategy is advantageous to a community in terms of the maintenance of its well-being when faced with adverse climate change. This model will be applied to northern Mesopotamia between 3000 and 1600 BC. Local palaeoclimate proxy records demonstrate that aridity in- C L I M AT E creased significantly during this period. Within this geographical, chrono- logical, and climatic framework, this study looks at changes in settlement patterns as an indication of competition among sedentary agriculturalist communities, and the development of the Amorite ethnic identity as re- flecting cooperation among sedentary and more mobile pastoralist com- CHANGE munities. ISBN 978-90-8890-031-0 Sidestone Press Sidestone Arne Wossink ISBN: 978-90-8890-031-0 Bestelnummer: SSP52410001 69380780 9 789088 900310 Challenging climate change Competition and cooperation among pastoralists and agriculturalists in northern Mesopotamia (c. 3000-1600 BC) Arne Wossink Sidestone Press This publication is a result of the project Settling the steppe. The archaeology of changing societies in Syro-Palestinian drylands during the Bronze and Iron Ages. © 2009 A. Wossink Published by Sidestone Press, Leiden www.sidestone.com Sidestone registration number: SSP52410001 ISBN 978-90-8890-031-0 Cover Illustration: The Wadi Jaghjagh as seen from Tell Hamidiyeh. Photo by the author (mirrored for esthetical purposes) Cover design: K. Wentink, Sidestone Press Lay-out: P.C. van Woerdekom, Sidestone Press Challenging climate change Competition and cooperation among pastoralists and agriculturalists in northern Mesopotamia (c. 3000-1600 BC) Proefschrift Ter verkrijging van de graad van Doctor aan de Universiteit van Leiden, op gezag van Rector Magnificus prof. mr. P.F. van der Heijden, volgens het besluit van het College voor Promoties te verdedigen op woensdag 28 oktober 2009 klokke 15:00 uur door Arne Wossink Geboren te Hilversum in 1978 Promotiecommissie Promotor: Prof. dr. J.L. Bintliff Co-promotor: Dr. D.J.W. Meijer Overige leden: Prof. dr. P.M.M.G. Akkermans Prof. dr. R.T.J. Cappers Dr. G. van der Kooij Prof. dr. E. Peltenburg Prof. dr. W.H. van Soldt Contents List of figures ix List of tables xiii 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Setting the stage: the context of this study 1 1.2 The emergence of the late third millennium BC climate change hypothesis 2 1.3 Studying human responses to climate change: methodological considerations 3 1.4 The central research question 6 1.5 About this book 7 2 Northern Mesopotamia from 3000 to 1600 BC 9 2.1 Introduction 9 2.2 The geographical background 9 2.2.1 Modern climate 10 2.2.2 Current vegetation and land-use 12 2.3 Past environment of northern Mesopotamia 15 2.3.1 Soreq Cave 17 2.3.2 Lake Van 18 2.3.3 Dead Sea 18 2.3.4 Gulf of Oman and Red Sea 19 2.3.5 Palaeoclimate records from northern Mesopotamia 19 2.3.6 Reconstructing climate change 22 2.3.7 Synthesis of climate change 24 2.3.8 Evidence for drought 25 2.4 Chronology construction 26 2.5 Some notes on the political history of northern Mesopotamia 29 3 Theorizing social responses to environmental change 33 3.1 Introduction 33 3.2 Defining the scale of analysis 33 3.3 Ordering social responses to environmental change 34 3.4 Maintaining alternative social responses to environmental change 36 3.5 Modelling social responses to environmental change 37 3.5.1 Territoriality, social hierarchy, and conflict 39 3.5.2 Exchange networks and social structure 40 3.5.3 Hypothesizing social responses to environmental change 42 3.6 Archaeological correlates of competition and cooperation 42 3.7 Conclusions 44 4 Methods for the reconstruction of regional settlement trends 45 4.1 Introduction 45 4.2 Interpreting survey evidence: limitations and possibilities 46 4.3 Problems of phase-based chronology 48 4.4 The contemporaneity problem 49 4.4.1 Simulating site contemporaneity 50 4.4.2 Evaluating the site contemporaneity model and its results 51 4.4.3 Estimating total occupied area 53 4.5 Reconstructing population levels 55 4.6 Rank-size analysis 60 4.6.1 Inspecting rank-size distributions 60 4.6.2 Interpreting rank-size distributions 63 4.7 Conclusions 64 5 Regional settlement trends 65 5.1 Introduction 65 5.2 Selecting the surveys 65 5.2.1 The Birecik-Euphrates Dam Survey 66 5.2.2 The Balikh survey 74 5.2.3 The North Jazira Survey 81 5.3 Reconstructing regional settlement trends 85 5.3.1 Demographic trends 86 5.3.2 Rank-size graphs 89 5.4 Contextualizing the reconstructions 91 5.4.1 The results from other surveys 91 5.4.2 The historical evidence 99 5.5 Conclusions 99 6 The development of pastoralism 101 6.1 Introduction 101 6.2 Defining pastoralism and nomadism 101 6.3 Animal husbandry and pastoralism in pre- and proto-history 102 6.4 Pastoralism during the third and early second millennium BC 104 6.5 The emergence of specialized pastoralism in northern Mesopotamia 111 6.5.1 Specialized pastoralism during the third millennium BC 111 6.5.2 Specialized pastoralism during the early second millennium BC 114 6.6 Conclusions 117 7 The development of social networks 119 7.1 Introduction 119 7.2 The Amorite identity in the textual record 119 7.2.1 Amorites before the Ur III period 120 7.2.2 Amorites in the Ur III period 122 7.2.3 Amorites in the early second millennium BC 125 7.3 Determining the nature of the Amorite identity 129 7.3.1 Understanding ethnicity 129 7.3.2 The development of the Amorite identity 131 7.3.3 The Amorite identity as ethnicity 135 7.4 Conclusions 137 8 Social responses to environmental change 139 8.1 Introduction 139 8.2 The development of sedentary-sedentary relations 139 8.2.1 The Upper Euphrates: the emergence of Carchemish 140 8.2.2 The Balikh Valley: cycles of competition 141 8.2.3 The northeastern Jezirah: centralization and exchange 142 8.3 The development of sedentary-(semi-)nomadic relations 145 8.4 Conclusions 148 8.5 Final comments: looking back and looking into the future 148 Bibliography 151 Samenvatting 177 Dankwoord 181 Curriculum vitae 183 List of figures Fig. 2.1: Map of northern Mesopotamia showing major rivers, mountain ranges, mod- ern places, and political borders. Inset map shows the research area in its wider Near Eastern context. 10 Fig. 2.2: Map of northern Mesopotamia showing mean annual rainfall based on long- term measurements (based on Wirth 1971: Karte 3), and archaeological sites mentioned in this study. 11 Fig. 2.3: Average monthly rainfall based on a 20-year record (1986–2005) for selected weather stations in northern Mesopotamia (data from the Syrian Meteorological Department). (A) Aleppo. (B) Hassakeh. (C) Qamishli. (D) Raqqa. 11 Fig. 2.4: Annual rainfall in hydrological years at selected weather stations in north- ern Mesopotamia from 1986 to 2005 (data from the Syrian Meteorological Department). Horizontal line indicates 250 mm. Shading indicates years with less than 250 mm at all stations. (A) Aleppo. (B) Hassakeh. (C) Qamishli. (D) Raqqa. 12 Fig. 2.5: Map of northern Mesopotamia showing simplified potential vegetation zones under modern climatic regime (based on Moore et al. 2000: fig. 3.7). 13 Fig. 2.6: Map of the Near East showing palaeoclimate proxy records used in this study (black stars), as well as sites with evidence for drought in plants and humans (white stars). (A) Soreq Cave. (B) Lake Van. (C) Dead Sea. (D) Gulf of Oman. (E) Red Sea. (F) Kazane Höyük. (G) Göbekli Tepe. (H) Wadi Avedji. (I) Wadi Jaghjagh. (J) Tell Leilan. (K) Sites with botanical samples. (L) Mount Sedom. (M) Tell Barri. 15 Fig. 2.7: Near Eastern palaeoclimate proxy records used in this study for the period 3100–1500 BC. See main text for references. (A) δ13C (solid line) and δ18O (dashed line) values at Soreq Cave. (B) Mg/Ca (solid line) and δ18O (dashed line) values, and PAZ (grey dashed line represents transition) at Lake Van. (C) Dead Sea water level changes. Uncertainties are dashed. (D) Dolomite 18 (solid line) and CaCO3 (dashed line) values at the Gulf of Oman. (E) δ O value at the Red Sea. (F) Environmental history around Kazane Höyük. The transition is marked by an arrow. (G) δ18O and δ13C values at Göbekli Tepe. (H) Sedimentation history in the Wadi Avedji. (I) Sedimentation history in the Wadi Jaghjagh. (J) Stages of the LCCM at Tell Leilan. (K) Averaged Δ13C values of barley grains from sites in the Levant and northern Mesopotamia. (L) δ13C values of a subfossil tree from Mount Sedom. (M) Mortuary evidence from Tell Barri. 16 Fig. 2.8: Annual rainfall in hydrological years for the Jezirah (dark shading, average from Hasakeh, Qamishli, and Raqqa, cf. Fig. 2.4) and Jerusalem from 1986 to 2005 (light shading, Jerusalem data from the Israel Meteorological Service).