Iraq: Journal of the British Institute for the Study of Iraq 84: 189-230, 2022
A 2016 study season and 2017 excavation season at the 95-hectare walled site of Kurd Qaburstan on... more A 2016 study season and 2017 excavation season at the 95-hectare walled site of Kurd Qaburstan on the Erbil plain have generated a variety of new results. Geophysical survey on the lower town revealed details of the Middle Bronze occupation in the southeast part of the site, including the city wall, a large open area, streets, houses, and a monumental temple comparable to examples from Tell al Rimah, Aššur, and Larsa. Excavations confirmed the Middle Bronze date of the temple and explored further Middle Bronze contexts elsewhere on the lower town. On the High Mound North Slope, Middle Bronze occupation included a fortification wall and large-scale architecture inside it. On the High Mound East, Late Bronze architecture of apparent elite character was documented. Archaeobotanical analyses complementing the excavations reveal the existence of naan-style bread in both Middle and Late Bronze contexts. Given radiocarbon and ceramic results, the Middle Bronze occupation at Kurd Qaburstan is datable to c. 1800 B.C., while the Late Bronze phases on the High Mound East belong to an early LB horizon in the 16-15 th centuries B.C., perhaps predating the imposition of Mittani political authority in the region.
During the 2006 season at Tell Leilan, 245 archaeobotanical samples dating to the Akkadian and po... more During the 2006 season at Tell Leilan, 245 archaeobotanical samples dating to the Akkadian and post-Akkadian occupation phases were collected from the large Administrative Build ing complex on the Acropolis Northwest. Employing data generated from these samples, this paper provides preliminary information on Akkadian cultivation and plant use at Leilan and documents the significant shift in plant remains evident during the brief post-Akkadian reoccupation of part of the Administrative Building. Akkadian cultivation focused on 2-row barley and free-threshing wheats. Large concentrations of Aegi/ops spp. were also recovered, together with smaller proportions of crop legumes, grape, and safflower. Numerous tannurs illustrate the intensive use of dung fuel and the production of bread decorated and flavored with poppy seed. A grain storage facility and room used for measuring grain highlight the importance of plant resources within the complex. The granary was used to store partially cl...
Excavations at Abu Hureyra, Syria, during the 1970s exposed a long sequence of occupation spannin... more Excavations at Abu Hureyra, Syria, during the 1970s exposed a long sequence of occupation spanning the transition from hunting-and-gathering to agriculture. Dung spherulites preserved within curated flotation samples from Epipalaeolithic (ca. 13,300–11,400 calBP) and Neolithic (ca. 10,600–7,800 calBP) occupations are examined here alongside archaeological, archaeobotanical, and zooarchaeological data to consider animal management, fuel selection, and various uses of dung. Spherulites were present throughout the entire sequence in varying concentrations. Using a new method to quantify spherulites, exclusion criteria were developed to eliminate samples possibly contaminated with modern dung, strengthening observations of ancient human behavior. Darkened spherulites within an Epipalaeolithic 1B firepit (12,800–12,300 calBP) indicate burning between 500–700°C, documenting early use of dung fuel by hunter-gatherers as a supplement to wood, coeval with a dramatic shift to rectilinear arch...
Excavations at Abu Hureyra, Syria, during the 1970s exposed a long sequence of occupation spannin... more Excavations at Abu Hureyra, Syria, during the 1970s exposed a long sequence of occupation spanning the transition from hunting-and-gathering to agriculture. Dung spherulites preserved within curated flotation samples from Epipalaeolithic (ca. 13,300-11,400 calBP) and Neolithic (ca. 10,600-7,800 calBP) occupations are examined here alongside archaeological, archaeobotanical, and zooarchaeological data to consider animal management, fuel selection, and various uses of dung. Spherulites were present throughout the entire sequence in varying concentrations. Using a new method to quantify spherulites, exclusion criteria were developed to eliminate samples possibly contaminated with modern dung, strengthening observations of ancient human behavior. Darkened spherulites within an Epipalaeolithic 1B firepit (12,800-12,300 calBP) indicate burning between 500-700˚C, documenting early use of dung fuel by hunter-gatherers as a supplement to wood, coeval with a dramatic shift to rectilinear architecture, increasing proportions of wild sheep and aurochsen, reduced emphasis on small game, and elevated dung concentrations immediately outside the 1B dwelling. Combined, these observations suggest that small numbers of live animals (possibly wild sheep) were tended on-site by Epipalaeolithic hunter-gatherers to supplement gazelle hunting, raising the question of whether early experiments in animal management emerged contemporaneously with, or pre-date, cultivation. Dung was used to prepare plaster floors during the Neolithic and continued to be burned as a supplemental fuel, indicating that spherulites were deposited via multiple human-and animal-related pathways. This has important implications for interpretations of archaeobotanical assemblages across the region. Spherulite concentrations dropped abruptly during Neolithic 2B (9,300-8,000 calBP) and 2C (8,000-7,800 calBP), when sheep/goat herding surpassed gazelle hunting, possibly corresponding with movement of animals away from the site as herd sizes increased. As hunter-gatherers at Abu Hureyra began interacting with wild taxa in different ways, they set in motion a remarkable transformation in the ways people interacted with animals, plants, and their environment.
Agropastoral subsistence practices can provide important insight into economic organization and s... more Agropastoral subsistence practices can provide important insight into economic organization and surplus production, both integral factors in the emergence and development of socioeconomic inequality during the Chalcolithic Age of Southwest Asia. In this study, we examine evidence for plant husbandry, fuel use, and feasting in northern Mesopotamia during the Ubaid and Late Chalcolithic 1-2 periods (ca. 5200-3800 BCE) at the site of Surezha. Archaeobotanical remains from tell sites like Surezha are the product of multiple, interrelated depositional pathways, which, when carefully disentangled, speak to a variety of human behaviors, including fuel selection preferences, plant and animal management strategies, and commensality. The combined analysis of carbonized and mineralized carpological remains, wood charcoal, and dung spherulites recovered from Surezha document a mixed agropastoral subsistence strategy relying on animal husbandry and the cultivation of barley, hulled wheats, flax, and various pulses. Wild/weedy taxa and crop-processing debris made up a particularly large proportion of the preserved plant remains at the site, and, when combined with abundant evidence from dung spherulites and overall lack of wood charcoal, provide evidence for substantial reliance on dung fuel burning during the Chalcolithic. The dataset also includes one of the largest and most unique assemblages of mineralized seeds identified to date in Mesopotamia, which may represent the remnants of LC 1-2 feasting activities.
Broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum L.) was domesticated in northern China at least 7,000 years a... more Broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum L.) was domesticated in northern China at least 7,000 years ago and was subsequentially adopted as a cereal in many areas throughout Eurasia. One such locale is Areni-1 an archaeological cave site in Southern Armenia, a region that has an important history in crop domestication. The rich botanical material found at Areni-1 includes grains identified by morphology as broomcorn millet that were 14C dated to the medieval era (873 ± 36 CE and 1118 ± 35 CE). To retrace the demographic history of these broomcorn millet samples, we used ancient DNA extraction and hybridization capture enrichment to sequence and assemble three chloroplast genomes from the Areni-1 grains and then compared these sequences to 50 modern chloroplast genomes. Overall, the chloroplast genomes contained a low amount of diversity and little inference on broomcorn demography could be made. However, in a phylogeny the chloroplast genomes separated into two clades with strong bootstr...
Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology & Heritage Studies, 2019
Byzantine archaeological sites tend to be seen as representative of the empire as a whole, with l... more Byzantine archaeological sites tend to be seen as representative of the empire as a whole, with little concern given to regional context. Within the imperial narrative that shapes Byzantine history, sites—whether urban or rural—are often used to explain and illustrate imperial trends. However, when we remove that overarching narrative, the sites in Anatolia provide the potential to view them as singular examples of local and regional identity. In this article, we have separated out four types of data: fortifications, coins, faunal material, and archaeobotanical evidence to illustrate how a close examination of the data provides new ways of understanding regional identity. In doing so, we posit that the Byzantine empire needs to be seen as a collection of local identities working alongside one another, but always expressing individual needs and resources.
Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology & Heritage Studies, 2019
Çadır Höyük provides rich evidence for the endurance and transformation of specific cultural feat... more Çadır Höyük provides rich evidence for the endurance and transformation of specific cultural features and phenomena at a rural center on the Anatolian plateau as it experienced the waxing and waning of control by imperial political powers of the Bronze and Iron Ages. Especially evident during those periods of imperial power is the construction and maintenance of public architecture; certain economic activities also shift in their importance at those times. Simultaneously, continuity in economic and social organization is also a feature stretching across times of imperial control and its loss. Examination of the archaeological evidence from Çadır Höyük suggests that nothing is as continuous, nor as discontinuous, as it might seem.
Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology & Heritage Studies, 2019
Çadır Höyük, located in the Yozgat Province of the north-central Anatolian plateau, was continuou... more Çadır Höyük, located in the Yozgat Province of the north-central Anatolian plateau, was continuously occupied from the late sixth millennium BCE until at least the thirteenth century CE. This article focuses on the fourth millennium BCE during which the Uruk System in southern Mesopotamia emerged, flourished and then retracted, and the Kura-Araxes culture from Transcaucasia ventured into Anatolia and the Levant. A close investigation of the Çadır settlement reveals a population that embraced the opportunities afforded it through the expanded trade and intercultural connections available during the millennium; the community transitioned into new socioeconomic patterns accompanied by changes in socioreligious and possibly sociopolitical behaviors. The disappearance of such opportunities at the end of the fourth millennium, rather than decimating a village that had come to rely on them, revealed the resilience of the community as it once again reoriented its focus to more local endeavors.
Scholars have recently investigated the efficacy of applying globalisation models to ancient cult... more Scholars have recently investigated the efficacy of applying globalisation models to ancient cultures such as the fourth-millennium BC Mesopotamian Uruk system. Embedded within globalisation models is the ‘complex connectivity‘ that brings disparate regions together into a singular world. In the fourth millennium BC, the site of Çadır Höyük on the north-central Anatolian plateau experienced dramatic changes in its material culture and architectural assemblages, which in turn reflect new socio-economic, sociopolitical and ritual patterns at this rural agro-pastoral settlement. This study examines the complex connectivities of the ancient Uruk system, encompassing settlements in more consistent contact with the Uruk system such as Arslantepe in southeastern Anatolia, and how these may have fostered exchange networks that reached far beyond the Uruk ‘global world‘ and onto the Anatolian plateau.
Excavations at the 109 hectare site of Kurd Qaburstan on the Erbil plain in the Kurdistan Region ... more Excavations at the 109 hectare site of Kurd Qaburstan on the Erbil plain in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq were conducted by the Johns Hopkins University in 2013 and 2014. The Middle Bronze Age (Old Babylonian period) is the main period of occupation evident on the site, and the project therefore aims to study the character of a north Mesopotamian urban centre of the early second millennium b.c. On the high mound, excavations revealed three phases of Mittani (Late Bronze) period occupation, including evidence of elite residential architecture. On the low mound and the south slope of the high mound, Middle Bronze evidence included domestic remains with numerous ceramic vessels left in situ. Also dating to the Middle Bronze period is evidence of a city wall on the site edges. Later occupations include a cemetery, perhaps of Achaemenid date, on the south slope of the high mound and a Middle Islamic settlement on the southern lower town. Faunal and archaeobotanical analysis provide inform...
Iraq: Journal of the British Institute for the Study of Iraq 84: 189-230, 2022
A 2016 study season and 2017 excavation season at the 95-hectare walled site of Kurd Qaburstan on... more A 2016 study season and 2017 excavation season at the 95-hectare walled site of Kurd Qaburstan on the Erbil plain have generated a variety of new results. Geophysical survey on the lower town revealed details of the Middle Bronze occupation in the southeast part of the site, including the city wall, a large open area, streets, houses, and a monumental temple comparable to examples from Tell al Rimah, Aššur, and Larsa. Excavations confirmed the Middle Bronze date of the temple and explored further Middle Bronze contexts elsewhere on the lower town. On the High Mound North Slope, Middle Bronze occupation included a fortification wall and large-scale architecture inside it. On the High Mound East, Late Bronze architecture of apparent elite character was documented. Archaeobotanical analyses complementing the excavations reveal the existence of naan-style bread in both Middle and Late Bronze contexts. Given radiocarbon and ceramic results, the Middle Bronze occupation at Kurd Qaburstan is datable to c. 1800 B.C., while the Late Bronze phases on the High Mound East belong to an early LB horizon in the 16-15 th centuries B.C., perhaps predating the imposition of Mittani political authority in the region.
During the 2006 season at Tell Leilan, 245 archaeobotanical samples dating to the Akkadian and po... more During the 2006 season at Tell Leilan, 245 archaeobotanical samples dating to the Akkadian and post-Akkadian occupation phases were collected from the large Administrative Build ing complex on the Acropolis Northwest. Employing data generated from these samples, this paper provides preliminary information on Akkadian cultivation and plant use at Leilan and documents the significant shift in plant remains evident during the brief post-Akkadian reoccupation of part of the Administrative Building. Akkadian cultivation focused on 2-row barley and free-threshing wheats. Large concentrations of Aegi/ops spp. were also recovered, together with smaller proportions of crop legumes, grape, and safflower. Numerous tannurs illustrate the intensive use of dung fuel and the production of bread decorated and flavored with poppy seed. A grain storage facility and room used for measuring grain highlight the importance of plant resources within the complex. The granary was used to store partially cl...
Excavations at Abu Hureyra, Syria, during the 1970s exposed a long sequence of occupation spannin... more Excavations at Abu Hureyra, Syria, during the 1970s exposed a long sequence of occupation spanning the transition from hunting-and-gathering to agriculture. Dung spherulites preserved within curated flotation samples from Epipalaeolithic (ca. 13,300–11,400 calBP) and Neolithic (ca. 10,600–7,800 calBP) occupations are examined here alongside archaeological, archaeobotanical, and zooarchaeological data to consider animal management, fuel selection, and various uses of dung. Spherulites were present throughout the entire sequence in varying concentrations. Using a new method to quantify spherulites, exclusion criteria were developed to eliminate samples possibly contaminated with modern dung, strengthening observations of ancient human behavior. Darkened spherulites within an Epipalaeolithic 1B firepit (12,800–12,300 calBP) indicate burning between 500–700°C, documenting early use of dung fuel by hunter-gatherers as a supplement to wood, coeval with a dramatic shift to rectilinear arch...
Excavations at Abu Hureyra, Syria, during the 1970s exposed a long sequence of occupation spannin... more Excavations at Abu Hureyra, Syria, during the 1970s exposed a long sequence of occupation spanning the transition from hunting-and-gathering to agriculture. Dung spherulites preserved within curated flotation samples from Epipalaeolithic (ca. 13,300-11,400 calBP) and Neolithic (ca. 10,600-7,800 calBP) occupations are examined here alongside archaeological, archaeobotanical, and zooarchaeological data to consider animal management, fuel selection, and various uses of dung. Spherulites were present throughout the entire sequence in varying concentrations. Using a new method to quantify spherulites, exclusion criteria were developed to eliminate samples possibly contaminated with modern dung, strengthening observations of ancient human behavior. Darkened spherulites within an Epipalaeolithic 1B firepit (12,800-12,300 calBP) indicate burning between 500-700˚C, documenting early use of dung fuel by hunter-gatherers as a supplement to wood, coeval with a dramatic shift to rectilinear architecture, increasing proportions of wild sheep and aurochsen, reduced emphasis on small game, and elevated dung concentrations immediately outside the 1B dwelling. Combined, these observations suggest that small numbers of live animals (possibly wild sheep) were tended on-site by Epipalaeolithic hunter-gatherers to supplement gazelle hunting, raising the question of whether early experiments in animal management emerged contemporaneously with, or pre-date, cultivation. Dung was used to prepare plaster floors during the Neolithic and continued to be burned as a supplemental fuel, indicating that spherulites were deposited via multiple human-and animal-related pathways. This has important implications for interpretations of archaeobotanical assemblages across the region. Spherulite concentrations dropped abruptly during Neolithic 2B (9,300-8,000 calBP) and 2C (8,000-7,800 calBP), when sheep/goat herding surpassed gazelle hunting, possibly corresponding with movement of animals away from the site as herd sizes increased. As hunter-gatherers at Abu Hureyra began interacting with wild taxa in different ways, they set in motion a remarkable transformation in the ways people interacted with animals, plants, and their environment.
Agropastoral subsistence practices can provide important insight into economic organization and s... more Agropastoral subsistence practices can provide important insight into economic organization and surplus production, both integral factors in the emergence and development of socioeconomic inequality during the Chalcolithic Age of Southwest Asia. In this study, we examine evidence for plant husbandry, fuel use, and feasting in northern Mesopotamia during the Ubaid and Late Chalcolithic 1-2 periods (ca. 5200-3800 BCE) at the site of Surezha. Archaeobotanical remains from tell sites like Surezha are the product of multiple, interrelated depositional pathways, which, when carefully disentangled, speak to a variety of human behaviors, including fuel selection preferences, plant and animal management strategies, and commensality. The combined analysis of carbonized and mineralized carpological remains, wood charcoal, and dung spherulites recovered from Surezha document a mixed agropastoral subsistence strategy relying on animal husbandry and the cultivation of barley, hulled wheats, flax, and various pulses. Wild/weedy taxa and crop-processing debris made up a particularly large proportion of the preserved plant remains at the site, and, when combined with abundant evidence from dung spherulites and overall lack of wood charcoal, provide evidence for substantial reliance on dung fuel burning during the Chalcolithic. The dataset also includes one of the largest and most unique assemblages of mineralized seeds identified to date in Mesopotamia, which may represent the remnants of LC 1-2 feasting activities.
Broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum L.) was domesticated in northern China at least 7,000 years a... more Broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum L.) was domesticated in northern China at least 7,000 years ago and was subsequentially adopted as a cereal in many areas throughout Eurasia. One such locale is Areni-1 an archaeological cave site in Southern Armenia, a region that has an important history in crop domestication. The rich botanical material found at Areni-1 includes grains identified by morphology as broomcorn millet that were 14C dated to the medieval era (873 ± 36 CE and 1118 ± 35 CE). To retrace the demographic history of these broomcorn millet samples, we used ancient DNA extraction and hybridization capture enrichment to sequence and assemble three chloroplast genomes from the Areni-1 grains and then compared these sequences to 50 modern chloroplast genomes. Overall, the chloroplast genomes contained a low amount of diversity and little inference on broomcorn demography could be made. However, in a phylogeny the chloroplast genomes separated into two clades with strong bootstr...
Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology & Heritage Studies, 2019
Byzantine archaeological sites tend to be seen as representative of the empire as a whole, with l... more Byzantine archaeological sites tend to be seen as representative of the empire as a whole, with little concern given to regional context. Within the imperial narrative that shapes Byzantine history, sites—whether urban or rural—are often used to explain and illustrate imperial trends. However, when we remove that overarching narrative, the sites in Anatolia provide the potential to view them as singular examples of local and regional identity. In this article, we have separated out four types of data: fortifications, coins, faunal material, and archaeobotanical evidence to illustrate how a close examination of the data provides new ways of understanding regional identity. In doing so, we posit that the Byzantine empire needs to be seen as a collection of local identities working alongside one another, but always expressing individual needs and resources.
Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology & Heritage Studies, 2019
Çadır Höyük provides rich evidence for the endurance and transformation of specific cultural feat... more Çadır Höyük provides rich evidence for the endurance and transformation of specific cultural features and phenomena at a rural center on the Anatolian plateau as it experienced the waxing and waning of control by imperial political powers of the Bronze and Iron Ages. Especially evident during those periods of imperial power is the construction and maintenance of public architecture; certain economic activities also shift in their importance at those times. Simultaneously, continuity in economic and social organization is also a feature stretching across times of imperial control and its loss. Examination of the archaeological evidence from Çadır Höyük suggests that nothing is as continuous, nor as discontinuous, as it might seem.
Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology & Heritage Studies, 2019
Çadır Höyük, located in the Yozgat Province of the north-central Anatolian plateau, was continuou... more Çadır Höyük, located in the Yozgat Province of the north-central Anatolian plateau, was continuously occupied from the late sixth millennium BCE until at least the thirteenth century CE. This article focuses on the fourth millennium BCE during which the Uruk System in southern Mesopotamia emerged, flourished and then retracted, and the Kura-Araxes culture from Transcaucasia ventured into Anatolia and the Levant. A close investigation of the Çadır settlement reveals a population that embraced the opportunities afforded it through the expanded trade and intercultural connections available during the millennium; the community transitioned into new socioeconomic patterns accompanied by changes in socioreligious and possibly sociopolitical behaviors. The disappearance of such opportunities at the end of the fourth millennium, rather than decimating a village that had come to rely on them, revealed the resilience of the community as it once again reoriented its focus to more local endeavors.
Scholars have recently investigated the efficacy of applying globalisation models to ancient cult... more Scholars have recently investigated the efficacy of applying globalisation models to ancient cultures such as the fourth-millennium BC Mesopotamian Uruk system. Embedded within globalisation models is the ‘complex connectivity‘ that brings disparate regions together into a singular world. In the fourth millennium BC, the site of Çadır Höyük on the north-central Anatolian plateau experienced dramatic changes in its material culture and architectural assemblages, which in turn reflect new socio-economic, sociopolitical and ritual patterns at this rural agro-pastoral settlement. This study examines the complex connectivities of the ancient Uruk system, encompassing settlements in more consistent contact with the Uruk system such as Arslantepe in southeastern Anatolia, and how these may have fostered exchange networks that reached far beyond the Uruk ‘global world‘ and onto the Anatolian plateau.
Excavations at the 109 hectare site of Kurd Qaburstan on the Erbil plain in the Kurdistan Region ... more Excavations at the 109 hectare site of Kurd Qaburstan on the Erbil plain in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq were conducted by the Johns Hopkins University in 2013 and 2014. The Middle Bronze Age (Old Babylonian period) is the main period of occupation evident on the site, and the project therefore aims to study the character of a north Mesopotamian urban centre of the early second millennium b.c. On the high mound, excavations revealed three phases of Mittani (Late Bronze) period occupation, including evidence of elite residential architecture. On the low mound and the south slope of the high mound, Middle Bronze evidence included domestic remains with numerous ceramic vessels left in situ. Also dating to the Middle Bronze period is evidence of a city wall on the site edges. Later occupations include a cemetery, perhaps of Achaemenid date, on the south slope of the high mound and a Middle Islamic settlement on the southern lower town. Faunal and archaeobotanical analysis provide inform...
Uploads
Papers by Alexia Smith