Plant cultivation under climatic fluctuations during the sixth and fifth millennia BC at Tell Tawila (northern Syria)
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Plant cultivation under climatic fluctuations during the sixth and fifth millennia BC at Tell Tawila (northern Syria) Johan Jarl 1
&
Simone Riehl 2
&
Katleen Deckers 3
&
Jörg Adam Becker 4
Received: 19 September 2019 / Accepted: 8 September 2020 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract This paper presents the macrobotanical record, supported by stable isotope data, from the Halaf (5850–5500 BC) and Late Chalcolithic (c. 4000 BC) occupation of the village Tell Tawila, northern Syria. Drawing on this new data and prior studies of the site, we show that subsistence at Tell Tawila combined agriculture, pastoralism, and foraging, adding it to a growing list of Halaf sites which do not conform to previous established subsistence norms. Furthermore, we argue for an aridification event taking place in the Late Chalcolithic and show how the population at Tell Tawila adapted to this changing climate through increasing exploitations of wild resources. Keywords Halaf . Late Neolithic . Late Chalcolithic . Northern Mesopotamia . Archeobotany . Charcoal . Stable isotopes . Climate change
Introduction Historical background and research aims Between 5950 and 5300 cal BC (Table 1), the Halaf culture, named after the site of Tell Halaf at the Syro-Turkish border near modern Ra's el‘Ain, developed from older roots of the Pottery Neolithic and is representing the Late Pottery Neolithic period of Upper Mesopotamia. Its main distribution area covers the northern “Fertile Crescent” and spans from the Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-020-01200-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Johan Jarl [email protected] 1
Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, 354 Mansfield Road, Storrs 06269, USA
2
Senckenberg Research Center of Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment (HEP) and Institute for Archaeological Science, University of Tübingen, Rümelinstraße 23, 72070 Tübingen, Germany
3
Institute for Archaeological Science, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Rümelinstraße 23, 72070 Tübingen, Germany
4
Philosophische Fakultät I, Institut für Altertumswissenschaften, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Emil-Abderhalden-Straße 26-27, 06108 Halle, Germany
foothills of the Zagros mountains in the east to almost the Mediterranean coast, thus representing the first wide-ranging, ceramic horizon of the ancient Near East. Settlement patterns of the Halaf culture are characterized by mostly small settlements, in a dense network of sites. A three-tiered settlement hierarchy has been observed with some larger villages (< 2 ha), occupied for several centuries, a lot of short-lived small hamlets (< 0.5 ha), and seasonal stations. In contrast to settlements of the Early Neolithic, there are no special buildings in the Pottery Neolithic cultures of Upper Mesopotamia that point to cultic functions. This coupled with the relatively homogenous size of buildings, f
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