Petr Charvát - Mesopotamia Before History (2008, Routledge)

The neolithic 41

Figure 3.13 At this point the river Euphrates leaves the Taurus mountain ranges and flows into the Syrian plains. From prehistoric times, resources of the highlands—stone, metal and high quality wood—were shipped into the plains through this area.

time, accompanied by the diminishing of seed size (consequence of salinization?) and by decreasing quantities of obsidian. Did this occur in response to the problems brought about by application of the transhumance model as a better adaptation to the local environment, leaning on the exploitation of uncultivated landscape? Of course, the local community could also have been exposed to a prolonged famine period (Miller 1982, 31). Ultimately, such transhumance features with a matching timetable of summer-winter movements do not only constitute the base of modern Bedouin life in the northern regions of the Arabian peninsula but may be traced there as far back as the pre-Islamic era (Macdonald 1992, esp. pp. 9–10). The model does not seem to be confined to the Old World (Mexico: Macneish 1972, 71–73).

In conclusion, then, I believe that the Neolithic economy may be characterized as a ‘broad-spectrum’ enterprise weaving a wide range of subsistence activities, some of them of fairly complex nature (intensive agriculture with genetic manipulation of plants and artificial irrigation, food-gathering, animal husbandry, hunting), into a pattern of seasonal spatiotemporal movements of the population groups which, upon investigation of the economic potential of a given landscape or set of landscapes, chose the subsistence

Mesopotamia before history 42

strategy that seemed most appropriate at the given moment. The initially high degree of mobility and well-developed trend towards the exploitation of different landscapes, most conspicuously highlands and lowlands, underwent changes, the consequence of which might have been more or less permanent occupation of both the mountain ranges and the plains (a case in point being the site of Jarmo). This induced the communities in question to seek better adaptation to the local conditions as well as to try their best to arrive at some form of ‘modus vivendi’ with neighbouring population groups in the same geographical setting.

Society

The Neolithic period is commonly assumed to have represented the golden age of egalitarian, kinship-based society (on this see Boehm 1993; marriage in such communities: Reynolds and Kellett 1991; kinship terminology: Peoples and Bailey 1988, 231–232; an ethnological model for Mesopotamian prehistory: Forest 1996, 21–22). Diagnostic features of the contemporary burial practices clearly point towards undifferentiated human communities in which all members ultimately rose to positions of importance according to their age, sex and personal achievements. This is revealed by the separate burials of children (under house floors) and adults (mostly outside the settlement) and by possible differentiation between male and female grave goods, although the evidence from Yarimtepe I (graves 129 and 144) is very meagre. Such conclusions have been convincingly argued for by Lewis Binford and tested, inter alia, in the Near East (for instance Wright 1978, 212–213). In such societies, kinship constitutes the integrative principle enabling cooperation and energy pooling as well as sharing the output of variously oriented production groups by means of reciprocity (on which see Racine 1986). In extreme cases, it may even take over the role of ‘social insurance’, buffering the impact of unexpected disasters of any kind (for Africa see, for instance, Miller 1982, 31). Typical features of communities of this historical phase have been subsumed as a) hereditary right to the membership in the given community of all individuals born in it; b) hereditary right of the same individuals to receive support of various kinds from their community; c) the obligation of the same individuals to offer similar support to the other community members in their turn (Maisels 1987, 333–334). The fact that most Neolithic habitation houses were small could indicate the prevalence of patriarchal usages in that period (McNett 1979, 63). A factor worth considering is the lack of clearly differentiated cemeteries; the only possible exception, Samarra, was excavated so long ago that no certainty as to the possible overlying structures may now be obtained. It has been observed that clearly delimited cemetery areas and, in general, the interconnected ancestor cult practices tend to indicate claims to well-defined economic resources such as, for instance, agricultural land (Whalen 1983, 35–36). The lack of such phenomena in Neolithic Mesopotamia may attest to less well-developed links with communal territories and constitute another argument in favour of the transhumance model sketched above. Another conspicuous feature is the larger size of Tell es-Sawwan houses (10–12 rooms) as against the earlier sites (2–3 rooms at Umm Dabaghiyah). How far this may indicate the growth of family size, or even emergence of larger social units (extended families?) remains unclear though such arguments as the visibly greater amount of work invested in the site (communal pavements or defence

The neolithic 43

measures such as the Phase III ditch) do not contradict it. How far the Mesopotamian Neolithic knew extended families remains a mystery. One example, consisting of two married couples, of which one had one child, and three single adults who probably inhabited one single homestead, is attested by a house model from the Neolithic site of Platia Magula Zarkou in Greece (Alram-Stern 1996, 164).

Evidence for larger-scale communal activities is turning up: at Khirbet Garsour a well of this period has been excavated (Wilkinson and Matthews 1989, 263) and other examples are known from contemporary Palestine (Athlit 2: Monteil 1995, 134–137, esp. pp. 135–136). The egalitarian character of Neolithic society notwithstanding, prestige certainly did play a role (on prestige goods at Nemrik 9 and Qermez Dere see Ambos 1996). A most interesting hint in this direction has been supplied recently by Reinhard Bernbeck (1994, graph in Fig. 21 on p. 111). He has shown that at one of the best-studied Neolithic sites of Mesopotamia, Yarimtepe I, the morphological composition of Hassunaage pottery varies only little but that the variety of decorative patterns ornating the same utensils grows as time goes by. This enables us to perceive the growth of such an important characteristic of the Neolithic society of Mesopotamia as ostentatious commensality. The surfaces of a more or less identical range of vessel forms, once quite plain and without decoration, put on a richer and more varied ornament as time passed— an indication of a growing aesthetic, and therefore presumably also ‘public’ and socially relevant functions of pottery-vessel use. A social innovation of cardinal importance ought to be seen in the emergence of seals, or rather of matrices with suspension loops interpreted as seals. So far, impressions of any kind are known only at Tell es-Sawwan (II and III) where they might have travelled from the middle Euphrates regions of presentday Syria. None of the earliest seals turned up in graves and they may not have been too closely and intimately tied to individuals. Some aspects of their forms which seem to point to the sphere of virility and (male) sexuality may allude to symbolism connected with the sphere of progeny, fertility and proliferation of the human race (a seal in the form of a bull’s leg from Ras Shamra VC: von Wickede 1990, Table 1; a seal depicting a wild hegoat: ibid. Table 7 and p. 43; seals depicting human faces: ibid. Table 10 and p. 48, Table 28 and pp. 76–77; a seal depicting a human foot: ibid. Table 26; a seal in the form of a circumcised penis[?]: ibid. Table 4 and p. 43). Pierre Amiet has published a most interesting, though later (Late Uruk?) seal from Susa, in the form of an embracing couple. The sealing surface, representing the lower side of the seal on which the couple lie, shows a depiction of a small human figure wrapped, from the waist down, in some kind of skirt, just like a baby in diapers (Amiet 1972, pp. 47 and 62, No. 414, SB 5539 and Pl. 58). Here the act of producing a seal impression is directly assimilated to human sexual intercourse producing offspring. The necessity to identify individuals by seal impressions may suggest the emergence of more extensive kin-based units (extended families? lineages?), maintaining their coherence by some form of cultivated tradition. As I have noted above, the stylistic unity of the Mesopotamian and Syro-Cilician seals (von Wickede 1990, 81, 84–85) represents the general permeability of the whole area, likely to constitute an argument in favour of the above sketched transhumance hypothesis, but also the spiritual coherence of the lowland communities which may have formed regional sodalities assumed in contemporary Indian developments (see Fairservis 1991, 110).

In short, then, the society of Neolithic Mesopotamia may be characterized as egalitarian, kinbased, probably patrilocal and possibly patrilinear. In some instances the

Mesopotamia before history 44

impact of a trend towards the aggregation of larger kinship units (extended families? lineages?) could be guessed.

Metaphysics

It can hardly be overstressed that an attempt at the assessment of changes in the Neolithic spiritual world as against its Mesolithic predecessor is an extremely precarious affair with more than a fair chance at failure. Hardly any shrines or cultic establishments may be expected at this period of time when no conditions for the maintenance of specialized cultic personnel and structures existed, and the Catal Hüyük evidence has been reinterpreted convincingly by I.Hodder (1987). There are, nevertheless, some indications of extraordinary furnishings of at least some settlement structures. A room at Choga Mami containing in each corner a pedestal with a hearth (Oates 1978, 117) may be seen as continuation of practices observed at the Mesolithic site of Qermez Dere (see pp. 10–11). Such structures are of extraordinary importance as they may help us to pinpoint the sites of peculiar cultic activities which, given the fact that under conditions of widely dispersed populations the desired coherence and integration of the expanding groups is usually maintained by means of elaborate ritual procedures such as ancestor cults, may indicate sites enjoying particular esteem and, perhaps, playing the role of ‘departure points’ for subsequent settlement filiations. Aperception of the world, of mankind’s position within it, of proper relationships within human society as well as the ensuing practical attitudes may well have been expressed and conditioned by some form of myth (on myths in general see Le Mythe 1988).

A material incarnation of ritual or magical rather than religious practices is represented by female (perhaps also animal) figurines of clay and stone, found so frequently at various Neolithic sites (Figure 3.14) (on female statuettes see Oates 1978, 121–122, in general Hamilton et al. 1996). They are conspicuously absent from some sites while in other localities they may appear in a belated fashion (Yarimtepe I—missing in pre-XII to VI but present in V–I, see pp. 18–21). At the Jordanian Neolithic site of Ain Ghazzal, worshippers may have approached a stone statuette of this type, located under the open sky on the outskirts of the village, along a stone-paved pathway (SchmandtBesserat 1998a). Their association with the colour red (Jarmo, Hassuna) and practices observed at Mesolithic sites may imply that they were in some way associated with life energy and they may have constituted specific invocations of the female procreative force, not related only to progeny but to all the contributions that housewives brought in. Indeed, the Neolithic life may well be envisaged as composed of the male and female activity spheres with males procuring comestibles outside the settlement sites (hunting and animal husbandry) and females applying their skills close to these sites or within them (agriculture and/or gardening). Grain and other plant food brought in by the mistresses of Neolithic houses may thus have been connected with the female procreative force, and abundant harvests, in addition to the birth of sons and daughters, might have been ‘secured’ by rituals involving the female (and animal?) statuettes.

Mesopotamia before history 46

The connection of these figurines (attested since the Mesolithic—see Karim Shahir) with the origins of agriculture may well prove worth investigating. The association of the colour red with life, vigour and procreative force may even be pursued as far as the decoration painted on Hassuna and Samarra culture pottery in this hue. The fact that in agricultural societies domestic pottery is usually made by housewives moves this assumption a shade closer to probability. In this connection the white colour of the limestone female statuettes accompanying the Tell es-Sawwan dead may be of relevance. The colour white is frequently associated with purity but also with fertility (Bruce Dickson 1990, 206), and at Tell es-Sawwan this seems to be confirmed by the presence of stone penises in the graves. At any rate, these statuettes accompanying deceased community members probably have a different background from the ordinary examples of clay. The sphere of colours seems to be indicative of changes in attitudes towards the external world. The necklace of sixty-eight beads abounding in colours of most diverse materials found at Yarimtepe I layer XII (Munchaev and Merpert 1981, 138) may well reflect the Mesolithic ostentatious display of whatever exquisite materials were at hand. As against this, necklaces found in the upper layers of the same site (ten carnelian beads in layer X and fourteen turquoise pendants in layer X, both perhaps complete sets— Munchaev and Merpert 1981, 138) are usually limited to one single mineral or one single colour (the two might well have been identical in the Neolithic vision) and may thus imply the first crystallization of an image of a universe structured by sets of stable relationships between human beings and the rest of the world. An illustrative case might be an individual’s lucky stones, cards, numbers and weekdays as identified by modern horoscopes. It would have been logical if the considerable mastery of Neolithic men and women over the physical and chemical properties of natural objects led them to envisage the universe as an ordered and coherent structure harmonizing all the seemingly disparate and discontinuous manifestations of natural powers and processes.

There is, in fact, evidence to the effect that the Neolithic population saw the world as a unified whole but the identification of particular settings and consequences of this perception cannot be disengaged from material evidence at the time being. Neolithic seals and seal impressions (von Wickede 1990, 38–49, 72–87, 90–92, Tables 1–53) offer four kinds of diverse structures: a) netand lattice-shaped patterns; b) patterns consisting of rectangles or triangles gradually diminishing and set into one another; c) spiraliform or oval patterns; and d) depictions of human and animal figures. Among these categories a), c) and d) occur in the territory of ancient Mesopotamia. Leaving the figural motifs aside for the moment, let us concentrate on the nets/lattices and spirals. Parallel lines crossing one another at various angles represent indeed the simplest decorative devices conceivable but their individual traits merit attention. The first and most remarkable feature is undoubtedly their extremely large diffusion sphere, comprising most of the uppermost segment of the ‘Fertile Crescent’ (Zagros and Taurus piedmont areas as far as Ras Shamra), where they turn up in more or less identical forms visibly different from those of adjacent regions such as, for instance, the interlace and guilloche patterns of Catal Hüyük (von Wickede 1990, 60, Fig. 24). Second, the nets/lattices ornate not only Hassuna culture pottery (Munchaev and Merpert 1981, 94–102, Figs. 19–29, passim)

The neolithic 47

Figure 3.16 Examples of Neolithic ground stone industry (axes) and chipped stone items (arrowheads) of the Hassuna culture (after Munchaev and Merpert 1981, 121, Fig. 35)

but also a pendant from Jarmo (von Wickede 1990, 50, Fig. 21:2) which may well have played an amuletic function. As to the ovals and spirals (von Wickede 1990, 40, Fig. 20:1—a stamp from Jarmo), there seems to be a relation to the rotating patterns borne by Samarra culture pottery (von Wickede 1986, 32). Unfortunately, both ornament types remain at the most abstract level so that no convincing interpretation can be put forward. A connection with apperception of the universe as a single, unified and patterned structure may be only suspected. The lattice patterns with horizontal and perpendicular lines, and nets with a series of obliquely crossing lines may have been understood as distinct entities. A seal from Tell Judeidah with a ‘Union Jack’ ornament may, then, constitute a combination of a lattice and net scheme. Is this an ‘alliance’ or ‘union’ seal of two sodalities in the Indian sense (Fairservis 1991, 112)?

Let us now summarize in brief. Much in the vein of the explorative, enterprising and challenging spirit of their Mesolithic predecessors and making full use of the favourable natural conditions when, in consequence of a warmer and more humid climatic phase, considerable areas were covered by wood, open woodland or at least steppe vegetation, Neolithic communities circulated over the territory of ancient Mesopotamia in regular, calendrically determined sequences of transhumance between the plains and highlands, making full use of improvements of the subsistence strategies they had introduced and obtaining their daily bread by means of a ‘broad-spectrum economy’ (intensive agriculture, gathering of wild comestibles, animal husbandry, hunting). These seasonal cycles might have involved winter gatherings of large but temporary human congregations indulging, among others, in large-scale hunting but possibly also in elaborate social and ritual procedures, followed by summer dispersals into smaller groups retiring into shaded mountain valleys for the hot season or, alternatively, by concentrations in montane areas exploiting the untapped local resources. Possessing the full range of technological know-how of their ancestors upon which they

Mesopotamia before history 48

Figure 3.17 Only in the closest proximity to the Euphrates and Tigris rivers do the greys and browns of the clayey steppe give way to the lush greenery of reeds and herbaceous vegetation cover.

kept elaborating (pottery, cold-worked metals), Neolithic groups tended to resort to subsistence patterns which seemed the most opportune at the given moment, including historically ‘backward’ sequences such as that of Choga Mami where the local community responded to problems with intensive agriculture (diminishing seed size as a consequence of soil salinization?) by greater reliance on the harvesting of wild plants and hunting gazelle. These complex strategies undoubtedly resulted in the gathering of a considerable amount of experience and expertise by the population groups, but the society retained its egalitarian, kinship-based, patrilocal(?) and possibly patrilinear character, pooling the efforts of all its members and sharing out the fruits of their labours. The size of basic residential units might have grown and life in longer-settled communities probably resulted in sanitary and defence measures usually expected from much later communities such as the paved lanes or ditch and rampart fortifications of Tell es-Sawwan. Neolithic highland and lowland settlers might well have begun to perceive a ‘world order’, a single structure beyond all the particular manifestations of life, integrating visible and invisible natural phenomena by complex interconnections and patterning and assigning to each individual his or her place within the universe together with other classes of both animate and inanimate beings. Such convictions could have been expressed by elaborate symbolism involving, for instance, colours and might have supplied a base for ‘practical operations’ of magical but perhaps ultimately pragmatic character, leaving such material traces as human and animal statuettes.

Chapter Four

The Chalcolithic

PlLOT SITES

Tell Arpachiyah

A tell 20 km east of Mosul excavated by a British mission of 1933 directed by M.Mallowan and J.Cruikshank Rose and an Iraqi excavation of 1976 directed by I.Hijara. C-14 dates: Hijara 2\3=Mallowan pre-TT 10:6170–5425 cal. BC; TT 8:6320–5455 cal. BC; TT 6:6114 BC (Annex 697–698). Of the sixteen settlement layers documented, the lowermost twelve, i.e. Mallowan’s TT 6–10 and Hijara’s layers VI–XI are Halafian. Mallowan’s TT 5 layer consists of mixed Halaf and Ubaid materials and the uppermost layers (TT 4–1) belong to the Ubaid culture. Five layers of Halaf culture buildings with kilns, tholoi and paved roads as well as an Ubaid culture cemetery were excavated at the foot of the tell. The lower two of these layers (depths 3 and 5 m) precede TT 10 and are thus contemporary with Hijara VI–XI while the upper three (depths 0–2.5 m) run parallel to TT 6–10. The richest evidence on the subsistence of the local population has been collected by I.Hijara. Among the cereals present, emmer, hulled and naked six-row barley as well as two-row hulled barley predominate while einkorn, a hexaploid wheat (T. compactum?) and lentils turn up. The mixed TT 5 layer yielded grains of naked unhusked emmer and barley while barley was absolutely predominant in the filling of a well levelled in TT 4. Wild-growing plants are represented by pieces of tamarisk charcoal and by spring grasses like Aegilops crassa or Adonis annua in the Hijara layers. Both the ‘burnt house’ of TT 6 and the well filling of TT 4 have yielded evidence of undetermined wood. Local inhabitants kept cattle, pigs, sheep and goats and occasional arrivals on the site include gazelle, larger canids, onager, fish and frogs (the last perhaps not ancient). Hijara’s evidence documents a marked increase in the representation of pigs somewhere in his layers XI or X while more cattle were present since his layer VII. This phenomenon was accompanied by a quantitative decrease in sheep and goat remains outside the area enclosed by the rampart wall. Sheep outnumbered pigs by about 3–4 to 1. Slaughter ages indicate that pigs were most probably kept for food (slaughter age below 1 year) and cattle for milk (slaughter age over 3 years).

The lowermost four layers excavated by I.Hijara (XI–VIII) document an average settlement site with shelters, heating installations, a well and rubbish layers. In the subsequent phases (VII–VI) the top of the site was enclosed by a rampart within which the first tholos architecture with two ante-rooms, finding a parallel at Yarimtepe II, appeared. At this level the first graves known at the site received remains of the local inhabitants including a crouched body lying on the right side and skulls deposited in a very unusual painted vase (von Wickede 1986, 22, Fig. 26) and in bowls. The rampart protecting the site was retained in the following stratum (Hijara VI), when tholoi and

Mesopotamia before history 50

buildings with gypsum-covered floors and walls with traces of paintings stood within it. No ‘civilian settlement’ outside the fortification existed at that time but the custom of burying human heads in pots and bowls continued. Upon their desertion, these buildings were filled in with clean earth to provide foundations for subsequent buildings. The precinct of Hijara V (=TT 10) consisted of two tholoi without ante-rooms, built now for the first time on stone foundations, and a well, the filling of which yielded a quantity of obsidian tools, again surrounded by a tauf fortification wall. Another tholos stood at this time by the foot of the hill. The architectural layout of TT 9 included again a tholos without ante-room at the hilltop, this time without its rampart, and two such features at the foot of the hill. This changed in TT 8 when a tholos with ante-room appeared at the top of the hill with another one of its kind at the foot. This latter tholos, built of clay only and partly sunk below the ancient surface, was after cessation of its functions filled in with pisé; a female statuette and sherds of painted pottery were found in its ruins. The hilltop tholos was accompanied by an obviously two-compartment pottery kiln of which only the heating chamber with its central pillar survived. The last tholos architecture may be dated to TT 7 when two tholoi with ante-rooms were situated with their longer axes at right angles on the hilltop, accompanied by two graves with outstanding examples of painted pottery, one of them having a flagon and a bowl lying within a dish. This time there was no tholos below the hill but that area contained, for the first time, trampled roads lying on foundations of pottery sherds and paved with river pebbles, the maximum width of which amounted to 1.2 m.

The entire layout of the site was transformed in TT 6. A large rectangular house built of pisé with clay-plastered walls and ceilings consisting of matting, timber baulks and clay now occupied the centre of the tell area. The inner furnishings of this house might have included wooden shelves leaning on the walls on which individual objects could have been deposited. The house contained a considerable quantity of objects of both everyday use and of a higher aesthetic appeal, presumably used in non-average activities. Implements included chipped stone industry employing both flint and obsidian together with flint cores and flakes and obsidian cores (and flakes?). Of a whole series of ground stone celts found here one still retained a shade of its curved wooden handle. Metal finds feature a piece of lead and two pin fragments of copper. Vessels found in this house were made of stone (both local stones and obsidian and chlorite; one of the obsidian vases bears traces of boring with a tubular drill) in normal and miniature sizes, of white frit and of painted pottery, the latter represented by some of the most exquisite creations of prehistoric Near Eastern potters.

In addition to the production of stone tools the inhabitants of this house obviously engaged in colour-grinding and painting activities, possibly in the course of production of painted pottery. Grinding palettes for these materials were made out of grey, pink and white stones and pigment blocks matched these colours (black, red, yellow in place of white). A large group of seal impressions on clay was lying on the floor of this house (for some see Charvát 1994, 10). Items of personal adornment found here include geometrical and zoomorphic pendants as well as those shaped like parts of the human body and like a gabled house, and necklace beads of geometrical shapes. A complete necklace consisted of lozenge-shaped obsidian beads alternating with cowrie shells with cut-away upper parts in which the interior fillings of red pigment were visible. Works of art, and possibly even cultic paraphernalia, are represented by a remarkable couple of a large female and a