Emma Jenkins

Juniper smoke, skulls and wolves' tails. The Epipalaeolithic of the Anatolian plateau in its South-west Asian context; insights from Pinarbaşi

Abstract This paper discusses the only substantive evidence for the Epipalaeolithic of central Anatolia. This evidence allows revised understandings of phenomena often proposed as characteristic of the Epipalaeolithic of South-west Asia including the appearance of sedentism, a putative Broad Spectrum Revolution, intensive plant exploitation and the emergence of distinctive ritual and symbolic practices. It also allows further evaluation of the effect of Late Glacial climate change on human behaviours.

Experimental crop growing in Jordan to develop methodology for the identification of ancient crop irrigation

Abstract Crop irrigation has long been recognized as having been important for the evolution of social complexity in several parts of the world. Structural evidence for water management, as in the form of wells, ditches and dams, is often difficult to interpret and may be a poor indicator of past irrigation that may have had no need for such constructions. It would be of considerable value, therefore, to be able to infer past irrigation directly from archaeo-botanical remains, and especially the type of archaeo-botanical remains that are relatively abundant in the archaeological record, such as phytoliths. Building on the pioneering work of Rosen and Wiener (1994), this paper describes a crop-growing experiment designed to explore the impact of irrigation on the formation of phytoliths within cereals. If it can be shown that a systemic and consistent relationship exists between phytolith size, structure and the intensity of irrigation, and if various taphonomic and palaeoenvironmental processes can be controlled for, then the presence of past irrigation can feasibly be inferred from the phytoliths recovered from the archaeological record.

Water, Life and Civilisation: Irrigation and phytolith formation: an experimental study

It has been proposed that phytoliths from archaeological sites can be indicators of water availability and hence inform about past agricultural practices (Rosen and Weiner, 1994; Madella et al., 2009). Rosen and Weiner (1994) found that the number of conjoined phytoliths fromcereal husks increased with irrigationwhile Madella et al. (2009) demonstrated that the ratio of long-celled phytoliths to short-celled phytoliths increased with irrigation. In order to further explore these hypotheses, wheat and barley were experimentally grown from 2005 to 2008 in three different crop growing stations in Jordan. Four different irrigation regimes were initially employed: 0% (rainfall only), 80%, 100%and 120% of the optimum crop water requirements, with a 40% plot being added in the second and third growing seasons. Each plot measured 5 m � 5 m and a drip irrigation system was used. Environmental variables were measured on a daily basis, and soil and water samples were taken and analysed at the University of Reading. Phytoliths from the husks of these experimentally grown plants were extracted using the dry ashing method. Results demonstrate that although the number of conjoined cells increases with irrigation, there were considerable intersite and inter-year differences suggesting that environmental variables other than water availability affect phytolith uptake and deposition. Furthermore, analytical experiments demonstrated that conjoined phytoliths are subject to change or breakage by external factors, making this methodology problematic to apply to archaeological phytolith assemblages that have an unknown taphonomic history. The ratio of long cells to short cells also responded to increased irrigation, and these forms are not subject to break up as are conjoined forms. Our results from the modern samples of durum wheat and six-row barley show that if an assemblage of single-celled phytoliths consists of over 60% dendritic long cells then this strongly suggests that the crop received optimum levels of water. Further research is needed to determine if this finding is consistent in phytolith samples from the leaves and stems, as suggested byMadella et al. (2009), and in other species of cereals. If this is the case then phytoliths are a valuble tool for assessing the level of past water availability and, potentially, past irrigation.

An 11,600 year-old communal structure from the Neolithic of southern Jordan

The authors present a new type of communal and monumental structure from the earliest Neolithic in western Asia. A complement to the decorated stone pillars erected at Göbekli Tepe in the north, ‘Wadi Faynan 16 Structure O75’ in the southern Levant is a ritualised gathering place of a different kind. It serves to define wider western Asia as an arena of social experiment in the tenth millennium BC, one in which community seems to take precedence over economy.

Water, Life and Civilisation: An investigation into the archaeological application of carbon stable isotope analysis used to establish crop water availability: solutions and ways forward

Carbon stable isotope analysis of charred cereal remains is a relatively new method employed by archaeological scientists to investigate ancient climate and irrigation regimes. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of environmental variables on carbon isotope discrimination (D) in multiple environments to develop the technique and its archaeological application, using crops grown at three experimental stations in Jordan. There are two key results: (1) as expected, there was a strong positive relationship between water availability and D; (2) site, not water input, was the most important factor in determining D. Future work should concentrate on establishing ways of correcting D for the influence of site specific environmental variables and on assessing how well carbon isotope discrimination values are preserved within the archaeological record.

Mice, scats and burials: Unusual concentrations of microfauna found in human burials at the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük, Central Anatolia

Three human burials were found at Çatalhöyük that contained large microfaunal assemblages. Taphonomic analysis demonstrated that many of these elements had passed through the digestive tract of a small carnivore, indicating that the microfauna entered the burials in carnivore scats rather than as carcasses. One of the burials in particular (F. 513) contained an enormous quantity of microfauna which was concentrated over the torso of the body. It is concluded that the scats were deliberately placed in the burials by the human inhabitants of the site as part of ritualistic practice. Furthermore, it is suggested that small carnivores were encouraged to enter Çatalhöyük in order to control house mice, and other small mammal, numbers.

Water, Life and Civilisation: Past plant use in Jordan as revealed by archaeological and ethnoarchaeological phytolith signatures

Ninety-six phytolith samples were analysed from seven archaeological sites ranging from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic to the Classical period and from two ethnoarchaeological sites in Jordan. The aims were to test the possibility of detecting past irrigation with the methodology outlined by Madella et al. (2009) and Jenkins et al. (Chapter 21, this volume) and to study the contextual and temporal variation of plant use in Jordan. We utilised a water availability index using the proportion of phytolith types and ordination statistical methods to explore the similarities between the phytolith assemblages. The result of applying the irrigation methodology was promising, with contexts from water channels showing the greatest indication of water availability. Changes in plant use through time were also apparent with regard to phytolith densities and taxonomy. Date palm was identified in the Pottery Neolithic, providing one of the earliest records for this taxon in Jordan. This study shows the potential of both the water availability index and the value of inter-site comparison of phytolith assemblages.

Agricultural origins on the Anatolian plateau

Significance We demonstrate that the initial spread of farming outside of the area of its first appearance in the Fertile Crescent of Southwest Asia, into Central Anatolia, involved adoption of cultivars by indigenous foragers and contemporary experimentation in animal herding of local species. This represents a rare clear-cut instance of forager adoption and sustained low-level food production. We have also demonstrated that farming uptake was not uniform, with some forager communities rejecting it despite proximity to early farming communities. We also show that adoption of small-scale cultivation could still have significant social consequences for the communities concerned. The evidence suggests forager adoption of cultivation and initiation of herding was not necessarily motivated by simple economic concerns of increasing levels of food production and security. This paper explores the explanations for, and consequences of, the early appearance of food production outside the Fertile Crescent of Southwest Asia, where it originated in the 10th/9th millennia cal BC. We present evidence that cultivation appeared in Central Anatolia through adoption by indigenous foragers in the mid ninth millennium cal BC, but also demonstrate that uptake was not uniform, and that some communities chose to actively disregard cultivation. Adoption of cultivation was accompanied by experimentation with sheep/goat herding in a system of low-level food production that was integrated into foraging practices rather than used to replace them. Furthermore, rather than being a short-lived transitional state, low-level food production formed part of a subsistence strategy that lasted for several centuries, although its adoption had significant long-term social consequences for the adopting community at Boncuklu. Material continuities suggest that Boncuklu’s community was ancestral to that seen at the much larger settlement of Çatalhöyük East from 7100 cal BC, by which time a modest involvement with food production had been transformed into a major commitment to mixed farming, allowing the sustenance of a very large sedentary community. This evidence from Central Anatolia illustrates that polarized positions explaining the early spread of farming, opposing indigenous adoption to farmer colonization, are unsuited to understanding local sequences of subsistence and related social change. We go beyond identifying the mechanisms for the spread of farming by investigating the shorter- and longer-term implications of rejecting or adopting farming practices.

Death and architecture: The Pre-Pottery Neolithic A Burials at WF16, Wadi Faynan, Southern Jordan

The neolithic of the Levant marks the earliest appearance of sedentary farming communities in the world. The transition from hunting-gathering to farming began between 20,000 and 10,500 years ago, the latter marking the start of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) period, during which domesticated cereals, sheep, and goat begin to appear (Kuijt & Goring-Moris 2002 ). Whether there was a relatively rapid transition during the preceding PrePottery Neolithic A (PPNA) period (11,700–10,500 BP), perhaps as a response to the dramatic global warming that marks the end of the Pleistocene, or a more gradual emergence arising from long-term subsistence intensifi cation during the Epipalaeolithic (20,000–11,700 BP) remains an issue of contention (for general reviews see Mithen 2003 ; Barker 2006 ) . It is undisputed, however, that the transition to sedentary farming lifestyles encompassed all aspects of economy, technology, architecture, social organisation, ideology, and ‘culture’ in the widest possible sense. Archaeological evidence indicating that attitudes towards life and death were transformed as part of this process should not be surprising as the harvesting and then sowing of domesticated crops are fundamentally related to manipulating the process of regeneration. The documentation and interpretation of Epipalaeolithic, PPNA, and PPNB mortuary evidence is inevitably constrained by the quality and quantity of data available. This is notably limited for the PPNA period, which many see as the critical phase of transition from hunter-gatherer to farming lifestyles. In this contribution, we present new evidence concerning PPNA mortuary practices from the site of WF16 in southern Jordan. The number of burials located at this settlement is unusually high for a PPNA site. It stands at around forty burials found within the limits of the excavation ( Table 6.1 ), but the total number of burials must be higher, considering the spatial and stratigraphic extent of the unexcavated part of the settlement. The excavation report is still undergoing preparation, and osteological analysis has yet to be undertaken. As such, any interpretation of this data set remains both incomplete and provisional. But even from the evidence currently available, WF16 contributes greatly towards our knowledge of PPNA burial and the transformation in mortuary practice across the hunter-gatherer–farming lifestyle transition in southwestern Asia. We will show that the relationship between the living and the dead at WF16 was defi ned not only by the different ways in which the people were treated at death, but also through diverse attitudes towards their remains for a prolonged period post-mortem. The roles played by memory, curation, secondary intervention, and manipulation of human remains created multiple layers of mortuary practice at WF16, which was also part of the life of the settlement itself, with real consequences for its living community. This is best seen through the manner in which the dead continued to be part of the settlement through careful choreography of burials, the treatment of the human remains, and the repeatedly changing architectural make-up of the settlement the burials were positioned within.

Estimating population size, density and dynamics of Pre-Pottery Neolithic villages in the central and southern Levant: an analysis of Beidha, southern Jordan

An understanding of population dynamics is essential for reconstructing the trajectories of central and southern Levantine Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN) villages. The aim of this investigation was to derive more empirically and statistically robust absolute demographic data than currently exists. Several methodologies were explored, including those based on dwelling unit size and the number of dwellings; residential floor area per person; population density; and allometric growth formulae. The newly established storage provisions formulae based on the affordance of sleeping individuals within structures was found to be the most viable method. Estimates were adjusted to reflect potential structural contemporaneity calculated from building use-life and phase length estimates based on archaeological, ethnographic and experimental research, and Bayesian chronological modelling of radiocarbon dates. The application of methodologies to the PPNB site of Beidha in southern Jordan is presented. The analysis highlights inconsistencies with current theory relating to population density at Beidha. In particular, the results suggest that nuclear families probably did not form the predominant dwelling unit type during Subphases A2 and B2. In addition, population density was estimated at anywhere between 350 and 900 people per ha. This range far exceeds the ethnographically derived density values commonly utilized for reconstructing PPN village populations (c. 90 to 294 people per ha).