Latamne

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Coordinates: 35 ° 45 ′ 0 ″  N , 36 ° 43 ′ 0 ″  E

Relief Map: Syria
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Latamne​
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Syria

Latamne , also Latamné or Latamneh , is an old Paleolithic site near the eponymous village of Latamne in northwest Syria . The site is about 40 km downstream from Hama on the right bank of the Orontes , 1.5 km south of said village. There the Wadi al-Assal flows into the Orontes, which forms a 60 m deep gorge there. Artifacts were mainly found in two places. “Latamne Atelier” - the name refers to the assumption that the cores brought there were exclusively processed - was located 52 m above the river. "Latamne Quarry 1", the name of which goes back to one of the two quarries, was a little north of it. With the “Atelier” it is unclear whether the accumulation of artifacts arose in a single event or whether it was the result of a series of stays. On the other hand, “Quarry 1” seems to have only been used for a very short time, and perhaps the hominins only stayed there once and left their relatively few stone tools behind.

Discovery, digging

After the soil scientist Willem J. Van Liere , who worked for the FAO , picked up some debris and bones in a quarry south of Latamne that was opened the previous year, explorations were carried out near the pit . Under the direction of Van Liere and A. Bouoni, the director of excavations at the National Museum Damascus , animal remains and other tools from the Pleistocene were uncovered. The discovery of 155 animal fragments and 462 artefacts aroused the interest of Pieter JR Modderman , who carried out an investigation in the Hama area. Some artifacts from a suburb of Hama called Sharia came to light, as well as reading finds in another nine places. Modderman also reopened one of Van Liere's probes, and on January 9, 1961, seven hand axes were discovered two hundred meters west over an area of ​​5 by 5 m. During the subsequent excavation from December 1961 to January 1962, during which Modderman was only present for just under seven days, over 400 tees were lifted, plus 52 hand axes and an unspecified number of cores and 13 bone fragments. All of this was found only 15 cm below the surface of the earth. Since the site was completely undisturbed, it was called the "Latamne Atelier" or "Latamne Living Floor".

John Desmond Clark , 1967

Under John Desmond Clark , often called J. Desmond Clark, two further excavations were carried out, but the surrounding area has now also been examined more closely. After the last investigations in 1965 under the direction of John Desmond Clark (August 15 to 29, 1964 and November 20 to December 12, 1965), in which 1,831 stone artifacts and 5 bones or 994 and 39 corresponding remains were found, ended the excavation work on the Orontes initially. Clark himself, who only found time for two short stays in the field, concentrated on his South African work.

It was not until October 1977 that the Center national de la recherche scientifique carried out a large-scale survey as part of the research program L'homme et le milieu dans la région Levantine Quaternaire , which covered the area between Rastan and the Aacharne plain . The focus was on three eco-zones , namely the Mediterranean west of the country, the steppe areas and the desert. Based on the three sites that these eco-zones were supposed to represent, namely Nahr el-Kebir, the Orontestal and the Euphrates valley , local chronologies were to be related to one another. In the Orontestal alone, more than 4,000 artifacts were found at 69 sites. In Latamne, mammalian and fish bones were found. These results in turn gave rise to new local studies. From 1990 to 1991 a Soviet- Syrian excavation group led by EV Deviation, AE Dodonov, K. Khatib and N. Nseir discovered small artifacts in two quarries near Latamne, plus ten hand axes at a depth of 8 m.

According to geologist Jean de Heinzelin, the Latamne Formation ranges from about 660,000 to 130,000 before today, i.e. MIS > 17 to 11. Jacques Besançon and Geyer (2003) differentiated a lower and an upper Latamne Formation, the MIS 14 and 12 respectively to 11 included.

Dating, flora and fauna

Two attempts to date the Soviet-Syrian excavation resulted in extremely different values ​​of 324,000 ± 65,000 and 567,000 ± 42,000 years. Hence, the dating depends on the organic materials discovered on site, as geological surveys, although suggesting the relative undisturbedness of the stratification, created considerable ambiguity.

Dirk Albert Hooijer was able to identify the following species in 1962 and 1965: Mammuthus trogontherii (pine), Stegodon cf. trigonocephaly - from the extinct genus Stegodon -, Equus sp. (Molars), Stephanorhinus hemitoechus , Hippopotamus sp. (Toe bones), Megaloceros verticornis from the genus of the giant deer, Camelus sp. dromedaries (left incisor), Bison cf. priscus , Canis sp., Crocuta sp. ( Coproliths ), Dama cf. mesopotamica , a subspecies of the fallow deer (one molar), finally Antilopidarum , whereby neither sex nor species could be determined more precisely. Since Mammuthus trogontherii and Megaloceros verticornis disappeared with the MIS 12, on the other hand Stephanorhinus hemitoechus does not appear before MIS 11, at least in Europe, the site was now generally assigned to MIS 12.

During this time, the fauna also provides an insight into the flora of that time . A spacious grassy landscape must have prevailed, which was suitable for horses, cattle and gazelles, on the other hand the hippopotamus and the said giant deer Megaloceros verticornis indicate forests. In terms of numbers, horses and elephants dominate.

More recent attempts at dating have shown that the oldest layers of the site nevertheless date back between 1.0 and 1.2 million years.

Lithic analysis of the "Latamne Atelier" site

Andrew Douglas Shaw was only able to find 19 artefacts from the 1965 excavation in the Damascus National Museum for his academic thesis, which he completed in 2008. In addition, there is no class context, so that their scientific output is insignificant. The same applies to the finds made by predecessors. Many of the numerous hand axes were also scattered in the Syrian museums, as Shaw reports. Only 7% of the artifacts show abrasion, as is typical for river transport or other processes, so they were little or not moved after being deposited. The relative accumulations at certain points also speak against movement by natural forces, which only enables dating based on stratifications.

All tools were made from coarse-grained flint . 15.6% come from the fluvial system, 57.9% from the basement, probably from a location ~ 120 m to the north-west, where outcrops can be found that emanate from the calcareous rock. Corresponding blocks could have been entered in the "living floor" of hominins , but a violent flood event is also conceivable here. It can be seen that spheroids were used more for tee production, while elongated blocks were preferred for hand axes. On average, one won 9.4 tees from each core, rarely more than 15. A higher number of tees only occurred in 7.1% of the cases.

The hand axes were relatively large with an average length of 14.31 cm. The roughly “brick-shaped” cores were machined with hammer blows and only show a simple form of machining, mostly in one direction. Only the edges and the tips were processed, with two exceptions. Over 97% of the cuts were processed with hard hammer blows, only just under 3% with soft blows (see striking technique ).

Apparently the kernels have already been partially "peeled" at the point of origin or at a not yet excavated point, in order to then be finished in the warehouse. 25 of the haircuts are retouched . This was also done ad hoc.

The "Latamne Quarry 1" site

In Quarry 1, one of the two quarries, of which Quarry 1 is to the north and Quarry 2 to the west of the "Atelier", two Levallois cores were picked up as early as 1961/62 and are now in the National Museum. In addition, there were other artifacts that were marked with "L / R / S". This “signature” probably refers to “Latamne Red Soil”, but otherwise nothing is known about the exact location and circumstances. The term "Red Soil" refers to the 1.5 m thick, clay and calcareous, reddish subsoil found there from a depth of just under 3 m. In 1964, Clark collected a number of stone tools from the sites in Quarry 1, which were simply referred to as "Site A" and "Site B" and which were located to the west and north of the quarry, as well as several bones provisionally assigned to a horse were. The 1977 probes yielded another 12 artifacts. At least the finds from 1964 came from the base of the "Red Soil", that is, they were close to the gravel substrate on which the said one and a half meter thick layer rests. In the gravel area, the only layer that can be roughly dated, remains of Mammuthus trogontherii , Megaloceros verticornis and Stephanorhinus hemitoechus were found , which suggested an approximate dating in MIS 12.

In addition to four Levallois and six non-Levallois cores, the lithic stock includes 76 non-Levallois cuts and 8 tools. It is no longer possible to assign the finds to the two sites within "Latamne Quarry 1". According to Clark, 88 pieces came from Site A, only 9 from Site B. Completely absent abrasions show that the artifacts were never moved by the river, although they were found near the gravel layer. Missing scratches also show that they must have been covered relatively quickly by fine-grained material.

The source material had been collected by the hominins from the river, at least it is fluvial "Chert", which is a relatively imprecise name, and Flint. The three complete Levallois nuclei are small in one case and medium in size in the other two. While the small core is 66.3 mm long, 67.7 mm wide and 25.9 mm thick, the other two measure 102.5 by 83.0 by 29.4 and 84.9 by 73.2 by 36, respectively. 0 mm. While the small core weighs 136.1 g, the other two weigh 269.0 and 187.6 g. The six medium-sized non-Levallois cores were apparently only used for a short time and for relatively few discounts. Eight retouched haircuts make up 8.5% of the total stock. Only one tee has been retouched on one end to create a point. In contrast to the “Atelier”, the surface of the original pieces was processed immediately. The processing chain was therefore interrupted for some selected pieces in order to further process the prepared cores at another location. This fits in with the Levallois cores, for which no Levallois tees were found. The length of stay of the people must have been very short, they may have only been there once.

literature

  • Andrew Douglas Shaw: The Earlier Palaeolithic of Syria: Settlement History, Technology and Landscape-use in the Orontes and Euphrates Valleys , PhD, University of Durham, 2008, pp. 66–96, 170–180.

Remarks

  1. ^ Willem J. Van Liere: Un gisement paléolithique dans un niveau pleistocène de l'Oronte a Latamne (Syrie) , in: Annales Archéologiques Arabes Syriennes 10 (1960) 165-174; Dirk Albert Hooijer : Middle Pleistocene mammals from Latamne, Orontes valley, Syria , in: Annales Archéologiques Arabes Syriennes 11-12 (1962) 117-132.
  2. ^ Pieter JR Modderman : On a survey of palaeolithic sites near Hama , in: Annales Archéologiques Arabes Syriennes 14 (1964) 51-66.
  3. ↑ John Desmond Clark: The Middle Acheulean Occupation Site at Latamne Northern Syria , in: Annales Archéologiques Arabes Syriennes 16 (1966) 31-74 and there: Further Excavations (1965) at the Middle Acheulean Occupation Site at Latamne Northern Syria: General Results, Definitions and Interpretations , pp. 75-120.
  4. ^ Jean de Heinzelin: Geological observations near Latamne , in: Annales Archéologiques Arabes Syriennes 16 (1966) 115-120 and Ders .: Geological observations near Latamne , in: Quaternaria 10 (1968) 3-8. A. Van Dusen Eggers: Artifacts collected from the Middle Orontes area near Latamne, Northern Syria , in: Annales Archéologiques Arabes Syriennes 16 (1966) 104-109.
  5. ^ Jacques Besançon, Lorraine Copeland : Morphology et préhistoire de la vallée de l'Oronte entre Rastan et le Ghab (Syrie) , in: Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Sciences de Paris 287 (1978) 857-860; Lorraine Copeland, Francis Hours: The Middle Orontes Palaeolithic Flint industries , in: Le Paléolotique de la vallée moyenne de l'Oronte (Syrie); peuplement et environnement . British Archaeological Reports. International Series 587, eds. Paul Sanlaville, Jacques Besançon, Lorraine Copeland , Sultan Muhesen, Archaeopress, Oxford 1993, pp. 63-144.
  6. ↑ Andrew Douglas Shaw: The Earlier Palaeolithic of Syria: Settlement History, Technology and Landscape-use in the Orontes and Euphrates Valleys , PhD, University of Durham, 2008, p. 47 f.
  7. ↑ Andrew Douglas Shaw: The Earlier Palaeolithic of Syria: Settlement History, Technology and Landscape-use in the Orontes and Euphrates Valleys , PhD, University of Durham, 2008, Tab. 4.3.1, p. 49.
  8. ↑ AE Dodonov, EV Deviatkin, VA Ranov, K. Khatib, H. Nseir: The Latamne formation in the Orontes River Valley , in: Le Paléolotique de la moyenne vallée de l'Orgon (Syrie); peuplement and environment . British Archaeological Reports. International Series 587, eds. Paul Sanlaville, Jacques Besançon, Lorraine Copeland , S. Muhesen, Archaeopress, Oxford 1993, pp. 189–194, here: p. 191.
  9. ^ Andrew Douglas Shaw: The Earlier Palaeolithic of Syria: Settlement History, Technology and Landscape-use in the Orontes and Euphrates Valleys , PhD, University of Durham, 2008, p. 73.
  10. ^ Ofer Bar-Yosef , Miriam Belmaker: Early and Middle Pleistocene Faunal and hominin dispersals through Southwestern Asia , in: Quaternary Science Reviews 30 (2010) 1318-1337.
  11. ↑ Andrew Douglas Shaw: The Earlier Palaeolithic of Syria: Settlement History, Technology and Landscape-use in the Orontes and Euphrates Valleys , PhD, University of Durham, 2008, p. 88.
  12. ↑ Andrew Douglas Shaw: The Earlier Palaeolithic of Syria: Settlement History, Technology and Landscape-use in the Orontes and Euphrates Valleys , PhD, University of Durham, 2008, Tab. 6.4.5, p. 176.