Nadaouiyeh Ain Askar
Coordinates: 35 ° 49 ′ 0 ″ N , 39 ° 25 ′ 0 ″ E
As Nadaouiyeh Aïn Askar or simply Nadaouiyeh is an old Paleolithic site in Syria , which is located on the edge of the El Kowm basin , about 90 km north-northeast of Palmyra . During the excavations, 28 layers were distinguished, of which layers 8a-8d are particularly well preserved. In total, the site contained artifacts and remains from about 525,000 to 350,000 before today. In addition, it was the only site that provided the basis for a chronology of the northern Levant.
Discovery and excavation, geology
The site was discovered in 1978 by Jacques and Marie-Claire Cauvin. You already referred to the hand axes there . In 1980, Francis Hours began a probe that confirmed that there were artifacts from the Paleolithic . In 1985 Jean-Marie Le Tensorer took over the management of the excavation. From 1989 the University of Basel carried out an excavation with the support of private sponsors and the University of Damascus . The remoteness of the area and the sparse settlement since the Neolithic period had optimally protected the site. It was not until the 20th century that artefacts emerged from the construction of wells .
The deposits found at the excavation site are due to sediments deposited by wind and a local lake , which filled a sinkhole , which in turn is part of an extensive karst system . This sinkhole was filled by a small lake, which reached its highest level in spring and which was visited by people at times of relatively low water levels.
Finds and Findings
Organic remains, Homo erectus and its prey
In addition to stone artefacts, around 10,000 remains of animals were found, especially camels, horses and ungulates (the latter almost exclusively gazelles ), all of which could be identified as the prey of the people staying there. In the older layers, especially layers 9 (500,000 years old) and 5 and 6 (400,000 years), gazelles dominate, numerically even more clearly in layers 8 a – c to 8.1 (550,000 to 400,000 years). The species hunted were Gazella gazella , Gazella dorcas and Gazella subgutturosa . The remains of two species of hippopotamus were also found , presumably Dicerorhinus mercki and Dicerorhinus hemitoechus , which make very different demands on their habitat , which indicates strongly fluctuating conditions.
In layer 8 Camelus dromedarius and possibly Camelus bactrianus dominated . Horses are present in all layers, but mainly in layers 9, or 5 and 6, i.e. in the same layers as the camels. Equus hydruntinus , often called the European wild ass , could be identified with certainty . In addition, there were the remains of Bos primigenius , then a species of oryx that cannot be specified . Finally, especially in layers 8a-d and 8.1, turtles of the Altwelt pond turtle family were found .
Extremely few remains of carnivores were also found, namely of a lion , a hyena ( Hyaena hyaena or Crocuta crocut ) and a canine of unknown species.
There was also an almost complete left parietal bone from layer 8, which was assigned to Homo erectus .
Stone tools
The excavated in Nadaouiyeh hand axes were the starting point for far-reaching considerations communication behavior of Homo erectus , because these artifacts were marked in the deeper layers of a hochelaborierten, refined processing manner, which was also of great uniformity. The higher hand axes, the younger specimens, on the other hand, were rather raw, irregular and generally characterized by greater diversity. This made the idea of continuous refinement obsolete, even if absolute dates were still missing, and the risks of dating based on developmental stages in particular turned out to be very high.
In 2006, Jean-Marie Le Tensorer suggested that the social role of the tool should be given greater focus. Accordingly, certain shapes, refinements and symmetries of the hand ax on the symbolic level and for the earlier groups of people could have played a different role than in later times. Le Tensorer considers it possible that the period in which the refined processing was abandoned represents a moment of “desecration” (“ésacralisation”). In his view, its meaning could have been replaced by other means of symbolic communication, such as gesture, language and ritual. On the other hand, Andrew Douglas Shaw referred to the lithic analysis, which is little included here. He objected that the younger hand axes were significantly smaller and that their cortex had largely been preserved, which indicates the original shape. On the other hand, the older hand axes are larger and the cortex has been completely removed. The initial shape (blank) was thus completely different, because the younger rubble stones that must have represented this initial shape were much smaller and thus imposed considerable restrictions on the editors. In contrast , the earlier residents could fall back on high quality chert and flint stones . Overall, according to Shaw, both cultural and technological requirements have to be taken into account. In any case, the older hand axes must have been brought from outside to the small lake, where some of the devices were reworked with soft blows of a hammer. In addition, traces of cuts on the bones of ungulates that were discovered in the same layer 8 indicate that in some cases the tools have been reworked, one can say sharpened, precisely for this purpose.
literature
- Johannes Kalbe, Reto Jagher , Christine Pümpin: The spring of Nadaouiyeh Aïn Askar - Paleoecology of a Paleolithic oasis in arid central Syria in: Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 446 (March 15, 2016) 252–262 (investigation of ostracods ).
- Nicole Reynaud Savioz : The faunal remains from Nadaouiyeh Aïn Askar (Syria). Preliminary indications of animal acquisition in an acheulean site , in: Jean-Marie Le Tensorer , Reto Jagher, Marcel Otte : The Lower and Middle Palaeolthic in the Middle East and Neighboring Regions. Basel Symposium (May 8–10 2008) , Lüttich 2011, pp. 225–233.
- Reto Jagher: Nadaouiyeh Aïn Askar - Acheulean variability in the Central Syrian Desert , in: Jean-Marie Le Tensorer, Reto Jagher, Marcel Otte (eds.): The Lower and Middle Palaeolithic in the Middle East and Neighouring Regions . University of Liège, Liège 2011, pp. 209–224.
- Jean-Marie Le Tensorer, Reto Jagher, Philippe Rentzel, Thomas Hauck, Kristin Ismail-Meyer, Christine Pümpin, Dorota Wojtczak: Long-term site formation processes at natural springs Nadaouiyeh and Hummal in the El Kowm Oasis, Central Syria , in: Geoarchaeology 22 (2007) 621-639.
- Nicole Reynaud Savioz , Philippe Morel: La faune de Nadaouiyeh Aïn Askar (Syrie centrale, Pléistocène moyen): aperçu et perspectives , in: Revue de Paléobiologie 10 (2005) 31-35. ( online )
- Inge Diethelm : Sourcing the Flint raw materials found at the Acheulian site of Nadaouiyeh Ain Aksar in the El Kowm Basin, Syria , in: Elizabeth A Walker, Francis Wenban Smith, Frances Healy (Ed.): Lithics in Action (= Lithic Studies Society Occasional Paper 8), Oxford 2004, pp. 89-92.
- Reto Jagher: Nadaouiyeh Aïn Askar, development of the hand ax traditions and stratigraphy at a spring in the Syrian desert steppe . Diss., University of Basel, 2000.
- Reto Jagher: "The little excavator". Manual for the excavation in Nadaouiyeh Aïn Aska , 1999.
- Jean-Marie Le Tensorer , Sultan Muhesen , Reto Jagher, Philippe Morel, Josette Renault-Miskovsky, Peter Schmid: Les premiers hommes du désert syrien - fouilles syro-suisses à Nadaouiyeh Aïn Askar. Catalog de l'exposition, Musée de l'Homme , Editions du Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris 1997. (56 pages)
- Reto Jagher: Une grande séquence paléolithique du bassin d'El Kowm (Syrie). Premiers résultats, fouilles 1989-1992 , in: Cahiers de l'Euphrate 7 (1993) 11-36.
- Francis Hours , Jean-Marie Le Tensorer, Sultan Muhesen, Isin Yalçinkaya: Premiers travaux sur le site acheuléen de Nadaouiyeh I (El Kowm, Syrie) , in: Paléorient 9.2 (1983) 5-13.
Remarks
- ↑ This and the paleozoological results according to: Nicole Reynaud Savioz, Philippe Morel: La faune de Nadaouiyeh Aïn Askar (Syrie centrale, Pléistocène moyen): aperçu et perspectives , in: Revue de Paléobiologie 10 (2005) 31-35.
- ↑ Peter Schmid, Philippe Rentzel, Josette Renault-Miskovsky, Sultan Muhesen, Philippe Morel, Jean Marie Le Tensorer, Reto Jagher: Découvertes de restes humains dans les niveaux acheuléens de Nadaouiyeh Aïn Askar (El Kowm, Syrie Centrale) , in: Paléorient 23 , 1 (1997) 87-93 ( online ).
- ^ 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. 335.
- ↑ Jean-Marie Le Tensorer: Les cultures acheuléennes et la question de l'émergence de la pensée symbolique chez Homo erectus à partir des données relatives à la forme symétrique et harmonique des bifaces , 2006, p. 33 ( academia.edu ).
- ↑ 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. 336 f.