Tell Qaramel
Coordinates: 36 ° 22 ′ 40.1 ″ N , 37 ° 16 ′ 30.4 ″ E
The Tell Qaramel ( Arabic تل القرامل, DMG Tall al-Qarāmil ) is an early Neolithic settlement mound in north -western Syria that has artifacts dating back to the Hellenistic period. Its highest point is 444 m above sea level. The hill rises near the Quwaiq , an approximately 130 km long river on which Aleppo is located. The oldest human traces date from the 12th millennium BC. One of the five towers discovered there, with a diameter of about 5 m and erected around 10,650 BC. BC, is considered the oldest known part of a defense system, even before the tower of Jericho .
Under the direction of Ryszard F. Mazurowski , the structures discovered earlier - researched since 1999 - were examined in more detail in 2006. It turned out that several towers had been built one after the other at the same place. The third tower, known as Tower 0 , had a diameter of more than five meters, the walls were about one meter thick and made of small pebbles. A crescent-shaped stone bench covered with a layer of clay was found in the southeast corner. The ground was tamped clay, and a carefully built fireplace made of the same material was discovered. The floor and fireplace were restored at least once. The excavators believe that the tower was not only used for defensive purposes, but was also the place of rituals and gatherings. A layer of charcoal 2 to 3 cm thick, laid out in and around the tower, indicates that it was destroyed by fire.
To the surprise of the excavators, however , Tower 0 was not the oldest structure of its kind, but a further tower below with a diameter of about five meters turned out to be even older. Its walls, however, were only half a meter thick. This tower was largely demolished when Tower 0 was built . But since it had sunk into the ground, a wreath of large pebbles remained there. Very large pebbles may have formed the bottom of what was considered the oldest at the time. During the excavation, however, further traces were found below this tower, which were designated as tower 01 .
In the vicinity of the complex there were round or oval house structures, some of which were sunk into the ground. In addition, there were round hearths in stone rectangles and storage pits, regularly distributed throughout the entire settlement. The remains of a large animal, perhaps an aurochs, were found in one of the pits . Apparently he was burned there.
The oldest structural structures, including a deep pit and a round house, found in the south-easternmost areas, were dated back to the 12th millennium BC. Dated. A clay figurine was also found depicting a bird, as well as decorated devices for smoothing arrows, depictions of snakes and people.
In addition, human remains of 20 individuals were found in 12 graves. They were exclusively adults, some of whom had no skulls, but some of them only had skulls buried. In some cases the head was removed shortly after death occurred, in others apparently the decay was initially allowed to proceed very far and then the skull was removed from the grave. A grave was on the tower and contained the skulls of four individuals and two lower jaws, one of which belonged to a man. While its jaw shows signs of cutting, which indicate it was severed from the skull shortly after death, the second lower jaw, which belonged to an old woman, shows no traces of this kind. Her teeth were badly worn and there was evidence of tooth decay. In another grave fragmentary remains of burned jawbones were found, along with animal bones. Another grave only contained vertebral bones, but these indicated that the individual was sitting upright at the burial and facing east. In grave 2-07 the remains of a 40-year-old woman were found, but without a skull; this was cut off immediately before or after death. An old man's teeth, on the other hand, were incomplete and marked by severe abrasion and inflammation. There were also collective graves. Since these are all adults aged 20 or over, this could either indicate a low child mortality rate or that children were buried elsewhere. Other sites of the epoch indicate that children's skulls were never removed and reburied elsewhere. The adult skull was usually buried elsewhere in the house, while the rest of the body was placed under the floor. Overall, Youssef Kanjou assessed the state of health of the individuals as quite good during their lifetime.
literature
- Ryszard F. Mazurowski , Youssef Kanjou: Tell Qaramel 1999–2007. Protoneolithic and Early Pre-pottery Neolithic Settlement in Northern Syria. Preliminary Results of Syrian-Polish Archaeological Excavations 1999–2007 , Polish Center of Mediterranean Archeology, University of Warsaw, Warsaw 2016.
- Ryszard F. Mazurowski, Danuta J. Michczyńska, Anna Pazdur, Natalia Piotrowska: Chronology of the Early Pre-Pottery Neolithic Settlement Tell Qaramel, Northern Syria, in the Light of Radiocarbon Dating , in: Radiocarbon 51,2 (2009) 771-781 .
- Ryszard F. Mazurowski: Tell Qaramel (Syria) , in: Newsletter of the Polish Center of Mediterranean Archeology of the University of Warsaw (2006).
- Discussion of the dating , PPND - the Platform for Neolithic Radiocarbon Dates, Ex Oriente eV , Freie Universität Berlin .