Tell Ramad

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Coordinates: 33 ° 21 ′ 36.6 ″  N , 35 ° 56 ′ 56.2 ″  E

Relief Map: Syria
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Tell Ramad
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Syria

Tell Ramad ( Arabic تل رماد, DMG Tall Ramād  'Ash Hill ') is a Neolithic settlement hill or tell at the foot of the Hermon , south of the road from Qatana to Artuz, a little more than 15 km southwest of the Syrian capital Damascus . The small settlement at an altitude of 830 m existed between 7230 and 6400/6300 BC. It covered an area of ​​150 by 175 m, so a total of 2 hectares ; a clear distinction is made between three layers . The Tell gained considerable importance for the question of the Neolithization of the region and thus for the development of agriculture. The oldest pendant made of copper was also discovered there, a metal that was used from the 7th millennium BC. Was processed in Syria.

The Tell was discovered by the French customs officer Company and Lieutenant Potut. Laurisson Ward visited the mound in 1939 and collected surface finds that are now in the Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology in Cambridge, Massachusetts . But it was only after WJ van Liere from the World Food Organization (FAO) , then Selim Abdulhak, General Director of Antiquitès et des Musées in Damascus, and then Henri de Contenson dealt with the remote settlement and the latter had explored the hill in eight excavation campaigns between 1963 and 1973 its importance in the professional community clearly. Until then, Neolithic finds were mainly known from Jericho , but it has now been shown that the greater Damascus area was not affected by the Neolithic Revolution until quite late .

Tell Ramad comprises a total of three settlement layers. From the earliest layer ( Stratum I), which dates back to the second half of the 8th millennium BC. The pits were 3 to 4 meters in diameter and apparently were dwellings. In contrast to this first layer, there were other flint tools in layer II (1st half of the 7th millennium) , but funeral customs and gifts indicate a continuity. However, the previously round, often polygonal and irregular houses have now become rectangular. The houses were separated from each other by paths, but also by ovens and silos. White goods , a typical ceramic, were now produced in larger quantities. In Layer III, which was dated to the 7th millennium, large quantities of fired goods were found. But now no more pit houses were built, but storage chambers were dug into the older, lower-lying layers, which indicates the presence of nomadic groups. Most of the region's settlements were established around 6800 BC. Abandoned BC, while Tell Ramad was still used for three to four centuries. A last, rather sparse, settlement of the hill took place in the second half of the 6th millennium.

An essential meaning of the tell is that remains of domesticated wheat (emmer and einkorn, durum wheat), rye, peas and flax were discovered there. In terms of volume, emmer dominated. The tells Aswad and Ghoraifé (Ramad and Ghoraifé II overlap in time) had already shown that these domesticated plants had been planted in the Damascus area for a long time. In addition, wild plants such as pistachios, figs, almonds and pears were found in the Ramad Hill as in the older sites. Although plants have been cultivated for two millennia, the use of wild plants has by no means decreased. In contrast, the hunt had become extremely marginal. The residents lived in an area that was still densely forested at that time, in which little explored small villages can be found. The residents cultivated the fields in small clearings that they had cut in the forest.

Sheep and goats were domesticated from the earliest times. Sheep made up three quarters of the animals, goats only a quarter. Otherwise cattle and pigs were also kept. The hunt had become quite insignificant and was largely confined to gazelles.

Three clay figurines, the fragments of which were found, possibly served as a kind of base for the skulls that were also discovered there, and skulls and figurines may have been ritually buried together. In layer I one pit contained six skulls, in layer II there were two pits with 3 and 12 skulls, respectively. The carefully severed skulls had been preserved, possibly to give the impression of being alive. Red paint residues could be detected. This type of conservation appears in large parts of the southern Levant , as does the ritual secondary burial, in which the skulls were separated from the dead after removal or dissolution of the more transitory components, so that one spoke of a "skull cult" at first.

Numerous clay figurines were found, but most of them were so fragmented that they could not be described in detail. This was true for 62 of the 100 or so figurines from Layer I. At least 12 of them depicted people, eight more were four-legged, meaning animals. Layer II contained 586 fragments, 562 of which were categorized as “misshapen”. 270 figurines of this layer were anthropomorphic. For the first time, the figurines in Layer III were made of real ceramics, not just baked clay. Ten of them were anthropomorphic, if all of them are incomplete. It is primarily about heads. Only three figurines represented animals, one of them possibly a bovid.

literature

  • Henri de Contenson, Marie-Claire Cauvin, Liliane Courtois, Pierre Ducos, Monique Dupeyron, Willem van Zeist: Ramad. Site néolithique en Damascène (Syrie) aux VIIIe et VIIe millénaires avant l'ère chrétienne (= Bibliothèque Archéologique et Histoire , 157), Institut français d'archéologie du Proche-Orient, Beirut 2000 ( online ).
  • Willem van Zeist, Johanna AH Bakker-Heeres: Archaeobotanical Studies in the Levant 1. Neolithic Sites in the Damascus Basin: Aswad, Ghoraifé, Ramad. In: Palaeohistoria 24 (1982), pp. 165-256.

Remarks

  1. ^ Glenn M. Schwartz, Peter MMG Akkermans: The Archeology of Syria. From Complex Hunter-Gatherers to Early Urban Societies (c. 16,000-300 BC) , Cambridge University Press, Cambridge / New York 2003, p. 133.
  2. Les Annales archéologiques de Syrie 15 (1965), p. 52.
  3. ^ Glenn M. Schwartz, Peter MMG Akkermans: The Archeology of Syria. From Complex Hunter-Gatherers to Early Urban Societies (c. 16,000-300 BC). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge / New York 2003, p. 109.
  4. ^ Willem van Zeist: Cultivated and wild food plants at Tell Ramad , in: Henri de Contenson, Marie-Claire Cauvin, Liliane Courtois, Pierre Ducos, Monique Dupeyron, Willem van Zeist: Ramad. Site néolithique en Damascène (Syrie) aux VIIIe et VIIe millénaires avant l'ère chrétienne , Institut français d'archéologie du Proche-Orient, Beirut 2000, pp. 257–272, here: p. 264.
  5. Jump up ↑ Pierre Ducos: Quelques données sur l'élevage à Ramad à partir d'une première étude du matériel archézoologique , in: Henri de Contenson, Marie-Claire Cauvin, Liliane Courtois, Pierre Ducos, Monique Dupeyron, Willem van Zeist: Ramad. Site néolithique en Damascène (Syrie) aux VIIIe et VIIe millénaires avant l'ère chrétienne , Institut français d'archéologie du Proche-Orient, Beirut 2000, pp. 275–282, here: p. 276.
  6. ^ David R. Harris: The origins and spread of agriculture and pastoralism in Eurasia. Routledge, London 1996, p. 253.
  7. ^ Glenn M. Schwartz, Peter MMG Akkermans: The Archeology of Syria. From Complex Hunter-Gatherers to Early Urban Societies (c. 16,000-300 BC). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge / New York 2003, pp. 85, 90.
  8. ^ Glenn M. Schwartz, Peter MMG Akkermans: The Archeology of Syria. From Complex Hunter-Gatherers to Early Urban Societies (c. 16,000-300 BC). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge / New York 2003, p. 91.
  9. ^ Henri de Contenson: Les objets de parure en coquille, nacre et os , in: Henri de Contenson, Marie-Claire Cauvin, Liliane Courtois, Pierre Ducos, Monique Dupeyron, Willem van Zeist: Ramad. Site néolithique en Damascène (Syrie) aux VIIIe et VIIe millénaires avant l'ère chrétienne , Institut français d'archéologie du Proche-Orient, Beirut 2000, pp. 171–215.