Post on 01-Feb-2023
Population history of the middle Euphrates valleyResearch on dental non-metric traits at Tell Ashara, Tell Masaikhand Jebel Mashtale, Syria
Arkadiusz Sołtysiak*, Marta BialonDepartment of BioarchaeologyInstitute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw, Polandul. Krakowskie Przedmieście 26/28, 00-927 Warszawa
Running title: Population history of the middle Euphrates valley
Corresponding author: Dr. Arkadiusz Sołtysiak, tel.: +48 22 5522837, fax: +48 22 5522801 e-mail: a.soltysiak@uw.edu.pl
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Abstract: Fifty nine dental non-metric traits were scored using Arizona State University Dental
Anthropology System on a sample of teeth from 350 human skeletons excavated at three sites in the
lower middle Euphrates valley. The dataset was divided into six chronological subsets: Early
Bronze Age, Middle Bronze Age, Early Iron Age with Neo-Assyrian period, Classical/Late
Antiquity, Early Islamic (Umayyad and Abbasid) period and Modern period. The matrix of Mean
Measure of Divergence values exhibited temporal homogeneity of the sample with only dental non-
metric trait scores in the Modern subset differing significantly from most other subsets. Such a
result suggests that no major gene flow occurred in the middle Euphrates valley between the 3rd
millennium BCE and the early 2nd millennium CE. Only after the Mongolian invasion and large
depopulation of northern Mesopotamia in the 13th century CE a major population change occurred
when the area was taken over in the 17th century by Bedouin tribes from the Arabian Peninsula.
Key words: biodistance research; phenetic affinity; northern Mesopotamia; migrations
Introduction
Political, economic and social history of ancient Mesopotamia is relatively well known, chiefly due
to intensive archaeological excavations and findings of public and private archives of cuneiform
documents. However, this knowledge is strongly biased, as spatial, chronological and topical
distribution of textual sources is uneven, with most documents retrieved from large cities of
southern alluvial Euphrates plain, and most economic sources dated to a few decades of later Ur III
period (second half of 21st century BCE; cf. Yoffee, 1988). For that reason the history of southern
and central Mesopotamia, especially in the Bronze Age, is better known than the history of the
northern plains and there are substantial gaps in our knowledge about the later periods, when clay
tablets were no longer used as writing material (cf. Postgate, 1992).
Historical and archaeological sources enable the rough reconstruction of the population history.
Changes in the population size may be estimated with the use of archaeological survey data (cf.
Adams, 1965, 1981; Adams and Nissen, 1972; Copeland, 1985; McClellan, 1992; Wilkinson, 1990;
Wright et al., 2007) and some migrations and/or ethnic changes were attested by written documents
(Van De Mieroop, 2004a). However, the picture obtained from these sources is quite superficial, as
the real impact of migrations on local population may be only loosely correlated with the change of
language or self-identification, not even mentioning the material culture (cf. Kramer, 1977).
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In theory, research of ancient DNA polymorphisms would be the best source of knowledge about
population history, but the climatic conditions are not favourable for DNA preservation (cf.
Schutkowski, 2012) and only a few very preliminary regional studies were published so far (Baca
and Molak, 2008). For that reason, bioarchaeological methods of phenetic affinity reconstruction
are the only reliable alternative, especially the research on dental non-metric traits, which are less
subject to environmental stress and postmortem alterations than skeletal non-metric traits or metric
measurements (Irish, 2006, 2010; Scott and Turner, 1997).
The major issue related to this tool is the need for large and relatively homogenous samples, which
may be virtually impossible to obtain at ancient Mesopotamian sites (cf. Sołtysiak, 2006).
Fortunately, during large scale excavations in the region of Tell Ashara (ancient Terqa), lasting for
more than 15 years, almost a thousand human skeletons have been unearthed, most of them buried
at regular cemeteries (Sołtysiak and Tomczyk, 2008a, 2008b, 2008c). In spite of often poor
preservation and relatively high degree of dental wear, the sample is sufficient for rough estimation
of phenetic affinities between populations inhabiting the middle Euphrates valley in the Bronze
Age, in Classical/Late Antiquity and after Islamic conquest.
Historical and archaeological background
Middle Euphrates valley around Tell Ashara is located in an arid climatic zone with average annual
rainfall under 150 mm, which is not enough for dry farming (van Zeist, 2000). For that reason, plant
cultivation was possible only in a narrow strip of floodplain. However, the arable fields may have
been extended in a limited way using artificial irrigation, which was attested in historical sources
from the Middle Bronze Age (Durand, 1998; Heimpel, 2003; Viollet, 2004) to the Umayyad period
(Berthier, 2001; D'Hont, 2005; Genequand, 2009; Rousset, 2001) (cf. Table 1 for chronological
chart) and is now applied with use of mazut pumps (cf. Kolars, 2000). Alternative subsistence
strategy available in the region was nomadic or semi-nomadic herding of sheep and goats in the
large areas of dry steppes around the valley. In some periods, as e.g. Middle Bronze Age, this
economical duality led to the formation of the so-called dimorphic society with close links betweens
farmers and pastoralists (Hesse, 1995; Kirsch and Larsen, 1995; Rowton, 1967, 1974, 1980). In
others, as eg. the Late Roman period, the level of economical interactions was much lower (Parker,
1987). In spite of relatively low carrying capacity level and small potential for population growth as
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compared with the alluvial plains of lower Euphrates, since the beginning of third millennium BCE
large cities (as Mari, Terqa and later Dura Europos) have been present in the region and
urbanisation has been usually correlated with the importance of the Euphrates valley as a major
trade route or as an imperial borderland (Butterlin, 2010; Dalley, 2002; Edwell and Edwell, 2008;
Margueron, 2004; Masetti-Rouault, 2008).
The earliest known human occupation in the middle Euphrates, near the Khabour confluence, is
dated to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (Akkermans et al., 1982), but the settlement size was very
small until the end of the Chalcolithic. Archaeological surveys in the region suggest dramatic
growth of human populations at the dawn of the Early Bronze Age, chiefly due to the establishment
of two urban centres in Terqa and Mari. The settlement size was relatively stable then until the
Middle Bronze Age. After its evident collapse from the Late Bronze Age until the Achaemenian
period, with some recovery in Neo-Assyrian period, another episode of population growth started in
the Hellenistic times and lasted until the 13th century CE, with its peak during the
Umayyad/Abbasid period (Geyer and Monchambert, 1987; Simpson, 1984). It is evident that the
periods of population growth in the middle Euphrates valley were correlated with urbanisation.
It is impossible to say anything about ethnic affinities of people living on Euphrates prior to mid-3rd
millennium BCE. Available documents from later 3rd millennium include exclusively Semitic
(chiefly Akkadian) names, which suggests that whole Mesopotamia, except for the alluvial plain in
the south was uniform in respect of ethnic affinity and language (Buccellati, 1992; cf. Oppenheim,
1977, 34). Akkadian continued to be the main Mesopotamian language through second to the first
half of the first millennium BCE, although divided into southern Babylonian and northern Akkadian
dialect since the early second millennium onwards (Deutscher, 2000). At the turn of the third
millennium BCE, Amorite names begun to dominate in records from Mari and Terqa (Anbar, 1991;
Buccellati, 1992) and—although Akkadian was still used as official language—the Amorites
seemed to be the main ethnic group in whole of Mesopotamia throughout whole first half of the 2nd
millennium BCE.
In early views of the Mesopotamian history, this rapid expansion of the Amorite ethnic affinity (but
not language, which had virtually not been attested in textual evidence) was explained in terms of
massive migrations of pastoralists from the western arid steppes (cf. Leemans, 1957). They were
viewed by early 20th century scholars as barbarians who politically dominated the farming
population of Sumerians and Akkadians, but quickly adopted the urban way of life and lost their
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nomadic identity (cf. Buccellati, 1966). Some early authors proposed a theory of four migration
waves from the west: Akkadian in remote past, Amorite at the turn of the 3rd millennium, Aramean
at the turn of the 2nd millennium and Arabic in the first millennium CE (Clay, 1909; Kraeling, 1918;
Kupper, 1959). These groups of Semitic pastoralists were thought to rapidly assimilate the
civilisation based on agriculture, originally invented by Sumerians in the south and to some extent
by so-called Subarians in the north (Gelb, 1944; Ungnad, 1936; cf. Gragg, 1995).
Actually, available evidence does not support the theory of a massive Amorite migration from the
west. Amorite names and ethnic designation (MAR.TU in Sumerian, Amurru in Akkadian) were
first attested by the cuneiform texts c. 2600 BCE in southern Mesopotamia (Gelb, 1961), but they
were rare before the 21st century BCE (Westenholz, 1999). It seems likely that Mesopotamia was
the original homeland of the Amorites who used marginal pastures for sheep and goat herding all
around the territories of farmers and their alleged migration was just a population movements inside
the dimorphic society (Lönnqvist, 2008; cf. Liverani, 1973).
In spite of the rise of new Amorite kingdoms in whole territory of Mesopotamia, and the kingdom
of Mari in particular, the material culture and social organisation did not substantially change in the
transitional period between Early and Middle Bronze Age (Stone, 2002; Yoffee, 1995). Abundant
archives found in Mari allow quite detailed insight into both political history, interactions between
farmers and herders and the daily life in this very important urban centre of northern Mesopotamia
at that time (Durand, 1997, 1998, 2000; Heimpel, 2003). Mari had been completely destroyed by
Hammurabi of Babylon in the 18th century BCE and has never recovered, while the political power
moved to Terqa some 50 km upstream Euphrates (Van De Mieroop, 2004b). The history of this
obviously less powerful kingdom of Terqa is less known. In the 18th century BCE it was controlled
by the Kassite dynasty, which then moved to Babylon after its pludering by the Hittites (Brinkman,
1972; Charpin, 1995). The original homeland of the Kassites is not known (Brinkman, 1972; De
Smet, 1990), and it is not very likely that they have ever migrated to Mesopotamia in great number
(Sommerfeld, 1995).
The kingdom of Khana with its capital city in Terqa lasted through later Middle Bronze Age and
early Late Bronze Age (Buccellati, 1988), and then became a part of the Mitanni and then Middle
Assyrian state (Chavalas, 1992). At that time, some migration of Hurrians from the north may have
reached the middle Euphrates valley (Rouault, 1992; cf. Burney, 1997; Kramer, 1977). In the
beginning of the Iron Age, whole Mesopotamia plunged into chaos and for three centuries farming
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lands were flooded by nomadic pastoralists using Aramean language and divided into many tribes
(Sader, 1984, 1992). The origin of the Arameans is as disputable as the origin of Amorites (cf.
Schwartz, 1989), but it seems likely that they inhabited the steppes of northern Mesopotamia in the
Late Bronze Age and probably were forced by the climatic change to search for pastures in lands
previously cultivated by farmers (Brinkman, 1968; Neumann and Parpola, 1987). Terqa and other
major sites in its neighbourhood were virtually deserted in that time (Masetti-Rouault, 2007).
In the 9th/8th century BCE, the area was reconquested by the Assyrian state. Assyrian kings
developed the policy of mass deportations (Oded, 1979) and the middle Euphrates valley was
resettled by farmers (Masetti-Rouault, 2008, 2010), although the cultural continuity from earlier
period suggests that they may have been sedentarised local pastoralists rather than newcomers
(Masetti-Rouault, 2009). The capital of the region moved to the left bank of Euphrates, to Kar-
Assurnasirpal (modern Tell Masaikh) where rectangular city was established over the remains of
previous Chalcolithic and Middle Bronze Age villages (Masetti-Rouault, 2007; Masetti-Rouault and
Salmon, 2010). After the fall of the Assyrian Empire, the city was abandoned, and it is possible that
the population of farmers again decreased due to emigration or pastoralisation.
Throughout Classical and Late Antiquity, the middle Euphrates valley became unstable borderland
between Romans and Parthians / Sasanians, with a buffer kingdom of Osrhoene controlling steppes
on the left bank of the Euphrates (Bertinelli, 1976; Dillemann, 1962; Oates, 1968). Most important
urban centre in that time was Dura Europos, a stronghold established by Seleucos I, then rebuilt by
Parthians and Romans. Finally the city was completely destroyed by Shah Shapur I in 256
(MacDonald, 1986). In that time, the flow of peoples from outside northern Mesopotamia was
perhaps higher than previously due to the military importance of the area and also the activity of
mercenaries in more peaceful times (Goodblatt, 1987; Simpson, 2000). Moreover, both the Romans
and the Sasanians adopted the policy of deportations (Drijvers, 2009).
After the fall of Dura Europos, no major city south of Circesium at the Khabur confluence existed
in the region, but the area was still covered by a dense network of small farming villages. The
expansion of the Islamic Caliphate finished the period of military conflicts and it is possible that
due to large irrigation works attested in the sources (Genequand, 2009; Rousset, 2001), the region
experienced highest population growth in its history. Only in the 10th century the conflicts between
Abbasids and Hamdanids, as well as subsequent expansion of the Seljuq Turcs, contributed again to
the political unstability in northern Mesopotamia (Basan, 2010). The middle Euphates valley in that
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time was controlled through the castle Rahba near modern town Mayadin (Rousset, 1996). Finally,
the whole area was heavily depopulated due to raids of Mongolians commanded by Hulagu Khan in
1250s and 1260s (Amitai-Preiss, 1995).
For the following centuries, the middle Euphrates valley was very sparsely populated. In the early
17th century CE, steppes around has been taken over by Northern Shammar and Bishr Aneze
Bedouin tribes, which migrated from the Arabian Peninsula (Chatty, 1990; Raswan, 1930). In the
early 20th century, when Syria was under French control, the fertile lands in the Euphrates valley
were resettled by sedentarized Bedouins and by farmers from south-eastern Anatolia and western
Syria (Velud, 2000). The population growth due to high fertility and immigration rate was continued
after World War II (Ababsa, 2009; Meyer, 1990) and the contemporary population of the Deir-ez
Zor governorate exceeds 1.2 million people (Central Bureau of Statistics, Syrian Arab Republic).
During the last hundred years, the interpretation of ethnic changes attested by the Mesopotamian
historical sources shifted from long-distance migrations to short-distance local exchange of people
between settled farmers and more mobile pastoralists, related to social re-organisation and forced by
climatic change or political circumstances. It is possible that both the Amorite and the Aramean
expansions during two "dark ages" of Mesopotamian history were movements of that kind and did
not affect the genetic polymorphism of the regional population in a considerable way. Migrations of
Hurrians and Kassites, which occured in later Early and Middle Bronze Age, likely had its initial
point in quite remote places, but the impact of both these ethnic groups on the large Mesopotamian
population, although attested in the sources, was rather small or even completely negligible. The
first large scale evident population movement in history took its place in the Neo-Asyrian period
when the policy of mass deportations forced millions of people to move sometimes to quite distant
places. The origin of colonists who were settled in that time in the middle Euphrates valley is not
known, but they might be local or originate whether in the Levant or in the Zagros mountains as
well.
When Northern Mesopotamia became a part of larger empires, the level of mobility related to troop
movements, long-distance trade and deportations obviously increased in comparison with the
Bronze Age. However, if the new settlers—as Greeks or Romans—retained their ethnic identity,
they were forced to move back when the region was conquered by Parthians and then by Sasanians.
Thus, it may be expected that the Classical and Late Antiquity was characterised not only by
political, but also for ethnic instability in the frontier region of the middle Euphrates. To some
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extent this situation may have continued in the Islamic period. After the Mongolian invasion in the
13th century CE, Mesopotamia was depopulated and practically re-settled by Bedouins several
centuries later.
Research on dental non-metric traits
Biodistance analyses aiming at reconstruction of population histories are common in physical
anthropology and bioarchaeology (cf. Buikstra et al., 1990). In the early history of the discipline
they were based chiefly on skull metric measurements (Howells, 1973), which are still used albeit
less frequently than decades ago (cf. Buzon, 2011; Molleson and Rosas, 2012; Pinhasi and von
Cramon-Taubadel, 2012). The only major attempt to reconstruct the population history of the Near
East was based on average cranial measurements (Bernhard 1993).
After the 1960s non-metric cranial (Hanihara et al., 2003; Hauser and De Stefano, 1989; Nagar,
2011; Rösing, 1982) and especially dental traits (Dahlberg, 1963) became more and more popular in
the research on phenetic affinities. Dental non-metric traits are superior to cranial non-metric traits
and metric measurements, as their heritability is relatively higher and more stable between
populations, they are sex-independent, and also independent from each other in most cases (Scott
and Turner, 1997). Moreover, tooth tissues are denser and thus less susceptible than bone to any
postmortem alterations.
Several scoring protocols for dental non-metric traits are available, including Zubov's (1968, 1977)
odontoglyphics and the system used by Alt and Vach (1991, 1998) for kinship studies. The most
popular protocol is the Arizona State University Dental Anthropology System (ASUDAS) (Turner
et al., 1991). It includes only traits observed on permanent dentition, although deciduous teeth are
also occasionally studied (Kitagawa, 2000). Because many traits are scored in a rank scale, they
must be dichotomised prior to further analysis (Irish, 2010).
The two most common distance measures used in research on dental non-metric traits are
generalized Mahalanobis D2 distance and Smith's Mean Measure of Divergence (MMD) (Irish,
2010), although occasionally other methods—as Balakrishnan and Sanghvi B2 distance (Schillaci et
al., 2009) or R-matrix (Hanihara, 2008)—are also used. Because Mahalanobis D2 distance may be
counted only for complete or almost complete datasets, in case of a dataset with many missing cells
the MMD is the only remaining option (Irish, 2010).
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Literature about population histories inferred from the study of dental non-metric traits is large and
especially North America (Haydenblit, 1996), Italy (Coppa et al., 1998, 2007), North Africa
(Guatelli-Steinberg et al., 2001) and Eastern Asia (Hanihara, 2010; Matsumura and Hudson, 2005)
are well covered. There is also a number of worldwide studies (Hanihara, 2008; Scott and Turner,
1997). Not only archaeological dental samples, but also living populations are occasionally studied
(Peiris et al., 2011).
Although some cranial non-metric traits were occasionally scored in more or less standardized way
at various Mesopotamian sites (Bolt, 1991; Burger-Heinrich, 1989; Ehrich, 1939; Rathbun, 1975;
Wittwer-Backofen, 1983; Molleson, 2000; Sołtysiak, 2009), available dental data are virtually
absent (cf. Anfruns et al., 1996; Özbek, 1979; Swindler, 1956). This is related to the general poor
state of preservation of human remains at Near Eastern archaeological sites and to the fact that the
number of excavated cemeteries is small and most human skeletons come from settlement sites
where chiefly subadult individuals were buried (Sołtysiak, 2006). For that reason it is very difficult
to gather a homogenous sample large enough for the research on phenetic affinities. Mesopotamia
differs completely in this respect from Egypt and Nubia where dental and cranial non-metric traits
were scored at many sites and used successfully in answering many questions concerning the
population history of the Nile valley (Godde, 2009; Irish, 1997, 2005, 2006; Irish and Konigsberg,
2007; Nikita et al., 2012; Prowse and Lovell, 1996; Schillaci et al., 2009).
Material
Human teeth studied in the present paper were found at three archaeological sites located in the
lower middle Euphrates valley, about 60 km south of Deir ez-Zor. They have been excavated since
1987 by a joint French-Syrian team directed by Olivier Rouault (Université Lumière Lyon 2) and
Maria Grazia Massetti-Rouault (École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris).
Tell Ashara (ancient names Terqa and Sirqu) is a major site located on the right bank of Euphrates
(Fig. 1). It had been inhabited at least since the beginning of the 3rd millennium BCE until the Late
Bronze Age, then it was occasionally re-settled in later periods and finally used as a cemetery in late
19th and early 20th century CE (Rouault, 2008). The maximum size of the site is not certain because
the modern village Ashara covers most part of the ancient settlement. So far, more than 250 human
skeletons were found at Tell Ashara, chiefly among Bronze Age houses and in the modern cemetery
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(Sołtysiak and Tomczyk, 2008a).
Tell Masaikh (ancient name Kar-Assurnasirpal) is the second site about 5 km upstream Tell Ashara,
on the left bank of Euphrates. It was inhabited as early as in the Halaf period (5th millennium BCE)
and then in the Middle Bronze Age, but the time of its prosperity was the Neo-Assyrian period
when the city with local governor's palace was established and the settlement size reached at least
17 ha. Kar-Assurnasirpal was abandoned by the end of the Neo-Assyrian period, but some domestic
remains indicate that the site was occasionally inhabited in later periods. However, Tell Masaikh
was used as a cemetery from Hellenistic period to modern times, with most excavated burials dated
to Late Roman and Umayyad/Abbasid periods (Frank, 2006; Masetti-Rouault and Salmon, 2010).
This cemetery covered most part of the site and so far more than 500 human skeletons have been
retrieved, together with another c. 40 skeletons from the Middle Bronze Age strata (Sołtysiak and
Tomczyk, 2008b). Another Early Islamic cemetery was found at the third site Jebel Mashtale, some
6 km south to Tell Masaikh, with remains of c. 30 individuals excavated during two years of rescue
excavations (Sołtysiak and Tomczyk, 2008c).
Human remains from all three sites excavated between 1997 and 2006 had been studied by
Arkadiusz Sołtysiak in the dig house in Darnaj. Between 2006 and 2011, the fieldwork
bioarchaeological research was done by Jacek Tomczyk (Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in
Warsaw). Teeth and bone samples were imported to Poland and now are curated in the Department
of Bioarchaeology, Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw and in the Department of
Anthropology, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw.
In total, teeth of 350 individuals were suitable for dental non-metric traits scoring, including 111
from Tell Ashara, 229 from Tell Masaikh and 10 from Jebel Mashtale. They were divided into six
chronological subsets: Early Bronze Age (EBA, c. 2700-2100 BCE), Middle and Late Bronze Age
(MBA, c. 2000-1200 BCE), Early Iron Age and Neo-Assyrian period (INA, c. 1200-600 BCE),
Classical and Late Antiquity (CLA, c. 300 BCE – 600 CE), Early Islamic, i.e. Umayyad and
Abbasid period (ISL, c. 600-1200 CE) and modern Bedouin cemetery (MOD, c. 1800-1950 CE).
Because of the high rate of missing teeth, high dental wear rate and, occasionally, considerable
postmortem erosion, individual traits could have been scored for less than a half and sometimes
even for less than a quarter of individuals. For that reason the INA subset was completely unsuitable
for comparisons and not taken into account in further analysis, and the EBA, MBA and MOD
subsets were just above the lower acceptable sample size (see Table 2). It must be noted that the
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Late Roman and Early Islamic cemeteries at Tell Masaikh were located in the same part of the site
and sometimes the dating of individual burials—often without any grave goods—was based on such
a weak criterion as body orientation or position (Frank, 2006).
Methods
A total number of 59 dental non-metric traits was scored using ASUDAS protocol, which is most
commonly used in the research on biodistances in the Near East. To avoid inter-observer error, all
the data were recorded by one observer (Marta Bialon). In case of bilateral trait asymmetry, higher
score was chosen (after Turner and Scott, 1977; see also Green et al., 1979). Correlations between
traits were checked with use of Kendall's tau correlation coefficient (Irish, 2005). Trait scores
expressed in rank scale were dichotomized at breakpoints, which produced highest inter-sample
variance for first tooth from a group (e.g., breakpoints for M2 and M3 are the same as for M1). Data
for all 350 individuals, separately for six chronological subsets, are presented in Table 2. Due to
many missing cells in individual scores, the differences between chronological subsets were
explored using Smith's MMD with Freeman and Tukey angular transformation and correction for
small sample size (all formulas after Harris and Sjøvold, 2003; cf. Green and Suchey, 1976;
Sjøvold, 1977). MMD values, their standard deviations (after Sjøvold, 1973) and statistical
significance were counted using a script written in the R language (Sołtysiak, 2011). The
differences between chronological subsets were visualised using a dendrogram for the MMD values
obtained with the Ward linkage method.
Results
Two matrices of MMD values were constructed for five chronological subsets. In first of them
(Table 3) all traits were used except these for which sample size was too low and these with no
inter-sample variability (marked with crosses in Table 2). Kendall's tau coefficients were
statistically significant for analogical traits in tooth groups (e.g., the shoveling in UI1 and UI2), but
the correlation was small to medium (τ<0.4), so no traits were rejected. Most MMD values in this
matrix are negative or close to zero and only the distance between CLA and MOD is relatively high.
For the second analysis, only traits with positive MMD values for at least 3 per 10 pairs of
chronological subsets were selected. From this set of traits, only one analogical trait for the group of
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teeth was left, with highest average MMD value for all 10 pairs of subsets (e.g., the accessory
marginal tubercle of UM2 was selected, and this trait in UM1 was rejected, as it produced the same
number of positive inter-pair MMD values but lower average MMD value). Twenty-seven traits
passed such a selection, which aimed at highlighting any differences that may have been previously
blurred by small sample size. The second matrix (Table 4) again shows no differences between
earlier chronological subsets, but the difference between MOD and three out of four earlier subsets
become now clear (see Fig. 2).
Discussion and conclusion
Although the sample size is small, obtained results suggest that no major gene flow from other
regions occurred in the middle Euphrates valley between the Early Bronze Age and the
Umayyad/Abbasid period and dental trait proportions remained surprisingly stable. Such a
continuity was expected for the Bronze Age, assuming that both the Amorite and the Aramean
expansion was rather related to disequilibrium between farmers and local nomadic pastoralists than
to large-scale migrations. However, in the times of great empires, which had begun in the Neo-
Assyrian period, higher mobility and immigration of people from more distant regions was
suggested by historical sources. The present study, however, shows that this mobility must have
been quite superficial and did not affect the local population to such a degree that would change
dental trait proportions. It is interesting that the Bronze Age and Early Islamic subsets are closer to
each other than to the Classical/Late Antiquity subset, which would be expected as a sign of
migrations from more distant regions, as e.g. Greece and then the Roman Empire, to the region of
Tell Ashara. This difference is so small, however, that may be just an artifact of small sample size,
but it is possible that further studies on larger datasets may clarify the question of Greek and Roman
presence in the middle Euphrates valley.
On the other hand, the modern Bedouin population represented by skeletons from the recent
cemetery at Tell Ashara differs in respect of dental trait proportions from earlier populations, and
this difference may be quite easily observed in spite of small sample size. Such a result was
expected taking into account historical sources that recorded population discontinuity between the
Mongolian invasion in the 13th century AD and re-population of the region first by the Bedouin
tribes coming from northern part of the Arabian Peninsula in 17th century and then by farmers from
western Syria and southern Anatolia in early 20th century. Although these migrations were also quite
limited in distance (less than 800 km in a straight line), the heavy depopulation during late Middle
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Ages probably affected local gene pools in whole Near East and also contributed to observed
discontinuity in the history of the middle Euphratean population.
Results of the present study may look rather disappointing, but still they throw some new light on
the history of northern Mesopotamia. First of all, the continuity of local populations was confirmed
not only for early periods, as it was suggested by textual and archaeological evidence, but also for
the imperial periods, when a much higher degree of mobility was expected. In spite of the presence
of such cosmopolitan cities as Dura Europos or Circesium, the local population did not change
substantially before the Mongolian invasion. There are no available estimates of the scale of 13th
century depopulation in northern Mesopotamia, except some anecdotal sources (Venegoni, 2006),
but the difference between dental trait proportions in Umayyad/Abbasid times and 19th/20th century
CE suggests that substantial population change occurred between these two periods.
Acknowledgements: Sołtysiak is most grateful to Professors Olivier Rouault and Maria Grazia
Masetti-Rouault, directors of the excavations at Tell Ashara and Tell Masaikh, for their constant
support of his studies of human remains from their sites. Thanks are also due to Dr. Jacek Tomczyk
for permission to study teeth stored at the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw and to
Prof. Friedrich Rösing and two anonymous reviewers for their comments. Grant sponsor: Polish
Ministry of Science and Higher Education, grant N109 013 31/0858.
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Table 1: Simplified chronological chart of the lower middle Euphrates valley.Chronological unit Absolute dates Tell Ashara Tell Masaikh Jebel Mashtale
Arc
haeo
logi
cal
Early Bronze Age (EBA) c. 3300-2100 BCE medium site
Middle Bronze Age (MBA) c. 2100-1550 BCE major site small site ?
Late Bronze Age (LBA) c. 1550-1200 BCE major site small site
Iron Age 1/2 (IA) c. 1200-850 BCE small site
His
tori
cal
Neo-Assyrian period c. 850-609 BCE small site major site
Neo-Babylonian period 609-539 BCE ? ?
Achaemenian period 539-331 BCE ? ?
Hellenistic period 331-64 BCE small site ?
Early Roman period 64 BCE – 284 CE small site
Late Roman period 284-636 CE small site/cemetery
Umayyad/Abbasid period 636-1258 CE cemetery cemetery
Modern re-settlement since c. 1650 CE cemetery small site
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Table 2: Dental trait frequencies in six chronological subsets (abbreviations explained in the text).T
ooth
TraitBreakpoint
EBAN=39
MBAN=48
INAN=18
CLAN=92
ISLN=122
MODN=31
– + n % n % n % n % n % n %
UI1 shoveling 0-1 2-6 11 36 13 31 3 0 24 37 47 34 15 47
tuberculum dentale* 0-1 2-6 10 0 13 0 3 0 24 0 47 11 14 7
interruption grooves 0 1 11 18 13 0 3 0 25 4 47 2 14 0
UI2 shoveling* 0-1 2-6 12 33 17 18 4 50 36 17 56 21 14 7
tuberculum dentale 0-1 2-6 13 24 19 26 4 25 37 32 60 33 15 20
interruption grooves* 0 1 13 15 17 18 3 0 42 24 56 4 14 0
peg-reduced* 0 + 20 5 22 5 6 0 53 2 71 3 19 11
UC shoveling* 0 1-2 14 0 19 5 4 0 40 5 58 2 16 13
tuberculum dentale* 0-1 2-6 15 7 19 26 5 40 40 5 60 7 16 19
mesial canine ridge 0 1-3 14 0 19 0 4 0 40 5 58 2 17 0
distal accessory ridge* 0 1-5 14 21 20 20 4 0 39 13 58 9 17 35
UP1 paracone accessory ridge 0 + 8 0 15 7 3 33 22 9 29 3 9 11
accessory marginal tubercle* 0 + 8 37 15 33 3 0 22 14 30 20 10 40
root number 1 2+ 10 60 11 27 7 29 39 41 44 41 8 50
UP2 paracone accessory ridge* 0 + 9 0 9 0 3 0 25 12 27 11 7 14
accessory marginal tubercle 0 + 9 22 9 22 3 0 25 12 27 22 7 29
root number* 1 2+ 15 13 9 11 6 17 38 13 45 13 7 43
UM1 hypocone* 0-3 4-5 20 85 21 95 8 100 49 94 77 91 15 100
Carabelli's trait 0-1 2-7 18 44 17 35 7 43 46 41 60 43 14 43
cusp 5 0 1-5 13 8 17 6 6 0 40 17 52 15 10 10
accessory marginal tubercle 0 1-3 13 15 17 18 6 0 39 21 52 27 10 20
root number* 3-4 1-2 16 13 10 0 5 0 40 15 46 7 8 0
UM2 hypocone 0-3 4-5 16 44 22 36 7 100 44 23 54 31 13 46
Carabelli's trait 0-1 2-7 14 7 18 6 7 29 35 9 40 7 13 8
cusp 5 0 1-5 13 8 18 11 5 20 31 6 38 5 12 8
accessory marginal tubercle* 0 1-3 13 15 18 11 5 0 31 3 38 5 11 9
root number 3-4 1-2 13 39 11 9 4 25 45 24 36 31 8 13
UM3 hypocone† 0-3 4-5 6 0 7 0 1 0 24 0 29 0 6 17
Carabelli's trait† 0-1 2-7 5 20 6 0 1 0 19 5 24 0 7 14
cusp 5† 0 1-5 6 17 6 33 1 0 20 55 24 4 6 0
accessory marginal tubercle† 0 1-3 6 0 6 0 1 0 18 0 24 0 6 0
root number† 3-4 1-2 5 60 8 50 1 100 24 33 20 85 5 40
LC distal accessory ridge* 0 + 13 0 16 6 2 0 35 0 50 6 18 22
root number† 1 2+ 9 0 9 0 5 0 43 0 43 0 7 0
LP1 protoconid accessory ridge 0 + 7 0 12 0 2 0 29 0 33 0 9 11
multiple lingual cusp 0 1-5 7 29 12 33 2 50 29 3 33 15 9 22
LP2 protoconid accessory ridge* 0 + 9 0 11 0 2 0 26 0 30 0 8 13
25
Too
thTrait
BreakpointEBAN=39
MBAN=48
INAN=18
CLAN=92
ISLN=122
MODN=31
– + n % n % n % n % n % n %
multiple lingual cusp* 0 1-5 9 55 11 82 2 50 27 63 30 57 8 87
LM1 hypoconulid* 0-3 4-5 14 50 14 86 6 67 53 66 57 82 17 88
groove pattern* + X Y 11 64 13 46 6 33 46 57 44 52 14 36
cusp 6* 0 1-5 11 0 12 17 3 0 43 0 43 2 16 13
cusp 7* 0-1 2-4 11 0 12 8 3 0 44 7 45 11 15 13
protostylid* 0 1-6 12 50 13 54 5 80 50 56 54 50 18 72
anterior fovea* 0 1 11 64 14 71 3 67 44 70 45 62 15 40
root number* 1-2 3-4 13 8 13 0 5 20 50 2 45 4 9 0
LM2 hypoconulid 0-3 4-5 12 8 15 0 1 0 40 5 48 4 14 0
groove pattern + X Y 12 8 18 6 4 0 49 6 62 16 14 7
cusp 6 0 1-5 11 0 15 0 1 0 39 5 44 0 14 0
cusp 7 0-1 2-4 11 0 15 0 1 0 38 0 44 2 14 0
protostylid 0 1-6 11 45 16 56 3 67 43 56 53 47 14 71
anterior fovea 0 1 11 36 15 60 3 100 41 66 44 52 14 50
root number 1-2 3-4 13 0 11 0 4 0 45 2 42 7 9 0
LM3 hypoconulid† 0-3 4-5 2 50 3 0 21 19 26 12 6 17
groove pattern† + X Y 2 50 3 0 21 5 29 24 5 40
cusp 6† 0 1-5 2 0 3 0 19 0 25 8 6 17
cusp 7† 0-1 2-4 2 0 3 0 19 0 25 4 6 0
protostylid† 0 1-6 2 0 3 0 19 26 28 21 6 17
anterior fovea† 0 1 2 0 3 0 20 70 24 29 6 33
root number† 1-2 3-4 3 0 3 33 1 0 21 14 27 4 6 33
* – traits selected for the second analysis; † – traits with no diversity or too low number of teeth
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Table 3: MMD matrix for all traits except these scored for M3 and LC root number.EBA MBA CLA ISL MOD
EBA -- 0.033 0.024 0.023 0.037
MBA 0.000 -- 0.021 0.020 0.034
CLA 0.000 0.000 -- 0.011 0.025
ISL 0.000 0.000 0.000 -- 0.024
MOD 0.001 0.000 0.048* 0.007 --MMD values are given below and standard deviations above the diagonal. Negative MMD values were replaced by 0.* – MMD values statistically significant at p<0.1; ** – MMD values significant at p<0.001
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Table 4: MMD matrix for selected 27 traits.EBA MBA CLA ISL MOD
EBA -- 0.047 0.033 0.032 0.050
MBA 0.000 -- 0.030 0.029 0.048
CLA 0.000 0.005 -- 0.015 0.034
ISL 0.000 0.000 0.001 -- 0.033
MOD 0.094* 0.000 0.130** 0.059* --MMD values are given below and standard deviations above the diagonal. Negative MMD values were replaced by 0.* – MMD values statistically significant at p<0.1; ** – MMD values significant at p<0.001
28