Spatial analysis of mass lithic and ceramic material: revealing the functional patterns of Tell...

House and Household Economies in 3rd Millennium

B.C.E. Syro-Mesopotamia Edited by

Federico BuccellatiTobias Helms

Alexander Tamm

BAR International Series 26822014

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ArchaeopressPublishers of British Archaeological ReportsGordon House276 Banbury RoadOxford OX2 [email protected]

BAR S2682

House and Household Economies in 3rd Millennium B.C.E. Syro-Mesopotamia

© Archaeopress and the individual authors 2014

ISBN 978 1 4073 1328 3

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Table of Contents

Preface i

Table of Contents iii

The organization of pottery production at Tell Chuera: a technological approach 1

Taos Babour

E2-mi2 – ‘women’s quarters’: the earliest written evidence 9

Vitali Bartash

The domestic architecture at EB IV Kharab Sayyar 21

Patrick Biedermann

Distribution and Dating of Glyptic Evidence from Early Bronze Age Tell Chuera 27

Anne Binder

Understanding Households – A Few Thoughts 35

Federico Buccellati

Neighborhoods in the Outer City of Tell Mozan, Ancient Urkesh: A case study from survey data 43

Caitlin J. Chaves Yates

Introducing the anthropomorphic terracotta figurines from 3rd millennium B.C. Tell Chuera 53

Lanah Haddad

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House and Household Economies in 3rd Millennium BC Syro-Mesopotamia

The Economy of Chipped Stone: Production and Use of Stone Tools at Early Bronze Age

Tell Chuera (northern Syria) 61

Tobias B. H. Helms

Spatial analysis of mass lithic and ceramic material: revealing the functional patterns of

Tell Hazna I 83

Elmira Ibragimova

Early Bronze Age Houses in Upper-Mesopotamia: Evidence of Dwellings or Private Enterprises? 95

Juliette Mas

The Economy of Landscape. Agro-pastoralism in Uncertain Margins 103

Stefan Smith

Domestic architecture in the southeastern lower town of Tell Chuera 115

Alexander Tamm

Households in domestic contexts: a case study at Tell Chuera, Area K 125

Nicole Zelsmann

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Spatial analysis of mass lithic and ceramic material: revealing the functional patterns of Tell Hazna I

Elmira Ibragimova, Moskow

Summary

This contribution examines the development of the Tell Hazna I settlement system during the latest period of its existence (Ninevite V Period). The site, located in the Khabur valley, contains cultural deposits dating from 3900 to 2700 BC. The analysis of spatial and stratigraphic dis-tribution of the chipped and ground stone assemblage and mass ceramic material has shown some long-term tenden-cies and reflected the presence of several functional zones within the settlement.

Introduction

The Tell Hazna I settlement is located 25km northeast from Hassake in the basin of the river Khabur. It was in-vestigated by an expedition of the Russian Academy of Sciences during the 1988-2010 seasons. The authors date the site through six consecutive chronological groups (pe-riods), from the Late Chalcolithic 3 to the Ninevite V pe-riod (Amirov 2010: 233).

The site is interpreted as a temple center within a rural district (Munchaev, Merpert and Amirov 2004; Amirov 2010). During Period 4 the settlement started to develop as a system of monumental buildings circular in plan. In the central part of the site the temple constructions join each other densely and form two concentric ovals. They were connected by a path which originally led to the north, to the open space of the internal oval. Production areas and households were situated around the religious buildings. A set of objects connected with the storage of agricultural products was uncovered, including a public granary (b. 110) as well as silage pits and domestic clay ‘boxes’ (Tab. 1). The settlement was surrounded by a massive wall.

This paper focuses on Periods 1-2 (Late Chalcolithic IV/Ninevite V) which are estimated as a time of decay for the temple and settlement. Households of these periods were beyond the scope of previous investigations, although large household areas were uncovered and a numerous col-lection of mass material was obtained. Spatial distribution of this material could possibly give an idea of functional

Tab. 1 Objects, connected with storage of agricultural products.

patterns and help us understand better the dynamics of the settlement.

The question of mass material distribution appeared dur-ing analysis of the chipped stone industry: 1477 items dat-ed from all periods of the settlement’s existence (Tab. 2) were analyzed in detail.

Tab. 2 Chipped stone distribution by the periods.

The chipped stone assemblage of the site is character-ized by a combination of flake and blade industries and includes 3 distinct operational chains.

The first operational chain had a goal of obtaining wide blades (the so-called ‘Canaanean blades’), fragments of which could be used as elements of composite tools (Fig. 1: 5-11). This group accounts for 94% of the whole tool

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Fig. 1 Chipped stone items of Tell Hazna I

assemblage, 51% of these elements having ‘sickle gloss’. (Most of the glossed blades are interpreted as tribulum inserts (Anderson et al. 2004). However use wear anal-ysis of the extremely small sample (5 items) from Tell Hazna I showed that they were used as sickle elements (Александрова, pers. comm.). Three sickles found at lo-cation b. 37 point to an alternative way these blade tools

may have been used. The number of Canaanean blades and tools made on them increases in the late periods.

The second operational chain included production of nar-row blades used as tool blanks or unretouched, often with minimal preparation (Fig. 1: 1-4). This operational chain is associated mostly with the use of obsidian as raw material. Its end products are widespread in the early periods.


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E. Ibragimova, Spatial analysis of mass lithic and ceramic material: revealing the functional patterns of Tell ...

The correlation of cores, technological flakes, waste prod-ucts and final products shows that the technological con-text is incomplete for both operational chains, excluding just one example. The blades probably originated from specialized workshops.

The last reconstructed operational chain is linked to flake production (Fig. 1: 12, 13). The operations associated with this chain were performed locally. Flakes were used most-ly unretouched for a short time.

In general the chipped stone assemblage of Tell Hazna I is similar to material from many Jazira sites, e.g. Tell ‘Atij, Tell Gudeda (Chabot 2002), Tell Melebiya (Ciavarini Azzi 1993), Tell Leilan (Gujn van 2003), Tell Nustell (Chabot, Eid 1997),Tell Kashkashok II (Nishiaki 1991) and Tell Mozan (Chabot, Eid 2009).

Spatial analysis of chipped stone items aims to allocate the stages of defined operational chains (in general, pro-duction, utilization and discard) within the area of the settlement. The sample of chipped stone items is limited especially for Period 2, so I have decided to include ob-servations made on the distribution of other mass material (ceramics and ground stone tools). Ceramics, as the most numerous category of mass material, could point towards some general tendencies. Specialized functional zones could also be indicated by the presence of ground-stone items: grinding, hand stones and pestles, which are usu-ally interpreted as tools connected with grain-processing although they were possibly used at another stage than the glossed blade tools.

Spatial distribution of mass material between the build-ings, yards, and open spaces could show the dynamics of the cultural deposit and the settlement as a whole.

Methodology and sample characteristics

Most of the flint and obsidian items were registered as mass material (1999-2010 seasons). During the early years of excavations only blade tools were collected and regis-tered. Later the assemblages as a whole, including debit-age as well as collection ceramics were gathered, for every package depth marks, location squares and complexes were specified, making it possible to connect the objects to periods and date them; it also enabled the excavation team to have an idea of the context.

Part of the ceramic collection (11% of the whole assem-blage) was investigated by Amirov, but a large number of mass ceramic finds were registered in a common count and left uninvestigated. After having examined the mass material register books I have made a database with infor-mation of each collection gathered during the 1989-2010 seasons: it includes now some 1808 packages of material. As well as the ceramics, this database includes a count of

animal bones, chipped stone items, grinding stones, un-defined stone objects, etc. I have narrowed the sample down to the material coming from constructions (build-ings, yards, tannours, etc). To present the ceramic data for each construction in a generalized mode per period I have joined the data with SQL queries.

The main idea was to identify the areas with high deposit activity, therefore, after having calculated the median ra-tio of ‘the number of ceramics divided by the thickness of deposit’, I collected distinctive complexes which exceeded the median and put them onto the site map.

Several contexts were distinguished:

1) Floor – the most reliable context in situ

2) Filling – including ash deposits and unspecifiedcomplexes

3) Clay filling – can contain mixed material takenfrom the settlement’s open spaces

At the same time a table was made containing the general information on chipped stone accumulations according to their assumed function (Tab. 3, 4). The main categories of chipped stone were analyzed without distinction of differ-ent raw material: blade and flake tools, flakes which could be debris or used as ad hoc tools, flake and blade tools and fragments.

In general several functional zones were defined:

1) Domestic activity areas: buildings and open yardswhere the tools and/or tool blanks were stored, usedor repaired

2) Specialized storage and activity areas: buildingswhere blade tools were stored, used or repaired

3) Discard zones: noted for a great variability of finds:waste products mixed with tools, most of whichhave traces of use

4) Clay: mixed material, often with waste products ofreduction, found in open areas or buildings fallingout of use

It was difficult to identify open space activity zones where the reduction was performed in situ. That question will be discussed further on.


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Observations

Small areas from Period 2 were excavated, mostly within the temple district. On the site map the areas which were not uncovered are marked with light-grey lines, with darker shading showing the uncovered ones. Buildings with active deposit accumulations are presented with dark fill.

Period 2

It is suggested that settlement activity begins after some period of short interruption. During Period 2 significant ritual activity was concentrated only within the inner oval of the temple district (Amirov 2010). This episode is noted by changes in the temple district architecture: the interior walls of b. 37 were constructed, the windows and the southern door were closed with bricks and the adjacent areas were covered with clay filling. Constructions 24, 129, 121 and yard 159 were built, closing the passageway to the northern part. Changes are also seen to the material culture, e.g. the appearance of Ninevite V-style ceramics (Amirov 2010).

Period 2\3 (Fig. 2)

A small amount of ceramic accumulations were uncovered. In the inner oval constructions the material occurs mostly in small-sized buildings (79, 24, 525), and the ash-filled building 151. Some activities were performed within the large building 69, where a remarkable ceramic collection was gathered – 1250 pottery sherds, mostly from storage jars.

Tab. 3 Chipped stone accumulations from the open areas.

The only chipped stone items uncovered here were taken from under the floors of building 79; it is difficult there-fore to suggest any domestic activity. Discard areas are found on the outskirts of the site. Several stone pestles and grinding stone were found in an open area south of b. 37 and b. 69 (sq. XI-XIII-18). An ash deposit mixed with clay layers were found here and in construction 340, as well as in the fill of b. 149, which contained debitage and flake cores mixed with blade tools.

Period 2\2 (Fig. 3)

Building 24 was sealed with clay and refilled with an ash layer replete with pottery sherds. Inside the buildings adjacent to b. 37 the deposit accumulation almost stopped. Large ash deposits inside the inner oval constructions (24, 151, 79, 514) include a large number of ceramics.It can be argued that domestic activity took place within buildings 456, 132, 465 and open yard 152–153, where flint tools, debitage and two stone pestles were found.Discard zones are found in the open areas in the southern (sq. XI-XIII-18) and north-eastern (sq. XII-11) outskirts of the site, as well as at the eastern entrance (sq. XXII-XXIII-11).


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Tab. 4 Chipped stone accumulations from the buildings.


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Fig. 2 Plan of the settlement in Period 2\3.

Fig. 3: Plan of the settlement in Period 2\2.


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Period 2\1 (Fig. 4)

Constructions 24 and 132 are sealed with clay. The area west of t.37 (sq. XI-17) is covered with clay filling, in-cluding pottery sherds and flake reduction waste prod-ucts.

In the filling of buildings 111 and 130 several sets of blade tools are found; in the latter all tools have ‘sickle gloss’. One blade fragment with this gloss occurs in a particular context – in the fill of the tannour in sq. XVI-14, but it is not burned.

The discard areas were situated at the eastern entrance. The areas in sq. XI-XIII-18 and XI-17 were covered with clay that included flake and blade reduction debit-age.

Period 1

This phase was the latest occupation period before the settlement was left by its inhabitants: it is marked by changes in the site structure and economic wealth. A large area in the eastern part was exposed showing the settle-ment as a system of interconnected building clusters.


Period 1\3 (Fig. 5)

The period is marked by large-scale rebuilding activity: clay filling covers a considerable area of the settlement both in buildings and open spaces, particularly in the western part. In the temple district some small-sized buildings appeared. In some of them (79-82, 35, 86, 131) a few ceramics were found and no traces of ash deposition (as is noted for earlier periods within the temple district). In several constructions (40-43, 56) more ceramics and stone pestles were uncovered. Constructions placed to the north of them (512, 513, 462) are filled with ash, pottery sherds mixed with flint tools, debitage and flake cores.In the fill of several buildings within the temple district divided by the passageway only a few ceramics, some blade tools (like in b. 132 and 439) or debitage (b. 456) were found, but their context is still unclear.In the eastern part of the settlement a block of buildings connected with yards were uncovered where, besides large amounts of ceramics and chipped stone items, some grinding stones and stone pestles were found. Of particular interest is a group of buildings (located in sq. XVIII-XX-16-17) with two ‘boxes’ (433, 434) used for grain storage, where 1 stone pestle and 5 grinding stones were collected. Dating to this period four groups of buildings strongly connected with grain storage and processing can be identified, inside which some storage units could possibly have existed (i.e. room 402 with some ‘sickle gloss’ blade tools, and room 305 with 2 grinding stones on the floors).


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Between b. 149 and b. 167, inside the fireplace, one blade tool and one blade fragment were found with no fire traces. Near the eastern entrance (sq. XXI-11) a hoard was un-covered that consisted of 4 large blades in combination with 4 proximal and 1 distal blade fragments, which were mostly unsuitable for composite tools (their profiles are too curved or too massive for such use). Perhaps at some time the area was used for storage, but most of the reusable fragments were removed.

Period 1\2 (Fig. 6)

This period is noted for the enlargement of open spaces within the temple district and poor deposit activity there. Buildings 132, 426 and 111 revealed little in the way of ceramics, flint blades and flakes. Inside units 454-456, situated close to b. 426, 2 vessels and 2 grinding stones were stored.

In the eastern domestic areas the same groups of buildings remain but the number of materials uncovered decreased significantly. I would like to single out storage (?) unit 305, where a set of glossed blade tools and a grinding and hand stone were found.

In the very north of the settlement a chain of large inter-connected constructions (270, 271, 281) was located. They can probably be regarded as yards. Passageways connect-

ing domestic districts served also as ‘intramural’ discard zones: ceramics, chipped stone and grinding stones were widely used for refilling pavements. An open area in squares XVIII-XX-18-19 was found filled with ground stone artifacts, mostly fragmentary.

Period 1\1 (Fig. 7)

Open spaces within the northern part of the settlement and yards (b. 317) were enlarged in this phase. The edge of the area of active deposit accumulation narrows. Domestic activities are presented in three zones separated by open areas.

In the temple district a few buildings are filled with con-siderable amounts of pottery in a reliable context (80, 35) and\or contained a number of grinding stones. In the north-ern part on the floor of unit b. 132 a large amount of pot-tery sherds and mixed flint material (including flint flake core) occurs.

The eastern part revealed that there were no activities per-formed in the group of domestic units located in sq. XVIII-XX-16-17. The only one exception is in the small chamber 210, where an oven was constructed that was used for a short time. Inside the oven a glossed blade tool was found which was not burnt. Other unit groups revealed several instances where blade fragments and blade tools, often glossed, were found (b. 402, 315, 328). Nearby, or in the



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same rooms (i.e. room 328, which was also notable for a clay table interpreted as a ‘grinding board’) grinding, hand stones and stone pestles were found.

The passageways were still used as discard zones and in some cases contain the same sets of items as the domes-tic buildings, i.e. passageways 201 and 410, were mostly glossed blade tools were found.

Conclusion

Analysis of material accumulations throughout the periods 1\3 to 1\1 has shown a tendency towards a shrinking of the inhabited areas in the southern and western parts of the set-tlement, and a decreasing density of buildings. Almost all the structures in the temple district and in the zone to the south of b. 37 stopped being actively used in Period 1\1. The only exception is the group of buildings incorporating units 35, 80 and 82 (sq. XIII-XIV-14-15). It is also pos-sible that some of the units might have been used for ritual offerings (Amirov 2010: 121). Within the inhabited block the open areas and yards expanded in this phase.

The function of the area near t. 37 also changed: the south-ern border of the outer oval stopped being connected with the constructions in the inner oval. The start of the rebuild-ing in the area near t.37 is dated to the very end of Period 3 – beginning of Period 2. It might well be synchronized with an offering cache found inside the eastern window of tower 37 consisting of elements of 3 sickles and a rec-tangular stone seal (Munchaev, Merpert and Amirov 2004: Tab. 2-3, pp. 34-35).

Ritual activity within the inner oval of the temple district is hard to define: on one hand, the principle of ritual purity suggested for earlier periods was not maintained (ground stone, chipped stone items and ceramic accumulations were found there), alternatively some buildings with simi-lar finds seem inappropriate for household usage.

Beginning from Period 1\3 groups of buildings are un-covered which are strongly connected with grain process-ing. For example objects connected with food preparation (oven, grinding table and sets of grinding and hand stones) were found inside the interconnected rooms 322, 328 and 394 (Period 1\1), as well as a clay box for grain storage and glossed blade tools.

In general, ground stone tools are mostly found inside do-mestic groups of buildings at the eastern part of the site (33, 39%), or in the discard zones (24, 28%). Several buildings include ground stone sets (320, 402, 212 and the aforementioned 394).

Chipped stone items are widespread over the area of the settlement. Most numerous finds (up to 50% of the total number) came from clay and discard zones, implying that

we should deal cautiously deal with the stratigraphic ob-servations.

Regarding the localization of chipped stone production I should mention that waste products and cores were in most cases found in open areas. Finds taken from here were not fixed with the same precision as those from the buildings, so it is hard to argue for the presence of activity zones in situ. For example, some chipped stone accumulations were uncovered dating to Period 2 (2, 2\1, 2\2, 2\3). The southern part of the site (squares XII-XIV-18) close to b. 37 and south to b. 69, was covered with thick layers of clay filling mixed with ash deposits. It was mostly filled with obsidian waste reduction products that definitely point to a local simple pressure blade and flake reduction. The pres-ence of blade cores and core fragments here and in square XIII-20, dated to Period 2 in general, shows the possibility of reduction performed nearby.

The products of local flake reduction are identified in the fill of domestic buildings throughout all the phases exam-ined. A very good example is building 132, where flakes mixed with blade fragments and blade tools, and in one case a flake core (Period 1\1), were found on the floors. On average, within the structures localized in sq. XV-12-14, more items are found in a mixed domestic context.

In the buildings within the eastern part mostly glossed blade tools were found (b. 209, 402, 315, 328, 320), usu-ally 2-4 items per complex. A hoard of blades placed close to the described areas could also point to the manufactur-ing stage of sorting and preparing tool blanks.

An interesting trend seems to have developed: in different periods of the settlement’s existence some blade tools and blade fragments were found in the fill of ovens, fireplaces and tannours. However these items were not burned and after they had appeared in those contexts the zones around stopped being actively used. A clue to this phenomenon might be found in the small construction 278, where, for some time during Period 2, blade tools were placed in the ash deposit that also showed no traces of burning. This area is situated close to two fireplaces regarded by S. Ami-rov as being ritual in function (Amirov 2010: 123).

During all periods of the settlement’s existence a wide range of chipped stone items was discarded, mostly on the outskirts of the site and in some cases within the pave-ments of the passageways inside the wall.

In general, in spite of ambiguities within the strict dif-ferentiation between the different complexes we can as-sume that several zones existed between 2900 and 2700 BC (Period 1): the eastern part was a specialized grain-processing zone; the central part (sq. XV-12-14) was con-nected with more common domestic activities; the areas outside the surrounding wall, south from b. 37 and within passageways, were used for discard purposes. Inside the western part (the temple district) some architectural obser-


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vations support the idea that it was not used in an ordinary way during Period 2. Going beyond the architecture, we should look at other assemblages (e.g. clay figurines, ani-mal bones, etc.) and specify the morphological features of the ceramics.

The results presented here should be assumed as the first stage of the project that aims to gather a database with all the finds from Tell Hazna I, and to integrate this database with a 3D model of the settlement.

Bibliography

Amirov, A. N. 2010. Habur steppe of Northern Mesopota-mia in IV – First Half of the 3rd Millennium BC. Mos-cow.

Anderson, P. C. 2003. Observations on the threshing sledge and its products in ancient and present-day Mesopota-mia. In P. C. Anderson, L. S. Cummings, T. K. Schip-pers and B. Simonel (eds.), Le traitement des récoltes: un regard sur la diversité, du Néolithique au présent, 417-438. Antibes.

Anderson, P. C., Chabot, J. and van Gijn, A. 2004. The functional riddle of ‘glossy’ canaanean blades and the Near East threshing sledge, Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology, 17(1), 87-130.

Chabot, J. 2002. Tell ‘Atij, Tell Gudeda. Industrie lithique. Analyse technologique et fonctionnelle. Avec une an-nexe de Pelegrin, J. (Cahiers d’archéologie du CELAT 13. Série archéométrie 3). Laval.

Chabot, J. and Eid, P. 2009. Le matériel lithique. In A. Bi-anchi and A. Wissing (eds.), Die Kleinfunde. Mit einem Beitrag von J. Chabot und P. Eid (Studien zur Urba-nisierung Nordmesopotamiens Serie A, Ausgrabungen 1998 - 2001 in der zentralen Oberstadt von Tall Mozan, Urkeš II), 803–820. Wiesbaden.

Chabot, J. and Eid, P. 1997. Stone Tools from a Bronze Age Village (Tell Nusstell, Syria) in their wider Con-text, Archaeological Studies 50, 7-36.

Ciavarini Azzi, E. 1993. Le matériel lithique. In M. Leb-eau (ed.), Tell Melebiya. Cinq campagnes de recherch-es sur le Moyen-Khabour (1984-1988) (Akkadica Sup-plementum IX), 525-529. Leuven.

Munchaev, R. M., Merpert, N. Y. and Amirov, A. N. 2004. Tell Hazna I. A Religious and Administrative Center in North-East Syria in IV–III mill. BC. Moscow.

Nishiaki, Y. 1991. Chipped stone artifacts in Tell Kashkashok, in: Matsutani T. (ed.), Tell Kashkashok – The excavations at Tell No. II. Tokyo.

van Gijn, A. 2003. The Ninevite 5 chipped stone assem-blage from Tell Leilan: preliminary results. In E. Rova and H. Weiss (eds.), The origins of Northern Mesopo-tamian civilization: Ninevite 5 chronology, economy, society (Subartu IX), 401-416. Turnhout.


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