- Tell Abu Hureyra
Tell Abu Hureyra ( _ar. تل أبو هريرة) ("
tell " is Arabic for "mound") was a site of an ancient settlement in the northernLevant or westernMesopotamia . It has been cited as showing the earliest known evidence ofagriculture anywhere. It is located on a plateau near a south bank of theEuphrates River , presently beneathLake Assad in northernSyria to the east ofAleppo . There were two separate periods of settlement, with a period of abandonment between.An
Epipalaeolithic settlement was established around 11,500 BP (years ago),cite book |title=Village on the Euphrates: From Foraging to Farming at Abu Hureyra |last=Moore |first=Andrew M. T. |authorlink= |coauthors=Hillman, Gordon C.; Legge, Anthony J. |year=2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=019510806X |pages= ] probably by theNatufian culture in a northeast expansion from their earlier settlements in the southern Levant. It consisted of a small number of round huts, probably constructed from degradable materials such as wood and brush, with the settlement housing a few hundred people at most. During this time most food was obtained from hunting, fishing and gathering wild plants. Huts contained underground storage areas for food. The main animal hunted wasgazelle during its annual migration, with other large wild animals such asonager ,sheep andcattle killed occasionally and smaller animals such ashare ,fox andbird s were hunted throughout the year. Wild plants harvested includedeinkorn wheat andemmer wheat and two varieties ofrye .Evidence has been found for cultivation of rye from 11,050 BP. It has been suggested that drier climate conditions resulting from the beginning of the
Younger Dryas caused wild cereals to become scarce, leading the people to begin cultivation as a means of securing a food supply. Results of recent analysis of the rye grains from this level suggest that they may actually have been domesticated during the EpiPalaeolithic.After a period of abandonment, a
Neolithic settlement was established, perhaps 10 times as large as the earlier settlement and one of the largest at that time in theMiddle East . Mud-brick houses were constructed and a large mound was built up under the settlement mainly from the remains of old houses. An increasingly wide variety of plants were cultivated and examination of human skeletons has shown various deformities that have been associated with laborious agricultural work, particularly the grinding of grain. cite journal | last = Molleson | first = Theya | authorlink = | coauthors = | year = 1994 | month = | title = The Eloquent Bones of Abu Hureyra | journal = Scientific American | volume = 271 | issue = 2 | pages = 70–75 | pmid = 8066433 | url = http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/dept/d10/asb/world_archaeology/lifeways/hg_ag/agric_bones.html | accessdate = | quote = ] Animals were also herded.Pottery was used from around 7,300 BP andweaving some time before that. The village was abandoned around 7,000 BP.Archaeology
The site was excavated in 1972 and 1973 as a rescue operation before it was flooded under
Lake Assad , which was the reservoir of the newly constructedTabqa Dam . A large amount of material was recovered and studied over the following decades. A preliminary report was published in 1983 and a final report in 2000.References
External links
*cite web |url=http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba51/ba51news.html#farming |title=World's first farming found in Near East |accessdate=2008-05-09 |format= |work=
*cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=First farmers discovered |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/489449.stm |work=BBC News |publisher= |date=1999-10-28 |accessdate=2008-05-09
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