Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T10:43:57.005Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Daily Practice and the Organization of Space at the Dawn of Agriculture: A Case Study from the near East

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Ian Kuijt  and
Nathan Goodale
Ian Kuijt
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, (ikuijt@nd.edu)
Nathan Goodale
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Hamilton College, Clinton, NY 13323, (ngoodale@hamilton.edu)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Drawing upon the lithic remains from the Late Natufian and Pre-Pottery Neolithic A occupations of "Iraq ed-Dubb, Jordan, we utilize a quantifiable statistical approach with Geographic Information Systems analysis to interpret shifting practices that influenced site structure. This study indicates that the highly mobile Late Natufian population who inhabited the site had fairly nondelineated use of space compared to a more delineated use of space during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A. It appears that intensified intra-community organization of space was a byproduct of decreased residential mobility. Moreover, the emergence of more formal intra-community organization likely aided in the development of much more complex human societies that evolved several millennia after the onset of Holocene conditions.

Résumé

Résumé

Basándonos en los restos de industria lítica hallados en los niveles arqueológicos pertenecientes al Natufiense Reciente y al Neolítico Pre-cerámico A del yacimiento de "Iraq ed-Dubb, Jordania, utilizamos un método estadísticamente cuantificable con el análisis de Sistemas de Información Geográfica para poder entender e interpretar aquellos cambios en el comportamiento humano que afectaron la estructuración interna del asentamiento. Nuestro estudio demuestra como la población Natufiense que habitó el asentamiento, caracterizada por una alta movilidad, casi no disponía de un uso específico del espacio en comparación con el mayor grado de organización del espacio interno del asentamiento durante el Neolítico Pre-cerámico A. Así pues, parece ser que esta mayor intensificación en la organización del espacio interno del asentamiento está directamente relacionada con una disminución en la movilidad residencial de la población. Además, el surgimiento de esta organización interna más formal de los asentamientos seguramente influyó en el posterior desarrollo de aquellas sociedades humanas, mucho más complejas, milenios después de la aparición de las condiciones específicas del Holoceno.

Type
Articles
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 74 , Issue 3 , July 2009 , pp. 403 - 422
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Baruch, Uri, and Bottema, Sytze 1991 Palynological Evidence for Climatic Changes in the Levant ca. 17,000–9,000 B.P. In The Natufian Culture in the Levant, edited by Ofer Bar-Yosef and François R. Valla, pp. 11–20. Archaeological Series 1, International Monographs in Prehistory. Ann Arbor, Michigan.Google Scholar
Bar-Yosef, Ofer 1991 The Archaeology of the Natufian Layer at Hayonim Cave. In The Natufian Culture in the Levant, edited by Ofer Bar-Yosef and François R. Valla, pp. 81–92. Archaeological Series 1, International Monographs in Prehistory. Ann Arbor, Michigan.Google Scholar
Bar-Yosef, Ofer 1998 The Natufian Culture in the Levant, Threshold to the Origins of Agriculture. Evolutionary Anthropology 6:159–177.Google Scholar
Bar-Yosef, Ofer 2002 Natufian: A Complex Society of Foragers. In Beyond Foraging and Collecting: Evolutionary Change in Hunter-Gatherer settlement systems, edited by Junko Habu and Ben Fitzhugh, pp. 91–149. Kluwer/ Plenum, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Belfer-Cohen, Anna 1988 The Natufian Settlement at Hayonim Cave: A Hunter-Gatherer Band, on the Threshold of Agriculture. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, The Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University, Jerusalem.Google Scholar
Belfer-Cohen, Anna 1994 The Lithic Continuity in the Jordan Valley: Natufian into the PPNA. In Neolithic Chipped Stone Industries of the Fertile Crescent. Studies in Early Near Eastern Production, Subsistence and the Environment I, edited by Hans Georg Gebel and Stefan Karol Kozlowski, pp. 91–100. Ex-Oriente, Berlin.Google Scholar
Belfer-Cohen, Anna 1995 Rethinking Social Stratification in the Natufian Culture: The Evidence from Burials. In The Archaeology of Death in the Ancient Near East, edited by Stuart Campbell and Anthony Green, pp. 9–16. Oxbow Monograph 51, Oxford, United Kingdom.Google Scholar
Belfer-Cohen, Anna, and Bar-Yosef, Ofer 2000 Early Sedentism in the Near East: A Bumpy Ride to Village Life. In Life in Neolithic Farming Communities: Social Organization, Identity, and Differentiation, edited by Ian Kuijt, pp 19–37. Kluwer Academic / Plenum Publishers, New York.Google Scholar
Belfer-Cohen, Anna, and Goring-Morris, Nigel 1996 The Late Epipaleolithic as a Precursor to the Neolithic: The Lithic Evidence. In Neolithic Chipped Stone Industries of the Fertile Crescent, and their Contemporaries in Adjacent Regions. Studies in Early Near Eastern Production, Subsistence and the Environment 3, edited by Stefan Karol Kozlowski and Han Georg Gebel, pp. 217–225. Ex-Oriente, Berlin.Google Scholar
Belfer-Cohen, A, Schepartz, L. A., and Arensburg, B. 1991 New Biological Data for the Natufian Populations in Israel. In The Natufian Culture in the Levant, edited by Ofer Bar-Yosef and Francois R. Valla, pp. 411–424. Archaeological Series 1, International Monographs in Prehistory. Ann Arbor, Michigan.Google Scholar
Bettinger, Robert L. 1979 Multivariate Statistical Analysis of a Regional Subsistence-Settlement Model for Owens Valley. American Antiquity 44:455–470.Google Scholar
Binford, Lewis R. 1983 In Pursuit of the Past: Decoding the Archaeological Record. Thames and Hudson, New York.Google Scholar
Byrd, Brian F. 2005 Reassessing the Emergence of Village Life in the Near East. Journal of Archaeological Research 13(3):231–290.Google Scholar
Djindjian, François 1985 Seriation and Toposeriation by Correspondence Analysis. In PA. C. T. II To Pattern the Past, edited by Albertus Voorrips and Susan H. Loving, pp. 119–135. Council of Europe, Strasbourg, France.Google Scholar
Duff, Andrew I. 1996 Ceramic Micro-Seriation: Types or Attributes? American Antiquity 61:89–101.Google Scholar
Edwards, Phillip C. 1991 Wadi Hammeh 27: An Early Natufian Site at Pella, Jordan. In The Natufian Culture in the Levant, edited by Ofer Bar-Yosef and François R. Valla, pp. 123–148. Archaeological Series 1, International Monographs in Prehistory. Ann Arbor, Michigan.Google Scholar
Finlayson, Bill, Kuijt, Ian, Arpin, Trina, Chesson, Meredith, Dennis, Samantha, Goodale, Nathan, Kadowaki, Seji, Maher, Lisa, Smith, Sam, Schurr, Mark, and McKay, Jode 2003 Dhra’, Excavation Project, 2002 Interim Report. Levant 35: 1–38.Google Scholar
Finlayson, Bill, and Mithen, Steven 2007 The Early Prehistory of Wadi Faynan, Southern Jordan: Excavations at the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A Site of WF 16 and Archaeological Survey of Wadis Faynan, Ghuwayr and Al Bustan. Levant Supplementary Series 4, Wadi Faynan Series 1, CBRL and Oxbow, Oxford.Google Scholar
Flannery, Kent V. 2002 The Origins of the Village Revisited: From Nuclear to Extended Households. American Antiquity 67:417–433.Google Scholar
Garfinkel, Yosef 1996 Critical Observations on the so-called Khiamian Flint Industry. In Neolithic Chipped Stone Industries of the Fertile Crescent, and Their Contemporaries in Adjacent Regions., edited by Stefan Karol Kozlowski and Han Georg Gebel, pp. 15–21. Studies in Early near Eastern Production, Subsistence and Environment 3. Ex-Oriente, Berlin.Google Scholar
Gebel, Hans Georg K. 2002 The Neolithic of the Near East: An Essay on a “Poly-centric Evolution” and other Current Research Problems. In Material Culture and Mental Spheres, edited by A. Hausleiter, S. Kerner and B. Muller-Neuhof, pp 313–325. Alter Orient und Altes Testament, 293, Ugarit-Verlag.Google Scholar
Goodale Nathan, B., Kuijt, Ian, and Finlayson, Bill 2002 Results on the 2001 Excavation at Dhra’, Jordan: Chipped Stone Technology, Typology, and Intra-Assemblage Variability. Paléorient 28(1): 125–140.Google Scholar
Goring-Morris, Nigel, and Belfer-Cohen, Anna 1998 The Articulation of Cultural Processes and Late Quaternary Environmental Changes in Cisjordan. Paléorient 23(2):71–93.Google Scholar
Grosman, Leore 2003 Preserving Cultural Traditions in a Period of Instability: The Late Natufian of the Hilly Zone. Current Anthropology 44:571–580.Google Scholar
Hardy Smith, Tania, and Edwards, Phillip C. 2004 The Garbage Crisis in Prehistory: Artefact Discard Patterns at the Early Natufian Site of Wadi-Hammeh 27 and the Origins of Household Refuse Disposal Strategies. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 23:253–289.Google Scholar
Henry, Donald O. 1989 From Foraging to Agriculture: The Levant at the End of the Ice Age. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henry, Donald O. 1991 Foraging, Sedentism, and Adaptive Vigor in the Natufian: Rethinking the Linkages. In Perspectives on the Past: Theoretical Biases in Mediterranean Hunter-Gatherer Research, edited by Geoffrey A. Clark, pp. 353–370. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henry, Donald O., Leroi-Gourhan, Arlette, and Davis, Simon 1981 The Excavation of Hayonim Terrace: An Examination of Terminal Pleistocene Climatic and Adaptive Changes. Journal of Archaeological Science 8:33–58.Google Scholar
Hodder, Ian, and Cessford, Craig 2004 Daily Practices and Social Memory at Çatalhöyük. American Antiquity 69:17–40.Google Scholar
Kudrass, H. R., Erlenkeuser, H., Volbrecht, R., and Weiss, W. 1991 Global Nature of the Younger Dryas Cooling Event Inferred from Oxygen Isotope Data from Sulu Sea Cores. Nature 349(6308):406–409.Google Scholar
Kuijt, Ian 2000 People and Space in Early Agricultural Villages: Exploring Daily Lives, Community Size, and Architecture in the Late Pre-Pottery Neolithic. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 19, 75–102.Google Scholar
Kuijt, Ian 2001 Lithic Inter-assemblage Variability and Cultural-Historical Sequences: A consideration of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A Occupation of Dhra’, Jordan. Paléorient 27(1):107–125.Google Scholar
Kuijt, Ian 2004 The Pre-Pottery Neolithic A and Late Natufian Occupations at ‘Iraq ed-Dubb, Jordan. Journal of Field Archaeology 29:291–308.Google Scholar
Kuijt, Ian, and Goodale, Nathan B. 2006 Chronological Frameworks and Disparate Technology: An Exploration of Chipped Stone Variability and the Forager/Farmer Transition at ‘Iraq ed-Dubb, Jordan. Paléorient 32(1): 27–45.Google Scholar
Kuijt, Ian, and Goring-Morris, Nigel 2002 Foraging, Farming, and Social Complexity in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic of the Southern Levant: A Review and Synthesis. Journal of World Prehistory 16:361–440.Google Scholar
Lieberman, Daniel E. 1993 The Rise and Fall of Seasonal Mobility among Hunter-Gatherers: The Case of the Southern Levant. Current Anthropology 34:599–632.Google Scholar
Madsen, Torsten 1988 Multivariate Statistics and Archaeology. In Multivariate Archaeology: Numerical Approaches in Scandinavian Archaeology, edited by Torsten Madsen, pp. 7–28. Aarhus University Press, Aarhus.Google Scholar
Munro, Natalie D. 2004 Zooarchaeological Measure of Hunting Pressure and Occupation Intensity in the Natufian. Current Anthropology 45 (supplement issue):S7–S33.Google Scholar
Nadel, Dani 1997 The Chipped Stone Industry of Netiv Hagdud. An Early Neolithic Village in the Jordan Valley Part I: The Archaeology of Netiv Hagdud, edited by Ofer Bar-Yosef and Avi Gopher, pp. 71–149. American School of Prehistoric Research Bulletin 43, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Nadel, Dani 1998 A Note on PPNA Intra-Site Tool Variability. Neo-Lithics 1(98):8–10.Google Scholar
Nadel, Dani, Carmi, Israel, and Segal, Dror 1995 Radiocarbon Dating of Ohalo II: Archaeological and Methodological Implications. Journal of Archaeological Science 22:811–822.Google Scholar
Nadel, Dani, Grinberg, Udi, Boaretto, Elisabetta, and Werker, Ella 2006 Wooden Objects from Ohalo II (23,000 cal BP), Jordan Valley, Israel. Journal of Human Evolution 50:644–662.Google Scholar
Ramsey, Bronk C. 1995 Radiocarbon Calibration and Analysis of Stratigraphy: The OxCal Program. Radiocarbon 37:425–430.Google Scholar
Ramsey, Bronk C. 2001 Development of the Radiocarbon Program OxCal. Radiocarbon 43:355–363.Google Scholar
Rollefson, Gary O. 1998 The Aceramic Neolithic of Jordan. In The Prehistoric Archaeology of Jordan, edited by Donald O. Henry, pp. 102–126. Bar International Series 705. British Archaeological Reports, Oxford.Google Scholar
Rollefson, Gary O. 2004 The Character of LPPNB Social Organization. In Central settlements in Neolithic Jordan: Early Near Eastern Production, Subsistence, and Environment, edited by H.D. Bienert, H.G.K. Gebel, and R. Neef, pp. 5:145–155. Ex Oriente, Berlin.Google Scholar
Shennan, Stephen J. 2001 Quantifying Archaeology. 2nd ed. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Smith, Patricia, Bar-Yosef, Ofer, and Sillen, Andrew 1984 Archaeological and Skeletal Evidence for Dietary Change during the Late Pleistocene/ Early Holocene in Levant. In Paleopathology at the Origins of Agriculture, edited by Mark Nathan Cohen and George J. Armelagos, pp. 101–136. Academic Press, Orlando, Florida.Google Scholar
Twiss, Katheryn C. 2007 The Neolithic of the Southern Levant. Evolutionary Anthropology 16(1):24–35.Google Scholar
Twiss, Katheryn, C., Bogaard, Amy, Bogdan, Doru, Carter, Tristan, Charles, Michael P., Farid, Shahina, Russell, Nerissa, Stevanovi_, Mirjana, Nurcan Yalman, E., and Yeo-mans, Lisa 2008 Arson or Accident? The Burning of a Neolithic House at Çatalhöyük. Journal of Field Archaeology 33:41–57.Google Scholar
Valla, François R. 1987 Chronologie absolue et chronologies relatives dans le Natoufien. In Chronologies in the Near East, Edited by O. Aurenche, J. Evin and F. Hours, pp. 276–294. BAR International Series 379. British Archaeological Reports, Oxford.Google Scholar
Valla, François R. 1988 Aspects du sol de labri 131 de Mallaha (Eynan). Paléorient 14(2):283–295.Google Scholar
Valla, François R. 1991 Les Natoufiens de Mallaha et l’espace. In The Natufian Culture in the Levant, edited by Ofer Bar-Yosef and François R. Valla, pp. 111–122. Archaeological Series 1, International Monographs in Prehistory, Ann Arbor, Michigan.Google Scholar
Valla, François R. 1998 The First Settled Societies - Natufian (12,500–10,200 BP). In The Archaeology of Society in the Holy Land, edited by Thomas E. Levy, pp. 169–187. Leicester University Press, London.Google Scholar
Watkins, Trevor 1990 The Origins of House and Home? World Archaeology 21:336–347.Google Scholar
Yartah, T. 2002 Emmanchement de points de fleches khiamiennes de Syria du nord. In Préhistoire et Approach Expérimentale. Editions Monique, edited by L. Bourguignon, I. Ortega and M. Frere-Sautot. Préhistoire 5 281–292.Google Scholar