Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T23:07:36.066Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Lithic analysis and the transition to the Neolithic in the Upper Tigris Valley: recent excavations at Hasankeyf Höyük

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2018

Osamu Maeda Open the ORCID record for Osamu Maeda [Opens in a new window]
Osamu Maeda*
Affiliation:
Institute for Comparative Research in Human and Social Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba 305–8571, Japan (Email: [email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The excavation of several structures at the site of Hasankeyf Höyük in south-east Anatolia has revealed evidence for the continuity of hunter-gatherer lithic technology into the early stages of the Neolithic in the tenth to ninth millennia BC. In particular, the Nemrik point, previously seen as a hallmark of the early Neolithic, can now be shown to have been in use in a local tradition of hunter-gatherer lithic technology. Overall, the continuity in time and space at Hasankeyf Höyük indicates a long-term persistence of lithic technologies, which contrasts with the pattern of change in the Levant and which suggests different pathways to the Neolithic in different parts of the Fertile Crescent region in the Near East.

Keywords

AnatoliaEpipalaeolithicNeolithisationlithicshunter-gatherers
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 92 , Issue 361 , February 2018 , pp. 56 - 73
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2018 

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

Abbès, F. 2007. Les débitages laminaires de la fin du PPNA (Jerf el Ahmar, Mureybet, Hassan, Cheikh), in Astruc, L., Binder, D. & Briois, F. (ed.) Technical systems and Near Eastern PPN communities: 127–36. Antibes: Éditions APDCA.Google Scholar
Altınbilek-Algül, Ç. 2013. The lithic assemblages of Gusir Höyük (Turkey): the preliminary results, in Borrell, F., Ibáñez, J.J. & Molist, M. (ed.) Stone tools in transition: from hunter-gatherers to farming societies in the Near East: 289–98. Barcelona: Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona.Google Scholar
Aurenche, O. & Kozlowski, S.K.. 2011. The spatial distribution of arrowheads and microliths in the Near East (10,200–8,000 cal. BC), in Healey, E., Campbell, S. & Maeda, O. (ed.) The state of the stone: terminologies, continuities and contexts in Near Eastern lithics: 449–56. Berlin: ex oriente.Google Scholar
Betts, A.V.G. 1994. Qermez Dere: the chipped stone assemblage, in Gebel, H.G. & Kozlowski, S.K. (ed.) Neolithic chipped stone industries of the Fertile Crescent: 189–203. Berlin: ex oriente.Google Scholar
Binder, D. 2007. PPN pressure technology: views from Anatolia, in Astruc, L., Binder, D. & Briois, F. (ed.) Technical systems and Near Eastern PPN communities: 235–43. Antibes: Éditions APDCA.Google Scholar
Carter, T., Grant, S., Kartal, M., Coşkun, A. & Özkaya, V.. 2013. Networks and Neolithisation: sourcing obsidian from Körtik Tepe (SE Anatolia). Journal of Archaeological Science 40: 556–69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2012.08.003 Google Scholar
Hildebrand, E.A. 1996. Changes in methods and techniques of blade production during the Epipalaeolithic and Early Neolithic in the Eastern Fertile Crescent, in Kozlowski, S.K. & Gebel, H.G.K. (ed.) Neolithic chipped stone industries of the Fertile Crescent and their contemporaries in adjacent regions: 193–206. Berlin: ex oriente.Google Scholar
Hole, F. 1983. The Jarmo chipped stone, in Braidwood, L., Braidwood, R.J., Howe, B., Reed, C.A. & Watson, P.J. (ed.) Prehistoric archaeology along the Zagros flanks: 233–84. Chicago (IL): University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Kartal, M. 2012. Körtik Tepe Yontmataş Endüstrisi. 29. Araştırma Sonuçları Toplantısı-I: 475–90.Google Scholar
Karul, N. 2011. Höyuk, Gusir, in Özdoğan, M., Başgelen, N. & Kuniholm, P. (ed.) The Neolithic in Turkey. New excavations and new research. The Tigris Basin: 1–17. Istanbul: Archaeology & Art Publications.Google Scholar
Kozlowski, S.K. 1990. Nemrik 9: pre-pottery Neolithic site in Iraq (General Report Season 1985–1986). Warsaw: Warsaw University Press.Google Scholar
Kozlowski, S.K. 1999. The eastern wing of the Fertile Crescent: late prehistory of Greater Mesopotamian lithic industries (British Archaeological Report International series S-760). Oxford: Archaeopress.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kozlowski, S.K. & Aurenche, O.. 2005. Territories, boundaries and cultures in the Neolithic Near East (British Archaeological Report International series S-1662). Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Kozlowski, S.K. & Szymczak, E. 1990. Flint industry, in Kozlowski, S.K. (ed.) Nemrik 9: pre-pottery Neolithic site in Iraq (General Report Season 1985–1986): 59–104. Warsaw: Warsaw University Press.Google Scholar
Maeda, O. 2011. The social roles of the use of flint and obsidian artefacts at Salat Cami Yanı in the Upper Tigris Valley, in Healey, E., Campbell, S. & Maeda, O. (ed.) The state of the stone: terminologies, continuities and contexts in Near Eastern lithics: 317–26. Berlin: ex oriente.Google Scholar
Maeda, O. In press. Inefficient practice of flint heat treatment at Hasankeyf Höyük: an anti-functional view. Journal of Lithic Studies.Google Scholar
Maeda, O., Lucas, L., Silva, F., Tanno, K. & Fuller, D.Q.. 2016. Narrowing the harvest: increasing sickle investment and the rise of domesticated cereal agriculture in the Fertile Crescent. Quaternary Science Reviews 145: 226–37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2016.05.032 Google Scholar
Matthews, R., Richardson, A. & Maeda, O.. In press. ‘Behind all those stones’: activity and society in the pre-pottery Neolithic of the Eastern Fertile Crescent. Proceedings of the 10th ICAANE 25–29 April 2016.Google Scholar
Miyake, Y., Maeda, O., Masumori, K.D., Hongo, H., Tanno, K. & Tao, M.. In press. Sedentary hunter-gatherers of the Upper Tigris: new insights from the Early Neolithic settlement at Hasankeyf Höyük, southeast Anatolia. Anatolian Studies 68.Google Scholar
Olszewski, D.I. 1993. Zarzian microliths from Warwasi rockshelter, Iran: scalene triangles as arrow components, in Peterkin, G.L., Bricker, H.M. & Mellars, P. (ed.) Hunting and animal exploitation in the Later Paleolithic and Mesolithic of Eurasia: 199–205. Washington, D.C.: American Anthropological Association.Google Scholar
Olszewski, D.I. 2012. The Zarzian in the context of the Epipaleolithic Middle East. International Journal of Humanities 19 (3): 1–20.Google Scholar
Özkaya, V. & Coşkun, A.. 2011. Körtik Tepe, in M. Özdoğan, N. Başgelen & P. Kuniholm (ed.) The Neolithic in Turkey. New excavations and new research. The Tigris Basin: 89–127. Istanbul: Archaeology & Art Publications.Google Scholar
Peasnall, B.L. & Rosenberg, M.. 2001. A preliminary description of the lithic industry from Demirköy Höyük, in Caneva, I., Lemorini, C., Zampetti, D. & Biagi, P. (ed.) Beyond redefining the PPN lithic assemblages of the Levant: 363–87. Berlin: ex oriente.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, M. 1994. A preliminary description of the lithic industry from Hallan Çemi, in Gebel, H.G. & Kozlowski, S.K. (ed.) Neolithic chipped stone industries of the Fertile Crescent: 223–38.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, M. 2011. Hallan Çemi, in Özdoğan, M., Başgelen, N. & Kuniholm, P. (ed.) The Neolithic in Turkey. New excavations and new research. The Tigris Basin: 61–78. Istanbul: Archaeology & Art Publications.Google Scholar
Tanno, K. & Maeda, O.. 2016. The origins of agriculture, in Tsuneki, A., Yamada, S. & Hisada, K. (ed.) Ancient West Asian civilization: geoenvironment and society in the Pre-Islamic Middle East: 87–98. Singapore: Springer.Google Scholar
van Gijn, A. 2010. Flint in focus: lithic biographies in the Neolithic and Bronze Age. Leiden: Sidestone.Google Scholar
Watkins, T. 1995. Qermez Dere, Tel Afar: interim report no. 3 (Occasional Papers 14). Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Watkins, T. 2010. New light on Neolithic revolution in south-west Asia. Antiquity 84: 621–34. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00100122 Google Scholar
Wilke, P.J. 1996. Bullet-shaped microblade cores of the Near Eastern Neolithic: experimental replicative studies, in Kozlowski, S.K. & Gebel, H.G.K. (ed.) Neolithic chipped stone industries of the Fertile Crescent and their contemporaries in adjacent regions: 289–310. Berlin: ex oriente.Google Scholar
Yaroshevich, A., Kaufman, D., Nuzhnyy, D., Bar-Yosef, O. & Weinstein-Evron, M.. 2010. Design and performance of microlith implemented projectiles during the Middle and the Late Epipaleolithic of the Levant: experimental and archaeological evidence. Journal of Archaeological Science 37: 368–88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2009.09.050 Google Scholar
Zeidi, M. & Conard, N.J.. 2013. Chipped stone artifacts from the Aceramic Neolithic site of Chogha Golan, Ilam Province, western Iran, in Borrell, F., Ibáñez, J.J. & Molist, M. (ed.) Stone tools in transition: from hunter-gatherers to farming societies in the Near East: 315–56. Barcelona: Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Maeda supplementary material

Maeda supplementary material 1

Download Maeda supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 1.1 MB