MIDDLE EAST THE CRADLE OF CIVILIZARTION
THE MIDDLE EAST
LOWER PALEOLITHIC 2,700,000- 200,000 BC
MIDDLE PALEOLITHIC 200,000- 30,000 BC
UPPER PALEOLITHIC 40,000- 12,000 BC
MESOLITHIC
12,000- 5000 BC
PRE-POTTERY NEOLITHIC 9500- 4500 BC
POTTERY NEOLITHIC 4500- 3300 BC
CHALCOLITHIC 4500- 3300 BC
EARLY BRONZE 3300- 2200 BC
MIDDLE BRONZE 2200- 1550 BC
LATE BRONZE 1550-1200 BC
TIME PERIODS 2,700,000- 1200 BC
PALEOLITHIC : SUSTENANCE 2,700,000- 200,000 BC
Throughout the Palaeolithic, humans were hunters, fishers, and gatherers; in fact for the greater part of the Lower Palaeolithic, early humans (Australopithecus, Homo habilis, and Homo erectus) were probably scavengers rather than hunters. It was during the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic that hunting really came into its own, and became more efficient, with more specialized tools and communal drives. Hunters concentrated on herbivores such as the horse, bison, deer, goats, and antelopes, depending on the climate which fluctuated through the Ice Ages.
Artist‖s rendition of hunting scene. www.methodfitness.com
PALEOLITHIC : SHELTER 2,700,000- 200,000 BC
Palaeolithic peoples appear to have been highly mobile, or nomadic, moving with the
animals that they hunted or with the seasons.
Throughout the Lower Palaeolithic, they must have lived mostly in flimsy camps, traces of which are found primarily in open-air sites and river terraces, though some caves were
also occupied. In the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic cave-mouths and rock-shelters
were far more intensively and extensively used, but people also continued to live in
open-air settlements.
In the Lower Palaeolithic, simple windbreaks or crude huts were erected, but by the Upper
Palaeolithic there is evidence for light tents sophisticated huts made of hundreds of
mammoth bones.
An assortment of prehistoric tools provides evidence of the hunting and gathering methods of early peoples. Slabs of bark were often used to gather nuts and berries and functioned as crude dishes or bowls (top left). Reproductions of fishing tackle and arrows believed to have been used around 8000 BC are displayed on the lower left. Recovered tools for digging and cutting (right) are shown with recreated wooden handles. The heads of the adzes are made from flint, as is the fire-starter shown below them. Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia
PALEOLITHIC : FIRE 2,700,000- 200,000 BC
Fire appears to have been mastered by 1.5 million years ago, and hearths
are commonplace in living-sites of the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic.
Fire was probably used originally for
light, warmth, and protection from wild animals, but eventually also for
cooking food.
By the Upper Palaeolithic it was also being used for heating flint to make it more workable; for changing the
colours of mineral pigments; and in some areas for firing clay figurines
and vessels. www.dkimages.com
PALEOLITHIC : BURIAL 2,700,000- 200,000 BC
The first clear evidence of burial practices occur during the Middle
Palaeolithic. One Neanderthal burial—at Shānīdār Cave, Iraq—
appears to have been accompanied by flowers. It is in the Upper Palaeolithic
that burial becomes more elaborate, with red ochre, grave goods, and
beads, as well as other forms of ornamentation, and tools.
PALEOLITHIC : ART 2,700,000- 200,000 BC
Similarly, while some rudimentary examples of art are known from the
Middle and even the Lower Palaeolithic, it is in the Upper
Palaeolithic on every continent that figurative art appears, as rock or cave
art or as portable engravings and carvings.
The Red Lady of Paviland is a fairly complete Upper Paleolithic-era human male skeleton dyed in red ochre. www.pembrokestory.org
Horse (c. 15,000-10,000 BC), Lascaux, France arthistory.about.com
OLDOWAN ERA 2,580,000- 1,500,000 BC
The Oldowan era is the earliest formally recognized cultural tradition of the
Lower Paleolithic and Oldowan tools are the oldest known, appearing first in the Gona and Omo Basins in Ethiopia. They
are named after the Olduvai Gorge site in northern Tanzania, and are associated
with Homo habilis and Homo rudolfensis. Oldowan hominids primarily
gathered fruits and vegetables and scavenged medium and large size game.
Possibly, like chimpanzees, Oldowan hominids occasionally killed small game
to supplement their diet.
insidethecosmiccube.blogspot.com
The tools likely came at the end of a long period of opportunistic tool usage:
chimpanzees today use rocks, branches, leaves and twigs as tools. The key innovation is the
technique of chipping stones to create a chopping or cutting edge. Most Oldowan tools
were made by a single blow of one rock against another to create a sharp-edged flake.
Flakes were used primarily as cutters,
probably to dismember game carcasses or to strip tough plants. Fossils of crushed animal bones indicate that stones were also used to break open marrow cavities. And Oldowan
deposits include pieces of bone or horn showing scratch marks that indicate they were
used as diggers to unearth tubers or insects.
OLDOWAN TOOLS 2,580,000- 1,500,000 BC
Oldowan stone tools were simply broken to give a sharp edge www.ushumans.net
OLDOWAN SITES 2,580,000- 1,500,000 BC
Erq-el-Ahmar is a rock-shelter located in the Wadi Khareitoun southeast of Bethlehem. The site had pebble tools belonging to the Oldowan era.
YIRON, ISRAEL : 2,400,000 BC
The early human colonization of south Asia is represented by stone tool assemblages in the Siwalik hills at Riwat, near Rawalpindi in Pakistan. Pebble
core, flake and chopping tools have been found.
Kashafrud Basin provides evidence of the oldest-known human occupation of Iran. There are some collections of simple core and flake stone artifacts made of quartz, indicating skill and good knowledge, since quartz‖s friable nature requires experience and control.
El-`Ubeidiya in the Jordan Rift Valley preserves traces of the earliest migration of Homo erectus out of Africa. The site yielded core-flake (developed Oldowan)
tools.
The oldest occurrence of Oldawan art is in Yiron, in the north of the Israeli Rift where flint artefacts were found.
RIWAT, PAKISTAN :>1,900,000 or 2,500,000 BC
UBEIDIYA, ISRAEL :1,400,000- 1,100,000 BC
KASHAFRUD, IRAN : 800,000 BC
ERQ-EL-AHMAR, ISRAEL :1,96,000- 1,78,000 BC
ACHEULEAN TRADITION 1,400,000-100,000 BC 100,000 BC
The Acheulean Tradition gets its name from the site of St. Acheul, France. The Acheulean tradition originated in Sub-saharan Africa, and early forms of Homo spread the culture out of Africa into the near east, southern and western Europe. They continued with large, medium and small game hunting, scavenging and gathering. By 500,000 years ago the Acheulean methods had penetrated into Europe, primarily associated with Homo heidelbergensis, where they continued until about 200,000 years ago. The industry spread as far as the Near East and India, but apparently never reached Asia, where Homo erectus continued to use Oldowan tools right up to the time that species went extinct.
Bhimbetka, Auditorium Cave, Madhya Pradesh: Acheulian Petroglyph Site, c. 200,000 - 500,000 BC.
Acheulian artisans who placed the cupules on
Chief's Rock may have seen the rock as a figuration of one or even two elephants. The larger 'elephant' appears to have a flake removed to create the eye.
The possible smaller 'elephant' which appears to have two eye chips (noted in highlight) has a very steeply sloping back, which suggests a very young
elephant.
www.originsnet.org
ACHEULEAN TOOLS 1,400,000-100,000 BC 100,000 BC
Phases in the experimental reduction of a ―hand axe‖. blogs.sciencemag.org
The tradition is characterized by bifaces i.e. large bifacially flaked stone tools, such as hand axes, cleavers and picks. The most common tool materials were quartzite, glassy lava, chert and flint. Making an Acheulean tool required both strength and skill. The key innovations were • chipping the stone from both sides to produce a symmetrical (bifacial) cutting edge • the shaping of an entire stone into a recognizable and repeated tool form • variation in the tool forms for different tool uses. Acheulean tools show a regularity of design and manufacture that is maintained for over a million years. This is clear evidence of specialized skills and design criteria that were handed down by explicit socialization within a geographically dispersed human culture. 1
1: http://www.handprint.com/LS/ANC/stones.html
Large cutting tools have been known for a long time in South Asia and have always been considered to
be related to the Acheulian. The character of the Indian Acheulian,
however, has not been well described and its evolution is poorly known, as there are few sites which
are dated.
The large cutting tools (especially cleavers but also hand axes) are
mostly based on the production of large flakes.
They compare well with the early Acheulian from other parts of the
world.
ACHEULEAN SITES :INDIA 1,200,000-100,000 BC 69,000 BC
1 Dina and Jalalpur, Pakistan 2 Didwana, Rajasthan 3 Adi Chadi Wao & Umrethi, Guj. 4 Pilkasaur, MP 5 Navasa, Maharashtra 6 Bori, Maharashtra 7 Yudurwadi, Maharashtra 8 Isampur, Karnataka 9 Attaripakkam, Tamil Nadu www.assemblage.group.shef.ac.uk
1
2
3 4
5 6
7 8
9
SITE AGE CHARACTERISTICS Adi Chadi Wao, Gujarat 69,000 BC Final Acheulian Kaldevanhalli 174,000- 166,000 BC Umrethi, Gujarat 190,000 BC Didwana, Rajasthan > 390,000 BC Levallois technique Teggihalli, Karnataka > 350,000- 287,333 BC Late Acheulian Sadab, Karnataka 290,405 BC Late Acheulian tools, red
ochre Nevasa, Maharashtra > 350,000 BC Late Acheulian, Levallois
technique Yudurwadi, Maharashtra > 350,000 BC Late Acheulian Dina and Jalalpur, Pakistan 700,000- 500,000 BC Bori, Maharashtra 670,000- 537,000 BC Acheulian with trihedrals Isampur, Karnataka > 1,200,000 BC
ACHEULEAN SITES :INDIA 1,200,000-100,000 BC 69,000 BC
UBEIDIYA, ISRAEL 1,400,000-1,100,000 BC
Ubeidiya is an early paleolithic archaeological site located on a low rise in the Jordan Valley of
Israel, and is one of the oldest hominid sites outside of Africa.
Bone found at the site include extinct species of hippopotamus and deer, and molluscs; hominid
teeth were found at the site, unidentifiable to species.
The site consists of several identified 'living floors'
of concentrations of Acheulean tools such as handaxes, picks, and bifaces, and pebble-core
tools and flake-tools.
Homo erectus populations effortlessly shifted their stone tool technology between the production of large cutting tools (picks,
handaxes, cleavers, etc.) and pebble-core reduction.
Core tools of the Oldowan type were found in 'Ubeidiya, Israel (I), as were Acheulian bifaces (II) www.uiowa.edu
(I)
(II)
HOLON, ISRAEL 201,000-198,000 BC
Excavations at the open-air site of Holon, Israel, have provided a unique perspective on hominin behavior, technology, and subsistence strategies in the Middle East. Late Acheulian tools found use trifacial reduction method. The flakes were not derived from hand axes but rather from core reductions.
Tools from the Paleolithic site of Holon, Israel. A: Handaxe. B: Chopper. C: Retouched Flake. www.semioticon.com
Traces of human existence found in Anatolia date back to approximately 2 million years ago. Many sites have remains of the Homo Neanderthal species along with tools and implements.
Turkey www.google.com
Yarimburgaz
Mağaracık
Karain and Belbaşı caves
Dülük
ANATOLIA 600,000 – 10,000 BC
ANATOLIA 600,000 – 10,000 BC • Earth was covered with ice during this age. • Human beings were hunters and gatherers,and survived in small groups. • Their style of living was nomadic. • Control over fire was gained through the end of the age. • Primitive religious believes called totemism were also seen in this age. [1]
1. Birth Of Civilizations, Microsoft Word Document, www. turkishdaysinny.org 2. www.wikipedia.org
A totem is any supposed entity that watches over or assists a group of people, such as a family, clan, or tribe. Totems support larger groups than the individual person. In kinship and descent, if the apical ancestor of a clan is nonhuman, it is called a totem. Normally this belief is accompanied by a totemic myth. [2]
•Yarimburgaz (The city of Bathonea, near Istanbul) humans (homo-erectus) occupied the area from 800,000 BC. Pre-pottery neolithic naviform tools and cores, made in neolithic potteries. homo-sapiens have occupied the area for the past 15 millennia. • Karain and Belbaşi caves (Antalya) Among the finds are many carved stone and bone tools, moveable art objects, remains of the bones and teeth of Homo Neanderthal and Homo Sapiens, burnt and unburned animal and bread fossils. • Dülük (Gaziantep) • Mağaracık (Antakya)
Excavation site at Yarimburgaz www.heritage-key.com
A Lower Paleolithic chopper from Balitepe, NW Turkey www. pb-archaeology.blogspot.com
Karain Caves www.flickr.com
ANATOLIA SITES 600,000 – 10,000 BC
TABUN CAVE, ISRAEL 387,000-100,000 BC 40,000 BC
The Tabun Cave, located at Mount Carmel was occupied intermittently during the
Lower and Middle Paleolithic ages. It features one of the longest sequences of
human occupation in the Levant.
Large amounts of sea sand and pollen traces found suggest a relatively warm climate at
the time. The Coastal Plain was narrower than it is now, and was covered with
savannah vegetation.
The cave dwellers of that time used handaxes of flint or limestone for killing
animals (gazelle, hippopotamus, rhinoceros and wild cattle) and for digging out plant
roots. Over time, the handaxes became smaller and better shaped, and scrapers
made of flint were probably used for scraping meat off bones and for processing
animal skins.
B: 40,000 years C: 150,000 years D: 250,000 years E: 400,000 years F: 500,000 years G: 1,000,000 years dottieandrichard.info
TABUN CAVE, ISRAEL 387,000-100,000 BC 40,000 BC
Neanderthal woman found at Tabun in Israel mathildasanthropologyblog.wordpress.com
The upper levels in the Tabun Cave consist mainly of clay and silt, indicating that a
colder, more humid climate prevailed; this change yielded a wider coastal strip,
covered by dense forests and swamps. The material remains from the upper strata of
the cave are of the Mousterian culture (about 200,000 - 45,000 years ago).
The large number of fallow deer bones found in the upper layers of the Tabun
Cave may be due to the chimney-like opening in the back of the cave which
functioned as a natural trap. The animals may have been herded towards it, and fell into the cave where they were butchered.
The Tabun Cave contains a Neanderthal-
type female, dated to about 120,000 years ago. It is one of the most ancient human
skeletal remains found in Israel.
MOUSTERIAN INDUSTRY 2,00,000-40,000 BC
Named after the site of Le Moustier, a rock shelter in France, Mousterian
describes a style of predominantly flint tools (or industry).
The Mousterian industry appeared in
much the same areas of unglaciated Europe, the Near East and Africa where
Acheulean tools appear. In Europe these tools are most closely associated
with Homo neanderthalensis, but elsewhere were made by both
Neanderthals and early Homo sapiens.
Artist‖s rendition of a neanderthal www.google.com
Mousterian toolmakers either shaped a rock into a rounded surface before
striking off the raised area to get a wedge shaped flake, or they shaped the core as a
long prism of stone before striking off triangular flakes from its length.
Tools included small hand axes, flake
tools probably used as knives and toothed instruments produced by making notches
in a flake, perhaps used as saws or shaft straighteners. Wooden spears were used
to hunt large game such as mammoth and wooly rhinoceros. Scrapers appear for the
dressing of animal hides, which were probably used for shoes, clothing,
bedding, shelter, and carrying sacks.
MOUSTERIAN TOOLS 2,00,000-40,000 BC
Neanderthal tools www.boneclones.com
By this time the entire process had standardized into explicit stages (basic
core stone, rough blank, refined final tool). Variations could be produced by changes at any stage. A consistent goal
was to maximize the cutting area which made the process more labour intensive
but also meant that the tools could be reshaped or sharpened, so that they
lasted longer.
Because tools were combined with other components (handles, spear shafts) and
used in wider applications (dressing hides, hunting large game), this
technology led to manufacturing activities in other materials. Mousterian
tool making procedures made possible the accumulation of physical comforts
which imply social organization and stability.
MOUSTERIAN TOOLS 2,00,000-40,000 BC
Replica stone tools of the Acheulean industry, used by Homo erectus and early modern humans, and of the Mousterian
industry, used by Neanderthals. www.britannica.com
Mousterian “tool kits” often have quite different contents from site to site., which either means that different groups of Neanderthal men had varying toolmaking traditions or that they were used by the same peoples to perform different functions.
MOUSTERIAN SITES :INDIA 2,00,000-40,000 BC
The number of Mousterian sites are few. In general, however, the middle Palaeolithic populations occupied the same regions and habitats as the preceding Acheulian populations.
SITE TIME CHARACTERISTICS 16R Dune, Didwana, Thar Desert, Rajasthan
150,000- 100,000 BC Mousterian tools
Hathnora, Narmada, Madhya Pradesh
200,000- 300,000 BC Hominid cranium (around 200,000 years old) represents an advanced stage of Homo erectus or early stage of Homo sapiens
Patpara, Middle Son >103,000 BC (100,000-150,000 BC)
Blade and flake blade middle Palaeolithic tools
Amnapur, Narmada, Madhya Pradesh
74,000 BC Middle Palaeolithic tools
Mousterian stone tool assemblages have been found at:
Stone tools assemblage from
the central Narmada Basin
www.assemblage.group.shef.ac.uk
QAFZEH CAVE, ISRAEL 100,000 BC
A dozen or so remains found in the Qafzeh Cave are the oldest specimens of
modern humans in the Near East. This precedes the known dates for the
existence of Neanderthals in the region, which goes on to prove that modern
humans and Neanderthals were actually contemporaries, at least for some time,
and do not have any direct ancestral linkages.
Neanderthal skull (left) and modern human skull (right) www.nationalgeographic.com
The fossils of Skhul and
Qafzeh found at Qafzeh cave,
Israel are the oldest Homo
sapiens sapiens of the
Middle East. geoserver.itc.nl
KEBARA CAVE, ISRAEL 60,000 BC Kebara Cave is an Israeli limestone cave locality of the Wadi Kebara. • Excavations in this part of the world have revealed skeletal remains of Neanderthals. • The most significant discovery made at Kebara Cave was that in 1982 of the most complete Neanderthal skeleton found to date. •A throat bone called the hyoid, needed for speech, was found in the Neanderthal remains. This points at the fact that they could speak, but did not have an effective communicative language, which eventually led to their downfall.
Neandarthal skeleton found in Kebara Cave www.nationalgeographic.com
www. nationalgeographic.com
• The 4 meter thick cave deposit has Levallois stone artifacts, many hearths, and midden deposits. • The oldest occupations at Kebara Cave are thought to be associated with the Middle Paleolithic Aurignacian and Mousterian traditions, and range between 60,000 and 48,000 years ago. • These oldest levels yielded thousands of animal bone- primarily mountain gazelle and Persian fallow deer- much with cut marks, burned bones, hearths, ash lenses and stone artefacts. [3]
3. www.archaeology.about.com by K. Kris Hirst
KEBARA CAVE, ISRAEL 60,000 BC
SHANIDAR CAVE, IRAQ 60,000 BC
The cave site of Shanidar is located in the Zagros Mountains of Kurdistan in Iraq. It yielded the first adult Neanderthal skeletons in Iraq, dating between 60-80,000 BC. • The skull had a flat back and the body had many deformities and injuries. Around 9 more such remains were also found. • The Neanderthals buried their dead, and were ritualistic as well • One of the buried skeletons has traces of plants and flower pollen next to the body. • Injury signs on the skeletons of the Neanderthals point at the possibility of a clash between the Neanderthals and modern humans.
Shanidar Cave www.wikipedia.com
Neandarthal Skull – Shanidar 1 www.wikipedia.com
IRANIAN STEPPES 43,000 B.C.
Artist's impression of the Hunter gatherers of the Middle East.
www.scienceblogs.com
• The vast Eurasian and Iranian Steppes were an unbroken grassland stretching from the Gulf of Aqaba to Mongolia, rich with big game like antelope and bovids. •Upper Paleolithic era hunters soon began expanding along its length. •Climate shifted and became colder, more arid and dry, as drought hit the region, turning it into a desert, effectively closing the Saharan Gateway for the next 20, 000 years, and most hunter gatherers remained in the Middle East. • These semi-arid plains were a part of an
ancient superhighway stretching from France to Korea. •A small group of these hunter gatherers kept moving north of the Middle East toward Anatolia and thereafter formed the founding settlements of this region. •They hunted in groups, and had temporary shelters, and no organized activities or social structures yet.
UPPER PALEOLITHIC 40,000- 12,000 BC
In the Upper Paleolithic period Neanderthal man disappears and is replaced by the Homo sapiens . It marked the beginnings of communal hunting and extensive fishing, and the first conclusive evidence of belief systems centering on magic and the supernatural come from this time. Pit houses, the first man-made shelters, were built, sewn clothing was worn, and sculpture and painting originated. Tools were of great variety, including flint and obsidian blades and projectile points. Characteristic of the period were hunting and fishing settlements along rivers and on lake shores, where fish and molluscs were abundant. Portable art from the Upper paleolithic era.
www.blue.utp.edu.com
Catalogued tools from the Upper paleolithic era. www.blue.utp.edu.com
UPPER PALEOLITHIC :INDIA 40,000- 12,000 BC
Due to arid climate and sparse vegetation, human populations faced restricted food resources in this period.
This explains the limited number of upper Palaeolithic sites in the arid and semi-arid regions. However, excellent
archaeological evidence of this period comes from the Belan and Son valleys in the northern Vindhyas , Chota Nagpur plateau in Bihar, upland Maharashtra , Orissa
and from the Eastern Ghats in Andhra Pradesh.
SITE TIME CHARACTERISTICS Baghor I, Son Valley 8,000 BC Stone tools used for food
processing, hunting, craftwork Chopani Mando, Belan Valley 23,000- 17,000 BC Habitation site with cultural
sequence from Upper Palaeolithic to Neolithic.
Budha Pushkar, Thar Desert 40,000-12,000 BC Parallel Sided blades struck from Prismatic cores.
Paisra, Munger, Chotta Nagpur
7,000 BC Blade and Burin tools
Cave art from the Upper paleolithic era. www.blue.utp.edu.com
EMIRIAN 40,000- 12,000 BC
•The Emirian culture represents the transition between the Middle Paleolithic and the Upper Paleolithic in the Levant (Syria, Lebanon, Palestine). •There are also numerous stone blade tools, including some curved knives similar to those found in the Chatelperronian culture of Western Europe. •The Emirian eventually evolved into the Antelian culture, still of Levalloise tradition but with some Aurignacian influences. [1]
Emirian stone tools www. adias-uae.com
www.google.com
1. www.wikipedia.org
AURIGNACIAN ART INFLUENCE 32,000- 26,000 BC
The ―Lion Man‖ of the Aurignacian culture. www.wikipedia.org
• The Aurignacian culture is an archaeological culture of the Upper Paleolithic, located in Europe and southwest Asia, which exerted a strong influence on the Middle East. •Aurignacian flint tools were more varied than those of earlier industries, employing finer blades struck from prepared cores (typical ―8‖ shape) rather than using crude flakes. •The people also made pendants, bracelets and ivory beads, and three-dimensional figurines to ornament themselves. •The Aurignacian tool industry is characterized by complex art, which includes figurines depicting faunal representations of the time period associated with now-extinct mammals, including mammoths, rhinoceros, and the European horse, along with anthropomorphized depictions that could be inferred as some of the earliest evidence of religion. •The oldest known example of figurative art, the Venus of Hohle Fels, comes from this culture.
MESOLITHIC 12,000-5000 BC
The Mesolithic peoples were hunter-fisher-gatherers, like their predecessors, but they often focused on very different species (such as red deer and boar rather than reindeer) because of the change to a more to a more temperate climate at the end of the Ice Age. Their toolkits reflect these changing conditions, and are characterized by the presence of geometric microliths. These they used not only as barbs on arrows but also probably in composite tools, mounted with resin on to handles or shafts to be used as sickles and other plant-processing implements. There were also stone axes or adzes used in woodworking. It was the middle east Mesolithic people, such as the Natufians of Palestine, who took the first decisive steps towards producing food and adopting a sedentary lifestyle. Mesolithic tools
www.wikipedia.org
Mesolithic rock art www.wikipedia.org
MESOLITHIC :INDIA 12,000-5000 BC
Increased food security during this period led to reduction in
nomadism and to seasonally sedentary settlement. This is reflected in the large size of Mesolithic sites, the marked
growth in human population, and the presence of large
cemeteries.
The explanation for this dramatic increase in human settlements
lies in the increased rainfall and its effect on the growth of plant
and animal life.
Microliths, are tiny tools made from microblades of one to five
cm length, by blunting one or more sides with steep retouch,
were extensively used.
The first human colonization of the Ganga plains took place during this period, as proved by the presence of more than two hundred archaeological sites in Allahabad, Pratapgarh, Jaunpur, Mirzapur and Varanasi districts of Uttar Pradesh. Similarly, the effective colonization of the deltaic region of West Bengal and West Coast, particularly around Mumbai and in Kerala also took place during this period.
Mesolithic hunting scenes in red, Urden,
India www.chenzhaofu.cn
The first evidence of intentional disposal of the dead comes from this
period. The dead were buried in graves both in extended and crouched
position. Sometimes two individuals were buried in a single grave. The
dead were occasionally provided with grave offerings which include chunks
of meat, grinding stones, stone, bone and antler ornaments, and pieces of
haematite.
Mesolithic human burials have been found at Bagor in Rajasthan, Langhnaj
in Gujarat, Bhimbetka in Madhya Pradesh, and Lekhahia, Baghai Khor,
Morhana Pahar, Sarai-Nahar-Rai, Mahadaha and Damdama in Uttar
Pradesh.
MESOLITHIC :INDIA 12,000-5000 BC
Mesolithic Sites in India Prehistoric human colonization of India
ANATOLIA 10,000 – 8000 BC • Glacier covering the earth surface started melting, and climatic conditions of today first appeared. • Transformation of humans from hunters and gatherers into manufacturers also started in this age •It is considered that primitive farming was also first done in this speriod •Hunting and the collecting of plants continued to be the main supply of food, but the human began to store his food in storages for later consumption
Excavated wall www.blogspot..com
Lizard – Urfa Excavation www.wikipedia.com
•Pottery and small tools first appeared, bows and arrows were used. • Animals became smaller in size and faster than before, so human had to develop his stone tools and weapons in a lighter and more practical form. • More tools and weapons which were made of bones and wood and also some other personal ornamentation and daily use items such as combs. • One of the most interesting usages of stone of this period is what is called Microliths that are small tools made from Obsidian and flints. • Domestication of Animals is the main development of this period; the Dog was domesticated during the Mesolithic Age.
Mesolithic Tools www.google.com
ANATOLIA TOOLS 10,000 – 8000 BC
NATUFIAN CULTURE 9000 B.C.
•Natufian Culture thrived in the Near East‖s Levant Region (the Eastern Mediterranean) •Warming temperatures gave rise to new plant foods which enabled nomadic hunter-gatherers to settle down in large communities based on foraging. • It‖s members were probably the first to domesticate dogs. •Cemeteries yield clues of social hierarchy in which jewellery, burial artifacts and grave markers serve as indicators of status. Artist‖s rendition of Natufians working in the
fields. amscoextra.blogspot.com
Natufian reaping tool in which small, sharp blades might‖ve been set. www.nationalgeographic.org
•Natufians developed basic agricultural skills, such as the use of stone bladed sickles •The focus shifted from hunting, but when they hunted, the did so in a more effective and co-operative manner. •The knowledgeable Natufians compensated for the drastic change in climate around 9000 B.C. by supplementing plants of their traditional food crops.
•This heralded the age of farming dominated societies all over the Middle East and an agrarian lifestyle all over the world. •They grew mostly cereals, often clearing wild scrubs to experiment with new seeds.
NATUFIAN CULTURE 9000 B.C.
•Open settlements that were of modest size, with some traces of round huts, some of which were built on stone foundations,
although caves are also known to have still been inhabited.
•Traces of normal developments of flint
industries based essentially upon local Upper Palaeolithic antecedents, both
influenced in their food getting by the already intensified food-collecting practices
of immediate predecessors
•Sheep used at the incipient level, hints of flint sickles, ground-stone mullers, mortars
and pestles, and probable hoe blades suggest that food plants also received marked
attention.
NATUFIAN CULTURE 9000 B.C.
Ruins of supporting wall of an ancient Natufian house www.wikpedia.org
THE FERTILE CRESCENT 10,000 B.C.
The Fertile Crescent (Green) www.staff.4j.lane.edu
•Stretches in graceful curve from the Nile Valley, across the Syrian Desert, to the Tigris and Euphrates rivers of modern Iraq. •Birthplace of irrigated agriculture and urban civilization approximately 12,000 years ago. •Shifting climate and growing populations made hunter-gatherer sustenance insufficient and spurred the shift to agriculture. •Region was home to wild crops (barley) that could be supplemented and wild animals (goats and sheep) that could be domesticated. •Incorporated two of the most important regions : Mesopotamia and the Levant.
JARMO, IRAQ 7000 BC
•The oldest known agricultural community in the world, dating back to 7000 BC. • There were approximately 100 to 150 people who lived in the village. • The people reaped their grain with stone sickles, stored their food in stone bowls. They grew emmer and einkorn wheat, barley, and lentils. In addition to their agriculture, they also foraged for wild plants such as the field pea, acorns, pistachio nuts, and wild wheat • possessed domesticated goats, pig, sheep, and dogs.. The later levels of settlement contained evidence of clay pottery.
Jarmo is an archeological site located in northern Iraq on the foothills of the Zagros Mountains. The site of Jarmo is approximately three to four acres (12,000 to 16,000 m²) in size and lies at an altitude of 800 meters above sea level in a belt of oak and pistachio woodlands.
Excavations at Jarmo www.google.com
Twenty permanent mud-walled houses were excavated. which had: 1. stone foundations 2. tauf walls 3. reed bedding
.
A primitive form of commerce existed. Bone tools, especially awls, were abundant. Bone spoons and beads were also found
Bone awls www.google.com
Sitting figure, Hassuna, 6000 B.C. www.wikipedia.com
Jarmo as a settlement was a social and economical example for future Mesopotamian cultures that would arise around 4000 BC. [1]
Jarmo is one of the oldest sites at which pottery has been found. This pottery is hand made, simply designed with thick sides, treated with vegetable solvents. There are clay figures, zoomorphic or anthropomorphic, including figures of pregnant women (fertility goddesses) similar to the Mother Goddess.
1. www.mnsu.edu
JARMO, IRAQ 7000 BC
NEOLITHIC 9500- 3300 BC
These early farming tools date from about 6000 BC. The axe, bottom, was used for clearing; flint sickles, left, were used for harvesting cereal crops; a flat rock and rounded stone, centre, were used for grinding flour; and perforated clay slabs, upper right, were probably used to ventilate bread ovens. Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia
The Neolithic has traditionally been associated with the origins of farming and a sedentary way of life, together with the use
of pottery and of ground (polished) stone tools.
In the Near East food production developed before pottery occurred (thus giving rise to
the terms “Pre-Pottery Neolithic” and “Pottery Neolithic”).
The Neolithic also saw the rise of the first
true villages, with houses being built of different materials, for example, mud-brick
houses in the Levant
NEOLITHIC 9500- 3300 BC
The mobile hunter-gatherers of the Palaeolithic knew how to make pottery,
but did not generally do so, as it is too heavy to carry; their receptacles were
undoubtedly made of leather and basketry. Pottery, thus a natural development for
sedentary peoples, was widely used by the neolithic people.
Pottery was often richly decorated with
incised, stamped, or painted motifs. Neolithic art also included a wide variety
of figurines (often of females, as in the Mother Goddess).
The cultivation of cereals and
domestication of animals such as cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs was adopted, not as
a brilliant discovery, but as a necessity caused by the pressures of a rising
population.
Pottery excavated at Jericho, dating from the period 3300-1550BC www.bible-archaeology.info
NEOLITHIC :INDIA 9500- 3300 BC
SITE TIME CHARACTERISTICS Kashmir Neolithic Culture 3,000 BC Lived in pits dug into the compact
Karewa loess Ganga Valley Neolithic Culture
2500 BC Convergence of Indo-Aryan, Dravidian and Austro-Asiatic peoples
Eastern Neolithic Culture 2200 BC Pointed-butt celts and cord impressed pottery
Peninsular Neolithic Culture 3,000 BC Ash Mounds
Neolithic tools www.wikipedia.com
Toranagallu ash mound www.wikipedia.com
The Neolithic phase at Jhusi is characterised by • hand made pottery • bone tools and arrowheads •stone tools. • A big structure that might have been used as hearth-cum-pottery-kiln has also been found.
Lahurdewa, in the central ganga plain is surrounded by water bodies. Availability of water and well-suited soil conditions would have been determining factors for the locations. • early innovations associated with the ceramic types and other artefacts •cereal domestications and some sort of cultivations at quite an early date. •Appearance of morphologically distinct form of rice, comparable to cultivated Oryza sativa - an early beginning of agriculture. •There is a strong possibility that people have been living in Ganga Plains since late Palaeolitic and interacted with the communities living in the Vindhyas,Himalayas and other areas.
` lahuradewa Jhusi
Prehistory in India, d oc. By VN Misra
JHUSI & LAHURADEWA :INDIA 7000- 2500 BC
MEHRGARH :INDIA 7000- 2600 BC
Mehrgarh is a Neolithic site in Baluchistan, Pakistan, and one of the earliest sites with evidence of farming and
herding in south Asia. Mehrgarh is now seen as a precursor to the Indus Valley Civilization. The site was occupied
continuously until about 2600 BC, when it was abandoned.
The settlement was transformed from a cluster of small mudbrick storage units with evidence of domestication of cattle and barley to a substantial Bronze Age village at the
centre of its own distinctive craft zone. The absence of early residential structures has been interpreted by some as
further evidence of the site‖s early occupation by mobile early humans possible travelling through the nearby pass
seasonally.
Although Mehrgarh was abandoned by the time of the emergence of the literate urbanised phase of the Indus
Civilisation, its development illustrates the development of the civilisation‖s subsistence patterns as well as its craft and
trade specialisation.
Early farming village in Mehrgarh, c. 7000 BCE, with houses built with mud bricks www.wikipedia.org
The earliest settled portion of Mehrgarh was in an area called MR.3, in the northeast corner of the 495-acre
occupation. It is a small farming and pastoralist village dated between 7000-5500 BC, with mud brick houses
and granaries.
The early Mehrgarh residents used local copper ore, basket containers lined with bitumen, and an array of
bone tools. They grew six-row barley, einkorn and emmer wheat, jujubes and dates. Sheep, goats and cattle
were herded at Mehrgarh beginning during this early period.
The most recent studies at Mehrgarh showed they even
had a pretty good grasp of evidence of dentistry.
Later periods included craft activities such as flint knapping, tanning, and bead production; also, a
significant level of metal working.
MEHRGARH :INDIA 7000- 2600 BC
A figurine from Mehrgarh, c. 3000 BCE www.wikipedia.org
URFA, ANATOLIA 9500-7500BC
• The hilltop mound, around 300 meters in diameter and some 15 meters high, contains a series of circular structures or temples, carbon dated to a period between 9,500 and 7,500 B.C. • Structures were made by first building an "artificial" mound of debris, then hollowing it out to create a sunken chamber. • Each contains a series of T-shaped limestone monoliths, the tallest of which are upto five meters high. •These freestanding stones are anthropomorphic, with the top of the T representing the head of the figure. The stem of the T represents the body, with arms carved in light relief on either side.
Fox – Urfa Excavations www.wikipedia.com
•The excavated architectural remains were of long rectangular houses containing two to three parallel flights of rooms. These are adjacent to a similarly rectangular ante-structure, subdivided by wall projections, which should be seen as a residential space. •This type of house is characterized by thick, multi-layered foundations made of large angular cobbles and boulders, the gaps filled with smaller stones so as to provide a relatively even surface to support the superstructure. These foundations are interrupted every 1-1.5m by underfloor channels, at right angles to the main axis of the houses, which were covered in stone slabs but open to the sides. They served the drainage, aeration or the cooling of the houses •In the northwest part of the village a cult complex had been cut into the hillslope •Monolithic were built into its dry stone walls, its interior contained two free-standing pillars of 3 m height.
The site www.turkeyforholidays.com
A house www.ancient-wisdom.co.uk
URFA, ANATOLIA :ARCHITECTURE 9500-7500BC
•The local limestone was carved into numerous statues and smaller sculptures, including a more than life-sized bare human head with a snake or sikha-like tuft. • There is also a statue of a bird. •Some of the pillars also bore reliefs, including ones of human hands. • The free-standing anthropomorphic figures of limestone excavated at Nevali Cori belong to the earliest known life-size sculptures. •Several hundred small clay figurines (about 5 cm high), most of them depicting humans, have been interpreted as votive offerings. •They were fired at temperatures between 500-600°C, which suggests the development of ceramic firing technology before the advent of pottery proper. [1]
sculptures www.google.com
1. www.wikipedia.org
URFA, ANATOLIA :SCULPTURE 9500-7500BC
• Many of the monoliths are covered in relief carvings of wild animals, usually either predatory or dangerous, such as lions, snakes, foxes and scorpions.
• The floors of the temple chambers are of burnt lime, and benches line the walls.
• These massive stones were quarried, cut to shape, carted into place and sculpted to such a high standard by Stone Age man, obviously using only stone and flint tools, is remarkable.
Some other Mesolithic sites are Sarklimagara cave in Gaziantep region, Baradiz cave from Burdur area and open air settlements and cemeteries of Sogut Tarlasi, Biris near Bozova.
Modern day Urfa www.google.com
T –shaped limestone monolith www.wikipedia.org
URFA, ANATOLIA 9500-7500BC
JERICHO 9000 B.C.
Dwelling foundations unearthed at Tell-es Sultan in Jericho. www.wikipedia..org
•Located near Jordan river in West Bank of Palestinian territories. •Site has been inhabited ever since the founding of the Natufian Culture. •Mesolithic city plan is similar to that of Çatalhöyük •Site had abundant water supply, good climate and central location •Site shows signs of violent demolition in 15th century B.C. •Existed since before pottery and agriculture.
Neolithic watch tower built and destroyed in about 7000-8000 B.C. in Jericho www.bible-lands.info
•During 8350- 7350 BC circular houses of mud brick were built. From 7200 BC the houses were rectangular in shape with plastered walls and floors. •Population in such houses as many as 1500. •Settlement surrounded by massive stone wall as a defense mechanism against invaders, animals or floods •A single gate had towers flanking it on either side •Densely packed houses were accessible by narrow allies. •There were buildings for worship and storage •Floor levels of houses were below ground level and generally had two steps descending into the main room. •Benches ran along most walls.
JERICHO : ARCHITECTURE 9000 B.C.
BURUSHASKI LANGUAGE, INDIA/PAKISTAN 8,000 BC
Burshaski is a “language isolate”, spoken till date by people in northwest Kashmir, but has a history around 10,000 years old.
Karakoram range, where the Burosho people live www.google.com
Linguists believe that Burushaski is linked to ancient languages like Basque, the extinct Sumerian tongue and some North American languages.
Ancient genetic markers of migrating humans suggest how these different language pockets might actually be linked.
Usually Burushaski is not written. Occasionally, the Urdu version of the Arabic alphabet is used, but a fixed orthography does not exist.
A woman from Burosho www.paulstravelblog.com
Ain Ghazal is a Neolithic site located in North-Eastern Jordan, on the outskirts of Amman. •In its prime time around 7000 BC, it extended over 10-15 hectares and was inhabited by approximately 3000 people (four to five times its contemporary - Jericho). After 6500 BC, however, the population dropped sharply to about one sixth within only a few generations, probably due to environmental degradation •'Ain Ghazal was set on terraced ground at a valley-side, •Rectangular mud-brick houses that accommodated a square main room and a smaller anteroom. •Walls were plastered with mud on the outside, and with lime plaster inside that was renewed every few years. •Being an early farming community, the 'Ain Ghazal people cultivated cereals, legumens and chickpeas in a field above the village •They herded domesticated goats. However, they still hunted wild animals - deer, gazelle etc [1
1. www.wikipedia.org
An ain ghazal figure www.google.com
AIN GHAZAL, JORDAN 7250- 5000 BC
Artist‖s rendition of the city of Çatal Hüyük
northernblue.ca
•Çatal Hüyük was a very large Neolithic and Chalcolithic settlement found in Southern Anatolia, or present day Turkey. •Sophisticated society with many trade links. •Ruins yield materials from the Iranian highlands, Syria and the Levant region. •It had an average population of between 5,000 to 8,000 people.
ÇATAL HÜYÜK 6300– 5500 BC
On-site restoration of a typical interior www.wikipedia.org
•Mud-brick houses were crammed together in an agglutinative manner. •No footpaths or streets were used between dwellings, which were accessed by holes in the ceiling, and were reached by interior and exterior ladders. •Each main room served as an area for cooking and daily activities. •In good weather, daily activities may also have taken place on the rooftops, which conceivably formed an open air plaza. •Typical homes feature benches, raised platforms, domed ovens and grain storage rooms. •There are no houses with distinct features, which points to an absence of a social-class system.
ÇATAL HÜYÜK :ARCHITECTURE 6300– 5500 BC
Mother goddess seated on a throne, flanked by two lionesses, as depicted in the above sculpture www.reclusveleftist.com
•Vivid murals and figurines are found throughout the settlement, on interior and exterior walls. •Predominant images include men with erect phalluses, hunting scenes, red images of the now extinct aurochs (wild cattle) and stags, and vultures swooping down on headless figures •Heads of animals, especially of cattle, were mounted on walls. •Carefully made figurines, carved and molded from marble, blue and brown limestone, schist, calcite, basalt, alabaster, and clay, represent the Great Goddess •Arrows, spearheads, long knives and daggers were made out of imported flint and obsidian. •Obsidian mirrors, animal figurines, monochromatic pottery characterize their art.
ÇATAL HÜYÜK :ART 6300– 5500 BC
Infant skeleton excavated from a Çatal Hüyük burial site www.catalhoyuk.com
•The people of Çatalhöyük buried their dead within the village, in burial pits. •The bodies were tightly flexed before burial, and were often placed in baskets or wrapped in reed mats. • In some cases, graves were disturbed and the individual‖s head removed from the skeleton. •Some skulls were plastered and painted with ochre to recreate human-like faces, a custom more characteristic of Neolithic sites in Syria and at Neolithic Jericho than at sites closer by. •In some burials, remains are accompanied by funerary items like food, mirrors and pottery.
ÇATAL HÜYÜK :BURIALS 6300– 5500 BC
CHALCOLITHIC AGE
Copper ware from the Chalcolithic age www.anistor. gr
•The phase when copper metallurgy was being adopted by Neolithic cultures in the Near East and south-eastern Europe is sometimes called the Copper Age (or “Chalcolithic” or “Eneolithic”). •Metallurgy occurred first in the Fertile Crescent, where it gave rise to the Bronze Age in the 4th millennium BC. •Copper may originally have been a prestige material since, unlike stone, copper ore is not common and needed to be mined and smelted (heated to separate the metal from the rock).
5500-2000 B.C.
Copper, obtained from nodules of locally available copper or from copper ores, was used to
make ornaments and weapons (such as flat axe-blades), but was too soft or brittle to be truly
useful.
It could be cold-hammered into shape to make rough tools or beads; or it could be cast.
Temperatures of about 800° C that were required
for smelting were provided by the high-temperature kilns developed for firing fine
pottery.
Casting made it possible to produce larger and more complex objects such as hammer-axes.
Crucibles and slag dating from the 4th
millennium BC have been found, and copper mines are known from a number of sites in the
Near East.
CHALCOLITHIC AGE
Chalcolithic mine in Timna Park, Negev Desert, Israel. www.wikipedia.org
5500-2000 B.C.
CHALCOLITHIC :INDIA
SITE Characteristics Indo- Gangetic Divide and upper Ganga-Yamuna Doab
•ochre-coloured pottery (OCP) •Rammed earth floors, post-holes, baked and Unbaked bricks •Pottery with incised designs, graffiti, paintings in black pigment •Cultivation of rice and barley •Domestication of animals
Ahar, Mewar region, Rajasthan
•Houses made of stone, mud-brick and mud, Massive foundations more than a metre in width, Walls of mud •Wares made of well-levigated clay, slipped and burnished surface, well baked and sturdy. •technology based on Copper, Copper objects include flat axes, choppers etc
Narhan, Northern Vindhyas and the middle and lower Ganga valley
The houses were generally made of wattle-and-daub as represented by postholes, burnt lumps of clay with bamboo and reed impressions, and compact mud floors. They were usually of rectangular shape.
5500-2000 B.C.
SITE Characteristics Kayatha, Madhya Pradesh
•The Kayatha culture people lived in small huts having well-rammed floors • cultivated wheat, barley and domesticated animals, possibly even horses. • typical ceramic, chocolate-slipped, sturdy, well baked wares
Malwa, Malwa region, Madhya Pradesh
•wattle-and-daub houses of rectangular and round shape, burnt wooden posts, clay plaster with bamboo, reed impressions •cultivated cereals, legumes, oil seeds and fruits •painted designs are primarily geometric such as triangles and lozenges (diamond shaped)
Jorwe, Western Maharashtra
•large villages like Bahal and Nevasa •Rectangular structures, measuring 5 × 3 m with low mud walls, rows with the longer axis in a roughly east-west orientation.
CHALCOLITHIC :INDIA 5500-2000 B.C.
CHALCOLITHIC SITES 5500-2000 B.C.
The site was settled from the Chalcolithic period in the fourth millennium BC until the Phrygian period in the first millennium BC. Alişar later developed into a walled town. Eventually it became the most significant city in the region. It was a center for trade attracting merchants from Assyria at the beginning of the second millennium BC.
Can Hasan was a late Neolithic settlement dating from 6500 BCE, inhabited into the Chalcolithic period.
HACILAR, TURKEY Hacilar is an early human settlement in south western Turkey. It has been dated back 7040 BC at its earliest stage of development. Archaeological remains indicate that the site was abandoned and reoccupied on more than one occasion in its history.
BEYCESULTAN, TURKEY
CAN HASAN, TURKEY
ALIŞAR HÖYÜK, TURKEY
Beycesultan, an archaeological site in western Anatolia, was occupied during a long sequence between Late Chalcolithic to Late Bronze Age (Hittite Empire)
and then also in the Byzantine period.
In Hacilar, housing consisted of grouped units surrounding an inner courtyard. Each dwelling was built on a stone foundation to
protect against water damage. Walls were made of wood and daub or mud-brick that
was mortared with lime. Wooden poles also supported the flat roof. It is generally
believed that these houses had an upper story made of wood.
The interiors were finished smooth with
plaster and were rarely painted. Over time changes were made to the housing units;
Querns, braziers and mortars appeared in the floors. Recesses in walls were also put to
good use as cupboards. The kitchen was separated from the living rooms and the
upper levels were used for granaries and/or workshops.
ARCHITECTURE :VILLAGE 5500-2000 B.C.
A mother goddess statuette from Canhasan, in Turkey. This figurine, along with other mother goddess figurines found in Canhasan, is thought to be an evidence of a continual matriarchal society in central Anatolia during the Chalcolithic age. www.wikipedia.org
ARCHITECTURE :DEFENCE 5500-2000 B.C.
Village architecture also provides evidence for the necessity of communal defence, which was
accomplished by means of a circuit wall or—as in Hacılar—a continuous wall formed by the
outside rear walls of contiguous houses.
At Hacılar and Can Hasan, the heavy ground-floor chambers of these houses had no doorways
and were evidently entered by ladders from a more fragile upper story.
Improvements in architecture, however, can be seen at Mersin, where one of its later phases is
represented by a neatly planned and constructed fortress. The steep slope of the mound was
crowned by a continuous defensive wall, pierced by slit windows and entered through a gateway protected by flanking towers. Inside, there was
formally arranged accommodation for the garrison and other evidence of military
discipline as conceived in 5200 BC.
Excavation site at Tell Brak, Syria. www. mcdonald.cam.ac.uk
Bronze Age is the period which corresponds to the introduction of metallurgy, for making tools,
weapons, and ceremonial objects.
Sometimes, low percentages of other elements were naturally present in the copper ore, and were found
to make the metal easier to cast and harder when set. Adding about 10 per cent tin to the copper, a far
harder alloy—bronze—was produced, which was easy to cast (it flowed more easily) and could be made into many different shapes. It also held a hard, sharp
cutting edge which could be resharpened, while worn or broken tools could be melted down and
recast.
Most bronze objects—swords, spearheads, axes, knives, pins, and brooches—were made by casting.
Other objects such as shields were made by hammering sheets of metal into shape.
3300-1200 B.C. BRONZE AGE
A drawing of an early cuneiform carving of a procession by Hittites in Boğazkale, Turkey. www.wikipedia.org
Modern experiments have shown that bronze tools and weapons are
generally not much sharper than their equivalents in flint.
The adoption of bronze was, therefore,
probably closely linked to social status: not only were the materials sometimes difficult to obtain (and hence presumably expensive), but
bronze is a shiny gold-coloured metal which can also be richly decorated.
Like gold itself, it was an ideal vehicle for the display of personal power and
wealth, and was popular among the prehistoric aristocracy for jewellery and ornaments, as well as for often
profusely decorated weapons and for tools.
3300-1200 B.C. BRONZE AGE
Because the metal was highly valued, objects made of bronze were often hidden in hoards or buried with the dead, and it is these sources that have yielded most of the Bronze Age artifacts known today. The assemblage shown here consists of objects of personal adornment. Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 2003
The agricultural way of life, established in the Neolithic period, continued. Ploughing appears to have become widespread, as shown by remains of implements as well as plough-marks under barrows, and depictions of ploughing in the rock art of the period. As populations grew and expanded, pressure on land increased, and agriculture spread. Soil erosion also increased. Another trend towards the end of the Bronze Age was a growing emphasis on fortifications. Bronze armour and helmets, and new types of weapons such as the very effective slashing sword, suggest that warfare had come to the fore.
3300-1200 B.C. BRONZE AGE
Bronze Age weapons include slender spearheads, swords, and knives. Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 2003
5900-1100 B.C. MESOPOTAMIA
Mesopotamia, located in a region that included parts of what is now eastern Syria, south-eastern Turkey, and most
of Iraq, lay between two rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates. The name
Mesopotamia is a Greek word meaning “between the rivers.”
Its oldest known communities date from 7000 BC. The world's earliest
urban civilizations arose here around 3500 BC. Mesopotamia, known as “the
cradle of civilization”, was the centre of Sumerian, Babylonian, Assyrian, and
Chaldean civilizations.
In the 6th century BC, it became part of the Persian Empire, at the time the
largest empire in the world.
Ancient Mesopotamia www.chaldean.org
Time period/ Era Pre-pottery Neolithic
Pottery Neolithic Chalcolithic
Early Bronze
Middle Bronze Late Bronze
5900 – 4400 BC Ubaid
4400 – 3200 BC Uruk 3100 – 2900 BC Jemdet Nasr 2900 – 2350 BC Sumerian
city states
2350 – 2193 BC Akkadian 2119 – 2004 BC Ur (3rd
dynasty) 2000 – 1800 BC Assyrian 1800 – 1700 BC Babylonian 1600 – 1200 BC Kassite
(Middle Assyrian)
1200 – 1100 BC Collapse of Bronze Age www.wikipedia.org
5900-1100 B.C. MESOPOTAMIA :TIMELINE
EBLA, SYRIA 3000- 1650 BC
The image shows part of the excavated city of Ebla. Most of the ruins have been given a top layer of new bricks. Some stones used to grind flour are also seen in the picture.
www.wikipedia.org
Ebla was an important commercial centre ruled by a merchant oligarchy that elected a monarch and entrusted
the city's defence to paid soldiers. It was a polytheistic society.
The Akkadians destroyed Ebla around
2300 BC. Several centuries after its destruction by the Akkadians, Ebla
managed to recover some of its importance, and had a second apogee
lasting from c.1850 to 1600 BC.
Ebla was part of a flourishing north Syrian civilization contemporaneous with early Egypt and Mesopotamia.
Excavations unearthed Ebla's royal archives, a collection of more than 14,000 inscriptions
on clay tablets dating from 2500-2200 BC. They were written in the cuneiform script developed by Sumerians, but were adapted to the language of Ebla's Semitic inhabitants
TEPE GAWRA, IRAQ (UBAID) 5000-3000 B.C
Tepe Gawra is a Mesopotamian city in northern Iraq, fifteen kilometers from the modern town of Mosul. The earliest occupations at Tepe Gawra are dated to the mid-sixth millennium BC, the Ubaid period in Mesopotamia.
•Burials at Tepe Gawra reveal social stratification, expressed by the presence of beads of imported lapis lazuli as well as ivory, etc. •A storage facility called the "round house" stored grain and weaponry.
Tomb in Tepe Gawra www.cnes.cla.umn.edu
1. www.cnes.cla.umn.edu
Mesopotamian tablet www.google.com
www.google.com
•Eridu is best known for its temples, called ziggurats. •The earliest temple, dated to the Ubaid period about 5570 BC, consisted of a small room with a possible cult niche and an offering table. • Temples were built in the classical early Mesopotamian format of tripartite plan, with a buttressed facade and a long central room with an altar. • The city was planned on the basis of caste and economic stature – with the rich in the center and the poor surrounding them.
TEPE GAWRA, IRAQ (SUMER)
Eridu is the oldest known Sumerian city, 22 kilometers south of Nasiriya ,during the Ubaid through Ur periods of southern Mesopotamia. According to Sumerian tradition the city belonged to the god Enki.
Ziggurat www.wayfaring.info
Enki – the God of Eridu www.wayfaring.info
5000-2000 B.C.
•Readers‖ Digest Vanished Civilizations, The Readers‖ Digest Association Limited, 2002 •Prehistoric human colonization of India, V N MISRA •Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia Standard 2003 •en.wikipedia.org •www.handprint.com •www.originsnet.org •www.britannica.com •maps.nationalgeographic.com •archaeology.about.com •ancientneareast.tripod.com •www.history-world.org
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