Squaring the Circle. Social and Environmental Implications of Pre-Pottery Neolithic Building Technology at Tell Qarassa (South Syria)

Abstract

We present the results of the microstratigraphic, phytolith and wood charcoal study of the remains of a 10.5 ka roof. The roof is part of a building excavated at Tell Qarassa (South Syria), assigned to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period (PPNB). The Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN) period in the Levant coincides with the emergence of farming. This fundamental change in subsistence strategy implied the shift from mobile to settled aggregated life, and from tents and huts to hard buildings. As settled life spread across the Levant, a generalised transition from round to square buildings occurred, that is a trademark of the PPNB period. The study of these buildings is fundamental for the understanding of the ever-stronger reciprocal socio-ecological relationship humans developed with the local environment since the introduction of sedentism and domestication. Descriptions of buildings in PPN archaeological contexts are usually restricted to the macroscopic observation of wooden elements (posts and beams) and mineral components (daub, plaster and stone elements). Reconstructions of microscopic and organic components are frequently based on ethnographic analogy. The direct study of macroscopic and microscopic, organic and mineral, building components performed at Tell Qarassa provides new insights on building conception, maintenance, use and destruction. These elements reflect new emerging paradigms in the relationship between Neolithic societies and the environment. A square building was possibly covered here with a radial roof, providing a glance into a topologic shift in the conception and understanding of volumes, from round-based to square-based geometries. Macroscopic and microscopic roof components indicate buildings were conceived for year-round residence rather than seasonal mobility. This implied performing maintenance and restoration of partially damaged buildings, as well as their adaptation to seasonal variability. ; MICINN (HAR2011-21545-C02-01) The last hunter-gatherers and the first producing societies in Central and Southern Syria, the Ministry of Culture Spanish Institute of Cultural Heritage (Excavations Abroad), the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, JAEDoc (contracts for A. Balbo), SimulPast Consolider and European Social Found, the Basque Government (Pre-doctoral grant Number: BFI.09.249 for A. Arranz), Basque Government-Research Group UPV/EHU IT-288-07 (L. Zapata), UFI11/09 Cuaternario of the UPV/EHU and Project HAR2011-23716 (I+D+i), Programa de Movilidad del Personal Investigador del Gobierno Vasco 2012, AGRIWESTMED (European Research Council funded) (contract for C. Lancelotti).