Early bronze age settlement and land use in the Tell Es-sweyhat region, Syria / Michael D. Danti.

Format:

Book

Manuscript

Microformat

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

Danti, Michael D.

Contributor:

Zettler, Richard L., 1949- advisor.

University of Pennsylvania.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Penn dissertations--Anthropology.

Anthropology--Penn dissertations.

Local Subjects:

Penn dissertations--Anthropology.

Anthropology--Penn dissertations.

Physical Description:

xx, 346 pages : illustrations ; 29 cm

Production:

2000.

Summary:

Many early cities in the ancient Near East lay in and regions where canal irrigation was unfeasible and rainfed agriculture was prone to low yields and crop failure. One city, preserved as the ruin mound of Tell es-Sweyhat in northern Syria, lay in one of northwestern Mesopotamia's most marginal environments for dry farming. Nevertheless, archaeological excavations reveal Sweyhat grew from a small village to a fortified city during the Early Bronze Age (3100--2000 BC). Land-use studies and archaeological surveys suggest that, at its height, the city's population easily surpassed its maximum agricultural potential. Unlike other contemporary northern Mesopotamian cities, the inhabitants could not readily import grain surpluses from a rural hinterland due to geographic and environmental conditions. Yet urban Sweyhat, likely the seat of a powerful city-state, continued to flourish for at least a century. Recent archaeological excavations and textual analyses indicate sheep-goat pastoralism and the exploitation of steppe resources were important subsistence activities. Sweyhat likely served as the center of a highly integrated agropastoral economy specializing in pastoral production.

To investigate this possibility, the author added pastoral production to the current model of Sweyhat's subsistence economy using modern studies of small ruminant production in Syria. To gather data on the ancient pastoral economy, the author excavated one of the earliest permanent settlements in the Tell es-Sweyhat region and conducted an archaeological reconnaissance of the Balikh-Euphrates uplands.

This study reveals that pastoral production as a wholly subsistence activity is at best a break even proposition; however, it provides a means of exploiting seasonal pastures and pockets of arable land in the uplands and provides wool---an exportable commodity. Upland settlement patterns mirror the riverine zone. The earliest settlements in the Sweyhat region were fortified centers for storing barley and had extremely low resident populations. During the 3 rd millennium BC, a growing emphasis on producing pastoral surpluses is evident. Surpluses were achieved through the intensification of dry farming in the Sweyhat embayment and the concomitant extensification of pastoralism through rangeland improvement.

Notes:

Adviser: Richard L. Zettler.

Thesis (Ph.D. in Anthropology) -- University of Pennsylvania, 2000.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

University Microfilms order no.: 99-76411.

OCLC:

187485307