Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T23:30:54.912Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Large-scale storage and storage symbolism in the ancient Near East: a clay silo model from Tel Tsaf

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 August 2017

Danny Rosenberg ,
Yosef Garfinkel  and
Florian Klimscha
Danny Rosenberg*
Affiliation:
Laboratory for Ground Stone Tools Research, Zinman Institute of Archaeology, University of Haifa, 199 Abba Khousy Avenue, Mount Carmel, Haifa 3498838, Israel
Yosef Garfinkel
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem 9190501, Israel
Florian Klimscha
Affiliation:
German Archaeological Institute, Eurasia Department, Im Dol 2–6, 14195 Berlin, Germany
*
*Author for correspondence (Email: [email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Recent excavations at the protohistoric (5200–4600 cal BC) site of Tel Tsaf in the Jordan Valley (Israel) revealed an unusual clay model, found in a room surrounded by several large grain-storage silos. It provides the first insight into the manner in which the superstructures of the silos at Tel Tsaf may have been constructed. More importantly, this find adds a new dimension to understanding the link between large-scale storage and the symbolism related to grain storage, burial and the regeneration of life. It also illustrates the early appearance of distinct strategies for controlling the means of production and for accumulating wealth—factors that led to the creation of social hierarchies in the ancient Near East.

Keywords

IsraelTel TsafChalcolithicsilostoragesymbolism
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 91 , Issue 358 , August 2017 , pp. 885 - 900
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2017 

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

Amiet, P. 1972. Glyptique susienne (Mémoires de la délégation archéologique en Iran 43). Paris: Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner.Google Scholar
Bartl, K. 2004. Vorratshaltung: die spätepipaläolithische und frühneolithische Entwicklung im westlichen Vorderasien; Voraussetzungen, typologische Varianz und sozio-ökonomische Implikationen im Zeitraum zwischen 12,000 und 7,600 BP (Studies in Early Near Eastern Production, Subsistence, and Environment 10). Berlin: Ex oriente.Google Scholar
Bar-Yosef, O. 1998. The Natufian Culture in the Levant, threshold to the origins of agriculture. Evolutionary Anthropology 6: 159–77. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1520-6505(1998)6:5<159::AID-EVAN4>3.0.CO;2-7 Google Scholar
Bar-Yosef, O. & Ayalon, E.. 2001. Chalcolithic ossuaries—what do they imitate and why? Qadmoniot 34 (1): 34–43 (in Hebrew).Google Scholar
Beedle, P.L. 2001. Silos: an agricultural success story (giving old barns new life). Madison: Wisconsin University.Google Scholar
Ben-Shlomo, D., Hill, A.C. & Garfinkel, Y.. 2009. Feasting between the revolutions: evidence from Chalcolithic Tel Tsaf, Israel. Journal of Mediterranean Archeology 22: 129–50. https://doi.org/10.1558/jmea.v22i2.129 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bogaard, A., Charles, M., Twiss, K.C., Fairbairn, A., Yalman, N., Filipović, D., Demirergi, G.A., Füsun, E., Russell, N. & Henecke, J.. 2009. Private pantries and celebrated surplus: storing and sharing food at Neolithic Catalhöyük, Central Anatolia. Antiquity 83: 649–68. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00098896 Google Scholar
Bolger, D. & Peltenburg, E.. 1991. The building model, in Peltenburg, E. (ed.) Lemba archaeological project II: a ceremonial area at Kissonerga: 12–27. Gothenburg: Åströms.Google Scholar
Bradley, R. 2003. A life less ordinary: the ritualization of the domestic sphere in later prehistoric Europe. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 13: 5–23. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959774303000015 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bretschneider, J. 1991. Architekturmodelle in Vorderasien und der ostlichen Agais vom Neolithikum bis in das 1. Jahrtausend: Phänomene in der Kleinkunst an Beispielen aus Mesopotamien, dem Iran, Anatolien, Syrien, der Levante und dem ägäischen Raum unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der bau- und der religionsgeschichtlichen Aspekte (Alter Orient und Altes Testament 229). Kevelaer: Butzon & Bercker.Google Scholar
Broman Morales, V. 1983. Jarmo figurines and other clay objects, in Braidwood, L.S., Braidwood, R.J., Howe, B., Reed, C.A. & Watson, P.J. (ed.) Prehistoric archaeology along the Zagros flanks: 369–423. Chicago (IL): University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Broman Morales, V. 1990. Figurines and other clay objects from Sarab and Çayönü. Chicago (IL): University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Buchholz, H.G. & Karageorghis, V.. 1973. Prehistoric Greece and Cyprus. New York: Phaidon.Google Scholar
Cappers, R.T.J. & Neef, R.. 2012. Handbook of plant palaeoecology (Groningen Archaeological Studies 19). Eelde: Barkhuis.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Childe, V.G. 1950. The urban revolution. Town Planning Review 21: 3–17. https://doi.org/10.3828/tpr.21.1.k853061t614q42qh Google Scholar
Childe, V.G. 1951. Social evolution. New York: Schuman.Google Scholar
Currid, J.D. 1985. The beehive granaries of ancient Palestine. Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins 101: 97–109.Google Scholar
Dunand, M. 1973. Fouilles de Byblos V. Paris: Maisonneuve.Google Scholar
Earle, T.K. & D'Altroy, T.N.. 1982. Storage facilities and state finance in the Upper Mantaro Valley, Peru, in Ericson, J.E. & Earle, T.K. (ed.) Contexts for prehistoric exchange: 265–90. New York: Academic.Google Scholar
Flam, J.D. 1976. Graphic symbolism in the Dogon granary: grain, time and the notion of history. Journal of African Studies 1: 35–50.Google Scholar
Gallis, K. 1985. A late Neolithic foundation offering from Thessaly. Antiquity 59: 20–24. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00056532 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garfinkel, Y., Ben-Shlomo, D., Freikman, M. & Vered, A.. 2007. Tel Tsaf: the 2004–2006 excavation seasons. Israel Exploration Journal 57: 1–33.Google Scholar
Garfinkel, Y., Ben-Shlomo, D. & Kuperman, T.. 2009. Large-scale storage of grain surplus in the sixth millennium BC: the silos of Tel Tsaf. Antiquity 83: 309–25. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00098458 Google Scholar
Garfinkel, Y., Klimscha, F., Shalev, S. & Rosenberg, D.. 2014. The beginning of metallurgy in the southern Levant: a late 6th-millennium cal BC copper awl from Tel Tsaf, Israel. PLoS ONE 9: e92591. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0092591 Google Scholar
Garstang, J. I. Ben-Dor & Fitzgerald, G.M.. 1936. Jericho: city and necropolis (report for the sixth and concluding season, 1936). Annuals of Archaeology and Anthropology, Liverpool 23: 67–100.Google Scholar
Gimbutas, M.A. 1982. The goddesses and gods of old Europe 6500–3500 B.C., myths and cult images. Berkeley: University of California.Google Scholar
Golani, A. & Yannai, E.. 2016. Storage structures of the Late Early Bronze I in the southern Levant and the urbanisation process. Palestine Exploration Quarterly 148: 8–41. https://doi.org/10.1080/00310328.2015.1096049 Google Scholar
Gophna, R. & Sadeh, S.. 1988–1989. Excavation at Tel Tsaf: an early Chalcolithic site in the Jordan Valley. Tel Aviv 15–16: 3–36. https://doi.org/10.1179/tav.1988.1988.1.3 Google Scholar
Goren, Y. 2002. The pottery assemblage, in Goren, Y. & Fabian, P. (ed.) Kissufim Road—a Chalcolithic mortuary site: 21–41. Jerusalem: Israel Antiquities Authorities.Google Scholar
Graham, P. 2014. Archaeobotanical remains from late 6th/early 5th millennium BC Tel Tsaf, Israel. Journal of Archaeological Science 43: 105–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2013.12.018 Google Scholar
Greenhut, Z. 2011. Offering to God: the association of cultic buildings and grain in the Iron Age. Eretz Israel: Archaeological, Historical and Geographical Studies 30: 165–73 (in Hebrew).Google Scholar
Hansen, S., Toderas, M. & Wunderlich, J.P.. 2012. Măgura Gorgana: Eine kupferzeitliche Siedlung an der Unteren Donau, in Raeck, W. & Steuernagel, D. (ed.) Das Gebaute und das Gedachte: 85–98. Bonn: Rudolf Habelt.Google Scholar
Hayden, B. 1990. Nimrods, piscators, pluckers and planters: the emergence of food production. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 9: 31–69. https://doi.org/10.1016/0278-4165(90)90005-X Google Scholar
Hill, A.C. 2011. Specialized pastoralism and social stratification— analysis of the fauna from Chalcolithic Tel Tsaf, Israel. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Connecticut.Google Scholar
Horowitz, A. 1988–1989. Pollen analysis from Tel Tsaf. Tel Aviv 15–16: 55. https://doi.org/10.1179/tav.1988.1988.1.3 Google Scholar
Ingold, T. 1983. The significance of storage in hunting societies. Man 18: 553–771. https://doi.org/10.2307/2801597 Google Scholar
Katz, H. 2006. Architectural terracotta models from Eretz Israel, from the fifth to the middle first millennium B.C.E. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Haifa.Google Scholar
Katz, H. 2016. Portable shrine models—ancient architectural clay models from the Levant (British Archaeological Reports international series 2791). Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.Google Scholar
Kuijt, I. 2008. Demography and storage systems during the southern Levantine Neolithic demographic transition, in Bocquet-Appel, J.P. & Bar-Yosef, O. (ed.) The Neolithic demographic transition and its consequences: 287–313. New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Kuijt, I. 2009. What do we really know about food storage, surplus, and feasting in pre-agricultural communities? Current Anthropology 50: 641–44. https://doi.org/10.1086/605082 Google Scholar
Kuijt, I. & Finlayson, B.. 2009. Evidence for food storage and pre-domestication granaries 11,000 years ago in the Jordan Valley. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 106: 10966–70. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.081276410 Google Scholar
Liphschitz, N. 1988–1989. Analysis of the botanical remains from Tel Tsaf. Tel Aviv 15–16: 52–54. https://doi.org/10.1179/tav.1988.1988.1.3 Google Scholar
Lull, V., Micó, R., Rihuente Herrada, C. & Risch, R.. 2010. Macht und Metall im 3. und 2. Jt. V. u. Z. im Südosten der Iberischen Halbinsel, in Meller, H. & Bertemes, F. (ed.) Der Griff nach den Sternen: wie Europas Eliten zu Macht und Reichtum kamen: 881–902. Halle: Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte.Google Scholar
Marinatos, S. 1946. Greniers de l'Helladique ancien. Bulletin de Correspondance Hellenique 70: 337–51. https://doi.org/10.3406/bch.1946.2584 Google Scholar
Mazar, A. 2001. The significance of the granary building at Beth Yerah, in Wolff, S.R. (ed.) Studies in the archaeology of Israel and the neighboring lands in memory of Douglas L. Esse: 447–66. Chicago (IL): The Oriental Institute.Google Scholar
Milevski, I., Braun, E., Verga, D. & Israel, Y.. 2014. The Early Bronze Age settlement and large-scale silo complex of Amaziya, Israel, in Bieliński, P., Gawlikowski, M., Koliński, R., Ławecka, D., Sołtysiak, A. & Wygnańska, Z. (ed.) Excavation and progress reports. Proceedings of the 8th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, volume 2: 713–21. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
Morris, S.P. & Papadopoulos, J.K.. 2004. Of granaries and games: Egyptian stowaways in an Athenian chest. Hesperia Supplements 33: 225–42.Google Scholar
Muller, B. 2002. Les ‘maquettes architecturales’ du Proche-Orient Ancien. Beirut: Institut français d'archéologie du Proche-Orient.Google Scholar
Nativ, A. 2008. A note on Chalcolithic ossuary jars: a metaphor for metamorphosis. Tel Aviv 35: 209–14. https://doi.org/10.1179/tav.2008.2008.2.209 Google Scholar
Özdoğan, M., Mikaye, Y. & Dede, N.Ö.. 1991. An interim report on excavations at Yarimburgaz and Toptepe in eastern Thrace. Anatolica 17: 59–121.Google Scholar
Paulette, T.S. 2015. Grain storage and the moral economy in Mesopotamia (3000–2000 BCE). Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Perrot, J. & Ladiray, D.. 1980. Tombes à ossuaires de la région côtière Palestinienne au IVe millénaire avant l’ère chrétienne (Mémoire et Travaux du Centre de Recherches Préhistoriques Français de Jérusalem 1). Paris: Association Paléorient.Google Scholar
Pfälzner, P. 2002. Modes of storage and the development of economic systems in the Early Jezireh period, in Al-Gailani Weer, L., Curtis, J., Martin, H., McMahon, A., Oates, J. & Reade, J. (ed.) Of pots and plans: papers on the archaeology and history of Mesopotamia and Syria presented to David Oates in honour of his 75th birthday: 259–86. London: Nabu.Google Scholar
Postgate, J.N. 1992. Early Mesopotamia: society and economy at the dawn of history. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Prussin, L. 1972. West African mud granaries. Paideuma Mitteilungen zur Kulturkunde 18: 144–69. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40341525 Google Scholar
Reisner, G.A. & Smith, W.S.. 1955. A history of the Giza necropolis, volume 2: the tomb of Hetep-Heres, the mother of Cheops. Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, D., Klimscha, F., Graham, P., Hill, A.C., Weissbrod, L., Katlav, I., Love, S., Pinsky, S., Hubbard, E. & Boaretto, E.. 2014. Back to Tel Tsaf: a preliminary report on the 2013 season of the renewed project. Journal of the Israel Prehistoric Society 44: 148–79.Google Scholar
Rothman, M. 2001. Uruk Mesopotamia and its neighbors: cross-cultural interaction at the era of state formation. Santa Fe (NM): SAR.Google Scholar
Smithson, E.L. 1968. The tomb of a rich Athenian lady, ca. 850 B.C. Hesperia 37: 77–116. https://doi.org/10.2307/147539 Google Scholar
Smithson, E.L. 1969. Twin granaries from Phaleron. Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 28 (2): 3–14. https://doi.org/10.2307/3774518 Google Scholar
Streit, K. & Garfinkel, Y.. 2015. Tel Tsaf and the impact of the Ubaid Culture on the southern Levant: interpreting the radiocarbon evidence. Radiocarbon 57: 1–15. https://doi.org/10.2458/azu_rc.57.18200 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Testart, A. 1982. The significance of food storage among hunter-gatherers: residence patterns, population densities and social inequalities. Current Anthropology 23: 523–37. https://doi.org/10.1086/202894 Google Scholar
Tzori, N. 1958. Neolithic and Chalcolithic sites in the Valley of Beth-Shan. Palestine Exploration Quarterly 90: 44–51. https://doi.org/10.1179/peq.1958.90.1.44 Google Scholar
Wright, H.T. 1977. Recent research on the origin of the state. Annual Review of Anthropology 6: 379–97. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.an.06.100177. 002115 Google Scholar