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Chronology of the Early Pre-Pottery Neolithic Settlement Tell Qaramel, Northern Syria, in the Light of Radiocarbon Dating

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Ryszard F Mazurowski ,
Danuta J Michczyńska ,
Anna Pazdur  and
Natalia Piotrowska
Ryszard F Mazurowski*
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, Warsaw University, Krakowskie Przedmiescie 26/28, 00-927 Warsaw, Poland
Danuta J Michczyńska
Affiliation:
GADAM Centre of Excellence, Institute of Physics, Silesian University of Technology, Krzywoustego 2, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland
Anna Pazdur
Affiliation:
GADAM Centre of Excellence, Institute of Physics, Silesian University of Technology, Krzywoustego 2, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland
Natalia Piotrowska
Affiliation:
GADAM Centre of Excellence, Institute of Physics, Silesian University of Technology, Krzywoustego 2, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland
*
Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

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Archaeological excavations at the Syrian settlement of Tell Qaramel have been conducted since 1999. They are concentrated on remnants of the Protoneolithic and early stages of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period. The settlement has revealed an extremely rich collection of everyday use of flint, bone, and mostly stone objects, such as decorated chlorite or limestone vessels; shaft straighteners used to stretch wooden arrow shafts, richly decorated in geometrical, zoomorphic, and anthropomorphic patterns; as well as different kinds of stones, querns, mortars, pestles, grinders, polishing plates, celts, and adzes.

Excavations brought the discovery of 5 circular towers. Some 57 charcoal samples were collected during the excavations and dated in the GADAM Centre in Gliwice, Poland. The stratigraphy of the settlement and results of radiocarbon dating testify that these are the oldest such constructions in the world, older than the famous and unique tower in Jericho. They confirm that the Neolithic culture was formed simultaneously in many regions of the Near East, creating a farming culture and establishing settlements with mud and stone architecture and creating the first stages of a proto-urban being.

Type
Radiocarbon Chronologies of the Neolithic and Metal Ages
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 51 , Issue 2 , 2009 , pp. 771 - 781
Copyright
Copyright © 2009 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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