Tracking the Neolithic in the Near East: Lithic Perspectives on Its Origins, Development and Dispersals

This book combines the latest studies of Near Eastern Neolithic lithics by leading international archaeologists to develop their analytical potential and advance our understanding of the world oldest farming societies of the Near East in human history.

This volume presents the proceedings of the 9th International Conference of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic Chipped and Ground Stone Industries of the Near East, hosted at the University of Tokyo, Japan, from November 12 to 16, 2019 (PPN9-Tokyo).

A unique point of the volume, while referring to the origins and development as in the proceedings of the previous conferences, is a greater emphasis on regional perspectives to evaluate the Near Eastern Neolithic. The current research indicates that the earliest farming societies of the Near East developed in interaction with neighboring hunter-gatherer societies, that either coexisted with them for long periods or soon assimilated to the Near Eastern farmers. Understanding these contrasting processes would shed new light on identifying the Neolithization practices of the “core” regions in the Near East itself. A similar attempt was made at the PPN2-Warsaw in 1995, but the present volume provides the most up-to-date discoveries and perspectives after a quarter century.

The 39 papers in this volume include contributions on the Iranian Zagros, the Caucasus, and Central Asia, a region whose Neolithic archaeological records are far less well understood but that we believe will enrich our understanding of the first farming societies of the Near East.

Table of Contents

PREFACE
Y. NISHIAKI, O. MAEDA & M. ARIMURA

PART 1: NEW DISCOVERIES IN THE LEVANT

THE PRODUCTION AND USE OF DISTINCTIVE LITHIC OBJECTS

Drilling Tools at the End of the Natufian: Suggesting a Technological Innovation
T. YASHUV & L. GROSMAN

Arrows and Archery during the PPNB: An Experimental Approach: Points Production and Use
F. ABBÈS & F. PICHON

Weapons or Hunting Tools? Evaluating the Role of Big Arrowheads of the Neolithic Levant
O. BARZILAI & H. MAY

3D Morpho-Metric Analysis of PPNB Arrowheads from MOTZA: Preliminary Results
H. KHALAILY, K. VARDI, A. KARASIK & O. BARZILAI

Production and Use of Nahal Hemar Knives in the Southern Levant during the PPNB: New Evidence from Kharaysin (Jordan)
F. BORRELL, J.J. IBÁÑEZ, J. MUÑIZ, I. CLEMENTE CONTE & L. TEIRA

The Baʻja Daggers: Type, Technology and Commodification of a LPPNB Burial Object
H.G.K. GEBEL, C. PURSCHWITZ, D. ŠTEFANISKO & M. BENZ

Recycling of PPNB Artefacts in the Yarmukian Site of Tel Izhaki, Jezreel Valley, Israel: Some Chronological and Regional Implications
A. YAROSHEVICH, E.C.M. van den BRINK, R. CHASAN, D. ROSENBERG, A. BIELER, L. PERRY-GAL, E. BOARETTO & N. GREENBAUM

Innovation, Adaptation or Just a Development? Alternative Uses of Obsidian the Early Neolithic of the Near East
E. HEALEY and S. CAMPBELL

Typology, Material and Cultural Role of Stone Bracelets (Bangles) from the Neolithic Megasite of Motza: Preliminary Report
I. MILEVSKI, J. VARDI & H. KHALAILY

Flaking or Grinding? Habits of Stone Tool Production in Prehistoric Cyprus
A. MCCARTHY

The Processing of Construction Stones at the Neolithic Site of Mishmar Ha‘emeq, Israel
G. HAKLAY, N. GETZOV & O. BARZILAI

LITHIC ASSEMBLAGES AND KNAPPING TECHNOLOGIES

Refitting Lithics from Ais Giorkis, Cyprus: A Preliminary Analysis of Bidirectional Blade Technology
C. MCCARTNEY

Preliminary Analysis of the Lithic Assemblages of Nahal Yarmuth 38: A New PPNB Site in Central Israel
D. ACKERFELD, A. EIRIKH-ROSE, H. ASHKENAZI, K. ZUTOVSKI & A. GOPHER

Intra-Site Variability in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B Site of Yiftahel: Lithic Techno-Typological Analysis
A. LEVY, N GETZOV, H. KHALAILY, I. MILEVSKI & O. MARDER

Skill, Learning and Knowledge Transfer in Lithic Production as Seen from LPPNB/FPPNB Baʻja, Southern Levant
C. PURSCHWITZ

Motza: A Village of the Final Phase of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B, Preliminary Observations
J. VARDI, D. YEGOROV, A. LEVY, A. SHATIL, N. MITKI & H. KHALAILY

Heat Treatment of Flint in the Early Pre-Pottery Neolithic B Site of Motza (Judean Hills, Israel)
D. YEGOROV, H. KHALAILY & S.A. ROSEN

Tracing the Neolithic Occupation of ‘En Esur (Israel) and the Question of the Archaeological Visibility of the Neolithic in the Archeological Record: The Lithic Perspective
L. BRAILOVSKY-ROKSER, D. SHALEM & M. BIRKENFELD

PART 2: VIEWS FROM NEIGHBORING REGIONS

LITHICS FROM ARID LANDS

Hunting in the Dunes: Evidence for Late Natufian Hunting Practices in the Northwestern Negev Site of Ashalim
L. EDELTIN, J. VARDI & O. MARDER

Chipped Stone Tool Production Strategies at Nahal Efe (northern Negev) during the Middle Pre-Pottery Neolithic B
F. BORRELL & J. VARDI

The Ghassanian Techno-Complex: Late/Final PPNB Lithic Assemblages from Desert Kite-Associated Occupation Sites in Jibal al-Khashabiyeh, South-Eastern Jordan
R. CRASSARD, J.A. SÁNCHEZ PRIEGO, F. PICHON, W. ABU-AZIZEH & M. TARAWNEH

Harrat Juhayra 202 and the Jordanian Badia Early PPNB: Fresh Perspective on the PPNA/PPNB Transition in the Southern Levant
S. FUJII

Go West: New Discoveries Concerning the PPNB in the Eastern Desert of Egypt between the Sinai and the Nile Valley
F. BRIOIS, B. MIDANT-REYNES & Y. TRISTANT

The Local Development and Levantine Influence Seen in the Stone Tools of the Fayum Neolithic in Egypt
N. SHIRAI

NEW PERSPECTIVES FROM ANATOLIA

A Prehistoric Survey in Cappadocia and a New Early Holocene Site, Balıklı: Preliminary Insights into the Local Chipped Stone Industries
N. KAYACAN, A.N. GORING-MORRIS, G. DURU & M. ÖZBAŞARAN

Sırçalıtepe: A New Aceramic Neolithic Site in Volcanic Cappadocia (Central Anatolia)
S. BALCI & Ç. ALTINBILEK-ALGÜL & D. MOURALIS

Chipped Stone at the Late Neolithic TPC Area, Çatalhöyük: On-Site and Beyond
H.C. SCHECHTER

Tepecik Çiftlik (Turkey) and the Exploitation of Cappadocian Obsidian during the 7th Millennium
D. GUILBEAU

The Lithic Assemblages of Gusir Höyük: A Pre-Pottery Neolithic Site on the Upper Tigris Basin (Southeast Anatolia)
Ç. ALTINBILEK-ALGÜL, S. BALCI, D. MOURALIS & O. D. ASLANER

Change and Continuity in the Lithic Industry of Hasankeyf Höyük, a late 10th millennium cal. BC Site on the Upper Tigris O. MAEDA, T. CARTER & R. MOIR

“[…] but it is not clear at all where all the […] debris had been taken from […]” Chipped Stone Artefacts, Architecture and Site Formation Processes at Göbekli Tepe
J. BREUERS and KINZEL

LITHICS FROM FURTHER EAST

Exploring the Changes in Lithic Industries during the Neolithisation in Armenia (7th–6th millennium BCE): A Comparison of Chipped Stone Tools from Lernagog-1 and Masis Blur
M. ARIMURA, K. MARTIROSYAN-OLSHANSKY, A. PETROSYAN & B. GASPARYAN

Neolithic Chipped Stone Industry of Mentesh Tepe (Middle Kura Valley, Azerbaijan): Technological Markers and Relations to North-Eastern Anatolia
L. ASTRUC, D. GUILBEAU, B. GRATUZE, C. CHATAIGNER, O. BARGE, B. LYONNET & F. GULIYEV

Discard Patterns of Chipped and Ground Stone Refuse at Hacı Elamxanlı Tepe in the Southern Caucasus: Implications for the Residential Mobility and the Neolithization Process
S. KADOWAKI, F. GULIYEV & Y. NISHIAKI

Neolithic Sickles of the South Caucasus and North Mesopotamia (early 6th millennium BC)
Y. NISHIAKI

A Brand New Thing: Bladelet Production Techniques and Methods in Caspian Mesolithic and Neolithic Chipped Stone Industries
M. JAYEZ & H.V. NASAB

Towards Understanding the Early Neolithic in the Zagros Mountains: Results of New Investigations of the Austro-Iranian Team in Ilam Province, Iran
B. MILIĆ, B. HOREJS & L. NIAKAN

Returning to Hunting and Re-microlithisation during the Mushki Phase in Fars, Southwest Iran
M. ABE, S. ARAI & M. KHANIPOUR

The Symbolic Meaning of the Neolithic Manuports: The Examples from Nemrik 9, Northern Iraq, and Ayakagytma ‘The Site’, Uzbekistan
K. SZYMCZAK

Osamu Maeda received his BA and MA degrees from University of Tsukuba and Ph.D. from University of Manchester. He has been a researcher at University of Tsukuba since 2015 and currently is an associate professor in the archaeology course and a head of the archaeology division of the Research Center for West Asian Civilization. He is recently conducting international collaborative research as a member of the Manchester Obsidian Laboratory. His 25 years-experience of fieldworks in the Near East includes excavations of Neolithic sites by international teams in Syria, Turkey and Iraq-Kurdistan.

Makoto Arimura is a professor at Tokai University, Japan. He studied at the University of Tsukuba, Japan, under Professor Akira Tsuneki, and obtained his PhD (2007) from the Université Lumière Lyon 2, France, under Professor Olivier Aurenche and Dr Éric Coqueugniot. His primary research topic is the transformation of human society during Neolithisation, through changes in material culture, particularly the transition of stone tool manufacturing technology in the Neolithic Near East.