Chapter 5: Neolithic 3 Homs (Pages 305-306)

Pre-History and Archaeology Glossary

Excerpts and Definitions and Addendums:

A series of flints was collected from the surface of a prehistoric site near Homs and is now in a private collectlon. They formed a homogeneous group and can be quite closely dated on their typology. They consisted of eight arrowheads and blank blades. The arrowheads were all Amuq points, that is long pointed blades of triangular cross-section with a stem retouched bv pressure-flaking to form a blunt point. Cauvin has defined two types of Amuq point; type I shaped like a willow leaf with retouch over much of the ventral and sometimes also the dorsal surfaces; and type 2 made on a broader blade with one end narrowed by retouch to form a tang. Both types were present in the Homs collection.

Amuq points have been found in late Neolithic 2 contexts such as the later aceramic Neolithic levels at Abu Hureyra and in Ras Shamra V C. They are more common in Neolithic 3; recurring in both Ras Shamra V B and Neolithique Ancien and Moyen at Byblos as well as in Amuq A and B (See Figures 30, 60, 374 and Plate 65 in *1 Below). Thus the Homs site may have been occupied in Neolithic 2 but it is more likely it was inhabited in Neolithic 3 sometime during the 6th millennium BC .....