Neolithic Saidnaya

Selected Excerpts on Saidnaya

The Neolithic of the Levant (1978)
A.M.T. Moore (Oxford University)

Chapter 3: Neolithic 1 Saidnaya (Pages 130-133)

There is one other site near Damascus at which traces of Neolithic 1 occupation has been found. This is Saidnaya which lies 23 kilometres north of the city in a valley on the eastern side of the Anti-Lebanon. The occupation deposit here lay near the surface and was quite thin. Most of the material belonged to a Mesolithic 2 flint industry but mixed with this were pieces which were typologically a little later. There were in particular three notched arrowheads; one had a straight retouched base and the other two were tanged. These arrowheads can be paralleled at both Tell Aswad I and Mureybat III -- indicating that Saidnaya was occupied briefly at this time. Saidnaya is thus the second site known in the Anti-Lebanon with Neolithic 1 occupation ...

The History of the Ancient Near East Electronic Compendium