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Other Archaeological Sites / The Neolithic of the Levant (500 Page Book Online) Pre-Historic Mureybat Selected Excerpts on Mureybat
The Neolithic of the Levant (1978) A site on the middle Euphrates circa 80 kilometers east of Aleppo in Syria occupied from circa 8500 to 6900 BC. The site went through three major occupation phases beginning with a Natufian village of round huts and expanding to cover some three hectares with both rectangular and round houses. The traditional interpretation of the economy of this site is that it was based entirely on wild resources; specifically on the hunting of onager, aurochs and gazelle and on the gathering of wild einkorn and, to a lesser extent, wild barley, lentils and vetch. Recently however it has been suggested that einkorn, though still morphologically of the wild type, was being cultivated, as has also been suggested for the earlier site of Abu Hureyra, only 36 kilometers downstream from Mureybat. This view is supported by the fact that wild einkorn does not grow in the area today and it is thought unlikely that it ever did (Mureybat is less than 300 metres above sea level and einkorn usually grows at elevations between 600 and 2000 metres.) The other plants might also have been cultivated and the main animals either selectively hunted or actively herded; while hunting, fishing and collecting of truly wild foods continued alongside the newer activities ... (AHSFC) |
