• Athabasca University, Athabasca

• ANTH 277

ANTH 277

Assignment 2: Investigating a Neolithic Dwelling

Tutor: Dr. Laurie Milne

DATE

NEOLITHIC DWELLING 2 of 15

Abstract

The Neolithic site at Jarmo in what is now Northern Iraq but was part of ancient

Mesopotamia, shows evidence of innovation and adaptation of technologies that were

revolutionary for their time. The period of occupation and the activity in the region shows

evidence that it was a period of transition not only in technologies but in many areas of life from

societal organization to religion and food sources. The site was first excavated by Robert

Braidwood between 1948 and 1955. Braidwood was searching for evidence to fill a gap he had

identified between the last hunter-gatherers and the first agriculturist communities that spanned

almost 2,000 years. Jarmo was a part of the answer to that gap and shows occupation in the PrePottery Neolithic (PPN) and Pottery Neolithic (PN) periods with some of the earliest evidence of

agricultural practice. Braidwood used what were considered groundbreaking techniques at the

time in their excavations with modern approaches to recovery including the collection of faunal

remains (Price et al, 2013, p. 443). Radiocarbon dating calibrates the occupations as ranging

from approximately 11,240-6,300 years ago (Price et al, 2013, p. 444). At the height of its

occupation, it is assumed that up to 150 people or possibly more lived on the 1.3-hectare (3.2

acres) site. Jarmo is thought to have been a permanent, year-round settlement and is one of the

earliest instances of a settlement with evidence for an economy that included farming. The

Neolithic inhabitants were early pioneers of animal husbandry, domestication of cultivated plants

including lentils, and possibly the production of beer.