The Exploitation of Plants at Tell Mozan (NE Syria) in 4th-3rd Mill. BC

In 2004, within the framework of the Tell Mozan/Urkesh Archaeological Project, a first joint archaeobotanical research project between the Bioarchaeology Centre of the Italian Institute for Africa and the East (IsIAO) and the International Institute for Mesopotamian Area Studies (IIMAS) was started. One of the goals of the project was the definition ofman’s relationship to his environment, in Syrian Jazira, during the late third millennium BC. In the following years at Tell Mozan the discovery of new evidence dated to the first half of the fourth mill. B.C. allowed a wide collection of samples for archaeobotanical analysis. The collection was composed of 35 soil samples processed by flotation techniquescarried out on site: 4 samples, dated to the Late Chalcolithic 3, from unit J1, and 31 samples collected from unit A1, sector B of the Royal Palace AP, identified as the royal storehouse, dated to the Akkadian period. Analysis of these plant remains was carried out at the Laboratory of Bioarchaeology of IsMEO and at the Interdepartmental Center forArchaeological Services of the University of Naples “L’Orientale”. Sorting of the flots allowed the recovery of 4077 charred plant remains in particular 559 plant remains were retrieved from unit J1 and 3518 plant remains from unit A1. Plant remains from J1 were dominated by grains of cereals, Hordeum vulgare L., Triticum turgidum L. ssp. dicoccum(Schrank) Thell., Triticum monococcum L. ssp. monococcum, Triticum durum/aestivum, Triticum L. spp., Cerealia, and by very abundant remains of weeds (mostly Poaceae and Fabaceae families). Pulses were represented by only very few seeds, Lens culinaris ssp. culinaris Medik. and Vicia ervilia (L.) Willd. The archaeobotanical assemblagesuggests that the plant remains could be originated from fodder or animal dung, or belonged to threshing waste. Plant macro-remains from A1 included grains and few spike remains of cereals Hordeum vulgare L., Triticum monococcum L. ssp. monococcum, Triticum turgidum L. ssp. dicoccum (Schrank) Thell., Triticum monococcum/dicoccum, Triticumdurum/aestivum, Triticum turgidum L. spp. durum, Triticum L. spp., Cerealia, and many remains of weed plants (mainly Poaceae, Fabaceae, and Rubiaceae families). Several taxa of pulses, Lens culinaris ssp. culinaris Medik., Lathyrus sativus L., Vicia faba L., Vicia ervilia (L.) Willd., Vicia / Lathyrus, Pisum sativum L., Fabaceae indet., and of fruits, Vitisvinifera L., Ficus carica L., cf. Olea L. sp., cf. Punica granatum L. also occurred. The study of this archaeobotanical assemblage provided useful elements for the definition of the agricultural landscape and the organization of work within the site, and also contributed new information for the interpretation of sampling context, in Royal Palace of Urkesh.Through the study of the archaeological and archaeobotanical information, the ecological and cultural landscape of a portion of the ancient Syrian Jazira during two different chronological periods between the fourth and the third mill. BC, has been reconstructed.

کلیدواژه ها:

Tell Mozan ، Syrian Jazira ، Late Chalcolitic 3 ، Akkadian period ، plant remains ، cereals ، weeds.