Northern Mesopotamia and Northern Levant during the Late Neolithic 1-2 (7000-6300 BCE): Subsistence Economy, Material Culture, Earliest Potteries and Cross-Cultural Encounters

Abstract

The 7th millennium BCE can be regarded as a major turning point in history of Near East. At around 7000-6900 BCE, the first pottery appears (almost simultaneously) in Northern Mesopotamia and Northern Levant. The clay wares’ primary function is for cooking, but they also be used for the preservation and transportation of food. The end of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic (or Early Neolithic: 10000-7000 BCE.) saw a decline in site sizes. This is not a collapse, but rather a shift from sedentary crop-livestock farming to mobile pastoralism. During the Pottery Neolithic 1-2 (or Late Neolithic 1-2: 7000-6300 BCE.), there is a continuous decline in the role of hunting for subsistence. Adapting to and coping with the threat of climate change (especially household resilience to drought) is the most important factor of social change. Social change can evolve from number of different sources including culture contact. Cross-cultural encounters (contacts and interactions of various types: trade, acculturation/emulation, migration or colonization, displacement of pastoralists) make the Late Neolithic 1-2 community an oecumene concerning the subsistence economy and the material culture -from Northern Iraq to Syria’s Mediterranean coast-.

Keywords

• Proto-Hassuna
• Late Neolithic 1-2
• Northern Mesopotamia - Northern Levant
• Earliest Potteries of the Near East
• Cross-Cultural Encounters

Kuzey Mezopotamya ve Kuzey Levant’ta Geç Neolitik 1-2 (MÖ. 7000-6300): Geçim Ekonomisi, Maddi Kültür, İlk Çanak-Çömlekler ve Kültürel Temas

Abstract

MÖ. 7. binyıl pek çok bakımdan Yakın-Doğu Tarihi’nde bir dönüm noktasıdır. Zira 7. binyıl başlarken Çanak-Çömleksiz Neolitik (Erken Neolitik: MÖ. 10000-7000) tamamlanmış ve onun yerini Çanak-Çömlekli Neolitik (Geç Neolitik: MÖ. 7000-5500) almıştır. Geç Neolitik’te önceki devrin anıtsal mimarisinden ve mega-köylerinden eser yoktur. Bu yüzden MÖ 7. binyıl toplumlarının kültürel açıdan “gerileme” yaşadıkları ve karmaşık toplum adımlarının zayıfladığı yanılgısına düşülür. Oysa küçülen köylerde hareketli (yarı-göçebe) çobanlık uygulamalarına geçilmiş; avcı-toplayıcı pratikler zayıflamış, geçim ekonomisi büyük ölçüde çiftçilik-besiciliğe dayalı hale gelmiş; çömlek teknolojisi geliştikçe besin saklama ve taşıma olanakları artmış; ikincil ürünler devrimi sayesinde evcil hayvanların eti kadar sütü ve yününden de yararlanılır olmuştur. İklimdeki soğuma ve kuraklaşma, Neolitik toplumlarının doğaya karşı mukavemetini artıran bir faktördür. İşte böylesi dönüşümler çağında, Yukarı Mezopotamya ve Kuzey Levant’ta ilk çanak-çömleklerin üretildiğini görüyoruz. Bu metnin odaklandığı tarih aralığı, ilk bölgesel kültürlerin ya da kültürel etkileşim evrenlerinin ortaya çıkışından hemen öncesidir. Makalenin amacı, Hassuna, Samarra ve Halaf kültürleri doğmadan önce, Akdeniz kıyılarından Kuzey Irak’a uzanan (Ras Şamra – Jarmo) 900 km.’lik bir hat boyunca kültürel temasın yoğunluğunu ve Geç Neolitik 1-2 (MÖ 7000-6300) toplumlarının bu sayede aynı geçim ekonomisi ve maddi kültürde birleştiklerini kanıtlamaktır.

Keywords

• Proto/Ön-Hassuna
• Geç Neolitik 1-2
• Kuzey Levant ve Kuzey Mezopotamya
• Yakın Doğu’nun En Erken Çanak-Çömlekleri
• Kültürel Temas

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