Tell Hamoukar: early city in northeastern Syria.

Tell Hamoukar: early city in northeastern Syria. Tell Hamoukar, in northeastern Syria, provides important newinformation on the development of complex society in the Near East at atime before 3500 BC and on the history of the Khabur area in the late3rd millennium BC. Archaeological investigations were initiated atHamoukar in the autumn of 1999 by a joint Syrian-American expedition. The site, 8 km west of the Syrian-Iraqi border, is one of thelargest mounds (103 ha) in the Khabur River basin. A number of scholarshave visited the site and, on the basis of their observations, haveincluded it in discussions of the Late Uruk period (c. 3500-3000 BC) andtwo earlier phases (Early and Middle Northern Uruk, 4000-3500 BC). Controlled surface collection indicates an extensive Early NorthernUruk occupation (4000-3800 BC) not only under the main mound but alsoscattered over 270 ha of modern fields to the south. The site at thattime was presumably pre��sum��a��ble?adj.That can be presumed or taken for granted; reasonable as a supposition: presumable causes of the disaster. not a city but rather a low-density, pre-urbansettlement or a set of villages that shifted through time. In the MiddleNorthern Uruk and in the Late Uruk, settlement was restricted to part ofthe main mound, forming a city of about 13 ha. The mound reached itsgreatest extent (103 ha) in the late 3rd millennium (2400-2000 BC).Ceramics of the 3rd millennium include incised and excised Ninevite 5pottery and later types that are datable to the time of the Akkadianempire and the post-Akkadian period. The continuation of occupation atthe site after the Akkadian period is important in light of recentsuggestions that north Syria was abandoned with the end of Akkadianrule. Excavation in Area A revealed Early and Middle Northern Uruk stratawith a monumental wall, possibly a city wall (FIGURE 1), below buildingsof Late Uruk date. Area B has provided evidence in the Middle NorthernUruk of food preparation on an institutional scale, utilizing largeovoid o��voidor o��voi��daln.Something that is shaped like an egg.adj.Shaped like an egg; oviform.ovoidhaving the oval shape of an egg.ovoid bodycolloid body. ovens and wells dug through the mound. More than 89 stamp seals ofbone and stone were found in a cache in Area B (FIGURE 2). In addition,21 impressed sealings of clay and bitumen bitumen(bĭty`mən)a generic term referring to flammable, brown or black mixtures of tarlike hydrocarbons, derived naturally or by distillation from petroleum. (FIGURE 3) were recoveredhere. These artefacts have been interpreted as evidence for anadministrative hierarchy with different levels of responsibility. [Figures 1-3 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] An infant burial in Area B yielded an intact bone `eye idol',related to fragments of bone `eye idols' found in the cache and onfloors (FIGURE 4). Our evidence confirms the redating of this kind ofartefact See artifact. to the Middle Northern Uruk (see Oates & Oates 1993: 176). [Figure 4 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Above the Middle Northern Uruk levels in both Areas A and B,remains of Late Uruk date (3500-3000 BC) include a range of southMesopotamian ceramics (bevelled rim bowls, conical cups, handled cups,four-lugged jars, spouted jars, etc.) and two cylinder seal impressions. Findings at Hamoukar imply that social complexity had been attainedin northern Syria before the Late Uruk period. This information,combined with data from Tell Brak brak1NounS African a crossbred dog; mongrel [Dutch]brak2AdjectiveS African (of water) slightly salty; brackish [Afrikaans] , Sheikh sheikhor shaykhAmong Arabic-speaking tribes, especially Bedouin, the male head of the family, as well as of each successively larger social unit making up the tribal structure. The sheikh is generally assisted by an informal tribal council of male elders. Hassan, and other sites inSyria and Turkey, forces a reformulation of ideas on the earliestdevelopment of civilization in the Near East. Before the Late Urukcolonies were in place in Syria, the area had already developed localstate-level polities. This was not a case of a more developed coreexpanding its influence into an undeveloped periphery, but of equallymatched areas in competition and cooperation over a long time, with thesouth eventually colonizing parts of the north. Now the intriguingquestion is whether or not an earlier contact during the Ubaid Period(c. 4500 BC), when an arguably more advanced southern Mesopotamia spreadits artefacts from the Gulf to the Mediterranean, was the initialstimulus toward complexity in the north. The differential allocation ofstatus goods to one substantial building in an Ubaid period village atTell Abada (Abboud 1985) and the existence of a massive public buildingin the Ubaid level at Tell Uqair (Lloyd & Safar 1943: plate VIb),both in southern Iraq, would seem to us to indicate early moves towardkingship that have been ignored in most theoretical discussions. References ABBOUD, S. 1985. The Ubaid period in Iraq: recent excavations inthe Hamrin region. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports. Internationalseries S267. LLOYD, S. & F. SAFAR. 1943. Tell Uqair: excavations by the IraqDirectorate General of Antiquities in 1940 and 1941, Journal of NearEastern Studies The Journal of Near Eastern Studies is an academic journal published by the University of Chicago Press, devoted to examination of the ancient and medieval civilisations of the Near East. 2: 131-5. OATES, D. & J. OATES. 1994. Tell Brak: a stratigraphic summary,1976-1993, Iraq 56: 167-76. MCGUIRE GIBSON, & MUHAMMAD MAKTASH, Gibson, Oriental Instituteof the University of Chicago, 1155 E 58th Street, Chicago IL 60637, USA.m-gibson@uchicago.edu Maktash, Syrian Directorate General of Antiquities& Museums, Raqqa Museum, Raqqa, SAR (Segmentation And Reassembly) The protocol that converts data to cells for transmission over an ATM network. It is the lower part of the ATM Adaption Layer (AAL), which is responsible for the entire operation. See AAL. SAR - segmentation and reassembly .