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Of storage and nomads. The sealings from Late Neolithic, Sabi Abyad, Syria.

[article]

Année 1996 22-2 pp. 17-44
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Page 17

Of storage and nomads

The sealings from late Neolithic

Sabi Abyad, Syria

P.M.M.G. AKKERMANS and K. DUISTERMAAT

: Sabi Abyad, Syria, Late Neolithic, Sealings, Storage, Nomads. Mots clefs : Sabi Abyad, Syrie, Néolithique Récent, Scellements, Stockage, Nomades.

Introduction

The excavations at the five-hectare site of Sabi Abyad, located in the Balikh valley of northern Syria, have revealed a continuous sequence of eleven superimposed and generally well- preserved building levels dated between ca. 5,700 and 5,000 B.C. (6,500-5,800 calBC)1. Perhaps the most spectacular of these prehistoric settlements is building level 6 or the 'Burnt Village', the earliest of the so-called Transitional levels (6-4), which represent an intermediate stage between the lower, pre-Halaf Neolithic (levels 11-7) and the topmost Early Halaf (levels 3-1)2. The level 6 remains, partially standing to a height of 1.40 m, consist of a number of rectangular, multi-roomed houses built of pisé along very regular lines and surrounded by smaller circular structures, ovens and hearths (fig. 1). Some of the tiny rooms had 'normal' but narrow doorways (occasionally with pivot

1. In order to adjust our dates to the existing chronological frameworks and our earlier reports (and so to avoid general confusion), all dates are used in a "traditional' manner, i.e. uncalibrated, in this article. Dates in calibrated years are given between brackets, whenever it seems useful. 2. Cf. Akkermans and Verhoeven, 1995; Akkermans (éd.), 1996.

stones), whereas others had doorways of such restricted size that one had to crawl through them on hands and knees (portholes). In addition, it appeared that some rooms did not have a doorway at floor level at all ; these rooms must have been accessible from the roof of the building. The settlement was heavily affected by a violent fire, which swept over the village and reduced most houses to ashes around 5,200 B.C. (6,000 calBC). Vast quantities of in-situ finds were recovered from the burnt buildings, including ceramic and stone vessels, flint and obsidian implements, ground-stone tools, human and animal figurines, labrets, axes, personal ornaments and, most excitingly, hundreds of clay sealings. These sealings consist of lumps of clay either pressed on the fastening of a container or closing this container entirely, and most of them carry stamp-seal impressions3. Most remarkably, however, not a single stamp seal has so far been found in the houses of the Burnt Village4.

3. See Duistermaat, 1996, for an exhaustive description and analysis of the Sabi Abyad sealings. 4. So far, stamp seals have only appeared in debris contexts in somewhat later levels of occupation at Sabi Abyad; Akkermans, 1993 : 85; Akkermans and Le Mière, 1992 : 10, 21 ; Duistermaat, 1996 : 339-341.

Paléorient. vol. 22/2. p. 17-44. © CNRS Éditions 1997

Manuscrit reçu le 27 août 1996; accepté le 21 octobre 1996.

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