Bouqras
Encyclopedia
Bouqras is a large, oval shaped, prehistoric, Neolithic
Tell
, about 5 hectare in size, located around 35 kilometres (21.7 mi) from Deir ez-Zor in Syria
.
Geomorphologist, Willem van Liere. It was excavated between 1960 and 1965 by Henri de Contenson
and van Liere and later between 1976 to 1978 by Peter Akkermanns, Maurits van Loon, J. J. Roodenberg and H. T. Waterbolk.
aceramic occupation developing on to stages with pottery
in levels 7 to 1, from which over 7000 sherd
s were recovered. Material from later levels was visible on the surface when first discovered. The layout and arrangement of houses seems to have been well ordered with similar arrangements of rooms, entrances, hearths and other features. Houses were made of mud bricks
and generally rectangular with three or four rooms.
for decoration with some images of birds. By later stages of the settlement, it was likely inhabited by as many as 700 to 1000 villagers. Large quantities of obsidian
was found suggesting links with Anatolia
. A distinctive group of limestone, alabaster and gypsum vessels was also found made from local materials. Rounded or cylindrical beads were also found made of bone, shell
, greenstones, carnelian
and dentalium
. An alabaster bracelet fragment and pendant were recovered as forms of personal decoration. Several stone stamp seals including one of alabaster and one of jadeite
were found with incised rectilinear patterns along with a few clay figurines. Pottery started to be found from the third level of habitation including a white plaster vessel. Other materials were varied with course and fine sherds made with mixed straw and sand. Some sherds were burnished or painted red, one with a triangle on it. Arrowheads recovered included Byblos points and two types of Amuq points along with two other distinctive designs. Flints were usually of a fine dark grey or brown type found locally.
studies were carried out by Willem van Zeist
on carbonized plant remains recovered via water floatation. This has shown rain fed agriculture was practiced at Bouqras including cultivation of Emmer
, Einkorn and free-threshing wheat, naked and hulled barley
, peas
and lentils. Sickle
blades, querns and pounders appear in the early stages at Bouqras, but not in later stages. White Ware
was found suggested to have been used as basket
covering to make them impermeable.
Sheep and goat
comprised approximately 80% of the 5800 identifiable fragments of animal remains found. Other fauna included pigs
and cattle
, the domestication of which is uncertain. Deer
, gazelle
and onager
were also hunted.
Neolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...
Tell
Tell
A tell or tel, is a type of archaeological mound created by human occupation and abandonment of a geographical site over many centuries. A classic tell looks like a low, truncated cone with a flat top and sloping sides.-Archaeology:A tell is a hill created by different civilizations living and...
, about 5 hectare in size, located around 35 kilometres (21.7 mi) from Deir ez-Zor in Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
.
Excavation
The tell was discovered in 1960 by DutchNetherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
Geomorphologist, Willem van Liere. It was excavated between 1960 and 1965 by Henri de Contenson
Henri de Contenson
right|250px|thumb|Henri de ContensonHenri de Contenson , is a French Archaeologist and was Research Director at CNRS, The Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique , a research organization funded by France's Ministry of Research.A student of André Parrot, Raymond Lantier and André...
and van Liere and later between 1976 to 1978 by Peter Akkermanns, Maurits van Loon, J. J. Roodenberg and H. T. Waterbolk.
Construction
The mound was found to be approximately 4.5 metres (14.8 ft) deep and showed evidence of 11 periods of occupation spread over at least 1000 years between ca. 7400 and 6200 BC. The earliest levels, 11 to 8, showed early NeolithicNeolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...
aceramic occupation developing on to stages with pottery
Pottery
Pottery is the material from which the potteryware is made, of which major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made is also called a pottery . Pottery also refers to the art or craft of the potter or the manufacture of pottery...
in levels 7 to 1, from which over 7000 sherd
Sherd
In archaeology, a sherd is commonly a historic or prehistoric fragment of pottery, although the term is occasionally used to refer to fragments of stone and glass vessels as well....
s were recovered. Material from later levels was visible on the surface when first discovered. The layout and arrangement of houses seems to have been well ordered with similar arrangements of rooms, entrances, hearths and other features. Houses were made of mud bricks
Bricks
Bricks may refer to:* Brick, an artificial stone made by forming clay into rectangular blocks* Brick , a slang term for a device that cannot function due to internal failure...
and generally rectangular with three or four rooms.
Culture
Bourqas seems to have developed in comparative isolation with few other settlements near the area. Interiors of the buildings featured white plastered walls with occasional use of red ochreOchre
Ochre is the term for both a golden-yellow or light yellow brown color and for a form of earth pigment which produces the color. The pigment can also be used to create a reddish tint known as "red ochre". The more rarely used terms "purple ochre" and "brown ochre" also exist for variant hues...
for decoration with some images of birds. By later stages of the settlement, it was likely inhabited by as many as 700 to 1000 villagers. Large quantities of obsidian
Obsidian
Obsidian is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed as an extrusive igneous rock.It is produced when felsic lava extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimum crystal growth...
was found suggesting links with Anatolia
Anatolia
Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...
. A distinctive group of limestone, alabaster and gypsum vessels was also found made from local materials. Rounded or cylindrical beads were also found made of bone, shell
Mollusc shell
The mollusc shell is typically a calcareous exoskeleton which encloses, supports and protects the soft parts of an animal in the phylum Mollusca, which includes snails, clams, tusk shells, and several other classes...
, greenstones, carnelian
Carnelian
Carnelian is a brownish-red mineral which is commonly used as a semi-precious gemstone. Similar to carnelian is sard, which is generally harder and darker...
and dentalium
Dentalium
The word dentalium or dentalia , as commonly used by Native American artists and anthropologists, refers to tooth shells or tusk shells used in indigenous jewelry, adornment, and commerce in western Canada and the United States. These tusk shells are a kind of seashell, specifically the shells of...
. An alabaster bracelet fragment and pendant were recovered as forms of personal decoration. Several stone stamp seals including one of alabaster and one of jadeite
Jadeite
Jadeite is a pyroxene mineral with composition NaAlSi2O6. It is monoclinic. It has a Mohs hardness of about 6.5 to 7.0 depending on the composition. The mineral is dense, with a specific gravity of about 3.4. Jadeite forms solid solutions with other pyroxene endmembers such as augite and diopside ,...
were found with incised rectilinear patterns along with a few clay figurines. Pottery started to be found from the third level of habitation including a white plaster vessel. Other materials were varied with course and fine sherds made with mixed straw and sand. Some sherds were burnished or painted red, one with a triangle on it. Arrowheads recovered included Byblos points and two types of Amuq points along with two other distinctive designs. Flints were usually of a fine dark grey or brown type found locally.
Agriculture and animal domestication
PaleobotanicalPaleobotany
Paleobotany, also spelled as palaeobotany , is the branch of paleontology or paleobiology dealing with the recovery and identification of plant remains from geological contexts, and their use for the biological reconstruction of past environments , and both the evolutionary history of plants, with a...
studies were carried out by Willem van Zeist
Willem van Zeist
Willem van Zeist is an Archaeologist, Palynologist and Professor of Paleobotany. He was the Director of the Biologisch-Archaeologisch Instituut, Rijksuniversiteit of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.-Biography:...
on carbonized plant remains recovered via water floatation. This has shown rain fed agriculture was practiced at Bouqras including cultivation of Emmer
Emmer
Emmer wheat , also known as farro especially in Italy, is a low yielding, awned wheat. It was one of the first crops domesticated in the Near East...
, Einkorn and free-threshing wheat, naked and hulled barley
Barley
Barley is a major cereal grain, a member of the grass family. It serves as a major animal fodder, as a base malt for beer and certain distilled beverages, and as a component of various health foods...
, peas
PEAS
P.E.A.S. is an acronym in artificial intelligence that stands for Performance, Environment, Actuators, Sensors.-Performance:Performance is a function that measures the quality of the actions the agent did....
and lentils. Sickle
Sickle
A sickle is a hand-held agricultural tool with a variously curved blade typically used for harvesting grain crops or cutting succulent forage chiefly for feeding livestock . Sickles have also been used as weapons, either in their original form or in various derivations.The diversity of sickles that...
blades, querns and pounders appear in the early stages at Bouqras, but not in later stages. White Ware
White Ware
White Ware or "Vaisselle Blanche" is the first precursor to clay pottery developed in the Levant that appeared in the 9th millennium BC, during the pre-pottery neolithic period....
was found suggested to have been used as basket
Basket
A basket is a container which is traditionally constructed from stiff fibres, which can be made from a range of materials, including wood splints, runners, and cane. While most baskets are made from plant materials, other materials such as horsehair, baleen, or metal wire can be used. Baskets are...
covering to make them impermeable.
Sheep and goat
Goat
The domestic goat is a subspecies of goat domesticated from the wild goat of southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the Bovidae family and is closely related to the sheep as both are in the goat-antelope subfamily Caprinae. There are over three hundred distinct breeds of...
comprised approximately 80% of the 5800 identifiable fragments of animal remains found. Other fauna included pigs
PIGS
PIGS is a four letter acronym that can stand for:* PIGS , Phosphatidylinositol glycan anchor biosynthesis, class S, a human gene* PIGS , the economies of Portugal, Italy , Greece and Spain...
and cattle
Cattle
Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...
, the domestication of which is uncertain. Deer
Deer
Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, reindeer, fallow deer, roe deer and chital. Male deer of all species and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers each year...
, gazelle
Gazelle
A gazelle is any of many antelope species in the genus Gazella, or formerly considered to belong to it. Six species are included in two genera, Eudorcas and Nanger, which were formerly considered subgenera...
and onager
Onager
The Onager is a large member of the genus Equus of the family Equidae native to the deserts of Syria, Iran, Pakistan, India, Israel and Tibet...
were also hunted.
Further reading
- de Contenson, H. van Liere, W.J. A Note on Five Early Neolithic Sites in Inland Syria 13, 175-209, 1963.
- de Contenson, Henri., & van Liere, Willem., Premier sondage à Bouqras en 1965. Rapport préliminaire, Annales Archéologiques Arabes Syriennes XVI 2, 1966, p. 181-192.
- de Contenson, H. Découvertes récentes dans la domaine du Néolithique en Syrie, L'Anthropologie, 70, 388-391, 1966.
- Vogel, J.C., Waterbolk, H.T., Groningen Radiocarbon Dates VII,Radiocarbon, 9, 107-155, 1967.
- Clason, A.T., The Animal Remains from Tell Es Sinn Compared with those from Bouqras, Anatolica, 7, 35-53, 1980.
- Akkermans, P.A., Fokkens, H., Waterbolk, H.T., Stratigraphy, architecture and layout of Bouqras in Cauvin, J. and Sanlaville (eds.) 1981, Préhistore du Levant: Chronologie et organisation de l´éspace depuis les origines jusqu´au VIe millenaire, Colloque International du CNRS, Lyon 1980, Paris, 485-502, 1981.
- Akkermans et al. 1983 Akkermans, P.A. Boerma, J.A.K. Clason, A.T. Hill, S.G. Lohof, E. Meiklejohn, C. Le Mière, M. Molgat, G.M.F. Roodenberg, J. Waterbolk-van Rooijen, W. van Zeist, W., Bouqras Revisited: Preliminary Report on a Project in Eastern Syria Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 49, 335-372, 1983.
- de Contenson, Henri., La campagne de 1965 à Bouqras, Cahiers de l'Euphrate, 4, 335-371, 1985.
- Roodenberg, J., Le mobilier en pierre de Bouqras. Utilisation de la pierre dans un site néolithique sur le Mayen Euphrate (Syrie) Leiden/Istanbul: Nederlands Historisch-Archaeologisch Instituut, 1986.
- Lohof, E., A lesser known figurine from the near eastern Neolithic, Haex et al. (eds.) 1989 in To the Euphrates and Beyond: Archaeological Studies in Honour of Maurits N. van Loon, Balkema, Rotterdam, 65-74, 1989.
- Clason, A.T., The Bouqras Bird Frieze, Anatolica, 16, 209-213, 1990.
- Boerma, J.A.K., Palaeo Environment and Palaeo Land-Evaluation Based on Actual Environment Conditions of Tell Bouqras, East Syria, Anatolica, 16, 215-249, 1990.
- Bernbeck, R., Die Auflösung der häuslichen Produktionsweise, Berliner Beiträge zum Vorderen Orient 14 (Ph.D. dissertation Berlin, Freie Univ. 1991), Berlin, 1994.