Syria in the 7th Millennium bce

Syria (Map 3.6.1) boasts a long, continuous record of pottery manufacture of almost nine thousand years. The earliest ceramics were found at sites dated c. 7000–6800 bce, such as Tell Sabi Abyad in northeastern Syria and Shir near Hama in western Syria (Fig. 3.6.1) (Nieuwenhuyse et al. 2010). Conventionally the first occurrence of pottery has been understood as a watershed in the prehistory of the region, distinguishing the Early from the Late Neolithic and ushering in a fundamental change in the Neolithic way of life. Current fieldwork, however, indicates that the change may have been much less profound than is usually believed. Excavation at, for example, Tell Sabi Abyad on the Balikh provides proof of many continuities in site distribution, community organisation, material culture, subsistence practices and so on (Akkermans et al. 2006).

Extensive survey and excavation along the Euphrates River and in the plains of the Jezireh to the east of it have produced numerous 7th-millennium occupations, predominantly in the form of settlement mounds with often lengthy sequences, although there were also shallow and short-lived sites. The development of 7th-millennium settlement was different in western Syria (i.e., the land of Syria between the Mediterranean on the one hand and the Euphrates on the other hand), where field reconnaissance suggests a beginning of habitation in some regions that were apparently previously devoid of settled populations (e.g., the Amuq Plain), as well as an increase of sites in other regions (e.g., around Idlib and Homs; Yener et al. 2000; Haïdar-Boustani et al. 2007). However, we cannot assume that the occupations were all contemporary; the number of sites in use at any given moment was probably (very) low, as were regional population densities as a consequence.