Tolerating change at Late Chalcolithic Tell Brak: responses of an early urban society to an uncertain climate

Charles, Michael; Pessin, Hugues; Hald, Mette Marie

doi:10.1179/146141010x12640787648892

Cited by 19 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 24 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This suggests chronological changes unrelated to climate, as climatic change would be expected to affect both crops. The consistently well-watered ∆¹³C signal for wheat in the Post-Uruk/Ninevite 5 period may therefore indicate a change in agricultural practice, which agrees with weed evidence that indicates that the site’s glume wheat were grown in better-watered fields in the Post-Uruk/Ninevite 5 period [ 64 ]. If so, these practices seem to have been short-lived because there is an apparent decline in water availability in the Post-Ninevite 5 period (a period for which no weed evidence is available).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 54%

“…At Tell Brak the need for irrigation and its feasibility have been debated [ 61 , 62 ] with no firm conclusions. Naturally moist soils are located in the hinterland of Tell Brak along the wadis to the east and south of the site [ 63 ], and the River Jaghjagh or nearby wadis could also have been used as a source of irrigation waters [ 64 ]. At the remaining sites, only the wheat at Çatalhöyük exhibits ∆¹³C values primarily in the moderate to well-watered range, indicating that at none of these sites is there evidence for irrigation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Stable Carbon Isotope Evidence for Neolithic and Bronze Age Crop Water Management in the Eastern Mediterranean and Southwest Asia

et al. 2015

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In a large study on early crop water management, stable carbon isotope discrimination was determined for 275 charred grain samples from nine archaeological sites, dating primarily to the Neolithic and Bronze Age, from the Eastern Mediterranean and Western Asia. This has revealed that wheat (Triticum spp.) was regularly grown in wetter conditions than barley (Hordeum sp.), indicating systematic preferential treatment of wheat that may reflect a cultural preference for wheat over barley. Isotopic analysis of pulse crops (Lens culinaris, Pisum sativum and Vicia ervilia) indicates cultivation in highly varied water conditions at some sites, possibly as a result of opportunistic watering practices. The results have also provided evidence for local land-use and changing agricultural practices.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 54%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stable Carbon Isotope Evidence for Neolithic and Bronze Age Crop Water Management in the Eastern Mediterranean and Southwest Asia

et al. 2015

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Variance compensation likewise will be augmented by the degree of seasonality and the population's dependence on seasonal foodstuffs (McCorriston and Hole 1991), especially for societies in marginal, rainfed agricultural zones (e.g., Charles et al 2010). The shift from immediate-to delayed-return production (Woodburn 1982) that we highlight is generally but not necessarily coincident with the shift from hunting-gathering to agricultural modes of subsistence.…”

Section: Risk-sensitive Adaptation Normal Surplus and Storagementioning

confidence: 85%

Production risk, inter-annual food storage by households and population-level consequences in seasonal prehistoric agrarian societies

Winterhalder¹,

Puleston

Ross

2015

Environmental Archaeology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Using complementary behavioural and population ecological models, we explore the role of production risk, normal surplus and inter-annual food storage in the adaptations of societies dependent on seasonal agriculture. We find that (a) household-level, risk-sensitive adaption to unpredictable environmental variation in annual agricultural yields is a sufficient explanation for the origins of normal agrarian surplus and, consequently, of household-level incentives for inter-annual food storage; and, (b) at the population level, density-dependent Malthusian processes tightly constrain the circumstances under which this same mechanism can be effective in smoothing inter-annual fluctuations in household food availability. Greater environmental variation and higher levels of fixed set-asides such as seed requirements or transfer obligations to political authorities lead to more severe, periodic famines; however, outside of famine events, these same factors improve average population welfare by suppressing population density to levels at which Malthusian constraints have lessened impact. The combination of behavioural and population ecological modelling methods has broad and complementary potential for illustrating the dynamic properties of complex, coupled human-natural systems.

show abstract

“…Rainfall differences between the moister northern drainage basin and locations to the south are reflected in different proportions of crops, with higher proportions of free-threshing wheat at Mozan, to the north, and more barley at Brak in the south (Riehl 2010, p. 65;Riehl 2012, p. 117). Despite these regional variations, it appears that crop procurement strategies were quite resilient; for example, during the fourth millennium BC, although Tell Brak experienced several climatic fluctuations, the site's inhabitants adapted their strategies of crop production (Charles et al 2010). Overall, the risk of crop failure increased towards the arid central area of Syria, so that, in theory, long-term sedentary settlement and its associated staple economies were more sustainable in the north and west.…”

Section: The Plant and Animal Economymentioning

confidence: 99%

Contextualizing Early Urbanization: Settlement Cores, Early States and Agro-pastoral Strategies in the Fertile Crescent During the Fourth and Third Millennia BC

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper employs data from selected sample survey areas in the northern Fertile Crescent to demonstrate how initial urbanization developed along several pathways. The first, during the Late Chalcolithic period, was within a dense pattern of rural settlement. There followed a profound shift in settlement pattern that resulted in the formation of large walled or ramparted sites ('citadel cities') associated with a more dynamic phase of urbanization exemplified by short cycles of growth and collapse. By the later third millennium BC, the distribution of larger centres had expanded to include the drier agropastoral zone of northern and central Syria, termed here the 'zone of uncertainty'. This configuration, in turn, formed the context for Middle Bronze Age settlement, and the pattern of political rivalries and alliances that typified the second millennium BC. Evidence is marshalled from archaeological surveys and landscape analyses to examine these multiple paths to urbanization from the perspectives of (a) staple production within major 123J World Prehist (2014) 27:43-109 DOI 10.1007/s10963-014-9072-2 agricultural lowlands; (b) the shift towards higher risk animal husbandry within climatically marginal regions; (c) changes in local and inter-regional networks (connectivity); and (d) ties and rights to the land. Textile production forms the core of the proposed model, which emphasizes how the demand for wool and associated pasture lands opened up new landscapes for agro-pastoral production and settlement. The resultant landscapes of settlement are then compared with the picture in the southern Levant where a more restricted zone of uncertainty may have limited the opportunities for agro-pastoral production.

show abstract

Tolerating change at Late Chalcolithic Tell Brak: responses of an early urban society to an uncertain climate

Cited by 19 publications

References 24 publications

Stable Carbon Isotope Evidence for Neolithic and Bronze Age Crop Water Management in the Eastern Mediterranean and Southwest Asia

Stable Carbon Isotope Evidence for Neolithic and Bronze Age Crop Water Management in the Eastern Mediterranean and Southwest Asia

Production risk, inter-annual food storage by households and population-level consequences in seasonal prehistoric agrarian societies

Contextualizing Early Urbanization: Settlement Cores, Early States and Agro-pastoral Strategies in the Fertile Crescent During the Fourth and Third Millennia BC

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About