Tell Halula is a large, prehistoric, Neolithic tell, about in size, located around east of Aleppo and northwest of Manbij in the Raqqa Governorate of Syria.
Excavation
The tell was first excavated in 1991 by the Spanish Archaeological Mission, directed by
Miquel Molist, Professor of
Prehistory at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
Archaeological trenches have covered an area of approximately .
Construction
The large mound is located on the
steppe of nearby mountains at an altitude of above sea level and was found to be approximately deep. It is situated between Wadi Fars and Wadi Abu Gal Gal on the right bank and
fluvial plain of the
Euphrates.
It is one of the largest neolithic sites yet found, described as a
megasite, including the remains of twenty one rectangular houses of three to five rooms, nine with associated burials of at least one hundred and seven incomplete
skeletons.
Burials were made under the floors of the houses, which were typically covered with a
limestone plaster.
Culture
Occupation of the site was detected from the middle of Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) at around 7750
Anno Domini into the Neolithic around 6780 BC and has provided insight into the transitions during this period, especially the emergence of
agriculture during the Neolithic Revolution.
Forty levels of occupation have been detected with levels one to twenty dating to the middle PPNB; twenty-one to thirty-four dating to the late PPNB; and two later levels, thirty-six and thirty-seven, showing evidence of the
Halaf culture.
Various
were found which were largely classed as
. Several showed signs of
lime plaster around the tangs, which has been suggested to have been the method of fixing to the
arrow's shaft.
Excavations revealed
paintings of female figures on the floor of one of the buildings, which are suggested to be the oldest paintings of people in the
Middle East.
Ceramics
The ceramic sequence in Halula begins early in the 7th millennium BC. The introduction of
Halaf culture painted Fine Ware is documented for the ‘Halula Phase IV’ period; this took place at the end of 7th millennium. Prior to that, there was the ‘Pre-Halaf’ period covering a very long initial stage of pottery production; the excavators break down this long period as Halula Phases I to III.
Agriculture and animal domestication
222
flint sickle blades were found, including the remains of a complete sickle found in one of the houses made of four blade elements fixed with
bitumen, shaped in a curved edge approximately 30 cm in length.
Archaeozoological analyses of
bovine tooth enamel show the development of
herding and management practices of
cattle.
D. Helmer suggested that domestication of also occurred at this site during the middle PPNB, in a transition from hunting .
Ancient DNA
Eva Fernández Domínguez extracted samples of mitochondrial DNA from human bones from Tell Halula as part of the studies for her PhD thesis accepted at the University of Barcelona in 2005. The methodology used was later superseded, so a first publication of the results in 2008 was corrected in a subsequent publication in 2014. In the latter publication the mtDNA haplogroups were given as U, R0, K, HV, H, N and L3.
See also
External links
