The Blades from Jebel Aruda. A functional and technological lithic analysis

This thesis includes a technological and functional analysis of blades from the Late Uruk period settlement of Jebel Aruda in northern Syria. The settlement of Jebel Aruda has, together with contemporary and neighbouring settlements like Habuba Kabira-süd, been interpreted as a southern Mesopotamian colonial emplacement in northern Mesopotamia, also known as ‘the Tabqa enclave’. Of these Jebel Aruda has been interpreted as a special administrative or religious centre, because of its unusual location and its large residential buildings centred around a temple. Together with the ‘Tabqa enclave’ many other southern Mesopotamian colonies have been discovered in northern Mesopotamia and on such a large scale that this phenomenon has been called an ‘Uruk expansion’. The underlying reasons for the Uruk expansion have been the subject of debate for many years. Among the theories seeking to explain the expansion, the ideas by Guillermo Algaze have been the most influential. According to...Show moreThis thesis includes a technological and functional analysis of blades from the Late Uruk period settlement of Jebel Aruda in northern Syria. The settlement of Jebel Aruda has, together with contemporary and neighbouring settlements like Habuba Kabira-süd, been interpreted as a southern Mesopotamian colonial emplacement in northern Mesopotamia, also known as ‘the Tabqa enclave’. Of these Jebel Aruda has been interpreted as a special administrative or religious centre, because of its unusual location and its large residential buildings centred around a temple. Together with the ‘Tabqa enclave’ many other southern Mesopotamian colonies have been discovered in northern Mesopotamia and on such a large scale that this phenomenon has been called an ‘Uruk expansion’. The underlying reasons for the Uruk expansion have been the subject of debate for many years. Among the theories seeking to explain the expansion, the ideas by Guillermo Algaze have been the most influential. According to Algaze the expansion was primarily motivated by the demand for important trade goods which were lacking in the south of Mesopotamia, through long-distance trade. Moreover in this view, the character of the expansion was one of a southern Mesopotamian dominance over the indigenous northern Mesopotamian communities, regarded as the periphery. The ‘Tabqa enclave’ specifically has always been regarded as unfit for agriculture, and dependent on trade for its survival. Interestingly, the Uruk period in northern Mesopotamia also saw the birth of a specialized and standardized blade product, the Canaanean blade. During the period immediately succeeding the Uruk expansion in northern Mesopotamia, the Ninevite V period, this blade type was produced specifically for the agricultural practice of threshing. The technological and functional analysis of the blades from Jebel Aruda indicate that the Canaanean blade also played a central role in agricultural activities during the Late Uruk period, functioning both as sickles and as threshing sledge implements. It further seems that the Canaanean blade was an important trade product already during the Late Uruk period. Its production was gradually intensified, and the blades were traded on a regional scale in the north. Not only has the functional analysis proven that agriculture was practiced around Jebel Aruda and at the ‘Tabqa enclave’, it seems to indicate that agriculture might have been the primary motivation behind the Uruk expansion. Finally, analysis of the blades suggests that Jebel Aruda’s lithic assemblage was very similar to other southern Mesopotamian colonies in the north, indicating that its character might not have been as different as assumed.Show less

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The Blades from Jebel Aruda. A functional and technological lithic analysis