Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (19.2007(2010))

TELL QARAMEL

SYRIA

EARLY NEOLITHIC WALL CONSTRUCTION
TECHNIQUES IN THE LIGHT OF
ETHNOGRAPHICAL OBSERVATIONS
ON THE ARCHITECTURE
OF THE MODERN SYRIAN VILLAGE
OF QARAMEL

Marcin Bialowarczuk

The so-called “Neolithic Revolution”,
which began in the Near East about
12,000 BC, led to enormous changes in
the everyday life of human communities.
Farming and sedentary life were important
elements of these changes, but also
in architecture a huge development was
observed.
Beginning with the Proto-Neolithic
Natufian Culture there was growing
diversification of architectural forms
and techniques in different regions of
the Near East. The process appears to
have accelerated during the Pre-Pottery
Neolithic A and Early Pre-Pottery
Neolithic B periods, which are dated
between 10,200 and 8000 BC calibrated
(Aurenche and Kozlowski 1999). Intensive
field research, especially in the past 20 years,
has brought to light enormous variation
in the architecture of these periods.
Younger stages of the Neolithic Period
also introduced architectural innovations,
although these were mostly modifica-
tions of already invented elements.
Some architectural techniques from the

beginning of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic,
especially wall construction, employed
technological solutions so efficient that
they are still being used unchanged in
modern architecture through-out the
Near East.
The huge similarities between modern
and early Pre-Pottery Neolithic structures
stand at the root of the present study.
Modern architectural units were observed
mainly in the area of the modern village
of Qaramel and subjected to comparative
analysis during a few seasons of field-
work in Tell Qaramel. The data were
enriched with information from other
areas of northern Syria. The signifi-
cance of observing modern Arabic
architecture is twofold: it pinpoints
elements of architecture which have
remained unchanged for thousands of
years and it facilitates interpretations of
prehistoric archaeological finds from the
region. Parallels with modern architecture
provide explanations for many important
features that are not always easy to
understand in the archaeological record.

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Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean 19, Reports 2007