2003 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Pseudo-house and Pseudo-wall : A Unique Funerary Practice of the Early Pastoral Nomads in the Near East.
| Project/Area Number |
13571037
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 海外学術 |
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| Research Field |
考古学(含先史学)
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| Research Institution | Kanazawa University |
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Principal Investigator |
FUJII Sumio Kanazawa University, Faculty of Letters, Professor, 文学部, 教授 (90238527)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
MIYAKE Yutaka Tokyo, Kaseii Gakuin College, Faculty of Human Science, Associate Professor, 人文学部, 助教授 (60261749)
YAMAUCHII Kazuya Institute of Cultural Heritage, Tokyo, Center for the Cooperation for the Conservation and Reservation of International Cutural Heritage, Chief Researcher, 国際文化財保存修復協力センター, 主任研究官 (70370997)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2001 – 2003
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| Keywords | NEAR EAST / PASTORAL NOMADS / JORDAN / BURIAL PRACTICE / NEOLITHIC / EARLY BRONZE AGE / PSEUDO-SETTLEMENT |
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| Research Abstract |
The purpose of this research project was to explore the origin and development of the early pastoral nomadism in the Near East in light of the pseudo-settlement hypothesis, a likely explanation for the formation process of enigmatic settlement sites in southern Levant that lack any clear evidence for practical habitation. Chosen for this purpose was the al-Jafr basin in southern Jordan.
The excavations at Qa 'Abu Tulayha West in 2001-2002 and a series of investigations in the northwestern part of the al-Jafr basin in 2003 revealed that burial installations of early pastoral nomads in this basin from the Late Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age always contain a pseudo-house or its deteriorated form, pusedo-wall as annexed facilities. They also confirmed that : 1)pseudo-house cairns, which characterize the burial customs in the Late Neolithic, changed into pseudo-wall cairns in the Chalcolithic, which in turn were transformed into K-lines(i.e., a linear combination of pseudo-wall burial cairns) and pseudo-wall burial enclosures in the Early Bronze Age ; 2) this unique burial practice derived probably from the under-floor or, more precisely, under-facade burials that were popular among PPNB agro-pastoral populations to the west.
This line of evidence highlights that the early pastoral nomadism in the southern Levant was established through the spread of sedentary, agro-pastoralists towards the steppe and desert, not through the import of domesticated sheep and goat by hunter-gatherers who were wandering in the arid peripheries.
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