Jerf-3 JERF EL-AHMAR •PPNA site on Middle Euphrates •9500-9000 cal BC •5 similar PPNA sites on Euphrates: Mureybet, Tell Abr, Dj’ade, Cheikh Hasan •All have evidence of cereal use 1000 years before domestication • Jerf-2 PPNA sites Botanical Evidence •From 3 of the sites, >70,000 identified charred plant parts •120 taxa represented •Plants are wild, including barley and rye •Over time, proportion of cultivars increases relative to wild •Cultivation inferred from size of grains, types of weeds, scale of activity • Processing Installations •>400 querns found, mostly in secondary contexts such as wall foundations •30 querns in situ on house floors •Of 11 houses, 9 have multiple querns •Querns set in bases of stone and mud •Quern rooms are too small to have been used for other activities Room 10 •Partly burned so better preserved •Seed cakes on one quern, possibly of mustard or rape seed, for oil? •Other seed cakes of well-ground material and not identified •Large stone disks possibly for baking •Limestone vats may have held liquid •Possibly for brewing barley beer Jerf hse 10 Jerf hse 54 Houses with querns On the floor Jerf hse 23 Jerf el Ahmar House 23 with querns on floor Storage Facilities •Large “communal” building divided into cells that may have been grain bins •Cells may have held 3m3, which is 2000 kg •If person eats 200 g/day, one bin would feed 30 people for one year •Processed barley and rye separately •Chaff may have been stored Jerf communal Communal building Storage structure at Jerf el Ahmar Jerf-1 Evidence for separate processing barley and rye Other Features •Sickles •Two species of mice, both grain eaters •Hunted aurochs, gazelle, equid A Window on the Transition •Time trends over 500 years: –Circular to rectangular houses –Sickles are better made –Storage facilities later –Querns grouped for specialist labor –Communal building later –Shift toward greater proportion of cultivars Implications •Large scale cultivation •Requires labor for field preparation, sowing, weeding, protection, harvest, thresh and process •Collective organization •Implies social hierarchy? •