Jerf el Ahmar is a Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) village site located in the middle Euphrates River Valley of northern Syria. Excavations at Jerf el Ahmar have exposed an area of at least 1000 square meters (~10,700 square feet) with 11 distinct occupation levels, radiocarbon dated between ~11500-10500 cal BP.
The site contains the remains of 10 separate villages overlaying one another on the top of two hills. The majority of the occupations at the site date to the prepottery Neolithic A; the most recent date to the transitional PPNA–PPNB phases. Over 30,000 charred plant remains have been discovered at the site, representing early use of wild barley. Included among the collections are several querns, cereal processing stations and other evidence for the early exploitation of barley.
Jerf el Ahmar is one of five contemporary PPNA sites which include Mureybet, Chaikh Hassan, Tel Abra 3 and Dja'de, all located within a 40 km stretch of the Euphrates River in north central Syria: these sites are close to the PPNB site of Abu Hureyra and are of similar age to Göbekli Tepe in Turkey.
Querns at Jerf el Ahmar
Over 400 querns were identified at Jerf el Ahmar, 30 of which were discovered lying in their original working position. Eleven houses at the site contained querns. A quern is a type of grinding mechanism, made up of a combination of a flat stone upon which a larger, conical shaped stone is placed. Grain is placed between the two stones and the conical stone is turned, grinding the grain.
Within house EA 10, a combination of artifacts and features suggests to scholars (Willcox and Stordeur 2012) that this house may have been used to produce an early form of barley beer. Within this house, four quern sets were found, two were complete, both bases and conical stones; a third conical stone was turned on its pointed end and may have been used as a stool. The fourth was represented by a conical stone place atop several flat stones. Two large stone platters with diameters of 65 and 55 centimeters (26 and 22 inches), each weighing about 55 kilograms (~120 pounds), were set against the wall. The grinding faces of the quernstones were highly polished. Recovered from the area were several seed cakes consisting of finely crushed seeds of probably of mustard or rapeseed. Charred lentils and fragments of seed cake were found in various places within the room. Three limestone basins in the room could have held up to 10 liters (~11 quarts) of liquid were found in this area.
Chaff from grain including wild cereals was also used in room construction. In some buildings, locally knapped limestone was stacked to make the walls, which were then covered with between 5–10 cm (2-4 in) of earth tempered with tiny fragments of wild barley, wild einkorn wheat, and wild rye.
Stone and Bone Tools
Stone tools are similar to those found at Mureybit, and include adzes, scrapers in a number of different forms, perforators and drill bits, blades, and a handful of projectile points.
Among the lithic assemblage at Jerf el Ahmar were found a quantity of obsidian. While the majority of stone tools at the site are made from local flint, but a small percentage are of obsidian from one of two sources. Recent mass spectrometry studies (Abbès at al. 2003) have shown that most of obsidian flakes are from Cappadocia (Göllü Dag volcanic massif) and a smaller amount are from the Bingöl area in Eastern Anatolia. both of these obsidian sources are found in southeastern Turkey, over 120 km apart. Recent studies indicatethat although the two obsidian sources are very similar they can be distinguished. Similar distributions are known from other PPNA villages in the region.
Plants and animals
Plants in evidence at the site include a predominance of wild barley, legumes, and a small amount of wild einkorn wheat. Almonds, pistachios, hawthorns, and buckthorn are also found among the plant assemblages as well as a small amount of oak, alder, and sycamore.
Houses at Jerf el Ahmar
The PPN a transition in house types is in evidence at Jerf el Ahmar. The earliest houses are semi-subterranean round houses; later the houses are rounded with straight walls and finally rectangular. The foundations of the houses were built of large rubble limestone, and covered with earth tempered with barley chaff. Roofs for the houses were apparently flat and constructed of split logs.
The houses were built very close together but primarily detached from one another and separated by narrow passageways or outdoor spaces. External spaces are sometimes landscaped with paved areas, within which storage structures were buried. Constructed hearths are primarily external to the house and were likely used as ovens.
Excavation history of Jerf el Ahmar
Jerf el Ahmar was discovered in 1989 and excavated in the 1990s by an French-Syrian team led by Danielle Storeur and George Willcox.
Sources
This glossary entry is a part of the About.com guide to Pre-Pottery Neolithic, and the Dictionary of Archaeology.
Abbès F, Bellot-Gurlet L, Cauvin MC, Delerue S, Dubernet S, Poupeau G, and Stordeur D. 2003. Provenance of the Jerf el Ahmar (Middle Euphrates Valley, Syria) obsidians. Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids 323(1–3):162-166.
Frahm E. 2012. Distinguishing Nemrut Dag and Bingöl A obsidians: geochemical and landscape differences and the archaeological implications. Journal of Archaeological Science 39(5):1436-1444.
Kornienko TV. 2009. Notes On The Cult Buildings Of Northern Mesopotamia In The Aceramic Neolithic Period. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 68(2):81-101.
Willcox G, and Fornite S. 1999. Impressions of wild cereal chaff in pisé from the 10th millennium uncal B.P. at Jerf el Ahmar and Mureybet: Northern Syria. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 8(1):21-24.
Willcox G, Helmer D, and Stordeur D. 1997. Jerf el Ahmar : un nouveau site de l'horizon PPNA sur le moyen Euphrate syrien. Bulletin de la Société préhistorique française 95(2):282-285.
Willcox G, and Stordeur D. 2012. Large-scale cereal processing before domestication during the 10th millennium Cal BC in northern Syria. Antiquity 86(331):99–114.
