Animal domestication in the southern Levant

L. K. HORWITZ, E. TCHERNOV, P. DUCOS, С BECKER, A. VON DEN DRIESCH, L. MARTIN and A. GARRARD

Introduction

The southern Levant encompasses present day southern Syria (as far north as the Damascus Basin), Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and the West Bank as well as the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt (fig. 1). Details of the archaeological record of this region as well as the past and present-day ecology, which are relevant to the current paper, have been given in numerous papers'. As such they will only be briefly summarized here.

The Aceramic Neolithic of the southern Levant, the period pertinent to the advent of domestic animals and which serves as the focus of the following papers, spans a considerable length of time from circa 10 200-7 600 BP (9 800-6 500 cal. ВС). It is divided into two distinct periods - the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) circa 10 200-9 400 BP (9 800-8 400 cal. ВС) and the Pre-Pottery Neolithic В (PPNB) circa 9 400- 7 600 BP (8 400-6 500 cal. ВС). These two periods are characterized by differences in settlement pattern, architecture, artifact types and as will be discussed here, also in economy2.

Paléorient. vol. 25/2. 1999. p. 63-80 € CNRS EDITIONS 2000

Manuscrit reçu le 10 octobre, accepté le 16 décembre 1999