Syrian Arab News Agency S A N A
Damascus, SANA – Tal Abu Hureyra archeological site is one of the most important ancient Mesolithic sites that is located on a plateau near the south bank of the Euphrates, 120 km east of Aleppo. It documents the significant transition of Natufian communities from a life that is based on foraging, hunting and fishing to a more stable one based on plant and animal husbandry.
Dating back to 11500 B.C., Natufians lived in small village settlement of cramped pit dwellings (houses dug partially in the soil). The first houses were built in a round-shape made of stones and mud and roofed with branches and reeds.
According to Historian Dr. Mahmoud al-Sayyed, the archeological findings unearthed at the site trace the development of these communities’ life such as flint hammers, scrapers, millstones and mallets, a variety of bone tools such as needles and burs, in addition to plant and bone remains which document the settlers’ depending on hunting gazelles and fishes and cultivating wheat and barley.
He added that more than 500 seeds of about 150 different kinds of plants including Pistachio, nuts, elms, apricot were also found, indicating that the village’s strategic site overlooking a wide fertile plain and the abundant natural water assets contribute to the flourishment of agriculture at that time.
The various archeological sites in Syria reveal the true grandiosity of what our ancestors in the ancient civilizations had accomplished and underline the importance of studying archeological ruins and discoveries in documenting the past and the stages of human development throughout the years.
R. Raslan / Ghossoun
