Dartmouth Events

Over the past 15,000 years, humans have experienced a series of revolutionary changes, shifting from hunting-and-gathering to farming and herding; constructing villages, cities, and empires; establishing religions and standing armies; and innovating new technologies and diverse economies that fueled dramatic shifts in social organization, inequality, and modifications to the environment at ever increasing rates. Studies of both fuel and food provide many opportunities to explore larger cultural interconnections, serving as mundane, yet vital constants that were inextricably interwoven into the very fabric of social change. Each represents a familiar guide to help explore and narrate the remarkable transitions that took place, elevating changes to everyday life. Bread, in particular, tells a rich story. The earliest known bread was made from wild grasses and tubers by Epipalaeolithic hunter-gatherers in Jordan around 14,400 years ago. Since then, bread has continued to embody an increasingly important social role. Archaeobotany, the study of the ancient plant use by people, is a powerful tool for exploring the dynamics of food, fuel, social organization, and environmental change, providing nuanced insights into the constancy of their interconnectedness through time. This talk focuses on archaeobotanical collections from Abu Hureyra (Epipalaeolithic: 11,000–9400 BCE & Neolithic: 8600–7300 BC), Tell Zeidan (Halaf: 5800–5300 BCE, Ubaid:  5300–4500 BC, & Late Chalcolithic: 4500–3850 BCE), and Tell Leilan (Bronze Age/Ninevite V, Akkadian & post-Akkadian: 3100–2100 BCE), all in Syria to consider food, fuel, and farming, paying close attention to the role of bread. Together, these sites document the earliest transitions in the world from hunting-and-gathering to farming (Abu Hureyra), emergent social complexity (Tell Zeidan), and the formation and collapse of an empire (Tell Leilan).