Map of northwest Syria showing the location of the site.
Tell el-Kerkh is a huge tell complex covering approximately 30 hectares located in the Rouj Basin, 20km southwest of Idlib, northwest Syria (Figures 1 and 3). The complex comprises three adjoining mounds, Tell el-Kerkh 1, 2 and Tell Ain el-Kerkh. Excavations at Ain el-Kerkh by a joint Japanese-Syrian team since 1997 have produced architectural and occupational debris dating to the PPNB and the Pottery Neolithic (Tsuneki et al. 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000). Radiocarbon dates place these levels at 7646-7482 Cal BC for the late PPNB (El-Rouj 1 phase) and 6586-6241 Cal BC and 6068-5806 Cal BC respectively for the El-Rouj 2c and El-Rouj 2d phases of the early Pottery Neolithic. The sheer size of Tell Ain el-Kerkh confirms its position as one of the most important Neolithic sites in the northern Levant. Evidence of sophisticated chipped stone industries, large-scale bead production using imported exotic stones, and a large number of stamp seals with some clay sealings all indicate the existence of complex Neolithic societies possessing social differentiation, craft specialization and long-distance trade.
Five seasons of excavations at Ain el-Kerkh have produced skeletal remains from 47 individuals. Forty-three of these date to the Neolithic, three to the Hellenistic period and one to the Byzantine era. All of these remains would appear to derive from intentional burials and only a very few loose teeth and bones were found scattered in other deposits. The Neolithic burials come primarily from below building floors, but it is unclear whether the burials were made while the buildings were actually in use. Apart from one burial of two infants, all are single burials and all appear to be primary inhumations. Preservation was relatively good for many infants but poor for adults.
Infant burial and associated ritual features from Structure 153.
Tell Ain el-Kerkh seen from the south.
Burial practices at Ain el-Kerkh appear simpler than those known from many other Neolithic sites in the Levant. We found no evidence for the separate treatment of the skull or for collective burials. Only 25% of Neolithic burials contained grave goods, compared with nearly 40% at Abu Hureyra (Moore and Molleson 2000: 278). This difference may reflect the much lower proportion of adults at Ain el-Kerkh, but, apart from two adolescents, all burials with grave goods were of infants (Figures 4 and 5). No adolescents or adults have been found in the PPNB deposits and only six are known from the early Pottery Neolithic. It is therefore possible that most adults were buried in a separate location either within or outside the settlement. Comparison with other Neolithic sites in the Levant suggests that burial of all age groups in the settlement was the norm. This is certainly the case at Abu Hureyra. In Israel, people were buried in dwelling sites regardless of age until the Chalcolithic period (Nagar and Eshed 2001: 32). Further excavation at Ain el-Kerkh may increase the sample of adult burials.
Sub-adult burial with Dark-Faced Burnished Ware bowl.
Zoomorphic pendant found near an infant skeleton of the el-Kerkh 2c phase. Although this burial lacked a clear pit, the pendant was probably associated with the burial.
A notable exception to the generally simple burial practices at Ain el-Kerkh is provided by Structure 153, a 90 x 80 cm square pit with a perinatal infant burial in the southwestern corner (Figure 2). An 11cm long flint point was placed on the infant's chest and bones from an infant suid were found at the centre of the square. Other suid, cattle and goat bones were concentrated in the eastern part of the structure. Structure 74, a square-planned feature found above this pit produced a fallow deer antler and a cattle scapula; the tips of both the antler and scapula had been fixed into the base of the pisé wall on the eastern side. These features may be foundation deposits (Tsuneki n.d.).
Neolithic burials were divided into three phases, the PPNB El-Rouj 1 and early Pottery Neolithic El-Rouj 2c and 2d. Dental caries, calculus and enamel hypoplasias were present in all three phases but the small samples currently available preclude any attempt to look at chronological trends in dental pathology. Overall, 36% (n=9) of individuals with observable dentitions exhibited one or more caries. No indicators of specific disease were observed on the skeletons, but periostitis was present on two El-Rouj 1 phase individuals. For both, the condition was not limited to one bone, but was present throughout the lower limbs. Evidence of anaemia was also present with both cribria orbitalia and porotic hyperostosis observed on cranial fragments from an El-Rouj 1 phase infant. An adult from a later, El-Rouj 2d context was found with healed porotic hyperostosis in addition to a thickened diploic space.
There is good evidence that as a whole human health declined with the advent of the Neolithic (Cohen and Armelagos 1984), but we still know very little about the role of variables such as social class and economic distribution in this period. How the large site size and evidence for organizational complexity at Ain el-Kerkh relate to patterns of human health is perhaps the most important question we hope to answer in future work. If, as seems likely, Ain el-Kerkh was a core settlement in the region in the early Neolithic, then was that core status reflected in reduced levels of disease and nutritional stress? Alternatively, was the development of Neolithic Ain el-Kerkh paralleled by biological inequalities among its inhabitants?
Further information on the excavations at Tell el-Kerkh can be found at http://www.sakura.cc.tsukuba.ac.jp/~elrouj/index.html [URL no longer available, checked 2018 - http://www.histanth.tsukuba.ac.jp/tap/elrouj/WWW/rouj/Kerkh/kerkh9799.html alternative available].
