Abstract:

Olivier Nieuwenhuyse was a remarkable archaeologist whose work has transformed the study of later Neolithic societies in West Asia. He has inspired many colleagues and students in their own pursuit of archaeology. Through the analysis of material culture his aim was to reconstruct social meanings and practices of societies in the deep past. In this volume a series of colleagues and friends pay tribute to the scholarship of Olivier Nieuwenhuyse, who died much too young, and present a series of studies on the archaeology of Late Neolithic societies in West Asia.

The volume includes a reflection on Olivier’s career in archaeology (Spoor). There are chapters on the key site of Tell Sabi Abyad, on which Olivier worked for many years, dealing with its buildings (Akkermans and Brüning), its funerary practices (Plug), and the use of bitumen at the site (Connan et al.). The next section on the book focusses on the analysis of tokens (Bennison-Chapman), figurines (Arntz, Düring), and ornaments (Belcher and Croucher), of various sites dating to the Late Neolithic in West Asia. Following this there are studies on the emergence of pottery in West Asia (Bartl, Özbal), the use of ceramic ‘husking trays’ (Balossi Restelli), and the design rules in various prehistoric pottery traditions (Bernbeck and Pollock). Finally, the last chapter presents new data on prehistoric Palmyra (Maqdissi and Ishaq).

Colleagues working on Neolithic West Asia will find much of interest in this volume. We hope they will agree that this is a worthy tribute to the remarkable body of scholarship that Olivier Nieuwenhuyse has created.

Contents

List of Authors

Introduction
Peter M.M.G. Akkermans and Bleda S. Düring

A Man Feasting. Olivier’s Journey through Archaeology
Richard H. Spoor

Dwellings with Three Rooms: A New Type of Architecture at Late Seventh Millennium BCE Tell Sabi Abyad, Syria
Peter M.M.G. Akkermans and Merel H. Brüning

Greater than the Sum of Parts: Mortuary Practice and Community Integration at Late Neolithic Tell Sabi Abyad
Jo-Hannah Plug

Chemical Study of Bitumens from Tell Sabi Abyad (Syria) from 7000 BCE to 1150 BCE
Jacques Connan, Bonnie Nilhamn, Michael H. Engel, Alex Zumberge, Peter M.M.G. Akkermans and Rzger A. Abdula

Tokens as Indicators of Social Change in the Late Neolithic
Lucy E. Bennison-Chapman

Daily Negotiations with Materiality: Re–Assembling Halaf Ornamentation
Ellen Belcher and Karina Croucher

Figurines to be Felt? A Group of Appliqué Figurines from Tell Sabi Abyad, Syria
Monique Arntz

Reconsidering Cruciform Figurines of Chalcolithic Cyprus
Bleda S. Düring

Pottery Development in the 7th millennium BCE in the Northern, Central, and Southern Levant
Karin Bartl

Early Pottery and ‘Displaced’ Cooking Pots
Rana Özbal

Husking Trays in the Context of Neolithic Socialization: The Sensory Experience of ‘Bread’ Consumption
Francesca Balossi Restelli

The Social Dimension of Regularities and Ambiguation in Neolithic Painted Pottery: A Comparative Perspective
Reinhard Bernbeck and Susan Pollock

Note d’Archéologie Levantine LXVII: les phases anciennes de Palmyre d’après les données des archives de R. du Mesnil du Buisson et de la mission syrienne de 2011
Michel Al-Maqdissi and Eva Ishaq