Abstract:

Archaeological research on early villages has repeatedly shown that despite their small size these settlements were anything but simple. Excavations at the Late Neolithic and early Aeneolithic village of Monjukli Depe in the Kopet Dag foothills of Turkmenistan contribute to a picture of this complexity. General uniformities in house plans and material culture conceal underlying variability in material and social practices. Small-scale analyses of the preparation and use of space in buildings, courtyards, and outdoor areas yield insights into how and where village residents pursued their daily activities. Studies focused on interactions among villagers, animals, and plants demonstrate the multiple relationships between them in this settlement. Animals were sometimes penned in buildings or courtyards, and their dung served as a source of fuel. Macrobotanical and phytolith analyses offer indications of the main crops grown as well as the plant parts that people and animals brought, intentionally or not, into the village. They underscore long-term continuities as well as changes in the relationships among plants, animals, and people between the Neolithic and Aeneolithic occupations. A series of studies examine the stone, bone, and copper tools made and used by the villagers. Items of bodily adornment, including beads and copper pins, add a distinctly personal layer of life.

Together, the assembled evidence offers a rich source of information on production activities but also on practices and materials that are otherwise largely invisible to the naked eye, from the adornment of the body, to the working of leather, fibers, and fabrics, to the harvesting of grain, to food preparation. Indirect connections to worlds beyond the village and the region are revealed via raw materials and objects from distant sources, including cherts and chalcedony, marine shells, lapis lazuli, and copper.

The resulting picture extends and refines our knowledge about this ancient village, making visible the dynamics of quotidian village life beyond larger-scale similarities.

Contents

List of Figures
List of Tables

1. Introduction: Everyday Life in Neolithic and Aeneolithic Monjukli Depe
Susan Pollock, Reinhard Bernbeck, and Ilia Heit

Part I. Microarchaeology

2. The Spatial Dimension of Daily Practices: Microdebris Analysis at Monjukli Depe
Nolwen Rol, Reinhard Bernbeck, and Peter Sturm

3. Invisible to the Eye – Comparative Multi-elemental Analyses of Archaeological Samples from Monjukli Depe
Michael Rummel, Julia Schönicke, and Ilia Heit

4. All the Small Things: Microstratigraphic Investigations of Earthen Deposits at the Site of Monjukli Depe
Susanna Cereda

Part II. Paleobiological remains

5. Burn It: Preliminary Study of the Archaeobotanical Remains Associated with Fire Installations at Monjukli Depe
Madelynn von Baeyer

6. Phytoliths from Neolithic and Aeneolithic Monjukli Depe
Philippa Ryan

7. Animal Dung and Plant Remains in the Middle of the Village
Birgül Öğüt

Part III. Objects

8. From Cores to Tools: The Chipped Stone Assemblage from Monjukli Depe
Susan Pollock

9. A Functional Study of Lithic Tools from Monjukli Depe
Melody Pope

10. Making the Most of Animals: The Worked Animal Bone Assemblage from Monjukli Depe
Jana Eger

11. On Pins and Awls: A Chaîne Opératoire Approach to Early Copper Use in Monjukli Depe
Lisa Wolff-Heger

12. The Tiny and the Tiniest ‒ Beads at Monjukli Depe
Ezel Güneş