(www.neomundo.com.ar/_CSIC) the complete village, called Qarassa 3, consists of 12 cottages, two of which show a level of complexity than the rest. According to the researcher of the CSIC in the Milá institution and Fontanals Juan José Ibáñez, “this feature could indicate a difference in the social role of its inhabitants”.
Of the cabins, the base of the walls, erected with basaltic stones is preserved. Thanks to them, we know that the rooms were circular, between four and five meters in diameter. The existence of post holes suggests that the cover and the elevation of the walls were vegetable matter.
The two houses with a higher level of complexity are those that are located in the southern part of the town. One of them presents internal divisions and a small indoor platform end, and the other consists of a pit and two outer platforms associated to the gateway. For the person in charge of the excavation, the researcher at the CSIC in the center that Ibáñez, Xavier Terradas, “the structuring of the interior space is a key finding in the history of architecture”.
Stays are between 12-16 square meters of surface, which is why Terradas interprets that the town should consist of between 40 and 60 individuals. The CSIC researcher explains: “the distribution of all of them, adjacent, but not overlapping and organized in the form of an ancient Lake-oriented arc, shows that all were part of a same village”.
Starts the sedentary lifestyle
The site features it within the culture natufian, who inhabited this region between 14,000 and 9,000 years ago approximately. The finding, therefore, sits the traits of this culture, associated with the principle of sedentarisation. Ibáñez details: “we cannot know with certainty if they lived year-round in these cabins or only for long periods, but it is a large settlement from nomadic communities”.
Sedentarisation brought with it the emergence of the livestock and agriculture, and the abandonment of hunting and gathering. According to the researcher of the CSIC, “no signs of agriculture found in the village, but yes found greater exploitation of cereals that have appeared more than 80 mortars dug in the rocks of the surrounding area and useful for the mowing”.
To elucidate the importance of agriculture within this community team plans a new expedition to analyze the dry lake sediments. According to Ibanez, “this project could reveal indications of crops near the shore”.
The discovery of the village took place near the city of Sweida, to the South of Syria. He was found by archaeologists from the National Center for France research in 2005. The research team sought help for the analysis team Ibáñez and the International Institute for prehistoric research in Cantabria (unit associated with the CSIC and belonging to University of Cantabria).
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