Of Storage and Nomads. The sealings from Late Neolithic Sabi Abyad, Syria.

7/28/2019 Of Storage and Nomads. The sealings from Late Neolithic Sabi Abyad, Syria.

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Kim DuistermaatPeter M. M. G. Akkermans

Of storage and nomads. The sealings from Late Neolithic, Sabi

Abyad, Syria.In: Palorient. 1996, Vol. 22 N2. pp. 17-44.

Abstract

Recent excavations at the late Neolithic site of Tell Sabi Abyad in northern Syria have yielded hundreds of clay sealings in well-

defined contexts. It is argued that these sealings facilitated the communal storage at the site of all kinds of products and claims

by a nomadic population of considerable size. In this respect, the sealings are indicative of the symbiosis between the sedentary

and nomadic populations in the Late Neolithic.

Rsum

Les fouilles rcentes sur le site nolithique rcent de Tell Sabi Abyad, Syrie du nord, ont rvl des centaines de scellements en

argile. Nous argumentons que ces scellements ont facilit Sabi Abyad le stockage communal par une population nomade trs

tendue de toute sorte de produits et de crances. Aussi considrons nous que les scellements sont les tmoins de la symbiose

entre les populations sdentaires et nomades du Nolithique Rcent.

Citer ce document / Cite this document :

Duistermaat Kim, Akkermans Peter M. M. G. Of storage and nomads. The sealings from Late Neolithic, Sabi Abyad, Syria. In:

Palorient. 1996, Vol. 22 N2. pp. 17-44.

doi : 10.3406/paleo.1996.4635

http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/paleo_0153-9345_1996_num_22_2_4635
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/author/auteur_paleo_250http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/author/auteur_paleo_65http://dx.doi.org/10.3406/paleo.1996.4635http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/paleo_0153-9345_1996_num_22_2_4635http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/paleo_0153-9345_1996_num_22_2_4635http://dx.doi.org/10.3406/paleo.1996.4635http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/author/auteur_paleo_65http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/author/auteur_paleo_250


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Of storage and nomadsThe sealings from late NeolithicSabi Abyad, Syria

P.M.M.G. AKKERMANS and K. DUISTERMAATAbstract : Recent excavations at the late Neolithic site of Tell Sabi Abyad in northern Syria have yielded hundreds of clay sealingsin well-defined contexts. It is argued that these sealings facilitated the communal storage at the site of all kinds of products andclaims by a nomadic population of considerable size. In this respect, the sealings ar e indicative of the symbiosis between thesedentary and nomadic populations in the Late Neolithic.Rsum : Les fouilles rcentes sur le site nolithique rcent de Tell Sabi Abyad, Syrie du nord, ont rvl des centaines descellements en argile. Nous argumentons que ce s scellements ont facilit Sabi Abyad le stockage communal par un e populationnomade trs tendue de toute sorte de produits et de crances. Aussi considrons nous que les scellements sont les tmoins de lasymbiose entre les populations sdentaires et nomades du Nolithique Rcent.Key-words : Sabi Abyad, Syria, Late Neolithic, Sealings, Storage, Nomads.Mots clefs : Sabi Abyad, Syrie, Nolithique Rcent, Scellements, Stockage, Nomades.

INTRODUCTIONThe excavations at th e five-hectare site of Sabi Abyad, locatedin th e Balikh valley of northern Syria, have revealed a continuous sequence of eleven superimposed and generally well-preserved building levels dated between ca. 5,700 and5,000 B.C. (6,500-5,800 calBC)1. Perhaps th e most spectacular f these prehistoric settlements is building level 6 orth e 'Burnt Village', th e earliest of th e so-called Transitionallevels (6-4), which represent an intermediate stage betweenth e lower, pre-Halaf Neolithic (levels 11-7) and th e topmostEarly Halaf (levels 3-1)2. The level 6 remains, partiallystanding to a height of 1.40 m, consist of a number ofrectangular, multi-roomed houses built of pis along veryregular lines and surrounded by smaller circular structures,ovens and hearths (fig. 1). Some of th e tiny rooms had'normal' but narrow doorways (occasionally with pivot1. In order to adjust ou r dates to the existing chronological frameworks andou r earlier reports (and so to avoid general confusion), all dates ar e used ina "traditional' manner, i.e. uncalibrated, in this article. Dates in calibratedyears ar e given between brackets, whenever it seems useful.2. Cf . Akkermans and Verhoeven, 1995; Akkermans (d.), 1996.

stones), whereas others had doorways of such restricted sizethat one had to crawl through them on hands and knees(portholes). In addition, it appeared that some rooms did nothave a doorway at floor level at al l ; these rooms must havebeen accessible from the roof of th e building. The settlementwas heavily affected by a violent fire, which swept overthe village and reduced most houses to ashes around5,200 B.C. (6,000 calBC). Vast quantities of in-situ findswere recovered from the burnt buildings, including ceramicand stone vessels, flint and obsidian implements, ground-stonetools, human and animal figurines, labrets, axes, personalornaments and, most excitingly, hundreds of clay sealings.These sealings consist of lumps of clay either pressed on th efastening of a container or closing this container entirely, andmost of them carry stamp-seal impressions3. Most remarkably,owever, not a single stamp seal has so far been foundin th e houses of th e Burnt Village4.3. Se e Duistermaat, 1996, fo r an exhaustive description and analysis of theSabi Abyad sealings.4. So far, stamp seals have only appeared in debris contexts in somewhatlater levels of occupation at Sabi Abyad; Akkermans, 1993 : 85 ; Akkermansand Le Mire, 1992 : 10 , 21 ; Duistermaat, 1996 : 339-341.

Palorient. vol. 22/2. p. 17-44. CNRS ditions 1997 Manuscrit reu le 27 aot 1996; accept le 21 octobre 1996.


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18 P.M. M. G. Akkermans an d . Duistermaat

Fig. 1 : Plan of the 'Burnt Village' at Sabi Abyad. Stars and numbers indicate the findspots and amounts of sealings.

Traditionally, glyptic studies in Near Eastern archaeology goods5. So far, the first (stamp) seal impressions, on plaster,emphasise matters of iconography or art history. However, in were found at late 7th millennium Tell Bouqras and Tellth e last fifteen years a shift towards a more functional ap-... -, i r i i r i 5. Se e e.g. Alizadeh, 1988; Ferioli and Fiandra, 1 979, 1 983; Ferioliproach has become perceptible, focussing on th e role of seals et aL l979 ; Frangipane and PalmieR]) ]992- Matthews, 1989, 1991;and sealings in systems of administration and control of Rothman and Blackman, 1990; Zettler, 1987.Palorient. vol . 22/2 , p. 17-44 CNRS ditions 1997


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Of storage and nomads - The sealings from late Neolithic Sabi Abyad, Syria 19el-Kowm6 but th e earliest sealings in clay previously knownstem from the final stage of th e Halaf period, i.e. from th eearly 5th millennium B.C., and have been found at very fewsites only. Arpachiyah produced 41 sealings (26 of whichwere found in th e TT6 Burnt House, th e remainder in debriscontexts), whereas 3 examples were found in th e trenches inArea A and th e Northeast Base at Tepe Gawra and another40, in a very late Halaf context, at Khirbet Derak7. The 300clay sealings uncovered at Sabi Abyad, in a well-definedstratigraphie and spatial context, date from several hundredyears earlier, and have made it clear that th e deliberate sealingof products was already extensively practiced in pre-Halaftimes.THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE SEALINGSThe majority of th e level 6 sealings ha s been found in rooms6-7 of building II and rooms 6-7 of building V. In addition,some sealings occurred in other rooms of buildings II and V,as well as in building IV and th e circular structures VI andIX (fig. 1 ). Two-thirds of th e sealings (n = 201) stem fromroom 6 of building II. Actually, th e floor of this room (and,to a lesser extent, rooms 6 and 7 of building V) was literallycrammed with al l kinds of small finds, including miniaturevessels, tokens, discs, and human and animal figurines. Asimilar association of sealings and other items has beenattested in one of th e structures of the Early Halaf level 3 atSabi Abyad (building III, room II)8, and appeared at othersites mainly in garbage deposits9. However, in view of theirlocation, th e Sabi Abyad finds cannot be considered to represent mere refuse nor can th e rooms with these items beregarded as dumps; th e various objects seem to have beendeliberately stored in a few selected rooms and must stillhave had a certain 'value'. The sealings, mostly broken andin a fragmentary state, were found to have been kept separate ly from the containers which they had sealed. Particularlyin th e case of room 6 of building II, measuring hardly 3 m2 ,it is obvious that this room was much too small to containth e hundreds of containers originally associated with th esealings found in this room. The exact meaning of this6. P.A. Akkermans et ai, 1983: 356-57 an d fig. 42; Marchal, 1982:223-224 and fig. 3-4.7. Mallowan and Rose, 1935: 98-99; Tobler, 1950: 177; Breniquet,1990: 165; see also Campbell, 1992; Von Wickede, 1990, 1991.8. Cf . Akkermans, 1993 : 304; Akkermans (d.), 1996.9. E.g. in Bronze Age loci at Abu Salabikh and LJruk loci at Sharafabad;Matthews, 1989 : 94-95 ; Wright et al., 1980 : 277-278.

association of small finds still eludes us bu t it has beensuggested10 that the items functioned together in an administrative system, some representing either goods (tokens,miniature vessels and animal figurines) or services (humanfigurines), others controlling or recording th e circulation ofthese products (sealings, which are th e sole pieces of evidenceleft of whatever transactions had been completed after th eopening of th e containers).

Interestingly, th e sealings differ in various respects fromeach other per building or per room ' ] . First, it appeared thatbuilding II, room 6, and building V, room 6, mainly containedsealings used in association with basketry, while th e otherstructures and rooms predominantly yielded sealings used onceramics. The preference for a particular kind of containermay be related to th e storage of specific commodities if so,it seems that the rooms 6 of both building II and building Vwere concerned with products different from those of th eother structures (or, at least, these buildings stored theseproducts in much larger quantities). Second, most sealingsfrom building II carried stamp-seal impressions, while th eother features contained much larger amounts of sealingswithout impressions it is not excluded that these latter items,when used on pottery, may have functioned as mere lidsinstead of as true sealings (this holds in particular for th eso-called jar stoppers). Third, th e sealings stored in buildingII showed different impressions from the ones found in th eother buildings, although they sometimes showed a similar(but not identical) general type of design (see below) ; apparently, th e various buildings at Sabi Abyad were used bydifferent sealing agencies ' 2.THE SEALED OBJECTSThe reverse of most sealings carries an impression of th eobject originally sealed, which allows determination of th emethod of sealing and identification of th e sealed object13.In th e case of Sabi Abyad, al l sealings are associated withsmall, transportable containers; no door sealings have beenfound (in view of th e extensive area of excavation and th ewidespread burning, it seems that negative evidence is significant, and that door sealings were no t in use in this villageat this time). At least five kinds of containers can be recognised : baskets, plaited mats, ceramic vessels, stone bowls10 . Matthews, 1989: 94-95; Schmandt-Besserat, 1992: 178.11 . See Duistermaat, 1996, for a detailed account.12 . See Duistermaat, 1996 and tables 5.5-5.6 fo r a detailed account.13 . Se e e.g. Ferioli and Fiandra, 1979, 1983.

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20 P.M. M. G. Akkermans and . DuistermaatTable 1 : Numbers and percentages of sealingspe r type of container.

Container typebasketrypotteryplaited matsstone vesselsbagsunidentified objectsdamaged reversetotal

number11 293

64372

10300

%37331.02.0131.024.033

10 0

and leather bags (table 1 ; in addition, some impressions cannotye t be identified while others are damaged). The majority ofth e sealings is associated with baskets and ceramics, whichwere sealed in a variety of ways. So far, 18 different waysof sealing have been recognised.BasketryOver one-third (37.3 %) of th e sealings gave evidence ofimpressions of coiled basketry (fig. 4 : 3-5, 7-13; fig. 5 : 6),which was widely used in th e Near East from very early timesonwards14. The basketry was made of long, narrow strips ofvegetal fibres (straw, grasses or reeds) and seems to have beenof a fine quality, with th e narrow coils very neatly stitchedtogether; th e manufacture must have required a considerableamount of time and skill15. Little can be said about th e shapeof th e baskets, since th e sealings only show th e topmost rimcoils or th e centre of th e lid. However, it seems that therewere at least two different shapes of baskets and lids, i.e.baskets with a flat lid laid upon th e container's opening andrim, and baskets with a flat lid sunk into th e container'sopening (fig. 2). Most containers seem to have had a circularor, less commonly, oval mouth, less than 20 cm in diameter.Impressions of damaged coils (fig. 4 : 12) prove that somebaskets had been used intensively before th e sealing tookplace.14. Compare e.g. the late 7t h millennium White- Ware vessels from Tellel-Kowm; Marchal, 1982, fig. 10 .15 . W . Wendrich, pers. comm. ; see also Wendrich, 1991.

1 2Fig. 2 : Two different ways of sealing basketry at Sabi Aby ad .

The Sabi Abyad basketry was sealed in three differentways. The most popular method (n = 100) was to close th econtainer with a flat basketry lid fastened with a piece of thinrope (cf. fig. 2:1; generally, th e ropes were about 1.5 mmthick, spun in Z-direction and plied in S-direction). Subsequently, th e sealing was placed on the knot in th e rope,near th e centre of th e coiled lid (e.g. fig. 4:4; fig. 5 : 6).The second, much lesser used (n = 11), method was to closeth e container with a flat basketry lid which did not rest onthe top of th e rim but was sunk into th e mouth (fig. 2 : 2).Probably a protruding coil was originally present on the insideof th e basket's opening, in order to prevent th e lid from fallinginto th e vessel. Subsequently, th e clay used for sealing waspressed both on the edge of th e lid as well as against th einterior of th e basket wall, preventing th e removal of th e lid.Obviously, these sealings never show rope impressions(fig. 4 : 3). The third way of sealing is an exceptional one,attested only once. The sealing represents an oval-shaped claylid, about 2 cm thick, placed on an oval basketry containerwhile th e clay was still wet.Plaited matsSix sealings (2 %) were used to seal plaited mats (fig. 4 : 6, 14).The reverses of these sealings show vegetal fibres 1-1.5 cmwide, perhaps th e same material as was used for th e coiledbasketry. These mats may have been used for th e productionof baskets and bags, or served to pack solid products. Mostsealings show rope impressions, indicating that the mats wereapparently closed or tied by a piece of rope before sealing.PotteryAnother third (31 %) of th e sealings was used to seal ceramicvessels, showing impressions of these vessels' rim and neck.It appears that mainly small vessels carried sealings : rimdiameters vary around 10 cm, and rim thickness variesaround 0.5 cm. Ten different ways of sealing pottery can be

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Of storage and nomads - The sealings from late Neolithic Sabi Abyad, Syria 21

' s 10Fig. 3 : Ten different ways of sealing pottery at Sabi Abyad.

distinguished (fig. 3). Many pottery sealings are 'mushroom'-shaped (fig. 3 : 3) : a pre-shaped clay ball with one flattenedside was pressed with this flat side onto th e rim of a ceramicvessel16. Other types of sealings consist of massive lumps ofclay, some with a flat reverse but others irregularly shaped,either wholly pushed into th e mouth of th e vessel (fig. 3 : 7)or partly hanging over th e rim (fig. 3 : 2). Convex clay slabs,with an even thickness of ca. one centimetre, were also usedfo r sealing purposes; they were either simply placed on th erim of th e vessel or hung partly over th e rim, covering partof th e vessel neck (fig. 3 : 4, 6). In some cases, th e sealingconsists of a lump of clay attached to a more or less circularsherd possibly serving as a lid. The sealing covered both thislid and th e vessel's rim and neck, thus preventing th e lidfrom being removed (fig. 3 : 9). Some sealings consist ofconical or slightly rounded lumps of clay, with a flat orconcave back. They have certainly been pre-formed, as appears from th e prominent finger impressions on the reverse(fig. 3 : 5, 10). A very rare kind of sealing consists of alens-shaped lump of clay pressed onto a thick rope, whichfastened a piece of leather closing th e vessel (fig. 3, 8) .

Generally, th e various types of pottery sealings cover th emouth of th e vessel entirely, in a more or less airtight way.An exception is th e kind of sealing shown in fig. 3 : 1, andfig. 4 : 1 : this vessel had first been closed with a lid orstopper and subsequently th e clay sealing was placed againstth e outer surface of th e jar neck, covering both th e vesselrim and part of th e lid, thus preventing removal of th e lid17.

Remarkably, the pottery sealings often lack seal impressions. n th e case of th e type of sealings represented by figure3:1, about half of th e sealings shows stamp-seal impressions,bu t in th e case of th e other types (fig. 3 : 2-10) only a quarteris impressed. This may partly be due to matters of preservationut some items, in particular th e so-called 'jar stoppers'(fig. 3 : 2-7, 10), may have functioned as mere lids ratherthan sealings in th e true sense of th e word.Stone bowlsFour sealings originally sealed one or more stone vessels.Actually, two sealings fitted a small and oval, grooved bowlmade of gabbro (fig. 6; th e grooves and rim of th e bowlhave clearly left their impressions on th e reverse of th esealings). Both th e sealings and th e bowl were found in th esame level 6 house II but in different rooms (the sealingswere found in room 6, th e bowl in room 12). Interestingly,only one of th e sealings gave evidence of stamp-seal impressions.Apparently, th e bowl originally carried a sealing witha stamp-seal impressions bu t was re-sealed later, for onereason or another, without renewal of th e seal impressions.This repeated sealing of th e same container may indicate thatth e actual sealing was carried out at th e site itself.Leather bagsOne sealing shows a pleated hairy surface on its reverse, tiedtightly with a piece of rope 2 mm thick. Most likely, thissealing originally sealed a leather bag, which was closed witha rope at its opening. The leather must still have had somehairs attached to it. Other bag sealings at Sabi Abyad areperhaps represented by two impressions of finely woven cloth.Unidentified objectsUnfortunately, identification of th e sealed objects has not beenpossible in many cases (27.4 %); some sealings have surfaces

16 . Cf . Zettler. 1989: 373. 17 . Cf . Zettler, 1989: 374.Palorient. vol. 22/2. p. 17-44


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22 P.M. M. G. Akkermans an d . Dutstermaattoo damaged to allow further determination, others showreverses which cannot with any certainty be associated withany of th e kinds of containers distinguished so far. In somecases th e sealing reverses are flat or slightly concave andcarry rope impressions (fig. 4 : 2, 15; fig. 5 : 2, 4) ; perhapsthese items were once attached to a piece of leather closinga pottery vessel18. Others have a triangular section and aconvex reverse which shows a considerable quantity of strawimpressions, all oriented in th e same direction; they may havesealed baskets or basketry lids.SEAL IMPRESSIONSMost sealings at Sabi Abyad (n = 189, or 63 %) carry oneor more stamp-seal impressions on th e obverse. At least67 different stamp seals must have been in use (this on th ebasis of seal size, shape and details in design; cf. fig. 4 : 2,4, 9-13), which may be grouped into 27 different seal designs,some of which occur only once or twice, others in considerableuantities. At present, no clear relationship is foundbetween a particular kind of seal design and a particular typeof container19. The major design categories each show oneor more varieties, which appear to have been used simultaneously. Below, some designs will be briefly commented on.

The 'capricorn' (fig. 4 : 1-5) is by far th e most commondesign at Sabi Abyad (n = 51, or 27 % of th e total numberof impressed sealings). It depicts a goat-like animal with longhorns curved backwards, bent hindlegs and stretched forelegs.The forefeet are divided into two halves, indicating th ehooves. The animal has a fairly long neck, a short tail andtwo ears. In front of th e animal, a lenticular motif (a weapon ?) fills in th e stamp surface. The capricorn design isassociated with at least eight different seals, each of whichis circular or slightly oval but different in size and designconfiguration.Another common design (n = 15 or 8 %) is characterised

by zigzag lines in combination with triangles along th e edgeof th e impression (fig. 4 : 6-8). This design is associated withnine different seals, some circular, others rectangular.

Thirty sealings (16 %) showed impressions of an S-shapedor, rarely, Z-shaped stamp seal with a design, varying indegree of elaboration, basically consisting of continuous linesfollowing th e shape of th e stamp surface (fig. 4 : 9-12). Ninedifferent seals can be distinguished. In one case, th e S-shapeddesign is used, on one and th e same sealing, in combinationwith th e zigzag motif.

The rather complex 'bucranium' design occurred 14 times(7 %) and is associated with a circular stamp surface (fig. 4 :7, 9, 13). The main Y-shaped element is combined withtriangles and curved lines in a variety of ways. The bucraniumdesign sometimes occurs together with th e S-shaped and th ezigzag designs; in most cases, these combined impressionsresult from th e use of th e same pair of seals.Circular impressions depicting a tree or other plant-likemotif appeared five times (2.5 %); each is represented by adifferent seal (fig. 4 : 15). The design shows a vertical stem,with a series of leaves on each side, pointing either downwards or upwards. In some cases, th e tree stands on a stripedground surface, and above th e tree two triangles pointingdownwards are shown, possibly depicting flowers or fruit.Four impressions (2 %) show a rather complex design :toothed ellipses connected by another ellipse or straight line,dividing th e seal area in two parts. Each part carries one ortw o 'bow-tie' motifs and, occasionally, an ellipse (fig. 5 : 2).

Two variants can be distinguished, each occurring twice.One sealing (0.6 %) shows a series of cowrie-shell impressionsfig. 5:1). Originally, th e shell must have been attachedto a string of beads : next to each impression th e beads haveleft a row of small concave imprints. In addition to sealingpurposes, th e shell (and perhaps stamp seals in general) seemsto have been used as a pendant or, possibly, an amulet aswell, worn around th e neck or wrist.Most intriguing are th e nine sealings (5 %) with very largeimpressions (over 9 cm long) depicting an anthropomorphic

figure standing upright with a wide head and conical headgearor hairdress, rudimentarily depicted arms and straight legs(fig. 5 : 7)20. Facial features have not been rendered except

18. Cf. Ferioli and Fiandra, 1983 : 486, fig. 12b.1 9. Se e Duistermaat, 1 99 6 : 342ff and table 5.4. 20. Some fragmented impressions indicate that th e legs originally carried aherringbone pattern (not visible in th e case of the shallow impression offig. 5, no. 7). Cf . Duistermaat, 1996, fig. 5.6.

Fig. 4 : Selection of Sabi Abyad clay sealings.Palorient, vol. 22/2, p. 17-44 CNRS ditions 1997


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14


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24 P.M. M. G. Akkermans an d . Duistermaatfor th e elongated, sharply delineated eyes with pronouncedeyebrows. A similar design resembling a human face witheyes and eyebrows is represented by two circular seal impressions (1 %; fig. 4 : 14).

Finally, a few impressions carry rather simple designs suchas pointed stars, concentric circles, crosshatching, diamond-shaped lines encircling each other or longitudinal lines, withshort lines in perpendicular position to th e long ones (cf.fig. 5 : 3-6).THE SEALINGS IN A WIDER PERSPECTIVESealings are commonly associated with th e recognition andadministration of property, th e protection of containers againstunauthorised opening, th e organisation of storage and th econtrol over exchange networks. In addition, th e occurrenceof sealings is usually linked with a hierarchically-organised'complex society', th e appearance of well-established elitesand bureaucratic institutions serving these elite groups21.

Basically, sealings serve two aims, both very often linked :on th e one hand they define th e property of a person or groupof persons, on th e other hand they explicitly deny outsidersaccess to this property. Sealings thus imply th e unequaldistribution of goods, with th e various sealed products notsimply accessible to all members of th e society but to theirowners only; th e sealings serve as control devices assuringthis restricted access. In this respect, sealings can hardly haveserved within small social units or at th e household level,where th e control over products can proceed much moreefficiently through mechanisms other than th e formal application of sealings (e.g. verbal announcements). Therefore, itseems that the sealing of goods is necessary only if th ehandling or circulation of these goods involves personsbeyond th e own domestic unit22. However, at th e same timeonly th e responsibility for th e well-being of th e goods ishanded over to these persons, not th e property itself or anyproperty claims. This arrangement is not merely based onmutual trust but secured in a formal manner through th e useof sealings. The original (i.e. unbroken) sealing authenticatesth e sealed container and its content; it makes clear that theitem given in custody is in its original state and that no fraud,tampering or theft has taken place. Evidently, abuse cannotentirely be prevented by sealings; one can easily break th esealing of a container and take whatever one likes. However,

broken sealings immediately indicate an unauthorised openingand allow rapid, specific intervention from the side of th eproprietor. This system of control over goods and peopleoperates in a very simple and flexible manner, easily recognizable to a wide audience; it is exactly this simplicity andclarity which accounts for th e success and widespread use ofth e practice of sealing in th e prehistoric Near East.

Sealings as devices of control may have served th e needsof elite groups in society to a considerable extent. Althoughthere is no reason to assume a priori that seals and sealingswere th e prerogative of elites, it appears that the practice ofsealing has an enormous potential in terms of power andmanipulation. Above it has been pointed ou t that sealingsimply an unequal distribution of goods. Any elite group wouldpursue such differentiated access, since exclusion of th ecommoners enables leaders to mobilise considerably morewealth and prestige to their own economic and social advantage23. However, in th e case of Sabi Abyad solid proof fo rth e presence of any elites or an intra-site hierarchical organisation is absent so far. The lack of evidence for distinctinstitutions of power and control at th e site suggests thatsocial differentiation was very modest24. Consequently, itseems unlikely that th e Sabi Abyad sealings served in somekind of status or prestige context or that they were th e productof elite-directed control.

Elsewhere, it ha s been argued that in th e case of SabiAbyad th e actual sealing did not take place at the site itselfbut was carried ou t somewhere else, and that th e sealingsarrived at Sabi Abyad as parts of long-distance trade orexchange products25. Indeed, many items found at the sitecould not have been locally won but must have been obtainedthrough extensive exchange networks, with th e goods travelling ver great distances from one social unit to another :obsidian, copper ore, basalt and other stones were brought infrom Anatolia ; cedar wood, Dark-Faced Burnished Ware and,perhaps, tabular flint came from the Levant; and Samarraand Hassuna-pottery was obtained from eastern Syria ornorth-central Iraq26. Sealings may have facilitated this exch ange, particularly when th e goods were transported bymiddlemen (the sealings allowed th e proprietor of th e goods

21. E.g. Ferioli and Fiandra, 1983; Zettler, 1987; Alizadeh, 1988;Rothman and Blackman, 1990.22. Cf . Charvt, 1988: 57.

23. Se e e.g. the various contributions in Earle (d.), 1991.24. Akkermans and Verhoeven, 1995 : 28ff; see also Akkermans, 1993 :289.25. Akkermans and Verhoeven, 1995 : 21 ff ; Duistermaat, 1996.26 . Cf. Le Mire, 1989; Le Mire and Picon, 1987; Akkermans, 1993;and the various contributions in Akkermans (d.), 1996. However, it is no texcluded that some products were obtained by direct expeditions, or duringvisits by community herders scheduled into their normal seasonal movements.Palorient, vol . 22/2 , p. 17-44 CNRS ditions 1997


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Fig. 5 : Selection of Sabi Abyad clay sealings; no. 7 with human representation.


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26 P.M. M. G. Akkermans an d . Duistermaatto control hi s middlemen and th e circulation of hi s products).However, some recent analyses of th e clays used fo r th emanufacture of th e sealings made it clear that the sealingsalmost certainly came from within th e Balikh basin, verylikely even from th e site of Sabi Abyad itself27. If, indeed,th e sealings were produced at th e site, they cannot haveoperated in th e exchange network : at th e site level, th e sealingof products was wholly unnecessary since th e handling andexchange of products could easily and much more effectivelyproceed face-to-face, with both th e quantity and quality ofth e exchanged goods immediately arranged according to mutual satisfaction. Any exchange between th e few sites existingin th e Balikh valley around 5,200 B.C. (6,000 calBC) mostlikely took place at th e face-to-face level as well, when takinginto account th e very restricted distance between these sites :20 km or a four hours' walk at th e most. In this respect, itseems that intra-regional exchange hardly contributed to th epractice of sealing at Sabi Abyad, or not at all28.If elite groups or th e exchange network did not (or notexclusively) underlie th e practice of sealing at Sabi Abyad,one may wonder what other variables required th e use ofsealings. In th e case of Sabi Abyad, it appears that sealingswere used in massive numbers by numerous people and veryfrequently. Hundreds of sealings have been found at the siteso far, almost two-thirds of which carry stamp-seal impressions.The impressions display a wide variety of seal shapesand designs, indicating that at least 67 different stamp sealswere used fo r sealing purposes. When assuming that eachseal was used by a single person or institution (which,moreover, made use of one seal only), it follows that dozensof individuals were involved in th e sealing of commodities.

Interestingly, th e sealings were not found randomly distributed throughout th e settlement at Sabi Abyad but largelyrestricted to two buildings only. In addition, it appears thatth e sealings are mainly restricted to one or two rooms only27 . This conclusion is based on th e results of th e recent clay analysis of 170Sabi Abyad sealings, 166 of which carried seal impressions, as well as anumber of comparative samples. Sincere thanks ar e due to Gerwulf Schneider,Freie Universitat Berlin, and Marie Le Mire, Maison de l'Orient, Lyon, wh oboth took care of the analyses. Detailed results will be published in due time;see Duistermaat and Schneider, in prep. For a similar approach concerningthe sealings of Tepe Gawra, see Rothman and Blackman, 1990 : 19-45.28 . Actually, many others have already argued that there i s very little evidenceat present to support the role of sealings in exchange relationships; see e.g.Ferioli et al., 1979; Breniquet, 1984; Rothman and Blackman, 1990;Frangipane and Palmiert, 1992; Schmandt-Besserat, 1992. But see Aliza-deh, 1988, fo r an opposite view : while discussing th e sealings from prehistoric all i-Bakun A , he suggests that these items were in the hands of elitesand used for the administration of production and trade.

within these two structures, and that each of th e buildingswas used by different sealing persons29. In short, it seemsthat the sealings were not mere refuse but items deliberatelytaken out of circulation and stored, together with numerousother small items, in specific 'archive rooms' in a few structures only. It cannot ye t be established whether this storagein 'archives' was only temporarily or, in contrast, more orless permanent. The occurrence of sealings in refuse depositsat sites like Arslantepe, Tepe Sharafabad, Nippur and AbuSalabikh suggests that the former was th e case30.It seems reasonable to assume that th e sealings wereremoved from the containers (and subsequently preserved)near or at th e spot where they have been found; if so ,hundreds of sealed containers must originally have been keptin buildings II an d V at Sabi Abyad, suggesting that thesetwo structures served as storehouses (next to th e other buildings which may have served fo r living or other purposes).Moreover, these storage buildings must have been in use atth e supra-household or communal level, when taking intoaccount (a) th e general observation that sealings are only ofuse if th e responsibility for one's property is transferred intoth e public sphere, and (b) th e fact that numerous peopledispatched sealed items to these storehouses.

Simultaneously, these storehouses must have acted as distri buti on centres : before it was suggested that the sealingswere removed from their containers in th e buildings, indicatinghat the products left th e building in an unsealed state.When taking into account that th e goods were initially keptin sealed condition, i.e. in th e shape of individual properties,it seems clear that th e distribution was not meant to takeplace at random to whoever needed it but was restricted toth e seal holders only.At this point, one may speculate on th e identity of thosewho actually used the 'communal' storehouses at Sabi Abyad.At present, there is no reason to assume that every individualor social unit at th e site simply brought their belongings to

th e storehouses; after all, th e various domestic buildingssurrounding th e storehouses seem to have had more thanenough space to contain the supplies of each household31.Collective storage of properties, under th e supervision ofexternal custodians, is then mainly relevant whenever one isnot able to take care of these properties oneself. The latter29. Se e the extensive discussion in Dustermaat, 1996 and tables 5.5-5.6.30. Frangipane, 1994: 125; Wright et ai, 1980; Zettler, 1987: 208;Matthews, 1989 : 93-95.31. Cf . Akkermans an d Verhoeven, 1995.

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Of storage and nomads - The sealings from late Neolithic Sabi Abyad. Syria 27can hardly have held fo r al l people in th e case of permanentlyoccupied settlements such as Sabi Abyad; even if th e mainproprietor was not available for one reason or another, closekin might have taken over hi s responsibilities. In this respect,it appears, once again, that th e Sabi Abyad storehouses withtheir sealed containers only served th e needs of particularsocial groups, i.e. those who were not physically present toguard their assets. Let us consider th e possibility that thepopulation at Sabi Abyad was not composed entirely ofpermanent residents, but had a considerable mobile or transhumant component which made use of the site for specificpurposes at specific times. If th e above is true, this mobilepart of th e population would not simply consist of someindividuals otherwise fully associated with th e permanentlysettled domestic units but comprised entire 'families' or 'households'. Before, at least 67 sealing agents were recognised,each making use of th e storehouses at Sabi Abyad. If eachof these agents not only represents an individual (i.e. th e sealholder) bu t entire family units of perhaps 6-10 people, it canbe argued that the storage facilities at th e site were used bya non-residential group of some 400 to 670 people32. Evenif th e estimated number of indiviuals per family unit isconsidered to be much too high and is therefore halved, itappears that hundreds of non-residents must have relied uponth e settlement at Sabi Abyad. The fact that, despite th ehundreds of sealings, not a single stamp seal has been foundin th e Burnt Village so far might support th e hypothesis thatseals and sealings at Sabi Abyad mainly served th e needs ofnon- residential people33.If, one step further, th e above figures hold some validityfor th e Balikh valley as a whole as well, th e number ofmobile people can be increased to a considerable extent.Survey evidence indicates that, apart from Sabi Abyad, fourother sites in th e valley were occupied on a permanent basisat around 5,200 B.C. (6,000 calBC)34. All except one of these32. Cf . Sumner, 1994 : 61 .33. Cf . Alizadeh, 1988, on th e interaction between sedentarists and nomadsat the 4t h millennium site of Tall i-Bakun A , and the role of seals and sealingsherein. However, in contrast to ou r view, he suggests that the Bakun sealingsserved an elite-directed administration of production and trade at th e site,with th e nomad population participating on the one hand as a market forcraft and subsistence products and on the other hand as a source of foreigncommodities. The absence of seals in the Burnt Village at Sabi Abyad mayalso be due to other reasons : perhaps th e seals were made of perishablematerials such as bone (as at Tepe Gawra) or wood, or should be seen asprecious items carried on the body of th e owners, which consequently hadleft the site at the t ime of its destruction. See e.g. Von Wickede, 1990, andFerioli et al., 1979.34. Akkermans. 1993: 175-176.

other sites are very small, each probably representing a hamletoccupied by two or three households at th e most; these sitesmay have been able to support a small number of nomadfamilies (if any at all). However, Tell Mounbatah in th e centralBalikh valley seems to have been of th e same size and natureas Sabi Abyad in th e late Neolithic and may have servedsimilar purposes in socio-economic terms. Likewise, this site

Fig. 6 : incised stone bowl and associated clay sealingfrom building if at Sabi Abyad.Palorient. vol. 22/2. p. 17-44


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28 P.M.M.G. Akkermans an d . Duistermaatmay have served th e needs of a mobile population of at leastth e same size as at Sabi Abyad35. For th e nomads, movingaround in a sparsely populated region, th e settlements mayhave been true landmarks, existing since 'time immemorial'.

It has been suggested that pastoral nomadism, in th e senseof sheep-goat pastoralism entailing seasonal movements, firstdeveloped in th e early 6th millennium B.C., perhaps as aresponse to a declining environment and an increasing population pressure36. Our present interpretation of th e Sabi Abyadsealings as well as some survey evidence from th e Balikhperfectly fit within this hypothesis37. Elsewhere it was pointed ut that it was th e Halafian society in th e Balikh regionin th e early 5th millennium B.C. that increasingly relied uponpastoralism in combination with small-scale agriculture38 butthis symbiosis may very well have started on a considerablescale already in th e 6th millennium B.C.39.The non-residential groups may have relied mainly upona pastoralist mode of subsistence, exploiting th e extensivesteppe in th e Balikh valley and adjacent regions, but at th esame time must have been closely engaged in all sorts ofeconomic and social relationships with th e sedentary populationt th e various sites. Integration of agricultural and pastoral economy proceeds most efficiently at th e communitylevel, with th e community either split up into specialist sections or alternating in its entirety between pastoral and agricultural pursuits within a single year4(). The former option,with one group relying on cultivation and permanently settled,th e other relying on pastoralism and living at th e site duringcertain times of th e year only, seems to fit th e Sabi Abyadevidence best. It should, however, be taken into account thatthis social partition is not necessarily durable but often onlylasts for a single annual cycle, and that the pastoralist groupmay easily change place with th e sedentary group and viceversa41. It has been argued that this often weak dichotomy

between th e nomadic and sedentary groups in society ischaracteristic of the Neolithic42; if so, th e 'nomads' of SabiAbyad may have both farmed and tended herds, and mayhave held houses, land or other properties at or near th e site,used during particular times of th e year. Ethnographically, th erole of nomads as landlords or house-owners is widely attested n th e Near East43; archaeologically, it finds support at,e.g., Neolithic 'Ain Ghazal in Jordan, where it has beensuggested that many of th e houses were not necessarilyinhabited on a year-round basis bu t only seasonally44.

Historical and ethnographic evidence indicate that in the19th and 20th century nomads in th e Jezirah spent th e wintersalong th e Euphrates, Balikh and Khabur, where there waswater, fuel and pasture, and where agricultural supplies werestored to survive th e lean months. Subsequently, when climatic conditions improved and crops started to grow, th epastoralists moved away from the rivers into th e steppe bu tduring th e hot summer th e herds were restricted to th e landsituated at a day's walk at th e most from the watercourses45.Similar observations hold for other regions. For example, insoutheastern Anatolia, wintering nomads maintain long-standingelationships with certain villages to which they habitually return, drawing on their services and land resourcesand coming under th e authority and protection of th e villagechiefs46. If this picture has some significance for th e lateNeolithic as well, it is not unlikely that large sites like SabiAbyad and Mounbatah acted as winter camps for pastoralists,providing these people with food, shelter, security and otherfacilities. In short, the larger villages may have acted as pointsof exchange, storage and distribution centres and as th e scenesof marriage contracts, communal festivities and ceremonies.They may have provided th e pastoralists with temporary orseasonal means to augment their income (particularly in timesof crisis), e.g. by assisting during harvests, guarding winter

35. Actually, a fragment of a clay sealing, undoubtedly of prehistoric date,was found on the surface of Mounbatah during our recent survey work.36. E.g. Oates and Oates, 1976 : 101-102; Voigt, 1983 : 322; Khler-Rol-lefson, 1992.37 . Akkermans, 1993: 173, 186ff.38. Akkermans, 1993: 1.91; see also Hijara, 1980: 252ff; Hole andJohnson, 1986/87.39. Actually, ongoing analysis of the Sabi Abyad faunal material seems towholly support this hypothesis; cf . Cavallo, in prep.40 . Cribb, 1991 : 25.41 . Cribb, 1991 : 25; see also Rosman and Rubel, 1976: 556, discussingthe Berovand tribe of Lurs in western Iran : "They ar e sedentary agriculturalistsut still retain long-range nomadism (...). They have formed familycorporations which ar e comprised most frequently of men who ar e brothers,though they may be cousins or just members of the same tribal subsection.On e brother will form while his partner takes care of the sheep, migratingto Khuzistan in the winter with th e herds and returning the following spring.

Th e next year, the partners will reverse their roles, the partner who farmedtaking over the animals and going on the migration".42 . See, e.g., Cribb, 1991 ; Khler-Rollefson, 1992; and other contributionsin Bar-Yosef and Khazanov (eds), 1992.43 . Se e e.g. Barth, 1961 : 9, on the landlords among th e Basseri in southwestern Iran, and Khler-Rollefson, 1992 : 1.4, on th e Marrai'e in Jordan :"There ar e still a number of families associated with Suweimra who specializein pastoral production and who own large herds (...). While they never actuallylive in Suweimra, they own houses there which they use fo r storage only".Cribb, 1991 : 69, points out that "In contrast to one of th e earlier mythsabout pastoral society, property and domestic goods ar e individually ownedby each household and no t communally". Se e also th e seminal work ofRowton, 1973, on "enclosed nomadism".44. Khler-Rollefson, 1992 : 14 .45. Hole, 1991 : 19 ; see also Rowton, 1973 : 15 , and Lewis, 1988 : 688ff.46. Cribb, 1991 : 198.



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Of storage and nomads - The sealings from late Neolithic Sabi Abyad, Syria 29crops an d managing th e village flocks47. Elsewhere it hasbeen argued that a main bottleneck in local late Neolithicagriculture was th e harvest time when labour requirementsmay easily have gone beyond th e communities' capacities48;one way to bypass this constraint may have been th e temporarilyrecruiting of additional labour forces from the nomadicpopulation. In addition, it seems that agriculture alone washardly able to meet th e food requirements of local late Neolithic communities, and that other sources of food, i.e. livestock, must have contributed to the diet to a considerableextent49. It may very well have been th e nomadic or semi-nomadic groups in society who provided these additionalsources of daily subsistence in return for other products fo rtheir needs.

Returning to th e storehouses at Sabi Abyad, it appears thatsome seal designs or shapes occurred only once or twice,whereas others were found in considerable quantities; apparently, some seal holders and their relatives made a muchmore intensive use of th e storage facilities at the site thanothers. Moreover, some of these persons or groups may havemaintained close social or kinship connections, this in viewof th e resemblances in seal designs. For example, th ecommonly found 'capricorn' design is depicted in variousconfigurations and associated with at least eight different seals(see above); each seal may have represented an independentsocio-economic unit but th e overall resemblance in designperhaps suggests that the seal holders and their relativesformed al l part of one extended family, clan, or other group,with th e capricorn acting as a social emblem emphasisinggroup coherence50. In addition, some sealings carry impressions f tw o wholly different seals, suggesting that tw o sealholders, on the same hierarchical level, shared responsibilityfor th e sealed items51. However, this practice must have beenrather loosely structured and informal, since these seals arealso used individually and th e number of combined impressions s low. Anyway, it seems that seals and (impressed)sealings are not exclusively administrative features bu t thatthey had another, symbolic meaning as well, tying societytogether and, perhaps, functioning in ritual, spiritual frameworks52. Even broken sealings seem to have had some47. E.g Barth, 1961 : 109.48. Akkermans, 1993 : 221.49. Cf . Flannery, 1969; Akkermans, 1993: 21 Off.50. Cf . Weingarten, 1992 : 26, 34.51. Weingarten, 1992: 34.52. Ferioli et ai, 1979; Charvt. 1994. At Sabi Abyad, th e impressionswith zoomorphic and, particularly, anthropomorphic representations may pointin this direction.

meaning in this respect, when taking into account that atvarious sites broken sealings were not discarded at randombut deliberately kept for some time and subsequently dumpedtogether in specific garbage areas.Storage at Sabi Abyad on behalf of th e nomadic populationmay have taken place in various forms. Basically, it mayrefer to specific commodities, i.e. properties in a materialsense. The sealings suggest that mainly small containers hadbeen sealed. In th e case of th e many baskets, it appeared thatth e rims rarely had a diameter over 20 cm. Ceramic containers, oo, were small, with th e rim diameters varying around10 cm; large, thick-walled storage vessels hardly carried sealings. Apparently, th e containers were all rather easily transportable. The restricted size of th e containers and th e generalphysical properties of both th e containers and th e sealings

suggest that mainly solid, dry products in small quantitieswere packed. In this respect, storage may have comprisedluxury goods and raw materials, such as precious stones,obsidian, metal ores, craft products and various finished articles of a perishable nature. Basic subsistence products likecereals were not kept in containers but were stored as staples,as suggested by th e considerable quantities of charred grainfound in building II, particularly in its westernmost rooms.In one room th e grain lay almost knee-high and was surroundednd partly covered by a layer of ashy white fibrousmaterial of vegetable origin53. No door sealings have beenfound, suggesting that these rooms were rather freely accessible; any administrative control through sealings was apparently absent in th e case of bulk products such as cereals.However, storage may also have taken place in a whollydifferent manner, i.e. in th e form of property claims. In thiscase, th e sealed vessels, baskets, etc., did not contain th eactual products but their symbolic representation in th e shapeof tokens54, almost two hundred of which have been foundin association with th e sealings. Subsequently, whenever th eneed arose, th e tokens could be converted at the site into th e

actual products each token stood for. In this sense, storageof tokens may have denoted administrative procedures, regulating th e handling and assignment of properties and balances.In addition, it may also have included services, animals orgoods which were not immediately required or available butcould be delivered by th e settled community within a certainperiod of time, because, e.g., th e product still had to be53. Cf . Van Zeist and Waterbolk-Van Rooijen, 1996.54. Cf . Schmandt-Besserat, 1992 : 167ff, who emphasises the role of tokensin the communal storage of agricultural products.

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30 P.M. M. G. Akkermans an d . Duistermaatmanufactured, had to be brought in from elsewhere or wasavailable at a particular time of th e year only. So far, te ndifferent kinds of tokens have been distinguished at SabiAbyad, including shapes like small spheres, discs, cones,cylinders and 'vessels'55. If we could assume that each ofthese stood for a different product or service56, then it wouldseem that the non-residential groups at the site had laid claimsfor a wide variety of items. The numerous small spheresfound at our site are particularly relevant in this respect, sincethey may have represented specific amounts of cereals57; ifso, grain was (not surprisingly) a product much desired byth e nomads. The sealing of claims instead of th e goodsthemselves may also account for th e storage in bulk ofsubsistence products like cereals : not only did it make th erather inefficient individual storage of measured quantities insmall containers superfluous but storage in bulk in specificareas may have also facilitated th e protection of these products from rot, insect infestation or fungi58. Finally, th estorage of tokens instead of true products could partly accountfor th e small size of most sealed containers at Sabi Abyad(they were hardly or not suitable fo r storage in bulk). A goodexample is th e oval stone bowl found in building II; itsassociated sealing was found in th e same building but inanother room (fig. 6). An item stored in this small vessel,measuring hardly 13 x 7 cm, must have been either verysmall or available in very restricted quantities only, tokensseem to fit this requirement perfectly.If, indeed, some people stored claims in massive numbersin sealed containers centrally in specific buildings, it followsthat others had to provide th e means fo r th e ultimate conversionf these claims. This responsibility may have been inth e hands of th e settled population at the site but may haveincluded th e nomad groups as well. The proper handling ofth e numerous claims, particularly if they referred to th edividing of th e community's staples (like th e cereals in building II), will have required some kind of organisation andcontrol beyond th e individual or household level. Earlier, itwas mentioned that in th e case of Sabi Abyad solid evidencefor th e presence of elites or an intra-site hierarchical organisation is absent so far. However, if our line of reasoning hasmerit, some kind of authority can be postulated by inference,which took care both of th e collection and th e subsequent

distribution of goods at th e site. If so, this authority may havehad prestige and may have been able to control or manipulateth e socio-economic relationship between villagers and nomads to a considerable extent. Further evidence in this direction is derived from our earlier conclusion that sealingsas control devices operate in th e public sphere and serve anunequal, restricted distribution of goods; apparently, th e society at Sabi Abyad was far from a norm of 'egalitarian' or'communal' but was organised along lines of inequality andrecognised private ownership. The absence of any other (material) indication for this inequality may simply be due to abias in th e present sample but may also result from deliberatesocietal choices : leaders may have presented an imaginarysocial equality, which protected a much more complex andhierarchical society from evaluation by th e commoners59.

Finally, th e widespread use of seals and sealings in th eBalikh valley, an d in northern Syria in general, around th emiddle of th e 6th millennium B.C. or slightly afterwards tookplace along with considerable changes in local late Neolithicsociety. Following a period of site desertion and accompanyingocial instability, th e late Neolithic communities seemto have been re-establishing themselves at this time, pursuingnew modes of subsistence strategies and intensifying interregional relationships60. Pastoral nomadism may have contributed considerably to th e rise of this increasingly complexsociety. Seals and sealings as devices of control in their turnfacilitated th e relationship between th e pastoralists and th esedentary communities. In this sense, seals and sealings represent th e formal relics of th e symbiosis between th e sedentary nd nomad populations in th e late Neolithic.ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSSincere thanks are due to the Directorate General of Antiquities andMuseums of Syria, Damascus, for its continued assistance andencouragement concerning the excavations at Tell Sabi Abyad. Wealso thank the anonymous reviewers and the editors of Palorientfor their useful comments on an earlier draft of this article.

Peter M.M.G. AKKERMANSand Kim DUISTERMAATNational Museum of AntiquitiesP.O. Bo x 111142301 EC Leiden, the Netherlands

55. Spoor and Collet, 1996 : 441-43.56. Cf . Schmandt-Besserat, 1992.57 . Schmandt-Besserat, 1992: 1.50-51, 168.58. Compare th e tholoi used as granaries in the Halaf period; Akkermans1993: 229-230.

59. Cf . Shanks and Tilley, 1982: 129-154; Shennan, 1982: 155-161;Miller and Tilley (eds), 1984.60. Se e e.g. Akkermans, 1993; Akkermans and Verhoeven, 1995; Campbell, 1992.



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32 P.M.M.G. Akkermans an d . DuistermaatMarchal .1982 Vaisselles Blanches du Proche-Orient : El-Kowm (Syrie) etl'usage du pltre au Nolithique. Cahiers de l'Euphrate 3 :217-251.Matthews R.J.1989 Clay Sealings in Early Dynastie Mesopotamia : A Functionaland Contextual Approach. Cambridge : University of Cambridge.1991 Fragments of Officialdom from Fara. Iraq 53 : 1-15.Miller D. and Tilley (eds)1984 Ideology, Power and Prehistory. Cambridge : Cambridgeversity Press.Oates D. and Oates J.1976 The Rise of Civilization. Oxford : Elsevier-Phaidon.Rosman A. and Rubel P.G.1976 Nomad-Sedentary Interethnic Relations in Iran andstan. Journal of Middle East Studies 7 : 545-570.Rothman M.S. and Blackman M.J.1990

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Monitoring Administrative Spheres of Action in Late Prehistoric orthern Mesopotamia with the Aid of Chemical Chara cteri z a t i on (INAA) of Sealing Clays. In : Miller N.F. (ed.)Economy and Settlement in the Near East : Analyses of Ancient sites and Materials. MASCA Research Papers in Scienceand Archaeology, Supplement to Volume 7 : 19-45.Enclosed Nomadism. Journal of th e Economic and SocialHistory of the Orient 17 : 1-30.Schmandt-Besserat D.1992 Before Writing: From Counting to Cuneiform. Austin:versity of Texas Press.Shanks M. and Tilley

1982Shennan S.1982

Ideology, Symbolic Power and Ritual Communication : AReinterpretation of Neolithic Mortuary Practices. In : HodderI. (ed.) Symbolic and Structural Archaeology : 129-154. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.Ideology, Change and th e European Early Bronze Age. In :Hodder I. (ed.) Symbolic and Structural Archaeology : 155-161. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.Spoor R.H. and Collet P.1996 The Other Small Finds. In : Akkermans P.M.M.G. (ed.) TellSabi Abyad - The Late Neolithic Settlement : 439-473. Istanbul NHAI.

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The Evolution of Tribal Society in the Southern Zagros Mountains, ran. In : Stein G. and Rothman M.S. (eds) Chiefdomsand Early States in the Near East : 47-65. Madison : PrehistoryPress.Excavations at Tepe Gawra. Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press.Van Zeist W . and Waterbolk-Van Rooijen W .1996 The Cultivated and Wild Plants. In : Akkermans P.M.M.G.(ed.) Tell Sabi Abyad - The Late Neolithic Settlement : 521-550. Istanbul : NHAI.Voigt M.M.1983 Hajji Firuz Tepe, Iran : The Neolithic Settlement.phia : The University Museum.Von Wickede A.1990 Prahistorische Stempelglyptik in Vorderasien. Miinchen :ProfilVerlag.1991 Chalcolithic Sealings from Arpachiyah in th e Collection of theInstitute of Archaeology, London. Institute of ArchaeologyBulletin 28 : 153-196.Weingarten J.1992 The Multiple Sealing System of Minoan Crete and its PossibleAntecedents in Anatolia. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 11 :25-37.Wendrich W .1991 Who is Afraid of Basketry ? Leiden : Centre of Non-WesternStudies.Wright H.T., Miller N. and Redding R.1980 Time and Proces in an Uruk Rural Center. In : Barrelet M.T.(ed.) L'archologie de l'Iraq du dbut de l'poque nolithique

Zettler R.L.19871989

33 3 avant notre re : 265-282. Paris : CNRS.Sealings as Artifacts of Institutional Administration in AncientMesopotamia. Journal of Cuneiform Studies 39 : 1 97-240.Pottery Profiles Reconstructed from Jar Sealings in the LowerSeal Impression Strata (SIS 8-4) at Ur - New Evidence forDating. In : Leonard A. and Beyer W illiams B. (eds) Essaysin Ancient Civilization Presented to Helen J. Kantor : 369-387. Chicago : The University of Chicago.



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Comments on P.M.M.G. Akkermans andK . DUISTERMAAT'S ARTICLE "Of STORAGE AND NOMADS -The seal ings from late Neolithic Sabi Abyad, Syria

R. BERNBECKHired HerdersThe fascinating results from th e excavations at Tell SabiAbyad provide important new insights into th e developmentof administrative practices such as the sealing of containers.Akkermans' and Duistermaat's observations on th e nature ofth e sealed objects and th e purposes of sealing require arethinking of a widespread idea, namely that sealing playeda role mainly in regional or interregional exchange systems.In an analysis of th e sealings themselves as well as of theircontext, Akkermans and Duistermaat have argued that thesealings were used to control stored information which wasrepresented by tokens. In that way, these administrative devices from Sabi Abyad exhibit some functional similarities tolate 4th millennium clay bullae in their combination of astorage of information about items and persons ' ; The factthat several hundred sealings occur in a context where thereis not a single seal suggests that the seal bearers were absentat th e time of th e destruction of the village. It is thereforejustified to think that a substantial part of th e population whichin one way or another was related to the village of Sabi Abyadwas mobile.A number of other assumptions underlie Akkermans' andDuistermaat's interpretation :- Sealing is an administrative practice which is alwaysassociated with formal elites in a hierarchically structuredsociety. That is, wherever sealings ar e found, a hierarchy basedon more than gender and age differences was present.- Sealings serve to define property of a person or groupand to deny access to this property to outsiders.

- Such formal means of control of information (and property) are unnecessary at th e household level where othermechanisms such as verbal communication are more effective.

1 . Se e Nissen, 1993 : 66-68.

- Tokens in sealed containers have th e function of controlling some sort of material exchange.The interpretation based on a combination of these assumpt

ionsnd th e archaeological evidence is a model of "delayedreturn exchange". In this model, stored and sealed informationis a part of controlling exchange between sedentary agriculturalroducers and mobile herders. The group monitoringexchange between these tw o groups is th e (sedentary) elite.The model itself is predicated on further assumptions. Thepopulation centered on Sabi Abyad consisted of two almostcompletely separate groups : villagers and "nomads". It isunfortunate that Akkermans and Duistermaat use an impreciseterminology in this respect. When first dealing with th e rela

tionship between sedentary and non-sedentary groups, theysuggest, based on ethnographic accounts from th e Near East,that one and th e same community was made up of mobileand sedentary people, and that the composition of both groupscould change quite often. Later on , the term "community" isrestricted to mean only th e sedentary group living at SabiAbyad. This produces a sharp conceptual split between aformally bounded sedentary and a mobile group. In th e remainder of th e paper, relations between these two groups aredepicted as entirely economic in character. Thus, th e nomadsused Sabi Abyad as a place for exchange, storage and distribut ion center. It is said that this scenario "seems to fit th eSabi Abyad evidence best", although no further data areadduced to confirm this.

To specify th e kinds of exchanged items, Akkermans andDuistermaat adopt Schmandt-Besserat's idea that tokens ofdifferent shapes had both a quantitative and a qualitativemeaning, and that they can be read in reference to th e earliestdecipherable signs from th e late 4th millennium. I find sucha "reading" of discoid tokens as amounts of cereals unconvincing.f tokens are mnemonic devices with a function somewhat similar to other symbols, it cannot be expected that their

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34 P.M.M. G. Akkermans an d . Duistermaatshapes have fixed meanings across time and space2. It isexactly th e arbitrariness of th e shape of symbols that preventstheir reading except when they can be systematically relatedto other symbols, as is th e case with number systems andwriting. At Sabi Abyad, it is more probable that informationabout quantities of a single item were stored by means oftokens, and that the kind of item counted was known by th econtracting parties.

Akkermans and Duistermaat themselves mention one problem with their interpretation : there are no indications fo rth e presence of a formally distinct elite which controlled th eexchange of goods between mobile and sedentary groups.They imply therefore that the elite promoted an egalitarianideology to mask inequalities. There are also some otherproblems with their interpretation. If th e elite at Sabi Abyadmonitored a delayed return exchange between nomads andnon-elite villagers, and if th e property controlled belonged toth e nomads, why should their actual property, i.e. grain, bestored in one of th e "storehouses" ? The advantage of controlling access to th e information on property claims is thatth e goods themselves do not have to be physically present.For this reason, th e large amounts of cereals found in buildingII need not - and probably do not - have anything to dowith th e administrative items found in rooms 6 and 7.Furthermore, if th e villagers had incurred debts to th e

nomads - as indicated by th e fact that sealings but not sealswere found, that is, accounts were open - this implies thatth e mobile part of th e society had some economic power overth e villagers. One wonders therefore why they would choosea sedentary elite to take care of their property claims.This leads me to my main objection. Akkermans' andDuistermaat's model overstates th e difference between sedentary nd mobile groups, between "desert" and "sown". Instead

of conceiving of nomads and sedentary people as "specialistsections", I would like to propose a slightly different interpretation based on a different se t of assumptions :1) Tokens are used no t to control an exchange betweentwo formally distinct groups (nomads - villagers) ; rather, theyare mnemonic devices to monitor elements of subsistenceproduction - specifically animal reproduction - within onegroup.

2) The information stored in the form of tokens in sealedcontainers does not necessarily represent claims fo r productsto be handed over in the future. It can as well be a statement

of a starting point of a contract. One partner, the villager,stays behind, whereas another (or several others) leaves andtakes along a certain number of animals. A record is madeabout herd size and different categories of animals (e.g. malesand females), which are represented by different kinds oftokens, at th e time of departure. When th e herder returns, thestored information can be retrieved easily and compared toth e actual herd size and composition. The "profit" in addit ional animals can then be distributed, according to socialconventions, between th e parties involved in th e contract.3) I assume - in accordance with a model of Meillassoux3- that control of subsistence production in such societies isprincipally a matter of age. People of working age have anobligation to care fo r their children as well as for parentswho are no longer working. Old people have no obligationsexcept towards the ancestors of a village. The younger generation will eventually take their parents' position, and willthen control th e production and distribution of agriculturalproducts.

4) Contrary to Akkermans and Duistermaat, I assume thateven within kinship units, contracts of a relatively formalnature are often concluded. The story of Jacob and his fa t h e r- i n - l a w Laban in th e Old Testament provides a vividdescription of such a contract. Herders and villagers in sucha scheme are part of th e same social unit; they are noteconomically specialized people. Anyone of working age canbe sent out with herds or stay in th e village. Old people,because of th e physical strains of a mobile life, stay in th evillage, where one finds th e evidence fo r th e "contracts" theyentered into with some people of th e younger generation.Such an integrated system, where part of a kinship unit staysin a village whereas another part moves with th e herds - atleast for some of the year - is defined as "transhumance"4.

The main differences between such an interpretation ofth e evidence from Sabi Abyad and Akkermans' and Duistermaat's re that tokens store information about a starting pointof a contract, not about a future obligation. Furthermore, th einformation stored consists of easily counted, relatively "natural" units, i.e. animals, bu t not of an artificial unit such asa volume, weight or other measuring unit for grain. Differences between mobile and settled parts of a social unit arenot as prominent as in Akkermans' and Duistermaat's model.According to Lees and Bates5, such specialization is only to

2. Michalowskj, 1990.3. Meillassoux, 1981.4. Htteroth, 1959: 37 ; Zagarell, 1982: 98.5. Lees and Bates, 1974.

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Of storage and nomads - The sealings from late Neolithic Sabi Abyad, Syria 35be expected in conjunction with high surplus production, fo rwhich there is not much evidence at Sabi Abyad. The findingof a large amount of grain in House II indicates that thishouse was used year round. Since in House II tokens andsealings were found, one could suspect that this was one ofth e houses in which a kinship unit was centered, that is , whereparts of th e elder generation lived. Control of herd reproductionithin a kinship unit does not presuppose a tripartitesocial structure with a (settled) elite, non-elite villagers andnomads. Instead, th e social hierarchy could have been basedon grontocratie principles, which do not necessarily translateinto economic inequality in terms of th e distribution of material wealth.

Whichever explanation of th e evidence one prefers, th edata from Sabi Abyad and th e stimulating interpretationsproposed by Akkermans and Duistermaat provide new challenges to our understanding of th e development of informationstorage.Reinhard BERNBECKDepartment of Classical and Near Eastern ArchaeologyBryn Mawr 2 CollegeBryn Mawr 2 PA 19010-2899 USA

BIBLIOGRAPHYHutteroth W.-D.1959 Bergnomaden und Yaylabauern im Mittleren Kurdischen

rus. Marburg : Marburger Geographische Schriften II.Lees S.H. and Bates D.G.1974 The Origins of Specialized Nomadic Pastoralism : A SystemicModel. American Antiquity 39, 2 : 187-193.Meillassoux 1981 Maidens, Meals, and Money: Capitalism and the DomesticEconomy. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.Michalowski P.1990 Early Mesopotamian Communicative Systems : Art, Literature,and Writing. In : Gunter A. (ed.) : Investigating Artistic Environment s in th e Ancient Near East: 53-69. Washington,D.C. : Smithsonian Institution Press.Nissen H.J.1993Zagarell A.1982

The Context of th e Emergence of Writing in Mesopotamia andIran. In : Curtis J. (ed.) : Early Mesopotamia and Iran :Contact and Conflict 3500-1600 : 54-71. London : BritishMuseum Press.The Prehistory of th e Northeast Bakhtivari Mountains, Iran :The Rise of a Highland Way of Life. Wiesbaden : Dr. LudwigReichert.

S. CleuziouLes scellements de Tell Sabi Abyad fournissent des informationsapitales pour notre approche des socits du nolithiqueoriental et pour celle du dveloppement des socitscomplexes dans cette rgion. Ils apportent non seulement lespreuves d'une utilisation extensive de ces techniques dans lescommunauts agricoles de l'extrme fin du VIIe millnairemais aussi de prcieux renseignements su r le contexte socialde leur utilisation.

Les rflexions su r la fonction sociale des scellements ontt jusqu'ici associes aux tudes su r les premires formationstatiques et, plus particulirement, au contrle bureaucratiquede la redistribution des denres artisanales et agricoles ou deschanges longue distance qu'on y restitue. Les auteurs ontraison de ne pas projeter ces interprtations su r les scellementsde Sabi Abyad, et leur argumentation es t d'autant plus fortequ'elle repose su r des donnes concernant les contenants, lecontexte de dpt, l'origine des argiles.

Par leur dcor, cachets et sceaux sont investis symboliquementt leur interprtation postule implicitement qu'ils sontutiliss dans les moments d'une chane d'actions o uncontrle social peut s'exercer, ce que les spcialistes de la

technologie culturelle nomment des tches stratgiques. Lecontexte de Sabi Abyad o ils sont associs entre autres des figurines le confirme, tout comme il suggre un rle dansla gestion de produits par la prsence de diverses varits dejetons. De mme que les ides communment admises su r lefonctionnement des premires entits tatiques conduisent leur attribuer un rle pour la redistribution et le contrle desdenres dans la seconde moiti du IVe millnaire, de mmeest-il donc ic i logique de leur chercher un rle en rapportavec ce que nous savons ou croyons savoir du fonctionnementd'une socit nolithique. L'association des scellements deSabi Abyad avec ce que les fouilleurs considrent comme unecomposante essentielle de l'conomie locale, savoir l'interaction entre fractions nomades et sdentaires de la socit,es t de ce point de vue un e hypothse tout fait sduisante.Elle es t construite par inferences successives partir destrouvailles et de leur contexte, et notamment du fait que lataille restreinte des rcipients scells implique qu'ils ne contenaient pas des crales, mais soit des objets d'une certainevaleur, soit des reprsentations de celles-ci sous forme dejetons.

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36 P.M. M.G. Akkermans an d . DuistermaatA partir de l , on ne ne voit pas trs bien pourquoi cette banque primitive aurait servi seulement une fractionnon-rsidente de la population, les titres de proprit quiy taient entreposs n'ayant pas de raison a priori de concer

neres non rsidents plutt que des rsidents. L'argumentationdes auteurs tient pour partie au fait qu'aucun cachet n'a ttrouv su r le site, un argument relativement faible de leurpropre aveu (note 33). Elle es t surtout fonde su r l'hypothseselon laquelle l'usage des cachets rpond une contraintepropre aux nomades, savoir que les denres stockes oureprsentes dans les btiments II et VI quittent par ncessitla sphre domestique parce que leurs propritaires ne peuventpas les transporter avec eux. Si les titres de proprit rfrent comme le supposent les auteurs aux ressources agricoles de la communaut, on peut supposer que le systme destockage et de partage concernait aussi l'ensemble de lacommunaut, et l'estimation du nombre de personnes correspondant aux 67 cachets utiliss devient alors sans objet.

Plus gnralement, si nous admettons volontiers que lasocit de Sabi Abyad n'tait pas galitaire, c'est probablement aller trop loin de dire que les cachets tmoignentd'un accs ingal aux ressources et de la reconnaissance d'uneproprit prive individuelle, du moins s'agissant des ressources. Sans doute faut-il dans l'tat actuel des donnes secontenter de suggestions plus gnrales que les hypothseslabores par les auteurs. Les recherches anthropologiques su rles socits ingalitaires suggrent que dans les socits transgal itaires , pour reprendre le terme propos pa r Hay-den1, c'est--dire les socits Grands hommes Big Menpour reprendre la terminologie franaise2, c'est par la crationde dettes, quelle qu'en soit la nature, qu'un certain nombred'individus attirent leur profit le travail et la cooprationdes autres membres de la communaut, les ressources de lacommunaut restant partages par tous. Il semble que desrelations lies certaines formes de dette, ou si l'on prfrede rciprocit diffre, peuvent rendre compte des scellementsde Sabi Abyad, qui n'auraient ainsi pas directement voir

avec la gestion de la production. Ceci serait cohrent avec leniveau des ingalits sociales te l qu'on peut le supposer dansdes communauts comme Sabi Abyad, et avec l'ide qu'il yexistait vraisemblablement quelque autorit (i.e. des individus)en mesure de manipuler les relations socio-conomiques entreles divers membres de la communaut. Une autre voie derecherche - peut-tre complmentaire - pourrait tre l'ideque les archives de Sabi Abyad correspondraient descontrats court terme d'individu individu, portant su r depetites quantits (u n mouton ou quelques mesures de grain)comme il en existait dans les communauts agricoles traditionnelles de Jordanie3.

Les donnes exceptionnelles de Sabi Abyad ouvrent denouvelles voies de connaissance su r les communauts nolithiques du Proche-Orient, le seul pige viter tant sansdoute d'y voir les prcurseurs directs du systme bureaucratiquees premiers tats. Peut-tre aussi faut-il se garderd'tablir, comme le font en conclusion les auteurs, un lientrop prcis entre ces donnes et des changements considrablesntervenant alors dans la socit nolithique. Le caractremme de la dcouverte devrait nous inciter tre prudent su rce qui la prcde et su r les donnes qu'il reste acqurir.Serge CLEUZIOUCNRS, ER A 41Centre de recherches archologiques3, rue Michelet75006 Paris

BIBLIOGRAPHIEHayden B.1995Lemonnier P.1990

Pathways to power. Principles fo r creating socioeconomicinequalities. In : Douglas Price T. and Feinman G.M., Foundations of social inequality : 15-86. New York : Plenum Press.Guerres et festins, Paix, changes et comptition dans lesHighlands de Nouvelle Guine. Paris : Maison des Sciencesde l'Homme.Mundy M. et Saumarez- Smith R.1984 Part-time farming. Studies in archaeology, anthropology andepigraphy II. Irbid : Yarmouk Univeristy.

M. FrangipaneIn their paper, Akkermans and Duistermaat deal with anextraordinarily early and well-documented case of a massiveuse of clay sealings as a form of administrative control over

th e distribution of goods in th e context of communal storage.Their interpretation, quite rightly in my opinion, has superseded th e explanation that Akkermans and Verhoeven propo-1. Hayden, 1995 : L9 .2. Lemonnier, 1990. 3. Mundy, 1984.



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Of storage and nomads - The sealings from late Neolithic Sabi Abyad. Syria 37sed in an earlier article published in the American Journal ofArchaeology in 1995, that relied on the assumption that"sealing agencies" had sent goods in sealed containers to SabiAbyad. In this paper, after reconsidering both th e nature ofth e location of clay sealings - concentrated in particularrooms inside buildings that were clearly intended for th emassive storage of cereals - and the main function of th eseal as an instrument restricting access to goods in situationsinvolving persons outside th e domestic unit, Akkermans andDuistermaat reconstruct a storage and distribution system ata supra-household level with which I fully agree.

All th e elements they offer indicate a "central" controlprocedure for th e distribution of goods to a large number ofpeople (judging from the large numbers of different seals),reminiscent of al l th e procedural aspects of more recentadministrative systems (the seal placed by th e person withdrawingoods, repeated sealings of th e same container, and th esubsequent "filing" of clay sealings to serve as receipts/documents).The large number of people involved, th e frequencyof operations and th e filing away of th e clay sealings thathad been removed would in themselves disprove th e theorythat the seal was used for exchange activities, which werecertainly secondary in importance in th e economic life of th eNeolithic communities of th e kind one finds at Sabi Abyad.For if th e function of th e clay sealings had been to guaranteeth e integrity of goods transferred by middlemen from onecommunity to another, why should they be kept in store afterbeing removed ? The whole operation would have beencompleted with th e delivery of th e goods to th e beneficiary.This hypothesis was at all events disproved when it wasshown that the clay used was local.Due account also has to be taken of th e fact that the claysealings were associated with buildings whose architecturalfeatures and size, as well as th e large quantities of cerealsfound in them, indicate they were storehouses serving severaldomestic units. One very interesting idea proposed by A. and

D. is that the need of an agricultural community to have acommon management of primary goods must have arisen insocieties with a semi-mobile organization where people hadto temporarily move away from th e storage places, makingit necessary to entrust the harvests to officials appointed byth e community itself. A very interesting case of this kind isthat of a modern community in Libya mentioned by D.M.Hallaq at a recent colloquium '. In this respect th e hypothesis]. Ferioli P., Fiandra E., FissoRE G.G. an d Frangipane M. (eds). 1994.Archives before writ ing. Rome.

presented is very stimulating : that forms of pastoral nomadism emerged in Late Neolithic as an adaptive answer to th egrowing demands arisen in those communities, and that thepastoralism, being closely integrated with th e agriculturalactivities in th e same communities made it necessary for atleast some members to temporarily move away from theirplaces of residence. This model fits in very well, in myopinion, with th e configuration of th e Neolithic societies ofJezira as well as with their Halaf developments, and accountsnot only for th e mobility of these communities which can bearchaeologically recognized from the small size of th e sitesand their frequent shifting, bu t also for th e possible forms ofcommunity cooperation in subsistence activities, as suggestedby th e architectural features (communal storage buildings)and th e specialized economies of some villages. It is thereforeno coincidence that the glyptics and th e wholly administrativeuse of seals came into being in this northern environment in"communal centralization" contexts which, as A. and D. say,entail th e transfer to th e public sphere of th e managementresponsability but not th e actual ownership of th e centrallystored goods. However, th e administrative procedures are verysimilar to those found in early state centralized systems, inwhich real f

Of Storage and Nomads. The sealings from Late Neolithic Sabi Abyad, Syria.

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