Economic Implications of Possible Storage Structures at Tell Ziyadeh NE Syria

Abstract

The first concentrated settlement on the middle Khabur River of NE Syria and of the surrounding semi-arid steppe occurred during the first half of the 3rd millennium B.C., shortly before the emergence of urban sites in northern Mesopotamia. The number and variety of probable storage structures at several relatively small sites on the river have led to competing hypotheses as to their function: was grain grown and stored for local use or for export to an urban center? The facilities at Tell Ziyadeh are the point of departure for consideration of how such facilities may have been integrated into a combined agricultural/pastoral economy. We argue that Ziyadeh was an agricultural community, providing arable land and crops to seasonally mobile herders whose primary sites were situated on the steppe away from the river.