Syria the center of prehistoric civilization (2)
The results of excavations executed in Al-Aswad Hill since the early seventies of the past century to date include the discovery of agricultural tools like sickles and grinding stones prove good experience of agriculture. Technically there is evidence of good industrial products like flint, hunting weapon, arrow heads, drills and erasers. In addition to bone tools like needles which prove that there was a textile production and clothe making. The natural environment of Damascus ghouta rich in swamps and lakes obliged people to build simple houses of light materials like mud and reeds baked mud.
Archaeological missions found evidences of the progress of human manual skills, in the period between 7000 and 6500 BC. They discovered in Al-Aswad Hill several industrial tools made of precious polished stones like rubies and emeralds … etc. They found also large numbers of baked mud figures some of them are flat and some have rectangular shapes. Many mud figurines representing humans and animals were also discovered, most of them representing woman with naked shoulders and chests, primary artistic achievements of the ancient man in Syria.
Paleontological studies allowed us to know that grain and fruit were planted in Syria in the 8th millennium BC. We have confirmations of the existence of olive, fig, and palm trees; in addition to vines and hemp since the seventh millennium BC; as well as charred grains that can be used for laboratory analysis. They discovered in Al-Aswad Hill several species of wheat and barley where a number of agricultural villages grew in Damascus basin, where human aspects were discovered and categorized by archaeologists as the Damascene physiognomy a category that belongs to the middle Euphrates.
Many evidences were found, showing the nature of ancient man beliefs in Neolithic age, especially ancestors worship. When a person dies he is buried in a pit in the embryo position, alone or with a child. For instance, in one pit there was a separate skull with a skeleton buried in embryo position under which there was a full skeleton with four separate skulls, two of them going back to children and one to the mother. Alongside in the same pit, there has been found pearl beads, four sickles, and two flint stone arrow heads; All those discoveries proves that the tomb was used several times and might belong to one family.
Ancestors Worship was not a ritual only performed in Al-Aswad hill, but also in Jericho and Bisamon in Palestine, and Himar valley south the dead sea. By means of skulls planted with human heads and buried in brick holes, which indicates the existence of religious funerary rites prevailing in all the Levant showing the social and spiritual unity of the early inhabitants of Syria since Neolithic age.
Another kind of veneration was human statues representing the mother goddess found in both Al-Aswad and Ghreqa Hills. Some of them represent the body of a woman standing with bulged bust and legs, or seated on a throne having a plant form to indicate the importance of the role played by women in 7th millennium BC in ancient Syria. Animal figurines were also discovered, reflecting the economic importance of animals in addition to their venerating significance. For instance, many statues of bull heads were discovered from later ages, confirming that bull worship had grown widely.
Regarding, animal domestication it passed through several stages, before reaching the status of perfection. It had been realized that dogs were the first animals domesticated in the 9th millennium BC, followed by sheep, goats, pigs, cows, horses, camels, and donkeys.
Haifaa Mafalani