Crop storage in ancient Syria: A functional analysis using ethnographic modelling

The aim of this thesis is to examine critically crop storage residues from two third millennium sites in north Syria, and to attempt to identify the purposes for which they have been stored. Existing methods for identifying and distinguishing archaeological samples of different crop products and byproducts in storage are inadequate, and hence the purposes for which they were intended are often misunderstood or misinterpreted. Examples of products which have not previously been identified in the archaeological record include "Frikkeh", "Burgul", and roast barley. In order to address this problem, an attempt is made to assemble a model based on modern ethnographic data. This model allows us to identify these different products and byproducts in storage, and to establish their relationship, within certain limits. This in turn allows us to establish the purpose for which these products were stored. The model is further strengthened by establishing the antiquity of these processes via existing textual and archaeological evidence. The model is then applied to the archaeological plant remains recovered from two sites in north Syria: "Tell Brak", and "Tell Kerma", with the aim of identifying: 1. The various crop products and byproducts stored, and the purposes for which they were intended. 2. Crop storage contexts or areas in which crop processing activities leading to storage may have occurred