The ‘Hearth of Domestication’? Transitions to Farming in South-West Asia

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graeme Barker
Keyword(s):  
Persian Gulf ◽  
Mediterranean Coast ◽  
North West ◽  
Hill Country ◽  
Anatolian Plateau ◽  
The North ◽  
South West ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Western Side ◽  
The Persian Gulf

The principal focus of this chapter is the classic zone of early farming research from the 1960s onwards, the so-called ‘hilly flanks of the Fertile Crescent’ in South-West Asia (Fig. 4.1). This region is normally defined as the arc of hill country to the west of the Syrian desert and to the north and east of the Tigris and Euphrates valleys. The western side of the arc begins east of the Nile in the Sinai and the Gulf of Arabah on the southern border of Israel and Jordan; it continues northwards as the hill country on either side of the Jordan rift valley in Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, western Jordan, and western Syria (the so-called ‘Levantine corridor’); and extends westwards to the Mediterranean littoral. The northern sector is formed by the Taurus mountains along the southern edge of the Anatolian plateau, which curve eastwards from the Mediterranean coast in northern Syria to form the present-day Syrian–Turkish border. The eastern sector consists of the Zagros mountains, running south-eastwards from eastern Turkey and north-west Iran to the Persian Gulf, forming the Iraq–Iran border for most of their length, and continuing in south-west Iran beyond the Persian Gulf towards the Straits of Hormuz. The region also embraces adjacent zones: the alluvial plains of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and the vast tracts of steppe and desert country separating them from the Levantine, Taurus, and Zagros upland systems; the Anatolian plateau to the north of the Taurus, within modern Turkey; and the Iranian plateau east of the Zagros, within modern Iran. The archaeological literature commonly uses the term Near East to describe the main region of interest, with the Levant for its western side (a term also used in this chapter), and South-West Asia for the eastern side, but the entire region is more correctly termed South-West Asia. The upland areas of the region mostly receive more than 200 millimetres of rainfall a year, which is the minimum required for growing cereals without irrigation. Rainfall decreases drastically moving out into the steppe and desert zones.

X. Sennacherib's Campaigns on the North-West and his Work at Nineveh

1910 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 387-411
Author(s):  
T. G. Pinches
Keyword(s):  
Persian Gulf ◽  
British Museum ◽  
Considerable Importance ◽  
Historical Document ◽  
North West ◽  
Asiatic Society ◽  
The North ◽  
The Persian Gulf ◽  
Royal Asiatic Society

THE British Museum having been fortunate enough to acquire a new historical document from Assyria of considerable importance, it has been thought that (not withstanding that an excellent translation and commentary upon it, from the pen of the copyist of the text, Mr. L. W. King, of the British Museum, has been published) a few notes concerning it would not be without interest to the readers of the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, and more particularly those whose studies deal with the pre-Christian Semitic East, especially the tract lying north-west of the Persian Gulf.

scholarly journals I.—The Kishon and Jordan Valleys

1904 ◽  
Vol 1 (12) ◽  
pp. 575-582 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. G. Bonney
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
Difficult Problem ◽  
The South ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
South West ◽  
Western Side ◽  
Physical Geology

That broad trench through the Palestine Highlands, an ancient highway and battlefield of nations—the plain of Esdraelon or the valley of Megiddo, together with the plain of Acre—has for long presented to me a difficult problem in Physical Geology, for it seemed inexplicable by subaerial denudation under existing conditions. Its floor varies roughly from five to eight miles in breadth; running approximately from south-east to north-west, it is bounded on the more western side by the limestone mountains of Samaria and on the more eastern by those of Galilee. The former descend from the ridge of Carmel (1,742 feet at highest) with a fairly steep escarpment, which becomes a little less regular as we follow it to the bastion-mass of Mount Gilboa; the latter correspond in their general outlines with those of the eastern portion of Samaria, but the advance of a lower spur towards the south-west divides the plain of Esdraelon from that of Acre, by a kind of strait in which, so far as I could see, there is but little level ground on either side of the Kishon. This spur, however, of the northern hills, hardly does more than interrupt the floor of the Kishon valley, for above it the great trench is continued between two hill masses, much of these ranging from thirteen to sixteen hundred feet above sea-level. Beyond the strait the upper basin (plain of Esdraelon) quickly broadens out, extending towards the south-east for about fifteen or sixteen miles, where it is divided into two arms by Jebel Duhy (Little Hermon) (1,690 feet), which is thus isolated from Tabor (1,846 feet) on the north, and from Gilboa (1,698 feet) on the south; a broad, rather shallow, grassy valley descending from the last-named mass to lose itself in the plain.

Distribution of Jet Streams at 200 mb. in the Middle East

1967 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 397-404
Author(s):  
A. F. Crossley ◽  
I. N. Parkinson
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Jet Streams ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
European Area ◽  
The North Atlantic ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
The Persian Gulf

1. INTRODUCTION. The distribution of jet streams over the North Atlantic, Europe and the Mediterranean for the two years 1957–8 was described in an earlier paper (Crossley, 1961); the present paper extends the study to the area which is here referred to somewhat loosely as the Middle East —it extends between latitudes 40° N. and 10;° N., and from longitude 30° E. to 90° E. in the north but to only 65° E. in the south (Fig. 1). The aircraft trunk routes intersecting this area include those from the Eastern Mediterranean across Arabia and the Persian Gulf to West Pakistan and north-west India.The jet streams which affect the Atlantic-European area in the upper troposphere are mostly of the ‘polar’ type with a core in the neighbourhood of 300 mb. so that they can be conveniently located as a rule on the contour charts for 300 mb.; in the Mediterranean region and in the corresponding latitudes of the North Atlantic the westerly subtropical jet stream is also concerned and charts for both 300 and 200 mb.

Hembury (Devon): Roman troops in a hillfort

Antiquity ◽  
1984 ◽  
Vol 58 (224) ◽  
pp. 171-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malcolm Todd
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
The South ◽  
The West ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
South West ◽  
Western Side ◽  
Clear Weather

Hembury is chiefly noted as the site of a neolithic settlement and one of the finest hillforts of the Iron Age in the South-West (PL. XXIV & FIG. I ) . These prehistoric works lie at the southern tip of a long, narrow promontory extending southwards from the Greensand mass of the Blackdown Hills and overlooking the broad valleys of the Otter and the Culm. Beyond these to the west lies the Exe valley and further west still (and visible in clear weather) the Haldon ridge and the eastern tors of Dartmoor. Excavations by Miss D. M. Liddell (Liddell, 1930; 1931; 1932; 1935) between 1930 and 1935 revealed the significance of Hembury for the south-western Neolithic in particular, the material culture of the early neolithic settlement being plainly related to that of Windmill Hill. Miss Liddell's examination of the iron age fort was centred upon the two fine gates, on the western side and at the north-west angle. Little work was devoted to the interior except to trace the ditch of the neolithic causewayed enclosure and to explore the extreme southern tip of the promontory.

Stanowiska reliktowego gatunku Betula humilis (Betulaceae) w Dolinie Górnego Nurca na Nizinie Północnopodlaskiej

2019 ◽  
pp. 161-168
Author(s):  
Aleksander Kołos
Keyword(s):  
Drainage Ditches ◽  
North West ◽  
Hay Meadows ◽  
The North ◽  
South West ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
New Localities ◽  
Western Border ◽  
Betula Humilis ◽  
Trees And Shrubs

Betula humilis Schrank (shrubby birch) is among the most endangered shrub species in Poland. All localities are in the eastern and northern parts of the country, where the species reaches the western border of its geographical range in Europe. Betula humilis is disappearing in Poland due to wetland melioration and shrub succession. Over 80% of the localities described in Poland have not been confirmed in the last 20 years. Five new localities of B. humilis in the North Podlasie Lowland were recorded from 2008 to 2019 in the Upper Nurzec Valley (Fig. 1): 1–1.5 km south-west of Pawlinowo village (in the ATPOL GC7146 plot) and 1.5–2 km north-west of Żuki village (ATPOL GC7155, GC156 and GC166). The population near Pawlinowo (locality 1) is currently composed of ~80 individuals (101 individuals were noted in 2010) and is one of the largest populations in north-eastern Poland. Betula humilis grows there within patches dominated by Salix rosmarinifolia and megaforbs. The population at locality 5 is composed of 18 individuals. At the remaining localities, only 1–4 individuals were found, scattered along drainage ditches surrounded by hay meadows. At some of these localities the species is threatened with extinction. It is suggested to remove competitive trees and shrubs (mainly Populus tremula, Betula pubescens and Salix cinerea) in order to maintain the local populations.

scholarly journals Diocesan Licensing and Medical Practitioners in South-West England, 1660–1780

2004 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Mortimer
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Specific Context ◽  
Medical Practitioners ◽  
Medical Expertise ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
Decentralized Trade ◽  
South West ◽  
The Many ◽  
South West England

The licensing of provincial surgeons and physicians in the post-Restoration period has proved an awkward subject for medical historians. It has divided writers between those who regard the possession of a local licence as a mark of professionalism or proficiency, those who see the existence of diocesan licences as a mark of an essentially unregulated and decentralized trade, and those who discount the distinction of licensing in assessing medical expertise availability in a given region. Such a diversity of interpretations has meant that the very descriptors by which practitioners were known to their contemporaries (and are referred to by historians) have become fragmented and difficult to use without a specific context. As David Harley has pointed out in his study of licensed physicians in the north-west of England, “historians often define eighteenth-century physicians as men with medical degrees, thus ignoring … the many licensed physicians throughout the country”. One could similarly draw attention to the inadequacy of the word “surgeon” to cover licensed and unlicensed practitioners, barber-surgeons, Company members in towns, self-taught practitioners using surgical manuals, and procedural specialists whose work came under the umbrella of surgery, such as bonesetters, midwives and phlebotomists. Although such fragmentation of meaning reflects a diversity of practices carried on under the same occupational descriptors in early modern England, the result is an imprecise historical literature in which the importance of licensing, and especially local licensing, is either ignored as a delimiter or viewed as an inaccurate gauge of medical proficiency.

Palmyra under the Aegis of Rome

1963 ◽  
Vol 53 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 43-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. A. Richmond
Keyword(s):  
Persian Gulf ◽  
Geographical Isolation ◽  
Political Influences ◽  
The North ◽  
Intimate Knowledge ◽  
East And West ◽  
The Cross ◽  
The Persian Gulf

In the most southerly group of desert routes between Syria and Mesopotamia Palmyra lies at the cross-roads. The north-eastward route from Damascus to Circesium is crossed by the eastward route from Emesa, now Homs, to Babylonia. Palmyra owes this key-position first to its precious springs and secondly to the fact that here the natural traffic lines from west to east debouch from the Syrian mountains into the head of the eastwardlooking basin of the Wadi el Khorr, a winter tributary of the Euphrates. Nor were these obvious routes the sole possibility. At Circesium the Euphrates may be crossed: at its eastward turn the lower river and its valley-dwellers become dominant—here runs the modern frontier between Syria and Iraq. Avoiding this control, caravan routes, negotiable solely by those with intimate knowledge of the waste and its people, lead direct to the heart of Mesopotamia and onwards to the Persian Gulf. As between East and West, Palmyra, an island in the desert, offered both a mart for exchange and an essential staging-point for direct through traffic. Its possessors were by nature masters of the situation; and, while they might be subject to the cultural or political influences of either East or West, their geographical isolation secured for them an independence founded upon pre-eminent experience of desert ways, which constituted them the natural masters and middlemen of the caravan routes that met and branched or crossed in their oasis.

Part VI. The Cyclopean Terrace Building and the Deposit of Pottery beneath It

1954 ◽  
Vol 49 ◽  
pp. 267-291
Author(s):  
Elizabeth B. Wace
Keyword(s):  
Contour Line ◽  
The South ◽  
Main Road ◽  
North West ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
South West

The Cyclopean Terrace Building lies to the north-west of the Lion Gate on the northern end of the Panagia Ridge and faces almost due west across the valley of the Kephissos and modern main road from Corinth to Argos. It lies just below the 200 m. contour line, and one terrace below the houses excavated in 1950–51 by Dr. Papadimitriou and Mr. Petsas to the east at the same end of the ridge. The area contains a complex of buildings, both successive and contemporary, and in view of the discovery of structures both to the south-west and, by the Greek Archaeological Service, to the north-east it is likely that this whole slope was covered by a portion of the outer town of Mycenae. This report will deal only with the structure to which the name Cyclopean Terrace Building was originally given, the so-called ‘North Megaron’, supported by the heavy main terrace wall.The excavation of this structure was begun in 1923. The main terrace wall was cleared and two L.H. IIIC burials discovered in the top of the fill in the south room. In 1950 it was decided to attempt to clear this building entirely in an endeavour to find out its date and purpose. The clearing was not, however, substantially completed until the close of the 1953 excavation season, and this report presents the available evidence for the date as determined by the pottery found beneath the building; the purpose is still a matter for study, though various tentative conclusions can be put forward.

II.—Notes on the Pleistocene of the North-West Territories of Canada, North-West and West of Hudson Bay

1894 ◽  
Vol 1 (9) ◽  
pp. 394-399 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Burr Tyrrell
Keyword(s):  
Geological Survey ◽  
Hudson Bay ◽  
North West ◽  
The Past ◽  
North Shore ◽  
The North ◽  
South West ◽  
North West Territories

In the extreme northernmost part of Canada, lying between North Latitudes 56° and 68° and West Longitudes 88° and 112°, is an area of about 400,000 square miles, which had up to the past two years remained geologically unexplored.In 1892 the Director of the Geological Survey of Canada sent the writer to explore the country north of Churchill River, and south-west of Lake Athabasca;in1893 the exploration was continued northward, along the north shore of Athabasca Lake

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