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Abstract
In recent years it has become apparent that the mace, one of the most important weapons and ceremonial artefacts in the Ancient Near East, first appeared in the tenth millennium BCE, during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A. Given the considerable importance of this new evidence for understanding the role and status of the mace in the Ancient Near East, it is timely to present the state of the research that has recently emerged from sites in Anatolia, Mesopotamia and Jordan. This paper has three aims: 1) to chart the chronological and geographical distribution of mace-heads in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic; 2) to define as far as possible the typological characteristics of mace-heads, taking into account their morphology, raw materials, measurements and weight; and 3) to understand the intended function of mace-heads in light of the archaeological contexts in which they were discovered.
Disclosure Statement
The author reports that there are no competing interests to declare.
Contributors
Michael Sebbane: Israel Antiquities Authority; email: [email protected]
Correction Statement
This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.
Notes
1 There is still debate as to the chronological division and the terminology of the period. For a summary of the various approaches, see Kuijt Citation2000a. Here I adhere to the division first suggested by Rollefson in 1989.
2 For an overview of mace-heads in Israel and in the Ancient Near East, see Sebbane Citation2009; for a discussion of the mace as a ritual and ceremonial object, see Sebbane Citation2016.
3 This paper is based on Chapter 2 of my Ph.D. dissertation (Sebbane Citation2009: 24–39). Müller-Neuhof, in his Ph.D. dissertation (2005), presented for the first time a number of Neolithic sites in which mace-heads were found and noted that the earliest ones were discovered in Qermez Dere and Nemrik in northern Mesopotamia, in assemblages dating to the PPNA, and in BaꜤja, Jordan, a site dated to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB). He considers the mace-heads that were discovered in Neolithic sites to be potentially weapons for close combat (ibid.: 194–197; and see below). I am grateful to B. Müller-Neuhof for providing me with these data.
4 A trial trench excavated during the 1993 excavation season exposed sherds in the upper layers that testify to a Ceramic Neolithic phase at the site. No evidence of this phase was found in earlier excavations or surveys in the area.
5 In the 2011–2012 excavation seasons remains of a site from the Epipalaeolithic period were exposed and dated by 14C analysis to the second half of the eleventh millennium (Coskun et al. Citation2012; Benz et al. Citation2015; Benz et al. Citation2017).
6 The excavators note that most of the stone tools found in tombs were burial gifts that were interred after having been deliberately broken.
7 These mace-heads were published by Davies (Citation1982) in a report of the first seven excavation seasons, between 1967 and 1980. Further excavations in the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s exposed additional buildings and finds yet to be published.
8 The results of 14C analysis of six samples were published; no calibration has been attempted (Watkins et al. Citation1995: 29, Table 11.1).
9 They were classified typologically into three groups: globular (type XA), conic (type XB) and ovoid (type XC). The mace-heads were published as part of the general report of the 1985–1986 excavation seasons, in the stone industry chapter. There were 940 items in the assemblage, sorted into 20 typological groups (I–XX), and the mace-heads were included in Group X. The discussion is preliminary, aimed mainly at presenting the general state of knowledge. A detailed discussion is planned for a series of publications of the dwelling units, which will follow the outline of the Nemrik 2 report that presents Dwelling house 1/1A/1B, with the assemblages of artefacts it contained (Kozłowski Citation1992). No mace-heads were found in the Nemrik 2 house.
10 Two additional family (‘collective’) tombs with burial gifts were exposed in Area C10. Here too, rooms/cells of the large dwelling unit were allotted for burial (Gebel, Hermansen and Kinzel Citation2006: 15–18; for the burial gifts there, see Tables 1 and 2). For information about the burials from BaꜤja, see Benz et al. Citation2019, Table 5.
11 The tomb was uncovered in a small room/cell in Dwelling unit D11/12/12/22, pre-designed for burial (Gebel and Hermansen Citation2001: 17–19).
12 The tomb was discovered in the northwestern corner of Room CR35, in Loci C10: 152/405/408 (Benz et al. Citation2019: 5–6, ).
13 The mace-head measurements are: diameter: 55.5 mm; height: 53 mm; weight: 241.5 g.
14 In Israel, it seems that mace-heads appeared for the first time in Pottery Neolithic (PN) assemblages (Sebbane Citation2009: 85–86, 135–138, 182, 196–197, 331; Rosenberg Citation2010; Rosenberg and Garfinkel Citation2014). Recent field work points to an earlier period within the PPN: According to Hamoudi Khalaily (Israel Antiquities Authority), a globular limestone mace-head was found in Yiftaḥ'el in an assemblage dated to the PPNC, and two mace-heads dated to the Late PPNB were unearthed at the site of Moẓa. These assemblages have not yet been published. I am grateful to Hamoudi Khalaily for the information and for permission to cite it here.
15 I am cautious about the possible date of these mace-heads, because the excavators only mention them in the most general terms, offering no real data that would allow discussion, much less suggest a firm date.
16 It seems that hafting was one of the technological innovations of the PPN (see below and nn. 17–18).
17 Bifacial tools also apparently played a central role in the development of stone architecture, as can be seen at sites in Anatolia such as Çayönü and Nevali Çori and sites in Jordan such as BaꜤja, Basta and Wadi Shueib. This supposition is in accord with the appearance in the PPNB of massive polished flint axes, which were efficient for working with wood and stone.
18 This assumption is also based on the appearance in the tool assemblage of items that are referred to as ‘stone rings’ or ‘perforated stone disks’ in the reports. I believe that these artefacts are the flywheels of these drills. The items from es-Sifiya are a good example for these flywheels (Mahasneh Citation2004: 49, Fig. 9).
19 The website, which was accessed on 17 May 2009, is no longer operational.
20 The range of measurements and weights for globular mace-heads that could have served for combat are: weight: 150–650 g; height: 4–6.5 cm; socket diameter: 1.1–2.4 cm. It is, in my opinion, difficult to consider mace-heads as combative when their weight is less than 150 g or when their socket diameter is smaller than 1 cm. The hitting and smashing force of maces of such a light weight is limited, and shafts whose diameter at the contact point with the mace-head is less than 1 cm are not likely to withstand the stress of high-velocity impact (Sebbane Citation2009: 70–73; 2016: 421–423).
21 Following are the measurements and weights of the complete mace-heads found in Israel from the late Neolithic and early Chalcolithic periods (Sebbane Citation2009: 74–76):
22 Korfmann (Citation1972: 105–106, 109, 199) pointed out the contemporary presence of the sling and the bow at Tell Halaf (northern Syria) and Hajelar (Anatolia) in the second half of the sixth millennium; in Tepe Sialk (Iran) in the second half of the fifth millennium; and in Tureng Tepe (Iran) and Uruk (Mesopotamia) in the second half of the fourth millennium. In Israel they have been discovered with mace-heads in assemblages of the Wadi Rabah culture at ꜤEin el-Jarba (Kaplan Citation1969: 25, 29, Fig. 14:1,5,9–13). In the northwestern corner of a building in Level IV, 19 sling stones and two globular mace-heads were discovered on the plastered floor. Kaplan viewed the assemblage as the community ‘weapons hoard’.
23 Sling stones have been found in assemblages attributed to the Wadi Rabah culture, at ꜤEin el-Jarba, Abu Zureiq and Kabri (Garfinkel and Matskevich Citation2002: 161–162). They are characterised by an ovoid outline and a uniform range of measurements and weights.
24 As emphasised above, the number of mace-heads from Hallan Çemi (3), Çayönü (3) and Körtik Tepe (10) is based on their partial publication in illustrations/tables and presumably does not reflect the full finds. A minimum number of two mace-heads at Nevali Çori, Aşikli Höyük and Qermez Dere is based on the excavators’ comments that ‘a number of mace-heads’ or ‘a few mace-heads’ were found at these sites.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Michael Sebbane
Michael Sebbane: Israel Antiquities Authority