[Si]
A Neolithic village site in the foothills of the Zagros Mountains near Kirkuk in northwest Iraq. Excavated by Robert Braidwood between 1948 and 1955, the site is important because of its early evidence for food production. Sixteen main levels were defined within the 7m thick stratigraphy, the first eleven of which lacked pottery. The earliest levels date to the 7th millennium bc and reveal the presence of mud-brick houses. Cereals at the site include wheat and barley, and there was equipment present for processing the grain. Field pea, lentil, and blue vetchling were also present. Goat was domesticated from the earliest levels, but pig was undergoing domestication when the settlement began. Hunting and gathering remained important throughout the sequence with pig, sheep, and gazelle being exploited together with pistachio and acorns.
[Sum.: R. J. Braidwood, 1960, The agricultural revolution. Scientific American, 203(3), 130–48]
