'Revolutions in the Desert' investigates the development of pastoral nomadism in the arid regions of the ancient Near East, challenging the prevailing notion that such societies left few remains appropriate for analytic study. Few prior studies have approached the deeper past of desert nomadic societies, which have been primarily recognized only as a complement to the study of sedentary agricultural societies in the region. Based on decades of archaeological field work in the Negev of southern Israel, both excavations and surveys, and integrating materials from adjacent regions, 'Revolutions in the Desert' offers a deeper and more dynamic view of the rise of herding societies beyond the settled zone.
Rosen offers the first archaeological analysis of the rise of herding in the desert, from the first introduction of domestic goats and sheep into the arid zones, more than eight millennia ago, to the evolution of more recent Bedouin societies. The adoption of domestic herds by hunter-gatherer societies, contemporary with and peripheral to the first farming settlements, revolutionized all aspects of desert life, including subsistence, trade, cult, social organization, and ecology. Inviting processual comparison to the agricultural revolution and the secondary spread of domestication beyond the Near East, this volume traces the evolution of nomadic societies in the archaeological record and examines their ecological, economic and social adaptations to the deserts of the Southern Levant. With maps and illustrations from the author’s own collection, 'Revolutions in the Desert' is a thoughtful and engaging approach to the archaeology of desert nomadic societies.
Author(s): Steven A. Rosen
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2017
Language: English
Pages: 314
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
1. Beyond History: The Importance of an Archaeology of Pastoral Nomadism
An Introductory Mythology
The Role of Archaeology
The Goals of This Study
A Note on the Chronological Framework
2. The Problem of Domestication
The Range of Domesticates
Identifying Domestication
Herd Animals in the Near East: A Preview to the Archaeological Sequence
3. The Problems of Definition: Variability in Pastoral Adaptations
Introduction
Herds, Other Animals, and Their Exploitation
Economy
Migrations and Seasonality
The Structures of Pastoral Nomadic Society
The Problem of Definition over Time
General Notes on Origins
Baselines, Fission, Adoption, and Economics
Issues of Causality
Summary
4. Invisibility and Visibility: A Background to the Archaeology of Pastoral Nomadism
Why We Have Not Seen the Nomads
The Structure of the Discipline
The Misapprehension of Mobile Pastoralism
How to See Nomads
Ancient Texts and Nomads
Ethnography, Ethnology, and the Study of Ancient Nomads
The Implications of Archaeological Methods
Integrating Texts, Ethnography, and Archaeology
5. The Environmental Background to the Rise of Pastoral Nomadism in the Southern Levantine Deserts
Introduction
Paleoenvironments and Climatic Change
The Early Holocene
The Middle Holocene
The Chalcolithic Period/Middle Timnian
The Bronze Age (Late Timnian, Terminal Timnian, and Second Millennium BCE)
The First Millennium BCE
The First Millennium CE
The Implications of Climatic Fluctuations
6. The Pre-Pottery Neolithic B Baseline: The Last Hunter-Gatherers in the Desert
Goats in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B Heartland
The Origins of the Negev PPNB
Subsistence in the Desert in the PPNB
Architecture and Material Culture
Society in the Desert PPNB
Summary
7. The Earliest Herder-Gatherers: The Adoption of Domesticated Animals in the Desert Periphery
Introduction
The Chrono-Cultural Framework
The Earliest Evidence
The First Desert Pastoralists: A Review Discussion
8. Revolution in the Desert: The Timnian Culture Complex and the Implications of Systematic Herding
Introduction
The Timnian Culture Complex
Definitions
Domestic Architecture and Settlement
Subsistence
Cult and Mortuary Sites
Material Culture
Rock Art
Revolution in the Desert: Integrating Processes in the Timnian Culture Complex
Conclusions: The Rise of Desert Tribal Society
9. Another Revolution: The Late Timnian, the Early Bronze Age, and the Rise of Economic Asymmetry
Introduction
The Late Timnian: A Description
Domestic Architecture and Settlement
Subsistence Systems
Cult and Mortuary Sites
Mobility and Seasonality
Material Culture
Pastoral Nomadism and the Rise of Economic Asymmetry
Demography and Social Organization
Economy
Multi-Resource Nomadism, Core and Periphery, and the Rise of Economic Asymmetry
Epilogue: The Terminal Timnian and Collapse in the Desert
10. Text and Relict: An Essay on the Archaeology of Desert Pastoralism in the Historic Periods in the Negev
Prologue: The End of the Timnian Culture Complex
What Happened Next? 1. The Problem of the 2nd Millennium BCE
A Digression: Texts, Archaeology, and the Bedouin
Explaining the 2nd Millennium Gap: A Model for Absence (Read Decline, Scarcity, Abandonment, Etc.)
What Happened Next? 2. The Origins and Development of Classical Period Nomadism
11. Epilogue: An Archaeology of the End of Pastoral Nomadism
1700 and Beyond
An Archaeology of Recent Bedouin
After the Revolutions
References
Index
