Jarmo ( or , also ''Qal'at Jarmo'') is a prehistoric

archeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...

located in modern

Iraqi Kurdistan Iraqi Kurdistan or Southern Kurdistan () refers to the Kurds, Kurdish-populated part of northern Iraq. It is considered one of the four parts of Greater Kurdistan in West Asia, which also includes parts of southeastern Turkey (Northern Kurdist ...

on the foothills of the

Zagros Mountains The Zagros Mountains are a mountain range in Iran, northern Iraq, and southeastern Turkey. The mountain range has a total length of . The Zagros range begins in northwestern Iran and roughly follows Iran's western border while covering much of s ...

. It lies at an altitude of 800 m above sea-level in a belt of

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

and

pistachio The pistachio (, ; ''Pistacia vera'') is a small to medium-sized tree of the Anacardiaceae, cashew family, originating in Iran. The tree produces nut (fruit)#Culinary definition and uses, seeds that are widely consumed as food. In 2022, world ...

woodlands in the Adhaim River watershed. Excavations revealed that Jarmo was an

agricultural Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created f ...

community dating back to around 7090 BC. It was broadly contemporary with other important

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

sites such as

Jericho Jericho ( ; , ) is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, and the capital of the Jericho Governorate. Jericho is located in the Jordan Valley, with the Jordan River to the east and Jerusalem to the west. It had a population of 20,907 in 2017. F ...

in the

Southern Levant The Southern Levant is a geographical region that corresponds approximately to present-day Israel, Palestine, and Jordan; some definitions also include southern Lebanon, southern Syria and the Sinai Peninsula. As a strictly geographical descript ...

and

Çatalhöyük Çatalhöyük (English: Chatalhoyuk ; ; also ''Çatal Höyük'' and ''Çatal Hüyük''; from Turkish language, Turkish ''çatal'' "fork" + ''höyük'' "tumulus") is a Tell (archaeology), tell (a mounded accretion resulting from long-term huma ...

Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

Discovery and excavation

The site was originally discovered by the Iraqi Directorate of Antiquities in 1940, and later became known to archaeologist

Robert Braidwood Robert John Braidwood (29 July 1907 – 15 January 2003) was an American archaeologist and anthropologist, one of the founders of scientific archaeology, and a leader in the field of Near Eastern Prehistory. Life Braidwood was born July 29, ...

from the

University of Chicago Oriental Institute The Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, West Asia & North Africa (ISAC), formerly known as the Oriental Institute, is the University of Chicago's interdisciplinary research center for ancient Near Eastern studies and archaeology museum. ...

. At the time, he was looking for suitable places to research the origins of the

Neolithic Revolution The Neolithic Revolution, also known as the First Agricultural Revolution, was the wide-scale transition of many human cultures during the Neolithic period in Afro-Eurasia from a lifestyle of hunter-gatherer, hunting and gathering to one of a ...

.Robert J. Braidwood, The Iraq-Jarmo Project of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Season 1954–1955, Verlag nicht ermittelbar, 1954 Braidwood worked as part of the Iraq-Jarmo programme for three seasons, those of 1948, 1950-1951 and 1954-1955; a fourth campaign, to be carried out in 1958-1959 did not come about because of the

14 July Revolution The 14 July Revolution, also known as the 1958 Iraqi military coup, was a ''coup d'état'' that took place on 14 July 1958 in Iraq, resulting in the toppling of King Faisal II and the overthrow of the Hashemite-led Kingdom of Iraq. The Ira ...

. During the excavations in Jarmo in 1954-1955, Braidwood used a multidisciplinary approach for the first time, in an attempt to refine the research methods and clarify the origin of the domestication of plants and animals. Among his team were a geologist, Herbert Wright, a palaeo-botanist, Hans Helbaek, an expert in pottery and radio-carbon dating, Frederic Mason, and a zoologist, Charles Reed, as well as a number of archaeologists. The interdisciplinary method was subsequently used in all serious field work in archaeology.

Jarmo, the village

The excavations exposed a small village, covering an area of 12,000 to 16,000 m², and which has been dated (by carbon-14) to 7090 BC, for the oldest levels, to 4950 BC for the most recent. The entire site consists of twelve levels. Jarmo appears to be two older, permanent Neolithic settlements and, approximately, contemporary with

or the Neolithic stage of

Shanidar Shanidar Cave (, ) is an archaeological site on Bradost Mountain, within the Zagros Mountains in the Erbil Governorate of Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq. Neanderthal remains were discovered here in 1953, including Shanidar 1, who survived se ...

. The high point is likely to have been between 6200 and 5800 BC. This small village consisted of some twenty five houses, with adobe walls and sun-dried mud roofs, which rested on stone foundations, with a simple floor plan dug from the earth. These dwellings were frequently repaired or rebuilt. In all, about 150 people lived in the village, which was clearly a permanent settlement. In the earlier phases there is a preponderance of objects made from stone,

silex Separation of isotopes by laser excitation (SILEX) is a process for enriching uranium to fuel nuclear reactors that may also present a growing nuclear weapons proliferation risk. It is strongly suspected that SILEX utilizes laser condensation repre ...

—using older styles—and

obsidian Obsidian ( ) is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava extrusive rock, extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth. It is an igneous rock. Produced from felsic lava, obsidian is rich in the lighter element ...

. The use of this latter material, obtained from the area of

Lake Van Lake Van (; ; ) is the largest lake in Turkey. It lies in the Eastern Anatolia Region of Turkey in the provinces of Van Province, Van and Bitlis Province, Bitlis, in the Armenian highlands. It is a Salt lake, saline Soda lake, soda lake, receiv ...

, 200 miles away, suggests that some form of organized trade already existed, as does the presence of ornamental shells from the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf, sometimes called the Arabian Gulf, is a Mediterranean seas, mediterranean sea in West Asia. The body of water is an extension of the Arabian Sea and the larger Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.Un ...

. In the oldest level baskets have been found, waterproofed with pitch, which is readily available in the area.

Agriculture and cattle farming

Agricultural activity is attested by the presence of stone sickles, cutters, bowls and other objects, for harvesting, preparing and storing food, and also by receptacles of engraved marble. In the later phases instruments made of bone, particularly perforating tools, buttons and spoons, have been found. Further research has shown that the villagers of Jarmo grew wheat of two types, emmer and einkorn, a type of primitive barley and lentils (it is common to record the domestication of grains, less so of pulses). Their diet, and that of their animals, also included species of wild plant, peas, acorns, carob seeds, pistachios and wild wheat. Snail shells are also abundant. There is evidence that they had domesticated goats, sheep and dogs. On the higher levels of the site pigs have been found, together with the first evidence of pottery.

Pottery and religion

Jarmo is one of the oldest sites at which

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a ''potter'' is al ...

has been found, appearing in the most recent levels of excavation, which dates it to the 7th millennium BC. This pottery is handmade, of simple design and with thick sides, and treated with a vegetable solvent. There are clay figures, zoomorphic or anthropomorphic, including figures of pregnant women which are taken to be fertility goddesses, similar to the

Mother Goddess A mother goddess is a major goddess characterized as a mother or progenitor, either as an embodiment of motherhood and fertility or fulfilling the cosmological role of a creator- and/or destroyer-figure, typically associated the Earth, sky, ...

of later Neolithic cultures in the same region. These constitute the inception of the

Art of Mesopotamia The art of Mesopotamia has survived in the record from early hunter-gatherer societies (8th millennium BC) on to the Bronze Age cultures of the Sumerian, Akkadian Empire, Akkadian, Babylonian and Assyrian empires. These empires were later replace ...

Gallery

File:Jarmo (Qal'at Jarmo), late 8th century BCE to late 6th century BCE. Sulaymaniyah, Iraq, March 2021. Aftermaths of 1948-1955 excavations conducted by the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.jpg, Jarmo, March 2021. Remains of the 1948-1955 excavations conducted by the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago File:Jarmo (Qal'at Jarmo), late 8th century BCE to late 6th century BCE. Sulaymaniyah, Iraq. Recent excavations by a Japanese team were conducted on the previous excavations conducted by the Oriental Institute of Chicago between 1948-1955.jpg, Jarmo, March 2021, recent excavations by a Japanese team were conducted on the previous excavations carried out by the Oriental Institute between 1948 and 1955 File:Jarmo (Qal'at Jarmo), late 8th century BCE to late 6th century BCE. Sulaymaniyah, Iraq, March 2021. Aftermaths of 1948-1955 excavations conducted by the Oriental Institute of Chicago.jpg, Jarmo, March 2021. Remains of the 1948-1955 excavations conducted by the Oriental Institute File:Fragments of alabaster jars, Jarmo circa 7500 BC, before the 7000 BC invention of pottery Louvre Museum.jpg, Fragments of

alabaster Alabaster is a mineral and a soft Rock (geology), rock used for carvings and as a source of plaster powder. Archaeologists, geologists, and the stone industry have different definitions for the word ''alabaster''. In archaeology, the term ''alab ...

jars, Jarmo circa 7500 BCE, before the 7000 BCE invention of pottery in the region. Louvre Museum File:Pottery bowl, 7100-5800 BCE, from Jarmo, Sulaymaniyah, Iraq. Sulaymaniyah Museum, Iraqi Kurdistan.jpg, Pottery bowl, 7100-5800 BCE, from Jarmo

Notes

External links

Link to letters from the archeologist

Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée details on Jarmo

University of Cologne Radiocarbon CONTEXT database dates for Jarmo
{{Neolithic Southwest Asia 1940 archaeological discoveries Archaeological sites in Iraq Neolithic sites of Asia Neolithic settlements Former populated places in Iraq Sulaymaniyah Governorate Archaeological discoveries in Iraq Populated places established in the 8th millennium BC Populated places disestablished in the 5th millennium BC