Technologie lithique et comportement social dans le PPN de Çayönü tepesi (Turquie). Un aperçu à travers l’analyse des matières premières
Authors: Binder Didier 
Published: April 2013

Çayönü tepesi provides significant data for understanding the Neolithization process in Mesopotamia, the Eastern Mediterranean and the Anatolian Plateau. This paper proposes modifications to current approaches, since the Neolithic chipped stone industries generally comprise heterogeneous assemblages of lithic sets or subsets. These latter correspond to chaînes opératoires and to processes of sampling, transport and use, which differed considerably from one another. Following the sequence of events, from the acquisition of raw materials to the discard of tools, enables evaluation of the structural heterogeneity of lithic kits, including the extent to which different degrees of chronological and spatial rupture occurred within the production and consumption processes.

It also illustrates one of the fundamental tenets of the Neolithic paradigm : a functional division of the social body and space. The observations presented herein are based upon the analysis of 7 main samples (around 2,000 pieces) from secure stratigraphic and spatial contexts. Study of the raw material and debitage techno-economy indicates that previous interpretations of its industries and their evolution during the PPN require revision. It clearly demonstrates that PPN industries were heterogeneous and correspond to different reduction sequences, each of whose origins, methods and techniques as well as modes of introduction into the village differ significantly.

In all phases there is a background of elements with little technical investment : mostly flakes produced by direct percussion from disparate materials and probably locally produced. These blanks are to be considered as "expedient" production within "domestic" contexts, quickly made and needing few skills or strategic planning. Despite their volume, however, their pertinence in terms of cultural diagnostics is extremely weak.

The "Round house phase" shows some homogeneity, with simple laminar production, locally produced from nearby raw material sources. One of the fl int types isolated (A1), comprising more than 60% of the sample, provided small, heterogeneous sub-parallel blades by soft percussion requiring few skills.

Soft percussion debitage continues during the "Grill" and "Channel building" phases using local materials (i. e. flint type A1). They gradually decline in importance among the blades, from 85% within the "Round houses phase", to 50% within the "Early and Middle Grill buildings", and then 19% within "Channel buildings". Other raw materials such as obsidian were used similarly, appearing during the "Grill building" phase as percussion bladelets and continuing during the "Channel building" phase. These simple reduction modes, probably produced within domestic contexts, constitute the principal element of continuity within the chipped stone assemblages in the Çayönü Tepesi PPN sequence.

The first strong element of discontinuity is provided during the "Early Grill building" sub-phase by a significant proportion of bidirectional debitage products, which often derived from standardized naviform cores. The latter were commonly found on brown flints (type B1) or very rarely, obsidian. A robust unidirectional blade component could be perfectly consistent with the latter. They were imported as finished products and were then intensively used, transformed and reused. During both stages of the "Grill buildings", these robust blades from B1 flint type account for 40% of the blades. This phenomenon continues during the following "Channel building" phase when bidirectional debitage from flint types B1 and B2, were still introduced as blanks or finished tools, representing respectively 10% and 3% among blade/ lets.

It is very significant that, amongst the analysed samples, all the points traditionally assigned to the Levantine tradition were introduced at Çayönü as finished products from B1 or secondary B2 flint types. During the "Channel building" phase this phenomenon takes an emblematic form with the exceptional point from the "Skull building", due to the ostentatious character of the piece, as well as to the highly symbolic context of its find. This leads us to again emphasize that the circulation of fi nished products, as B1 flint type or a fortiori obsidian, fulfilled ostentatious social functions.

The production of bidirectional debitage and points, and their use were realised in different locations. This discontinuity could reflect intra-community social differentiation ; but it is curious that no similar methods and techniques using local material were noted despite their suitability. Such discontinuity may reflect inter-community exchanges, expresses cultural differences in interactions between communities. On a broader scale it may be suggested that the knapping methods and tool styles specific to the Northern Levant PPN, as at Mureybet IIIb and IV, were introduced at Çayönü during the "Grill" and "Channel building" phases, but were only really integrated into local practice during the "Cell building" phase with their transfer to obsidian. Whether this integration was accompanied by increasing bidirectional debitage variability remains to be clarified. Petrographic analyses confirming a possible southern origin of flint types B1 and B2 could be particularly important, as that would relate part of the tool acquisition processes of Çayönü Tepesi within the context of an intensification of symbolic communal practices as recently revealed in the Urfa region.

The second strong element of discontinuity is provided by the massive introduction of pressure debitage methods within the "Channel building" phase. Earlier, there is no evidence whatsoever of bullet-cores, or any other debitage to indicate the use of pressure. Since pressure techniques constitute one of the best markers of Zagros influences within the context of the Neolithization of the Taurus, it comes as no surprise that these appear at Çayönü after the North Levant influences. Nevertheless, the emergence of pressure methods and techniques in Mesopotamia remains imprecise, maybe around the middle of the 9th millennium cal. BC based on Nemrik 9.

The fact that these knapping methods were applied to diverse raw materials (obsidian, flint types A1 and B2) is highly significant. While obsidian was favoured for pressure technology, flint type B2 was also closely associated with the technique, indicating that this use was probably the principal motive for its acquisition.

Also remarkable is the simultaneous transfer of these methods onto flint type A1, which was the most common in Çayönü from the "Round house" phase. Their products seem to be completely realised in situ, which could be explained by their easy execution, whether in the hand or with a small crutch, once the knapping method had been mastered. Nevertheless, this pressure debitage varies in metrical characteristics depending upon the raw material used (bladelets from 9-12 mm width for A1 flint, micro-bladelets from 4-8 mm width on flint type B2, bladelets and micro-bladelets in obsidian) ; and their functions were similarly variable (many traces of plant cutting on A1 flint, as opposed to use of the edge of obsidian bladelets for soft material cutting, micro-borers on flint type B2). Pressure techniques continued within the "Cell building" phase, with a decrease in the use of flint at the expense of obsidian, and with visible changes in methods : pressure removals from a fl at inclined platform replace the bullet-cores, maybe since the "Cobble Paved phase". The latter is contemporary to Early Çafer Hōyūk where similar features were observed. These trends require confirmation by the analysis of larger samples. But in such a context the industries of the "Cell building" phase illustrate two phenomena indicating the consolidation of the sedentary village lifestyle : (i), the complete integration of the technical practices that had been previously dominated by external imports and (ii), the increasing autonomy of the villagers who organised direct access to raw materials and the control of the outcrops themselves (especially obsidian).