page_title: Tell Abu Hureyra
section_title: Second occupation
hierarchical_section_title: Tell Abu Hureyra / Occupation history / Second occupation
caption_attribution_description: English: Calibrated Carbon 14 dates for Abu Hureyra as of 2013
context_page_description: Tell Abu Hureyra is an archaeological site in the Euphrates valley in modern Syria. The remains of the villages within the tell come from over 4,000 years of pre-ceramic habitation spanning the Epipaleolithic and Neolithic periods. The site consisted of two villages; Abu Hureyra 1 and Abu Hureyra 2. Abu Hureyra 1's inhabitants were from the Epipaleolithic era and were sedentary hunter gatherers. Abu Hureyra 2 dates from early Neolithic times and was composed of farmers. Ancient Abu Hureyra was occupied between 13,000 and 9,000 years ago in radio carbon years. The site is significant because the inhabitants of Abu Hureyra started out as hunter-gatherers, but gradually moved to farming, making them the earliest known farmers in the world. Cultivation started at the beginning of the Younger Dryas period at Abu Hureyra. Evidence uncovered at Abu Hureyra suggests that rye was the first cereal crop to be systematically cultivated. In light of this, it is now believed that the first systematic cultivation of cereal crops was around 13000 years ago.
  Due to the late glacial interstate, the Abu Hureyra site experienced climatic change.
context_section_description: In comparison to Abu Hureyra 1, Abu Hureyra 2 had a different accumulation of resources that their site consisted of. Their resources consisted of 25% of Rumex/Polygonum, 3.7% of Rye/Einkorn, 29% of Barley, 23.5% of Emmer, 9.4% of Wheat-free threshing, and 9.4% of Lentils.
  It is from the early part of the Younger Dryas that the first indirect evidence of agriculture was detected in the excavations at Abu Hureyra, although the cereals themselves were still of the wild variety. It was during the intentional sowing of cereals in more favourable refuges like Mureybet that these first farmers developed domesticated strains during the centuries of drought and cold of the Younger Dryas. When the climate abated about 9500 BCE they spread all over the Middle East with this new bio-technology, and Abu Hureyra grew to a large village eventually with several thousand people. The second occupation grew domesticated varieties of rye, wheat and barley, and kept sheep as livestock. The hunting of gazelle decreased sharply, probably due to overexploitation that eventually left them extinct in the Middle East. At Abu Hureyra they were replaced by meat from domesticated animals. The second occupation lasted for about 2,000 years.
caption: Earliest calibrated Carbon 14 dates for Neolithic Abu Hureyra as of 2013. This is about 1,000 years after Gesher.
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