3
LATE NEOLITHIC ARCHITECTURAL RENEWAL: THE
EMERGENCE OF ROUND HOUSES IN THE NORTHERN
LEVANT, c. 6500–6000 BC
Peter M. M. G. Akkermans
Round houses are a characteristic feature of the 6th been suggested, were special-purpose installations, serving
millennium BC in Syro-Mesopotamia (all dates in this as the communities’ communal granaries or storehouses
paper are calibrated dates BC). Substantial evidence for (Akkermans and Schwartz 2003, 117).
this kind of architecture first came to light at Yunus in Because of their extreme abundance at the 6th millen
south-eastern Anatolia and, in particular, at Tell Arpachiyah nium Halaf sites, the tholoi have always been considered
in Northern Iraq in the early 1930s. Ever since then, the archetypical of this culture and period. It is important
circular structures have usually been referred to as tholoi to realise, however, that the distribution of these round
(singular tholos) on the basis of some broad but misleading buildings cuts across the traditional cultural boundaries
parallels in layout with Mycenaean tombs of a much later created by archaeologists in every possible way: not only
date (Mallowan and Rose 1935, 25). Two basic types are do the circular dwellings appear to have had a much longer
found: buildings simply made of one circular room; and more history, going back as far as the mid-7th millennium BC,
complex, keyhole-shaped buildings consisting of a circular but they also occur roughly contemporarily in places alien
room enlarged by a rectangular antechamber. Generally they to the Halaf culture, such as the Yarmukian sites of the
have a diameter between 3 and 5 m although both smaller southern Levant (e.g. Gopher 1995). The Late Neolithic
and much larger ones occur as well. ��������������������
The walls were made tholoi, it appears, were not simply part of the ‘checklist’
of mud brick or pisé, either laid on stone foundations or of a specific archaeological construct (culture, period and
simply set on the surface without any support whatsoever. region) but served in many different circumstances.
The walls carried a mud plaster often covered by a thin Reviews of the round buildings of the 6th millennium
white gypsum coating, giving the buildings a bright white Halaf culture are relatively numerous (e.g. ����������
Akkermans
���� tholoi are usually thought to have had
appearance. The 1989; Breniquet 1996; Tsuneki and Miyake 1998������������
), but very
beehive-shaped superstructures made wholly of mud bricks, little has been said until now about the tholoi of the 7th
but flat or pitched roofs made of reeds and other organic millennium BC. The latter structures are astounding finds
materials were probably used as well. if only because of their great and unexpected antiquity.
By the mid-6th millennium, circular structures with or Hence the purpose of this article is ���������������������������
to briefly
���������������������
consider the
without a rectangular antechamber were immensely popular nature and origins of the earliest round dwellings in Late
in the hamlets and villages of the Halaf culture over much of Neolithic Syria, c. 6500–6000 BC, primarily on the basis of
northern Syria, south-eastern Anatolia and Iraq. Sites of this the excavations at the site of Tell Sabi Abyad on the Balikh.
period tended to consist almost exclusively of round houses The paper is in honour of Eddie Peltenburg, who has been a
although rectangular structures still occurred in (very) friend for many years as well as an outstanding researcher in
modest numbers. A few such rectangular buildings made of the field of Near Eastern archaeology, and who happens to
very small cellular rooms, for example, were located amidst share an interest in prehistoric round houses, particularly on
a mass of round houses at Çavi Tarlası in south-eastern the island of Cyprus (see, for example, Peltenburg 2004).
Anatolia, at Tell Sabi Abyad in Syria and at the mounds of
Yarim Tepe II–III in Iraq. These rectangular buildings, it has
3. Late Neolithic architectural renewal:The emergence of round houses in the northern Levant 23
Fig. 3.1 Map of Syria and the location of Tell Sabi Abyad.
Seventh Millennium Origins
The long held belief that the northern Levantine tholoi
originated in the Halaf epoch (c. 5900–5300 BC), and not
before, derived principally from the absence of any such
structures in occupations of an earlier, pre-Halaf, date
(although it must be added that the absence of evidence was
primarily negative in the sense that the number of excavated
sites of this earlier period were minimal). However,
excavations since the start of the 1990s at several sites
���������
in
Syria, such as Tell Sabi Abyad, Tell Halula, Tell el-Kerkh
and Chagar Bazar, have begun to explore settlement strata
of the late 7th millennium BC which, significantly, contained
circular architecture. Most relevant in this respect is t���he
extensive fieldwork at Tell Sabi Abyad in the Balikh region Fig. 3.2 This building with the hearth opposite the entrance is
of northern Syria (Fig. 3.1), which has revealed a great one of the earliest circular structures found at Tell Sabi Abyad so
number of round dwellings in association with rectangular far (Operation III, Level 3A, c. 6400 BC). The man in it is sitting
buildings in occupation levels predating the onset of the next to the hearth. Note the relatively wide wall and the restricted
Halaf culture by many hundreds of years. The site has interior diameter (3 m).
provided the earliest Late Neolithic circular architecture
known in the Levant so far.
The earliest round structures at Tell Sabi Abyad (Fig. (or Pottery Neolithic) occupations, radiocarbon dated to
3.2) occurred in the extensive exposure termed Operation between c. 7000 and 6200 BC (cf Akkermans et al. 2006).
III on the north-western part of the mound where work Although the stratigraphic analysis is still in progress,
succeeded in establishing a long sequence of Late Neolithic at least 13 main levels of settlement (often divided into
24 Peter M. M. G. Akkermans
the round structures occurred in very small numbers (the
paucity of round buildings has nothing to do with sample
size but is a reality when taking into account the very
large area of excavation, i.e. over 1800 m2). A total of six
tholoi have been found so far, in Operation III Levels 5C
to 2B, respectively. In each of these strata only a single
circular building stood amidst a range of large and small,
single or multi-roomed, rectangular features. Moreover,
their occurrence was not continuous in the sense that there
were intermediate sub-levels without round buildings.
Depositional and radiocarbon evidence suggests that the
tholoi were relatively short-lived and used over perhaps one
generation at most, then abandoned and left to the elements
(in view of the collapsed wall debris in them).
Fig. 3.3 The wall of the round house in Operation III, Level 2C,
Only in one case did the round buildings show evidence
c. 6300 BC. A typical tholos wall, showing crumbly, orange,
of remodelling or reconstruction in the same place: the Level
irregularly-shaped clay slabs joined by a solid, gray mortar. Different
sources of clay must have been in use. 2B tholos was (partially) founded upon the remains of the
lower, Level 2C tholos. Significantly, the rectangular, multi-
roomed architecture situated on either side of the tholos
had also been rebuilt
���������������������������������������������
in roughly the same place and on the
sublevels) were identified, some of them occurring in the same alignment, suggesting a continuous use of architectural
broad horizontal exposures high on the mound, others in the space over an extended span of time, perhaps by one
deep but relatively narrow soundings on the slope. family. In this case, it seems, there was a straightforward,
Circular buildings occur at Tell Sabi Abyad at an mutual relationship between both the round and rectangular
astonishingly early date, i.e. in Operation III from Level architecture on the spot; both types of building may have
5 onwards, c. 6500/6450 BC according to a number of served the needs of one and the same group of people
radiocarbon dates. These earliest tholoi were between 3 and although probably for different purposes when taking into
5 m in diameter with walls about 40–50 cm thick, made of account the difference in layout. The link is less clear in the
both sizeable, greyish to reddish-brown, irregularly shaped case of the other tholoi, which all stood isolated in the yards
clay slabs and what seem to have been small, handmade at some distance from the rectangular buildings.
mud bricks joined by a distinct grey mortar (Fig. 3.3).
Different sources of clay must have been exploited for
building purposes, each with its own qualities. There were
no particular foundations other than thick layers of mortar Round Houses in the late Seventh Millennium,
into which the first layer of bricks of different sizes was 6200–6000 BC
pressed. Entrance to these buildings was through narrow The long-lived settlement in the north-western part of Tell
doorways about 45 cm wide, which were preferably located Sabi Abyad (Operation III) came to an end at about 6200
in the south wall. Low clay thresholds were also present. BC. The desertion did not involve a total abandonment
Although it cannot be proved due to matters of preservation, of the site, however. Two new foci of occupation were
it is tempting to regard these doorways as low portholes as founded, partly on virgin soil, partly on slope wash at the
such features were the usual kind of passage in the local foot of the original mound (Operations I and II). Late 7th
settlements of this period (Akkermans et al. 2006). millennium settlement also included parts of the slope of
The buildings were covered inside and outside with the original site to the east and south although not always
a red or grey, often renewed mud plaster, which in once permanently. Interestingly, the shift in the area of habitation
instance carried a thick white gypsum coating. Two tholoi seems to coincide with many innovations and changes in
had a mud brick platform about 30 cm high, one covering the local organisation of settlement, architecture, material
about one fourth, the other about one third of the building’s culture, economy, etc. (cf Akkermans et al. 2006). One
interior. Two other tholoi contained a horseshoe-shaped of those changes involved a substantial increase in the
hearth close to the wall opposite the doorway, each almost use of round architecture although always in association
1 m long and 0.5 m wide (cf Fig. 3.1). Their floors consisted with rectangular buildings. While, as we have seen, only a
of a smoothed layer of burnt clay on a foundation of large handful of circular structures were employed in the early
sherds. One hearth had a partly intact, beehive-shaped roof levels, there were dozens of such buildings in the layers of
made of clay slabs, 55 cm high. the late 7th millennium, c. 6200–6000 BC.
In these early levels of settlement, c. 6500–6200 BC, The round houses of this period were between 2.5 and
3. Late Neolithic architectural renewal:The emergence of round houses in the northern Levant 25
Fig. 3.5 Spatial segmentation is a characteristic of the tholoi
from the late 7th millennium onwards. This round building, 4 m
Fig. 3.4 A relatively large tholos, about 4.6 m across (interior), with in interior diameter, has been divided in roughly two halves. The
a repeatedly renewed, horseshoe-shaped hearth east of the entrance. division wall was supported by a small buttress. A small circular,
Tell Sabi Abyad, Operation I, Level 7B, c. 6100/6050 BC. pedestal-shaped hearth stood in the eastern half. Tell Sabi Abyad,
Operation I, Level 7A, c. 6050 BC.
5.5 m in exterior diameter (Fig. 3.4). Their mud-brick or pedestal shaped fireplace in its centre������������������������
, slightly raised above
pisé walls, about 25–45 cm wide, carried a mud plaster the floor. It was covered with a layer of white plaster with
both inside and outside, occasionally coated with a thin, a shallow, red-burnt hollow in the centre. Fireplaces also
white gypsum layer. The floors consisted of tramped earth, stood outside the tholoi, right next to their entrance or set
sometimes with an additional clay plaster or a layer of against their wall. Sometimes ��������������������������������
half of a large, broken pottery
pottery sherds ����������������������������������������������
pressed into the mud for additional strength. jar laid on its side was used as a fireplace.
Remarkably, in a few cases the plaster on the wall and floor Installations such as platforms, seats or benches were
had been heavily burnt. ����������������������������������
This reddish, burnt plaster was a virtually absent. In one tholos there was a low, white-
characteristic trait of many circular buildings at Tell Sabi plastered bench or dais about 30 cm high and 40 cm wide set
Abyad in the early 6th millennium Halaf period, but it was against the wall between the hearth and the doorway. A large
apparently used in the late 7th millennium as well. I assume jar neck had been sunk into it upside down, perhaps for use
that it served as a solid, hard coating, keeping out moisture as a stove (ashes and charcoal were in it; cf Nieuwenhuyse
and vermin (Akkermans 1989, 59). ���� The tholoi walls ������
stood 2007, 59).
directly on the slope of the mound without any foundation, Compartmentalisation was a main characteristic of many
and as a consequence the bases of the walls sometimes (albeit not all) round houses in the late 7th millennium. The
differed by as much as half a metre in elevation. In order interior space was divided by one or more walls into smaller
to create a flat surface for living and working, the tholoi compartments for living and working (Fig. 3.5), some of
interiors were planed with fresh clay or wall fragments from which were provided with doorways while others were not
other (collapsed) structures. The entrances to the tholoi were
��������������������� (access to them must have been high up in the wall). The
between 40 and 45 cm wide and were usually provided partition walls may have extended up to the roof level,
with a low clay threshold. In several instances ��������������
the threshold creating small rooms and alcoves; alternatively, they may
contained a perforated limestone or a re-used fragment from have been in the form of low barriers demarcating grain bins
a basalt grinding slab with signs of hollowing and polishing, or other special-purpose installations. Very often the dividers
which probably served as a pivot stone. Occasionally, a were little more than two short walls perpendicular to the
sherd pavement lay in front of the doorway. The passages tholos wall, delimiting a roughly triangular compartment of
were usually to the south or to the west, occasionally to the such restricted size that it cannot have served any purpose
north but never to the east. other than storage.
Set against their wall, some tholoi had a rounded or Also new was the occasional addition of a rectangular
horseshoe shaped hearth as large as 1.8 m across with a antechamber to the circular room. Such keyhole shaped
smoothed, burnt clay floor ������������������������������
on small limestones packed in buildings were a common feature at many sites of the
mud (cf Fig. 3.4). The hearths had been renewed often, up 6th millennium Halaf culture, but their occurrence in
to 12 times in one case, indicative of long use. In a few 7th millennium deposits is most unusual. In the case of
cases, shallow pits entirely filled with ashes were sunk into Tell Sabi Abyad, the few examples known so far seem to
the floor next to the hearth. One building had a small, round have been initially free-standing circular structures, which
26 Peter M. M. G. Akkermans
Fig. 3.6 A unique find at Tell Sabi Abyad: the small, white-plastered
tholos about 2.3 m across (interior), flanked on either side by a Fig. 3.7 Postcard from the late 1930s showing a beehive village
rectangular room. Operation I, Level 5B, c. 5960 BC. in the countryside northeast of Aleppo in Syria. Reconstructions
of the prehistoric round houses and the settlements in which they
stood are commonly based on analogies with the modern, local
villages shown on pictures like this. However, caution in the use
of such analogies is required because Neolithic communities were
were extended at a later time by means of a rectangular highly varied and their building strategies were the result of specific
room or incorporated into a much larger, multi-roomed historical and environmental circumstances.
rectilinear building. One small tholos in the south-eastern
area (Operation I, Level 5) had a circular, white-plastered
room about 3 m in diameter flanked on either side by a
rectangular room, each measuring roughly 1 by 1.5 m (Fig. about 20–30 years (Akkermans and Nieuwenhuyse in press)
3.6). The lack of bondage between the walls suggested that the buildings were often used for a short time then simply
the side rooms were added to the tholos at a somewhat later left to decay. Quite a number of them appear to have been
time. Access to the building was from the south through the supplanted two or three times by new ones founded upon
main circular room. One rectangular side room was almost the lower, levelled building remains. Their construction
completely occupied by a large horseshoe shaped oven with required little investment in terms of time and energy; the
a domed cover. work could probably be completed by five or six persons
The tholoi are usually thought to have had a vaulted within a week or so (cf Akkermans 1993, 302).
roof made entirely of mud bricks, primarily on the basis of
assumed parallels with the ‘beehive villages’ which until
recently dotted the countryside of northern Syria and south-
eastern Anatolia (Fig. 3.7; see also Copeland 1955; Aurenche Late Neolithic Round Houses in Perspective
1981). However, it is doubtful whether this perspective The earliest architecture of the Epipalaeolithic to Neolithic
is correct. Not only is there no historical relationship Near East consisted of round or oval, sometimes semi-
whatsoever between the two forms of architecture, but the subterranean dwellings 3–6 m in diameter. By 9000 BC
archaeological evidence itself suggests either a flat or a the round houses were slowly replaced by rectangular
pitched roof made of timber and reeds rather than a beehive structures in many shapes and sizes, which remained
shaped mud brick cover. Sunk into the floor in the centre predominant for several thousand years. The recurrence
of several tholoi at Tell Sabi Abyad was a concentration of of circular monocellular buildings around the middle of
limestone boulders, which probably served as a foundation the 7th millennium has no immediate cultural or technical
for a wooden post upholding the roof (cf ����������������
Akkermans 1989, roots; it implies both an innovation in architectural design
32; 1993, 63)����������������������������������������������
. Other round buildings at the site contained and a fundamental departure from the long lived tradition
clay fragments with impressions of reeds and wooden poles of rectilinear construction.
in their room fill, clearly showing that their roofs were In the first 200 or 300 years of their existence, the round
made of wooden rafters covered by reed mats, which in houses were little more than a sporadic supplement to the
turn were probably covered by a thick mud layer (a kind existing architectural repertoire in the villages of the Late
of construction also used in the rectangular structures at Neolithic, increasing swiftly in importance only after c. 6200
the site). BC. Apparently it took many generations for these buildings
Both stratigraphic and radiocarbon evidence at Tell Sabi to gain widespread use and acceptance, perhaps because
Abyad suggest that the late 7th millennium tholoi had a there was initially little need for them or because a social
restricted lifespan. Within a single building phase lasting for resistance of some sort accompanied their introduction.
3. Late Neolithic architectural renewal:The emergence of round houses in the northern Levant 27
Alternatively, we may consider the scarcity of round a degrading natural environment and differences in social
buildings in the early levels as intentional and meaningful, structure and community organisation (cf Akkermans and
related to the use of these structures in the communities. Schwartz 2003, 103–131 and references therein). The late
The tholoi were unique with respect to their layout and 7th millennium communities themselves remained as they
conspicuous appearance, as well as their highly restricted were before, i.e. predominantly small and dispersed, in the
occurrence. Hence, they may have served specific purposes order of 0.5–1 ha, with the number of inhabitants restricted
very different from the usual rectangular architecture which to a few dozen. The architectural change, however, was
stood abundantly around them. The persistent presence of slow but radical in the sense that it entailed the virtually
a single round building in each of the upper occupational complete replacement of the large, multicellular, rectilinear
phases at Tell Sabi Abyad is indicative of the limited yet edifices by small, monocellular, round structures. Although
steady demand for these special purpose installations and the once dominant rectangular houses did not disappear
their success over a prolonged period of time. altogether, they were given a new meaning as buildings
However, it is still very difficult to establish what the primarily intended for storage rather than domestic living
assumed special function of the earliest tholoi might have and working. In light of the above, an entirely new
entailed. There were no artefacts or installations in the architectural rationale – either utilitarian, societal and/or
buildings other than those mentioned above to provide ideological – came into existence in many parts of the Levant
clues to their use. Tholoi were carefully raised architectural in the late 7th millennium, which focussed on small group
features, but this was the case for most if not all of the size and corporate efforts: the round houses were meant to
rectangular structures as well. Their occasional white plaster accommodate a single person or a small household of five or
and hearths are other traits shared with the many rectilinear six individuals at the most while the storage buildings were
buildings in the vicinity, suggesting regular, domestic for the benefit of the entire group, whether that community
arrangements. Any activity in the round buildings must have was a single household or several such units (Akkermans
been on a relatively small scale, involving only a few people, and Schwartz 2003, 151).
given their single room and restricted size. It is tempting The new architecture often seems to have had a transient
to attribute ritual significance to these rare and exceptional character. Although the rectilinear storage buildings may
structures although there is no proof to either confirm or have remained in use for 20 or 30 years with little or
reject this idea. Were the circular buildings simply another no noticeable modification, the circular structures were
form of domestic architecture of this period? used briefly then replaced, often in the same place and
The early tholoi scarcely differed from the many circular alignment. Only the larger tholoi experienced a more
structures so characteristic of the late 7th and, especially, sustained occupation, given the repeated renewal of their
6th millennium BC. There is widespread agreement that the central hearths. It is tempting to assume that many of the
tholoi of this period principally served domestic purposes round buildings were used seasonally and subsequently left
(eating, drinking, sleeping, socialising, etc.). The abundant to their fate, especially because their construction required
occurrence of the tholoi, the hearths and other installations little investment in terms of time and labour. In this respect,
often found in them, and the nature and distribution of it seems that the circular architecture of the late 7th and 6th
artefacts in and around them are all mentioned as indicators millennia cannot be detached from another trait typical of
of their use in daily life, i.e. as ordinary dwellings for living this period, i.e. the focus upon mobility and the temporary
and working, granaries, storerooms or animal pens (see, for l��������������������������������������������������������
iving in small and autonomous groups dispersed over the
example, Oates and Oates 1976; Breniquet 1996). Moreover, landscape. Tholoi, it seems, were easily established and
in the case of 7th millennium Tell Sabi Abyad it has been easily deserted and so were the settlements in which they
argued that the larger tholoi must have been houses because stood so prominently.
they contained the most extensive (single room) interior
spaces and as such were the only local features suitable
for constant habitation. The rectangular buildings at the
site of this period are considered primarily to represent References
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