Village on the Euphrates - The excavation of Abu Hureyra, 2000, 603 p., nbr. ill., rel. -

Tell Abu Hureyra, a settlement by the Euphrates River in Syria, was excavated in 1972-73 by an international team of archaeologists that included the authors of the book. The excavation uncovered 2 successive villages. In the first village, (c. 11500-10000 BP), inhabitants foraged vegetation and hunted local wildlife, the Persian gazelle in particular. In the second village (c. 9700-7000 BP), inhabitants employed a more sophisticated method of food production, the cultivation of grain crops and the pasturing of sheep, goats, cattle and pigs. Documented first hand in the book, these findings capture the transition of human history from the hunting-and-gathering to the farming way of life.