AL-RĀFIDĀN Vol.XXXI2010 97
Eversincethestartofthefield worksin theregion ofAr-Raqqain February of2007,theSyria- Japan ArchaeologicalJointResearch in theBishriRegion hasconducted thirteen timesofworksin thefield untilDecemberof2009 asfollows:
The1stseason offield works:February 15 to March 3,2007 The2ndseason offield works:May 6 to 30,2007
The3rdseason offield works:August1 to 29,2007
The4thseason offield works:November8 to December12,2007 The5thseason offield works:March 3 to April5,2008
The6thseason offield works:April25 to June6,2008
The7thseason offield works:October10 to December2,2008 The8thseason offield works:February 23 to April3,2009 The9thseason offield works:April28 to June12,2009 The10thseason offield works:August1 to September9,2009 The11thseason offield works:October11 to 25,2009
The12thseason offield works:November17 to 21,2009 The13thseason offield works:December24 to 30,2009
Composed of18 research teamslisted below,specialized in naturaland culturalsciences,thismulti- diciplinary Syria-Japan ArchaeologicalJointResearch hasworked in theregion ofAr-Raqqaand in Japan,in orderto clarify how ancientpastoralnomadictribescontributed to theformation of agriculture-based urban societiesalong theMiddleEuphrates,North-EastSyria.
1)Supervising Team “Archaeological Research in West Asia based on Integrated Research Methods”（Director:Katsuhiko Ohnuma）
2)Research Team “Relationship between the Behavioral Evolution and the Process of Sedentalisation during thePalaeolithicPeriod in WestAsia”(Director:HiroyukiSato) 3)Research Team “Expansion Process of Food Production Economy and Formation of
Community in theArid AreaofWestAsia”(Director:Yoshihiro Nishiaki)
4)Research Team “A ComparativeStudy on theBurialPatternsofthePastoralNomadicTribes” (Director:Sumio Fujii)
5)Research Team “A Study oftheProcessofUrbanization in WestAsia”(Director:AkiraTsuneki) 6)Research Team “Integrated Research on theAssyrian Civilization in Northern Mesopotamia”
(Director:HirotoshiNumoto)
7)Research Team “Establishment and Development of the Civilization of Sumerian Writing
* DirectorofArchaeologicalExcavationsand Research,theDirectorateGeneralofAntiquitiesand Musems,Damascus, SYRIA
** Professor,Kokushikan University,Tokyo,JAPAN
PRELI MI NARY REPORTS OF THE SYRI A- JAPAN ARCHAEOLOGI CAL JOI NT RESEARCH I N THE REGI ON OF AR- RAQQA, SYRI A, 2009
INTRODUCTION
MichelAL-MAQDISSI* Katsuhiko OHNUMA**
98 MichelAL-MAQDISSIand Katsuhiko OHNUMA
System”(Director:KazuyaMaekawa)
8)Research Team “DevelopmentofCity-Statesand theTribesin WestAsia”(Director:Akio Tsukimoto)
9)Research Team “Environmental History of the Middle Euphrates based on Environmental Geology,EnvironmentalChemistry and C14 Dating”(Director:Mitsuo Hoshino)
10)Research Team “BiologicalFeaturesoftheAncientInhabitantsoftheMiddleEuphratesand itsPeripheralRegion”(Director:HidemiIshida)
11)Research Team “Zoologicaland BotanicalArchaeology in thePrehistoricto theCity-State SocietiesofWestAsia”(Director:HitomiHongo)
12)Research Team “A Study on theStylesand theGenealogy ofMasonry Techniquesin Ancient WestAsian Architecture”(Director:YasuyoshiOkada)
13)Research Team “BasicStructureand Re-arrangementoftheBishriMountainsTribalCulture in theAncientOasisCity,Palmyra”(Director:Saeko Miyashita)
14)Research Team “Developing Data-baseofArchaeologicalSitesofWestAsia:An Investigation through theAnalysisofSatelliteImages”(Director:Ken Matsumoto)
15)Research Team “An ArchaeologicalStudy on theNomadicTribalCommunitiesin Northern Eurasia:A ComparativeStudy”(Director:Shu Takahama)
16)Research Team “A Study oftheProcessofUrbanization in theSteppicalBorderofSyriain theThird and Second MillenniaB.C.”(Director:MichelAl-Maqdissi)
17)Research Team “A Study of the Bronze Age Pottery Obtained by the Syria-Japan ArchaeologicalJointResearch in theRegion ofAr-Raqqa”(Director:MichelAl-Maqdissi) 18)Research Team “New PerspectivesofAnthropology and History towardsArab TribalSystems”
(Director:MasayukiAkahori)
Thememberswho participated in thethirteen timesofthejointworksareasbelow:
Syrian Party: Michel Al-Maqdissi (Superviser), Anas Al-Khabour (director), Shaker Al-Shbib (director), Ahmed Sultan (Director), Mohamad Sarhan (Director), Ayham Al-Fahry, Mahmmod Al-Hassan,Ibrahim Musa,Mohamad AliJajan,Mohamad Ibrahim,Aed Issaand Ibrahim Khalil.
JapaneseParty:Katsuhiko Ohnuma(Superviserand Director),HiroyukiSato,Masanobu Tachibana, Yoshihiro Nishiaki,Tomoyasu Kiuchi,Hiroto Nakata,SeijiKadowaki,MasashiAbe,Sumio Fujii, Takuro Adachi,KaeSuzuki,KazuyoshiNagaya,HitoshiEndo,KyoheiInoue,AkiraTsuneki,Atsunori Hasegawa,HirotoshiNumoto,Shogo Kume,IzumiYoda,HarumiHorioka,HaiderUrebi,Mitsuo Hoshino,TsuyoshiTanaka,Toshio Nakamura,Hidekazu Yoshida,TakeshiSaito,Kazuhiro Tsukada, Yusuke Katsurada, Yoshiyuki Aoki, Suguru Oho, Ken-ichi Tanno, Lubna Omar, Chie Akashi, YasuyoshiOkada,Sumiyo Tsujimura,Naoko Fukami,RyuichiYoshitake,Yo Negishi,Panagiotis Tokmakidis,Shouko Ueda,Natsuko Fujikawa,KiyomiMori,Saeko Miyashita,HitoshiHasegawa, TomoyaGoto,Shu Takahama,Toshio Hayashi,RyujiMatsubara,ToshikiYagyu,MasayukiAkahori, Hidemitsu Kuroki,Kenichiro Takao,TeruakiMoriyama,Yoshihiko Nakano and HidemiIshida.
In thefirstseason,wecarried outsurveysofarchaeologicalsitesand birs(wells)in theresearch region,confirming thatthereisabiasin thedatesofthesiteson theEuphratesplateau between thetownsofMansuraand Ghanem al-Ali.Wealso confirmed thatmostofthesitesin thewestern partoftheplateau aredated to theRoman,Byzantineand Islamicperiods,whilein theeastern part only afew sitesaredistributed,severalofwhich aredated to theEarly BronzeAge.
On thebasisofthesearchaeologicalsurveys,wechoseTellGhanem al-Aliasthecandidatefor futureexcavations,and completed itsoverallplan in thesecond season.Thus,trench excavations werestarted atthissitein thethird season,and they werecontinued in thefourth,seventh,ninth and tenth seasons.
PRELIMINARY REPORTS OF THE SYRIA-JAPAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL 99 JOINT RESEARCH IN THE REGION OF AR-RAQQA,SYRIA,2009
In thefifth to ninth and eleventh seasons,wecarried outsurveysattheEarly BronzeAgehilltop tombsnearthevillageofGhanem al-Ali,in orderto shed lighton thefunerary aspectoftheEBA settlementofTellGhanem al-Ali.
Survey ofcairnsalong thenorthern edgeoftheMountBishriwasstarted in thesecond season, and sondageatRujum HedajanearBirRahub wascarried outin thefifthto tenth seasons,with a view to explorethepastoralbackground oftheEBA society in themiddleEuphratesriverbasin.
In thethird,fifth and ninth seasons,wecarried outintensivesurveysofarchaeologicalsitesto clarify theEBA land-usepatternsaround TellGhanem al-Ali,in orderto gain furtherrecordsofpopulation history in thisregion sinceearliertimes.And in thethird season,Palaeolithicsurvey wascarried outin theresearch region.
From the first season onward, our geolo-geographical team joined the field works to obtain information on changeofnaturalenvironment.They conducted surveysin theresearch region in thethird to sixth,tenth and twelfth seasons.
Botanicalresearch on thespecimensobtained from thesurveysand excavationswascarried out in thethird,fourth,sixth,seventh and ninth seasons,and faunalresearch wascarried outin thethird and fifth seasons.
Asto thehuman bonesunearthed from thesondage,morphologicalstudieswerecarried outin theseventh and tenth seasons.
In aviewpointthatculturalanthroplogicalresearch isimportantand indispensableto know the relationship between nomadsand agriculturistsin thepast,ourculturalanthropology team researched atthevillagesofGhanem al-Aliand Wadial-Rahum in theseventh and eighth seasons.
Also,wecarried outresearch on thehistory ofthevillageofGhanem al-Aliin thefourth and ninth seasons,with ethno-archaeologicalsurvey oftheirmodern graves.
Thereportspresented herearethesix working reportsofthe8thto 13thfield worksin theforms oftheirsubmission to theSyrian DirectorateGeneralofAntiquitiesand Musems(seeAl-Maqdissi, Ohnuma,Al-Khabour,etal.(2008,2009)fortheworking reportsofthe1stto 7th field works).
Weliketo expressoursincerestgatitudeto Dr.Bassam Jamous,DirectorGeneraloftheSyrian DirectorateGeneralofAntiquitiesand Musems,who warm-heartedly understandsthisjointresearch and isalwayscooperating with ustowardsthesuccessofthejointresearch.
Bibliography
Ohnuma,K.,Al-Maqdissi,M.,Al-Khabour,A.and others
2008 Preliminary ReportsoftheSyria-Japan ArchaeologicalJointResearch in theRegion ofAr-Raqqa,Syria,2007.
Al-RāfidānXXIX:117-193.
2009 Preliminary ReportsoftheSyria-Japan ArchaeologicalJointResearch in theRegion ofAr-Raqqa,Syria,2008, Al-RāfidānXXX:135-225.
31/December/2009
