Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 53 (4) 2025   doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2025.53.4.071-081

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Dung Temper in Neolithic Pottery of the Eastern Fertile Crescent
as an Indicator of Animal Domestication

N.Y. Petrova¹, A.N. Babenko¹, H. Tekin², H. Darabi³, A.A. Harutyunyan⁴, P.V. Guryeva⁵, E.Y. Tereschenko⁵, Y. Miyake⁶, A.T. Okse⁷, S. Alibaigi³, I. Yildiz⁸, and D.A. Svetlakov⁹

¹Institute of Archaeology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Ulyanova 19, Moscow, 117292, Russia

²Hacettepe University, Beytepe-Ankara, TR06800, Turkiye

³Razi University, Bagh-e Abrisham, Kermanshah, 6714414971, Iran

⁴Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia, Charents 15, Yerevan, 0025, Armenia

⁵National Research Centre “Kurchatov Institute”, Pl. Akademika Kurchatova 1, Moscow, 123182, Russia

⁶University of Tsukuba, Tenodai, 1-1-1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 3058571, Japan

⁷Kocaeli University, Umuttepe Yerleskesi, Izmit/Kocaeli, TR41001, Turkiye

⁸Dicle University,Sur/Diyarbakir, TR 21260, Turkiye

⁹State Academic University of Humanities (GAUGN), Maronovsky per. 26, Moscow, 119049, Russia

Since the early 7th millennium BC, when ceramics had become widespread in the Eastern Fertile Crescent, specifically in central valleys and the western foothills of the Zagros, they were tempered exclusively with organic plant remains. Here, we outline the findings of the study of this temper using microscopic technological analysis, X-ray tomography and spherulite analysis, upholding the suggestion that dung was present in the paste. The samples fall in the interval from late 9th to 6th millennia BC; originating from the piedmont of the Taurus, Upper Mesopotamia, the highlands and foothills of the Zagros, and the Armenian Highland. The use of dung as temper provides additional evidence of an early beginning of animal domestication in this region. It can be assumed that this tradition spread as a large-scale phenomenon from the Zagros and its foothills northward to Upper Mesopotamia, the foothills of the Taurus Mountains, and further west and east. In the 7th millennium BC pottery, the dung was likely that of sheep and goats; from the late 6th millennium BC onward, that of cattle. Since the early 6th millennium, dung had been less and less widely used for tempering tableware while being still in use with regard to utility ware. One possible reason is a worsened attitude to dung; another, improved firing conditions.

Keywords: Neolithic, Fertile Crescent, dung temper, microscopic technological analysis, X-ray tomography, spherulite analysis