A Thousand Years of Farming: Late Chalcolithic Agricultural Practices at Tell Brak in Northern Mesopotamia

This report uses evidence, including a well-preserved archaeobotanical record, from the major settlement of Tell Brak in present-day Syria as a case study of agricultural change in the late Chalcolithic period. In particular Hald relates the evidence for crop husbandry to our knowledge of wider socio-political developments in the late Chalcolithic, including greater social stratification, long-range exchange networks and more complex and hierarchical administration. Ultimately the evidence points to an intensification of agricultural production during this period.