Tell Ghoraifé

Tell Ghoraifé

تل غريفة
Location	22 km (14 mi) east of Damascus, Syria
Region	Damascus basin
Coordinates
Type	tell
Part of	village
Area	5 hectares (540,000 ft2)
History
Material	clay, limestone
Founded	c. 7870–5840 BC
Periods	PPNB, Neolithic
Site notes
Excavation dates	1974
Archaeologists	Henri de Contenson
Condition	ruins
Management	Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums
Public access	Yes

Tell Ghoraifé (Arabic: تل غريفة) is a prehistoric, Neolithic tell, about 22 kilometres (14 mi) east of Damascus, Syria. The tell was the site of a small village of 5 hectares (540,000 ft²), which was first settled in the early eighth millennium BC.

A small, 2 square metres (22 ft²) excavation was made on the tell by Henri de Contenson in 1974.

Materials discovered, particularly the stylistic traits of the lithic tools, show similarities with Southern Levantine Pre-Pottery Neolithic A and Pre-Pottery Neolithic B sites. Tell Ghoraifé is closely related other Neolithic sites in the Damascus basin, like Tell Aswad and Tell Ramad. Despite the similarities these sites share with Euphrates valley sites such as building materials, pre-pottery White Ware and burial rites, they represent a separate, distinct group from the Euphrates valley.

Tell Ghoraifé is an important site to our understanding of the origin of agriculture. It is an example of a site with a long sequence over a millennium where the study of the evolution from wild to domesticated barley has taken place. Finds also included early domesticated wheat.

Literature

• de Contenson, H., Bibliothèque archéologique et historique 137 Aswad et Ghoraifé : sites néolithiques en Damascène (Syrie) aux IXème et VIIIème millénaires avant l'ère chrétienne, Bibliothèque Archéologique et Historique, 137, Beirut, 1995
• van Zeist, W. Bakker-Heeres, J.A.H., Archaeobotanical Studies in the Levant 1. Neolithic Sites in the Damascus Basin: Aswad, Ghoraifé, Ramad - Palaeohistoria, 24, 165-256, 1982.