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This article is an attempt to understand a mesh of complex relationships among tangible and intangible socio-economic factors that turned a desert city into the headquarters of one of the mighty polities in the Middle East in the fourteenth century CE. This paper argues that proto-industrialization led to the growth of 'virtual water' that helped the city of Yazd, in central Iran, to break free from its water limitation for the first time in its history. Yazd was almost absent in history until the twelfth century, as a peripheral oasis whose sparse population lived off subsistence agriculture irrigated by qanat systems (groundwater-mining subterranean channels). Following the Mongol invasion in the thirteenth century, the influx of landless refugees changed the relations of production and paved the way for proto-industrialization whose development hinged on skill and capital rather than water and land. Sufism and waqf (endowment tradition) contributed to the expansion of trading routes that facilitated the mobility of goods and people. The qanats were urbanized, and Yazd became an industrial hub where raw materials were processed into tradable products with considerable value added. This paper contributes to a broader understanding of the historical geography of the arid Middle East. • The Iranian city of Yazd rode out the Mongol invasion in the thirteenth century. • A surge of refugees upset the balance between population and agricultural resources. • Abundance of skilled workers led to a Middle Eastern mode of proto-industrialization. • Proto-industrialization engendered virtual water as an adaptation strategy. • Virtual water made a transition to a non-hydraulic society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of border formation of the United Arab Emirates included extensive local leadership participation. Such a rare event in the Middle East affords a glimpse into local inhabitants' notions of borders and their transformations over time. Based on primary sources in English and Arabic, the paper follows the evolution of the unique spatial interpretation of borders adopted by the local leadership. It highlights two perceptual turning points during the border negotiations, from the reticular border system, through the setting up of frontier zones to the phase of territorial borders. The negotiations records shed light on the dialectic process of shaping and reshaping border perceptions through an ongoing dialogue between the local and British elites and through mutual adjustment of spatial ideas and practices. The paper argues that the borders delineation process in this region exemplifies late-stage decolonization when pragmatism transcended ideology and when locally-oriented considerations prevailed bureaucratic amenity. • Local perceptions of borders are important for analyzing colonial border making. • Border making in the Trucial Coast integrated colonial and local practices. • The local ruler gradually adapted modern border notions between 1930s and 1960s. • The local border notions shifted from a network system to frontiers to borderlines. • The borders of the UAE remained a balancing element despite their many changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a corridor for population movement out of Africa, the southern Levant is a natural laboratory for research exploring the dynamics of the Middle-to-Upper Paleolithic transition. Yet, the number of well-preserved sites dating to the initial millennia of the Early Upper Paleolithic (EUP; ∼45–30 ka) remains limited, restricting the resolution at which we can study the biocultural and techno-typological changes evidenced across the transition. With EUP deposits dating to 45–39 ka cal BP, Mughr el-Hamamah, Jordan, offers a key opportunity to expand our understanding of EUP lifeways in the southern Levant. Mughr el-Hamamah is particularly noteworthy for its large faunal assemblage, representing the first such assemblage from the Jordan Valley. In this paper, we present results from taxonomic and taphonomic analyses of the EUP fauna from Mughr el-Hamamah. Given broader debates about shifts in human subsistence across the Middle-to-Upper Paleolithic transition, we also assess evidence for subsistence intensification, focusing especially on the exploitation of gazelle and the use of small game. Taphonomic data suggest that the fauna was primarily accumulated by human activity. Ungulates dominate the assemblage; gazelle (Gazella sp.) is the most common taxa, followed by fallow deer (Dama mesopotamica) and goat (Capra sp.). Among the gazelle, juveniles account for roughly one-third of the sample. While the focus on gazelle and the frequency of juveniles are consistent with broader regional trends, evidence for the regular exploitation of marrow from gazelle phalanges suggests that the EUP occupants of Mughr el-Hamamah processed gazelle carcasses quite intensively. Yet, the overall degree of dietary intensification appears low—small game is rare and evidence for human capture of this game is more equivocal. As a whole, our results support a growing body of data showing gradual shifts in animal exploitation strategies across the Middle-to-Upper Paleolithic transition in the southern Levant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional tillage coupled with monocropping and limited recycling of crop residues along with increased pressure from human and livestock population has led to the degradation of the soil, water resources, and the environment in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Conservation Agriculture (CA) considered as "climate-smart" agriculture, strives to achieve acceptable profits along with high and sustained production levels while concurrently conserving and regenerating soils and protecting the environment. The objectives of this paper are to review and synthesize available findings on CA, its past trends, current opportunities and challenges, evidence on potential benefits from its adaptation, to discuss its future outlook, and to make relevant recommendations for interventions and novel research needs for its wider diffusion in the region. In MENA, major research on CA has been mainly conducted in Morocco, Tunisia, Iran, and Syria, while Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt embarked CA research fairly recently. About 25-40% out of the 53 million hectares total arable land is estimated to be suitable for CA in the region. In recent years a growing number of studies carried under a range of climatic, soil, management and cropping conditions in many countries of MENA reported several benefits including higher and more stable yields and profits, reduced risks of crop loss, labor requirements, soil erosion, and improved soil moisture and quality under CA system. Despite its benefits, adoption of CA in MENA is still very low for various reasons including: lack of affordable and well-adapted seeders, the complexity of the CA system which posed a major challenge for mostly uneducated farmers to comprehend, ill-conceived policies that promote cereal intensification hence inadvertently promote monocropping, tradeoffs between residue retention and livestock feed, lack of adequate policy and institutional framework and incentives to enhance farmers' adoption, and the private sector's active involvement in the dissemination of CA. The wider acceptance of CA requires the development of affordable and versatile no-till seeder alongside the implementation of integrated crop management practices. CA-based bundled agronomic management practices must be tailored to the biophysical and socio-economic environment. Finally, effective strategies for upscaling CA in MENA has to be developed by taking into consideration the unique features of the region. Despite the daunting past adoption trends and current challenges, we predict a bright future for CA in the region due to several factors including: rising energy prices and wage rates, the emergence of younger and more educated farmers, the advent of climate change, the increasing awareness on the degradation of land and water resources among farmers and policy makers, changes in dietary preferences subsequently increasing trends in demand and prices of legumes are expected to increase the desirability of CA and enhance its wider diffusion in MENA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zooarchaeological research has begun to expose the long and complex history of the pig in the southern Levant. In this paper, we present the first large-scale synthesis of biometrical data from pigs and wild boar in the southern Levant from sites dating from the Paleolithic through the Islamic period. We show broad morphological change over this multi-millennium period. We find the first evidence of morphological change associated with domestication in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic C (c. 7000-6400 cal. BC), at the site of Motza. This date is contemporaneous with the first evidence from kill-off patterns and relative abundance data indicating management of morphologically wild boar. Taken together, we argue for a process of local pig domestication. We also present tentative evidence for increased body size correlating with the genetic replacement in the Iron Age, when European-derived mitochondrial haplogroups replaced those of local origin. Finally, the data indicate variability in tooth size in the Roman period (c. 63 BCE – 330 CE), suggesting the exploitation of different populations of pigs. The data suggest sophisticated management techniques underwrote the upsurge in pig husbandry in the Levant in the Classical period. • We present a large biometrical database of pig remains from the southern Levant from Paleolithic to Islamic period. • Earliest morphologically domestic pigs from Tel Motza in Pre-Pottery Neolithic C (c. 7000-6400 cal. BC). • Tentative evidence for increased body size in pigs correlating with the genetic replacement in 1st millennium BC. • High variability of pig biometrics in Roman period indicating multiple populations exploited in this period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current evidence supports the idea that animal domestication occurred in multiple loci and at different time periods throughout the Near East rather than according to a single origin. In this scenario, the southern Levant is being increasingly considered as another presumed primary centre of goat domestication, alongside eastern Anatolia and the Zagros. Assessing the status (i.e. wild or domestic) of this animal in this region, however, is hampered by the difficulty of morphologically distinguishing domestic goats from their wild relatives. Diet reconstruction is a powerful approach to address this issue since the feeding of managed animals is partially controlled by their owners, unlike free-ranging wild populations. For the first time, we propose to contribute to this question through dental microwear texture analysis (DMTA) using confocal microscopy. Characterising how the dietary behaviour of extant wild and domestic goats is reflected in DMTA is critical. For this purpose, we constructed a reference collection composed of three wild goat species (19 Capra pyrenaica from the southern Iberian Peninsula , 12 Capra ibex from the Alps and 12 Capra nubiana from the Near East) and 15 domestic goats (Capra hircus) reared in an extensive system in Mediterranean scrubland areas. The preliminary results indicate that DMTA allows discrimination of the groups of extant goats. The results obtained were used to characterise the palaeodiet of 16 goats (Capra format aegagrus) from two key Early and Middle Pre-Pottery Neolithic B sites in the southern Levant: Kharaysin (Zarqa, Jordan, ca. 8800-7500 cal BC) and Qarassa (As-Suweyda, Syria, 8700-8200 cal BCE). The higher variability in archaeological goats could be an indicator of controlled feedings. It could also support the hypothesis about diverse and experimental management systems at the first steps of animal domestication. This paper shows the potential of this tool to address the process of early animal domestication. Following this initial work, the reference collection will include a broader spectrum of livestock management strategies and the archaeological corpus will be expanded through new samples during upcoming excavations and the integration of additional sites. • The southern Levant could have been another primary centre of goat domestication. • The morphological distinction between wild and domestic goats of Pre-Pottery Neolithic is not a straightforward task. • Palaeodiet reconstruction using dental microwear texture can shed new light since diet of managed goats was controlled by their owners. • Dental microwear texture differs between extant domestic and wild goats. • Microwear variability of goats from archaeological sites is higher than that of extant goats, which could indicate controlled feedings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Migrations in the LC 2–3 created a novel cultural entity in the Southern Caucases. • Arrival of Mesopotamian populations led to mixing and genesis of cultural practices. • Material culture shows "Middle Ground" arenas where habitus was negotiated. • "Middle Ground" suggests cultural genesis during close and sustained interaction. The Late Chalcolithic Leilatepe "phenomenon" in the Southern Caucasus has often been regarded as the product of Mesopotamian incursions into the region for the purpose of acquiring metals and semi-precious stones for trade. The material evidence has shown clearly that these migrations resulted in the development of both hybridised and altogether new ways of engaging with the world, including novel architectural, metallurgical, ceramic, lithic, and ritual technologies and practices. This paper approaches this period of intense cultural interaction from a practice theory lens, aiming to view the social dynamics and processes associated with the emergence of Leilatepe "culture". In doing so, we draw from Richard White's Middle Ground concept to illustrate how new social practices emerge when two cultural groups with distinct habitus come into close and sustained contact with each other. Our research indicates that, while trade was likely an important aspect of the Leilatepe phenomenon, a number of factors also point to a sustained migration or migrations by a broad swath of Mesopotamian society who arrived in the region due to a combination of push and pull factors, and did not just engage in extractive trade, but settled permanently, creating new social realities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an algorithm for automated detection and classification of multi-cell phytoliths, one of the major components of many archaeological and paleoenvironmental deposits. This identification, based on phytolith wave pattern, is made using a pretrained VGG19 deep learning model. This approach has been tested in three key phytolith genera for the study of agricultural origins in Near East archaeology: Avena , Hordeum and Triticum. Also, this classification has been validated at species-level using Triticum boeoticum and dicoccoides images. Due to the diversity of microscopes, cameras and chemical treatments that can influence images of phytolith slides, three types of data augmentation techniques have been implemented: rotation of the images at 45-degree angles, random colour and brightness jittering, and random blur/sharpen. The implemented workflow has resulted in an overall accuracy of 93.68% for phytolith genera, improving previous attempts. The algorithm has also demonstrated its potential to automatize the classification of phytoliths species with an overall accuracy of 100%. The open code and platforms employed to develop the algorithm assure the method's accessibility, reproducibility and reusability. • Deep learning automates identification and classification of multi-cell phytoliths. • Can be applied to digitalised slides and integrated into digital microscopes. • Can differentiate between phytolith genera but also species. • Presents an overall accuracy of 93% and analyses the whole slide. • Provides complementary metrics with new relevant information on phytoliths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Allocation of water over its six dimensions of quantity, quality, timing, location, price, and cost remains an ongoing challenge facing water resource planning worldwide. This challenge is magnified with growing evidence of climate change and related water supply stressors. This stress will challenge food, energy, and water systems as climate adaptation policy measures see continued debate. Despite numerous achievements made many by previous works, few attempts have scanned the literature on economic optimization analysis for water resources planning to discover affordable climate adaptation measures. This paper aims to fill that gap by reviewing the literature on water resource optimization analysis at the basin scale to guide discovery of affordable climate adaptation measures. It does so by posing the question "What principles, practices, and recent developments are available to guide discovery of policy measures to improve water resource system adaptions to growing evidence of climate water stress?" It describes past achievements and identifies improvements needed for optimization analysis to inform policy debates for crafting plans to improve climate resilience. It describes an economic conceptual framework as well as identifying data needs for conducting economic optimization exercises to support river basin planning faced by the challenge of managing the six water dimensions described above. It presents an example from an ongoing issue facing water planners in the Middle East. Conclusions find considerable utility in the use of economic optimization exercises to guide climate water stressadaptation. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. • The motivation, application, and use of optimization models to guide climate water stress adaptation are reviewed. • This work describes the conceptual framework and data needs for building economic optimization models. • These models are found to support river basin planning and management. • An example is drawn from one important policy debate facing water planners in Iraq. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food lumps are becoming an increasingly important part of the 'foodways' turn in archaeobotanical analysis. These amalgams of plant materials allow insights into more than the taxa lists of plants used or even just present on a site; they represent how people engaged with and created food items out of plants, in turn shining a light on notions of food processing, preparation and cooking techniques and culinary traditions. Food lump analysis has traditionally been focused on the Near East and Europe, where large grained cereals have dominated the archaeobotanical discussion. This paper instead represents an analysis of more complex food practices, that of the Southern India Iron Age, where millets and pulse foods were an important part of the culinary tradition. Through a preliminary analysis of lumps from Feature 40, an Iron Age pit, at the site of Kadebakele in southern Deccan, we demonstrate that people were using both millets and pulses to make food items through a variety of culinary techniques and technologies, from dry doughs to wet batters. This preliminary analysis highlights the complexity of food lump analysis in regions outside the Near East and Europe and asks us to think about the longevity of culinary practices in South India. • First study of charred food lumps in Asia. • Millet and pulse were used to make a variety of doughs and batters. • Millet flatbread is suggested, but may have been part of a multi-seeded dough. • Pulse batter is also indicated in some lumps. • It also suggests that a diversity of cooking/preparatory methods for food were being used by South Indian Iron Age peoples. • Highlights role of food lump analysis in future research globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archaeobotanical and genetic analysis of modern plant materials are drawing a complex scenario for the origins of cereal agriculture in the Levant. This paper presents an improved method for the study of early farming harvesting systems based on the texture analysis of gloss observed on sickle blades through confocal microscopy. Using this method, we identify different plant harvesting activities (unripe, semi-ripe and ripe cereal reaping and reed and other grass cutting) quantitatively and evaluate their change during the time when plant cultivation activities started and domesticated crops appeared in the Levant (12 800–7000 cal BC). The state of maturity of cereals when harvested shifted over time from unripe, to semi-ripe and finally to ripe. Most of these changes in harvesting techniques are explained by the modification of crops during the transition to agriculture. The shift in plant harvesting strategies was neither chronologically linear nor geographically homogeneous. Fully mature cereal harvesting becomes dominant around 8500 cal BC in the Southern Levant and one millennium later in the Middle Euphrates, which accords with the appearance of domestic varieties in the archaeobotanical record. The change in plant harvesting method fits better with the gradualist model of explanation of cereal agriculture than with the punctual one. • Confocal microscopy and texture analysis are used to analyze sickle gloss in experimental and archaeological tools. • Sickle gloss from harvesting different types of plants are discriminated. • Sickles from archaeological sites in the Levant dated from 12.000 to 7.000 cal BC are analyzed. • The long-term change in plant harvesting during the transition to agriculture in these regions is elucidated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seals and sealings were widely used in Neopalatial Crete, primarily in community-wide administrative systems to manage the movement and storage of goods, but also to secure or control channels of intra-site communication using parchment documents. The main principle of this monitoring process was the use of the seal impression as an 'indexical' sign, that is, as a means of identifying a seal-user who was acting in an authorising or securing role. Given the fact that seal-users could be acting on their own behalf or, alternatively, as representatives of an institution, there is uncertainty in the literature still over whether the seal impression stood for a single identifiable individual or not. In this paper, we present a new computational methodology for identifying and quantifying similarity within sets of multiple seal impressions made by the same seal. Using a combination of visualisations derived from computational analysis of 3-D scans, experimental work to make seal impressions, and scrutiny of the relevant sealing casts within the Corpus of Minoan and Mycenaean Seals, Heidelberg, we are able to identify groups of sealings impressed in significantly similar ways. We consider it probable that seal impressions with a high degree of similarity were made by the same individual or by two or more people trained to work in a very specific way. This computational methodology is transferable and would prove valuable for other collections of material with identifiable repeated visual elements, such as coins. The implications of our research and the nuance it adds to reconstructions of Neopalatial sealing practices are of broader relevance for sphragistic studies, and provide a point of comparison with the contemporary sealing material of the Ancient Near East. • 3D scanning and computational analysis identify significant differences in repeated impressions. • Visually similar impressions suggest training for careful maintenance of practice. • A seal was probably not always used by the same person in Neopalatial Crete. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Beer consumption was part of agriculture intensification in southern Levant. • Beer was part of a larger set of social interactions during the Chalcolithic period. • Evidence suggests that alcoholic beverages were consumed in various contexts. • Pottery strainers were used in beer production during the Chalcolithic period. The production of alcoholic beverages is connected to a wide range of activities associated with growing social complexity. Beer production has a long history in the southern Levant, where the first evidence appeared during the later Epipalaeolithic period. However, there is meager evidence between then and the Early Bronze Age period, when advanced regional trade systems developed. To fill this gap, the current paper presents evidence for beer production and consumption based on microfossil analysis of two ceramic strainers unearthed at two Chalcolithic sites: Tel Tsaf (ca. 5200–4700 cal. BC), a settlement site in the Jordan Valley with evidence for large scale storage and long-distance ties, and Peqi'in Cave (ca. 4500–3900 cal. BC), a burial site in the Upper Galilee. The microfossils (phytoliths, starch granules, yeast cells, and fibers) indicate that both strainers once contained fermented beverages made from Triticeae (wheat/barley), Panicoideae, and Cyperus tubers. These results suggest that beer production and consumption using strainers may have been regularly practiced during different phases of the Chalcolithic, and beer appears to have played an important role in various social settings for communication among social groups as well as between the living and the deceased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the micromammalian remains and paleoenvironment of the Upper Paleolithic sequence of Manot Cave (46-34 ka), southern Levant. Micromammal remains were identified from Ahmarian (46-42 ka), Levantine Aurignacian (38-34 ka) and post-Levantine Aurignacian (34-33 ka) layers. To identify taphonomic agents, molar digestion was modelled for seven local raptor species, and model predictions were compared with observed digestion scores in the Manot Cave material. Raptor species differed significantly in molar digestion patterns, allowing us to identify Tyto alba as the bone accumulator in the Ahmarian and Post-Levantine Aurignacian units. Data were insufficient for species-level identification of the taphonomic agent in the Levantine Aurignacian. Günther's voles (Microtus guentheri) were dominant, though woodland species (Apodemus spp., Sciurus anomalus and Dryomys nitedula) also occurred through the entire sequence. Manot Cave furnished the first fossil record of the Eurasian snow vole (Chionomys nivalis) in the southern Levant during the Late Pleistocene and its first secure record of the water vole (Arvicola terrestris) outside the Hula Valley. Records of other taxa (Acomys dimidiatus and D. nitedula) provide the earliest occurrence datum in the region. Using counts of both identified specimens and distinct elements (lower first molars) we modelled paleoenvironmental conditions through both Weighted Averaging Partial Least Squares regression and a qualitative analysis considering niche preferences of species. Model predictions indicate the unexpectedly pronounced dominance of open habitats compared to present conditions near the cave, though the occurrence and abundance of woodland species also indicate some woodland expansion relative to the preceding Middle Paleolithic period. Combining statistical models and species niche considerations we show that the time span between the Ahmarian, Levantine Aurignacian and post-Levantine Aurignacian was marked by a clear-cut climatic oscillation to cooler and likely wetter conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]