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Hill Black, Su-uk-su or Shuksa, is a large prehistoric tell. Located about 50km from Damascus, in Syria
Its on a tributary of the Barada River at the eastern end of the village of Jdeidet el Khass. (1)

It is one of the important sites of the pre-pottery neolithic period
The proper full area of Mesopotamia has not yet been settled by humans.

Discovered 1967 by Henri de Contenson who led excavations in 1971–1972. (2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)
He believed Aswadian culture founded. But they had problems dating. The culture was too advanced for calibrated dating, and its the only example ever found of this culture. (9)

Some of the enlarged grains here originally had scientists thinking agriculture may have started earlier (10)(11)

Using new techniques for the time including water for damming. They also had massive earth architecture
Layering soil with reeds to construct walls. The brick may have been invented here. By modeling earth clods with beds of reeds.

It provides insight to early building materials, knowledge and growth in the area
Houses were round here. Opening more often to the east. And, unlike northerners in the fertile crescent. Where there were more rectangular houses.

Tell Aswad is important to evolution of organized cities. Due to the appearance of building materials, organized plans and collective work
It provides insight into the ‘explosion of knowledge’ in the northern levant during PPNB, including dam constructions.

It is one of the early examples of water management
It allowed them to grow cereals and figs in area. Even with under 20cm annual rainfall. (12)

Farming dates confer with a range across the middle east
Including: Höyük (Turkey), Ganj Dareh and Chogah Golan (Iran), and Wadi el-Jilat 7 and Ain Ghazal (Jordan) (13)

Domesticated plants are present from the Early PPNB 8700 to 8200 cal BC on-wards (14)
Domesticated barley but the domestication status of emmer wheat is uncertain. (13)(14)

They had corralled animals pigs, sheep, goats and cattle
And, for the latter two, production of meat and milk has been noted.

A large number of goats were found in the early stages
Indicating they were either hunted or herded. This is important because period when animal domestication took place still open question.

Cattle show diseases from labour.

Tell Aswad produces a grande village image of farmers and herders in full possession of food production techniques

Hunting is well represented too
With two species of horses, two gazelles (mountain and persian), wild boars, many water birds. And, some birds of the steppes.

Flora such as water reeds, rushes and tamarisk shows that the site was close to a very humid environment

The presence of bones of fish and aquatic birds like ducks, cranes and geese, indicated that the site was located near a lake.

The inhabitants of neolithic Aswad were fully available to exploit resources

Tools were made of flint and obsidian was imported from Anatolia

Graves were in homes and later cemeteries located outside village (15)

Archaeologist even found skulls removed from graves, cleaned and faces modeled onto bones with lime plastered and then painted (16)(17)(18)

Tell Aswad, has provided a window into the development of early agricultural practices and the social changes associated with the shift to a more sedentary lifestyle. These transitions are critical in understanding the origins of complex societies and the development of agriculture, which had profound implications for human civilization.

Cite: 1) The Megalithic Portal entry about Tell Aswad (http://www.megalithic.
co.uk/article.php?sid=15958)

2) de Contenson, Henri., Tell Aswad. Fouilles de 1971, Annales
Archéologiques Arabes Syriennes XXII, 1972, p. 75–84., 1972.

3) de Contenson, Henri., Chronologie absolue de Tell Aswad, Bulletin de
la Société Préhistorique Française 70, 1973, p. 253–255., 1973.

4) de Contenson, Henri., Tell Aswad, site néolithique précéramique près
de Damas (Syria), Bulletin de la Société Préhistorique Française 71,
1974, p. 5–6., 1974.

5) de Contenson, Henri., Précisions sur la stratigraphie de Tell Aswad
(Syria), Bulletin de la Société Préhistorique Française 73, 1976, p.
198–199., 1976.

6) de Contenson, Henri., Tell Aswad, Archiv für Orientforschung XXVI,
1978/79, p. 151–152., 1978.

7) de Contenson, Henri., Tell Aswad. Fouilles de 1972, Annales
Archéologiques Arabes Syriennes XXVII-XXVIII, 1977–1978, p.
207–215., 1977.

8) de Contenson, Henri., Tell Aswad (Damascène), Paléorient 5, 1979, p.
153–156., 1979.

9) de Contenson, Henri., L’Aswadien, un nouveau faciès du Néolithique
syrien, Paléorient 15/1, 1989, p. 259–261., 1989.

10) Ozkan, H; Brandolini, A; Schäfer-Pregl, R; Salamini, F (October 2002). “AFLP analysis of a
collection of tetraploid wheats indicates the origin of emmer and hard wheat
domestication in southeast Turkey” (http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/19/10
/1797). Molecular Biology and Evolution. 19 (10): 1797–801.
doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.molbev.a004002 (https://doi.org/10.1093%2Foxfordjournals.m
olbev.a004002). PMID 12270906 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12270906).

11) 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.

12) Helmer, Daniel; Stordeur, D.; molist, miquel; Khawam, Rima. “Le PPNB
de Syrie du Sud à travers les découvertes récentes à Tell Aswad” (http
s://www.academia.edu/22129429).

13) Willcox, George (2014), “Near East (Including Anatolia): Origins and Development of
Agriculture”, Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology, Springer New York, pp. 5208–5222,
doi:10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_2272 (https://doi.org/10.1007%2F978-1-4419-0465-2_227
2), ISBN 9781441904263

14) Weide, Alexander (7 December 2015). “On the Identification of Domesticated Emmer
Wheat, Triticum turgidum subsp. dicoccum (Poaceae), in the Aceramic Neolithic of the
Fertile Crescent”. Archäologische Informationen. 38 (1): 381–424.
doi:10.11588/ai.2015.1.26205 (https://doi.org/10.11588%2Fai.2015.1.26205).
ISSN 2197-7429 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/2197-7429).

15) Stordeur, D., Khawam R. Une place pour les morts dans les maisons
de Tell Aswad (Syrie). (Horizon PPNB ancien et PPNB moyen).
Workshop Houses for the living and a place for the dead, Hommage
à J. Cauvin. Madrid, 5ICAANE., 2008.

16) Stordeur, Danielle., Des crânes surmodelés à Tell Aswad de Damascène. (PPNB – Syrie).
Paléorient, CNRS Editions, 29/2, 109-116., 2003.

17) Stordeur, D., Jammous B., Khawam R., Morero E., L’aire funéraire de Tell Aswad (PPNB). In
HUOT J.-L. et STORDEUR D. (Eds) Hommage à H. de Contenson. Syria, n° spécial, 83,
39-62., 2006.

18) Stordeur, D., Khawam R. Les crânes surmodelés de Tell Aswad (PPNB, Syrie). Premier regard sur l’ensemble, premières réflexions. Syria, 84, 5-32., 2007.