Tell Abu Hureyra, Archaeological settlement in Al-Raqqah Governorate, Syria.
Tell Abu Hureyra was a settlement beside the Euphrates in the Syrian governorate of Al-Raqqah, inhabited first by hunters and later by farmers. The site now lies entirely beneath Lake Assad after a dam flooded the area.
People settled here from the end of the last ice age and later abandoned hunting in favor of growing grain. The settlement was left around 7800 BCE after nearly 6000 years of occupation.
Inhabitants here shifted from tracking gazelle herds to tending plant seeds, a change visible in the tools they left and in the wear patterns on their bones. This turning point made the valley a place where people began to settle and try new ways of living.
Visitors cannot reach the site because water from a reservoir covers the entire mound. All excavated materials were removed before the flooding and are now held in museums.
Researchers found traces of rye plants grown here around 13000 years ago, among the earliest known evidence of cereal use. The grains come from a time when most people were still moving from place to place.
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