Silence of the birds: avifauna exploitation during a period of increasing reliance on domesticates at Late Neolithic Tell Sabi Abyad, Syria

A sample of 219 bird bones, from the Late Neolithic levels at Tell Sabi Abyad, located in the Balikh Valley, Northern Syria, was analysed. These remains informed about the ecological setting of the site, showing it to be permanently occupied, rather than used only seasonally. The practice of fowling at Tell Sabi Abyad was investigated, and both the economic and cultural importance of the birds through time is discussed. The recovery of avifaunal remains from certain phases of occupation, along with their low quantities or absence in others, might reflect changes in subsistence taking place at Tell Sabi Abyad around 6300 BC. This small, but important, sample of bird bones adds to the limited published data available on the avifauna of the Late Neolithic of Northern Syria.