Lucy E . Bennison-Chapman
Researcher specialising in early Anatolia and the wider Near East. Lucy Bennison-Chapman studied Near Eastern Archaeology at the University of Liverpool, UK. She received her PhD in July 2015 with a thesis entitled “The role and function of “tokens” and sealing practices in the Neolithic of the Near East”. Lucy was the inaugural Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Netherlands Institute for the Near East (NINO), Leiden University (2019-2022) with a project investigating the use and function of non-literate administration systems and recording devices in the Near East from the late Neolithic into the 1st millennium BC. She recently organised and hosted the international, interdisciplinary conference "Bookkeeping Without Writing: Early administrative technologies in context".
Lucy’s main research interest centres on the development of complex societies; the social developments that commenced with the appearance of sedentism and agriculture in Neolithic period; culminating in the appearance of the complex, literate city-states of West Asia in the third millennium BC. In particular, the diverse mechanisms employed in maintaining social structures including craft specialisation, mortuary practices, the study of symbolism, changes in material culture, and the evolution of artistic expression over time.
Though her current research focus is geographically located in the Near East, she has a keen interest in Ancient Egypt, where many of the same research questions are relevant. Lucy has fieldwork experience in Syria, Kuwait, Turkey and the UK. She was a member of the Çatalhöyük Research Project 2010-2018 and is currently involved in archaeological fieldwork at Neolithic Boncuklu Höyük, Turkey (University of Liverpool). Lucy has published widely, and has held teaching positions at the University of Liverpool (UK), Bulent Ecevit University, Zonguldak (Turkey) and is currently a lecturer at the Netherlands Institute of the Near East, Leiden University.
Supervisors: Prof. Douglas Baird and Dr. Bruce Routledge
Lucy’s main research interest centres on the development of complex societies; the social developments that commenced with the appearance of sedentism and agriculture in Neolithic period; culminating in the appearance of the complex, literate city-states of West Asia in the third millennium BC. In particular, the diverse mechanisms employed in maintaining social structures including craft specialisation, mortuary practices, the study of symbolism, changes in material culture, and the evolution of artistic expression over time.
Though her current research focus is geographically located in the Near East, she has a keen interest in Ancient Egypt, where many of the same research questions are relevant. Lucy has fieldwork experience in Syria, Kuwait, Turkey and the UK. She was a member of the Çatalhöyük Research Project 2010-2018 and is currently involved in archaeological fieldwork at Neolithic Boncuklu Höyük, Turkey (University of Liverpool). Lucy has published widely, and has held teaching positions at the University of Liverpool (UK), Bulent Ecevit University, Zonguldak (Turkey) and is currently a lecturer at the Netherlands Institute of the Near East, Leiden University.
Supervisors: Prof. Douglas Baird and Dr. Bruce Routledge
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Articles & book chapters by Lucy E . Bennison-Chapman
Non-written forms of information storage and transmission are known in West Asia from the Late Neolithic (ca 6000 BC) onwards. Crucially, they continue to be used, once writing is established and widespread, so cannot be dismissed as simple, primitive and ineffective forms of administration simply supplanted by writing. In other world regions and time-periods, a variety of non-literate forms of information storage are known. There are large, successful, and complex societies which do not use writing at all, instead thriving with alternative forms of information storage and transmission.
This multidisciplinary book brings together papers from various specialists to explore how non-literate forms of information storage were used in West Asia from the Late Neolithic, and why they persisted into the first millennium BC. This is complimented by a range of comparative archaeological and historical examples of complex, non-written administrative systems from the ethnographic and historical record including ancient Egypt, Medieval Europe, Medieval West Africa and South America.
specialized economies, representing the first step towards the emergence of written
communication. Yet the precursors of the world’s earliest writing and its initial stages
of development remain little understood. Small, geometric clay objects (‘tokens’) appear
in the tenth millennium cal. BC, the start of the Neolithic in West Asia, prevailing into
the first millennium. It is largely assumed that from their inception clay objects played
a crucial role in record keeping, directly evolving into the world’s earliest known
writing. Utilizing new and previously unpublished Neolithic data comprising almost
individually studied 3000 objects, accompanied by information from 56 further
Neolithic sites, this article investigates the meaning of Neolithic ‘tokens’. Analysis
proves the basis of their predominant interpretation to be incorrect; clay objects appear
earlier than previously recognized and are not a necessary component of Neolithic
agro-pastoral villages. ‘Tokens’ were multi-functional artefacts; even within a single
site clay objects performed multiple roles. Though likely used in simple counting
activities, this was not limited to the accounting of agricultural produce. Nor was
counting the sole function of clay objects in the Neolithic. Clay objects were not
created to administer agricultural produce and there is no evidence to suggest that in
the Neolithic they formed part of a unified symbolic system.
Reports by Lucy E . Bennison-Chapman
Non-written forms of information storage and transmission are known in West Asia from the Late Neolithic (ca 6000 BC) onwards. Crucially, they continue to be used, once writing is established and widespread, so cannot be dismissed as simple, primitive and ineffective forms of administration simply supplanted by writing. In other world regions and time-periods, a variety of non-literate forms of information storage are known. There are large, successful, and complex societies which do not use writing at all, instead thriving with alternative forms of information storage and transmission.
This multidisciplinary book brings together papers from various specialists to explore how non-literate forms of information storage were used in West Asia from the Late Neolithic, and why they persisted into the first millennium BC. This is complimented by a range of comparative archaeological and historical examples of complex, non-written administrative systems from the ethnographic and historical record including ancient Egypt, Medieval Europe, Medieval West Africa and South America.
specialized economies, representing the first step towards the emergence of written
communication. Yet the precursors of the world’s earliest writing and its initial stages
of development remain little understood. Small, geometric clay objects (‘tokens’) appear
in the tenth millennium cal. BC, the start of the Neolithic in West Asia, prevailing into
the first millennium. It is largely assumed that from their inception clay objects played
a crucial role in record keeping, directly evolving into the world’s earliest known
writing. Utilizing new and previously unpublished Neolithic data comprising almost
individually studied 3000 objects, accompanied by information from 56 further
Neolithic sites, this article investigates the meaning of Neolithic ‘tokens’. Analysis
proves the basis of their predominant interpretation to be incorrect; clay objects appear
earlier than previously recognized and are not a necessary component of Neolithic
agro-pastoral villages. ‘Tokens’ were multi-functional artefacts; even within a single
site clay objects performed multiple roles. Though likely used in simple counting
activities, this was not limited to the accounting of agricultural produce. Nor was
counting the sole function of clay objects in the Neolithic. Clay objects were not
created to administer agricultural produce and there is no evidence to suggest that in
the Neolithic they formed part of a unified symbolic system.
Preliminary results of a three-year study that identified, imaged and analysed finger and palm impressions from well-recorded small geometric clay objects recovered at Boncuklu Höyük is presented here. Located in the Konya Plain, 9.5 km north-east of the well-known Anatolian Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük; Boncuklu Höyük covers 1 hectare. The mixed forager-farming community dates to the pre-ceramic Neolithic c. mid-9th to mid-8th millennium cal. BC. Like other Neolithic people of the Konya Plain, Boncuklu’s residents used their hands to manipulate local clays into objects that would become part of their everyday lives. Once dried, the palm and fingerprints of the hands that moulded the clay became embedded on the surfaces. Geometric clay objects are the single most abundant artefact category at Boncuklu Höyük. Over 1,000 have been recovered and studied to date; their abundance contrasts with the comparatively scant number of other artefacts of clay (figurine fragments, vessel fragments and beads). Used as gaming pieces, counting tools or objects of divination, fulfilling ordinary or symbolic needs, the aim of the project is to advance the understanding of the manufacture use and disposal of geometric clay objects at Boncuklu and its community as a whole.
Epidermal ridges and valleys on the palms and fingers are unique to each individual. As the density of the ridges per 25 mm2 is related to body size, forensic analysis of well-preserved epidermal ridges can identify broad age group (adult or child) and the sex of the adult print makers. Based on the predictable pattern of light reflection off the surface of any object, Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) is the primary method of 3-D surface detection used to identify in detail the prints for this study. The contextual distribution of objects according to age/sex are analysed against pre-existing object contextual data and mapped. The goal is a consideration of print-maker differences according to specific details of object form and manufacture, by different locations, and through temporal changes.
Eighty-six clay objects were imaged and analysed. The results demonstrate the ability of RTI to detect print detail in high resolution. Clear prints of the palms and fingers were revealed on more than half of the study sample, the overwhelming majority of which display sufficient epidermal ridges for forensic analysis. Forensic analysis is currently ongoing, however preliminary results reveal the prints represent individual people, and so far, more adults relative to children and more females relative to males are represented.
This audio tour was made possible by the Dutch Research Council via funding of the research project ‘The Walking Dead at Saqqara’ in Egypt, which is hosted at the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities, Leiden and Leiden University. This project focuses on the significance of religious traditions for people who lived in Egypt in ancient times.