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