Tell Ghoraifé (Arabic: تل غريفة) is a prehistoric, Neolithictell, about 22 kilometres (14 mi) east of Damascus, Syria. The tell was the site of a small village of 5 hectares (540,000 sq ft), which was first settled in the early eighth millennium BC.[1][2]
A small, 2 square metres (22 sq ft) excavation was made on the tell by Henri de Contenson in 1974.
Tell Ghoraifé is an important site to our understanding of the origin of agriculture. It is an example of a site with a long sequence over a millennium where the study of the evolution from wild to domesticated barley has taken place. Finds also included early domesticated wheat.[4][5]
de Contenson, H., Bibliothèque archéologique et historique 137 Aswad et Ghoraifé : sites néolithiques en Damascène (Syrie) aux IXème et VIIIème millénaires avant l'ère chrétienne, Bibliothèque Archéologique et Historique, 137, Beirut, 1995
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.
^de Contenson, Henri; Anderson, Patricia C. (1995). Aswad et Ghoraifé: sites néolithiques en Damascène (Syrie) aux IXème et VIIIème millénaires avant l'ère chrétienne. Institut français d'archéologie du Proche-Orient. ISBN2-7053-0673-0.
