The Chalcolithic in the Central Highlands of Palestine: A Reassessment Based on a New Examination of Khirbet es-Sauma’a (original) (raw)
Related papers
2006
Major formative socio-economic changes occurred during the Chalcolithic period in the southern Levant, including the beginnings of metallurgy, intensified craft production, new mortuary practices and elaborated iconographic and symbolic expression. Although a mosaic of regional groups are located within discrete geophysical zones, much of our knowledge of these transformations derives from survey and excavation in a few core areas, in particular the northern Negev, the Jordan Valley and the Golan. Our understanding of Chalcolithic occupation and use of other regional zones remains largely cursory, particularly in the north-central highlands and the marginal zones of the south and east. In this article we suggest that the settlement expansion documented in areas such as the northern Negev took place in other regions, such as the southern highlands and central Judean Hills. Further, this expansion seems to occur earlier than previously thought. Khirbet es-Sauma'a, situated in the central hill country just south of Tell el-Ful, was investigated by Father Joseph Nasralleh in the 1930s and shown to date to the Chalcolithic period. A wealth of flint implements were recovered from the site and promptly published, but, unfortunately, Nasralleh excluded other material culture, including the pottery assemblage. Based on repeated visits to the site and presentation of unpublished material, we suggest Khirbet es-Sauma c a represents one of many sites signalling the exploitation of the hill country. Figure 18. The north wall of the cistern on the summit of Khirbet es-Sauma c a, showing recent damage cause by modern construction. Photograph: S. Gibson.
2009
In the southern Levant, the late fifth millennium to mid-fourth millennium BC-traditionally known as the Chalcolithic period-witnessed major cultural transformations in virtually all areas of society, most notably craft production, mortuary and ritual practices, settlement patterns, and iconographic and symbolic expression. A degree of regionalism is evident in material culture, but continuity in ceramic styles, iconographic motifs, and mortuary practices suggests a similar cultural outlook linking these subregions. Luxury items found in group mortuary caves provide good evidence for at least some inequality in access to exotic materials. The level of complexity in social organization, however, is still debated. Divergent interpretations of Chalcolithic socio-economic organization suggest that, with the large amount of new information now available, a reevaluation of the debate is due. In this article we synthesize the more recent evidence and weigh interpretations of processes that led to the widespread fundamental changes witnessed during the late fifth to early fourth millennium BC.
Archaeological Sources for the Study of Palestine: The Chalcolithic Period
The Biblical Archaeologist, 1986
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
BASOR, 1993
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. The central hill country of Palestine, from the Jezreel Valley in the north to the Beer-sheba Valley in the south, has been almost fully surveyed in the last two decades. The article summarizes the archaeological data on the sites and settlement patterns in the region in three phases of the fourth and third millennia B.C.E.-the Chalcolithic, the Early Bronze I, and the Early Bronze II-III-and compares them to the settlement patterns in the lowlands of the country. The highlands, which form the best-suited part of Palestine for horticulture-based economy, experienced a dramatic settlement and demographic growth in EB I. This wave of settlement was contemporaneous to the establishment of Egyptian trading communities in the southern coastal plain. The demographic expansion to the hill country was apparently stimulated by the growing demand for Palestinian horticulture products in Egypt. The intensification of agricultural specialization in the highlands and in other parts of the country played an important role in the urbanization process in the southern Levant, which also commenced at the end of EB I. 1 2 ISRAEL FINKELSTEIN AND RAM GOPHNA BASOR 289 settlement in the Early Bronze Age was the first of its kind in the history of occupation of the highlands, and as such it began the long and complex process of the "conquest" of that mountainous ecological frontier of the southern Levant for human exploitation. Synchronic and diachronic comparisons shed light on some of the fundamental mechanisms in the history of the southern Levant in the protohistoric periods. Especially important are the tantalizing questions of the beginning of large-scale fruit growing, the trade relations of the region, the urbanization of Canaan, and the possible emergence of political systems that embraced large territories.
Paleorient, 2014
The Southern Levant has a well-established sequence for the Pottery Neolithic period, consisting of three successive cultural entities: The Yarmukian, Lodian and Wadi Rabah cultures. However, in the Hula Valley, located in the northeastern part of the region, the Yarmukian culture is absent. Analysis of the pottery assemblage of the site of Tel Ro'im West, located at the northwestern edge of the valley, suggests that a different cultural entity may have resided here during the early phases of the period. The paper describes this pottery assemblage, considering its typological and temporal aspects. The implications of this assemblage for our understanding of the Early Pottery Neolithic period are explored. It is argued that it lacks distinctive traits of any of the well-defi ned Pottery Neolithic cultures of the Southern Levant, while other features suggest lines of similarity with north Levantine traditions. Résumé : Le Levant Sud présente une séquence bien établie pour le Néolithique céramique, constituée de trois entités culturelles successives : le Yarmoukien, le Lodien et la culture de Wadi Rabah. Le Yarmoukien est absent toutefois, au nord-est dans la vallée de la Houla. L'analyse de l'assemblage céramique à Tel Ro'im West, à la limite nord-occidentale de la vallée, laisse supposer la présence d'une entité culturelle différente au début de cette période. Cet assemblage du Néolithique céramique est décrit sous les angles typologique et chronologique. La contribution de ces données à la connaissance du début de cette période est examinée. Il s'avère que cet assemblage ne possède aucun trait distinctif d'une culture bien connue du Néolithique céramique du Levant Sud, tandis que d'autres matériaux suggèrent une certaine similitude avec les traditions du Levant Nord.
This is the final report of salvage excavations conducted during 2005 and 2007 at the Chalcolithic (Ghassulian) site of Horbat 'Illit B, in the Haelah Valley. We present the stratigraphy and the architectural remains of the site, including a description of one of the rare flint workshops of the Chalcolithic period found in the southern Levant. Comprehensive analyses of the flint and pottery assemblages, the groundstones, metal objects and faunal remains are also given here. In the conclusions we discuss the role of specialized flint knapping of microliths and sickle blades, the latter in the context of agricultural activities, as well as the chronological and regional attributes of Horbat 'Illit B in the framework of the Chalcolithic period.
Paleoanthropology present a series of documents covering a variety of subjects in the archaeology of the Old World (Eurasia, Africa, Australia, and Oceania). This series encompasses a broad range of subjectsfrom the early prehistory to the Neolithic Revolution in the Old World, and beyond including: huntergatherers to complex societies; the rise of agriculture; the emergence of urban societies; human physical morphology, evolution and adaptation, as well as; various technologies such as metallurgy, pottery production, tool making, and shelter construction. Additionally, the subjects of symbolism, religion, and art will be presented within the context of archaeological studies including mortuary practices and rock art. Volumes may be authored by one investigator, a team of investigators, or may be an edited collection of shorter articles by a number of different specialists working on related topics.