Nimrod Marom

Genomic analysis of 6,000-year-old cultivated grain illuminates the domestication history of barley

The cereal grass barley was domesticated about 10,000 years before the present in the Fertile Crescent and became a founder crop of Neolithic agriculture. Here we report the genome sequences of five 6,000-year-old barley grains excavated at a cave in the Judean Desert close to the Dead Sea. Comparison to whole-exome sequence data from a diversity panel of present-day barley accessions showed the close affinity of ancient samples to extant landraces from the Southern Levant and Egypt, consistent with a proposed origin of domesticated barley in the Upper Jordan Valley. Our findings suggest that barley landraces grown in present-day Israel have not experienced major lineage turnover over the past six millennia, although there is evidence for gene flow between cultivated and sympatric wild populations. We demonstrate the usefulness of ancient genomes from desiccated archaeobotanical remains in informing research into the origin, early domestication and subsequent migration of crop species.

Rethinking Canaanite Palaces? The Palatial Economy of Tel Kabri during the Middle Bronze Age

Here we explore aspects of Canaanite palatial economy through an analysis of finds from the Middle Bronze Age palace at Tel Kabri, a 34 ha site located in the western Galilee of modern day Israel. The palace was founded in the middle part of the MBA I period, and continued without interruption until an advanced part of the MBA II period. Despite the fact that the Kabri palace was vast (perhaps up to 6000 sq m), functioned as the center of a polity, and could commission wall and floor paintings in an Aegean style, there are no signs of literate administration, or even administrative use of sealings. Patterns of animal husbandry, textile production, pottery manufacture and consumption, and storage within the palace all provide evidence that the palace behaved economically much more like an estate than a redistributive center. Our hypothesis is that the palace had aspects of an Oikos economy, i.e., that it functioned as a large household—richer and more populous than other households of the period, but with minimal involvement in the economy of the private sector. This contrasts with the contemporary polities in Syria, such as Alalakh and Ebla, as well as possibly its neighbor to the east, Tel Hazor, which had literate administrations and redistributive economies during this same period.

An MB II Orthostat Building at Tel Kabri, Israel

During the summer of 2011, a two-room monumental structure was found at the site of Tel Kabri in Israel. Designated as the “Orthostat Building” because of its extensive use of orthostats and paving slabs found still in situ, the location, plan, and architectural features of this building raise questions about its function and relation to the palace of Kabri and its chronological phasing within the palace’s history. The use of orthostats and ashlar paving stones, which is otherwise rather rare in Middle Bronze Age structures in Canaan, calls for a reevaluation of the impact of Syrian and Aegean architecture on the Kabri palace, in view of the already established Aegean influence on the site. The building, with its elaborate interior design and features, was erected at the same time that other great architectural changes took place in the palace of Kabri, including a thickening of the palace walls. These changes, although possibly simply functional, are also suggestive of deliberate choices by the palace elite to exemplify their power to the local population while at the same time attempting to follow the greater Mediterranean trends of their time.

Eastern Mediterranean Mobility in the Bronze and Early Iron Ages: Inferences from Ancient DNA of Pigs and Cattle

The Late Bronze of the Eastern Mediterranean (1550–1150 BCE) was a period of strong commercial relations and great prosperity, which ended in collapse and migration of groups to the Levant. Here we aim at studying the translocation of cattle and pigs during this period. We sequenced the first ancient mitochondrial and Y chromosome DNA of cattle from Greece and Israel and compared the results with morphometric analysis of the metacarpal in cattle. We also increased previous ancient pig DNA datasets from Israel and extracted the first mitochondrial DNA for samples from Greece. We found that pigs underwent a complex translocation history, with links between Anatolia with southeastern Europe in the Bronze Age, and movement from southeastern Europe to the Levant in the Iron I (ca. 1150–950 BCE). Our genetic data did not indicate movement of cattle between the Aegean region and the southern Levant. We detected the earliest evidence for crossbreeding between taurine and zebu cattle in the Iron IIA (ca. 900 BCE). In light of archaeological and historical evidence on Egyptian imperial domination in the region in the Late Bronze Age, we suggest that Egypt attempted to expand dry farming in the region in a period of severe droughts.

Shepherd Kings? A Zooarchaeological Investigation of Elite Precincts in Middle Bronze Age Tel Hazor and Tel Kabri

A zooarchaeological investigation of elite precincts from two major Middle Bronze Age sites in the Galilee region of northern Israel, Tel Hazor and Tel Kabri, was conducted with the aim of revealing differences in the animal economy between them. The results indicate that the elites of the polity of Hazor were strict consumers who exerted economic demands on the surrounding hinterlands and relied on specialized sheep herding. In Tel Kabri, by contrast, there is evidence that the Middle Bronze Age palace elites were engaged in locally based pastoral production as well as extensive utilization of diverse habitats around the settlement. These differences are ascribed to micro-regional differences in the hinterlands of the ancient polities. The dyadic relations between the economic and ecological gateway roles of Middle Bronze Age Hazor and Kabri are discussed.

Note on the contribution of genetics to understanding the organization of camel caravans in antiquity

Almathen et al. (1) find a high level of genetic diversity across the whole dromedary distribution range. The results are inconsistent with the hypothesis of negative correlation between high polymorphism and distance from the center of domestication (2). The lack of phylogeographic pattern demonstrates the mobility of the camel and its important role in ancient trade. Only places where camel populations were used more for subsistence than for trade, such as East Africa and remote parts of Arabia, show a less diverse genetic signature.

Pigeons at the edge of the empire: Bioarchaeological evidences for extensive management of pigeons in a Byzantine desert settlement in the southern Levant

Metric data of 6th century CE pigeons from the Negev Desert, Israel, are employed to test competing hypotheses on flock management strategies: that directed selection for size or shape took place under intensive management; or, alternatively, that stabilizing selection was a stronger determinant of size and shape under extensive management conditions. The results of the analysis support the second hypothesis by demonstrating that the Byzantine Negev pigeons were like wild pigeon (Columba livia) in shape, albeit small-sized. The inferred extensive management system is then discussed in the context of pigeon domestication and human micro-ecologies in marginal regions.

Distancing the Dead: Late Chalcolithic Burials in Large Maze Caves in the Negev Desert, Israel

The Late Chalcolithic of the southern Levant (ca. 4500–3800 b.c.e.) is known for its extensive use of the subterranean sphere for mortuary practices. Numerous natural and hewn caves, constituting formal extramural cemeteries, were used as secondary burial localities for multiple individuals, refecting and reaffirming social order and/or communal identity and ideology. Recently, two large complex caves located in the northern Negev Highlands, south of the densely settled Late Chalcolithic province of the Beersheba Valley, yielded skeletal evidence for secondary interment of select individuals accompanied by sets of material culture that share distinct similarities. The observed patterns suggest that the interred individuals belonged to sedentary communities engaging in animal husbandry, and they were deliberately distanced after their death, both above-ground (into the desert) and underground (deep inside subterranean mazes), deviating from common cultural practices.