Yorke Rowan

New Evidence on Prehistoric Trade Routes: The Obsidian Evidence from Gilat, Israel

AbstractObsidian artifacts are rare finds in prehistoric sites in Israel. The scarcity of the material and the absence of obsidian sources in Israel makes such artifacts especially important for understanding ancient exchange patterns. The closest sources of obsidian found in Israel are in the Cycladic Islands of Greece to the west and Anatolia to the north. Using neutron activation analysis (NAA), we identify the origin of seven obsidian artifacts from the Chalcolithic (ca. 4500–3500 B.C.) site of Gil at in Israels northern Negev desert. These finds have been traced to the Nemrut Dagarea of eastern Anatolia, Gollu Dagin central Anatolia, and, most interestingly, Hotamis Dag also in central Anatolia.

The Late Neolithic colonization of the Eastern Badia of Jordan

Abstract Pioneering research by Betts and by Garrard in the eastern steppe and desert of Jordan demonstrated the presence of Late Neolithic (c. 7000–5000 cal bc) pastoral exploitation of this currently arid/hyper-arid region, but the scale of Late Neolithic presence in the area was difficult to assess from the reports of their surveys and excavations. Recent investigations by the Eastern Badia Archaeological Project at Wisad Pools and the Wadi al-Qattafi in the Black Desert have shown that conditions during the latter half of the 7th millennium and into the 6th permitted substantial numbers of pastoralists to occupy substantial dwellings recurrently, in virtual village settings, for considerable amounts of time on a seasonal basis, relying heavily on the hunting of wild animals and perhaps practising opportunistic agriculture in addition to herding caprines.

Mapping with Aerial Photographs: Recording the Past, the Present, and the Invisible at Marj Rabba, Israel

A rapidly expanding array of innovative technologies, combined with traditional techniques, allow more sophisticated photographic and photogrammetric techniques to document and analyze archaeological features, sites, and landscapes. With multiple ways to put a camera aloft over archaeological sites and landscapes, aerial photographs are more than a “birds eye view.” Over five seasons at the Chalcolithic Period (c. 4500–3700 b.c.e.) site of Marj Rabba in the lower Galilee of Israel, a variety of tools were used to record the excavations, the survey, and the landscape. Satellites, historical aerial photographic archives, fixed wing unmanned aerial vehicles, rotary-wing unmanned aerial vehicles, poles, and terrestrial hand-held photography and photogrammetry, are combined in order to comprehensively record multiple facets of this early settlement.

Chalcolithic hamlet excavations near shiqmim, Negev Desert, Israel

Abstract We explore the nature of three small villages or “hamlets” situated in close proximity to Shiqmim—one of the largest Chalcolithic (ca. 4500–3600 CAL B.C.) settlements in the southern Levant. Located in the northern Negev Desert of Israel, Shiqmim and other large sites in the Beersheva valley have yielded data suggesting the emergence of a regional chief dom-level social organization in this period. Identifying chiefdoms in the Near Eastern archaeological record is difficult because there is little material evidence of displays of rank and power such as are found in Mesoamerican chiefdoms. A two-tier settlement hierarchy with large settlement centers that coordinate religious, political, and economic activities for a constellation of smaller satellite villages or hamlets is one of the most important cross-cultural attributes of chiefdoms documented by anthropologists. The results from archaeological soundings, material culture analyses, and radiocarbon dating of small-scale sites in the vicinity of a large settlement center in the Beersheva valley are consistent with the presence of a dynamic regional chiefdom-level society during the Chalcolithic period.

The “land of conjecture:” New late prehistoric discoveries at Maitland’s Mesa and Wisad Pools, Jordan

Abstract Major cultural transformations took place in the southern Levant during the late prehistoric periods (ca. late 7th–4th millennia b.c.). Agropastoralists expanded into areas previously only sparsely occupied and secondary animal products played an increasingly important economic role. In the arable parts of the southern Levant, the olive in particular became increasingly significant and may have played a part in expanded exchange contacts in the region. Technological expertise developed in craft production, and the volume and diversity of status goods increased, particularly in funerary contexts. Mortuary and other ritual practices became increasingly pronounced. General study syntheses, however, rarely include more than a cursory mention of the more arid regions of the southern Levant (i.e., Negev, eastern and southern Jordan, and Syria). Recent investigations indicate that intensive exploitation of the regions may date to these late prehistoric periods, yet this evidence has been difficult to attribute to specific chronological period or cultural affiliations. The Eastern Badia Archaeological Project investigates two regions for a potential florescence of building and occupation during the late prehistoric periods in the eastern desert of Jordan.

Town and country in the southern Carmel : Report on the Landscape Archaeology Project at Dor (LAPD)

Abstract This report deals with the results of a project of landscape archaeology in the hinterland of Tel Dor (Tanturah) in the northern coastal plain of Israel. An introduction to previous research made in the region is followed by a description of the survey methods employed during the project and the characteristics of the five geographical subunits investigated (Zones I–V) The patterning of settlement remains and the chronology of landscape features forms the main part of the article, with information on changes occurring in the Dor landscape from the Chalcolithic through to Ottoman periods. Brief mention is made regarding groups of features examined, such as wells, cisterns, aqueducts, fields, oil presses, wine presses, columbaria, quarries and burial caves. Reports are given on the pottery from the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age I, the Middle Bronze Age IIA, and the Roman and Byzantine periods. Appendices also deal with Chalcolithic basalt vessels, Hellenistic stamped amphora handles, Ottoman co...

Droning on in the Badia : UAVs and Site Documentation at Wadi al-Qattafi

Drones, or Unpiloted Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), are quickly changing approaches to archaeological mapping. They are effective tools for documenting smaller ancient features that might be missed by the resolution limitations of satellite imagery. As part of the Eastern Badia Archaeological Project, this article presents the preliminary results of a large-scale aerial survey of Wadi al-Qattafi, Jordan undertaken to map the kites and smaller features concentrated around and on top of the basalt mesas in the area. A combination of fixed and rotary wing aircraft was used to record approximately 20,000 images across 32 square kilometers of the survey area. The resulting orthophotographs and digital elevation models (DEMs) provide a high-resolution recording of the landscape. Ultimately this allows for mapping and identification of even the smallest anthropogenic features, as well as an analysis of how larger features were constructed to utilize local topography.

The Late Neolithic Presence in the Black Desert

Major cultural transformations took place in the southern Levant during the late prehistoric periods (ca. mid-seventh through fourth millenna B.C.E.). General syntheses rarely include more than cursory mention of the more arid regions of the southern Levant (Negev, eastern and southern Jordan). The Eastern Badia Archaeological Project [EBAP] study area comprises a west–east transect across the southern part of the eastern badia, selected to include a variety of ecological zones. To date, this field research project has focused on two primary study areas in the Black Desert in Jordans panhandle: Wisad Pools and Wadi al-Qattafi. In both areas, excavation combined with pedestrian and aerial survey record an apparent florescence of building and intensive exploitation of the landscape that contradicts previous assumptions that the region was used only intermittently by late prehistoric people. The many substantial well-constructed Late Neolithic buildings, evidence for trees and marshy plants, and extensive systems of kites seem to suggest that, rather than a virtually empty region, the Black Desert was once rich in animals, plants and people.

Gazelles, Liminality, and Chalcolithic Ritual: A Case Study from Marj Rabba, Israel

Endangered today, gazelles were both economically and symbolically important to the peoples of the ancient Near East. In various contexts, the gazelle has represented liminality, death, and rebirth. Gazelles held special significance in the southern Levant, where archaeologists have documented cases, spanning 20,000 years, of ritual behavior involving gazelle body parts. What roles did gazelles play during the Chalcolithic (ca. 4500–3600 B.C.), a period of both decreased hunting and ritual intensification? In this article, we discuss a unique find of burned gazelle feet at the site of Marj Rabba (northern Israel). The feet were found within a well-constructed building that was used for rituals and included two articulated human feet. The gazelle foot bones, the majority of which derive from adult male mountain gazelles (Gazella gazella), appear to reflect the remains of intentionally destroyed skins or severed limbs. This unique find highlights the evolving symbolic importance of gazelles, perhaps as forces of liminality, in Chalcolithic rituals.

Gods and scholars: archaeologies of religion in the Near East

These two edited volumes reflect the continuing surge of interest in the archaeology of religious practice and belief. Over the past 20 years, archaeologists have turned their focus on the study of ritual and religion, challenging what Hawkes (1954: 162) considered the highest and most difficult to reach rung on his ladder of inference: “religious institutions and spiritual life”. Renewed interest in the archaeology of religion and ritual was largely inspired by Renfrews (1985) work on the Bronze Age Phylakopi sanctuary on Melos, Greece, a seminal study that continues to guide archaeological interpretation based on the material correlates linked with ritual practice. Renfrews focus on ritual (or ‘cult’) exposed the widespread perception that religion is archaeologically inaccessible. The recognition that a Durkheimian division between the sacred and the profane is less distinct in reality, particularly in small-scale rituals and domestic contexts, complicates the difficulty archaeologists face in the hazy area between quotidian life and religious praxis. Since Renfrews publication of Phylakopi, these problems have been recognised and confronted in a variety of different volumes and synthetic articles.