Sifting Through: The Characteristics and Significance of Ceramic Strainer-Vessels in the Chalcolithic Period of the Southern Levant

2021 ◽  
pp. 000-000
Author(s):  
Edwin Cornelis Martinus van den Brink ◽  
Rivka Chasan ◽  
Danny Rosenberg
Keyword(s):  
Southern Levant ◽  
Chalcolithic Period

The Cemetery as a Symbol: a Reconsideration of Chalcolithic Burial Caves in the Southern Levant

2011 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Assaf Nativ ◽  
Avi Gopher
Keyword(s):  
Social Institutions ◽  
Human Remains ◽  
Southern Levant ◽  
Chalcolithic Period

The deposits of disarticulated human remains in caves, often associated with designated ceramic receptacles, is one of the most striking hallmarks of the Chalcolithic period in the southern Levant. Owing however to their perplexing variability, this phenomenon is still poorly understood. Approaching these sites as cemeteries and social institutions, this article presents a reconsideration of their structures, temporal trajectories and meanings. It is argued that at least two regional subgroups can be distinguished, differing in the identities they structure, their concerns and their underlying logic.

scholarly journals The Chalcolithic Radiocarbon Record and Its Use in Southern Levantine Archaeology

Radiocarbon ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 1223-1246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margie Burton ◽  
Thomas E Levy
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Time Frame ◽  
Fine Tuning ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Southern Levant ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Local Contexts ◽  
Chalcolithic Period ◽  
Chronological Sequence

Archaeological evidence suggests that the Chalcolithic period (5th–4th millennium BCE) in the southern Levant was a time of significant settlement expansion and increasing social complexity. Important technological and social developments during this era set the stage for the later rise of fortified sites and nascence of urbanization in the Early Bronze Age. Controversy surrounding the chronology of Chalcolithic settlement and the reconstruction of social trajectories has stimulated an interest in building a database of radiocarbon dates to measure the tempo of change and help resolve these issues. To facilitate social evolutionary research, this paper reviews and updates published 14C data for the southern Levantine Chalcolithic. The now-substantial database supports the generally accepted time frame for this archaeological period and allows synchronic comparisons across diverse geographic subregions in the southern Levant. In addition, it helps to temporally place the emergence of sophisticated technologies and the development of complex social institutions within the Chalcolithic period. However, radiometrically based attempts at pan-regional internal periodization of the Chalcolithic and fine-tuning of protohistoric events such as site establishment and abandonment are frustrated by the lack of precision in 14C dates, which limits their ability to resolve chronological sequence. Improved delineation of Chalcolithic social trajectories can be achieved most effectively by focussing research efforts on stratigraphic and typological investigations of deeply-stratified settlement sites such as Teleilat Ghassul and Shiqmim within their local contexts.

scholarly journals A Large Copper Artefacts Assemblage of Fazael, Jordan Valley

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 ◽  
pp. 246-261
Author(s):  
Danny Rosenberg ◽  
Eli Buchman ◽  
Sariel Shalev ◽  
Shay Bar
Keyword(s):  
Social Organization ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Current Paper ◽  
Copper Industry ◽  
Southern Levant ◽  
Jordan Valley ◽  
Late Chalcolithic ◽  
Chalcolithic Period ◽  
First Time ◽  
Comprehensive Study

Late Chalcolithic metallurgy developed in the southern Levant simultaneously with other crafts and new social institutions, reflecting advances in social organization, cults and technology. Until recently, copper items were mostly found in the Negev and Judean Desert, while other areas, specifically the Jordan Valley, were considered poor, with limited copper finds. Recent excavations at Late Chalcolithic Fazael in the Jordan Valley yielded dozens of copper items that allow for the first time a comprehensive study of copper items from this area. The assemblage is one of the largest of any site in the Late Chalcolithic period and includes most of the known components of the Late Chalcolithic copper industry. The current paper presents the new metallurgical discoveries from the Fazael Basin and discusses their significance to our understanding of the Late Chalcolithic copper industry.

Aspects of Radiocarbon Determinations and the Dating of the Transition from The Chalcolithic Period to Early Bronze Age I in the Southern Levant

Paléorient ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eliot Braun ◽  
Edwin C. M. van den Brink ◽  
Johanna Regev ◽  
Elisabetta Boaretto ◽  
Shay Bar
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Southern Levant ◽  
Chalcolithic Period

scholarly journals The Origins of Terracing in the Southern Levant and Patch Cultivation/Box Fields

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 256-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shimon Gibson ◽  
Rafael Y. Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Southern Levant ◽  
Chalcolithic Period ◽  
Olive Trees

Abstract This paper looks at various suggestions relating to what incipient and early forms of terracing might have looked like, and goes on to suggest that some of the earliest terraces in the southern Levant may have emerged from horticultural practices, and more specifically the cultivation of olive trees within sunken patches of soil on rocky hillslopes (referred to as “patch cultivation” or “box fields”). This phenomenon may be traced back to the Chalcolithic period (4th millennium B.C.E), if not to earlier times.

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