Stone Pages - Archaeo News (Middle East)

Evidence of social beer consumption found in 7,000-year-old town

Thu, 06 Jan 2022 11:09:58 +0100

Israeli researchers have recently discovered the first evidence of social beer consumption following a find of cereal grains used to produce alcohol in a 7,000 year old town. This discovery marks the earliest known instance of social drinking in the Levant prior to its spread in the bronze age, ca 3300 BCE.
The university's Prof. Danny Rosenberg said the evidence for beer production joins "the evidence we've previously uncovered of Tel Tsaf's prosperity, expressed in its accumulation of agricultural produce, and particularly cereal, in large quantities. We can imagine Tsaf's developing community holding largescale events in which large quantities of food and beer are consumed in a social context - and not just in a ceremonial context."
While there is older evidence of beer production at a Natufian burial site, this beer was apparently only used as part of the burial rituals at the site placed in Mount Camel. While beer production and consumption may have taken place since the Natufian period, the evidence for it is hard to come by.
"It's unknown at the moment whether the beer whose remnants we found in Tel Tsaf was produced on a regular basis or specifically for major social events," Rosenberg said. "We hope that in the near future, when we can isolate further evidence of beer production at the site and at other sites, we will be able to better understand the role of alcohol in ancient societies, and particularly in those that - as in Tel Tsaf - were on the cusp of significant changes in their social structure as it became more and more complex."

Edited from Times of Israel (21 December 2021), The Independent (22 December 2021)

Early humans in prehistoric Israel were picky eaters

Mon, 06 Dec 2021 11:07:03 +0100

As with many quadrupeds used for food today, the diet of the animal has a great effect on the taste of the meat, even if it is only very subtle. Recently, Israeli archaeologist believe that they have identified seasonal use of the Qesem Cave in central Israel. Among the standard finds that indicate civilization bones broken for marrow, skinning of animal hides, stone tool production as well as a cooking area, archaeologists were also able to distinguish between different types of animal cadavers based on their respective diets.
In this case, the deer brought to the hearth in the cave had a different diet than the ones found in the area for 'marrow production'. A similar pattern was discovered when examining the bones of horses in the caves.
The cave, dated to between 420,000 to 20,000 years ago, showed signs of seasonal use rather than being a permanent home, based on the finds of animal teeth. This raises the possibility, however loosely, of identifying areas of use and occupation based on the diets of the early humans in the area based on the seasons. "We don't know of anything like this anywhere else in the world, certainly not so ancient." Dr. Barkai says.

Edited from Haaretz (10 November 2021)

Earliest evidence for stone grinding tool

Sat, 23 Jan 2021 16:11:41 +0100

Stone gaming pieces have been found in the Tabun Caves at Mount Carmel National Park about 75 kilometres north of Tel Aviv. They are made from rocks using simple tools. The site has intermittently been home to people from 500,000 to 40,000 years ago and declared by UNESCO as having "universal value" showing stages of human evolution.
The discovery shows that 350,000 years ago, our ancestors played games using rocks that were heated and used as different pieces - much like today where different shaped pieces of a game hold different values.
Until 2017 it was thought that Homo sapiens were only 160,000 years old. The discovery in Tabun helps to confirm a discovery in Jebel Irhoud, Morocco, which suggested that our species is probably closer to 350,000 years old.
The research conducted by the University of Haifa also proves that 350,000 years ago our ancestors used fire as part of their everyday life - itself an important discovery.
Dr Ron Shimelmitz, of Haifa University's Archaeology Department, says that until now it was thought that Homo sapiens used techniques to make game pieces similar to modern humans only 150,000 years ago; "The period of time 200,000 to 400,000 years ago is a period of important technological innovations and significant changes," Shimelmitz adds.

Edited from The Jerusalem Post (27 December 2020)

King David era fortified complex discovered on Golan Heights

Sat, 26 Dec 2020 19:57:11 +0100

Excavations ahead of the construction of a new neighborhood in the southern Golan Heights exposed an Iron Age fortified complex from the time of King David (11th to 10th centuries BCE). The fort may have been built by the kingdom of Geshur, an ally of King David.
Occupying a strategic location on the small hilltop above the El-Al canyon at a spot where it was possible to cross the river, 1.5-metre thick walls of large basalt boulders encompassed the hill. Finds include a large basalt stone next to the entrance with a schematic engraving of two figures with horns and open arms.
In 2019, a horned figure with arms spread wide identified as representing the Moon-God Cult was found on a cultic stone stele at Bethsaida, just north of the Sea of Galilee, erected next to a raised platform adjacent to the city gate. The fortified city of Bethsaida is considered by scholars to be the capital of the Aramean Kingdom of Geshur that ruled the central and southern Golan 3,000 years ago. Cities of the Kingdom of Geshur have been unearthed along the Kinneret shore, including Tel En Gev, Tel Hadar, and Tel Sorag, but few sites have been discovered on the Golan.

Edited from JewishPress.com (11 November 2020)

Traces of a massive tsunami at an archeological site in Israel

Sat, 26 Dec 2020 15:44:18 +0100

Underwater excavation, borehole drilling, and modelling suggests a massive paleo-tsunami struck near the ancient settlement of Tel Dor (Israel) between 9,910 to 9,290 years ago, according to a new study by Gilad Shtienberg, Richard Norris and Thomas Levy from the Scripps Center for Marine Archaeology, University of California, San Diego, U.S., and colleagues from Utah State University and the University of Haifa.
In this study, Shtienberg and colleagues describe a large early Holocene tsunami deposit in coastal sediments at Tel Dor in northwest Israel, a maritime city-mound occupied from the Middle Bronze II period (2000-1550 BCE). To conduct their analysis, the authors used photogrammetric remote sensing techniques to create a digital model of the Tel Dor site, combined with underwater excavation and terrestrial borehole drilling to a depth of nine meters.
Along the coast of the study area, the authors found an abrupt marine shell and sand layer with an age of constraint 9,910 to 9,290 years ago, in the middle of a large ancient wetland layer spanning from 15,000 to 7,800 years ago. The authors estimate the wave capable of depositing seashells and sand in the middle of what was at the time fresh to brackish wetland must have travelled 1.5 to 3.5 km, with a coastal wave height of 16 to 40 m. For comparison, previously documented tsunami events in the eastern Mediterranean have travelled inland only around 300 m.
This paleo-tsunami would have occurred during the Early to Middle Pre-Pottery Neolithic B cultural period of the region (10,700-9,250 years ago 11,700-10,500 cal BP), and potentially wiped out evidence of previous Natufian (12,500-12,000 years ago) and Pre-Pottery Neolithic coastal villages; previous surveys and excavations show a near absence of low-lying coastal villages in this region. The re-appearance of abundant Late Neolithic archaeological sites (ca. 6,000 BCE) along the coast in the years after the Dor tsunami coincides with the resumption of wetland deposition in the Dor core samples and indicates resettlement followed the event—highlighting residents' resilience in the face of massive disruption.
According to Gilad Shtienberg, a postdoc at the Scripps Center for Marine Archaeology at UC San Diego who is studying the sediment cores, "We never dreamed of finding evidence of a prehistoric tsunami in Israel. Scholars know that at the beginning of the Neolithic, around 10,000 years ago, the seashore was 4 kilometers from where it is today. When we cut the cores open in San Diego and started seeing a marine shell layer embedded in the dry Neolithic landscape, we knew we hit the jackpot."

Edited from Phys.Org (23 December 2020)

Prehistoric sheep-hunting camp in the Levant

Wed, 12 Feb 2020 16:39:25 +0100

Anthropologists have confirmed the existence of a more than 10,000-year-old hunting camp in what is now northeastern Lebanon, straddling the period marking the transition from nomadic hunter-gatherer societies to agricultural settlements at the onset of the last stone age.
Analysis of data from Nachcharini Cave, high in mountains forming the border between Lebanon and Syria, shows that sheep were the primary game at a short-term special purpose camp which served as a temporary outpost to developing and more substantial villages elsewhere in the region.
Radiocarbon dating of animal bones place the main deposits at the cave securely in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA), a period from about 10,000 to 8,000 BCE during which the cultivation of crops, the construction of mud-brick dwellings, and other practices of domestication began to emerge. The stone tools found at the sites are mostly tiny arrowheads used for hunting.
It was already known that sheep hunting was practised in this region throughout periods that preceded the PPNA, and the evidence from Nachcharini Cave reinforces that understanding.

Edited from University of Toronto News (23 January 2020)

Ancient metalworking in Dubai

Thu, 30 Jan 2020 12:33:57 +0100

Now at the northern edge of the Rub al-Khalil desert in southern Dubai, the town of Saruq Al Hadid specialised in copper smelting until the pre-Islamic period, about 300 CE. Archaeological teams began digging in 2002, and the site has yielded 3,000 year-old artifacts made from copper, bronze, iron, gold, and silver. Recent excavations revealed 2,600 metal objects including weapons, decorations, jewelry, and iconic or magical items like figurines of snakes. The majority are thought to have been made about 3,000 years ago, but mining and smelting metals had been conducted there as long as 1,000 years earlier.
53 distinctively patterned clay seals represent the largest collection of Iron Age seals in the Arabian Peninsula. Animal, figurative, crescent, pyramid, and star designs demonstrate links with Mesopotamia, the Indo-Iranian area, and Egypt. Another collection of seals and pottery link the site with the Sumerians of Mesopotamia, while carnelian beads point to links with the Indus Valley.
A three year program of archaeological fieldwork begun on the site in 2014 found early Iron Age artefacts carved in local woods such as acacia, ghaf , and sidr, but also items made from olive and pine wood, pointing to early trade with the Levant.
The Saruq Al Hadid Archaeology Museum in the Shindagha heritage district of Dubai features collections associated with each of the items - metalwork, animal bones, snake symbols, and jewelry.

Edited from Ancient Origins (13 January 2020)

10,000-year-old cave paintings discovered in Sinai

Sat, 25 Jan 2020 17:40:51 +0100

A newly discovered cave in Sinai, Egypt, is the first of its kind in the region to be found decorated from floor to ceiling with colorful ancient paintings.
Egyptologists with the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Arab Republic of Egypt discovered the cave in a region located 30 km (19 miles) north of the city St. Catherine and 60 km (38 miles) southeast from Sarabit el-Khadem, an ancient Egyptian city famous for its turquoise mines. The sandstone cave is located in a difficult-to-access area, measuring about 3 m deep (9.8 feet) by 3.5 meters wide (11.5 feet), said Dr. Mustafa Ministers, Secretary-General of the High Council of Antiquities in a Facebook post.
Dark red paintings of animals, including donkeys and mules, on the roof are considered the oldest, tracing back to between 5,500 and 10,000 BCE. The bodies of the animals from this era are consistent throughout the cave - five of the same animals are seen on the roof at the entrance of the shelter, as well as a set of human prints on the ceiling and on a rock at the center of the cave.
The second group of paintings is characterized by paintings that appear to be women and animals during the Chalcolithic Period, or Copper Age, the era between the Neolithic and Bronze Ages characterized as a transition between stone-tool use to metal-working.
Rock art in Egypt is spread throughout the country and largely split between ancient paintings discovered in the Red Sea Hills in the east and to the central Nile Valley and westward toward the Western Desert, according to the Trust for Africa Rock Art. The earliest rock art dates to around 17,000-years-old and has been discovered recently. Among the continent's many rock art caves is the most well-known 'Cave of Swimmers' in Egypt's mountainous Sahara plateau, Gilf Kebir.

Edited from IFL Science (25 January 2020)

Prehistoric humans built a wall to keep out the sea - But it failed

Fri, 20 Dec 2019 15:48:35 +0100

A 7,000-year-old seawall has been discovered off the Israeli coast, and it's now the oldest-known defence against rising sea levels. The seawall eventually failed, and the village had to be abandoned, in what's serving as an ominous lesson from the past.
The Tel Hreiz archaeological site is located off the Carmel coast of Israel and once hosted a vibrant Neolithic community. This Mediterranean settlement thrived for hundreds of years, as its villagers hunted gazelle and deer, farmed cows and pigs, fished for tilapia, raised their dogs, and manufactured copious amounts of olive oil. But with each passing generation, the villagers noticed something rather frightening: The waters of the Mediterranean were getting higher and higher.
The rising sea levels would have been noticeable across a person's lifespan, as they rose at an alarming rate of 4 to 7 mm each year, or around 70 cm (28 inches) every 100 years. Reluctant to leave their settlement, and to protect against the increasingly powerful waves and the destructive effects of erosion, the Tel Hreiz villagers decided to take matters into their own hands by constructing a 100 m long (330-foot) seawall that ran parallel to the shore.
The seawall, as the new research suggests, was nothing too fancy, having been built by piling large boulders atop each other. The seawall's length, the use of big boulders sourced from outside the community, and its careful arrangement on the shore "reflect the extensive effort invested by the Neolithic villagers in its conception, organisation and construction," wrote the authors in the study. The seawall may have helped for a while, but it ultimately failed, and the village - after nearly 500 years of continuous occupancy - had to be abandoned.
This recent study involved scientists from the University of Haifa, Flinders University in Australia, the Israel Antiquities Authority, and the Hebrew University. The seawall, which is today submerged under 3 metres of water, was constructed some 7,000 years ago, and it's now the oldest known coastal defence system in the archaeological record. It's an exceptional find, as infrastructure improvements such as these didn't start to appear in the region until the Bronze and Iron Ages. Importantly, the new research, led by archaeologist Ehud Galili from the University of Haifa, shows that humanity's battle against rising sea levels dates back for thousands of years.

Edited from The Times of Israel (18 December 2019), Gizmodo (20 December 2019)

Teeth analysis shows how humans migrated to the Levant 40,000 years ago

Sun, 15 Dec 2019 12:30:40 +0100

It has long been postulated that the migration of Homo Sapiens from the Near East into Europe led directly to the massive decline of the Neanderthal. Now a new study and research conducted on a few teeth found in a cave in Western Galilee (Israel) points to a more complex story.
A team of researchers from Tel Aviv University, the Israel Antiquities Authority and Ben-Gurion University have been analysing the genetic makeup of the teeth. What they have found is that they belonged to humans who were a genetic mix of Neanderthal and Homo Sapiens, showing an integration of the two species rather than the annihilation of one by the other. This is the first time evidence has been found of this Neanderthal/Homo sapiens generic mix outside of Europe.
The teeth actually belonged to members of the Aurignacian culture which flourished in the Upper Palaeolithic period from 41,000 BCE to 24,000 BCE, originating in The Levant, which covered a geographic area crossing Eastern Europe and Western Asia.
Professor Israel Hershkovitz, head of the Dan David Centre for Human Evolution and Biohistory Research, at Tel Aviv University, is quoted as saying "Until now we hadn't found any human remains with valid dating from this period in Israel". He went on to add "This ground breaking study contributes to the story of the population responsible for some of the world's most important cultural contributions".

Edited from EurekAlert! and PhysORG (5 Nov 2019)

Ancient bricklayers used sophisticated techniques

Sun, 01 Sep 2019 21:21:04 +0100

Deep within the Al Ain UNESCO World Heritage Site in Abu Dhabi (UAE), archaeologists have been discovering that our ancestors may have employed more sophisticated building techniques than we have previously given them credit for.
The Al Ain Cultural Sites are mainly Bronze Age and Iron Age and this area formed the crossroads of ancient land routes across the Middle East. The Hili 2 site forms part of this complex, along with Hafit, Bidaa Bint Saud and Oases areas.
The sophisticated technique simply involved the builder, or worker, leaving his fingerprint indentations in the formed mud bricks, before they had hardened and set. Not very advanced - you might think - but by doing this, when mortar was then applied between the bricks, as they were laid, the mortar would penetrate the fingerprint holes and form a much stronger and longer lasting bond.
Other recent finds on the site, in the form of clay seals, show that this wet imprint technique was also used for either decoration or to establish ownership.

Edited from Fox News (3 June 2019)

Early dogs helped humans hunt

Mon, 28 Jan 2019 09:34:52 +0100

A study of animal bones from an 11,500 year old settlement in northeast Jordan suggests that humans and dogs hunted animals together. Dogs were domesticated by humans as early as 14,000 years ago in the Near East.
Zooarchaeologist and lead author Lisa Yeomans and her colleagues show that the site was occupied year round: "The dogs were not kept at the fringes of the settlement, but must have been closely integrated into all aspects of day-to-day life and allowed to freely roam around the settlement, feeding on discarded bones and defecating in and around the site."
When Yeomans and her co-authors sifted through the data, they noted an increase in the number of hares at the time that dogs appeared. Hares were hunted for their meat, but the inhabitants also used the hare bones to make beads. The team think it likely that the appearance of dogs and the increase in hares are related: "The use of dogs for hunting smaller, fast prey such as hares and foxes, perhaps driving them into enclosures, could provide an explanation that is in line with the evidence we have gathered. The shift may also be associated with a change in hunting technique from a method, such as netting, that saw an unselective portion of the hare population captured, to a selective method of hunting in which individual animals were targeted. This could have been achieved by dogs."
The site is on the northern edge of the Qa' Shubayqa, around 130 kilometres northeast of Amman. It is the first substantial early Neolithic settlement identified in the Black Desert, and has been under investigation since 2012. This and previous studies demonstrate that settlement in this semi-arid to arid zone was more intensive than previously thought and that the area could sustain large populations of animals and humans.

Edited from EurekAlert! (15 January 2019)

9,000-year-old stone mask excavated in Israel

Tue, 18 Dec 2018 21:12:45 +0100

Archaeologists have recovered an ancient limestone mask from Israel's Hebron Hills, located on the West Bank; the 9,000-year-old mask dates to the Neolithic.
"Stone masks are linked to the agricultural revolution," Omry Barzilai, head of the archaeological research department at the Israel Antiquities Authority, said. "The transition from an economy based on hunting and gathering to ancient agriculture and domestication of plants and animals was accompanied by a change in social structure and a sharp increase in ritual-religious activities. Ritual findings from that period include human shaped figurines, plastered skulls, and stone masks."
The mask was found and excavated several months ago, and researchers with the IAA and the Geological Survey of Israel have spent some time analyzing the artifact.
The limestone mask is pinkish-yellow and expertly carved to create smooth contours closely resembling a human face. Four holes in the mask would have allowed it to be tied, perhaps to a pole or a human face.
"The stone has been completely smoothed over and the features are perfect and symmetrical, even delineating cheek bones. It has an impressive nose and a mouth with distinct teeth," said Ronit Lupu of the IAA.+
The newly unearthed mask is one of 15 similar artifacts. However, the majority of Neolithic masks were identified in private collections. "The fact that we have information regarding the specific place in which it was discovered makes this mask more important than most other masks from this period that we currently know of," Lupu said.
The newly discovered mask was likely used in related rituals. "We fond skulls buried under the floors of domestic houses, as well as various methods of shaping and caring for the skulls of the dead," Lupu said. "This led to plastering skulls, shaping facial features, and even inserting shells for eyes."

Edited from UPI (28 November 2018)

13,000-year-old brewery discovered in Israel

Sun, 14 Oct 2018 18:26:45 +0100

The earliest evidence of alcohol production has been discovered in the Rakefet Cave in Mount Carmel. Probably a kind of beer made from fermented grains, the brew was produced by the Natufians who lived in the region at that time.
The Epipaleolithic Natufian culture existed from around 13,050 to 7,550 BCE in the Levant, and was unusual in that it supported a sedentary or semi-sedentary population before the introduction of agriculture. Natufian communities may be the ancestors of the builders of the first Neolithic settlements in the region, which may have been the earliest in the world. Natufians are believed to have founded Jericho, considered by many to be the oldest city in the world. Some evidence suggests Natufian cultivation of cereals at Tell Abu Hureyra in what is now northern Syria - site of earliest evidence of agriculture in the world. The world's oldest evidence of bread-making has been found at Shubayqa, a 14,500 year old site in Jordan's northeastern desert.
Mount Carmel was one of the most important and crowded areas in the system of Natufian settlements, and sites there and in surrounding areas have been studied for decades.
Excavation leader Professor Danny Nadel of the University of Haifa: "The Rakefet Cave does not stop offering new discoveries about the wonderful Natufian culture. We have already discovered that they buried their dead and that they lined the graves with a bed of flowers. We discovered their technological capabilities through a variety of tools and now we find that they produced beer and consumed it, apparently at special ceremonies."
Another finding at the Rakefet Cave site were dozens of craters carved several centimeters deep in the rock. One test revealed evidence of several different grains stored in the same craters, including wheat, barley, oatmeal, legumes, and flax. Other tests showed remains of starch grains that underwent changes corresponding to fermentation, craters used to store grains before and after fermentation, and for crushing and grinding of grains. Remnants of fibers found at the bottom of the craters indicates grains were stored in woven baskets.

Edited from Jewishpress.com (13 September 2018)

Early Neolithic miniature masks

Sun, 23 Sep 2018 17:05:55 +0100

All Neolithic cultures in the Near East made masks. Why? What were the rituals and ideas behind the masks? Oliver Dietrich, Jens Notroff, and Laura Dietrich wrote about these mysterious masks in an in-depth article published in The American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) Web magazine.
Ancient stone masks from the Judean Hills weigh up to 2 kilograms, bearing almost expressionistic facial features - each is individual, as if depicting specific human beings. Some have holes around the rim, probably to allow them to be attached to something, or to even be worn. The oldest of these Southern Levantine masks date back to the mid 9th and 8th millennia BCE.
Since examples excavated in the Nahal Hemar cave in Israel during the early 1980s were found in a 'cultic' assemblage, a ritual use of these masks was assumed. At Jerf el Ahmar, a site in northern Syria dating to the 10th millennium BCE and characterised by round and rectangular buildings with limestone foundations, two little stone heads were reported which show a conspicuous concave cavity on their back. They are made from pebbles, only about 4 cm high and show eyes, a nose, and mouth.
Another miniature stone mask or depiction of similar size is known from Nevalı Çori in southeastern Turkey. Eyes, nose, and mouth are again depicted, and the back is concave. Nevalı Çori has become well known as the first place where an important characteristic element of architecture of the region was discovered: T-shaped, apparently anthropomorphic, pillars. These link it to another nearby site that also has produced a number of comparable masks: Göbekli Tepe.
Three of the masks found at Göbekli Tepe have similar styles to the example from Nevalı Çori, with non-individualized faces. However, at Göbekli Tepe the mouth is not depicted, while the Nevalı Çori mask almost gives the impression the face is screaming. Together with the finds from other sites, a large repertoire of masks in different styles is suggested. All types, with and without mouths, more individualized or abstract, are also well attested for in the large repertoire of limestone sculpture found at Göbekli Tepe.
Burial rites at Göbekli Tepe seem to have been applied to the hierarchical system of anthropomorphic depictions. The enclosures' central pillars are abstracted and clearly anthropomorphic. The surrounding pillars are also stylized, but smaller and contain zoomorphic decoration. During backfilling of the enclosures, a selection of fragments, mostly (masked?) heads, and complete masks, was placed inside the fills, most often near the central pillars.
If we assume that the stone masks are miniature or supra-sized representations of real organic masks worn by humans, they might attest that ritual activity at Göbekli Tepe and other sites included masquerades, where people acted out parts of a complex mythology. When enclosures were put out of use, masks and miniatures were buried with them, freezing rituals in time and space.
During the early Neolithic in the Near East, masks and masking played a significant role in rituals re-enacting mythological narratives closely related to death, taking place at sites with special purpose buildings and rich iconography. This importance apparently justified the time-consuming and complicated manufacture of these paraphernalia as well as miniature and larger-than-life-sized representations. A small number of masks in stone are all what remains of what was likely a widespread Early Neolithic tradition of ritual masquerade.

Edited from Asor.org (September 2018)