The correlation between Hamra and the Paleolithic on the Coastal Plain of the Southern Levant

The causes of the disappearance of Late Chalcolithic society (Ghassulian) in the early fourth millennium bc remain obscure. This study identifies the collapse as the consequence of a change in the approach to metallurgy from cosmological fundament (Late Chalcolithic) to a practical craft (EB1). This endogenous transition accounts for the cultural recession characterizing the transitional period (EB1A) and the discontinuity in ritual practices. The new practical approach in metallurgy is firstly observed in the southern margin of the Ghassulian culture, which produced copper for distribution in the Nile valley rather than the southern Levant. Nevertheless, the Ghassulian cultural markers visible in the newly emerging areas of copper working (southern coastal plain, Nile valley) denote the survival of the old cosmological traditions among metalworkers of the EB1 culture. Their religious expression unveils the extension of the Ghassulian beliefs attached to metallurgy and their metamorphosis into the esoteric fundaments of the Bronze Age religions.

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The Faunal Remains from Evron Quarry in Relation to Other Lower Paleolithic Hominid Sites in the Southern Levant

Quaternary Research ◽

10.1006/qres.1994.1083 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 42 (3) ◽

pp. 328-339 ◽

Cited By ~ 68

Author(s):

Eitan Tchernov ◽

Liora Kolska Horwitz ◽

Avraham Ronen ◽

Adrian Lister

Keyword(s):

South Asia ◽

Coastal Plain ◽

Faunal Remains ◽

Southern Levant ◽

Jordan Valley ◽

Faunal Composition ◽

Lower Paleolithic ◽

Oriental Region ◽

Lower Palaeolithic

AbstractThe mammalian assemblage and archaeological finds from the Lower Palaeolithic hominid site of Evron Quarry, situated on the northern coastal plain of Israel, are described and discussed. In their lithic and faunal composition, the sites of Latamne (QfIII) (Latamne Formation, Orontes, Syria) and Sitt Markho (Nahr elKebir, Syria) resemble Evron and are probably contemporaneous. It is suggested here, based on their lithic and faunal composition, that these sites may be chronologically closer to the site of Ubeidiya ('Ubeidiya Formation, Jordan Valley, Israel; 1.4 myr) than to the sites of Gesher Benot Ya'akov (dated as <800,000 yr B.P.), which differs in both aspects from Evron. The mammalian faunule from Evron comprises a biogeographical mixture, a result of biotic exchanges with Africa, the Oriental region, and the Palaearctic. This exchange may have been associated with a post-'Ubeidiya hominid dispersal, either from Africa or south Asia via the Levantine "corridor."

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Chalcolithic groundwater mining in the southern Levant: open, vertical shafts in the Late Chalcolithic central coastal plain settlement landscape of Israel

Levant ◽

10.1080/00758914.2020.1818174 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-35

Author(s):

Edwin C. M. van den Brink ◽

Oren Ackermann ◽

Yaakov Anker ◽

Yeshua Dray ◽

Gilad Itach ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Coastal Plain ◽

Southern Levant ◽

Late Chalcolithic ◽

Settlement Landscape

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Potters in Transition

Altorientalische Forschungen ◽

10.1515/aofo-2021-0016 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 48 (2) ◽

pp. 233-249

Author(s):

Sabine Kleiman

Keyword(s):

Iron Age ◽

Coastal Plain ◽

Focal Point ◽

Fine Tuning ◽

Southern Levant ◽

Continuity And Change ◽

Relative Chronology ◽

The Subject ◽

Cultural Traits ◽

Second Millennium Bce

Abstract For many years, the Late Bronze/Iron Age transition in the southern Levant has been the subject of intense debates concerning chronological matters and cultural developments. Ceramic studies were often the focal point of the discussion, but they usually concentrated on the appearance of Aegean-style pottery in the southern Coastal Plain and the nearby Shephelah, while largely disregarding the indigenous pottery tradition. In this paper, I study the processes of continuity and change in ceramic shape morphology and decoration techniques of three important tell-sites in the Shephelah: Lachish, ʿAzẹqȧ (Tel Azekah) and Ekron. It will be shown that marked innovations took place during the transition to the Iron I. These were most likely triggered by the appearance of foreign potters who produced local Aegean-style wares and seem to have influenced the traditions of the indigenous ceramic workshops. Such insights not only allow a fine-tuning of the relative chronology of the region at the end of the second millennium BCE, but also illuminate the transmission of professional knowledge and cultural traits through the ages.

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